20 Simple Things To Do Today To Dramatically Increase Your Website Sales

Need to increase your website sales? There are major things
you can do which often produce incredible results. Things
like having your entire website professionally rewritten.
However, there are many little things you can do which also
generate increases in sales. Through a process of continuous
testing and making continuous improvements you CAN increase
sales! Combined, the results from making simple improvements
can be more impressive than from making the major changes.
Today I'd like to offer (in no special order) 20 simple
things you can do to improve your website sales . Next week
I'll offer 20 more tips.

1. Review your product lineup. Ask yourself what is selling
and what isn't and honestly examine why. If a product simply
isn't needed don't waste your time promoting it. If a product
is producing very little revenue for you, find another product
to promote. Devote your time and effort to products that are
producing for you. Don't be too stubborn to admit that
perhaps you chose the wrong product to promote in the first
place.

2. Revamp your ezine's welcome message to reinforce the
decision to subscribe and perhaps introduce one of your
products. Don't turn the welcome message into a sales letter,
but do start familiarizing your subscribers with your product
lineup. To reinforce the decision to subscribe, perhaps give
the new subscriber an unannounced gift (make sure it is of
real value). I also include a sample copy of my ezine with
the welcome message. This really serves to confirm what the
subscriber will be getting each issue and if it's not what he
expected, he should unsubscribe. You do want targeted
subscribers and you don't want list members who don't want to
receive your material.

3. Review your ezine's unsubscribe message. Since you WILL
get unsubscribes, make the confirmation message a positive
experience. Perhaps provide another bonus, some useful tips,
or tell them about a special you are running. This may be
your last contact with this subscriber so use it wisely
(without annoying the person).

4. Follow up purchases with an unexpected gift. Your
customers are so use to having lots of sometimes useless
bonuses promised to them that it is a pleasant surprise when
they get an unexpected bonus that is really useful to them.
Several well-know mentors of mine use this "under-promise
and over-deliver" model. It dramatically reduces "buyer
remorse" and reinforces the decision to buy your product.
Using this technique you are well on your way to building
lots of repeat sales. Satisfied repeat customers often make
many large purchases :-)

5. Review your order handling process - from the web copy
through to the delivery of the product. Place an order and
have others place orders to evaluate the experience. Look
for points in the sequence where a prospect might be turned
off. Is there something about any page in the sequence that
might generate doubt or negative feelings in the prospects
mind? A significant number of customers abandon orders at
the order form or during the checkout process. Examine
yours closely to reduce this happening on your website. Make
sure your order process steps the customer through
step-by-step while providing continuous reassurance.

6. Join image-enhancing organizations such as the Better
Business Bureau or the International Council Of Online
Professionals. To be accepted as a member of either
organization requires that you ascribe to certain
professional and ethical standards. You must also maintain
a very high level of professional business standards to
remain a member of either organization. Your potential
customers will be reassured when they see that you conduct
your business at this level of professionalism. Membership
in such organizations pay for themselves many times over.

7. Look for broken links on your site. Having webpages load
with broken images or having a visitor get a lot of file not
found messages can create a negative impression. Your web
logs should reveal "file not found" hits. Fix these to
improve sales. Also, periodically surf your site to confirm
everything on your page functions as you intended. This is a
good chore to get one of the kids to do :-) There are also
software programs and services which check for broken links.
Use these!

8. Focus on fewer products. If you try to promote too few
products and "spread yourself too thin" you will generally do
a poor job. Instead really get to know all of the features
of your products and also get to know all of the promotional
tools available for that product. If you are marketing
affiliate products, there should be lots of tools for you to
use in your promotions. Test a variety of these tools and
stick with the winners. It's much easier to rave about and
market a product that you know inside-out.

