I was watching a video which stated that the #1 mistake people make with their Web site is expecting that a visitor will make a purchase on their first visit. They likened this to expecting to get married on a first date.
We know this doesn't happen: typical online conversion rates of 1-2% mean that only 1 or 2 out of every 100 visitors make a purchase (and it may not be their first visit).
Ideally, every one of your visitors would give you their e-mail address so that you could stay in touch. The reality is that even if you give someone an incentive (say, free shipping shipping included on their first order), only about 10% will do so.
BUT...
Once you have their e-mail, you can send them periodic e-mail messages, building trust and interest over time by sending useful information. You can even automate the process of sending these follow-ups using an autoresponder (a program which automatically sends a sequence of timed, personalized e-mails in response to the initial receipt of an e-mail message from a site visitor). AWeber, Constant Contact, and iContact all offer autoresponders; your current e-mail marketing service may also.
(of course, you have to write the messages that an autoresponder will send, but once you've done it, you've automated a key part of your online sales process. And you can even hire someone to do the writing, although I recommend you stay closely involved to preserve your winery's "voice").
If you really want to use your winery Web site to sell more of your wine (or club memberships), building your e-mail list by offering a real incentive to sign up is a must.
Seth Godin's "Permission Marketing" book gives the same illustration of getting married on your first date. Although it's dated, it's a great read on relationship building through email.
Posted by: twitter.com/andrewkamphuis | October 26, 2009 at 07:13 AM
You also need to make sure your analytics program is dropping cookies that stay on they visitor's machine for a long enough time, at least 30 days. Why? Because if someone visits your site, goes away, then comes back in 10 days, goes away again and comes back a week later, you want to know that those three visits are from the same person.
Wineries also face an issue that some online merchants don't - most of their product may well be sold via other channels. That means that you need to realize that not everyone is a potential sale. Some will be looking at your site to get notes on a wine they've already bought (you DO have tasting notes on your wines posted, right?). Some will be looking to see whether you have visiting hours and where you are. What you want to do is to look at those people who got to your order page... what paths did they take? Segment them in the analytics package and look at their behavior. How does it differ from other visitors? If both purchasers and non-purchaser visit, say, your main Wines page look at that page - is it OBVIOUS you can order wines from there? Or might you be losing some business because it's not obvious and only a few of the visitors there realized that they could buy wine from there?
Posted by: rick | October 26, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Part of the challenge is also, how do you gain their email address? In most internet marketing circles you see a free ebook or something along those lines given away, not so easy when we're talking about a real brick/mortar store.
Coupons sometimes work as do discounts but it isn't an easy problem to solve, at least it hasn't been for me!
Posted by: Mark | October 29, 2009 at 01:41 PM