Your site is often the difference between cashing in and missing the sale. Like a brick and mortar store, your website must entice the customer to “walk in,” versus pass you by. If you aren’t treating your WordPress website as a serious business development asset, or if it’s cluttered, hard to navigate, or flat out fails at the “customer experience,” your prospects are long gone before you even had a chance to sell to them. This year, on our shiny new business track at WordCamp Raleigh 2015, we want to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.

1. Hiring WordPress as Your
Star Salesperson
Making Your WordPress Website Work ForYou
Lisa Arrington
WordCamp Raleigh 2015
@lcgrabows

2. Things We’ll Have Learned Today
• How do you turn your WordPress website into a valuable
sales tool?
• How do you align your website with your business strategy?
• How do you use the many pieces of your website to shape
the customer experience?
Chaos
Well-Oiled
Sales Tool

3. 95% of consumers go online to begin the
buying process

4. 89% stopped doing business after a negative CX 12 positive CXs = 1 negative one
Selling Products to Selling the Experience

5. Seeing Your Website as Your Sales Rep
ROLESOFASALESPERSON
ATTRACT
PROSPECTS
Find leads.
ENGAGE
YOUR AUDIENCE
&
NURTURE
LEADS
Represent your brand / engage with customers.
Make connections / build rapport.
Consultation / expertise. Provide solutions to customer’s specific needs
CONVERT
CUSTOMERS
Sell! Most importantly, show value and make the buying process simple

6. The Functions of Your Website
• Generating leads
– Form submissions, Phone calls
• Attracting high-quality prospects
– Time on site, Pages per session
• Acquiring new customers
– New vs. Returning, Purchases
• Educational resource
– Downloads, Top pages
• Brand awareness
– Traffic, Referrals, Backlinks

7. Map the Buyer Journey

8. Example: DIY Home Repair Course
• What the visitor wants
– To learn about DIY home repair
• What you want
– Get the visitor to buy your course
• How to do it
– Offer valuable home repair advice via your blog, videos, reports, whitepapers
– Become their trusted advisor
– Give compelling reasons to subscribe to your email list
– Communicate your value prop and differentiators
– Address objections before they arise
– Ask for the sale (C2A)
User comes to your site just to learn / as an
informational resource
Your objective is to get them to act (move
from “research” to “purchase”)
Align your objective w/the user’s needs

10. CX: Extending Offline to Online

11. Doing it Right: ThinkGeek
ThinkGeek is obsessed with creating and sharing unique and authentic product
experiences that stimulate our fans' imaginations and fuel their geek core.
Since 1999, ThinkGeek has been on a mission to create a world where everyone can embrace their
inner geek and connect with one another. What started as a place for clever t-shirts and unusual gifts
is now the best way to find wondrous goods that express all your passions - much of which you won't
find anywhere else on Earth (or any other planet).
Shop for apparel, functional and fun home and office decor, electronics and gadgets, outdoor and
survival gear, collectibles, and much more. Find the perfect gift, whether your loved one is into science
or science fiction. Get things you need and things you NEED (pronounced: want). Or just prank your
office mate.
With an ever-expanding curated collection of exclusive products, headlined by hundreds of mind-
blowing inventions from our mad scientists at GeekLabs, ThinkGeek invites you to...
JOIN IN. GEEK OUT.

12. Doing it Right: ThinkGeek
ThinkGeek is obsessed with creating and sharing unique and authentic product
experiences that stimulate our fans' imaginations and fuel their geek core.
Since 1999, ThinkGeek has been on a mission to create a world where everyone can embrace their
inner geek and connect with one another. What started as a place for clever t-shirts and unusual gifts
is now the best way to find wondrous goods that express all your passions - much of which you won't
find anywhere else on Earth (or any other planet).
Shop for apparel, functional and fun home and office decor, electronics and gadgets, outdoor and
survival gear, collectibles, and much more. Find the perfect gift, whether your loved one is into science
or science fiction. Get things you need and things you NEED (pronounced: want). Or just prank your
office mate.
With an ever-expanding curated collection of exclusive products, headlined by hundreds of mind-
blowing inventions from our mad scientists at GeekLabs, ThinkGeek invites you to...
JOIN IN. GEEK OUT.

13. CX: Site Speed
Measure Site Speed:
• http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/
• http://www.webpagetest.org
Quick Fixes:
 Uninstall unnecessary plugins
 Watch your image sizes (and formats)
 Don’t overload with bulky widgets,
tons of media, or too much JavaScript
Helpful Plugins:
– W3 Total Cache

14. Could your Grandma buy from your site
within a minute or two?

15. Making it Easy for the User
• Make Things Obvious
• Don’t Confuse the Buyer
• Remove Unnecessary Steps
• Offer Value
Online consumer attention
span averages 5 seconds

17. Social Proof & Validation
• Reviews & Testimonials
– Google+, Yelp, Angie’s List
• 3rd Party Validation
– Affiliations, Awards, Licenses
• Company Success
– Case studies, Results, “Our Clients”
– Industry expert, Thought leadership
86% see reviews as an
essential resource when
making purchase decisions
Helpful Plugins:
 Shareaholic
 Google Reviews
 YARRP

19. Putting It All Together

21. http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1758/

22. How have you used your
WordPress website as your #1
sales rep?
 Successful Tactics
 Helpful Plug-ins
 Other Tips & Tricks
Your Turn

23. Q&A
@lcgrabows