Just as light travels faster than the speed of sound, seeing something appealing tends to steer us toward a certain decision. It all boils down to whether or not we relate to what we see – and the same thing applies to your website!
Are your colors eye-catching? Are the fonts clear and not overbearing? Do you create and share the kind of content your target audience wants to see? If you answered ‘yes,’ then they’ll spend more time looking around and understanding how else your content or offers fit our reality.
And if they don’t… well, I’ve got just the experts to guide us through the whole attract and convert game!
In this episode of Cannabis Marketing Live, guests Reagan Hatch and Caron Cooper of CannaSite Co. will be sharing with us their top tips on designing a modern website that will help impress your customers, so that they keep coming back (AND spend $$$ on your offers).
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- What do successful websites look like for the cannabis industry
- Actionable tips to modernize your website now
- Learn methods on how to determine site performance
- How to conquer the metrics overwhelm
Welcome to Cannabis Marketing Live — All Puff. No Fluff!
Our average attention span is less than a goldfish, which means you have less than six seconds to impress potential customers with your website.
So, what does it take to entice your audience and have them stick around long enough to make the purchase? Join us and let’s figure it out together!
GETTING TO KNOW OUR FEATURED GUEST
Caron Cooper is an outstanding startup and small biz warrior! She started her first web design company in 2005 and has since guided various parts of operations for 11 startups since, including two that were acquired. Her extensive background in graphic and web design, journalism, photography, and production, gives her a competitive edge that makes working with her super insightful.
Most recently she co-founded two successful digital marketing brands – with one proudly serving the budding cannabis industry. She also runs the remote company with her Texas-based partner – Reagan Hatch!
[Cannabis Marketing LIVE with Kendra Losee]
Reagan Hatch is the Co-Owner of CannaSite Co. She began her career in sales in her teens and developed a talent for seeing where a company could expand and growing a customer base. Reagan has a natural ability to connect with people. Her ability to create and nurture genuine relationships has led her to a career in marketing where she gleefully gets to realize her creative side too.
Imagine landing on a website and it doesn’t look legit. Isn’t it scary, especially if there’s a possibility to commence an ecommerce transaction?
Pro tips on how to modernize your website
- Keep it clean and organized.
- Follow your brand’s train of thought.
- Use language that resonates with your audience.
- Make sure your site loads as quick as possible. Your site should load within 2 seconds, not more than 3 seconds.
- Have clear menu options, so people can easily find what they’re looking for.
- Don’t forget to include ways to connect with your audience (e.g. social media buttons) or a simple contact page.
- Do a link sweep for URLs you use on the site – ensure that they are not leading to dead-ends.
- Keep the look consistent across your site.
- Bigger font sizes are better and pick high contrast colors (i.e. black on white).
- Use attractive, but brand relevant graphics.
- Use files with the appropriate size. Images are especially heavy, so using graphics less than 500kb is ideal.
- Best format for graphics: JPG and WEBP (protects against illegal DL of your images).
- Do not use images that you have no permission to use.
- If you have the means, consider investing on getting your site professionally made (starts at $1,000).
- We highly recommend WordPress since it’s free + cannabis, CBD, hemp industry-friendly.
- Make sure your site is secure with an SSL certification. Sites that aren’t secure will not rank properly on Google searches.
- Do your research and opt for a reliable hosting service.
- If your site has a high bounce rate, take the initiative and investigate why they leave your site immediately upon landing.
Your website is your digital HQ, the foundation of any digital marketing. 94% of website impressions are design related.
– Caron Cooper
Methods to determine site performance
- Test drive your site on numerous devices (e.g. PC, mobile, tablet, etc).
- Regularly do speed tests and implement the necessary measures to improve your site score – try PageSpeed Insights.
- Make sure it’s accessible to people with a disability – Lighthouse is a good option.
Outline your pages before your start… determine the purpose of every page.
– Caron Cooper
How to overcome metrics overwhelm
- Install Google Analytics and learn the basics. You won’t feel as flustered when running through the numbers if you understand what they mean for your business.
- Make sure your site is on Google Search and Bing Webmaster, this should help improve your searchability.
- Define and focus on the metrics that matter most to you.
- Optimize your website, make sure it’s as user-friendly as possible.
- Identify how people discover your site and show up more in that platform.
- Track how your audience responds to your content, ad, or offer, for 3 months and adjust your method of approach based on your findings to achieve optimized results.
Don’t overwhelm your audience with too many choices, lead them to your desired action.
– Caron Cooper
