12 Quick Tips to Ramp up Your Website Conversion.
mkLINK Internet Marketing Tips(21 Feb 2007)

Get More Customers for the Same Cost.

1-Sell on Emotion - NOT Logic.
There's an expression - "people don't buy the sausage -
they buy the sizzle!"
There's a lot of truth in that.

We are an emotional species and make 80% of our decision about something on a level based from love, hate, fear, greed etc. We then back up the decision with logic.
So, Appeal to people emotions via your website and emails.

Want More Conversion? - Visit http://www.mklink.com/consult/

2-Get Ahead - Get a HeadLine
Ask anyone who sells Newspapers on a street corner about the
impact of a punchy headline. They Sell. In fact 80%(again) of the
response can sometime be attributed to the headline. Make it punchy
and irresistible. Remember the job of the headline is to make people read the next bit of the ad - nothing else.

3-Breakaway with Your Break Even Point
Once you know what your break even point is - you can then know how much you can spend on a campaign before it is unprofitable.

Calculate the margin that your product or service contains. Divide the cost of the campaign by the number of visitors, factor in your conversion rate and hey presto - that's the cost of each new customer. If it's less than the break even point - you're in profit.

Remember to take into consideration the LIFETIME value of your customers. If Cashflow allows, it is sometimes worth losing money in the short term to acquire customers in the long term. Be careful however as it is usually the big boys that get away with this.

Want More Conversion? - Visit http://www.mklink.com/consult/

4-Words are worth a Thousand Pictures.

Having pictures on your website may look nice and can help portray a good product - yet it's the copy that sells. The better the copy - the more you'll sell. Make sure products(if you have an online shop) have lots of juicy descriptive.

If you sell a service - give as many benefits as you can about what you offer. Remember -it's the copy that is your salesman. Equip him with as
many tools as you can to help him do his job.

5-Not on a first Date!
Get into the habit of giving people a compelling reason to start a relationship with you before you start to ask them to buy. Offer news articles, tips, free downloads etc - to get their contact details and then market to them over a period of time if possible. People go online to research not buy - so give them the information they want before you try and sell to them.

Want More Conversion? - Visit http://www.mklink.com/consult/

6-Would YOU go back to Your Website?
As an extension to Tip # 4 - If your website just sells - then it is unlikely the visitor will find any real value from it and therefore unlikely to return. However, if they find it a compelling source of information and value - not only will they return(and much more likely to buy) but they will hopefully refer colleagues as well.

7-Blah Blah Blah.
As people become evermore desensitized to marketing messages, so you should keep changing your copy and buzz words to get through their 'filters'. Try and make your message punchy, with high impact and emotive content. Sex sells. I don't mean make everything into 'hype' - just raise the average and try new words etc.

Want More Conversion? - Visit http://www.mklink.com/consult/

8-Referrals are Your Pearls
Whatever you do or say - it is always more believable if someone is there to back you up. So - have testimonials on your website. Important - don't just say ""blah blah blah" Mrs. B - Manchester - because it's next to useless. Offer specific referrals, with contact details and a picture if possible. The higher the calibre of the referral - the better. Imagine the Queen endorsing your dog food for example by exclaiming how her Corgis like it!

9-The Price is Right
You might be pleased to know that (in some industries at least) people are not as price sensitive as you think. Consequently you can put your prices up and therefore make more profit. It is invaluable to test and measure your price points. Calculate how many fewer sales you'd need if you were to put your prices up by 5, 10 20, 30 percent etc. Then test various price points and see what happens!

Want More Conversion? - Visit http://www.mklink.com/consult/

10-See, Hear, Touch Taste, Feel & Imagine
Without going into too much head shrinking here - people think in different ways. Some Visualise things, some people are touchy-feely - some people are very auditory biased. Make your copy appeal to everyone by using different adjectives to appeal to their imagination and way of processing.

"Imagine Yourself relaxing in a nice hot bath, listening to the bubbles popping and smelling the subtle summer lavender as you soak away your day's troubles..." is a little more engaging than
"These are great bath salts..."

Remember - Visual, Audio, Kinesthetic.
(I'll probably write mote about this in another email)

11-Customers Only Tune into "WII FM"
What's In It For Me? If your website starts by prattling on about how your grandfather setup the stationery business in a coal cellar and that now you have 5 branches and look how clever you are - you're usually wasting your time. If it offers useful advice - e.g. "How to save 50% on your printer ink supplies..." etc - then you'll score.

12-It's Terrific to be Specific.
The more relevant and specific your website is to your visitor, the more they'll buy from you. If someone wants to buy a toaster and they land one the homepage of your site which then forces them to navigate around before they get to the right section - your conversion rate will go through the floor. Either get people onto a relevant landing page from your Pay Per Click Campaign - or simply have more, smaller websites that are more specific and relevant. You're better off with lots of smaller websites - one of which would be about just toasters and sandwich makers for example - then trying to be Argos!

Want More Conversion? - Visit http://www.mklink.com/consult/

Want to know More?
Simply reply to this email, or call me on 01454 852414