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Join for freePosted: Tue 25th Aug 2026
Explore how to attract the right customers and turn interest into sales – online, in pop-ups and on the high street.
This insightful webinar will tell you how to make your business easier to find, understand and trust, and how to spot the small gaps in your customer journey that may be costing you sales.
Why being found is only the start, and how clear messaging helps customers understand why they should choose you
How to build trust and reduce friction across websites, shops, pop-ups and social media
Practical ways to follow up after interest or purchase, so one sale can become repeat business, reviews and recommendations
Steph Briggs MCIM is a marketing consultant and retail strategist who helps small businesses, independent retailers and e-commerce brands turn visibility into sales.
With over 20 years' commercial experience across retail, e-commerce, content and communications, Steph brings a practical, commercially grounded approach to marketing.
She has built and grown her own award-winning independent retail and e-commerce business, worked across Shopify, SEO, content strategy and customer journeys, and now supports founder-led businesses across the UK through Steph Briggs Marketing.
Known for her straight-talking but supportive style, Steph helps business owners to clarify their message and create marketing that works in real life, online, in pop-ups and on the high street.
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Lightly edited for clarity.
Beth: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's Lunch and Learn. It's the Powering Local Businesses Lunch and Learn. My name is Beth, and I'll be your host today.
Powering Local Businesses is brought to you by EDF Small Business and Enterprise Nation. It's designed to help small businesses grow more sustainably, however you sell and wherever you're based.
Through the hub, you can access energy-saving guidance, expert workshops and a range of free business support resources. We'll be dropping links in the chat throughout, so please keep an eye out.
Today, we're focusing on one of the most common frustrations for small business owners: attracting interest but not converting it into sales.
Whether you're selling online, at pop-ups or on the high street, this session will give you practical tools to turn browsers into buyers.
Today, we're joined by Steph Briggs, a marketing consultant and retail strategist who helps small businesses, independent retailers and e-commerce brands turn visibility into sales.
With over 20 years' commercial experience across retail, e-commerce, content and communications, Steph is known for her straight-talking, practical approach to marketing that works in real life.
In this session, Steph will cover how to make your business easier to find and trust, where friction in your customer journey may be costing you sales, and simple ways to follow up so one sale can become repeat business, reviews and recommendations.
As always, please add your questions to the Q&A as we go along, and we'll do our best to answer them at the end of the session.
Just to let you know, this session is being recorded. As always, we will send the recording with further resources later today. Over to you, Steph.
Steph: Hi. Thank you very much, Beth, for that lovely introduction.
Today, we are going to cover turning browsers into buyers. I have lots and lots of slides, so I will rattle through them as fast as I can so that I can answer as many questions as possible at the end.
It's all about what happens after someone finds you. How do we turn attention into an actual sale? And then how do we give that customer a reason to come back time and time again?
I'm going to break this into three really simple steps: getting understood, making buying easy and keeping the relationship going at the end.
It's a deliberately practical session.
I'm a practical marketer, if you like. So I really want to leave you with things that you can look at in your own business today or tomorrow and improve straight away.
StephBriggs.co.uk is my website, and my LinkedIn QR code is there on screen now. Please do feel free to link in with me if you'd like to ask me any questions, follow up later or even just have a look at some of the things that I put out on a regular basis.
I've worked on both sides of the fence. I've been a marketer and a business owner, so I'm really interested in what helps people to buy and not just what looks good in a marketing plan.
As Beth mentioned, I'm a freelance marketer, a chartered marketer and a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
I have run my own retail and bricks-and-clicks business. Currently, I'm the founder of Steph Briggs Marketing, and I help lots of different sized businesses throughout the UK and Europe to grow their sales.
I'm also co-founder of the Pink Gorilla Collective, which is a support membership for micro businesses that are starting out or getting going and doing everything themselves, wearing all the hats.
I'm also a consultant for the Retail Champion, and again help lots of different retail businesses throughout the UK to grow and survive.
And obviously, I'm an Enterprise Nation Help to Grow mentor. That's me in a nutshell.
So the real question is, once people find you, do they immediately understand why they should choose you?
We spend an enormous amount of time as business owners trying to get seen. These days, with AI and social media, it is getting more and more competitive, and it's becoming a noisier market.
