20 Simple Things To Do
Today To Dramatically Increase Your
Website Sales
© 2002 by Willie Crawford
Need to increase your website
sales? There are major things
you can do which often produce incredible results.
Things
like having your entire website professionally rewritten.
However, there are many little things you can do which
also
generate increases in sales. Through a process of
continuous
testing and making continuous improvements you CAN
increase
sales! Combined, the results from making
simple improvements
can be more impressive than from making the major
changes.
Today I'd like to offer (in no special order) 20 simple
things you can do to improve your website sales
. Next week
I'll offer 20 more tips.
1. Review your product lineup. Ask
yourself what is selling
and what isn't and honestly examine why. If a
product simply isn't
needed don't waste your time promoting it. If a
product is
producing very little revenue for you, find another
product
to promote. Devote your time and effort to products
that are
producing for you. Don't be too stubborn to admit
that
perhaps you chose the wrong product to promote in the
first
place.
2. Revamp your ezine's welcome message to
reinforce the
decision to subscribe and perhaps introduce one of your
products. Don't turn the welcome message into a
sales letter,
but do start familiarizing your subscribers with your
product
lineup. To reinforce the decision to subscribe,
perhaps give
the new subscriber an unannounced gift (make sure it is
of
real value). I also include a sample copy of my
ezine with
the welcome message. This really serves to confirm
what the
subscriber will be getting each issue and if it's not
what he
expected, he should unsubscribe. You do want
targeted
subscribers and you don't want list members who don't
want to
receive your material.
3. Review your ezine's unsubscribe
message. Since you WILL
get unsubscribes, make the confirmation message a
positive
experience. Perhaps provide another bonus, some useful
tips,
or tell them about a special you are running. This
may be
your last contact with this subscriber so use it wisely
(without annoying the person).
4. Follow up purchases with an unexpected
gift. Your
customers are so use to having lots of sometimes useless
bonuses promised to them that it is a pleasant surprise
when
they get an unexpected bonus that is really useful to
them.
Several well-know mentors of mine use this
"under-promise
and over-deliver" model. It dramatically
reduces "buyer
remorse" and reinforces the decision to buy
your product.
Using this technique you are well on your way to building
lots of repeat sales. Satisfied repeat customers
often make
many large purchases :-)
5. Review your order handling process - from the
web copy
through to the delivery of the product. Place an
order and
have others place orders to evaluate the
experience. Look
for points in the sequence where a prospect might be
turned
off. Is there something about any page in the
sequence that
might generate doubt or negative feelings in the
prospects
mind? A significant number of customers abandon
orders at
the order form or during the checkout process.
Examine
yours closely to reduce this happening on your
website. Make
sure your order process steps the customer through
step-by-step while providing continuous reassurance.
6. Join image-enhancing organizations such as
the Better
Business Bureau or the International Council Of
Online
Professionals. To be accepted as a member of either
organization requires that you ascribe to
certain
professional and ethical standards. You must also
maintain
a very high level of professional business standards to
remain a member of either organization. Your
potential
customers will be reassured when they see that you
conduct
your business at this level of professionalism.
Membership
in such organizations pay for themselves many times over.
7. Look for broken links on your site.
Having webpages load
with broken images or having a visitor get a lot of file
not
found messages can create a negative impression.
Your web
logs should reveal "file not found" hits.
Fix these to
improve sales. Also, periodically surf your site to
confirm
everything on your page functions as you intended.
This is a
good chore to get one of the kids to do :-) There
are also
software programs and services which check for broken
links.
Use these!
8. Focus on fewer products. If you try to
promote too few
products and "spread yourself too thin" you
will generally do
a poor job. Instead really get to know all of the
features
of your products and also get to know all of the
promotional
tools available for that product. If you are
marketing
affiliate products, there should be lots of tools for you
to
use in your promotions. Test a variety of these
tools and
stick with the winners. It's much easier to rave
about and
market a product that you know inside-out.
9. Include inserts with physically delivered
products. If
you have any products which are actually mailed to your
customers such as hard copy books, cassettes, etc. make
sure
that you include a brochure or flyers for other products
in
the package. These customers are your best
prospects for
repeat sales. When they open a package
they've been waiting
for, and are thrilled with the product, they are
instantly in
a receptive buying mood. As an example, I sell
cookbooks from
one of my websites. I offer both ebooks and hard
copy. With
each hard copy shipped I include a flyer encouraging
purchasers to consider giving copies of this book as a
gift.
