Branding
12 Top Conversion Secrets for Online Business
Marketers have long understood this principle, yet so many settle for very low conversions. They say it’s a numbers game. Drive so many eyeballs to your offer and a certain percentage of them will buy.
The trouble is, that percentage could be increased significantly if the marketer would test and track his results using a number of variables to try to get conversions as high as possible.
Getting viewers who click and pass on is no more productive than more window shoppers at the mall. You make money online when you capture that traffic and convert the “lookers” into “buyers.” Sounds simple, right? Yet, apparently it’s really not because few online business owners track, test, and optimize for maximum conversion of their offers.
Here are a number of traffic conversion secrets that even a newcomer to Internet marketing can implement:
1. Refine your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). What makes your product different, special, better or more desirable? That’s the USP. Now get the answer to that question down to one or two concise sentences. Focus your benefits on the true advantages that your business or product has. Giving the lowest price in the industry is the logical differentiation for many business owners – yet playing the discount card is one of the most difficult games in the business. A competitor will always figure out a way to undersell you, especially newer and foreign competitors, and many a business has gone broke because they couldn’t compete successfully at the low margins game.
2. Sound friendly, not slick. Your sales copy needs to sound like one friend excited to tell another friend about a great buy. Avoid sounding like a high-pressure sales phone solicitor or an infomercial. Prospects make purchases from people they know, like and trust. Hard selling is not a profitable approach for most marketers online. Think friend to friend recommendations without the pressure to make a sale. Choices online make this kind of selling more genuine and trusted than pressure tactics.
3. Ask for help. Give the viewers a reason to interact with you by asking for their opinion on a survey or product rating. You get useful information and keep customers thinking about your product longer. Anytime you can engage and connect with a prospect you will increase your chances of making the sale. Prospects love “inside information” and personalization in selling as it makes them feel like the business owner is going out of his way to accommodate the needs of just one person.
4. Simplify the offering. Customers don’t like to be confused. If they are, they tend to shy away from a purchase. If you have three different products to sell, use three distinct websites. Don’t make the mistake of trying to offer too much all at once.
This all-in-one sales approach might work for major retailers, but they already have a brand and a following. The best sellers limit the choices of the buyer at any given time. Either you purchase this or you don’t. There will always be time for upsells, downsells, and crosssells later in the selling funnel.
5. Leave some open space. Prepare a sales page that’s easy to read with wide margins. You don’t have to fill every inch of space with narrative. Leaving some white space helps the reader to better focus on the copy and form a mental image of what’s before him. This tactic might seem fairly trivial, but test after test has shown that buyers like to skim through most text and “search” visually for bullet points, bold information, and numbered lists. By keeping the text somewhat short in line length, the narrative is much easier for the reader to skim and breeze through.
6. Brag openly. If your product has a good rating or endorsements from satisfied buyers, then let them brag about the product for you. The use of testimonials and social proof extolling the virtues of your product is very important. Prospects are much more likely to take the word of a satisfied user rather than believe everything the “biased” salesman says in the offer. I have seen as many as 50 glowing testimonials on a sales page. You don’t have to use that many, but it is impressive and it tends to make the prospect feel more at ease in hitting the “buy” button.
7. Cast with plenty of bait. In your sales letter and squeeze page, put out the “bait” for your offer over and over. Don’t skimp on bait. It’s better to have too many advantages and benefits in the offer than not enough to convert the buyer who is still uncertain and sitting on the fence.
8. Find problems. Even after your sales page is complete, keep thinking about other problems that your product can solve. You might get a hint of new ways to promote your product by asking buyers how they use the product. It’s always a good idea to followup on a sale. Not only does doing so impress the buyer that you truly do care how he is finding value in his purchase . . . but it also gives you, the seller, a chance to explore other similar needs of the customer and possible products that you might offer him/her.
9. Use moderate highlighting. Yes, highlights draw visual attention but too many highlights or excessive colors frustrate online readers. When a lot of text is highlighted, those highlights no longer stand out as being important. The fewer things that are highlighted, the more important they will seem.
10. Package deals are always popular. After presenting your USP, sweeten the offer with a package including several free items as part of the “Buy Now” deal. Limited time offers create a sense of urgency for the buyer to act. Most buyers don’t like to “miss out” on a limited time bargain. Don’t go overboard so much that you confuse the buyer; but do add on value that is clearly understandable so that the buying decision becomes easier and easier.
11. Always ask for the order. An old principle of sales that must never be ignored – ask for the order, ask again then ask again. You can’t ask too many times. This is known as the “call to action.” You must lead your prospect step by step right up to the sale. Don’t leave anything to chance. Tell the prospect what you want him to do, then take him by the hand and lead him to the next step. It seems elementary and maybe a bit too coddling, but tests have shown that high conversions come when the prospect is shown exactly what to do next.
12. Say “Thank you.” Have a gracious, personal sounding, “Thank you” email with the order confirmation. It never hurts to show good manners and buyer appreciation! The buyers are your business life-blood and you should nurture and care for them at all times. Provide them with value over and above your paid products. Engage them. Connect with them. Go out of your way to personalize your dealings with them.
There are other ways to convert prospects to buyers, but these twelve excellent tactics will get you started with some easy-to-do ideas that anyone can implement to increase conversions in any type of business.
Really, the bottom line is this: Treat your customers like you would want to be treated!
To your online business success!
Steve Browne
www.stevebrownedirect.com
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