I walk in to the guitar store.
I’m in need of some new strings for my acoustic guitar.
A couple of employees are standing around and greet me with, “Hey you play guitar?”
“Yup,” I respond.
“You wanna join some of us in a jam session? There’s a few of us already at this cool coffee shop down the street we hang out at. We are heading there now.”
I said, “Sure.” And we headed to the cool coffee shop.
I listened to them jam… picked up a guitar myself and jammed… hung out… talked about music and songs…
It was great.
That night, when I was back home, I realized I forgot to pick up strings for my guitar.
*The above story is completely fictional.
It never happened… but it’s happening every day on your website.
A potential buyer or seller prospect shows up to your website and you say, “Hey let’s hang out. We can go to this coffee shop and kick it.”
That cool coffee shop is twitter and facebook. And you have setup your website, aka your “store”, as a place to just invite your potential customers to go somewhere else.
This is not an article about the good or bad of social media. This is about how increase sales and lead conversion on your website, aka your “store”.
Rule #1 To Increase Website Lead Conversion
Stop sending people AWAY from your website.
I know my story of the guitar shop is ridiculous, but so is sending people to facebook and twitter. Think about it… you just spent all this time, energy and money to get people to your website… Do you really want to send them somewhere else now?
The A to Z Lesson – Lose The Social Media Buttons
Lesson #1 - Apple To Zillow
Apple is fairly successful, would you agree?
They have created some great products, established a dominate brand and make a fat profit like Lindsey Lohan makes the front cover of the tabloids.
Here is the Apple homepage… Do you see any social media icons?
Apple isn't sending away traffic to facebook or twitter. The Apple homepage is optimized to get visitors to click on products and services.
Zillow is a ziant zebsite in the zreal zestate zindustry. They generated 33.7 million unique users to their website in May, 2012.
They even invented their own word, “Zestimate”.
I know it’s hard to see what’s not there, but let me give you a hint on what to look for… See if you can find the social media buttons.
Zillow doesn't want you to go away. They want you to stay and search. Or at the very least put their mobile app on your mobile device.
The A to Z Lesson – Lose The Social Media Buttons
Lesson #2 – Amazon To Zappos
Before I rest my case… I will provide you more evidence of ditching the social media buttons to increase your lead conversion.
Have you ever heard of Amazon?
They sell books and stuff.
Take a look at their homepage.
It’s another case of “The Mysteriously Vanishing Social Media Icons”.
It looks like Amazon wants you to buy a Kindle or some other products. Maybe a giftcard. But they don't seem to care about engaging with you on twitter or facebook. HOW RUDE!!!
Zappos is my last example… just so happens to be owned by Amazon.
Zappos seems to be great at and committed to creating amazing experiences for the customers.
So surely, they want to connect with their customers on facebook and twitter. This way they can sit around and talk about shoes all day, right?
Wait a minute!!! I can't see any social media icons here. Zappos is trying to sell me stuff. Arrghh! They want my email address (Lower Right Corner) but no facebook or twitter! C'mon!
A website has limited real estate.
Every little inch, every little pixel is priceless. Especially the space above the fold.
There might be a lesson to learn from these behemoth websites on ditching the social media buttons. From A to Z, they have instead focused on increasing conversion and selling products.
From Apple to Zillow…
And Amazon to Zappos…
– Darin Persinger
P.S. Take a look around ProductivityJunkies.com….
You might notice that PJ’s Dot Com is social media free zone… EXCEPT for the SHARE buttons.
P.P.S. Keep the SHARE buttons. Ditch the “CONNECT With Me On These Other Platform” Buttons.
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