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10 Things You Will Forget to Check Before Launching Your Online Store

By on May 21, 2013 in Guest Articles, Technology

ID 100154306 300x150 10 Things You Will Forget to Check Before Launching Your Online StoreGuest Article

The day has come. You have spent hundreds of hours designing, configuring and even coding your professional, highly functional online store. Firstly congratulations and do yourself a favor and pat yourself on the back, this is a real accomplishment. At this stage you probably can’t wait to introduce your masterpiece to everyone you possibly can, but hold back and go through the list below of the 10 things you probably forgot to check before releasing your baby into the world.

1. Contact forms and emails

Now that you are ready to sell products online with cash exchanging “hands” it is critical for your long term success that you provide quick and easy ways for your customers to contact you. The most common way is through a contact form or email address which is displayed on the site.

Before you launch your site, make sure that your contact forms are working and directing the messages to the correct email addresses. Send yourself a few test messages and emails to verify that the forms are working and your dedicated sales and support email addresses are working.

2. Favicon

Forgetting to include a favicon on your site is most definitely the least important item in this list but one of the most common things which are forgotten by website owners.

Your favicon is part of your branding and helps visitors that have multiple tabs open to easily find your site. Return visitors will get familiar with the icon and associate it with the general way you do business. Take the 3 minutes it takes to upload a favicon to your site.

3. Stock Levels

Most ecommerce platforms allow you to set the stock amount for your products. Make sure before you launch your store that these numbers are accurate so that products don’t disappear because they are “out of stock” which will cost you dearly.

4. Basic SEO

Once your store is live, Google and other search engines will sooner or later come across it and crawl your entire site. You want the search engines to crawl your site so they can index your pages. If your pages do not contain the basic SEO tags (Title and Description) and your images do not contain alt tags then you will be doing yourself an injustice.

Search engines still account for a large percentage of traffic and it is critical for driving traffic that your pages are optimized for the search engines.

Make sure you include unique Title and Description tags to all your pages and that all your images have alt tags.

5. Phone numbers

If you have decided to provide visitors with a direct phone number to your business, then make sure that the number is working and if necessary, redirected to whoever is responsible for taking the calls. Make sure you include the international dialing code so overseas based customers and visitors can dial you successfully.

6. Extensions/Modules

If you are using any extensions or modules for added functionality, then make sure you test each one to see that the expected functionality is experienced from a visitor’s perspective. If you experience any issues, you may have to post a question on the forum thread related to the extension/module and wait for an answer. This can be very frustrating, but it is important to launch your store when everything is ready, especially important aspects of the user experience.

7. All your links

Don’t you hate clicking on a link which takes you to a page that doesn’t exist? Believe me, your visitors will hate it just as much. Make sure you go through your entire site with a fine tooth comb and check every link, both internal and external. Don’t forget to check your social share buttons to make sure they are linking to the correct social profiles and all the other links in your footer.

8. Google Analytics

Being able to analyze a wide range of statistics about your visitors is critical for making correct marketing and product related decisions. The best free tool available to online store owners is Google Analytics.

Make sure you open a free account and implement the Google Analytics javascript code on all of your pages.

Google’s real-time view is very handy to test if Google is tracking your site. After you implement the code on all your pages, visit your site and wait to see if you appear in the real-time stats in Google Analytics.

9. Social and sharing buttons

Leveraging social networks and our innate desire to communicate and share is a very powerful way to not only grow the amount of traffic you get to your store, but also to convert visitors to fans and grow your own online following.

Don’t forget to implement large share and social buttons throughout your site to drive referral traffic.

The standard location is in the footer but the header is usually a better location because it gets more exposure.  Provide share buttons near each of your products so visitors that like your products can share them with their friends and family.

10. Payments

After months of hard work getting the store ready it is almost time to launch. The final check that most people forget is testing your payment options.

Visit your site as a visitor and make test purchases using the different payment options you are providing. Make sure that each payment goes through successfully and that all confirmation emails are sent. If there are any problems then make sure to talk to your payment providers (Paypal, Neteller etc) and your credit card company.

Preventing interested buyers from making payments is the most detrimental thing you can do to your business.

I would love to grow this list, so if you have any other things which do not appear in this list then please let me know in the comments section below.

