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    4 Replies Latest reply on Oct 6, 2014 12:19 AM by jaynorth

    I have an online baking business how do I convert my website traffic to actual sale

    georgiagirl5170 Wayfarer

      I have an online baking business. I am on social media and I get traffic to my site but need them to convert to sales. What can I do?

        • Re: I have an online baking business how do I convert my website traffic to actual sale
          LUCKIEST Guide

          Welcome, You can tell the Community more about yourself and your business.

          How long have you been in business?? Do you have a business plan??

          As a Consultant and a mentor, I can be of help (if you want to contact me)


          Good luck, LUCKIEST

            Moderator Rebecca Guide

            Hi georgiagirl5170, welcome to our community!  You've asked a question that many newer online business owners have asked - You're getting the traffic, but you're not getting the sales, and you don't know why.  We have many helpful members who will be glad to assist you with your issues, but we need a little more information.  Could you please post a link to your website?  By doing so, we can take a look at your design and provide some tips.


            You may also find some of the information in a previous discussion very helpful. While every business is unique, please read thru the thread: Why isn't anyone buying from my website? for some great suggestions.  You may find some ideas you haven't tried yet.


            We look forward to hearing back from you soon!  In the meantime, please feel free to browse our forums for great articles and advice.


            Best of luck!


              periscopeup Newbie

              Hello. This is my first post to the community.


              I own a marketing optimization business and we see this issue often. Unfortunately, there's no single cookie cutter answer (pun intended). The best I can tell you is to get intimate with Google Analytics and understand: What are users doing once on your site? Over time, you need to improve the user experience to encourage users to go to your purchase/product pages, then on the "shop" pages you need to convince people to convert/buy.


              For example, on all non purchase pages, incentivize users to go to the product pages, perhaps with an offer. How would a brick and mortar store owner entice a passer by to come in and purchase something? Then once you get users to the purchase/product pages, you should provide a lot more detail about your products, including features and benefits. As a user, I simply don't know enough about these products to make me comfortable to buy. Answer all possible sales questions: shelf life, ingredients, inspiration, taste, etc. Tell the story of each product!


              I've been in this business for 15 years and I know of no other way to sell online than constant improvement of two things: the number of quality visitors to your site, and the percent of those visitors that take your desired action.


              As an aside, I see your Google Analytics is way out of date and should be updated. You're not capturing all the good new information they make available, like demographics, etc. This leads me to also believe you're not tracking sales and conversions.

                Paraday_Comm Navigator

                Hi Dawn,


                I've been successfully supporting business to convert visitors to customers online since 1996. Let's jump right in as I am going to 'give' you a lot of information. I've reviewed your WordPress built Website and what I saw overall was not impressive. Especially that you have such a visually appealing product. (I don't pull punches; this is business - nothing personal against you or your designer, sorry Tommy).


                1) You need to begin by reviewing your Website utilizing the top browsers online. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome are the top used in the US (Others may argue this point - focus on those 3 & you'll be fine). I used Firefox to review your Website and it looks to me that your 3rd "More" image is showing as a 1/2 of an image - this does little to build trust in your 1st time visitors! Also, "more" is not an appropriate CTA (Call to action), I'll return to this point later as its the 'why' behind your not selling.


                2) Your adorable, your trade marked logos are well designed (Kudos Tommy) and the product images while small, show your product very well. Your background colors of dark browns and deep beige, while I understand the thrust, are taking away from the other graphics and you should consider a very light colored background to make the rest of your images POP. Regarding my 1st statement, the Website & Company are named after you, yet I need to dig into the "About Dawn" page to get to meet you. Think about the personal approach you have with customers offline (I cannot imagine a lady with such a happy smile would not sell a couple cakes to everyone she meets), so in the header images, (the large images that rotate at the top of your site), consider inserting a different image other than your 'About Dawn' image, in those large images and with you facing to the left (Opposite of the 'about' image) holding your new cupcakes with text reading a welcome message and entice visitors to have a look around... I think you get the idea here, bring "you" to the front and add the personal touch.


                3) You have approximately 400+ words total - on your home page - which is hardly enough content for anyone to be sold. Also, the 1 image you have on the home page, down below in the body (Not at the top of the site), shows the product with a bottle, etc. Consider inserting several images in that area with people consuming your product(s) and paint the picture in the minds of your visitors and depict people really enjoying your products, justify this space by making the bottom area (Footer) smaller. And again really consider the colors of your Website - its dark and leads to an opinion of a small company and trust issues for visitors.


                4) Your cakes have a 2 week average shelf life... THAT'S A HUGE point you should be screaming out to the public immediately! Yet its hidden in your FAQs page. Anyone that see's your products probably giggles at you when you say a 2 week shelf life, as they will eat it faster, but it needs to be known in advance as it projects a lot more confidence than a 'girl in the kitchen pouring booze into a cake'. Think about someone that wants to buy this for a party next week, etc. Put that information with every product description and I am certain you'll see more sales.


