Lessons

Lesson Info

The Anatomy of a First Impression

I want to kick us off, because we all start with such a close perspective, I want to kick us off by backing up out of that close perspective, giving ourselves more room, and look at a bird's eye view of an Etsy shop. Now, let's imagine that a new visitor is landing on your storefront right now, because the chances are likely that somebody's landing on your storefront right now. When they land there, they don't know you. Remember, you've gotten very familiar. You've hung out there. If you're anything like I am, I can picture my own Etsy storefront in my mind 'cause I spend so much time gazing at it, but a visitor doesn't spend that much time, and they're not as familiar. They don't know you, they've never heard of your brand before, and your Etsy shop is your only chance to introduce yourself as a business. It's your only chance to get people in shopping. You've all browsed online plenty. I know a lot of creative businesses are click- That's what I call myself, a clickaholic, because I ...

click mindlessly all day long, so you know the deal, and you know when you're online clicking, clicking, clicking, you're looking for something that makes you stick. The visitor is also looking for something that makes them stick, and they want something to interact with them. They want something that engages them. And just like you, when you're clicking, they're impatient about it. They're not giving you the chance that you'd hope they would give you as a website visitor. They're impatient. They want you to either attract them or leave them alone, so when they land on your site, you as the seller have three seconds max. Within three seconds of landing on your storefront, the visitor is either going to stay, click, browse, and engage with your storefront, or they're gonna click away altogether. You didn't do it for them. They're not interested, they're leaving. Your Etsy shop serves as the introduction, and it's the point of sale for your business. We're gonna take it out of being your hangout. We're gonna take it away from being that personal relationship that you have with etsy.com. It is the introduction point. It's where your visitor meets you, and it's the point of sale. That's what its job is. As a visitor, and as a clicker, there's a lot going on in our minds, and there's a lot going in your customer's mind when they visit, more than any of us would ever realize. I want to look at the frame of mind, and talk about the anatomy of a first impression, that three seconds that they land there. I'm gonna ask you here with me today if anything pops into your mind when I ask you, "What's the first thing you notice "when you're browsing online, when you click, "and when you visit, what's the first thing "that stands out to you when you visit somebody's website?" If anybody has any answers? Cara? The shop cohesion as a whole, like, does it kind of fit my aesthetic as a whole? Absolutely, absolutely. Does it all make sense, absolutely. Anybody else? Yes, please. The images and the image quality, if it looks like it's professionally done, or kind of point and shoot situation. Beautiful, Vanessa, yes. It has to be on point. That photography has to be right in order to attract you. Is there anything else, anybody? Yes, please, Erica. Price point, I would say. Is it within a range that I'm comfortable spending, and does it match the quality of what I'm seeing on the site? I love that, I love that. Is that style, and that price point, and that brand gonna match your personal needs? I love that. And you just landed there, so these things we're talking about, you just landed on the site, and those are complex thoughts to be having. Is there anything else, anybody else, come to mind? That's okay, because you've touched everything very well. Thank you so much for those answers, that was beautiful. Let's talk about the sequence of events that make up a first impression. Can I immediately make sense of what I'm seeing? There's three points. These don't have to happen in order. They're happening simultaneously. Like what we just talked about, it's complex, and it's quick, and nobody realizes how much they're actually thinking. Does this storefront compel me to stay? Is it pulling me in? Does it engage with me? Remember, I've been clicking, clicking, clicking. I'm looking for something that I want, and does it give it to me? Is it gonna pull me in so I want to click here a little bit more? That's a tricky balance to create with your own storefront. If there's too much going on on your website, if there's too much going on on any website, it's overwhelming, it's over-stimulation, and you leave. If there's too little going on, it's underwhelming, and there's not enough to keep you engaged there. That's what I call shop cohesion, and I'm gonna be saying that all day. It's the term that I use in order to put a storefront all together so that it makes sense. It's the atmosphere that your storefront creates. It's the ambiance it's giving off. Your storefront is doing that whether you realize it or not. Your storefront is going to give off an atmosphere, ambiance, whether you've created it intentionally or not. The best example I have, and it's something I feel like we can all put ourselves into in real life is if you've ever been to a craft show or an art show, and you're browsing the area, and then a booth stands out to you from across the room, and you just have to know more about it. It's so well put together, it's so aesthetically pleasing, you just are drawn toward it, and so you go to that booth. That booth has compelled you to move over to it. That comes with a strong offer. That booth is creating a strong offer for you. It's creating a strong presentation for you, and it's created a beautiful display for you. That's what strong shop cohesion will do for your storefront, the exact same thing. It's gonna create really great appeal, and it's gonna interest the customer. That's what we're here to improve today. That's what building an Etsy storefront that sells is all about. We're going to enhance your shop cohesion so that you not only attract visitors, you compel them to stay. That's our focus all day long. The next question you're thinking about whenever you're building a first impression is, does the imagery capture my attention? That's definitely an important part of it all. Is the aesthetic, does it match my style? Are the photographs what I call mouthwatering, delicious? Do they make me hungry to click? Do I just want to get in there and know more? That has everything to do with presentation and the way you present your product online. Just as the cohesion drew me closer, just like the craft booth at a art show would pull me across the room, the presentation, the photographs is what really draws you in. It's what, at the craft show, would make you need to pick up the product, because you had to touch it. Now you really need to be a part of it, and you need to interact with it. That's what the product photographs are doing for your shop, they're making people need to touch that product. "Does the product photography make me "want to handle the product?" is a