Justin Butlion 300x300 10 Things You Will Forget to Check Before Launching Your Online StoreAbout the Author: Justin Butlion is the Content and Social Marketing Manager of Yotpo. Justin loves to blog about e-commerce, online marketing, web development, and entrepreneurship.

“Digital World In Data Center Room” courtesy of watcharakun / www.freedigitalphotos.net

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Why You Need To Build An Email List, and Not a Social Media Profile

By on May 14, 2013 in Branding & Marketing, Guest Articles

Why You Need To Build An Email List and Not A Social Media Profile 300x272 Why You Need To Build An Email List, and Not a Social Media ProfileGuest Article

I’ve got news for you — when you’re building your social media profile (and not your email list), you’re setting yourself up for failure. Here’s why: Your goal with social media should be to drive traffic back to your own website.  Once your target lands there, you’d best have at least three ways to get them to give you their email address.  Without a way to follow-up with more helpful information, your chances of converting a visitor into a customer are quite slim.  Here are more reasons why you should focus your marketing efforts on building your email list first — before social media.

#1 When you build your social media profile, you’re at the mercy of a third party company that you don’t control. One day Facebook might change their EdgeRank, and you’ll have to start paying to talk to your own fans (oh wait, that already happened). Another day, your account might get banned for no reason. Another day, another travesty. Do you really want someone else to control YOUR business? Put your best effort into a platform you control, your website.

#2 When you build your social media profile, you’ll be plagued with mediocre results forever. Here are some numbers: If I share a link with my 16,000 Facebook fans, I might get 200-300 hits… MAX. If I share a link with 16,000 email subscribers, I’m going to send AT LEAST 2,000 hits. Now, I know you can’t spend hits, but those hits are people. And the more people you can send to your website, the more money you can make. Period.

#3 Despite email not being sexy, it’s still the BEST way to keep in touch with YOUR ideal customers. Think about it. When people use social media, your business competes with close friends, party invites, and photographs. When you use email, your business competes with other businesses–and possibly coworkers who want your subscriber to do something they don’t want to do. I don’t know about you, but I would rather buy a new John Varvatos jacket from Gilt than another set of business cards.

How to Start Building An Email List

Now that you want an email list, the question is, how do you start BUILDING the email list?

#1 Three High-Converting Places to Add Email Signup Forms to Your Website

When you want to build your list, you’ve got to place email signup forms in the right places. Why? A form at the top of your site converts almost 5 times higher than a form on the bottom. Small changes–just like that—mean big results.

Where can you place them?

Try The Halpern Header

When you go to SocialTriggers.com, you’ll see a big box at the top of the page. A box that spans across the top of my content and sidebar. I call this the “Halpern Header.”

This box at the top converts amazingly well. Whether you’re running a blog or not, giving prime real-estate is a surefire way to start turning more of your visitors into leads (and customers).

You might think, “Well, won’t people get sick of seeing it?” And the answer is no. Why? Because once people get on your email list, they’ll rarely visit your homepage anymore. Instead they’ll follow your emails directly to content.

(Note: Even if you don’t run a blog, creating a Halpern Header works because it’s asking for an email in the most highly viewed part of your page)

The Top of your Sidebar

Most websites have sidebars, and yours is likely no different. Most people put an email signup form at the bottom of their sidebar, but they shouldn’t. An email signup form at the top converts almost twice as much as an email signup form at the bottom.

One note: You should put your email signup form ABOVE your social media profiles. As we talked about earlier, email crushes social media.

Try the bottom of your content pages

When a website visitor reads your content, and reads the entire thing, and they love your work (or at least like it enough to actually read it) Why not ask them to sign up right after the post ends?

It converts well, and it grabs a reader right when they’re feeling great about your work.

#2 How to Start Getting Traffic To Build Your Email List

Now that you’re ready to convert visitors into subscribers, the next thing you need is traffic. Traffic that converts.  And that’s where what I call “The Drafting Technique,” comes into play. Here’s the deal:

When you’re racing at high speeds, like with cars, there’s wind resistance that slows you down.

But you can eliminate that resistance by drafting, which is fancy for “get behind the guy in front of you.”

How? You see, the person in front breaks the wind resistance, and the people behind him can maintain their speed while expending less energy because they take advantage of the “slipstream.”

Now, like with racing, top bloggers also have a slipstream, or better yet, a “link slipstream.” What’s a “link slipstream?”

