Dash of Inspiration – Spruce Up Your Store for 2012

A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen

Spruce Up Your Store for 2012

I always find January a good time to make sure my store and products are in tip-top shape to support another year of growth in sales.  I thought I’d pass along some ideas to inspire all of you to do the same and even set some goals for the New Year!

1)  If you want growth in sales, your store (websites) must remain ‘active’ according to search engine crawlers. This means that websites (stores) which are not updated at least weekly will most likely be ignored by these crawlers and therefore remain or fall to the ‘bottom’ of the rankings.  So, if you wish to see growth in your design business don’t abandon your stores for weeks at a time.

2)  Search engines and many POD sites are doing their best to ‘crack down’ on keywords ‘tag spam’. Sometimes this means that a product will be bumped to the bottom in rankings, some places will remove the product and some will ultimately ban the user.  So, another way to keep your stores active is to spend a few minutes every day going over old products and refining those keywords, removing any which are not applicable. Keywords should describe:

• The Subject:  cat, flower, etc.
• Occasion/Theme: retro, funny, birthday, miss you
• Primary Colors/Patterns: paisley, blue, striped
•  Design Creation:  photography, illustration, watercolor
• Who is the Recipient:  sister, 5-year-old, boss

In case you missed it:  Keywords – Nuts & Bolts

3)  Use your descriptions wisely!  This area is a huge factor in search parameters outside of GCU.  Remember that search engines want good, solid and unique content.  The Artist’s Notes is the place to do this.  Create a well constructed paragraph which will help customers to identify with the card as well help search engines to pick up descriptive words and phrases to send traffic your way.

In case you missed it: Artist’s Notes and Product Description – Nuts & Bolts

4)  Keep your storefront current.  Don’t keep Christmas cards in your Featured Cards and/or Product Gallery front pages after Christmas has passed.  It is true that most card sales come from the GCU marketplace rather than your storefront, however at some point you will be drawing returning customers and new customers from all the marketing you are doing outside of GCU (shame on you if you aren’t), so keep a current storefront.

5)  Now is the time to change those 2011 cards to 2012 (except for those wonderful Chinese New year cards and the like).  Swap your graduation, Christmas and other categories out now and you won’t lose sales later plus you will be making both your storefront and the GCU marketplace look up-to-date and professional!

6)  Make your storefront professional in it’s appearance!  Online marketing research shows that websites which are clean, easy to read, easy on the eyes with professional looking banners/logos hold the attention of potential buyers 10x’s longer than sites which lack these features.

• The store banner should be designed specifically for the size to fit the top of your storefront.  It should have the name of your art business and/or your name, be legible and easy to read.
• Your store colors should not be bright or hard on the eyes.  Don’t use lots of different colors, though various light shade differences can be professional.  Keep in mind that the color in which your choose to set you cards on will cause a slight color cast onto those cards.  This is the nature of how our eyes work.  Choose wisely.
•  Keep in mind that many shoppers stop in while at work or while the family is still sleeping.  It has been proven that sites with auto-play music and lots of noisy widgets are an immediate turn-off to customers . . . so choose wisely.

In case you missed it:  Storefront Banner – Nuts & Bolts

Here’s to keeping those storefronts professional and your cards in the forefront of those search engines!  Have a prosperous 2012!