Shotguns, scatterguns and showing and hoping

byRichardA3

49 followers

5 years ago

Something I notice a lot while I’m surfing the web and researching, is the number of sites that contain way more advertising, pictures and links, than actual meaningful content. Worse than that, many of these sites just look a total mess, with every kind of slider, pop-up, sidebar, header, footer and banner you can imagine just littered across the screen, all fighting for my attention. Meanwhile, I’m losing the will to live just trying to find what I came for. And that’s not easy.

Typically, a lot of sites put up a short intro, which may or may not be entirely relevant, perhaps followed by another couple of paragraphs warbling on about the author’s life, likes and dislikes, what was for dinner last night, the weather, the dog and on and on it goes, with the actual keyword I’ve searched on only just managing to find its way into this endless drivel like it’s an afterthought.

Then there are BIG pictures, and I do mean BIG, with only small, and I mean tiny, paragraphs to break them up. Often these ‘paragraphs’ are no more than one or two sentences. Meanwhile, as I’m trying to filter out all the irrelevant ‘fill’ and pull away the padding, I’m losing the will to live. Result? I go somewhere else. And I never come back.

Now you may feel I’m being a bit harsh, or maybe I’m just venting because it irritates me, and that’s partly true. However there is a more serious point to this, which is about sales and customer reactions.

I understand why many sites adopt this approach, and it has to do with some simple basics

• Someone who’s new and doesn’t yet understand targeted sales, so they think that if they fire off everything they can at the customer, something’s bound to hit the target.
• Someone who doesn’t have the skills to make their pitch more topic-centred and engage the customer with the quality information that’s needed.
• Someone who’s too lazy to be bothered and believes that poor content doesn’t matter as long as there’s plenty of other stuff blasting away to cover it up.
• Someone who’s panicking because they haven’t made many sales and think this will improve their chances.
• Someone who’s just plain greedy and thinks that they can get extra business by filling up every available space with anything that could have the remotest possibility of getting a hit, no matter what it is.

It doesn’t work. Shotgun/scattergun sales techniques are among the most ineffective and inefficient sales techniques. They trigger a negative reaction in the customer, and promote a lack of trust and confidence in the seller. And if there’s no confidence and no trust, there’s no sale.

Equally as ineffective is the ‘showing and hoping’ technique: everything is put on display, but it’s a bit haphazard and the customer isn’t being led to where the seller wants the customer to end up. So I come in, take a look around, but no-one’s helping me. Yes, I might see something I like; in fact I might see a couple of things I like. But so what? I can go elsewhere and find the same things and get better, more structured information and help from someone who’s more organised and takes me from ‘Hello’ right through to ‘Point of Sale’ and offers me the chance to give some feedback about my experience too.

Your site is your store. It’s been said before, and it’s true. And when your customers arrive, you need to meet and greet them, warm them up, and provide the best quality information you can. Hit the customer hotspots along the way. Use the tools in your toolbox – but use them wisely. For example, don’t just paper your site with graphics, pictures and anything else that scrolls, rolls, flashes and blinks. Remember the ‘Rule of Thirds’ – one third text, one third graphics, one third space. It works. People don’t react well to being shut in cramped, loud, messy spaces when they’re trying to digest information and make decisions. Presentation matters. Think about what your site is saying about you as a person, because your customer is buying from you.

At the end you should have walked your customers along a pleasant, interesting and relevant route that leads to the checkout. Ka-ching. Happy customers, good reviews, more business on the way. So get rid of the shotguns, scatterguns and ‘OMG I’ll throw this in and hope it works’ thinking. Quality, targeted, relevant information that builds trust and confidence in YOU and your brand is what makes sales and keeps customers coming back. It’s not rocket science, it’s integrity.