How Many Online Shoppers Use PayPal

I was a bit surprised when I read the percentage of how many online shoppers use PayPal. Before you read on, take a quick guess at the number…

Here’s the percentage: 87.5% of online shoppers using PayPal to check out ultimately convert and buy. Visa Checkout converts online shoppers at a rate of 51.2%, says ComScore. Other payment options convert shoppers at a rate of 45.6%. This means that PayPal outperforms other payment platforms by 41.9%.

The high rate of completion by PayPal surprised me but it shouldn’t have. When I’m shopping online I definitely notice and appreciate having the PayPal option. Usually, if there isn’t a way to check out with PayPal, I will still buy the item, but I might not buy it right then. It never fails that I’m looking for something online after everyone else has gone to sleep. My purse is in the bedroom with the lights off and I don’t want to have to wake up my partner while I’m fumbling around to find my wallet.

Having an online checkout option that doesn’t require me to go get my credit card is a relief. I trust PayPal, and, apparently, so do many other people.

There is still a large percentage of the population who does not like to enter in credit card information over the internet. While they will not like to enter in a card directly to a website, they are more likely to trust a third-party provider like PayPal that they have to log in to and authorize. I found a separate study, released in 2015 by Bizrate, that said the first most trusted online retailer was Amazon. This was followed by PayPal, and eBay in third place.

This proves that it’s valuable to provide a variety of different payment options. Some people will still go get their credit card, but for the people who don’t want to, make it easy. A plugin called WordPress PayPal enables PayPal checkout on your WordPress site.

Understanding The 6 levels in the Customer Awareness Spectrum will allow you to pinpoint where your customers are in their purchase process. They may be in one level, they may be in three or four different levels to varying degree. This can help you craft your copy by considering what information they need to move forward in their purchase decision.

Don’t have awareness of a need – level 1
Aware of a need but not aware a solution exists – level 2
Aware of some solutions but not your specific ones – level 3
Aware of your solutions but not of its features – level 4
Aware of your features but not convinced or ready – level 5
Convinced and ready to buy – level 6

Level 1) Don’t have awareness of a need
This is where inventions live. Products that solve problems nobody’s ever found a solution for. People don’t even know they have a problem. Obviously this presents a marketing problem but it has its advantages, first mover advantage and publicity.

Level 2) Aware of a need but not aware a solution exists
These people have a problem but don’t even know a problem exists. Marketing should be informational in nature, explaining how the solution works. Influencer marketing can be great here as well as going anywhere people with this problem come together. This is where facebook advertising shines.

Level 3) Aware of some solutions but not your specific ones
These people are looking for a solution and considering your competitors or other solutions to their problem. This is what search marketing is for. Building trust and value in your offer is critical here.

Level 4) Aware of your solutions but not of its benefits
These people know who you are but don’t fully understand all the benefits your product or service provides. This is why you have social media and email to keep in touch with prospective clients so you can build long-term value, keep top-of-mind and make it easy to purchase. This way when prospects are ready, they can take action.

Level 5) Aware of some benefits but not convinced or ready
These people just need a reason to buy, have just one objection or are missing just one little piece of info to make a purchase situation. Again, social media and email are instrumental. This can be a good point to solicit feedback from your following or engage them in your next launch.

Level 6) Convinced and ready to buy
This is it, give these people a call to action. These people can be part of your following or maybe out there searching the internet just trying to get in touch with you.

New guidelines giving people with disabilities equal access to all of the content on the web are being developed. At this point the requirements are only legislated for governmental websites. However, making your small business website accessible is the right thing to do. It might take a while for the legislation to reach every website. Still, consider having your WordPress site accessible to people with disabilities. It opens up your business to new customers and shows that you care about all of your customers.

There’s a new plugin called ADA Plugin that is launching in Spring 2017. Sign up on the ADA Plugin website to receive notifications about when the plugin is available and to get other information related to the topic of website accessibility. We’re paying close attention to the topic of ADA compliance for website accessibility and will continue to share updates with you here. In the meantime, here’s an accessibility checklist to take to your digital designer.

An accessible website should:

Provide video with transcripts

This is nice even for people who cant hear. Have you ever wanted to watch a video while at work or in the cafeteria, or on the bus/subway but didn’t have your headphones in and didn’t want to turn up the volume? With captions, people will watch your video any time, whether they have a hearing impairment or just have a sleeping baby on their lap and don’t want sound at that moment.

Avoid color schemes that may inhibit people with color blindness or visual impairment

High contrasts help your content be more readable.