Bloggers (or journalists) have a history of linking to businesses, websites, or topics. It’s your job to find people who write about the same thing you’d like to be featured for. You do this by looking for people who wrote about competing products, competing companies, or even someone just like you.

As an example, back when I started Social Triggers, I looked at someone like Lewis Howes (a friend). I discovered he was landing interviews all over the place, and decided to try and get interviewed by the same people.

This works because the people already had a history–a link slipstream–of covering people like me so I knew I could land the same interviews.

See how that works? This is the exact strategy YOU can use to start doing this as well!

And that’s it!

You can start building your list TODAY.

Now that you know why you should build a list… and how to convert traffic into email subscribers… and how to get traffic… you’re all set.

How do you plan on using these strategies to grow your business? Leave a comment and share!

Why You Need To Build An Email List, and Not a Social Media ProfileAbout the author: Derek Halpern is the founder of Social Triggers, a top marketing blog with 102,532 subscribers and a top marketing podcast on iTunes.

At Sign Aeroplane Shows Web Mailing Communication courtesy of Stuart Miles / www.freedigitalphotos.net

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Employee Time Tracking: Nothing Personal It’s Just Business

By on May 7, 2013 in Guest Articles, Your Small Business
3093851614 5a429506f5 m Employee Time Tracking: Nothing Personal Its Just Business

Can they see me?

Guest Article

Tracking where and how your employees spend their time is critical, especially for service-oriented companies that bill per hour. It’s also important to understand what the overall productivity level is of your employees, especially those who work from home. It’s not that you don’t trust your employees, but when you measure something, people tend to be a lot more serious about it. Here are some ways to make the process of employee time tracking easier…

Keep an eye on employees even when you can’t see them.

There’s nothing like seeing employees hard at work only to realize they’re really just updating Facebook or Twitter. Keeping track of what employees are really doing while in the office or working remotely can be done with certain software tools.

Time tracking software is one of the easiest ways to guarantee that employees are actually working. The programs are often times fairly inexpensive, highly accurate, and worth every cent. Plus, employers get the added benefit of having all of the busy work of adding up hours and wages already completed for them thanks to the software. The biggest things to look for when thinking about purchasing a time clock software program is to make sure that it allows for unlimited employees, is easy to use, and has quality customer support.

I always feel like somebody’s watching me.

As with online time tracking software, monitoring software tracks everything employees do while using company computers. These programs can track every keystroke, block certain websites, prevent the downloading of certain files, and do just about anything employers need it to do. Reports are then generated so that employers can look at what employees have been doing.

This software improves productivity, prevents employees from either intentionally or unintentionally exposing confidential information, and keeps everyone in line. However, make sure employees know they are being monitored. Nobody wants to deal with an employee accusing the company of spying.

Keep tabs on telecommuters.

Many companies hire contract workers that either telecommute or report to the office rarely. This makes it difficult to know for sure if the hours they record were truly spent working. One way to circumvent the problem of hourly-billing is to make contract work a flat fee.

But service-oriented companies tend to have employees that work away from the office and bill by the hour. Trust is essential with these employees, but it’s not the only way to make sure they’re working.

Scheduling face-time using software programs such as Google Hangout, Google Chat or Skype, arranging for call-ins, or checking in with instant messaging helps provide the link between the home office and the traditional office.

If telecommuting employees use company-provided computers, then monitoring software should be installed to track their work as it would be if they were in the office.

3505022325 9de63958cc 300x225 Employee Time Tracking: Nothing Personal Its Just Business

Monitoring software prevents on-the-job cat naps.

What about employees who don’t use a computer for work?

Short of installing a microchip into the arm of employees that work remotely without a computer, it is almost impossible to tell how their time is spent. However, accountability goes a long way for these employees. Setting up goals and timelines for employees to reach ensures that they are working toward something.

Let them know you’ll be watching.

Using tracking software to monitor the work done by employees is the easiest way to keep track of their time spent working. Knowing that their activities are being monitored means employees are far less likely to devote time to non-work related activities… and Facebook will still be there once the work day is over.

Dana Rasmussen Employee Time Tracking: Nothing Personal Its Just Business

About the author:  Dana Rasmussen is a freelance author who writes about a variety of topics, including time tracking, vacation destinations, corporate jet travel, social media and trends in the work place.  

Photo attribution: www.flickr.com/photos/evilerin/3093851614
Photo attribution: www.flickr.com/photos/pangpang/3505022325

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