BUSINESS: Selling Online – Creating an Identity Part 2
In Part 2 of this series about creating a strong identity online for your creative business, Lorrie Whittington of Illusio Creative talks us through Design and Set up of your online store, Marketing and Promotion and Reciprocal Linking.
Design and Set Up:
This doesn’t have to be costly, or involve a huge amount of technical skill. Think in terms of ‘livery’. What colour combinations and designs reflect your work and your personality? When it comes to web design, there are some simple rules one of which is ‘less is more’.
Any good web design book, magazine, website will tell you, that it’s advisable to keep your colour palette down to two or three colours (occasionally more but you really need to understand colour and composition). Opt for muted tones and complimentary colours that are easy on the eye. Keep in mind that many people have trouble viewing images and text on a monitor. If you want to appeal to and reach as many people as possible, avoid making your text too small or choosing a text colour that doesn’t stand out from the background.
Also, ensure that your images carry ‘alt tags’, these are necessary for people who have sight problems and use specialised software that looks for ‘alt tags’ on a page, (alt tags means ‘alternative text’). Keep your image file sizes manageable, this doesn’t necessarily mean actual picture size; I am referring to the size of the image file (see the UK Handmade article on Resizing Photos for Web Use using Adobe Photoshop). PNG images, although the best quality, are very large files that take a long time to download. In the time it takes to download your images, your potential customer may have already closed the window and moved on. However, most portals and storefronts use ‘image compression’, which makes the files smaller and faster to download.
Don’t clutter your site with too many links as ease of navigation is as important as elegance of design. People want to visit a site where they can locate the things they want easily, so a long list of links in the sidebar could be off-putting. Limit yourself to fewer navigational links and include sub categories on your pages (until you master how to create ‘drop down menus’ that is).
A business Logo is less important than you may think, I had one made and never use it. The most important thing is consistency. When you have chosen your colour palette and perhaps a banner image, come up with a combination that you like and stick to it. Wherever you open an account online, whether it is a social networking site, an art and craft forum, shop, blog etc, where ever possible, use the same colours. A good tip is to surf the web and look at as many art & craft shops and sites as possible. Observe the lay-out, colour and design; eventually you will start to appreciate what is appealing about a site and what is less so.
This also applies to business cards and stationery. There are many sites on the web that provide cheap printing services (MOO, Bonus Print and Vistaprint). Business cards or small mini cards (like the ones MOO produce) are very useful and a good way to increase your promotional net. I always include a small mini business card that shows my web site address, shop address and email with every item I sell.
Marketing and Promotion:
Now you have reached the point where you have listed some items in your shop and are waiting for the orders to come rolling in and customers queuing up (virtually speaking) at your door. A month down the line, you wonder why they aren’t and why no one has bought a thing. This is the most common mistake that new sellers make and why at this point many give up. It’s great having a nice shiny online shop but if no one knows you exists, how will they find you? It’s not like opening a shop on the High Street where passing trade see your wares.
Selling online means you have to actively drive custom to your shop which involves marketing and promotion. This is the part that puts most people off and why many give up early on. Unless you are incredibly talented and lucky to the extent that your product just ‘clicks’ at the get go, you will have to work at it but it needn’t be daunting. Start ‘networking’, look for art & craft forums, groups, and clubs and join them. Add a link to your Blog/Shop to your signature in whatever forum or group you join. Open a Twitter account, and post updates to your Blog about your shop (avoid always linking directly to your shop, some people get tired of it). If you are on Facebook, create a Business.
Reciprocal linking: Google rankings work on a ‘linking’ algorithm. The more links to your site/shop, and the more important those links are (in Google terms there is a hierarchy), the higher your ranking. I ran a fan forum years ago and got everybody I knew to link to the forum. I added a link to every site directory, forum, group I visited and asked friends to add a link to their blogs, websites, forums, groups. I promoted the group relentlessly and within six months I had a first page Google ranking and my forum was at the top of the page. Pretty good considering that at the time there were hundreds of similar sites.
Having done all this, your next move is…to NOT become discouraged. It could take weeks, maybe months to get your first sale. Stick with doing your market research and promoting your site/shop. Continue honing your skills, keep writing, look at other artists and artisans sites, shops and blogs. It’s a continuous learning curve and people have good ideas and tips that they are ready to pass on. The sense of achievement, pride and self worth when you start to make your first sales and gain some recognition will be immense!
This article was originally published in the Spring 2009 issue of UK Handmade Magazine.
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