100 ways to increase your online sales

If you are trying to make money on the Internet, sooner or later you will have to face it: conversion. This intimidating topic – how to get more buyers with the same traffic.

The only reason conversion is intimidating is because there are many places to go astray. Most of them aren’t that hard to fix, but one of a thousand little problems could prevent you from getting the conversion you should have.

I don’t have a thousand tips for you today, but I have 100 to get you started.

Here are 100 tweaks – some small, some large – to increase online sales.

Does your product or service solve a problem people really care about? How do you know? If your base offering doesn’t appeal to your prospect, you’re sunk before starting. Make sure you sell something people want.
Let potential customers know they are buying from a human. Keep your language personal, friendly, and (in most markets) informal. Sounds like a person, not a throwing machine.
Tell a story about how you solved this problem yourself before selling the solution to others. Let the readers put themselves in their place. Make the potential client feel, “Wow, this person is a lot like me.”
Correct typos, make sure links work, avoid grammar mistakes that make you look silly. Reassure your prospect that you know what you are doing.
Test two headers. When you find a winner, compare it to the new headline. Continue eliminating the second best. Google Ads is a quick and effective way to do this.
Try to test the “ugly” version of the sales copy. Boring fonts, not too big layout, no nice colors. Oddly enough, sometimes a boneless presentation works better. However, don’t just run crappy without testing because it doesn’t always win.
Instead of driving traffic straight to the sales page, run it through an autoresponder with six or seven messages first. Give them enough information to build their trust and let them know that you are the best source of information.
Strengthen your call to action. Make sure that you clearly tell your readers , what to do next.
Make sure you describe your product or service in sufficient detail. If it’s physical, please provide dimensions and some great photos. If it’s a digital version, tell them how many hours of recording it contains, how many pages are in the PDF. Don’t assume your prospects already know the details – spell it all.
Are you getting traffic from ads or guest posts? Make sure your landing page is linked to the traffic source. If you’re running a pay-per-click campaign for “Naked Mole Rat Race”, make sure that the words “Naked Mole Rat Race” appear in the header of your landing page.
Master copywriter Drayton Bird tells us that any commercial offer should meet one or more of these 9 human needs: earn money, save money, save time and effort, do something good for your family, feel safe, impress other people, enjoy , improve or belong to a group. And of course it’s obvious # 10 – make yourself irresistibly sexy to your romantic partner of choice. I think Drayton is too much of a gentleman to account for this, but it’s about the strongest driver we have, once we’ve got our hands on eating and breathing.
Now that you have identified your basic human need, how can that be expressed in an emotion-based headline ?
Have you translated your functions into benefits? I bet you still have some perks that you can spell. Remember that functions are what your product or service does. The benefits are what your potential customer gains from it.
Put your photo on the sales page. Human beings are permanently attached to faces. If potential customers can see you, it’s easier for them to trust.
If you have a dog, use your dog photo instead. There is something about a dog that weakens almost everyone’s defenses.
You can try to use a picture of the dog. Believe it or not, sometimes it works.
Simplify your language. Use something like the Flesch-Kincaid readability scale to make sure your wording is clean and simple. (Note that simple writing is not stupid writing.)
No matter how emotional your appeal is, justify it with logic. Provide people with the facts and figures they need so they can justify the purchase. Even the most frivolous purchase based on pleasure (say, a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes) can be justified by logical benefits (excellent workmanship, rare materials, increasing the user’s confidence).
What tasty bonus can you offer? Peanut butter is good; peanut butter with jelly is great. Find Peanut Butter Jelly, a bonus that will make your good product even better.
Are you getting your message across to the right people? A list of people who really want what you offer and who are willing and able to buy?
Listen to the questions you receive. What people still don’t know about? What bothers them about your offer? Even if you’re outsourcing your email and / or support, it’s a good idea to read your customers’ random messages regularly.
Keep your most important selling items “on screen” (in other words, on the first screen, without scrolling as readers go to your page). This usually means an attractive headline, a great opening paragraph, and perhaps either a great product photo (to arouse some desire) or a photo of you (to build trust and good relationships). Eye tracking studies suggest that the most important photo should be on the top left side of the page.
Check the double reading path. Do the headline and subheadings tell an intriguing story if you read them without the rest of the text?
What’s your warranty? Could you say that with more certainty? Does your warranty eliminate customer risk?
Are you using PayPal? PayPal has its problems, but for many customers it is “funny money”. They will spend freely with PayPal when they think twice about withdrawing their credit card.
You boldly and firmly asked for a sale? Is there any wrapping and wrapping you can remove?
What is the experience of using your product or service? Can you bring it to life with a reference video or a great case study?
Is there any reason a potential customer might feel stupid buying from you? Are they afraid that they will kick back later? That their friends, spouse, or coworkers will obstruct their purchase? Fix this.