But visibility is only an opportunity if it converts. If people arrive and they don't understand why they should buy, then that traffic is wasted.
Whether you have a shop, a website, just socials, a stand or a pop-up, it's all very great having lots and lots of traffic. But unless you convert it, it's all vanity metrics.
So part one is getting understood. You need to make it really obvious who you're for.
Your customer really needs to recognise themselves quickly and align with your brand.
The more specific you can be about who you help and what matters to them, the easier that becomes.
They don't need to know your entire story, but they do need to recognise themselves within that story.
If you try to speak to everyone, no-one feels special, and you should always make your customers feel special and recognised.
We need to give them a reason to choose you, and we need to answer these questions.
Why? What does this product or service give them?
Why you? What makes you a better fit than the alternatives or your competitors?
And why now? What gives them the reason to put their hand in their pocket right now and make that purchase?
Clear definitely beats clever. You need to make it really obvious who you're for.
Your customer needs to recognise themselves quickly, as I've said. The more specific you can be about who you help and why that matters, the easier it is.
Instead of saying, "I make beautiful candles for every occasion", you could really niche it down as: "I make small-batch candles in Hampshire for people who want their home to smell gorgeous without overpowering synthetic fragrance."
You're not making that customer decode your marketing. You're making a story around the values and benefits to them.
It's making the value obvious whenever they encounter you.
If it's the website, can they understand what you do within seconds? If they walk into your shop, can they understand immediately how that would appeal to them?
If it's a pop-up, and pop-up shops and stands are really competitive because everyone's trying to capture attention, can someone passing by understand what you do and what you provide really quickly?
Or even if it's a social media post, would a stranger scrolling stop? Would it be very clear from that one post why your product matters?
Always remember that no-one ever knows your business as well as you do.
It's one of those common mistakes that I see time and time again. Assumed knowledge is a very, very expensive thing.
Part two is making buying feel easy. The biggest and easiest way of doing that is trust, and that's a real part of conversion.
People hesitate when something feels uncertain. So the job of your trust signals is to answer those little doubts before they become a reason not to buy.
The really easy ways to build trust are your reviews, testimonials, customer photographs, particularly on socials, any guarantees, and clear contact details.
Your founder expertise should be highlighted. If you've got press coverage, so you've got that third-party validation that you're a good business to be seen with and you're aspirational, that helps.
You've got secure payment. That's one of the major things in the UK these days. People are worried about cyber security, so secure payments are a really big one.
Obviously, with your returns information, and if you're at a pop-up, you can do demos and samples as well.
Trust isn't something that you just pop on your About page. It needs to have a function and appear in the right place on your website, in your shop or on your pop-up stand to wipe those questions away.
One thing I think you can ask yourself is, instead of asking how you can sell more: what's making buying harder than it needs to be for your customers right now?
If we break it down and look at an online business or a bricks-and-clicks business, the delivery, returns, navigation and product information are all tiny things that can irritate.
If there's friction there, those irritations can compound very quickly, and it's very easy to lose that customer or for them to click off if those irritations build.
In store, again, if you've got a physical shop, the customer shouldn't need to be encouraged to buy.
You should have clear pricing, really helpful, beautiful displays and accessible, friendly staff. They all reduce the effort that the customer needs to put in.
You need to make it as easy as possible to buy.
Again, if you've got a pop-up, you have seconds to communicate what you do, what you sell, how much it is, why they should care and what happens if they're not ready to buy today.
If they're not ready to buy today, how are they going to keep in touch with you and deal with it in the future?
Through your socials, your socials should create the next step, not just another obstacle.
Don't make someone hunt through your website or message you just to find basic information.
The one thing that drives me absolutely bonkers on social media is when I see "link in bio". It's creating that extra step, that extra hassle that the customer has to go through, and it's giving you that opportunity to lose that customer before you've even started.
Choice is really good, but decision-making is really tiring for customers.
Merchandising is partly about taking some of that decision-making work away, and good marketing really helps people choose.
Helping people to decide is absolutely key, and there are lots of ways we can wrap this up.
Your practical tactics are your bestsellers, your bundles and your "perfect for", particularly this time of year when we're thinking about the golden quarter.
Then there are your starter products or starter bundles, and your gift edits. Again, this time of year, we should be really looking at those gift guides coming out now or putting them together ourselves.
