Blogging FAQ, Day 8: If We Put Our Staff Recommends on the Blog, Won’t People Buy those Books Elsewhere?
image credit: garethjmsaunders via Flickr
So we know it happens. People shop in your store, write down the information about a book they want, and then go home and order it online.
So isn’t putting your Staff Recommendations online for all to see going result in people buying those books elsewhere, too? Should you restrict your Staff Picks to in-store display?
No.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Oh sure, some people may learn about a book at your site and order it elsewhere. But I really think that the benefits so far outweigh the negatives that you just have to ignore that little voice in your head that’s telling you to keep your favorite books to yourself.
Staff Picks are your store’s personality.
When I visit a bookstore for the first time, the Staff Picks section is the first place I go. My favorites have hand-written shelf talkers with a bookseller’s name. I learn so much about a store and the people who work there from this area of the store. Extending this section out onto the web, on your blog or on your website, is the best thing that you can do to tell your customers (and prospective customers) what you are about.
I also suggest that you make the books you are recommending prominent, and not locked underneath a bookseller’s name. When I am first learning about your store, I don’t want to have to click on every staff person one by one to see what they recommend. Show me the books first, and let the staffer sign their name to the review. I want an overall picture of your store. There are other ways to aggregate the staff picks by employee, if you like, but it shouldn’t be the only way.
Help them buy the books from you
The biggest way to prevent potential customers from buying your staff picks elsewhere is to make it easy for them to buy from you. A prominent “buy this book” or “add to your cart” button after each review will help. But please, please, make sure that the checkout process is simple and clear.
If you don’t have a full e-commerce website, it is still possible to add a shopping cart functionality to your blog through Paypal, Google Checkout, or other widgets and add-ons. At the very least, put a link to an email form so the customer can easily request to have a copy of the book in question held for them at the store. Just be sure that your communications are very clear and simple, so that the customer knows what to expect from the transaction.
Let the world find you
I know that at least one store has been scanning their in-store staff recommendations cards to post on a blog. I love the way this allows the hand-written feel to translate to the web. However, if you take this route, please also transcribe the text and have it their next to the image. Many people have images turned off on their web browsers. In addition, Google cannot index an image. You want the title and author’s name to be found by the search engines, so that if someone is looking for information on a book, they find your staff recommendation. It’s a little bit of extra work, but you’ll get far better results.
Staff Picks are the part of the store that you want to show off and trumpet to the world. Please don’t hide them in the “closet” for only some of your customers to see.
On Monday: Blogging FAQ, Day 9: How can I involve my local community?
Previous posts in this series:
- Ten Days of Blogging FAQs
- Day 1: Who’s going to read our blog?
- Day 2: Where do I find the time to blog?
- Day 3: I already have a newsletter, do I really need a blog?
- Day 4: What do I blog about?
- Day 5: How do I know who’s reading?
- Day 6: How do I write blog posts that people will want to read?
- Day 7: Will blogging sell books?
