5 STEPS TO INCREASE ONLINE SALES
Article by Sheena White
5 Steps to Increase Online Sales
Whether you’re selling a product or a service, chances are that you want to sell more online. Who doesn’t, right? Well good news! Shoppers are looking to buy online more than ever before. It’s the reason that Black Friday in 2016 saw record online sales!
People want to buy online. It’s just a matter of making sure they can find what you’re offering and positioning your products and services in a way that will convert window shoppers into buyers.
Let me share with you my top five methods for increasing the success of your online sales.
1. Change up your headline.
Your headline should always feature some kind of benefit to the end user. For example, if you’re selling a program that will teach them how to live gluten free, you don’t want to focus on what they will learn in the program (although that’s certainly important to include in the copy). Your headline should focus on how they will look or feel after going gluten free.
Kate White, the former Editor-In-Chief at Cosmopolitan, understood how pivotal headlines were.
She grew the circulation by 700,000 and took it to #1 on the newsstands during the 14 years she spent with the magazine. And she did all that by using killer headlines.
And don’t be afraid to keep changing your headlines. Remember: test, test, and test again.
2. Highlight your own credibility.
I recently visited a potential client’s website where on the home page she gave a brief look at her background. There was very little information about how she came to be a life coach or what made her qualified to do that job.
You need to lead with your credibility and show everyone what a badass you are!
There are two ways to do this.
The best way is to highlight customer testimonials!
Companies understand that while their own descriptions are important, peer reviews are one of the most impactful items that can be placed on a product page. It’s the reason you get all those (sometimes annoying) emails asking for reviews after you make a purchase on Amazon.
If you don’t have testimonials already, reach out to past customers asking for them. You could also ask some of your peers to try out your product or service for free in exchange for an honest testimonial.
Remember: a good testimonial is worth its weight in gold.
The other way you can highlight your credibility is to have a section dedicated to your credentials and experience. If you’re writing a full length sales letter you could include this as part of your personal story, where you explain how you came to be where you are today.
3. Increase website traffic.
Now, I realize that this may not necessarily be an easy task. However, it stands to reason that if you’re sending more quality traffic to your website that you will be able to increase sales. Take a look at the different ways you’re getting traffic – organic, paid, social media – and identify which one has the highest conversion.
Consider turning up the dial and investing more time and money in the traffic sources that have the highest return on your investment.
Also test sending traffic to somewhere other than JUST product pages. If you’re dealing with cold traffic, people who have never heard of you before, you’ll likely have to “introduce yourself” by sharing your knowledge first. Try sending them to a helpful blog post or get them on your email list before trying to sell them something.
4. Write for the scrollers!
Social media has turned us into a scrolling society. We scroll through the newsfeed on Facebook, through pictures on Instagram, and, if you can keep up, the newsfeed on Twitter. We are short on time and patience and unless we are genuinely interested in a topic we’re more likely to just scan web pages than read the in depth.
Write with the scanners in mind!
• Use bullets, bolded text, italics or even underlines to highlight important features and benefits.
• Write paragraphs of varying lengths to increase readability.
• Use tools like Grammarly or the Hemingway app to make sure your sentences are easy to read (and if you’re using the Hemingway app aim for a 7th grade reading level or lower).
5. Set up email auto-responders.
Do you have a follow up process for your email subscribers? What about customers? Or even people who abandoned their shopping cart before checking out?
Typically you’ll have to be in your email contacts multiple times before they will purchase from you.
Give new email subscribers a reason to visit your site by sending them a series of auto-responders. The same goes with current customers. Give them a reason to go back to your site.
Also, the more you can make them offers that are specific to their interests (and past purchases) the better your conversions will be.
Want more training on how to use your writing to sell your products and services online? Check out this three-part training series to learn how to increase your online sales with amazing writing (that sounds more like you).