From Pixels To Profits

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:05

Welcome to the Circle Sessions featuring The Circle of Experts. The Circle of Experts are Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs, Tonnisha English-Amamoo of TJE Communications, and Don The Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. Each week, one of The Circle Of Experts joins me to talk about critical aspects of growing your podcast. We focus on marketing, social media, monetization, and website design, and the implementation of all of these for your benefit. This week, Yasmine is here from The Circle Of Experts. Yasmine works alongside clients to design a website that's driven by strategy, looks amazing, and that you can use to grow your podcast, and in turn your business as well. Yasmine, thanks for joining me today.

Yasmine [: 00:00:48

Yeah. Thank you for having me. You keep you keep asking me back. I'm excited.

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:52

Well, you keep saying yes, which is even better. So you wanted to talk about going, you know, from pixels, to, explain where you wanna go with this, I I I I see where you're going, but it, you know, it's kind of maximizing conversion with an effective web design, converting, let's put it that way, so, you know, let's let's talk about, understanding what conversion focused design entails.

Yasmine [: 00:01:21

Yeah. Yeah. Basically, how can you make the most money off Your website. I just made it tried to make it sound as fancy as I could. But how can you make money off of the site that you're probably investing money into, and how can that Transfer into your podcast and just dollars for your business. So really conversion focus design is about creating these websites with the primary goal of converting visitors To customers. So if you think of an ecommerce site, anyone who visits the ecommerce site hopefully add something to cart and purchases. But this really involves strategic planning, user experience, optimization, and a keen focus on driving desired actions.

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:58

Alright. And I could see how that can relate to podcasting too because I know podcasters always have this Of course, the grand scheme is to make some money if you want to with with a podcast, but kinda figure out how to do it, what to do, what to sell if you wanna sell something, or even if it comes down to membership, but there's a, you know, there's some principles behind that conversion focused design. Can you talk about that? What what are those core principles that designers need to keep in mind when creating a website with conversion in mind.

Yasmine [: 00:02:28

Yeah. So a few of the core principles really revolve around being clear, so clarity and simplification and just relevance. So you want to make sure that there's a clear path for users, which means simplifying the navigation and presenting relevant content that really resonates with that Target market. Those are some crucial elements and then optimizing for mobile responsiveness. Everyone is on their phones nowadays, so you wanna make sure it looks Don Robles, with and that's just a nonnegotiable today. When I you can also say we're talking to people who want to podcast For their business. So it's basically, Brett, the same stuff that you tell your clients when you're strategizing the podcast. It's really making sure that you're clear about what the what the topic is, what your what sort of content you're going to be providing, that it's simplistic.

Yasmine [: 00:03:18

You don't wanna throw a bunch of jargon in there unless Your target market knows what that target is, and it has to be relevant to what I want. Right? So if I'm listening to crime podcasts, it has to be relevant to the the thrill that I wanna get out of it. And if I'm learning about marketing, again, what action items can I take from that? Okay. So just keeping those Core principles in mind will help with that conversion conversion focus design.

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:41

Right. So you'd so you need to look at a strategy, a strategic website layout, and, you know, and that that's gonna lead to that business success, whatever, you know, that goal is, the success. So strategic website layouts play a significant role in that. How do these layouts contribute to the overall success of a business, and what are some key strategies to to maximize those conversions.

Yasmine [: 00:04:04

Yeah. So strategic layouts, so they typically guide the user through a very Seamless journey focusing their attention to where you want it to Guy. So on these key elements that will drive Sessions. These sometimes can be elements called, call to Sessions, so a button or some kind of link to take people somewhere else, strategic placement of certain information, And really having a visually appealing design throughout the site, and all of those really contribute to this great experience that the user has. If you have ever walked into a store, you Idea are welcomed by the people. There's a flow of the Store and ultimately, you can find what you need really easily, check out, and make your purchases, And possibly even with an upsell of candy or something along the way. So you wanna make sure that you're thinking about basically, It's just a user journey. You don't wanna frustrate people.

Yasmine [: 00:05:00

You want it to be strategic. You want to tell them what to do next. You don't wanna leave it to chance, And that comes in the forms of buttons and in other call to actions and telling them treating them like human beings on the website. Mhmm.

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:15

So let's put an example together. Let's say a podcaster simply wants to sell coffee mugs with their logo on it. So how would you walk them through putting that on their websites? Like, okay, they have a store, they wanna just sell coffee mugs. How would they go about thinking that about that putting that together on a website to sell. Yeah.

Yasmine [: 00:05:35

So I'm actually working on a proposal for a a guy who he has a couple a couple coffee shops in town. I would say that if you started off with the podcast and you're being strategic with your podcast and telling people come to the site, get the show notes, on the site, maybe have the transcript, maybe took the transcript, and and this might be veer off into another, Another show for us. Mhmm. But taking that transcript and creating a blog post out of it, now you've got a place where people are going there for a purpose. So I listen to your podcast. I'm going to your site. I looked for that episode, The episode show notes. And now that's a perfect opportunity to Insert links to your coffee mugs, whether it is a mug designed specifically for that or that blog post Or if it's a general one with maybe a cute saying and your logo on it, you could put a link in that blog post or show notes, to that actual merch and then make it as easy as possible for me to click on it, add it to my cart, and purchase it.

