The use of the internet to generate leads and sales is the most direct form of direct response marketing around. Every element of your offer, your presentation and your traffic source can be tested and optimized with lightning speed compared to traditional DM (direct marketing).
As long as DM exists, and as long as the internet exists there is a lot of fuzz about how to increase conversions. Why is that? Part of it is because the so called “gurus” want create some smoke curtains to make things actually sound more complex than they are. Selling their courses is the reason for their existence so it’s in their best interest.
On the other hand, if it were easy to achieve record breaking conversion with every campaign you create, there would be absolutely no need to read advice, tips, tricks, case studies and instructions provided by well known direct marketers. Therefore, there is a science and an art to achieving high website conversion ratios.
This is no rocket science. And the art will develop with learning, experimenting, and evaluating your results. The science part is by far the most important part. It will be the basis for your results. If you don’t have the science in place, you will never master the art.
But as has been said, the science of getting high website conversion ratios is no rocket science, so let’s grab the bull by the horns and see what three of the most important elements are to achieving high ratio website conversions.
Tip 1: One page, One goal
When your website is e-commerce related it has been proven over and over that pages that have only one goal outperform all others. In other words, it’s hard to combine the goal of making a sale with the goal of getting people interested to leave their name and email address on one page.
Having two goals on one page requires communicating two messages at the same time. What do you think will happen? The messages will be distorted and both will have their effectiveness diluted.
Does this mean that it’s not wise to have an opt-in box on a sales page? Generally, NO! Of course there are some advanced techniques that can make an exception to this rule, but this would be subject to heavy testing and fall far outside of the scope of this article.
Tip 2: Use of Technology
OK, but you still want to sell and to generate a list of prospective clients. Well you’re a marketer, right? In the category of ‘basics’ this is an important one. Across the years multiple solutions have been found to solve this problem. The use of technology is very important to win the conversion game! Here are some popular solutions.
Have you ever heard of a “squeeze page”? This is a web page that is positioned before your sales presentation where your visitors are “teased” in to filling out their name and email address to qualify for the sales presentation page. This technique has been extremely effective, currently it seems like results are declining.
Another technique that’s currently winning popularity is presenting a second offer box upon people leaving the sales presentation page. This is basically a software tool that ‘senses’ your page visitor is leaving. At that point it opens and shows the visitor a relevant second offer.
This could be a light version, a discounted version, re-emphasizing a strong benefit or product feature etc. This type of software comes in various forms and price categories. Do you want to know a secret? One of the highest performing scripts out there is free. You can grab it right now for free at www.ReturnOnTraffic.com.
Tip 3: Test
You must have heard it over and over. Test, test, and re-rest. Actually it is surprising how few people still do not do this. If there is one thing that you want to do after reading this article, it’s testing, testing and testing. Contrary to popular belief it’s not the test of your headline that’s most important, the test of your offer is. What do you offer, how do you present it, at what price, how do you prove the quality, how do you deliver, and what system and business model do you use? Test, test, and test and you WILL succeed!
Yes it takes time, but it’s not rocket science. Ramp up the pace of testing and you will succeed on-line, big time!
Tip 4: Search Engines
It is impossible for us to create a banner ad reaching every individual and addressing their specific interest. So if you know the interests of your visitors, you can easily tailor your message to your audience. If we lay aside marketing theory, it means that you can write a few well-aimed lines explaining how they can benefit from using search engine optimization tools.
For example, if your visitors are webmasters interested in reaching the top of search engine results, tell them how they can do it by placing a direct affiliate link to your "search engine optimization tool" rather than to the company's sell page.
I recently discovered Web CEO, an excellent tool for search engine optimization. What I love about this program is that it gives me everything I need to run and promote my site. I recommend you to Download Free Edition Now from their Web site.
About the co-author:
Pieter van der Gulik is a professional ‘undercover’ on-line marketer operating in various businesses such as consulting, affiliate marketing, outsourcing and software production. He is co-founder of the mega effective free exit traffic converting tool ‘Traffic Revenue BoosterTM’ that can be downloaded at www.ReturnOnTraffic.com.
