Fortunately, there are dozens of ways to make more sales online, many of which can be implemented right away. Some of these tips focus on specific strategies that you can implement, while others are more generalized. In this post, we will discuss several such strategies, so whether you are selling physical goods or running a service-based business.
Be honest in your sales copy. This may seem painfully obvious, but it amazes me how many sites write checks that their products can't cash. Honesty in copying is not only crucial to your business reputation, but it also fosters and encourages trust in your brand. Don't make claims you can't prove and don't use hyperbole lightly - today's consumers are hypersensitive to the nonsense of marketing, so be honest, direct and accessible in all your sales copy, from your home page to your email campaigns.
This principle also applies to the way you position yourself as a company. Have you ever come across a site that is obviously run by one or two people, but features a copy that would be more suitable for a multinational company? This approach not only makes you look silly, it also damages your brand's credibility. If you're a small business, take pride in it and be frank about it - many consumers turn to smaller businesses precisely because of the more individualized and personal service they can offer. Don't try to be something you are not.
Get more ad clicks
If you sell stuff online, ad extensions are no easy feat - this feature (available in both AdWords and Bing) allows you to make your ad bigger with more places to click. And it costs nothing more! And increase the click-through rate of your ad! Incredible true?
Increase Online Sales Using Ad Extensions
In the example above, the links to "Men's Sunglasses" and "Women's Sunglasses" give people looking to buy a new pair of Ray-Ban two additional places to click. This saves the prospect a step and makes it easier and faster to find exactly what they want (so they go to your site instead of the competition's).
Present customer testimonials
In today's social media environment, customer feedback has never been more important. Fortunately, this means that your satisfied customers can provide you with one of the most valuable weapons in their arsenal: testimonials.
Increase Online Sales Include Customer Testimonials
Legions of satisfied customers are considerably more influential than even the best sales copy, so be sure to include testimonials and reviews from your brand evangelists who speak of how awesome you are. These could appear on your product pages, landing pages, pricing page, even your home page. For more information, check out my article on the power of customer testimonials.
Similarly, the inclusion of trust signals can be a great way to increase online sales, as it creates a more favorable perception of your brand in the prospect's mind and can potentially pre-emptively overcome doubts. If your company has any professional accreditation (even something as routine as a certification from the Office of Good Business Practices or a membership to your local chamber of commerce), put these trust signs front and center of your site. If you have an impressive list of satisfied customers, make sure your potential customers know about it.
Create a sense of urgency
It's important to be honest and transparent about who you are and what you do, but there are no rules that prevent you from creating a sense of urgency to persuade potential customers to buy from you right now.
Increase online sales by creating a sense of urgency
Many consumers respond positively to incentives that create a sense of urgency, from special offers for which time is short, to limited-edition products. Although the ways to achieve this are as diverse as the products that can be purchased online, some strategies may be more effective than others. For example, if you don't (or can't) make a limited-edition product to attract prospects, maybe you can offer a financial incentive to customers who commit to making a purchase right away, such as free shipping or a discount.
Increase online sales using ad customizers. Whichever way you decide to go about it, creating a sense of urgency is a great way to increase online sales.
Offer a money back guarantee
Often times, one of the most powerful factors in a consumer's decision not to buy something is risk aversion - the desire to avoid potential loss. Most of the time, this perceived risk is financial. Why should anyone buy your products? What if they don't work, or the customer doesn't like them? Even small purchases can carry the risk of "buyer's remorse," so this objection must be overcome up front by offering a bulletproof money-back guarantee.
The more risk you take out of the prospect's decision, the more likely they are to buy from you, so remove anything that might deter prospects from buying.
Offer fewer options
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For many companies, this concept is simply unthinkable. Surely offering more products is a great way to increase sales! Well, not necessarily. In fact, in many cases, a greater variety of choice can lead to indecision on the part of the prospect, which in turn results in lost sales.
If you have a wide range of products, consider structuring your site or product pages in a way that gives visitors as few options as possible. This reduces the chance that the visitor will be overwhelmed by dozens of different products. This can be done by organizing your products into narrower and narrower categories (an added benefit is that it makes it easier for visitors to find exactly what they are looking for), or you could place greater emphasis on fewer individual products. In either case, remember that the more options you offer, the more likely a customer is to go elsewhere.
Target similar audiences on Facebook
One of the best ways to increase sales online is to use the data you have about your current customers to find people like them. Facebook allows you to do this by targeting lookalike audiences.
Increase online sales by targeting similar audiences on Facebook. Lookalike audiences on Facebook are essentially Facebook users who share characteristics and behaviors with customers in your database. You upload your data to Facebook, which then crosses your own data (and information from third-party data brokers) to create matches based on criteria that you specify. You can also use tracking pixels and app install data to help you create lookalike audiences. This is a great way to put your current customer data to work for you, effectively allowing you to greatly expand your reach with minimal effort and use highly targeted ads to attract Facebook users who are very similar to your customers. current.
