Lessons

Lesson Info

How Does Your Online Presence Feel?

For now, I want you to think about how your home will welcome visitors, how it will display those qualities that we did in session one, and how it can display your message in a way that feels like you want them to feel when they receive your product. So goes back to if your product brings ease because you talked about the sweaters being a perfect fit. So part of what you bring to your buyers is ease and feeling great and accomplished. We're talking about the hierarchy of needs is definitely self accomplishment, so you want your site to give them that same feeling. You rent your home toe, start making those feelings happen. Does that make sense? And this is kind of vague and we'll get more and more specific on it. But for example, if you had a luxury product, then you want to cite to feel very luxurious. If you go to something like and I'm gonna forget the name of the company, guilt is that it g lt that's, very fancy, high end. Their site feels very fancy, high end if your product is re...

ally. Fun like my happy colorfully are on my website needed to be bright and colorful and happy on def your product is goofy or silly like I my year long program is called this starship so my page about it can be goofy and silly I talk about what the geeks we are and like how fun it is and the experience of being with other people and I use metaphors because I want people who come into my world and by my products to be ready for me to be a little weird a little metaphor e you know like the customer path and making your map because you wanted to all be in alignment for them so if they feel your website has a certain feeling and then they get your product and it doesn't line up they're going to be disappointment even if it's exactly what you described but your website was very luxurious and graceful and elegant and then your product came and was just in a brown box and it was just like shuffled in there you know those two things are going to not be in alignment and it's going to trigger them to be like that or if your website was very weird and colorful and bright and then you know you only sold things that were tope that wouldn't be an alignment and people will click away instead of buying because something it's triggered this isn't quite right so when it's all in alignment, the person feels comfortable because remember you're just a stranger on the internet to them so you really need to do a lot to build trust and the first way to build trust is to make it feel cohesive and comfortable so that what they see is what they're going to get through every step of this path. So if you've answered the questions on page twenty three, my question to you is how do you want your home to feel? What are the qualities? How do you want people to feel when they get there? Because that's what you want them to feel about your product? We have some questions yeah, we have a question here from curious kerry and they say that my home should be my website, but I've definitely been driving people to my head see shop have lots of people in the chats who have etc shops how do you balance a blogger or website and in etc shop? Well, I think it depends on when you're talking about driving traffic because if and this is about the customer path the person already knows you and has chosen to follow you by getting your email lesson subscribing to your blog's following you on twitter then sending them at sea make sense because they might be ready to buy they might be ready for that last step, but if you are people are coming to you for the very first time say you've written a guest post somewhere you're being featured in an editorial this person knows nothing about you so leading them to your home where you can give them all of the answers make sense so it really depends on where the person is in the customer path where you drive them now your website though needs to be awesome at sending people to buy things if it's not yet send people to your tea shop because that's where they're going to be able to buy things because all about your end goal of your path for most of us the end goal is that they purchase something so you want to send them to the place where that's going to be easiest but also where they're going to get all of their questions answered so if your website is not yet um effective at sending people to buy things and you haven't you don't have a big clear button and it's not obvious that you sell things then send people to at sea because we'll be obvious then that's what they're going to buy so I like to hear some what you guys want your homes to feel like yeah, so I feel like my website um looks the way I wanted tio and um but I feel like there needs to be kind of more, um welcoming before by ok because I think that people are going there to kind of look around and I feel like I don't do a good job it's like you click on a picture and you immediately go to the by page and I feel like you know I mean I wouldn't do that if somebody came into my home right would be like here by this or even, you know, like here eat hay there would be like some and I am like a very gracious host and I feel like that's not happening on my website and like I missed a step yeah yeah so you could andi I know you've been blogging more regularly. We talked about that and so your block is away to kind of welcome people in and introduce them to the different aspects of what you d'oh and then so is your home page if you have a home page oren about page so all of those sites are all of those options you know uh I mean, I guess it depends on where your shop is because you want people to be able to buy it as soon as they're ready to so they can I mean, if you click on a picture it will take you to buy a shopping cart for that, okay, so what I want is to kind of right is there some description a little bit, eh? So everything is you know, basically the description and everything is on the by page, right? And I feel like there needs to be some kind of interim step where you can look, you know, and and maybe see different pictures and that sort of thing where they buy button isn't the first thing you see because I think that just freaks people out, especially because my product is a little bit more expensive, right? Um and at one point I this maybe t m I but at one point I said to my assistant, I think I should take pictures of myself wearing my stuff yeah, and she said seriously, jill, you're like willowy and tall