Why Aren’t Sales Increasing on Your Website?

Hello. I'm Tsumugi, a Vtuber and web director. I've been helping Quadra since 2022. This blog mainly provides basic knowledge and useful information for corporations and individuals who want to create a website, web managers, and web marketing managers, so please bear with me.

Well then, without further ado, are you struggling to increase sales with your website? First, you don't know what kind of website to build to increase sales. You've built a website, but there's hardly any traffic. You've tried web marketing on your own, but you're not getting results. You don't even know how to increase sales online in the first place. If you're in such a situation, please read this article first. Let's get started.

Overall design is crucial for web sales

First, when looking at cases where websites don't generate sales, the majority lack a complete plan for the overall purchase process – how to attract customers and how to get them to make a purchase – or the plan is largely guesswork and haphazard.

A website does not generate sales on its own. It's necessary to design the entire process, from making the website and products known, getting users to access the site, generating interest in products and services, all the way to making a purchase. You must design a path for users to smoothly reach a purchase, just like water flowing down a river.

Therefore, when we receive a website renewal request, if the goal is to improve sales, we sometimes switch to a pattern where we don't do the renewal itself, but first design and implement the overall purchase process. So, what exactly is a purchase process? Let's look at one of the most orthodox examples.

First, decide where to make contact with users

To get users to visit your website, purchase products, or make inquiries, you must first meet potential users. We also call them prospective customers. So, where exactly should you meet prospective customers? There are various methods, but the most cost-effective way to quickly meet users is probably through social media. There should be commonly used social media platforms in each industry, such as X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. By using the most popular SNS in your industry, you can meet more users. For this example, let's choose X (formerly Twitter).

Publish content that users are interested in

When conducting web marketing, the majority of it is inbound. In other words, instead of actively selling by saying, "This is great, please buy it!", you create a mechanism where the other party approaches you with interest. This is the basic idea.

Even if you try to sell online like a door-to-door salesperson, it's just spam. For example, if you relentlessly send messages, it will remain as data. As a result, you might incur resentment and be exposed as a spam account. If that happens, all the relationships you've built with your followers will turn into nothing.

So, how do you get them interested? You research what prospective customers are interested in and publish it as content. However, not just any content will do. You must publish content that is relevant to the products or services you ultimately want them to purchase.

For example, if you want to sell bedding, it's content about bedding; if you want to sell furniture, it's content related to furniture. Moreover, since you need to find content that attracts everyone's interest, it's better to research thoroughly. This is the most important point.

If users are interested in the content and follow the account, we will then be able to send out information and communicate with them. This allows us to create a point of contact with users and get them interested in our activities.

Get people to visit your website

Next, you'll want people to visit your website, but simply pasting the homepage's top page directly onto social media is pointless. It's too sudden. Sales that are too sudden are not only completely meaningless but also disliked, making them overwhelmingly counterproductive. Consider it a golden rule to promote your products and services without them even noticing, and to subtly create a situation where they 'want it of their own free will.' So, how can you get them to come to your website?

The answer is simple: you should write a blog. Add a blog to your website using WordPress or similar platforms. Then, just as you would when sharing content on social media, write and publish blog posts about topics that users find interesting. If you've generated enough interest on social media by the time you publish your blog, people will likely access your blog posts. This way, you've at least gotten them to visit your site.

Have the site crawled

However, even if people access your blog, it's meaningless if they don't view the entire site and ultimately become interested in your products or services. There are three important strategies here. The first is to naturally include links to your products or services somewhere in the article. Please ensure it's not an overt promotion, but rather flows naturally with the text. For example, when explaining bedding, you might link to your product as the best bedding, or when explaining the best consultants, you might introduce that your company can handle everything. The key is to connect links naturally and without disrupting the content.

Also, place a conversion area at the end of the article. This is an area to introduce your services or products, and it needs to be placed in a flow that is relevant to the article. For example, if you want to attract people to a French restaurant, create a site introducing French cuisine, write articles, and finally place a conversion area with the nuance of "Click here if you want to eat the best French food." From there, it leads to reservations. What's important is the flow. You must connect to products and services without breaking the flow from the content. When you're hungry from food content, no one will be interested if you're introduced to DIY products, right? It's the same thing.

Encourage users to take action, such as making a purchase or an inquiry

This is the final step. Users who have moved from content to product or service pages often already have an interest in those products or services. From here on, it's a competition of how accurately and attractively the website speaks about the products and services, so the completeness of the website itself is paramount. Thus, the role of the website is, in fact, nothing more than the very last piece of the puzzle. No matter how much you renew your website, if the process leading up to the site is not properly constructed, the likelihood of a purchase will be low.

If your website isn't generating sales, first review the process from reaching the homepage to making a purchase. Are you abruptly promoting products or services to uninterested users? Are you forcing sales, especially before building trust with users? Even in real-world sales, it's difficult to buy products or services from someone you don't trust. This is especially true for high-priced products or services, isn't it? As the saying goes, 'haste makes waste,' so precisely because you want to achieve results as quickly as possible, let's proceed carefully, one step at a time.

Summary

Today, I introduced a general example of the overall flow, but the above flow does not apply to all cases. For example, there may be cases where it's better to use other SNS instead of X (formerly Twitter), or where a blog isn't necessary. Especially for video or image-based posts, shortening the flow even more than including a blog can sometimes lead to sales. There may also be cases where it's better to aim for list acquisition, like with a LINE Official Account, or where it's better to use advertising.

The most important thing is to design the process by thinking carefully with your own head, keeping the above flow in mind. Then, through trial and error and repeating small failures, find out which method is most appropriate for your products and services. If you constantly design processes through trial and error, you will eventually generate sales. It may take some getting used to at first, but let's persevere and keep trying.