Yasmine [: 00:06:37

The other thing that you might wanna consider is as soon as I have added that to cart, is there something that you can upsell? Can you Give me some stickers for, like, for, I I don't know, a discount because I already have something in my cart. Is there something in the user journey where if If we I tend to leave things in my cart. So if I leave it in my cart, is there a way for you to contact me? Is there a pop up that you can say, hey, you know, time is running out, maybe a discount, something to get my email information. All of this is a strategic plan to get you To get me to to get the merch. Right? And so just making sure you have those calls to action. Now if you have your homepage. And let's say, I went I listened to your podcast. This is The user user journey.

Yasmine [: 00:07:23

I listen to your podcast. I go to the show notes. I then wanna find out a little bit more about you. I go I might go to the The page or the about page. That's another opportunity where you can simply Put in links to your to your merch, whether it's a t shirt, a coffee Guy, have photos of the merch being it used, have photos of what it looks like, and then always have a button saying, get yours today, or grab your coffee Guy, And that will help with that conversion rate. And, again, you're thinking about this as a holistic approach to the user if your goal is to sell these coffee mugs And they're coming primarily from the podcast, which if you listen to our analytics episode, you can start figuring out how to look at those numbers. But if you're seeing that they're coming from the pot they're listening to podcast episode, come into your show notes, you can then craft that specific journey and Make tons of money Yeah. Selling for humans.

Brett Johnson [: 00:08:21

Yeah. Right. So that journey, is it different on a smartphone than it is on a desktop in regards to how to think about how to put it that together, because I know when I'm on my phone, I'll probably buy quicker than I will online when I'm on my computer just because it's like, okay, boom, boom, boom, it connects to PayPal, just do it right then. Is there a different journey thought process to that or is it kind of all the same?

Yasmine [: 00:08:44

I would say for merch or any sort of ecommerce, try just to keep it as simple as possible whether it's on desktop or on on mobile. I will say though that I am a person who has tons of tabs open at all times and same thing with my phone, But it's harder for me to compare pricing or or just go to multiple tabs at once on my phone versus on my big screen monitor where I can see All the tabs, all the browsers, everything. Keeping it simple is the best way to go when it comes to the content. Now you can, depending on your platform, form optimized for mobile and rearrange things. So if, for example, your show notes get very long, there's big paragraphs, it just feels like On mobile, like, I literally just got into history class and I have to read about European history and it's I'm falling asleep. There's ways of making that content whether making that content look simpler and lighter and not as heavy on Robles, you can mobile optimize that. The size of the text, the way you cut up paragraphs can support. So So even though it might be a 1 to 2 sentence paragraph, you can still cut it there and that line break gives the eyes a visual break.

Yasmine [: 00:10:03

So there's ways of optimizing mobile, but I would say if you if your goal is to sell merch or any sort of ecommerce, just make it as easy as Possible from when I land on a page to when I add things to cart and then when I check out.

Brett Johnson [: 00:10:16

Yeah. Are you thinking, like, 2 or 3 steps? Is that really the ultimate? Yeah.

Yasmine [: 00:10:20

Yeah. Do not make it any no more steps. Make it Yeah. For especially for ecommerce. Make it 3 steps or less if possible. So if if I go from the show notes to the coffee mug page, I add it to cart, and then I'd go to the cart, and I check out. That that that should be the the whole cycle. You can add other things there.

Yasmine [: 00:10:41

You can capture Share their information and and email them for more merch, but, ideally, as low amount of steps as possible.

Brett Johnson [: 00:10:49

Alright. And this might be automatic with every ecommerce software, but there should be a a page after you've purchased to say a thank you. Right?

Yasmine [: 00:10:58

Yeah. I would do that. There's, Shopify has their little page where it's after you check out, depending on what tier level you're Don, the Typical one will just say, to tell you that you purchased. It's almost like a receipt page, and then you will get what's called The transaction email. So that one is auto generated typically by Squarespace, Shopify, whichever one you're using, and it's just an email telling people, hey, this is your order number. We will let you know when it's shipped out. But now, you have their email address and if if they opted into marketing, then now you can market to them After, you know, after they purchase, you can send them another coupon code. You can, tell them about new stuff that's Circle in.

Yasmine [: 00:11:41

So that's how people typically get me to buy more.

Brett Johnson [: 00:11:43

Oh, yeah.

Yasmine [: 00:11:44

It is so there's a difference between transactional emails and the marketing emails. Transactional is here's your Your order number here is your shipping information. Your order has arrived. The marketing ones are, hey. We noticed that you love this. You probably would love this other sweatshirt with the podcast logo on it. Mhmm. You might love to visit us in store.