Your seasonal ranges, again, obviously this time of year, we're coming up to the golden quarter. We've got Halloween, Bonfire Night and obviously Christmas.
Limited launches, again, if you've got more handmade products or very bespoke products, can create that FOMO and fear of missing out.
Your staff recommendations are also key. Your staff's favourite product can create that community and communication.
And obviously comparison guides are always handy, helping people narrow down their options. So give people a reason to act.
I would always avoid heavy discounting as much as possible. Giving people a reason to act doesn't mean discounting or fake urgency. There are lots of positive messages that you can use instead.
You're talking about newness, seasonality, availability, particularly coming into this time of year, events, limited quantities, deadlines, occasions and useful bonuses.
"Buy now" and giving people a reason to buy now works much better when the customer understands why.
Part three is all about not letting that relationship end at the till.
We work incredibly hard to acquire customers, and then often we go strangely quiet once they've made that purchase. That's where some of the easiest opportunities are missed.
The sale isn't the finish line. Someone who's already bought from you and has experience dealing with you is much easier to sell to than a complete stranger.
And yet lots of small businesses put nearly all of their effort into new customer acquisition. After the purchase, can you ask for repeat business?
Reviews are a great excuse to get in touch, but they also enhance trust for other customers.
Recommendations are a great way. There's a reason why referral schemes are on the up: because they work very, very well.
UGC is incredibly powerful, and email subscriber lists are absolute gold, particularly again coming towards this end of the year. Your email subscriber list is worth its weight.
But we don't want to become annoying. I think everyone who has shopped online or in store with certain retailers has had that experience of being stalked around the internet by whoever they purchased from.
The test that you can put yourself and your business through is really simple. All you need to ask is: is this useful to the customer?
Good follow-up should really feel like adding value. It offers reassurance or a relevant next step. It shouldn't feel like they're being stalked.
If they've shown some interest, but they haven't actually purchased yet, the abandoned basket email can be useful. They may have forgotten to check out. They may have looked at other competitors and still not purchased.
So that abandoned basket email is actually really useful for lots of people.
Useful email follow-up could be something slightly different. It could be your latest blog or your latest gift guide.
Retargeting obviously isn't as good as it was a few years ago, but it is still key.
Again, if you're running events or communities, invite people in on that mailing list.
I can't emphasise enough that frequently asked questions are absolute gold on any website.
If they have purchased, again, it's that confirmation and reassurance.
"Thank you for your order" is not just saying thank you. It's confirming to them and giving them peace of mind that you've got their order, it's being processed and it's on its way.
When I had a shop, I used to sell quite a lot of furniture paint. Alongside saying thank you very much for the order, if the customer had bought paint, I would send them a short video on how to apply it.
Then also at that point, I would look to offer them a cross-sell of wax or varnish to finish it off.
A few months later, if they hadn't purchased again, it would be a little reminder to say, "Have you got your next project in mind?", along with an invitation to review and again referrals and recommendations.
If you can turn a customer into an advocate, you've got the best golden customer there.
A great customer isn't just someone who buys twice. They can become the person who reviews you, recommends you and brings along the next customer for you.
A good experience becomes a repeat customer, then a review, then a recommendation. It's about asking for the review at the right time.
Again, I'm sure many of you have experienced when you've bought something online, you're sat there waiting, and the email pops in to say, "Thank you very much for your purchase. Please leave us a review." And you think: the postman hasn't even delivered it yet.
Particularly at this time of year, when couriers and postal systems are going to creak around the edges, it's really important to make sure that asking for a review is done at the right moment.
Again, make it as easy as possible for them. Share those customer stories, thank people for those referrals and give your loyal customers early access to the right thing.
So if you are running Black Friday offers, make sure that it's your loyal customers who benefit from those first. Give them first dibs and show that loyalty back to them.
And again, remembering good customers, lots of brilliant referral schemes and customer loyalty schemes then also offer rewards for that ongoing repeat purchase, which gives that feel-good factor all round.
So your browser-to-buyer checklist is this: make it easy to choose you. Being found gets you noticed, but clarity builds trust, ease builds action and follow-up keeps the customer.
If you take nothing else away from today, use this as your audit.
Before spending money on generating more traffic and making things busier at the front end, make sure that you're making enough of the attention that you already have.