Increasing online sales combats shopping cart abandonment. Similar to the previous point about user experience, reducing friction in the checkout process can have an incredible impact on your conversion rates. In the same way that it should make it as easy as possible for visitors to use and navigate your site, you should make it even easier for them to buy what you sell.
Eliminate any unnecessary steps in your buying process that may dissuade a prospect from converting. Skip unnecessary fields on forms. Don't time them and make them start over from the beginning. Here are some more tips on how to combat shopping cart abandonment.
Increase online sales accept various types of payment
Consumers have more choice than ever before in how they actually pay for goods and services, and not everyone prefers to use American Express. By offering more payment options, including new services that are becoming increasingly popular on mobile, you are making it easier for potential customers to give you their money. Of course, it can be a hassle to optimize your site (and the checkout process, as we discussed above) to include all of these options, but doing so is a great way to increase online sales, particularly if your site has heavy mobile traffic. .
Invest in quality product images
There is compelling evidence that well presented food tastes better than sloppily plated dishes. Given the importance of appearance in relation to how we perceive things (including other people), it stands to reason that investing in quality product photography has a similar effect on your site visitors.
Get rid of your landing pages
We've mentioned this strategy before, and it usually raises more than a few eyebrows, to say the least. However, we do not advocate removing landing pages unnecessarily, but rather optimizing your online ads to align with the number of consumers who actually browse the web and shop online.
Increase online sales using Facebook 'click to call' ads. Call-only campaigns on Facebook and AdWords are a great example of a situation where removing the traditional landing page makes perfect sense. Most people don't want to spend several minutes browsing the pages on their mobile device, they just want to get in touch with your business.
Increase online sales AdWords call-only campaigns. By using call-only ads, you are making it easier for potential customers to contact your business, completely eliminating one of the most difficult stages of the classic online sales funnel, and potentially increasing the volume of calls to your business, one of the most valuable sources of contacts for many companies. The people who call you are practically begging you to sell them something.
Try Gmail Ads
After years of in and out of beta, Gmail ads are FINALLY available to everyone. This is an exciting way to reach prospects and increase sales.
Increase Online Sales Using Gmail Ads. If you're already reaching customers when they search and when they're browsing the social network, why not go the extra mile and hit them while they're in their mailboxes, too? One of the most effective ways to use Gmail ads is to target your competitor's keywords. People who are in the market for your competitors' products are receiving emails from your competitors mentioning your brand terms right now. By jotting down those same terms, you can show up in their inboxes and hope they change their mind.
Maintain consistency of messaging across campaigns and your site
Have you ever clicked on a PPC ad that caught your eye, only to be taken to an irrelevant landing page (bad) or the main page of the site (worse)? Did you end up buying what you were looking for from that site? Probably not.
Increase online sales message matching. An Air Canada display ad, and its accompaniment.
Increase Online Sales Message Match Landing Page
If a user clicks on an ad for a specific product or service, the page they go to should be about that specific product or service, not a related category, or a special offer for another product, but that specific product. Make sure your message is relevant to all paid social campaigns and the pages associated with them, so that ad clicks actually turn into sales.
Answer every question and address every objection in your copy
One of the most dangerous traps you can fall into when trying to sell online is making assumptions about your potential customers' knowledge of your product, service, or even market. Many companies mistakenly believe that their customers know more about what they are selling than they actually do, leading to unanswered questions or objections that are not addressed, which can hurt sales.
Consider all the questions that occur to you about your product, and answer them in your copy on your product pages. Likewise, think of all the possible objections a prospective customer might have about your offer, and preemptively overcome them in your copy. This may seem impractical, but remember that you are not bombarding prospects with unnecessary information, you are giving them exactly what they need to make an informed decision. This approach is also an excellent exercise for writing a tight, clear, and concise copy. If you are concerned that there is too much copy, you can always trim it. Just keep the focus on the customer and how it benefits them, not why your company is so impressive.
Give away everything you can for free
People love free things, and the more you give away, the more highly potential customers will perceive you and your brand, which can result in more online sales. Increase online sales by giving away free stuff. Impressive!
Look at your current offers. Can you give away something for free? If you're in the software business like we are, it's easy to offer free, no-obligation trials of your software. Even if you're not, you can give away samples, trial memberships, two-for-one offers, and other reward-based incentives. Giving away free stuff is not only a great way to improve people's perception of your business, but it's also a great way to introduce them to your must-haves and entice them to buy more.
Create and manage detailed shopping characters
I'm going to go ahead and assume you're already creating shopper characters (because if you don't, you're in real trouble), but I'm going to challenge you to create even more detailed shopper characters than in the past. It is sure to benefit you in your performances.