How To Sell Online: Your Must Have Checklist
Your Must Have Checklist to Selling Online
It seems that most of us have a skewed view of how to sell online. I hear the same issues everyday from people who are trying to sell off their website. They are getting lots of clicks yet they cannot convert those clicks into profitable sales.
Lets take a look at what the most common mistakes people make when they try and sell a product or service on their website. Apply any or all of the following if you ever want to be successful selling online....
1.Budget. Do you have a budget? As with any business online or offline, if you do not have a budget then you will never know what your breakeven point is and you will never know what sales you are aiming for to make this a profitable adventure. Before you blow your cash, define a budget and breakeven point that includes your desired profit and start projecting what online sales you require right now.
2.Website Management. Can you manage your own website? If you cant jump on your site and make crucial and simple changes FOR FREE then you need to change that situation right now. Being able to manage your own site means you always have full control over your online business.
If you have to pay a designer to make changes to text then this is costing you dearly. When you learn to create exciting sales copy, you will need to tweak your copy constantly to see what works and what doesnt so you will need constant access to your own website for free.
We went fishing for an inexpensive program to recommend to our trusted clients that gives you 100% control. We now build sites with this system but you can also build it yourself very easily. Check our www.builmysite.com.au if you want to be able to manage your own website.
3.Copywriting. Is your site content written to sell or catch contacts? Most people write the copy on their pages and it is usually about themselves, their business and sometimes a vague description of what you offer. Instead you should be writing about what your target market wants, their problems and how you (and no one else but you) can solve their problem.
If the text on your site doesnt evoke some kind of emotion when you are reading it, scrap it and write text that evokes excitement in the reader. Check our John Carlton (http://www.marketingrebel.com/) for copywriting tips. Hes a really gutsy American copywriter but I can guarantee you his process works. Or grab our ebooks for a step by step guide on helping you write your website copy.
4.The Funnel. Do you ask your viewers to take action? Do you give them a reason to leave their details with you? Do you have the confidence to ask for the sale?
You have to create a funnel on your site that sends your viewers towards one or two action points; leave your details to receive valuable information or buy the product that you cant live without right now. To learn how to write carefully crafted website content and to structure your site that it subtly leads the viewer towards taking action, grab one of our ebooks here: (http://www.busiwizard.com/smallbusinessebooks.html) for help.
5.Navigation. Is it easy to navigate your website? Is it free of large pretty flashing images and full of useful valuable content?
People dont care about artistic websites. Art is for art galleries. What they want is an answer to their problem and you need to give them that. Does your website convey a message and offer the viewer lots of valuable free information that provides an answer to their problem? Is your site constructed in a way that they can move easily around your site to find this information easily? Is it free of clutter? When thinking about the outlay of your website, consider one thing; How will the viewer feel when trying to find what they want? Can they find it easily? Have I answered their problem easily?
6.Establishing Credibility. Does the viewer find you credible?
With a website you immediately loose the face to face ability to sell your product. You have to do this with your words on a page. You must give the viewer every reason to trust you and you must begin to form a rock solid relationship with this person you will possibly never physically see. How can you do this? You do this by offering lots and lots and oodles of free content or information that will enrich and add value to their lives (this also helps immensely with optimising your website). You offer testimonials from others who know you and can vouch for your service. You catch their details immediately so that you can form a relationship with them. You make sure you have a physical phone number and email clearly visible on every page.
People will vary rarely buy from your website immediately (depending on your price structure). They will want to gain confidence in you and your ability to solve their problem before they spend their hard earned cash. Remember they have probably been surfing the net trying to find an answer to their problem for hours, days or weeks. If they dont believe in you, they wont buy from you. Give them every reason to believe in you and your integrity in business.
7.Tiered product structure. Do you offer a string of products that can be purchased from free inexpensive ($10-$50) more expensive ($50 - $150) expensive ($150 $1000) and so on?
If people can test your service with lower-end products they will be more inclined to buy again from you and you will be in a much better position to form a solid relationship with them.
If you can offer a tiered product range that is geared towards providing solutions to their problems at every level then this will give you great opportunities to reduce your advertising costs in the future. In other words, if you build a great list of people who have bought from you, they will be more inclined to continue to buy from you rather than you spending money on advertising to other people who you do not have a relationship with.
8.Make It Easy, Make It Fun. Can you make their experience on your site easy and even fun?
If you can say it with audio or sell it with a video then by all means do it. You will be saving them time and offering an added bonus to their experience that you competitors may not be. Adding audio and video to your site is almost compulsory if you want to be in the game of internet business in the near future. It need not be an expensive ordeal. Our Ebooks help you create and add simple audio and video tools to your website easily and quickly taking our famous DIY approach.
9.Hits = Buyers??? Lots of Hits Does Not Equal Lots of Relevant Buyers.
People always tell me how much traffic they are getting. Traffic means nothing if it isnt targeted and you cant convert it. To know if it is targeted ie. To know if you are receiving relevant traffic that have a vested interest in buying your product, you must be able to monitor where the traffic is coming from. Something as simple as setting up a Google Analytics report weekly will tell you where your traffic is coming from. It will also tell you what people are typing in to find you and if your site is optimised correctly. You also have to convert that traffic (using ways we have discussed above) if you want to make sales or build your list. If you build a solid list then you will inevitable make sales using the right tools like auto-responders and advertising directly to your list.
10.Customer List. Do you use your list to its advantage?
If you are building a solid list of interested takers on your site, do you have auto responders set up to continually follow up with your new customers? If not you are losing business. There is a fine science to setting up auto responders and timing them to achieve the most from your list. Using a program like AWeber can help you manage your lists and market to your lists more efficiently. To learn more about the auto-responder process, grab one of our small business workbooks.
I hope this information has helped you make some positive changes to your website that will enable you to start selling some products and building solid customer lists. In todays world of internet business, its not enough to slap a pretty site together, add a few products and hope for the best (or stamp your feet when people arent buying from you). To be in the game you have to manage your web business as a separate business in itself. It requires a completely different mindset and set of rules and carefully thought out strategies and testing to determine what works. Dont get left behind online.... make these important changes to your site today, or let us help you through the process...
Our Small Business Workbooks provide all of the necessary information, guidance, tips and resources needed to turn your site into a well oiled marketing machine. As an experience marketing and web coach I can guide you through this process.
Helping You Achieve Success In Business
Heidi Shannon - Professional small business coach, web coach, web designer, marketing expert and author.
by: Heidi Shannon
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