More traffic won't fix a leaky customer journey. Make more of what you've got already.
Thank you very much for listening today. If you have any questions, please do ask away in the chat.
Obviously, please do link in with me as well and I can always answer questions there, and share more information and insight.
If you want hands-on support, obviously you can pop over to my website and have a look at that as well.
Other than that, I will hand back to Beth and answer any questions that we have.
Beth: Amazing. Thanks so much, Steph. That's great. Lots of engagement in the chat. So let's kick off.
What made you want to focus on helping small businesses convert more customers? And what's the most common marketing mistake you see?
Steph: The most common marketing mistake, I think, is possibly always focusing on that front end and focusing on trying to put more in the funnel, if you like, rather than getting more out of the funnel that you already have.
One of the key ones is an example I often use: product descriptions.
People often, particularly e-commerce retailers, just copy and paste a product description from a supplier, which is a fatal mistake in lots of ways.
It doesn't make you stand out with your customers, but also the SEO gods don't like it either.
So I would always say to rework and reword your own product descriptions, and put your own tone of voice and emotion into it so that it becomes yours.
Beth: That's great. Just looking at one in from the chat from Natasha.
Natasha would like to know whether FAQs should be a separate section on an e-commerce website, or whether that information should be distributed in the product descriptions, or both.
Steph: I think a little bit of both. It depends on what you sell and how big your website is.
I would always say a general FAQs section is brilliant. So things like how do I track my order, how long does it take to dispatch, where are you based, all of those basics and a bit about the company.
If you've got some really ongoing evergreen product and you've got FAQs, then that's different.
For example, when I had my shop, paint was a core product. We often had the same questions come up time and time again on the paint, which obviously I probably wouldn't put in the general FAQs for the business.
But I did used to have a concertina at the bottom of each product page for the paint that answered those. So yes, a little bit of both is best, if you can.
Beth: Great. Thanks, Steph. We've got an anonymous question in the Q&A. They would like to know, as someone who is new to marketing, where do you start when auditing your marketing pipeline?
Steph: That's a good one. I would suggest looking at your Google Analytics, or setting that up if you haven't got it set up, Google Search Console, and your Merchant Center if you're e-commerce.
If you're looking at high street, I would talk to customers as much as possible when they come in. Don't interrogate them, but generally try to get a flavour of how they found out about you, where they've come from and that sort of thing.
Then you'll get more of a picture of how they found you.
Beth: That's great. Thank you. Talking of Google, we've had a question from Melody around her Google Business Profile and the issue of fake reviews.
She'd like to know what a business should do when it is being targeted by suspected fake Google reviews, particularly when Google hasn't responded to these reports.
Steph: I would say it's key to respond, if possible, in a really professional manner.
This is where I would advocate something like the use of ChatGPT to take the emotion out of it a little bit.
Particularly if you're a founder, owner or business owner, it's really personal work, especially if you get this.
I've had one of my clients recently who had a random review. She did eventually get it taken down.
So I would say persevere with Google. They do eventually do something about it, but when, who knows?
In the meantime, if you can, I would try and respond in a really professional and clear manner.
Again, I'm busy making up this scenario, but it's something like: "Can you let me know your order number?" or "We don't have any record of this."
People do understand. If you look at a business and it's got 100% positive reviews all the time, that can also feel a bit polished.
Actually, if you have the odd review where something's not gone right, and it's a four-star rather than a five-star, or even the odd one because everyone knows there's always somebody out there, it's not as bad as it used to be. So try not to take it personally.
Do persevere with Google and respond as professionally as you can, gently telling other readers this is not quite right.
Beth: That's absolutely right and really important, as you say, to try to take some of that emotion out when it must feel hard to deal with comments like that, because it's your business. It's your baby.
Thank you. How do you know if your messaging is actually clear to your customer rather than just being clear to you?
Steph: That's a very good question. There was a time where I would have said you need to ask your granny to look at your messaging and see if she understands it, but grannies these days are generally a bit more switched on.
I think it's about trying to look through fresh eyes. Ask someone outside the business and not emotionally attached to it quite so much.
If you can, obviously, I would say a retail consultant is definitely the way to go. But if not, then maybe a friend, partner or even some of your customers. You can ask a selective few for feedback.
