Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Whether you’re an affiliate or a vendor, the number one thing you are constantly striving for is better conversions. You split test everything from the subject lines of your emails to the color of the order button on your pitch page in hopes of bumping up that conversion rate even just half of a point. Why are we all obsessed with conversions? Why do we spend hours poring over our iContact or AWeber statistics and why do we dedicate a huge chunk of our time to constant testing? It’s simple: higher conversions = a higher ROI = more money in your pocket. Not to mention, higher conversions means that affiliates are more likely to promote your product.
To help you in your constant quest for that ever elusive peak conversion rate, this article will show you three sneaky tips that you can implement this week to double your conversion rate.
(Please note: These tactics are not Google-friendly. If Google is a significant traffic source for you, these tips will probably not work for you.)
1) Use the Presale/Follow-up One-Two Punch.
Did you know that 80-85% of people who click the ‘BUY’ button and arrive on the payment form actually end up abandoning it? Some people say the percentage is even higher than that! This could be for many different reasons – from second thoughts to simple issues like “I’m too lazy to go find my credit card now” or “my wife/husband is calling me for dinner” or a random technical issue on the side of the credit card processor. The only thing we need to do in each of these cases is ask the customer to try one more time.
So, instead of sending your prospects directly to the payment form, use a “squeeze page” to collect the customer’s name and email address before you send them to the order form (see example below). You may have heard that adding this extra step in the order process will reduce your conversions. However, I have performed numerous split tests and adding the squeeze page to the order process has never had a negative impact on my conversions.
According to my tests, the ideal pre-sale form must contain the following:
• A request for the customer’s email address, first name and last name. You can (and should) automatically pass this information to the ClickBank order form so that the customer does not have to enter them again.
• Trust Guard seal (or similar type of seal) saying that your business is verified and legitimate.
• Progress bar at the top of the form showing where the customer is at in the order process and what they can expect next.
• A few testimonials, if you are allowed to use them.
• A product image (package) so customers can visualize what they are buying.
According to my split test results, I am able to capture about 85% of my leads this way! This means that for every 1000 customers who click my ‘BUY’ button but do not purchase, I am able to capture the names and email addresses of 850 of them!
These are the hottest leads any vendor can get because all of these people not only Clicked “BUY,” but also cared enough to fill in their details with a clear intention to buy!
All you need to do now is follow up with this list by sending them an email and offering them an incentive to try their order one more time. The incentive could be in the form of a bonus, a price discount or a free give-away. According to my results, 25-30% of them will actually try again and buy it, so you can easily increase your conversions by 30% by implementing this tactic!
2) Use a Video Sales Letter
Using a video sales letter as your main sales pitch, or using it in conjunction with a text sales letter that goes under the video, can easily boost your conversions up to 34% according to my split test results. Video sales letters are easy to create once you know the proven formula and follow it carefully. I believe video sales letters work for several reasons.
First, with text-only sales letters, you’re only able to stimulate one of your customer’s five senses: sight. And in our time-crunched, attention-deficit society, most customers will not take the time to read your sales copy long enough to become truly engaged in your pitch.
With video sales letters, however, you can stimulate a second sense: hearing. Not only can your customers read your pitch, but they can also listen to you say it! Now you can use tone, humor and inflections in your voice to emphasize certain points – all of which help keep the customer’s attention! Moreover, giving customers the ability to hear you can help you gain their trust and give them the sense that they “know” you.
Also, video is still a novelty in marketing since 90% of vendors are still using old school long-form sales letters. Customers are used to those long scrolling pages and they tend to get “sales letter blindness.” Instead of reading your 14-page masterpiece about how you got rich overnight by finding a super trick that no one else has yet discovered, they simply scroll down to see the price and leave your page forever without giving you a chance to build the value first.
With a video sales letter YOU control the selling funnel. You don’t allow customers to fast-forward the video (the equivalent of scrolling to the bottom of your sales page) so they either have to leave or listen to it fully to realize the full potential benefits of your product.
Yes, some customers will be irritated by the lack of controls on the video or they may get bored watching it and leave your page before the video is over. However, don’t worry about losing them because those people were never serious about buying from you anyway. The people who are actually interested enough to watch your video to the end are the ones you care about. They are fully engaged, ready to buy your product, and a large percentage of them WILL convert!
Video sales letters tend to work great in Internet marketing, weight loss, and other smaller niches.
3) Using Exit Chat and Exit Splash
I guess everyone has seen these annoying exit splash pop-ups that appear on many sites. Despite its annoying effect, it really does work and it’s a great way to capture leads! If the prospective customer is not convinced enough to buy your product right then, he may still be interested in getting a freebie that you can offer him on a squeeze page that appears after the exit splash.
According to my tests, using what I call the “video fake-out trick” on the squeeze page can further increase conversions. The “video fake-out trick” involves using a flash player that looks clickable because it contains an image of a play button. If the prospect clicks it, a pop-up appears saying something like “You are really going to love this video. Simply enter your email address in the opt-in form below for instant access.” Don’t play the video BEFORE the customer opts in because most of them won’t find enough time to watch the entire video and will leave before you’re able to capture their information.
I’ve also found that using an exit chat that appears to be a live operator is another great way to boost conversions. Program the “live” chat robotic operator to offer customers a $10 discount and watch your conversions increase 35-40%!
Like you, I am constantly testing and searching for ways to increase my conversion rates. These are some my best tips and I hope they work as well for you as they have for me!
by
Mike Sole
Thank You.
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