5 Specific Ways to Increase the Amount of Visitors Turned Customers on Your
E-Commerce web site
By Matt Inglot
Five specific ways that you can increase the sales that your online business
receives through a more effective e-commerce website.
1) Show off Your Testimonials
You have a product with satisfied users so show this fact off! People
naturally want assurance that what you're selling actually delivers the
expected results and they will only believe a sales pitch so far.
Prominently listing testimonials provides the 3rd party opinions of
satisfied users to your potential customer directly on your site. It helps
if the testimonials provide specific benefits that your customers received
and problems that you solved, rather than a generic "This is an excellent
product!".
If you don't have testimonials handy then start collecting them. Whenever
you receive a positive bit of feedback ask if you may publish it in your
marketing material. You can also simply request testimonials from customers
that have let you know are highly satisfied.
2) Provide a Money Back Guarantee
It takes a leap of faith the first time, but if you have an excellent
product then it's difficult to go wrong with this technique. Money back
guarantees are everywhere because they are highly effective at transferring
the risk of the transaction from the customer to you. It allows the sale to
be completed and the customer to use the product even if there are still
lingering doubts about this being the correct solution. If your product
delivers on its promises you can rest assured that virtually all your
customers will keep it, and that the new sales gained will far outweigh
having to give the occasional refund.
Be sure to make your guarantee highly visible, particularly in areas on your
site where the customer is deciding to buy or not to buy. You will
completely defeat the purpose of this selling tool if you choose to hide it
as fine print at the bottom - the unsatisfied customers will still find it
and take you up on it, but you won't be receiving any new sales from your
generous invisible policy.
3) Setup Referral Programs
Rewarding people for bringing in customers and setting up formal programs
for reselling a product could gain you a whole new sales force. There are a
number of ways to do this such as providing incentives to existing customers
to refer new business, setting up formal reseller programs, or having an
affiliates referral system such as Amazon's Incentives are usually monetary
but sometimes it is much more appropriate to provide extra service or simply
some formal recognition (like a special ranking within your product's
community forums). Money is not the sole motivator!
There's no doubt that you should leverage the power of referrals but the
trick is choosing the system that fits well with what you are selling. You
don't want to implement a system that makes your customers feel as if you
are bribing them, and you don't want your product sold through questionable
channels. Give it some thought and perhaps experiment with a couple systems.
It may even make sense to have separate programs for referrals from
customers and for people who wish to be resellers of your product.
4) Addons, Tie-ins, Recommendations, Upselling, etc
You've sold the customer on your product and they are ready to pay for it.
At this point you have a tremendous untapped opportunity to increase the
size of your sale and the satisfaction of your customer by a number of
techniques for offering additional or better products. If a customer is
about to purchase some coffee maybe they would like a new french press to
make it in, or try a delicious new flavor for half price as a check-out
special? Does the customer know that you offer installation of the new
fridge? Or how about a special 15% off on the deluxe model?
Two well-known online companies that aggressively utilize these concepts are
Amazon> and GoDaddy <Play around on their sites and pay attention to how
many times you have the option of increasing the size of your purchase.
5) Start an Opt-in Newsletter
Newsletters are a great way to reach those customers who wish to keep your
product in their mind and learn when you have something new. Thanks to
e-mail the costs of sending one out are now minimal, but you do wish to make
sure that you use a reputable newsletter mailing service and that you employ
a double opt-in subscription service (people have to sign-up for the
newsletter and then confirm through a link in a confirmation e-mail). You
don't want to turn a fantastic opportunity into a horror story of being
accused of spamming.
People need a reason to sign-up for your newsletter. Special subscriber-only
discounts and early-bird offers are one way of doing this. You can also
include valuable industry information in each newsletter, along with
information about your latest product or deal. When choosing the content of
your newsletter, ask yourself if you are providing genuine value to the
receiver or if you are just trying to make a quick buck. The latter will
usually fail and you'll lose the respect of subscribers.
Don't Forget to Test
The above are methods that countless successful online sellers use. Simply
shop around on the net for a bit and you will find multiple examples of each
point. However not every technique will provide the same results for
everyone. Be sure to always have a way of testing your new additions to make
sure that they are providing the results you desire.
If you require any assistance in implementing these features or if you would
like to have a brand new website that makes use of these principles let me
know I am an experienced website developer who can help you achieve your
online goals. I offer reasonable rates and will provide a small discount for
reaching me through my blog.
source:
mattinglot.com/blog/2006/07/11/5-specific-ways-to-increase-the-amount
-of-visitors-turned-customers-on-your-e-commerce-website/