Do you use standard design conventions? Links should be emphasized. The navigation (if you have any on your sales page) should be immediately understandable.
Do you have references? Do you have effective references ?
Does the potential customer know everything they need to know to make this purchase? What questions might he still think to him? How can you teach him to be more confident in his purchasing decision?
Does the link to your shopping cart work? (Don’t laugh. Test every link on the page that leads to your shopping cart. And try to test them once or twice a day the entire time your shopping cart is open – even if it’s 365 days a year).
Is your marketing boring? Remember Paul Newman’s wonderful mantra: “Always take work seriously. Never take yourself seriously. If your marketing puts your customers to sleep, it can’t do its job.
Social media is not just talking – it’s also listening. What are your potential customers complaining about on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, forums, blog comments? What problems could you solve for them? What language do they use to describe their complaints?
Did you answer all their questions? Have you addressed all their objections? I know you are worried that the copy will be too long if you take care of each point. It will not.
Were you so “original” or “creative” that you lost people? Remember the words of the legendary attorney Leo Burnett: “If you absolutely insist on being different just to be different, you can always come down to breakfast with a sock in your mouth.”
Can you offer a free trial?
Can you spread the cost over several payments?
Can you offer an appetizing free bonus that the customer can keep whether they keep the main product or not? Extremely useful content is perfect for this.
Does your headline offer your customer an advantage or advantage?
How do you make an ad too valuable to be thrown out? How can you improve the life of the reader after reading the sales letter? Think about special reports, white papers, and other content marketing readiness.
Have you appealed to the reader’s greed? Not very pretty, but one of the most effective ways of provoking a reaction. (A good way to say this is “make sure you offer the potential customer great value”).
Is your message misleading? A bright nine-year-old should be able to read your sales copy and find out why she should buy your product.
Can you combine your copy with fashion? This is especially effective for online copying and short term product launches as you can stay absolutely up to date. Just remember that there is nothing more stale than yesterday’s Macarena.
Likewise, can you tie your copy to something that a lot of people are really worried about? It could be something in the news (oil spill, climate change, economic turmoil) or something related to a specific period in the life of a potential customer (midlife crisis, worries about young children, worries about retirement).
Try a little flattery. One of the best opening lines of all sales copies is from American Express: “Honestly, the American Express card isn’t for everyone.” The reader immediately gains a bit of ego, assuming the card is for special people like him.
Is there a compelling urgent reason to act today? If prospects have no reason to act right away, unfortunately they have the bad habit of postponing their purchase forever.
Do you visualize one reader as you write? Don’t write to the crowd – write for one perfect client you want to convince. Your tone and voice will automatically become more trustworthy, and it will be easier for you to find the perfect, relevant detail to convey your point of view.
Tell the reader why you are making this offer. In copywriting slang, this is “a reason why” and it practically always increases the response.
Can you get support from someone your customers respect? Celebrity endorsements are always valuable, but in your niche you can also find “quasi-celebrities” who have as much power as a national figure.
Can you make a product or service demonstration? If it’s not something you can show in a video, try to tell a compelling story about how your offering solved a thorny problem for one of your customers.
How often do you use the word “you”? Can it be picked up?
How often do you use the word “we”? Can it be eliminated? (“I” works better than “us” which seems corporate and cold).
Stay up late today and check out some information. Keep a pen and paper handy. Write down each selling technique you encounter. In the morning, translate at least three of them into your own market. (Remember that you can change the tone and level of sophistication to suit your buyers.)
Have you become a leader in your market?
Is there an “elephant” in the living room? In other words, is there a serious objection that you didn’t address because you just don’t want to think about it? You have to face all uncomfortable truths. Don’t assume that potential customers won’t come to mind if you don’t bring it up.
What does your sequel look like? Do you have resources to answer emerging questions? Remember, questions are often masked objections. Questions about potential customers can make great arguments for writing a sales letter. You can ask for help in the form of a VA friendly or a temporary one to help with your email during the big boot.
Is there a number in the header? It probably should be.
Likewise, have you assessed your benefits? In other words, have you translated “time saved” into “three full weeks saved – plenty of time for a life-changing vacation – every year.” Enter the number of results you can get for your clients.
Oddly enough, “scribbles” and other elements that look like handwriting can increase responsiveness – even on the Internet. Hundreds of handwritten fonts are available that you can convert to visuals using Photoshop or simple logo generation software.
Does your headline make the reader want to read the first line of text?
Does the first line make the reader want to read the second line of text?
Does the second line make the reader want to read the third line?
(E.t.c.)
Add more evidence that what you say is true. Evidence can be statistics, testimonials, case studies, or even news or current events that illustrate the ideas on which your product or service is based.