Have alt-tags for every visual image

Alt-tags are a field that you can fill in that describes what the photo is about. If people can’t see the image, or their browser won’t display it for some reason, they can read the caption. It is also possible to have an audio file of the caption for people who can not see to read.

Use clear and consistent navigation

Breadcrumbs, the navigation path that tells you where you’ve been on the site so you can quickly and easily go back a page or two, is great for this.

Avoid or limit blinking/flashing website elements

This trend should have disappeared in the 1990s, but unfortunately, it didn’t. Flashing or flickering can trigger epilepsy or migraines.

Buttons and links should be large

This helps everybody…from people who want to click on mobile devices to people who might have large hands. It also helps people who are using assisstive technology to navigate.

Is your WordPress site accessible to people with disabilities? If you want to find out or improve your site but you’re not sure how, let us know! We’re happy to help you find this out and it is out goal to ensure that everyone has access to the information on our sites and for those of our clients.

SMS stands for Short Message Service. Originally, it was an offshoot of radio communication that allowed users to send and receive messages of up to 160 letters or numbers to and from mobile handsets. Nowadays, they are mostly mobile-to-mobile messages that we commonly call “texts.” Should you use business SMS text messaging to communicate with your customers? There are pros and cons.

In business, SMS text messaging is a form of direct marketing. The market is worth millions to billions around the world, depending on where you go to get your figures. Either way, the SMS pie is big enough for small businesses like yours to get a slice of it. However, companies who wish to begin sending text messages to their customers should do so with caution. Many people view text messages as an ad-free channel that they use to communicate directly with family and friends. Your customers should definitely 100% opt-in of their own accord to receive text messages from you.

Advantages of Business SMS Text Messaging

We’re already always on our phones. People typically view and reply to text messages much faster than other forms of communication, typically within minutes. Nearly all smartphone customers send and receive text messages, so it is a built-in communication channel on almost any device.
Text messaging can be automated. For instance, customers would get a text when their order ships, or a day before their appointment time.
When customers voluntarily sign up for text messaging, they will generally be very open to your promotions. Texts are not as easy to ignore as emails.
Because it’s a to-the-point communication method, you can get right to the promotional nitty gritty. No need for formalities.
It’s very cost-effective and you can reach thousands of people at the same time.
You can send text reminders of events and meetings, which are more likely to reach people in the moment than emails or phone calls.

Disadvantages of Business SMS Text Messaging

Many people view texting as a means of communication they reserve only for their family and friends. If they’re getting too many marketing texts, it can feel invasive.
It might get pushed down by other texts and forgotten about.
If you’re not taking differences in time zone into consideration, you could inadvertently end up texting someone at 4 in the morning, and no one wants that.

How to Get Started With Business SMS Text Messaging

You could add an option to your contact page to text you with questions. Moving the conversation from a webpage chat, phone call or email to a text makes it more immediate and personal. And, you’re providing your customers with a choice of what channel they like to use to communicate with you. Some people who are at work and can’t make phone calls or send emails, or have sleeping babies at home, would very much like to participate this way.
You could ask at the time an appointment is made how they would like to receive a reminder: via email, text or phone call.
Customers are more likely to opt-in to text messaging when they perceive some benefit to them. Make your offers and discounts by text highly attractive. It could be part of a game. For instance, (I took this idea from Website magazine and I think it’s a fun one) you could hide some number in your social media posts or videos. If participants collect all of the numbers they will get a phone number to send a text to, which could then link them to the next clue, ultimately leading participants to the final prize.
Make sure it is clear to your customers that they are opting in to receive texts from you and that you won’t use their number in any other way. You might also say that you will never send more than 1 text a week, or whatever, and stick to that schedule.
Make it easy for customers to opt out.

Copywriting is writing that conveys information for advertising or marketing purposes. That broad definition could involve any kind of writing you would do: for your website, your marketing emails, print advertisements, Facebook advertisements, etc. Effective writing keeps people reading and makes the most of the words you choose. Good copywriting strategically delivers information encouraging people to take the action you want. Here are the keys to understanding how to create compelling content.

Understand the reader

Yes, you are writing for a large audience. But think of yourself as a salesperson. A good salesperson concentrates on one customer at a time. A good salesperson makes sure that customer feels taken care of that single customer’s questions are answered. Try to think of yourself as a salesperson when you are writing your copy. Know your audience to the point that you can answer their questions as if you were talking to just one person. Explain what you’ve got for them and how it will solve their problems. You want to understand your target audience so well that it’s like you’re reading their mind.

Write a great headline

If a headline is weak, it won’t get read. Don’t be puffy or vague. Make it intriguing. Informative headlines that include a number, how-tos and guides often get more readers than other kinds of headlines.

