What Every Maker Should Have on Their Website
I have been working with a lot of makers lately, and I love it! Just being around this caliber of person is great on its own, and it has been an honor to be involved in helping them get the word out about their products.
One topic I always review with clients and talk about at conferences is: Are you ready for PR? A big part of being ready for PR is having an engaging website for people to learn about you and your brand.
So, if you’re a maker and you aren’t a web designer, you may be wondering if your website has the essentials to make the right impression. Here are the top three most important and easiest ways to optimize your website for media attention and, ultimately, sales.
Include the Right Kind of Pictures
At the end of the day, your pictures are what will sell your product. Think about it, have you ever bought a product online that didn’t include a picture? I won’t even download a free app without first seeing some screenshots.
When you are selling a physical item, you absolutely NEED to include high-quality images that detail your product.
Staged pictures, when your product is in context or on a model, work well because they are visually appealing and interesting. But it’s not enough.
You need to have pictures of your product on a white background. In the final stages of making a decision, your customer will want to “inspect” your product in detail. White-background images are best for this.
Plus, when the media asks for pictures of your product, they’ll also want a white background. Have these high-quality white-background images ready ahead of time.
Tell Your Story on Your “About Me” Page
Why did you choose this path? Being a maker is definitely not the easiest career choice, so you must have been inspired by something, passionate about something, or striving to meet some goal that’s bigger than “work to eat.”
What’s your story? This is not the time to be shy, customers and especially the media care about why you do what you do. Your story sells your brand.
In an increasingly socially-conscious market, people want to know that their hard-earned dollars are going to companies they can feel proud of doing business with.
For most websites, the second most visited page is the about page (second only to the home page). People are looking for a reason to like and relate to you, so give it to them!
Make it Clear Why You Are Different
Let’s say you are nodding your head because you already have high-quality white-background images and a compelling story on your about page. Now, you just need to evaluate your website to make sure it is abundantly clear why you are different.
Being different is absolutely essential for getting media attention and makes your products more valuable to your customers.
When you look at your images and read your story, you have a bias to see your differentiating factors. But what about someone who has never seen your products or brand before?
A special bar of soap may look like just a regular bar of soap in an image. Or, if your story describes how you have spent your entire life making leather bags, the reader may not know that you invented a special stitch for maximum durability, a fact that might convert a browser into a buyer.
Think about the details of why your product is different and who exactly it is for. Then, carefully evaluate your website to make sure that message is obvious to every visitor. If someone enters your website through your homepage, do they know before they scroll? What about if they enter on a product page? Use simple terms to tell your visitors why you are unique and interesting and don’t bury that information. Put it front and center.
There’s a lot more you could do, but these three tips are the bare essentials of making your website ready for media attention.