If you are making mistakes it means you are out there doing something!
I need more clicks damn it!
Do you look at your analytics and get a bit miffed - why is no one clicking, why did they only stay 2 seconds?!!!!
You may say, I want or NEED more clicks but why? Clicks from social media sharing or search engine results to your craft blog or website aren't worth much unless something measurable actually happens after they click. I've written this post to give you a little advice on how to set your 'click goals', increase the number of clicks and reduce your bounce (immediately clicking away) rate. Read on for lots of ideas for getting top quality traffic - ie the people that will want to come back and buy something! I've also include a worked example using this post of my
Why Where How approach to sharing links at the bottom of the post.
My latest
social media course for crafts businesses starts on May 13th, so after you have read all the click through tips below in this post do have a look and grab a 10% discount too using the code CBUK10!
"My goal is to make a bigger profit than last year"
Same here! Every company and business regardless of size tends to have the overarching goal of "making a bigger profit than last year" for obvious reasons, but within a social media marketing strategy, even as a smallish craft business, you need to be much more specific than just 'make more sales' when looking at what it is you want to achieve and why.
If one of your goals is to increase your CTR (click through rate) when sharing on social media then you need to work on understanding why and where are readers going when they click. What do you hope they will do once they are there? This info will help you decide on your approach to how and where you share a link.
If you have a high bounce rate in your web or blog google analytics it can mean that people are clicking and then simply bouncing away, not remotely excited by what they found. When you have a moment, read the post I wrote as part of a series for Folksy on
Google Analytics basics back in 2010 - lots has changed since then but the key info is still really relevant to understanding your visitors (aka the clickers!) and how to understand what they do when they get to your website
Set yourself specific goals
The trick with social media strategies and planning is to understand your market and then importantly to fully understand what your goals are to enable you to create a highly targeted plan of action and measure the results accordingly. You can capitalise on what is working and tweak and grow your strategy over time. Simple huh? (I can hear a few ermmms?)
Start your 'increase clicks goal' by writing down everything you want a click to achieve when you share a link.
Some ideas -
- visit more than one page (you can check this in your analytics)
- click through to my webshop / Etsy link
- sign up to my newsletter so I can send them news and offers to entice them to visit the shop and buy.
- like my facebook page so I can connect with them some more!
If you initially just thought 'buy stuff' then you are jumping ahead a little to fast. If you were on a blind date you wouldn't say "MARRY ME" the moment they opened their front door, they would run a mile - you need to woo them a little! So think about other goals that can help you to connect with those clickers a little deeper. Use all your creativity to think about what makes your market tick! (and click!)
Give me a reason to stay!
Instead of always sharing a link directly to your product page, encourage them to click through to something where they get information / entertainment, such as a blog post. Provide them with a reason to stay and have a look around, add links in to further reading they may enjoy. The longer people stay on your site the better, especially if they have come from a search, Google ranks these deeper visits as more relevant, meaning it will boost you up the rankings a little further the next time someone searches for that query.
For ideas on blog post writing and content read my '
How to write great blog posts' post for some tips on SEO (getting higher ranking in search engines) and if you have time take a look at this 'How to make your blog brilliant' post I wrote for top SEO tip website Wordtracker, with loads of
advice for finding really good blog content (just replace mentions of goole reader with another RSS reader as sadly google reader is being shut down *sob*)
Next you need to take some time to work out how you can change where you are sharing, the way you are sharing, words you are using and where the click leads to to realise your click goals. As I mentioned earlier I've added a worked example to show you how I go about this at the end of the post.
What can you make better to stop people clicking immediately away from your website or craft blog?
It's your link you are sharing and your business, there is no one solution fits all, you have to work on it, measure the results and work on it again, just as the image above says, you will probably make a few mistakes along the way - but at least you are out there making mistakes and importantly learning from them. Identifying why it didn't work is just as important as knowing why it did work.
Possible high bounce rate 'Click away' problems
- Your website or blog really needs a redesign - ask some friends for an honest opinion (or ask me, I'll tell you straight!)