Avoid passive language

Passive voice is not a grammatical error. It’s not wrong, and it works in many instances. In general though, passive voice is a style, or a tone, that comes across as vague. And in certain uses, can be confusing. Active verbs convey more energy than passive verbs, which is why marketing copy urges writers to avoid being passive in their sentence construction.

An example is “The company released the product last month” versus “The product was released by the company last month.” The first sentence is active while the second is passive. Avoiding passive language helps make your writing shorter, which is ideal in marketing copy. It also is more motivating than passive when you are trying to get your readers to take action. Think about this: “Your business can grow with a loan from Lenders Bank” versus “Grow your business with a loan from Lenders Bank.” The second example is more powerful.

Make the content scannable by using bold type, short paragraphs, photos and bullet points

The average readers wants to gather information in quick “bites.” Keep paragraphs short, which also means you must get to the point. Subheadings break up information, so people know where to look for what they want. Bullet points allow you to include a lot of information without being too long-winded. Sum up key points with infographics or other images.

Avoid clichés

Advertising copy is not the place for creative writing in the sense of including jokes, cliches or wordplay. Even if you think it is clever. Crafted writing is important, but trying to be clever often results in lost readers.

Tell them what to do next.

The reader should be naturally led along to the next action you want them to take. Be specific and be clear about whatever that is. Think about the difference between “click here” and “Visit our site for your money-back guarantee download.” The second provides more information on what they should do and what they are getting.

Copywriting is an art as well as a science. Essentially, good advertising copy is telling a story in a very short space. From the headline to the final CTA, all the pieces must be short and sweet and fit together in a compelling way that takes the reader through to the end. If you’re not sure how to create good advertising copy yourself, or you want some expert advice on how to create compelling content, get in touch with the experts at Build Your Dream Business. Building businesses is what we do.

I recently spoke with a colleague who helped a neighbor launch a website for their retail shop as a freelancer. This was 10 years ago. The shop succeeded, but the website hasn’t been updated. Internet technology and design has changed a lot over the past 10 years. While the website was still functional, it didn’t look modern. The graphics looked stale. It wasn’t responsive as you scrolled through the site.

Even if your website is still working for you, there are a number of reasons to modernize it. Your website may be older or underperforming. These key steps for a successful website redesign will help you get the most out of the process.

Here are key steps for a successful website redesign.

Have clear objectives.

If part of your problem with your current website is that inventory management is difficult, put that issue right up front with your developer. If you want easier and more robust social media integration, you might prioritize a page on your site for user generated content, such as sharing Instagram photos, or posting videos. You might want an easier way to upload, change and manage photos. Think carefully about your goals and prioritize them.

Designate a decision-making process.

We’ve worked on numerous website development projects over the years. One of the issues we’ve seen repeatedly is project delays and mismanagement due to a lack of decision making. If you want approval power yourself, then set aside time to make the key decisions in a timely manner. If you are in a situation where you have to make decisions by committee, clearly set out when and how those decisions will be made. Determine ahead of time who will make the final decisions about copy, images, colors, fonts, and timelines. Will someone have veto power?

We’ve worked with people who fiercely protect their days off. We agree and know that time away from work is important. But if you plan to be away from the office for any length of time, designate someone who can answer questions and make decisions in your absence. Delays along the way mess up the timeline for everyone working on the project.

Decide on a way to communicate.

Our office uses Google Docs. This system allows everyone who is shared on a document to view it and make changes. It’s a great way to communicate steps and timelines in one place. There are many ways to communicate and share materials: thumb drives, Google Docs, FTP, email, Dropbox. Pick one primary way to communicate with everyone on the project.

We’ve had delays on projects due to some material being placed as a comment in a document, some being shared via thumb drive, some via email, and some over the phone. It’s hard to keep track of it all and some of it can get lost, which brings confusion and delays.

Organize your assets.

Take stock of what assets you are already using on your website, before making any changes. Locate your high-resolution logo files, customer testimonials, videos, and anything else you have on the website that you want to use again. Gather materials you know you want to add to your new site, such as employee photos and bios. Put all of the new and old material in one place and give someone else access to that content.

Empower a responder.

We’ve experienced project delays due to the contact point at the company not fully understanding what to do. For instance, the company receptionist may be the one fielding incoming calls and emails with questions about where materials are or who to get them from. He or she may be asked to send a document via Dropbox, but he or she doesn’t know where the material is or who has it. They may not know who originally sent that email with the really important document you now can’t find.

If you’re communicating via email and requests are going out that are cc’d to a number of people, the people on that email may not know which of them should take action. Or, someone may respond while another person is off seeking the information. Confusion and delays like these are avoidable if you designate one person to manage the project. Requests for materials or information go to one person and they have access to all of it.