9. Include inserts with physically delivered products. If
you have any products which are actually mailed to your
customers such as hard copy books, cassettes, etc. make sure
that you include a brochure or flyers for other products in
the package. These customers are your best prospects for
repeat sales. When they open a package they've been waiting
for, and are thrilled with the product, they are instantly in
a receptive buying mood. As an example, I sell cookbooks from
one of my websites. I offer both ebooks and hard copy. With
each hard copy shipped I include a flyer encouraging
purchasers to consider giving copies of this book as a gift.
I also encourage purchasers of the books to order copies of
video cassettes demonstrating many of the dishes. It works
like magic.

10. When you get new subscribers or customers make sure your
"thank you page" offers them a path to continue experiencing
your site. Perhaps you offer them some other special report,
tell them about a product you really love, offer to up-sell
them, or offer free access to a customer-only section of your
website. Suggest where the customer should go next -
instead of just leaving them "hanging."

11. Consider offering the option to phone-in orders. If
your volume and profit margin justifies it, maybe you want
to use a full-time employee or answering service to take
orders over the phone. Many customers are uneasy about
entering their credit card information into a webpage but
don't hesitate to give it over the phone. Hearing a voice
on the phone is reassuring. If your merchant account
agreement allows this and you're equipped to key in orders
don't discount this option too quickly.

12. Consider offering the option to fax in orders. If you
don't want to have a full-time order taker sitting around,
this may be a good option. This also gives you a hard copy
of the order, along with a signature, which some credit card
processors require.

13. Consider offering the option to mail in orders. This
is another option you should not overlook. Some customers
will not have credit cards but may want to order using a
money order or check. I get a steady flow of mail orders,
and the joy of opening letters containing orders never seems
to go away.

14. Re-examine your price. Sales often increase
dramatically when you make minor price changes. Perhaps
raising your price will imply a higher quality to your
prospects and therefore increase sales. Maybe lowering your
price slightly will increase sales revenue by more than the
decrease in per-unit profit. This is a point that it
generally makes business sense to test.

15. Stop offering so many freebies! Ask yourself if you want
customers with money to spend or those who aren't willing to
pay for quality products and services. If you want to attract
primarily "freebie seekers" then you need to have a system for
eventually converting them into some type of revenue stream.
You must pre-qualify your prospect even when giving them
something for nothing to confirm you are reaching the ideal
customer.

16. Make sure your promotions are really targeted. Begin by
writing our a description of your ideal target customers.
This ties in with number 15 somewhat. You may even go as far
as stating in your ad the type of prospect you don't want.
Many marketers of high-end items do this. It saves a lot of
resources and allows them to focus on prospect who want what
they offer, can afford what they offer, and are willing to
purchase what they offer. Factor this philosophy into your
marketing plan.

17. Have a trusted advisor review your web copy and/or ad
copy for credibility/believability. This advisor should be
familiar with copy writing and with your industry. You
should seek honest unbiased feedback. We often overlook
obvious flaws. It's a common practice to ask for site
reviews on discussion forums. The drawback to that is that
you may get opinions from those who aren't qualified to
offer good advice.

18. Make sure you have a call to action. Your website or
sales letter should stir your prospect into a buying frenzy.
It should also tell them exactly how to order. It should
tell them to click the link or pick up the phone or print
out and mail in the order form. Many people must be given
specific instructions before they take action. Tell them to
do it now.

19. Review your guarantee. You should only market product
that are of sufficient quality that your buyers are unlike
to be dissatisfied. Therefore you should offer a very
strong guarantee. Guarantees which have a lot of conditions
or reservations only build doubt in the prospect mind. "No
questions asked, 100% money-back guarantees" generate
substantially more sales and do not increase returns.
Longer guarantees also tend to reduce returns since the
customer does not feel an urgency to decide if he's satisfied
with the product.

20. Make sure your ezine and website tie together and work
synergistically. An ezine that reminds prospect to revisit
your website and tell them about new products or features
tend to increase sales. Websites that encourage ezine
subscriptions give you a tool for staying in touch with
visitors who would otherwise never return to your site.

In the next issue, I'll give you 20 more tips for increasing
your website sales. For now, carefully consider each of the
above tips. Those that are appropriate for you should be
implemented right away. Some of these will give you
immediate, measurable results. Take action today to make
your business a super success.

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