Date:December16, 2004
Article Written By: Johan Hedin Managing Director for Marketing Ignite
Place: Bangkok

Find Out How Can Sell More On Your Website Using Proven
Online Marketing Strategies And Web Psychology?

In this article, I will cover how to boost the sales once the visitor arrives to your website. Just driving visitors to your website is just half the battle (or less). Your website success is dependent on how well of a job your website sell your products and services to your prospects.

First, if you ever want to increase sales and cut cost you must know website conversion ration (a.k.a sell through the ratio of visitors to buyers).

For instance, let's say you receive one order for every 100 visitors to your website conversion ratio (or sell-through) is 100:1 or 1%.

Knowing this number is essential because you will able to know how much you can spend in advertising and make a return. Surprisingly, many website owners do not even know their conversion ratio and thus waste lot of advertising money. So to break it down even further, you also need to know your CPO.

CPO refers to cost per order. If a $100 ad sells 20 widgets, your CPO is 100 dividends by 20, or $5 per order. Take that CPO of $5 and factor in your cost of employee, say $2 per order. You're calculated CPO is now $7. Once you know your CPO it's easy to see if your selling prices make sense. Let's take your $7 CPO and add $3 to cover the cost of making a widget. That brings you up to $10. Would it make sense to sell your widgets at $12? Most likely not. You should either re-evaluate your selling price, or find ways to lower your CPO. It is critical that you calculate your CPO in order to determine your pricing model and whether you can market to a particular target audience.

So once you know your “website math”, it's time to make an in depth analysis of your website and implement the blow strategies to increase the conversion ratio. There are numerous ways to increase your website conversion ration but there is not enough space to list them all in this article. As you keep working on improving your website conversion ration, just remember there is no 100% perfect website out there, but it can always get better.

Once the web visitor arrives to your website, you have around 3 seconds to grab his/ her attention and interest. If you fail to create attention and interest immediately, the user will simply click away and you may lose him/her forever.

The information above the fold (the web page you see before scrolling down the page) is the prime selling space of your website and what you put in it will make or break the success of your website. So to start off, you need to craft a riveting headline that pulls in the visitor to your website. According to David Ogilvy (the world famous advertising executive) says, “5 times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. It follows that, unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90% of your money”.

This means your headline has to be a killer headline (or else they the visitor will click away) and the main purpose of a headline is to get the reader sufficiently interested to read on to the web copy to the first paragraph. Your headline should convey strong benefits of interest to your audience and it must answer the reader's unspoken question, “what in it for me”. Did you know that just changing a single world in a headline alone can make a dramatic difference in reader response.

The first paragraph should maintain the momentum and the emotion that the headline created. It needs to follow through with the idea presented in the headline because that's what compelled the reader to read in the first place. Therefore, the first paragraph must immediately start delivering on the promise made by the headline. The first paragraph is crucial because that's where the reader are likely to stop if you don't give them enough reason to read on to the next paragraph and so on. So as you can see, you want to lead the reader down the intended linear sales path with minimal distractions and minimal click able links that does not support the sales process until he/she signs up for your services.

Since you probably won't know who is visiting your website, you also need to make it a dialogue and appeal to their needs. Too many websites makes the mistake of creating a monologue and fail to communicate with the user. If you create a dialogue, the user will say to him/herself “hey, this guy really understands and listens to me” and the more you can appeal in this fashion the more you will sell. At the same time, you also need to inject emotion into the web copy, built in psychological devices that will motivate the prospects to buy.

Next, don't make the mistake of introducing the price to early in the web copy. Let the visitor go through the linear sales path on your website and then make the decision. If you announce your price to early, the user may think you are too expensive without knowing what he/she I actually getting. Just think of your website like a sales person. A successful sales person does not present the price first and ten present the product.

Make sure to use testimonials in strategically placed areas on your website to reinforce your selling arguments. They add credibility because they are actual words of real person and the user can identify with him or her.

Lastly, ask for the sale and make it easy to order. Many websites make the mistake of not asking for the sale. If you don't give the user an easy way to respond or asking for it, you won't get the sale. You should also inject urgency by giving the reader a reason to act now. For instance, receive a free bonus or a discount if you respond on or before a certain date. You can also notify that prices will go up after this date. The close should re emphasize what the reader gains by responding quickly, or loses by delaying his action on your offer.

This article is written by Johan Hedin, Managing Director at Marketing Ignite located in Phuket (Thailand). Johan Hedin has an MBA from United States and 7 years experience in website promotion and has helped small and major online businesses around the world to achieve Internet success. For any question regarding this article, he can be reached using the the form below or by phone:+66(89)063-2858 or please use the contact form below.