You will want to monitor what kind of improvements in traffic, bounce rate, cart fulfillment and other measures your new website gives you. Document your current statistics before any changes are made to better measure your return on the investment. Measure your current standing on search results so you know what gains you are making and how fast.

Work closely with your developer to monitor what pages on your current website are performing well, so those stay in place. When your new website is rebuilt, you will want to be sure that no one is getting “Page not found” errors by clicking on old links that go nowhere, or redirects that may cause loss of traffic.

The more you plan, the better.

The more you plan for a website redesign, the more successful you will be. Yes, a skilled developer will be able to guide the process and ask the right questions along the way, but the more prepared you are up front with these strategies already in place the easier it will be for everyone. These key steps for a successful website redesign will help your project get off the ground in an organized and efficient manner before you even have the first conversation.

Marketing in general is a big task, and one that might require delegating. Create a marketing calendar to help create structure in your efforts and keep you on track.

Plan ahead as far as you can.

Sit down with a notebook and think about the coming year. Note what months you know you will have events or holiday related sales. If you plan to attend a conference or speak at an event, note the month and day. If you know that you will be hiring a new employee at a certain time, write that down as well. Is your business anniversary coming up? Chart the selling cycle or seasonality of the products and services you offer. Create a marketing calendar to outline any company event or milestone that you would structure your marketing around so you can coordinate your efforts.

Also add in days when your business is closed because of a holiday or dates when you or your key employees have scheduled vacations. Do you publish a blog post each Thursday? On the list it goes.

Use whatever system works for you.

Once you have the dates mapped out, create a calendar. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Google Gmail Calendar, a spreadsheet or a paper desk calendar, as long as it is a system that works for you and makes sense. Note on the calendar the key times you’re concerned with so that you create messaging for your target audience at the right time.

For instance, if you offer a spring sale, note a month out to include your spring sale in your upcoming email newsletters, and note two months out to begin updating your product descriptions to include the change of season. If you send a monthly or weekly email, put that in there as well, and add in the extra emails you might send to remind people of these special events. Look for dates on the calendar where you may be sending out too many emails or spots where there are gaps.

If you blog on Thursdays, that makes your Friday social media posts easy. If you publish a newsletter on Wednesdays, you have an instant look at what you’ve done recently so you know what to highlight in the next issue.

Create a marketing calendar in advance like this to ensure that each piece of content you create and each bit of effort you put into marketing is focused on furthering your business. At-a-glance calendars like this “theme” your marketing, to keep it seasonal and timely. You can more easily spot “holes” in your strategy and fill them appropriately. You’ll be able to more clearly see what you’re doing and when, to focus your efforts.

Giving your customers the option to read and submit their own product reviews is one of the smartest sales tools you can use. Research suggests that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation (according to a survey by BrightLocal). Not offering reviews or ignoring them risks alienating nearly 90% of online shoppers. But many businesses don’t know how to get customers to leave business reviews. Most people don’t leave reviews unless they are prompted in some way. This article explains some ways to ask and make it easy for your business to get reviews.

First step, verify your business listings.

On Google, business reviews appear next to your listing in Maps and Search. Businesses with higher ratings appear higher up in search results. The first step in how to get customers to leave business reviews is to verify your business so that it is eligible to appear on Google Maps, Search and other Google services. We recently posted about how to claim your business pages. Once you’ve done that, reach out to your customers and ask for reviews.

Create a process for asking for reviews.

Once your service is completed or the product is received, send a follow-up email inviting the customer to leave a review. Include a link and instructions on what to do clearly laid out. Explain clearly that you want an honest review. Whether the review is positive or not, respond appropriately so the customer knows you read it and you care. If you’re worried about a negative review, then load up on the positive reviews!

After completing a project or making a sale, send a simple wrap-up email with a thank you message and a direct link to the form for them to leave a review.

Make it easy and automatic.

There are online tools for creating a direct link to Google Reviews. Alternatively, create a direct link. Search for your business name and click on the Google Reviews link that appears. Put the long search query that appears into a URL shortener. This gives you a usable link to take people directly to a review page. Yelp offers downloadable “Find us on Yelp” banners that you can use on your website or print out for your store. Place a Reviews tab on your Facebook page by setting your page as a Local Business and following next steps for creating a Reviews tab.

Conversion rate is the percentage of users who take a desired action on your website. For many ecommerce sites it relates to completed purchases. For service-oriented sites, conversion rate could mean the percentage of people who download an item, make a phone call or sign up for a newsletter. Whatever metric you track, a high conversion rate depends on various factors that encourage the site visitor to complete the desired action. Increase your website’s conversion rate right now with these 4 action items.

