Building a successful online business is no small feat! It takes tenacity, endurance, drive, passion and creativity. Congratulations on this fantastic accomplishment! You may have found that despite having a stellar site and phenomenal product, youâre not getting the conversions you need to be successful. Youâre not alone. This is a common pain point we at POWr often hear about from small business owners, which is why we are so passionate about providing the tools needed to help you achieve success. Each of our plugins (also known as widgets and web apps) is created with the intention of making the running of your business as streamlined as possible. But enough chatter, letâs dive in with 10 ways plugins can help you achieve your conversion goals!
1. Providing a seamless experience
Plugins are excellent tools for cultivating a customer-friendly experience in line with your aesthetic. They add vital functionality to help boost sales and keep browsers engaged. One of the best parts of using plugins is how perfectly they can blend into your site! POWr plugins are all fully customizable, enabling you to format them so they adhere to your brand standards and overall design.
The purpose of plugins is to make your life, and the lives of your customers, easier. From ensuring vital information is easily accessible, to collecting data, to showcasing your products, to announcing events, and so much more--they offer you the opportunity to maximize and optimize your online business.
So thankful for plugins!
2. Keeping customers engaged on your site and creating brand loyalty
Perhaps youâre drawing people to your website, but canât seem to keep them or create a sense of loyalty amongst your customers. This is a great time to up your engagement game and start actively communicating with customers.
Comments plugins are excellent for creating a means for you and your customers to interact in a safe space. Take advantage of this nifty tool and the opportunity it affords you to create meaningful relationships. By opening the doors of communication for your customers and being an active participant, you let them know how much you value your customers and can better instill a sense of brand loyalty.
Another loyal customer gained. *POWr pose*
3. Creating a sense of community
Even if youâre not a fan of social media, itâs likely that your customers/target audience are. You should make a point of cultivating an active social media presence where customers can connect with your brand and stay in-the-know about upcoming events, sales, etc. Once youâve done this, you can then utilize social media feed plugins to create a sense of community on your website. You can even set them up to follow a specific hashtag and encourage customers to post selfies with your product under the specified tag, so that your social feed is flooded with images of happy customers!
For example, letâs say your brand creates fair trade, organic eyeshadow. What better way to spread the news than to encourage your customers and social media followers to post before and after images of them using your product? I donât know about you, but as an avid makeup fan, Iâm a sucker for products with large fanbases. It says a lot about a brand when their customers love their product so much they cannot wait to spread the word about it.
So excited about this new brand, we have to tell everyone--while jumping, of course!
4. Providing important information
FAQ plugins should be standard for any website. They are great for decreasing inquiries to customer service, can offer insight into your brand, help customers locate important information about products and policies, and so much more.
A great strategy for customizing your FAQ plugin is including answers to the most commonly asked questions. Another great tactic is checking out the FAQs on your favorite sites along with those of your competitors and noting what information theyâre including. You can also reach out to friends, family, or people in your professional network and ask them to check out your site and let you know what questions come up.
Itâs common for businesses to include sections such as: Commonly asked questions, shipping and returns info and details about the brand (materials and ingredients use, where the product is assembled, created and sourced, etc.). If you have video tutorials or images, these are great to include with your FAQ as well.
Answering all the question. Every. Single. One.
5. Making it easier for customers to navigate your site
If your site is more text heavy, you can utilize a Tabs plugin to categorize and break-up content on the same page. This enables customers to access information quickly without having to go back and forth between pages of your website.
For example, if you run an online retail store, youâd want to utilize tabs on product pages to divide information on pricing, sizing, information about materials, reviews, etc. This way, you provide customers with important information in an organized way thatâs easy to access.
Does anyone know where I can locate the sizing chart?
6. Highlighting your best features
Two of my favorite plugins are image sliders and galleries. They are a fantastic means of spotlighting your products in an attractive way that catches customers attention. Images are capable of communicating without words--use them to tell a story about your brand, illustrate the quality of your products, and draw attention to important details.
Letâs imagine youâre a fancy coffee roaster, you can use gallery or slider plugins to depict the story of how you source your beans, the roasting process, and then the final product. If you use images right, you can make a lasting impression on customers and even evoke emotions they never thought they could feel for coffee beans.
Time to highlight my best features. Guess that means Iâm highlighting everything. đ
7. Collecting customer info
One of the best tools in the plugins arsenal are form builders. If youâre trying to collect customer data, email, etc., form builder plugins are a fantastic choice. You can create all sorts of forms for your website; some form builder plugins even allow you to integrate them with other plugins (*coughs* POWr Form Builder) such as, popup plugins. If youâre looking for a way collect customersâ email addresses, you can create a popup that displays when they enter your site.
For example: Thanks for visiting Smaugâs Coffee Roasters! Sign-up to our email list and youâll receive 20% off your first order! Simply fill in your email address below and youâll receive your custom discount code within minutes.
Check out all this great data I collected! đ€
8. Creating a sense of urgency and buzz around your product(s)
You cannot tell me you havenât experienced the rush of adrenaline as you load your cart as quickly as you can with much needed items before times up and the sale ends. There is no greater sense of triumph than beating the clock and coming away with the knowledge that new treasure is on itâs way to you. There is no greater sense of defeat than getting to checkout too late and missing out on a fantastic sale *Shudders.*
A sense of urgency is a great motivator for encouraging customers to make purchases and get people talking about your business. I can tell you that every time Kate Spade has one of their awesome sales, I am online, and I make sure to spread the word. Countdown timers and hit counters are great plugins for instilling that sense of urgency and igniting the spark that transforms browsers into buyers.
Countdown timers let customers know they have a limited time to select their items and make a purchase before they miss out. Hit counters can be used to show how many of a certain item have been purchase, how many people are shopping, and how many transactions are currently taking place. Capitalize on this fear of missing out (#fomo), and use these tools to boost sales.
*sings* Everybody wants my products because theyâre AMAZING! đźđ¶
9. Giving you insight into your customersâ experience
Itâs important for any business to pay attention to their customers feedback. Feedback and criticism are invaluable to the success of your business. They offer you insight into whatâs going well and what needs improvement. Survey plugins enable you to gather feedback while simultaneously conveying to your customers you value not only their business but their opinions and insight as well. I mean, who doesnât want to be valued and heard? Utilize the information gathered to develop a strong business strategy that addresses customer pain points and emphasizes cultivating a better experience for them.
We LOVE your products! đ€
10. Incentivization to make purchases
Popup may be my favorite plugin. When used well, they are POWrful (see what I did there?) tools that can help your business thrive. I recommend using popups to offer discounts. Everyone loves a discount, and itâs hard to be annoyed at the person offering you one. You can use them to target new customers and welcome them with a discount on their first purchase. Another neat trick is to create a popup that appears when someone tries to leave your website and offering incentive to stay and make a purchase.
For instance, You donât really want to leave, do you? Not with so many treasures in your cart đą. Would $10 off your purchase change your mind đ€? Add your email below to receive your special discount code!
Think of Popups as your online store greeters. They welcome people to your site and encourage them to stay by offering incentives. Donât underestimate the value of this--it can mean the difference between a lost customer (lost revenue) and a potential loyal customer who encourages others to try your products (increased revenue).
How about a handful of candy in exchange for a review? I thought that might do the trick. đ
The beauty of plugins is their adaptability and the opportunity they afford you to try different strategies to achieve your conversion goals. There are a surplus of fantastic plugins out there *cough--POWr Plugins--cough* that can be easily optimized to fit your business needs. Alright, enough chit chat, try plugins for yourself and enjoy experimenting with different ways you can use them to achieve success and take over the world!