Compare apples to oranges. Don’t compare your product’s price with your competitors’ price – compare it with another item category that costs much more. For example, compare your online course with the cost of an individual consultation.
For this reason, it’s always a good idea to have at least one platinum item for sale. Compared to them, everything you sell looks quite affordable.
Make your order page or form easier to understand. Complicated order pages annoy customers.
Remember to repeat your offer on the checkout page. Don’t expect customers to remember all the details of what you (almost) sold to her. Re-introduce these benefits.
Include a telephone number that can be called to ask questions. I know this is difficult to handle, but it can increase your reaction by surprising amounts.
If you can, please include a picture of what you are selling.
Is there a lot of distracting navigation that distracts customers? (The worst thing is cheap advertising, which distracts people for a penny or two.) Get rid of it. Keep the reader focused on this offer with a single column format without distractions.
Put a caption on any image you use. Signatures are the third most read element of a sales copy, after the headline and PS. The signature should show a convincing benefit for the product or service. (Even if that benefit doesn’t fit the picture.
Once done, link the image to your basket.
Make the first paragraph extremely legible. Use short, strong and persuasive sentences. Here a good story can work wonders.
Does your presentation match your offer? If you are offering a luxury vacation, are your graphics and language luxurious? If you are selling teen fashion, is your design trendy and cute?
Are you trying to sell from a blog post? Instead, drive buyers to a well-designed landing page.
Are they apathetic in the middle of the premiere and sales? Come up with an exciting bonus and announce it on your list. Frank Kern calls it “fun stacking.”
Are you asking a potential customer to make too many choices? Confused people don’t buy. You should have at most three options to choose from – something like “silver, gold or platinum.”
Look for something in your copy that is unclear. Replace it with a specific, specific detail. The details are reassuring and make it easier for the potential customer to see themselves while using your product.
Numbers are the most reassuring of all. Translate everything you can into numbers.
Look in the copy for a place where the potential customer can silently say “No” or “I don’t think so.” Make up this place. You want the candidate to be reading your letter in your mind all the time nodding her head.
Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself. Prospects often don’t read every word of the sales letter. Find ways to repeat your call to action, key benefits, and guarantees.
Identify the really exciting benefit at the beginning of your copy, then describe it later in the sales letter. (Be careful with curiosity-based headlines, though, as they traditionally don’t convert as well as benefit-based or news-based ones.)
Use two magic words for a persuasive copy.
Successful marketing doesn’t sell products or services – it sells benefits and big ideas. What’s your big idea? What are you really selling? If you are unsure, go back to our Ten Human Needs in point 11 above.
If you’re offering something physical, make sure there’s a way for expedited delivery. The ability to place an urgent order increases the response, even if the customer does not use it.
Place the Better Business Bureau badge, “Hacker Safe” seal or similar badge on your sales page.
Can you underestimate the price of your offer? A surprising number of buyers, even in a bad economy, will not buy a product or service if it seems too cheap to be worth their time.
Do you use the wording “Buy Now” on your shopping cart button? Instead, try “Add to Cart”, “Join Us” or a similar wording. Focusing on the “buy” aspect has been shown to reduce reaction.
Let your prospect imagine them buying. Speak as if it has already been bought. Describe the life he will lead now as your client. If you want a delicious example, go to the J. Peterman site. Few have done better.
Drugs sell much better than prevention. If your product is predominantly preventive, find the “healing” items and place them front and center. Solve problems people already have instead of preventing problems they may have one day.
If your amusing ad doesn’t convert, try recreating it straight. Humor is inherently unpredictable. It can work fantastic or it can destroy the conversion. If you can’t figure out what else might be wrong, it may be the culprit.
Are you the king of understatements? The Sultan of Subtlety? Deal with it. At least in the sales copy.
How’s your PS? (You have a PS, right?) Is it fascinating? Usually you want to reiterate either the most interesting benefit, guarantee, urgency element, or all three.
Cut all long paragraphs into shorter ones. Make sure the number of subtitles is enough to have at least one per screen. If the copy looks daunting, it is not read.
Increase the font size.
Include take-out. No, this is not a hamburger and fries – this is a message that your offer is not for everyone. (In other words, you’re threatening to “pick up” your great offer from those who don’t deserve it.) When you are confident enough to tell people, “Don’t order this product unless you meet the requirements [insert your qualifications here]” You show that you are not desperate to sell. It is almost universal.
Do you place this offer in front of cold prospects? What if you introduced some of its variations to people who have already bought something from you? Your own customer base is the best market you will ever have. Make sure you regularly send them attractive offers
If they don’t buy your base offer, try sending them to “sell down”. It is a lower-priced product that gives a potential customer a second chance to get something from you. Remember that even a very small purchase gives the buyer the option to bring it to market later. Building a buyer’s list is one of the smartest things you can do for your business.