- Your website looks great but navigation needs to be easier so people find what they need and stay and look around your site, or want to sign up to your newsletter. Links across the top and in the sidebars help but too many is overwhelming, maybe you need to thin them down and offer less choice in order for them to actually click on something!?
- You need to put more obvious info on what a blog post is about in the first crucial paragraph, what are they going to be spending the next three to five minutes reading.
- They clicked because they thought they were getting something, scrolled down for 5 seconds, but it wasn't there? Be specific about what they'll find when you share the post. Use headings / bullets and colour to make parts of your post stand out for those who don't have much time and scan read it.
- The pictures you use are drab and unispiring - going through old posts and updating the images to be brighter and fresher will grab peoples attention. This post I wrote last year on 'optimising blog posts' may be of interest (or just follow the link to look at the gorgeous cupcake knitted tea cosy picture I used!)
The WHY, WHERE and HOW approach
I'm going to use
this very blog post you are reading as a working example of my approach - if you plan out the
whys, wheres and hows in advance it makes setting and realising goals much more simple. The back of an envelope will do, but it's definitely worth making some notes if you have something specific to promote and want to work out a good strategy to get it noticed.
WHY
The goal of
this blog post is to get readers to see that I offer really useful social media advice and check out the link I've included to my
Creative University Social Media Course. My ultimate goal with writing this post would be for a reader to sign up for the course or an influencer to share details of the course to their networks. (in your case it could be to get a reader to buy a handmade product or sign up for your crafty newsletter)
WHERE
Over the next week or so I will share the post on all my social media channels, in crafting forums and social communities that I have identified as being highly relevant and also directly to influencers in my industry whose email addresses I have or who I can send a dm to on twitter.
In my case these are people who share amazing social media tips like for example Tim at
Handmadeology, Patricia at
The Design Trust and Polly and Claire at
Handmade Horizons (all have useful tips for creatives and crafters so do visit them)
There's no guarantee they will help as they are busy people and I can't force them! But my goal is that hopefully they send out a tweet to help me share the post to a wider but still highly relevant audience. For you these influencers may for example be craft magazine editors you have worked with in the past or have built up a good relationship with on Twitter (need to get social networking if you are lacking in contacts!). I'll also continue to post links out for a period of time on the run up to the course.
Frustrated by social media - Why didn't they click?
HOW
The post has lots of tips so I will share excerpts of the post to forums as a teaser to get people to click for the full post. When sharing on social media I will focus on explaining very briefly exactly what they will get out of reading the post
eg "How to get more people to click your blog post links when sharing on social media" or "Do you want to know my strategy for getting more clicks" or even revert to humour " "I want more clicks damn it" - is this you last time you looked at your analytics?".
I'll make sure that I think of different ways to share the post when I share the link again. I'll email/dm the influencers above and maybe some more and ask very politely if they would read the post and share it to their networks if they enjoy it and I'll offer to happily return the favour if they have anything upcoming they'd like to post about on my blog or for me to share.
I always ask myself "Is it useful, chatty and social - or is it just spammy?" before I post any links
When I come to measure my success in a few weeks time, I'll look at the goals I had and be able to quickly see if they were realised! If they aren't then next time I'll do it a little differently by identifying what went wrong - Not enough clicks, did I promote the post enough, did I use the wrong language or post at the wrong time of day in the wrong places? Not enough sign ups, did I reach the right audience, did I include enough obvious links to the website, Who else could I have shared it with? - or did my advice suck? ;)
If you think my advice is useful and you'd like more, then please head over take a look at my upcoming
social media course for crafts businesses course I'm offering including some feedback from students who took the first course in March - I'm on hand to directly answer questions about social media for your business throughout the entire 6 week course.
What's been getting people clicking and working for you recently?
Do you have a craft blogging or crafty (in every sense of the word!) social media tip for getting more clicks that you'd like to share - would love to hear it! Leave a comment or add a comment over on this post on facebook :)
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