                5) Add your price right up front as you're currently burying the price. Having the price right on the home page, gets visitors thinking correctly immediately - about the cost - as I am enjoying all of your images and newly added information and which justifies the price.


                6) Your Call-to-action (CTA) is not appropriate. Change "MORE" to something along the lines of "Get Info / Buy Now" and train your visitors that they should be on your Website with the intention to make a purchase. Think about your Website like a store front, if someone walks in to your offline store would you duck down behind the counter? Visitors will appreciate you adding the price upfront, you may see more people click away, but they were not going to make a purchase anyway. You're simply qualifying the lookers from the buyers.


                7) Image names and Alt tags. Your image names and Alt tags need to also be adjusted (Proper linking of images will come next). The 1st image of cupcakes on the Website, is named your Website URL and "wp-content/uploads/2013/08/TOXYCAKES1-150x87.jpg" That does little to assist someone that is going to email that image to a friend or associate or share it online socially. Perhaps that could be named "". Now an "Alt tag" is the text that appears when you place your mouses cursor over an image and text magically appears - your first small image, of the cupcakes, is named and shows to all visitors "#sliderCaption0" as opposed to something like "Most Delicious Cupcake Ever!"


                8) Your image linking strategy is way off Dawn. Your making all visitors click & click to get information and make a purchase. 1st the smaller images at the top of the page are not click-able and should be. Next, you offer, above the "MORE" buttons 3 options, Birthday's Holiday's and Celebrations. However, when I click any one of them they all 3 end-up landing on one standard page - I get sent to a standard "shop" page for all 3 options, and trust me people need direction - that you're not providing. On top of that you only speak at the fact that its an "alcohol infused cake" or "alcohol infused cupcake" and worst of all is the old "regular cakes and desserts", being a little forward here, but I'm trying to get you thinking as a buyer. When I visit the "regular" page, it directs me to "Add to Cart' but I am thinking is this a "German Chocolate Cake" with alcohol or maybe not, for a fact I am not certain as THERE IS NO DESCRIPTIVE TEXT telling me that this cake is alcohol free and made with the same beautiful ingredients that Grandma used and serves up to 8 adults. Nope, rather it just states "Add it the cart". I think you get my point here.


                9) Imagine this scenario and you tell me if you would see an immediate increase in sales from your Website:

                1. I land on your home page, first thing that catches my eye immediately after seeing all of your beautiful creations, are a FedEX or US Mail logo. (Confidence builder & implies shipping).
                2. I read the descriptive text about fantastic cakes for birthday's or a get-together, and click the image or CTA text, and I am sent to a page with nothing but birthday cakes, that describes in detail the event that cake is best for, the ingredients, and how many people it serves and that it last for up to 2 weeks. Maybe another image of someone blowing out candles on top of that exact cake. And perhaps under that, there is another smaller image & text that reads "People who purchased this cake also purchased..." and an image of another type of birthday cake. (When you buy shoes, don't you like options?).


                Dawn, I am attempting to get you re-thinking you current strategy here. Basically, everything I am saying above leads to one thing and that is get out of the kitchen, when you can, and sit in front of the computer and write some great content & that makes me want to buy your outstanding looking cakes. Connect images to the promise of what the text states, directly and with more information. Within a months time of taking my advice above you can easily capitalize on the Website traffic you're receiving and start making 'regular' (he he) money from your online venture.


                All the Best,

                Jeff Reynolds


                1 of 1 people found this helpful
                  katherinehalek Wayfarer

                  I see that you're on social media, which is great, but that's mostly for branding and online reputation management. Attracting customers via social media only can be time consuming and intrusive to users.


                  You're in the eCommerce biz not the baking biz... start thinking about it this way. People can't taste the best cake in the world thru Google search, so you need to start ranking for keywords that are relevant to your products.


                  Right now you are ranking for terms like delights and liquor desserts, and you've done that with almost no effort, search engine optimization-wise.


                  Tackle other keywords on your site like "alcohol infused cake" and "key lime margarita" by getting your website links (backlinks) on other, relevant sites in the baking, alcohol, and dessert industries. This is called linkbuilding. Email webmasters from relevant websites and say that you're interested in write a guest post about alcohol infused cakes or other relevant subject matter with a homepage backlink on the byline of the post or anchor-textual links to your product pages. Have bloggers review your desserts in a post or have them host giveaways in writeups for their blogs that contain backlinks to your site.

                  These tactics are a small sampling of the type of linkbuilding methods you, as an eCommerce company, should be doing to start ranking for keywords. As an online only bakery, your business depends on it.

                  Read this article for more linkbuilding tactics. Reach out to me if you want more insight!

                    jaynorth Tracker

                    Well you need to float some discount coupons to online viewers, as a gesture to invite them to taste your confectioneries. Since this way it will help you to attract customers attention, at the same time getting desired advertisement of your product & services. Social media or website are great medium to spread message  that you want to.