Presenter Brandon Lilly
The APDSP workshop in Charlotte two weeks ago, led by web marketing expert Brandon Lilly, was packed full of guidance for maximizing the sales potential of a repro shop’s website. Lilly’s presentation was carefully arranged to present topics starting with performance to actual marketing… but here are five fairly random key take-aways from that event.
Use Google Tag Manager – Many third-party important services that are useful for your website – such as Google analytics, shopping carts, etc. -- are powered by tags, which reside somewhere in the html of your site. Having too many tags can slow down your site because each one has to do its thing whenever someone visits and/or takes an action that triggers the tag. So use Google Tag Manager instead. This is essentially a container that holds all your tags in one place, so it requires a lot less bandwith to manage the tag activities. Learn more here: https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/6102821?hl=en
Use Lighthouse to Measure Site Performance – Lighthouse is an open-source tool that helps you see how your site is performing, such as how quickly the pages load and what the overall visitor experience is. The simplest way to use Lighthouse is to click here (https://pagespeed.web.dev/) and enter your URL. The info you get will guide you – or a web developer – on how to improve performance.
Make sure you’re using Google Business Profile. This is a tool that makes sure when someone is searching for you – or repro shops in general – your site ranks high and your location is properly displayed on Google Maps. It basically guides Google to create an accurate view of your business. Click here to do that: https://www.google.com/business/
Consider sending retargeted ads to your site visitors – You know what retargeted ads are – it’s why you see an ad for lawnmowers on every site you visit after you visited the Toro Lawnmower site. They put a cookie on you and are sending you ads wherever you surf. You can do the same thing to visitors to your site. It’s not terribly complicated – you can find services that do it for you – but stay tuned for a possible APDSP webinar on the topic.
When you’re adding content to your site, such as short articles about topics that you think your customers are interested in, set them up as questions. For example, “What type of sign won’t fade outdoors?” This will drive more traffic than an article titled “Signs that don’t fade outdoors” because people often pose their internet queries as questions. A great way to get ideas for questions is answerthepublic.com