Check Your Metrics

Dig into your site’s analytics to uncover how long people are staying on your site, which pages they are visiting while there and what page they drop off from. For instance, visitors may abandon their cart before the payment page. Look at your bounce and exit rates for the first step in making sense of your conversion rate.

Evaluate Your CTAs

On every page, tell your users what they should do next. Your language should always guide the user toward the action you want them to take. The “take action” link or button should look more important than other links.

Try Split Testing

Sometimes a small tweak significantly improves conversion rates. For example, measure the use of a red button in effectiveness to a green button. Or, change the CTA from “Click Here” to “Download Now.” Make one small change on your site at a time and observe your statistics to see if it makes a difference.

Reduce or Remove Risk

If you haven’t had a chance to build trust with the people you’re courting as potential customers, they may be hesitant to complete whatever transaction you’re offering. Giving them some sort of guarantee can be the psychological boost your customers need to complete the deal. Try making it clear that there is no risk to the buyer through 30-day money back guarantees, free shipping or easy returns.

Increase your website’s conversion rate by trying out these simple things, and track your analytics to see if it makes a difference. It might not be realistic to expect an overnight change, but you can start things moving in the right direction.

Whether you’re just getting started with a new business or you have an established business that is underperforming, the following are key 10 online marketing checklist items for optimizing your customer experience. The things in this online marketing checklist aren’t the only things that are important, but addressing these 10 things will give any business a boost.

1. Hire Professional Editors and Designers

Nothing reduces trust and confidence like mistakes and typos on a website, or images and colors that are just not quite right. You’re an expert in your field . . . editors and designers are experts in their field. Just as you completely understand your business, they will deeply understand how to create written and visual content that communicates your message with the utmost credibility. Professional designers and editors are trained to look at each detail and they will pick up on things that you won’t.

2. Integrate Keywords

When you’re writing your product descriptions or service packages, include keywords that people will search for. Search engine optimization starts with page titles and moves down the page to image titles and alternative descriptions. Not sure how to go about this? Let us help.

3. Use Share and Follow Buttons

Add social sharing buttons to your website, blog and email newsletters. Make it easy and instantaneous to share your great content, and people will do it. Add buttons linking to your social profiles that are easily found on all pages of your website, in a global footer, header or sidebar.

4. Keep Your Information Up To Date

Evaluate your About pages for terms such as “we started 5 years ago” when 2 years have gone by since you wrote it. Unless you’re going to remember to update these date-related terms each year, change them to “we started in 2009.”

5. Be Easy to Find

Links to your contact page should be easy to find. If your business relies on phone calls, make your phone number a hyperlink that people can tap and dial. Have you claimed your Local Business page? Your location should appear in Google Maps and other local search options if that is appropriate. Include multiple contact options. Give customers the option of chatting, phone calling, fax, in-person visits or email. The easier it is for people to find you and get in touch, the more likely you are to get the customers you want.

We published a post about what sites to go to online and claim your business listings.

6. Have Multiple Calls to Action

As visitors move through your site, they should encounter enough information along the way to increase the likelihood that they will complete the transaction or take the action you want. Have there be CTA buttons or links at each step so when they’re ready, it’s right in front of them. For instance, if your site visitors must scroll down to see all product categories, have a second “add to cart” button at the bottom of the page.

7. Have An Easy Checkout Process

If your goal is to get as many sales as possible, ensure that your customers have an easy shopping experience. This involves a few things, but key elements are an easy to find cart, clear shipping costs and instructions and clear contact information and return policy. Allow customers to easily add and remove items from their cart, continue shopping from their cart and link back to the product descriptions from their cart.

8. Have a Social Media Presence

Having a “social” company means more than just creating a Facebook page and never using it. Establish and interact with your audience in the platforms you’ve committed to. Give customers a reason to follow you by providing interesting and usable information. Social media channels are not the place to simply push sales.

9. Develop Comprehensive FAQ Pages

Site visitors who navigate to your FAQ page demonstrate a deliberate interest in knowing more about your products and services. Give them detailed information in the form of articles, videos and photos along with the ability to reach you if they want to learn more.

10. Say Thank You

Confirm the purchase or transaction with a confirmation email thanking the customer for their business and providing some basic information. You may wish to offer a newsletter sign-up on this email, or your full contact information or a coupon code for their next purchase. Engage with the customer and welcome them back again.

Pick one of the things in this online marketing checklist and check out how your site handles it. If you can improve it, you’re one step closer to greatness If you’re already doing, good for you!