9 Effective Ways To Increase Sales Online
- Updated on: 2021-05-06
- Read original article here
Everyone who sells products or services online wants to increase sales as much as possible.
The question is, how to do it?
To start with, it’s crucial that you have a smooth sales funnel in place and a website that’s optimized for online selling.
There are many things you can do to optimize your website to increase sales – but here are a few things that are important if you want to increase your sales online:
Additionally, always respond to questions and comments FAST from prospects and customers – on your website and your Social Media channels.
Now besides having a well working and optimized sales funnel and website, you have to position yourself right in the market, you must know your audience, continuously engage and build rapport with them – before you try to sell something to them.
Top marketers I follow and learn from, favor different sales mediums and online traffic sources. Some favors blogging, some use mainly video marketing or podcasting and then some use only Facebook or Instagram etc.
But what they all agree on is that you have to know and understand your target audience.
If you can understand the psychology behind your target customer’s decisions – you can find ways to tip the scales in your favor.
Here’s a FREE worksheet that can help you to get to know your target customers => How to find your perfect customers online
I’ll now share some of the best strategies to increase sales online that I’ve learnt from top online marketers likeTanya Aliza, Tyson Zahner, Neil Patal, Tim Erway and Misha Wilson.
Position yourself (or your business) first – BEFORE you try to sell anything.
You do this by providing useful tips, information and smart solutions to your target audience. To be able to do this, you have to know and understand your audience.
What problems or struggles do they have that your product or service can help them with? Create a lead magnet (a free giveaway) that you can offer your audience for free – that helps them solve a part of their problem – related to the product you sell. (see=>Lead Magnets)
Make sure your sales page and other marketing materials explain how your product or service can solve their problem(s) and get the results they want.
Build up your audience’ interest and desire BEFORE the pitch.
To get your audience’s attention and interest, don’t talk about facts and features of the product you’re selling. Instead, focus on the PROBLEMS they have that your product can help them solve, and the result they will get from having your product.
One classic example of this is that if you want to sell me your weed killer – don’t talk to me about the ingredients of your weed killer. To grab my full attention, start talking to me about my crap grass! A headline like: “Are you frustrated with your crap grass?” will get my attention for sure, if that’s a big problem for me. You can also talk about the end result – a green beautiful lawn without crap grass – that your weed killer can help me get.
Try to paint a picture of how your customer’s life will be as the RESULT of buying your product (or service). Social proof such as testimonials is like “the secret sauce” to help you sell more.
It can be a costly mistake to think that your customers know more about what you’re selling than they actually do – it may result in unanswered questions or objections that are failed to be addressed – both of which can harm sales.
Consider every question you can possibly think of about your product, and answer it in your copy on your product pages.
Similarly, write down all objections you can think of that your prospects may have in their minds about your product – and address them in your presentation and sales letter/ video.
Start thinking about how you can address objections such as:
“This seems interesting – but it seems too techie and too complicated to me…”
“I won’t have time to do this… “
“This is too expensive for me.”
“I want to think about it…”
Make sure you have the right posture.
Instead, be polite and professional, and try to have an attitude that says:
“It’s ok if you’re not interested in my product. I don’t “need” you – but you need my product.”
Make sure to choose an appropriate sales medium for the product or service you sell.
If you’re selling a low cost product, you can be successful selling it straight from your website without any further efforts necessary.
However, if you sell a medium or high cost product, from $500-$1000 and up, you can’t generally speaking expect to sell it online – without some form of personal interaction.
What usually works well with more complicated or expensive products is to use a video presentation or a webinar, that explains your product (/service), its benefits and how it can solve the problem your target audience is struggling with – or how it can help them fulfill their desires.
Then at the end of the presentation or the webinar, they can either fill in a form and request more information or ask to be contacted directly by a sales person. Depending on your product of service, you can also use an application form. This is an excellent way to educate and pre-sell potential customers, and it will increase your sales conversions.
This has partly to do with your relationship with a prospect– how well does he / she know you and your products?
Let’s say it’s the first time a prospect is visiting your website – and you sell coaching classes.
You will most likely not sell any coaching class to this prospect if you directly ask for $1.999 for a 1-day coaching. This is not an “appropriate request”.
If it’s a prospect who doesn’t know who you are, you must start with pre-selling, provide useful information, and build up interest and desire for your product – and trust in you / your company. It’s always useful to show testimonials from your other clients and customers.
On the other hand, for another website visitor on your website – who is familiar with who you are, knows the immense experience and knowledge you have and that you’ve helped many others achieve results that he / she wants… then to request $1.999 for a full day coaching could be an appropriate request.
Whether or not it’s an appropriate request has also to do with the price level of your offer.
The more money a product costs, the stronger relationship you must have with your prospect and target audience for them to take action and buy.
For a free or low cost product – a website visitor doesn’t really have to have to know, like and trust you.
But for higher priced products – they must know you (or your company) and have a certain level of trust and like. It requires far more touch points with you (or your company) and your website before they finally click the “buy” button.
Make sure that your prospect’s PERCEIVED value of what you offer is always way more than what they are actually going to PAY.
You need to show and explain to your prospects and customers, that the VALUE of your offer is much MORE than what they will pay.
One smart way to do this is to create Value Stacks, which basically means a list of bonuses. You do this by adding a list of valuable things (extra tools, resources, trainings) congruent with what you offer – that they get for FREE when they buy your product or service.
Next to each free thing you offer – you add a column that says: “Real Value” to tell what it’s worth in $$$.
Then you add these values together and say:
“So you’re not only getting this product / service / membership whey you buy / join xyz here. You’re ALSO getting 1, 2 AND 3 with a real value of $xxx for FREE”.
What things you use in your value stack list depends of course on what product or service or membership (or business opportunity/ team) you are selling – but here are some ideas of what you can use to add more value to your main offer:
The thing is, that when you offer someone something of value for free, you initiate reciprocity.
And reciprocity is a psychological principle that triggers people’s desire to return a favor. It makes people more willing to buy from YOU.
So try to come up with at least three things that you can offer your customers and prospects when they buy from you. It will make your product or service so much more valuable and irresistible to them – and it will differentiate you from your competitors.
Sometimes marketers think the next step is so clear and obvious for website visitors and prospects – so that they don’t ask for the sale.
Don’t assume your website visitors know what the next step is – be clear – tell them what to do next and ASK for the sale!
Make sure you use urgency and scarcity in your marketing, they are both very powerful psychological motivators to get your prospects to take action NOW.
To offer something for a limited time only is one way to create a sense or urgency:
“This offer is only valid for the next 3 days/ 24 hours / 20 minutes, then the price goes up 10%/ 50%/ 100%…”
You can implement scarcity by saying that you only have a limited number available of a product – or a limited number of available positions for a course etc:
“We now only have 3 places left in this coaching course starting next month. The next course starts next year – IF we will offer this course again next year…”
We tend to want things MORE when we feel that we may lose them…!
This FREE video explains how to create a successful business online – whether you’re brand new or already have an online business.
I do hope you got value from this post and that it will help YOU to increase your sales online in your business by implementing some of the strategies and techniques mentioned in this article.
=> Find and get to know your best customers online
