If you are doing online marketing, then you are constantly searching for
a way to make more sales. There are basically two ways to do this. The first
one is to increase your reach, target audience, subscribers base, etc. The
second way is to increase your conversion rate. Actually, you should try to
do both, but getting a high conversion rate is a very important goal and comes
first. It's not very easy to do, that's for sure, but there are five simple
concepts you should learn about the conversion rate.
1. Always do consider the source.
The source is a place where your visitors come from. It may be a search engine,
another website, your e-mail message, banner advertisement or even offline
advertising campaign. Importantly, people that come from different sources
often constitute completely different audience segments, which results in
different conversion ratios. Even if the source is the same search engine,
folks who enter "buy PC games" are much more likely to make a purchase
than folks who entered "free PC game downloads." Work on increasing
the share of people who come from sources that consistently show high conversion
ratios.
2. Learn as much as you can about your audience.
Once again, your audience may be comprised of completely different segments.
The most simple way is to divide your audience by income, gender, age or marital
status. Each segment has to be marketed to differently. If you understand
each segment's likes and dislikes, fears and obstacles to making a purchase,
you will increase your conversion rate significantly.
3. Make it easy to buy your product.
First, the price. It has to be clearly visible. Plus, include all additional
information (like shipping options and money back guarantee), if applicable.
The second question is where is that buy button? Most people won't bother
looking for it. Keep in mind that folks prefer buying from the websites, not
e-mails!
4. Know the statistics.
OneStat.com reports 54.60 percent of Web site visitors look through only one
or two pages on a site before leaving; 16.56 percent view two to three pages;
and 9.52 percent view only one page. That's over 80 percent! The deeper a
visitor goes, the more likely he or she is to make a purchase. Design your
website more "buyer friendly". What if a large portion of your audience
is opening multiple pages (5+). That's good, isn't it? Actually, most likely
they are confused and can't find what they are looking for.
5. Make it obvious.
The whole process of buying should be simple. As should be the reason for
making a purchase. Incentives do this just perfectly. "Buy today and
save $10". That's pretty compelling reason not to postpone a purchase.
Next week: Practical tips for growing your
subscriber list
Prev week: E-mail list segmentation