Business in General
Adding New Life to Falling Sales
Smart marketers understand how to pump up waning sales and add new life to campaigns that are headed south.
Here’s an example that happens all too often:
You worked so hard to prepare an original ebook that’s timely in your niche and hopefully a best seller. Sadly, after the initial burst of sales, all that remains is a trickle of buyers.
Even your returns are rising. People are giving you feedback that is less than complimentary.
So what just happened?
The information is solid and unique. Do you have to change the content to pump up the sales? Probably not since your content is still the same as it was during your launch.
But you may need to make some simple adjustments to get those sales back on the rise and prevent more refund requests.
1. Give away some free samples. You know how that draws people in the grocery store to specific giveaway products.
Everybody wants to try something that’s free. Let prospective buyers have a sample of your eBook. This works particularly well if your book is published with Amazon Kindle.
Provide a link on your website that allows viewers to read a sample chapter. Then circulate that link to every site, forum and discussion group in your niche. The more people who sample your work, the more potential buyers you will attract.
The free sample is another way to reduce requests for refunds.
The buyer has a chance to see if this is the kind of information and presentation that’s worth buying. Also, buy adding a free look at the table of contents, your buyer becomes more informed about what he/she will read, thus becoming a more satisfied buyer.
2. Don’t be afraid to highlight the money back guarantee. Rather than prompt refunds, a strong guarantee of satisfaction actually reduces refunds. Add a gold seal or other familiar icon that shows a guarantee symbol.
3. Buyers want to know that their purchase information is safe. Instead of saying, “ Your order is secure” add to your link “Order Now on our Secure SSL Server” (or other appropriate security message). There are also some trust “services” that you can employ to give legitimacy and credibility to your purchase process.
4. Speaking of the “Order Now” link, apply this several times in your sales letter and in several locations on the sales page. Each time you add more reasons to purchase or add a bonus offer, put in the “Order Now” link.
Don’t make your prospect search for how to buy. Make the purchase process as simple and intuitive as possible. You want to grab the buyer while he’s still foaming at the mouth by the urge to have what you’re selling.
5. Inside your ebook is another place for the “Check Out These New Titles” link. Advertise all your ebooks in every ebook that you distribute, both free and paid.
You can add it in the copy a few times as long as you don’t interrupt the flow of the content. Have that link in the opening page with your welcome, in the signature line of your “about the author” page and on the last page of the copy.
If you already have a title for the next ebook, use that in the link. While the reader is enjoying your work, it’s a great time to promote another ebook. Make it easy for a satisfied reader to find and buy more ebooks from you.
6. Add a bonus survey at the end of the ebook. Ask your reader to “review” this ebook by answering a few questions for a Special Free Bonus Gift. Add the link for the review. When the reader finishes, the review goes into your autoresponder and the Bonus Gift is sent immediately with a note from you.
The Bonus Gift is the incentive to complete the survey. You can get useful information from your readers that will help in targeting your next product. But even if the survey information isn’t that helpful, it’s a way to build a relationship with your buyers. Let them know what you have to offer and give past buyers the first chance to get your newest information products.
7. Add a new and more exciting ebook cover. It’s often surprising how a new cover graphic design will pump up sales of an ebook. If you are concerned about people confusing your former book with the newer version, add a cover subtitle like 2nd Edition, Revised Edition or New Material Added.
8. Another simple change that can make a world of difference is a change in the title of your ebook. Tests have shown that by changing the title of a book, a report, or a video, the owner can pump up sales significantly. Testing various titles and tracking the sales result is a smart strategy always. Keep all but one variable constant in any testing you do.
9. Change your sales copy. Often, this one improvement can mean all the difference in your sales and the interest you will receive in your ebook or product. Be sure to add a title to your sales page that stops the reader in his tracks and “forces” him to continue reading the sales copy. Highlight the benefits of reading the ebook for the purchaser. “What’s in it for me?” is a question you should always answer for the reader – before he makes his purchase.
10. Change your focus and “re-purpose” the ebook to a slightly different target audience. Sometimes you can make some very simple and easy modifications to your ebook so that a different (but often related) audience becomes the prime target for sales. Maybe your original ebook was written for owners of online businesses. So change up the focus to become a guide for local independent small business owners. The changes will be minimal but the new target audience may be clamoring for such a working guide.
There are other ways to breathe new life into products whose sales are dropping. We’ve talked about this strategy using an ebook as the example of your product . . . but really the product could be anything.
To your online business success!
Steve Browne
www.stevebrownedirect.com
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