Again, it's bringing them in as part of the community, and most of them will be honoured to help. But yes, I would ask a variety if possible.
Beth: That's great. Chris would like to know how important internal communication is regarding customer service and sales.
Is it really important for everyone to know what offers there are, whether there are new products and that kind of thing, making sure everyone's aligned on customer service?
Steph: I would say it's absolutely key.
I remember a horrible situation I had where I put an email offer out on our website on a Friday night. It was a busy Saturday in the run-up to Christmas.
I remember being in the shop, and I was over the other side of the shop, and one of my team was on the tills.
All I could hear was, "I don't know anything about this", and this customer had brought a code in, which I would have honoured in the shop anyway.
But it was a complete lack of communication. It was that one silo wasn't talking to the other silo.
People don't see "that's the e-commerce branch" and "that's the in-store branch". They see it all as one team and one brand.
So it's really key that you communicate exactly what's going on in all parts of it. Particularly if you're an independent business, your staff are the face of the brand.
It's really important to get your team on side and make them feel part of something.
So I'd say absolutely, you're on the right track. Communication is key with staff, particularly with product knowledge and offers that you put on.
Beth: Absolutely. Thank you, Steph. I hope that helps answer your question, Chris.
Moving on to conversion across channels, what are the biggest differences between converting someone online versus in person at a pop-up or on the high street?
Steph: At a pop-up, it's usually quite competitive, isn't it? Because there are lots of you along that corridor of tables or sheds, or whatever it is.
People are generally there with an intention to purchase something. It's whether you can convince them that you're the thing to purchase from.
It's also making sure that you've got that interaction so you can continue that relationship afterwards. They're not just walking by and walking off.
Whether it's putting a little competition on if they sign up for the email newsletter, then they get into a prize draw or whatever it may be. It's about having that interaction and that relationship straight away.
Personality is absolutely key when it comes to running those sorts of events.
In a store, I don't think the customer expectation in the UK is that staff are that interactive. But particularly with independent stores, they will expect product knowledge and assistance if they require it.
It's the typical "Hi, how can I help you?" and "Oh no, I'm just browsing." It's a very British thing. But it's knowing that the support is there if they need it.
So I'd say you don't have to be quite so engaging and entertaining on a day-to-day basis, thank God, because most of these are so tiring to do.
Beth: Absolutely. I think that explains the difference between those two approaches.
We have a few more, if that's OK, Steph. How do you turn a one-off buyer into a repeat customer, a reviewer and an advocate? I know that's quite a broad question.
Steph: I think it's about making them feel like they are special as a customer. It's making them feel something in a positive way.
They need to feel that they are valued, that you are a great business to deal with, and that you create those moments of delight.
Whether it's a handwritten note in their parcel if it's e-commerce, or whether it's wrapping something in tissue paper before you pop it into the bag, it's going above and beyond the standard expectations.
Again, I think that makes you stand head and shoulders above the rest.
You can do this in really low-budget ways. It doesn't have to be costly. Obviously, it's difficult to know without knowing what sort of business it is.
But yes, it's making sure that you make that person feel special and happy. Happy customer experiences.
Beth: Absolutely. That's brilliant. Everyone, I think that is all we have time for today.
I know there are a few more questions in the chat. I'm sorry we haven't got a chance to go over those.
I have popped Steph's links to her Enterprise Nation profile, LinkedIn and website in the chat. Please do go ahead and reach out to Steph.
For those ready to invest in a sustainable future, every small business has the potential to make a big impact.
Through Powering Local Businesses, five businesses will each receive a £5,000 grant to help them make meaningful upgrades to their sustainability, saving cash and carbon.
Plus, five lucky business owners will win a workplace electric vehicle charger, including standard installation from Pod Point.
You can apply for the grant, the EV charger, or both. So don't miss out. The links are in the chat for those who are interested in applying for the grant. Please do click and find out more.
Just as a wrap-up, thanks so much everyone for joining today's Powering Local Businesses webinar.
As I've said in the chat, we will be sharing the recording and further resources in the follow-up email this afternoon.
Thank you so much, Steph, for sharing your expertise and practical insight with us. It's been a really useful session, and I know a lot of people agree. Lots of thank yous in the chat.
Thank you, and I hope everyone has a good rest of your day.
Steph: Thank you. Take care. Bye.
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