10 reasons why your website does not sell
You developed a website (some cool company developed it for you, or mother’s friend’s son did it), sat on the couch and started to wait. You waited, and waited, and waited… but nothing happened.
Let’s talk about another case. You sold well, and then something changed. Sales decreased. Then they decreased more, and eventually disappeared into thin air. Quarantine? Is your product out of fashion? Have customers run out of money? What’s the matter?
Then there’s another possible case. You have already tried everything. You keep changing contractors like socks. Money goes away and away. Promises are pouring and pouring, but sales are not pouring; they are not even sprinkling.
What could be the reason?
1. You don’t have a website
Well, it may exist formally (a beautiful one, your buddies like it very much), but customers don’t see it. A website without advertising is like a shovel without hands: it stands for itself, but it doesn’t dig the garden. If you do nothing to promote the website, you can assume that you simply don’t have it.
2. The website works poorly
The most common problems are that the website takes a long time to load (especially when using the mobile Internet) and there is no mobile version. Users can’t make a purchase or an order in 5–6 clicks, even if they know where to click. The website itself can be both incredibly beautiful and depict the style of the 90’s. If there are problems with the technical part, there will be no sales. Go to Google Analytics (you have it connected and configured, right?) and evaluate your sign-out rate. If it’s more than 60%, time to worry, if more than 80% — sound the alarm.
3. You don’t know your TA
You advertise ‘everything for everyone’ or try to attract the wrong customer who is not willing to buy your products or services. This situation is signaled by high traffic and low conversion on the website (if you have already excluded section 2).
4. Your product is / has become uninteresting, or the price is too high
Analysis of competitors will help in this case. If they sell analogues at a similar price, then the product is fine. If the price can be lowered to stay profitable — do it, and you can run a promotion (just be careful). If the price is the minimum possible, but still too high for the consumer, then a problem is in the presentation of the product. Think about what additional value you could offer.
5. Your website is invisible
Imagine you visit a website with a link and see a browser warning: ‘This site can be potentially dangerous! Do you really want to visit it at your own risk?’, and after clicking ‘I want’ you are asked twice more if you are sure.
This issue may occur if your website doesn’t have an ssl certificate. A small detail you could ignore once, but now browsers are already warning of the potential danger. It is solved by installing the certificate and controlling its validity (a link to your website will receive https at the beginning instead of http). Remember that the links to the pages will change after that.
The second problem is poor internal website optimization. Unspecified tags, duplicate titles, no robots txt, etc. Also, there might be a problem with a template design or stolen texts with a low rate of uniqueness. If that’s the case, the search engine will shove you deep into *** (a word that editors forbid me to use) search engine results. Therefore, your website will just gather dust by being invisible to customers.
6. Problem with customer service
It’s not always a human factor. Payment only by card or personally, as well as delivery only by one specific delivery company may also be the reason for customers to leave your website. The website may have outdated prices, too long delivery time, or inconvenient order options (for example, only by phone). All these problems are easy to solve. Organize up-to-date information about products or services with the ability to easily and quickly order online day or night and pay immediately with the next day delivery.
7. No one is responsible for the result
It happens when you put up SMM on the shoulders of one doubtful specialist, contextual advertising is a task for some other contractor, and SEO specialist generally does some magic and sends you completely incomprehensible reports every month. Do you know what a circular firing squad is? Which one of them is responsible for starting the fire? No one and each one at the same time! There is no driver. Either choose contractors who will be responsible for all areas of work and, in fact, the result, or look for a marketer (including a part-time consultant) who will understand where the SEO-money went, why there are no conversions and whether retargeting in social networks works. He or she will bring it all together, argue a little, command a little and then report to you about the situation in simple and clear words.
8. You change contractors too often
Good specialists need at least 3–6 months to implement a smart marketing strategy and get tangible results. If you have a long sales cycle, then even more time is needed. Choose a contractor you will trust, and be patient. Let people get things done. Every new contractor (regardless of his qualifications) will always say that the predecessor did something wrong and everything needs to be reworked. If you’ve ever done renovations at your home and involved masters for that, you know what I’m talking about.
9. You started from the end
There is a website, some advertising is done, but there is no target audience map, competition research, marketing strategy, or even a minimal business plan. Maybe you will be lucky and everything will go smoothly. But if you are reading this, something must have gone wrong. You will have to be disappointed because now you need to start from the beginning. And you may have to invest additional costs for what has already been done.
10. You do everything at once
In businesses, especially small ones, marketing budgets are always limited. It is a big mistake to try to distribute these budgets among a large number of placements. Instead, identify (by analyzing) the main points where you can get in touch with most of your prospective audience and focus your budgets there. Without a page on Instagram, your business can live. Without sales, it won’t survive.
Summary
Low sales always HAVE a reason, but they ARE NOT a reason to be sad or to close the business. It’s rather a motivation to analyze the situation, find the problem and eliminate it.
Vulnerabilities can be in the product, the website itself, in advertising or the people who run it, or even in your approach to the business.
Remember that the first step to solving a problem is to acknowledge it. So, you need to recognize the reality, keep your eyes on the prize, look for the cause and keep your way to the world of ultra-high conversions and sky-high sales. Good luck!