good question to ask as you are building your presentation online. Is it pulling me in? Does it physically draw me closer? I know we're online, and I know we're clicking, but you feel that movement towards something when you want to know more about it. There's an underlying psychological thing going on, and that's what we can build on. You want to create that appeal, and we're going to be talking a lot about the presentation of your product today as well. The final test, the final thing running through your mind is, can I trust this site? It's a huge, big deal. You're wondering, is this site professional? Is it secure? Am I safe to browse here? Am I safe to shop here? A lot of that, branding plays a huge part in that, especially online with the bugs you can pick up from being in unsafe shops, or the things that can happen if you shop with somebody online that you don't know if you can trust or not. Trust is a big deal with us, and it's the number one reason that I recommend Etsy for startup shop-owners. It's the number one reason I recommend Etsy as the place to build and grow a brand, because Etsy does that for you, and I'm gonna show you how and why it's such a valuable tool. Remember that the customer is asking, "Can I trust this shop to deliver? "Can I trust this shop not to steal my information, "and charge my card, do those kind of things?" As we go through the material today, I want to ask that you remember these three questions, these three elements of a first impression, because everything we learn is going to build on this. It's going to help improve and enhance this aspect. Again, this, the first impression, is why Etsy is such a great starting place for your online business. Your Etsy storefront can help you answer all three elements of the first impression upon arrival. The first question was, "Can I make sense of what I'm seeing?" You can see, Etsy gives you a beautiful uniform website. The boxes all match, everything is nice, and in line, and uniform, and it's easy to take in. It's easy to capture the imagery that you're seeing on the screen and make sense of it. Aside from the product photography, there's a lot of branding potential. You have the place for your logo. You have the place for your banner, and you can add more of your own style and flare to that site. The next thing that the customer, the visitor, was asking upon first impression is, "Can I trust it?" That's where Etsy really gets useful. That's where it becomes a very valuable tool. A well-known site host such as etsy.com, which a lot of people recognize, adds extra accountability to your offer, adds extra accountability to your brand. It lets people know that, if this product doesn't come like I expect it to do, I'm not just dealing with the seller. I can contact Etsy directly. I can report this, somebody will back this up, and that is a huge thing with online trust. Then there's also social proof. Social proof means, it's a psychological phenomenon, and what it means is, we are automatically attracted to what we perceive as popular, and skeptical of everything else. I'll say that again 'cause it's gonna come up a lot. We are automatically attracted to what is popular, or what appears to be popular, and we're skeptical of everything else. We believe something's popular, we agree with it, and we think we like it too because it's very popular. If there's not a lot of proof on the page that this is a popular place, or that this is actually as big as it's trying to appear online, which is a big thing for us today, online, it's very easy to get caught up in something that appears bigger than it actually is, then we're gonna be more skeptical of it. Speaking of popularity, Lisa, we have a lot of people watching our class right now from all over the world, so I just wanted to read some of those comments. Oh, please. Anushka's joining in from Croatia, and Spookymoo is joining from Staffordshire, UK, and someone's joining from Israel, and finally, Zennigirl is a native Bostonian, but now from Britain, France. France, Croatia, UK, all over. That's fabulous. That's fabulous, thank you all so much for joining us. That's so exciting. That's great, and I'm excited that that many people are looking to build their creative businesses as well. I think it's just a fabulous opportunity for us in this day and age to take advantage of. As you can see, on Etsy, social proof, what we talked about, about whether or not you are popular, it's all over the page. There's a spot for reviews, and people to say what they think after trying your product. There's a spot for sales history that will tell people exactly how long you've been in business. It says when you started your business right there. You have this social media likes and connections right there underneath your banner. That shows, also, off Etsy, it's a way to connect with people, yes, but it's also showing more numbers, and those numbers are power when it comes to building a business online. We even have Etsy admirers, and that's, Etsy has their own form of fandom, which is wonderful and another thing to be taking advantage of as you're building your site. You can see, you're having a look at my storefront, and you can see some social proof that I've accumulated with over five years of being in business, and I know a lot of people are starting without social proof, and that makes them feel at the bottom of the totem pole. I want to assure you that we're going to be addressing that during this class. All of my social proof, I gained from marketing, and that happens to be everything we're talking about in Market Your Etsy Shop to Sold Out Success. Please don't feel like I'm skipping over the social proof, but today, we're talking about Build a Storefront that Sells. The sequence of a first impression. Can I immediately make sense of what I'm seeing? Does the imagery capture my attention? Can I trust this site to deliver what I expect from it? I need you to know that, if ever the answer is no to one of these questions, the next subsequent event or any other event will not occur. The customer is going to leave. They're not interested in giving you their business unless you take care of all of this and you take care of it well within the first three seconds of them landing there. This class is designed to help you with that. It's designed to help you attract the right visitors, the right visitors meaning people that will match your style, and will match your brand, and will match your price point. It's designed to help you assure those visitors that they can get comfortable, they can come in, kick their shoes off, and shop around, and then convert those visitors to actual customers using specifically the Etsy platform. Now, the first impression is a huge hurdle. It has to be overcome, and there's no point in marketing your Etsy shop, or marketing your creative business, or advertising if the storefront isn't already working. It has to be working, so that's the focus of today's class, Building an Etsy Storefront that Sells. You can't get past that introduction, you can't get past the first impression, nice to meet you, with your visitor unless you have a polished first impression.