Category Archives: Increase Online Sales and Conversions

All businesses want to increase online sales and conversions.  More sales equals more money.  But many businesses are actually losing business (without even knowing it).

Luckily, there are ways you can fix this. The thing is, more traffic doesn’t necessarily (or automatically) mean more sales.  It has to be the right sort of traffic, with the right people, who have a problem you can help with.

Then, your pages have to work properly. Not just technically, but also from the user’s point of view.  Can they find your “buy” button?  Are they ready to buy, or still researching?  Have you convinced them you are the right choice?

Another common error: making assumptions, rather than testing. You may think that the blue button will pull more than the green one, but you have to test it to know for sure. Testing copy on that button can also make a difference.

Showing reviews, testimonials, and other behavioral cues can also improve your conversion rate.

Why Your Web Site Visits Don’t Equal Sales

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Robot

Image by à voir etc… via Flickr

Are you having this problem?  You get lots of visits to your site, but no sales (not even clicks). Nobody seems to click on anything, or buy anything?

Someone mentioned recently that he was getting a lot of visits to every page of his site (!), but nobody was clicking, or buying anything.

He proudly showed off his AWStats (those are the stats that your web host will often include in your hosting package), showing over 1,000 monthly visits to his brand-new site, from all over the world. Great, huh?

Not so fast.

I’m getting visits, why no buyers? Why no clicks?

The problem?

The visits were robots. AWStats counts every time a robot, a spider, or other automatic web indexing tool browses your site as a visit. It’s, of course, important to have Google notice you. However, robots, and spiders don’t click (or buy anything either).

Get a truer picture of your stats

If you want a more accurate picture of your stats, there are better tools. Head over to Google and set up analytics for your site. It’s free. It will show you visits, sources, time on page, and much more.  You can even set up goals and conversions (for particular actions or pages you want people to visit (like sales page).  You’ll get a much more accurate picture of what real people are doing.

Once you’ve got stats set up, you can get a better idea of what’s going on. Look at which pages are getting traffic, then where it’s coming from, how long people stay on each page, and the bounce rate.

Is the bounce rate too high?

This could be because the information isn’t what your visitors really wanted.  I had a blog post that referenced Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone to illustrate a point about voice mail.  I kept getting visits for people looking for recordings to use for their answering machines. The traffic was high, but so was the bounce rate. My post didn’t answer my visitor’s question or fit their needs.

Traffic to the right pages

Are there specific pages you want people to read?  Products you offer, or an article about an important industry topic?  Monitor which pages draw traffic, and from where.  If all the traffic you’re getting is going to a silly post about mustaches, rather than your serious take on choosing the right app developer, you may need to adjust your marketing strategy.

Traffic from the right sources

Do search engines see your site?  Are they sending traffic?  Are your social media efforts paying off with traffic to your site? Are you visible in the right places/blogs/groups/sites with comments and articles?

Sales funnel failure

There are a number of reasons that your sales funnel can fail.  It could be that your “buy” button is hard to see. Or, maybe your sales page is difficult to read and your page design needs an overhaul.  Another possibility is that your sales page is leaking (too many distractions).  Or, it could be as simple as a broken link somewhere. Try it yourself.  Go through your sign up process or your sales process.  Or, if you’re too close to it, ask a friend to try.

Not ready to buy

There’s another possibility. You can do everything right, but still not get high sales because you’re attracting people who aren’t ready to buy.  Either they’re still in the research phase of the purchasing process or the problem they have isn’t urgent.  If they don’t need to fix it right now, they won’t buy  immediately.  You can help them along by pointing out additional resources for their problem, offering a free quick consultation, or adding a chat option so they can ask questions. This can help nudge people along in the sales process without being pushy.

7 Step E-Commerce Web Site Checklist

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Photo: myuibe

These seven e-commerce marketing tips will help you increase your web site sales (and they won’t break your budget either).

1) Build informational content (as well as sales content) into your site.

Teach people how to use your product, care for their purchase, or give tips (software shortcuts, decorating ideas, foods best for your pet by age, etc.).

2) Make the site easy to navigate and buy from.

Don’t hide the products. Show two or three on the front page, with clear links to find more. If the site is hard to use, or visitors can’t find what they want, they will leave without buying anything.

3) Customize sections of your site to fit different segments of your audience.

A pet food site could break down sections by dogs, cats, parakeets, and then by specific products for larger dogs, overweight dogs, special types of diet, etc.

4) Use big, noticeable buttons.

Make it obvious that you want people to do something and how to do it. Use language such as “buy now” or “sign up here.” Ask for the order! It’s also important to make sure your buttons look like buttons; in other words something that should be clicked.

5) Add customer reviews or testimonials.

They give clear evidence that others have bought (and benefited from) your products. This also increases involvement. Your visitors will feel more connected to your products. If you can, start a forum and let your customers talk directly to each other and share experiences.

6) Check your site design in different browsers.

Images or design elements (bars, boxes, page breaks) may display differently depending on the combination of browser and operating system that your visitors are using. Test your site for free at browsershots.org

7) Build a landing page or a specific product page based on their keyword searches.

Don’t use your home page for this. Instead develop different campaigns to attract different segments of your customers. If you sell home decorating supplies, you might create a campaign and build a landing page  for window treatments, another for paint, and a third for carpets and flooring.

More tips on how to get more clicks without spending a cent

How to Get More Sales From Your Web Site

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Photo: bull3t

What people see when they first visit your site can make a big difference in the number of sales you get. When someone comes to your site, your goal is to get them to do something (download an article, sign up for a newsletter, or just find out more about you.

Here are some tips on how to improve your site, and make it easier for your prospects to do what you want.

Skip the introductory flash/enter page. Send people straight to the information they’re looking for.

Avoid script fonts. They’re hard to read on a computer screen, and tend to blur slightly (even on a large screen).

Center your images. I just looked at a site with photo on top that wasn’t centered properly. There was a line down the middle of the image and part of it repeated towards the right side of the page.

Be clear and simple. Make sure your pages load quickly. Don’t use lots of large graphics. Use a thumbnail image and add a click-through to a larger one if necessary (so buyers can get a better look at something). Clearly mark your links (underlined or a different color).

Contrast is important (especially online). Don’t use too much of a single color.

People buy from people. If you’re selling a membership, or access to an expert, put his or her photo on the site.

Paint mental pictures. If you sell a product, add descriptions that bring them to life. The reader should be able to imagine the result as well as see it: “Each design is individually hand-crafted in a process that takes 15 days to complete. Using tools no larger than a pin, the artist carefully joins together 20 pieces to create his sculpture.”

Be specific. Don’t say, you’ll save hundreds of dollars, or free extra reports worth thousands. Use an exact number instead; such as “save $155” or “free reports valued at $1,245.”