Yasmine [: 00:12:06

Those or there's 20% off. Those are more marketing based emails, and as long as you have the approval from that person to be sent emails to, then you can definitely market to them that way.

Brett Johnson [: 00:12:18

Right. Yeah. Yeah. I to me, that looks like not the easiest way for a podcaster to monetize, but it is one of the easier ways to monetize because you you've bought stuff and and and it's that coolness factor. It's like being with 1 of the cool kids to wear one of our shirts or a cap or or a coffee mug, if as long as you're doing your research knowing what your listeners may Don. And and you got a cool logo on top of that too.

Yasmine [: 00:12:43

Yeah. I would say that create a community. Really, the podcast I'm a podcast junkie. So any of The, like, I listen to a lot of crime podcasts, and the ones I will binge listen to even back 5 years are the ones that have created this unique community, and they do have a paid community, but I feel like I'm a part of this group. And so now if I want to do $5 per month to support them, they might have different tier levels, then now I can get access to them through a different portal, Maybe some extra episodes, and that's a way to generate revenue and that can live on your site as well, and you can promote that on your site as a call to action to join this group of People that are have a shared common interest. There's also, a few a few other ways that I've Seeing some podcasters monetize as, like, buy me a coffee. So that can be as simple as they just donate money and and and you get a little bit of a kickback so that you can buy more equipment. But then the merch is really nice too because if they if it's a good type of merch, if there's a cool saying with the podcast logo on it or the website address, That's promotion for you when people are wearing it out.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:54

Alright. Yeah. And then you can also have fun afterwards kinda going show us how you're wearing it. Show us Oh, yeah. Show us your coffee mug in action, can, you know, kind of feel to it. It it increases that FOMO, fear of missing out, that he's like, I gotta have one, that's so cool, they look great, that sort of thing. No. I I love that.

Brett Johnson [: 00:14:10

So how can, yeah, how can our listener get ahold of you if they wanna kind of reevaluate that The that journey of of buying things that they already have or they're thinking about it as well.

Yasmine [: 00:14:21

Yeah. So they can always reach out to me. But before I give you that, I will say that that user generated content, use it on your website. Right. Ask for permission. If people take pictures with your merch, try to snag those, ask them if they if you they you have permission to use them and then put them on your site. Nothing will help sell your merch more than putting a photo of somebody who's so excited about having it that they shared it on social media. So Take a screenshot, ask for permission, and put that on your website.

Yasmine [: 00:14:49

But if you want me Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:14:51

Is there I was gonna say I have The more thing. I I asked about that closing way too quickly. But So if if they post on social, that picture of them in the wild with their coffee mug and their t shirt, can you take that image and use it on your website? Is that a task that, hey. I'm cool with this. Use it.

Yasmine [: 00:15:11

I am not a lawyer. I just thought I would be 1 when I was young, but I would say that I would say it's okay. It's on Circle, especially if their account is set to public, then, yeah, you totally take a screenshot. Yeah. But I would say that you can also Ask them for permission just in case. And most people are probably up especially if their profile is public, they're probably going to say yes. And if you can reshare it on social as and then tag them on it, that's just more, For them, it's going to make them feel special that this brand noticed that they posted about the merch and now they're being reposted and they're highlighted on the website. And on the website, you can have a section of, like, meet our community or see what's on social and have those screenshots or those snapshots of of people wearing your merch or listening at a coffee shop to your amazing podcast.

Yasmine [: 00:16:08

And that just again, it's a sense of community, and people buy I from communities they want to be a part of, and they will listen to your podcast and feel like they are part of this cool hip crowd.

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:19

Right? Well, and if you didn't get anything from this episode, it's that, yeah, you can think all the way up to to selling merchandise, but there's even more afterwards to have fun with it, it's really really gonna increase, like you said, that that community feel, they may wanna purchase more, they wanna get involved with it, so, yeah, don't just that relationship doesn't doesn't end at the sale. Keep going with it, so keep thinking about it. So okay. Now let's go with if they Don to evaluate what they've got or they wanna walk into this a little more smartly about what they wanna do, how can they get a hold of you?

Yasmine [: 00:16:53

Yeah. They can go to my site roblesdesigns.com. That's roblesdesigns.com. We can do an audit whether it's an SEO audit, Brand audit or just an overall, what are you doing with your marketing and how where the pivots can be. You get a full report and with keywords and everything and and content creation Idea. And that way, either you can take that and pivot and make sure that your Podcast you're utilizing your podcast content to the best that it can be used, or we can support with that as well.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:25

Right. Right. And if you wanna talk to me, let's talk about podcasting over the next 12 months. What are you gonna do? Whether it's b to c or b to b, we can create a content marketing strategy that's gonna work for you. We're gonna pull Yasmine in as well with The. So it's not just solo time, it's working with everybody that's part of the Circle Sessions. Connect with me on my calendar Don my website address is Circle 270 Media.com. That's gonna get you to Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:52

Next time, we'll talk more. Thanks, Yasmine. I appreciate it.

Yasmine [: 00:17:55

Yeah. Thank you so much.