I also encourage purchasers of the books to order copies
of
video cassettes demonstrating many of the dishes.
It works
like magic.
10. When you get new subscribers or customers make
sure your
"thank you page" offers them a path to continue
experiencing
your site. Perhaps you offer them some other
special report,
tell them about a product you really love, offer to
up-sell
them, or offer free access to a customer-only section of
your
website. Suggest where the customer should go next
-
instead of just leaving them "hanging."
11. Consider offering the option to phone-in
orders. If
your volume and profit margin justifies it, maybe you
want
to use a full-time employee or answering service to take
orders over the phone. Many customers are uneasy
about
entering their credit card information into a webpage but
don't hesitate to give it over the phone. Hearing a
voice
on the phone is reassuring. If your merchant
account
agreement allows this and you're equipped to key in
orders
don't discount this option too quickly.
12. Consider offering the option to fax in
orders. If you
don't want to have a full-time order taker sitting
around,
this may be a good option. This also gives you a
hard copy
of the order, along with a signature, which some credit
card
processors require.
13. Consider offering the option to mail in
orders. This
is another option you should not overlook. Some
customers
will not have credit cards but may want to order using a
money order or check. I get a steady flow of mail
orders,
and the joy of opening letters containing orders never
seems
to go away.
14. Re-examine your price. Sales often
increase
dramatically when you make minor price changes.
Perhaps
raising your price will imply a higher quality to your
prospects and therefore increase sales. Maybe
lowering your
price slightly will increase sales revenue by more than
the
decrease in per-unit profit. This is a point that
it
generally makes business sense to test.
15. Stop offering so many freebies! Ask yourself
if you want
customers with money to spend or those who aren't willing
to
pay for quality products and services. If you want
to attract
primarily "freebie seekers" then you need to
have a system for
eventually converting them into some type of revenue
stream.
You must pre-qualify your prospect even when giving them
something for nothing to confirm you are reaching the
ideal
customer.
16. Make sure your promotions are really
targeted. Begin by
writing our a description of your ideal target customers.
This ties in with number 15 somewhat. You may even
go as far
as stating in your ad the type of prospect you don't
want.
Many marketers of high-end items do this. It saves
a lot of
resources and allows them to focus on prospect who want
what
they offer, can afford what they offer, and are willing
to
purchase what they offer. Factor this philosophy
into your
marketing plan.
17. Have a trusted advisor review your web copy
and/or ad
copy for credibility/believability. This advisor
should be
familiar with copy writing and with your industry.
You
should seek honest unbiased feedback. We
often overlook
obvious flaws. It's a common practice to ask
for site
reviews on discussion forums. The drawback to that
is that
you may get opinions from those who aren't qualified to
offer good advice.
18. Make sure you have a call to action.
Your website or
sales letter should stir your prospect into a buying
frenzy.
It should also tell them exactly how to order. It should
tell them to click the link or pick up the phone or print
out and mail in the order form. Many people must be
given
specific instructions before they take action. Tell
them to
do it now.
19. Review your guarantee. You should only
market product
that are of sufficient quality that your buyers are
unlike
to be dissatisfied. Therefore you should offer a
very
strong guarantee. Guarantees which have a lot of
conditions
or reservations only build doubt in the prospect mind.
"No
questions asked, 100% money-back guarantees"
generate
substantially more sales and do not increase returns.
Longer guarantees also tend to reduce returns since the
customer does not feel an urgency to decide if he's
satisfied
with the product.
20. Make sure your ezine and website tie
together and work
synergistically. An ezine that reminds prospect to
revisit
your website and tell them about new products or features
tend to increase sales. Websites that encourage
ezine
subscriptions give you a tool for staying in touch with
visitors who would otherwise never return to your site.
In the next issue, I'll give you 20 more tips for
increasing
your website sales. For now, carefully consider
each of the
above tips. Those that are appropriate for you should be
implemented right away. Some of these will give you
immediate, measurable results. Take action today to
make
your business a super success.
Drop by our discussion board today to discuss this
article.
It's the place to discuss growing your business:
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Willie Crawford has taught thousands the secrets of
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a successful on-line business through his free Internet
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*successful*
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