I'm Not Ready for Dessert, I Just Want Some Leads!

Thanksgiving is over and after the amount of pumpkin pie I ate over the weekend I thought I would never want dessert again.  That was until I read about , Hall Hitzig, also known as the Crazy Baker , and his premium desserts which are made from 100% pure vanilla, fresh local eggs, imported chocolates, and high quality flours.  Got your taste buds watering doesn't it?  He's even attracted the attention of Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray which in turn has driven lots of traffic, but converting that traffic into customers is where this batty brownie baker is struggling.  The problem that Hitzig is facing is one that many online business face, which is that people are often not ready to make a purchase on their first visit to a site.  Most of the time people need a little appetizer to get their stomach growling for the full meal.

After taking a look a look at Hitzig's site I would suggest working on ways to nurture the visitors that come to his site, so that even if they don't purchase on their first visit he increases the chance that they will come back and make a purchase at a later date.  Here are a few suggestions I would make for improving the site that I think will start raising that conversion ratio. 

Use Simple, Action Driven, Calls-To-Action

When I first visited thecrazybaker.com I was a overwhelmed by the number of different links I could click.  The homepage contained 25 different links to pages and not one that seemed to be the preferred path for a potential customer.  

The link that stood out most was the "Click here for Customer Service" link, and I don't really think that Hitzig's primary goal is to drive visitors to his customer service page.  I would remove many of the superfluous links contained on the page and replace them with one large call to action to "order some premium pastries today!"

Use a landing page to capture leads

Like I said before, most people are not willing to make a purchase on their first visit to a site.  Many people probably visit Hitzig's site and think to themselves, "These pastries look delicious.  They would be great for a special occasion.  I'll come back in a couple months."  Unfortunately for Hitzig most of these visitors probably forget to come back and he has no way to remind them. If he had a landing page and a form to capture the name and email of these visitors he could easily create a list and email them special promotions or offers during a time they might be more inclined to purchase premium pastries...maybe the week before Christmas?

HubSpot, for instance, has a landing page application that allows users to whip up a landing page in a matter of minutes.  Our email marketing tool then allows users to create separate lists dependent upon which form a visitor converted on and send them personalized emails.  Of course in order to have a landing page you must have something to offer in return for the visitors information.  In Hitzig's case perhaps he could offer some recipes for some of the pastries he has created over the years (of course he wouldn't want to give away all of his secrets )

Create Content, Content, and More Content!

I think it's great that the Crazy Baker is utilizing social media with presences on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, but honestly there's only so much you can promote if you aren't constantly creating useful content.  The easiest way to consistently add content to your website is through a blog.  A lot of people worry about not having anything interesting to blog about, and most of the time they just aren't looking in the right places.  Hitzig, for example, could blog about his experience at Culinary School, his training at hotels and restaurants in the US and abroad, and about the many other baking questions he probably gets asked on a regular basis from friends and through email.  Instead of answering a question for someone in a one on one scenario why not turn that into a great blog post and share that knowledge with the world?  

I hope that the Crazy Baker sees the sanity in these suggestions, and that you can take away some of these tips and adapt them for your business.  

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