Have you ever been to one of those direct sales parties?
There are a lot of different themes out there for these shindigs, many of which are geared toward women – makeup parties, jewelry parties, cookware parties, and the like. If you've never experienced one of these functions, it's a regular party with a very large elephant in the room – a sales person, peddling a line of products to the attendees.
For the hosts of these get-togethers, the goal (besides enjoying their friends' company, of course) is to get their guests to buy things. The more things the partygoers buy, the more freebies the host or hostess receives. So at a direct sales party, the deliciousness of the food and the excitement of the conversation may not be the host's primary concerns – she's often paying more attention to how much money her friends are dishing out.
Party Time on Your Site
Since you are most likely selling goods or services through your website, you're in a position similar to that of a typical sales party host. You want people to show up to your party, you want them to have a good time while they're there, but you don't want them to leave without buying something. Having a lot of people party down on your site is a good thing, but what you're really looking for are conversions.
So what can you do to point your party people in the right direction?
The Proper Balance of Business and Fun
There's enough fun at a typical direct sales party to attract a decent crowd. Some snacks, some drinks, maybe some tunes on the stereo. But it's not a rave. And keg stands, bouncy houses, and ice luges usually aren't in the picture. There's entertainment, but not so much craziness that people forget to check in with the salesperson.
Your website should be designed the same way. You want to attract visitors, but not distract them. By designing with selling in mind, you can have a website with enough going on to entice visitors to look around, but not so much clutter that they lose sight of the reason they came. Conversions will happen naturally if your site is well-designed with minimal distractions and plenty of positive suggestions that encourage your visitors to get shopping.
And like the host of a gourmet chocolate direct sales party, if you set everything up right, you can end up with plenty of sweet rewards.