and really people don't want to see u e o you know, the difference is is that for knitters we have rivalry, so I didn't see a whole range of body types wearing your designs, so maybe the in between stage is a on that page I don't know that I would move the buy button away because I want people to be able to purchase it right then but add more photos, maybe add your customer photos and at a photo of you, you know and have the photo of you wearing your stuff throughout your website so that when they click on it, they can then be taken to that design like you're wearing one of your design is today right? We could take a photo of you, and we've had a blond post right about the sweater, why you like it, how you wear it, how you style it because your this goes back to your story in your experiences are so unique in the knitwear design world, you should be highlighting that and so you wearing it is part of it because you have styled it in a specific way, based on everything you know about fashion, it doesn't make sense so that's another way of giving these people the information. So and what about if I'd liked it a trunk show at a yarn shop and just got photos of different people wearing my sweaters, trying them on because really, people with other body types can wear this justice effectively? Asai, cantlie, and that would be amazing, and you could obviously do a whole series of block post about each individual person and how you would style it for that person based on their own style, because I know that something you're really good at help me with it on, and so you could definitely do that on day. You could also go to rivalry and ask people who have made totally different sizes. What if you can use their photo and share their story? And a lot of people will just be flattered. They would love to do that because you're being so complimentary. You're saying you look amazing. You did a great job, let's. Talk about that. And that goes back to what we discovered yesterday was equality. Part of your sparkle is that people knit sweaters that fit well using your designs. So everything you can do that highlights everywhere in your home. This will fit. You will feel self accomplished. It's gonna be great. Yeah. I mean that that is sometimes we feel funny about selling, but that's, what order that's the end goal writes, I think that maybe it is fine tohave, but, you know, it's easy to buy. You just know that's. Really? Yeah, but I feel I also feel like I know my my patterns, they're probably twice aceh expensive. Most patterns are and so people need more information, understand about you. They're very yeah, they have to feel like it's worth it. Yeah, yeah, about page or like pictures of I've got the usual crappy about way. We're going to talk about that in just a minute, actually talked about improving here about paige, I have done so. Words are not a problem for me we've got pages of information about how you use my patterns, all of that, but I think that people don't intuitively go there, right? Because most of my customers air like me, and I'm not a web surfer, I go do what I want, and then I get the hell out. We got too much else to do that's why your buy button should stay there. You should make sure that you include more pictures and maybe maybe less words, maybe words broken up by pictures because your clients are also really visual, and so they want tio so we talked about using those pictures of other people and blogged post, but I think you could also start putting them on to that page and make that page more visual so that when they see the price, they you've already explained the fit you've seen people where it's fitting great, it all makes sense, so maybe it's just about putting more value on that page. I think this or you can add, like from yesterday where we did I make this for this person, you know, for this benefit and add those sentences like make it into a paragraph and tell them why you're modeling, why you make it and why it's right for that same person that's just like you and and that not necessarily body type don't want that for you because I mean seeing you wear it and how you style and you explaining that it would fit I will make us better to make it that me even though we have different body types I would believe you because of your background you know what I mean? So that's not going to get in the way so your system throw way have anyone now she's been called out on the internet way have anybody sharing about how they want their home to feel online before we move on? Yeah, we have some questions about you know you mentioned before having that luxury feel on your website if your luxury brand et cetera and this question comes from craft job and they say I sell some products that I would characterize his luxury and others that would be considered, you know, adorable maybe not luxurious do I need separate websites for different products? How can I make a cohesive website that can host all types of my products? So in general I say no don't split up don't split up your energy don't split it up the the difference that distinction between what we talked about earlier with two instagram accounts is you don't feel pressured tio do marketing on that personal account that's just personal so in your marketing and your business time you want tio on lee be driving traffic to one place, so even though I don't know her products in general, I said no, keep it all in one place and instead some things might be adorable. Some things might be luxury, but they probably all bring one quality in your life. I don't know what she makes so it's hard to tell, say their hair accessories and some are adorable for little kids and some are really classy for classy ladies, maybe you're bringing beauty, maybe you're bringing us and of feeling good about yourself. I just worked with a makeup maker who her thing is that you are going to feel beautiful and competent because so many of us feel incompetent when it comes to putting on makeup so she wants for her person, whether they're an uptown lady or like downtown punk, to feel competent in displaying their own sense of style. Does that make sense? So there's usually a overarching thing you're bringing into somebody's life that's how you make your website field is there sort of a general question about what is a good rule of thumb to balance your time for something like this? This is from laura love stars how do we balance our time between website slash blogger and doing the actual work of creating whatever it is that we're selling because you don't want to take too much time to this forget about creation that's the big question right? That's the question hopefully by the end of the class, you have a plan, so you know specifically what to dio what I find is that people spend too much time marketing because they don't know what they're doing. What we want to end up with is so that each day you have a list of things to do, you have a bigger plan for where you're going to get where you want to go, and you'll know each day what to do to get you there so that you spend that certain amount of time for every business. This is different, and it really depends on your income goals. How many products you need to make to reach that goal? How longer products take to make one by one and then making a production calendar and then slot in your marketing time. So when we talk about your blogged and your web site, the good news about everything we're covering in this segment about your home that's, a one time thing every couple months you get your website, get all the information on there, get to feel the way you want it to feel, and then you let it do its job for at least six months before you go changing things because we're going to talk about experiment. It's in session three and you can't do a good experiment if you change things every day so once you get your home set up you gonna let it sit there so even though this is a lot of initial work to get your home the way you want it, then you'll be done with it for ongoing content will cover that in segment two about how tio develop ongoing content in a way that's very it fits in with the rest of your life I would think of it is it like being an integrity? You make a product and then you share it you blogged about it, you tweeted and and then you start the process again so that all fits together instead of being separate, you don't want to feel like the two things your production calendar marketing calendar are totally different they need to be in a line with what you're doing sir always talking about what you're doing and then announcing the new thing and they talk about the next thing you're doing we'll get into that a little more in the next I meant it okay? I think my problem with my business as faras people looking at as a hobby is I post so much about being home and doing it because I love it then people just see it as a hobby so they don't even think about it as a business yeah, yeah so I think with that you wantto you wantto it's fine, for instead of thinking about trying to convince people it's a business thing about showing them that you make a professional quality product, you know what I mean? So it's fine, that your home making it? I mean, anybody who makes crew shade is probably crashing at home, you know, or on the bus or whatever, it's, not like you're doing it at some other job. Nothing is going to make you seem more professional, except for showing the high quality of it and the brand qualities so it's, very an alignment. If your things are comfy, things toe wear around the house and see snuggled, then it makes sense to talk about that yesterday that we talked about, you're right person being a little younger, maybe hipper, maybe more fashion forward. So you want to care about my home? Life is what there is, what I'm saying, like, they don't write about my daughter running around the house, or do I should join? They want to see more of a fashion side of it, not more of a in home side of it, and then I think I need tio, you know, change that, yeah, and there's a lot of ways that you can include your home life into into that brand it's just a matter of how you tell that story and of course if you're doing this for personal memory keeping, you can do it in another space you like I mean, you know you can write about were like I was talking about earlier even journal anywhere you know or or like online scrapbook anywhere but for the block that's associated with your business you can tell all those personal stories and it make it reflect back on the thing especially if your home is designed in a way that lines up with your scarf designs showing pictures of that showing things that that girl who wears your scarf is going to think about and care about and you don't have to stress about this too much like we're going to experiment we're going to try things we're going to shift you might find that because you love writing about your kids in your home life that your customers actually ah woman your age who is a young mother who needs some who needs to look stylish when like she's eight months pregnant or who wants to look stylish when her five month old baby just puked on her and she uses your scarf to cover it up right like that works right focus because I think that's how your customers and relate to it is like how in a busy life does this solve a problem for me? You know what and kind of like quick fashion on and quick style when you know you're like dragon the kid in the regs and everything out the door and then you throw this thing on and you look fabulous yeah that's like a meaning kill a kind of that except with our kids running around right until you guys are young women just like we talked about yesterday you were goingto aimed at young women who do care about looking good and but it's in a different level, you know, maybe a sixteen year old who cares about looking good to her friends you guys have different on does go back to the benefits identifying the benefits to a person in your situation would be I can cover up the pukes saying I can get I don't get cute really quick I just like a scarf which we all know is like the scarf is the answer it just about every problem. So that is the benefit that people in your life situation really want and then talking about your kids talking about your hectic home life, talking about the dog that you know, he had run to the vet with all your kids in tow and you throw in a scarf and you looked amazing like that is a story that's I mean, you don't even have to mention the scarf point once your reader realizes this woman totally understands my issues, my problems and she's making a product that fits it. They're not going to think of you is just like a crafter. You know, because you're showing I get you, I understand you, and that might meet easier, right person for you to aim at than the sixteen year old girl. Yeah. Also, that woman probably has a slightly more money than the sixteen year old girl.