Convert traffic into sales
One click at a time
Have you ever wondered how many people get on the internet in one day? Well, Twitter handles approximately 1.6 billion search queries per day! In the United States alone, there were approximately 213 million searches on search engines per day! How many people visit your website per day? And when they visit what do they do?
Click - click, leave? Or click - click, buy?
What is your bounce rate?Do you get viewers but lose them before they buy?What can you do to change your website effectiveness?
Trust at first 'site'.
The biggest hesitation customers have in purchasing over the web is the ability to trust the company they buy from. There are so many scams out there, that people are very cautious when they purchase on the web. Your web site must gain a person's trust in under a minute, or your bounce rate will be high. Professionalism is extremely important.
Steps to resolve a high bounce rate and gain customer trust
Make sure you're giving users what you promise in the search query. Be sure your key words bring them directly to what they are searching for, and have some sort of headline that immediately matches their search query. Most people will not take much time to search a website. If what they are looking for is not readily available, they will click out immediately and go to another option.
Supply a simple conversion path. Once you have them on your page, make your conversion path so easy to follow that a child could figure it out. Don't be too technical. You may be a computer whiz, but perhaps your best customer is just learning to use the web. Shopping on the web is still a relatively new experience for millions of people. Post a banner and a short testimonial, giving them a reason to click the banner. Never require a person to search for the link they need. If you are giving a testimonial about a product, put an obvious link right on the testimonial. Make sure that only the action you want them to take is linked. More links could cause distractions that might lead a person to click something that is of no value to your efforts. Be sure that your call to action, your check out, and your banner are easy to find. Post your most important information at the top of your page.
Take more than one approach. There are a variety of ways to market a product. Usually it takes more than one method to convert a person to buy. Write a promotional and post it, tell a story about someone's success, post a testimonial, show screen shots of the product. Most people are used to going to a store, picking up their product, holding it in their hand, turning it over and reading the information on the product cover. To sell a person on the web, make sure you have easy to read lists of what the product does and how it will benefit the customer. Have plenty of photos, showing the product. Everything cannot be put on the first page, so have simple clicks available to not only take them to where they want to go to get more information on the product, but get back to where they began. With a variety of sales tactics, your customers will respond to the one that makes sense to them. On the other hand, if they are not looking for a purchase, you need to sell them. A good strategy is to put your offer in more than one place, at the top of the post, in graphics in the middle of the post, and/or at the bottom of the post, and on other pages. If the offer is at the bottom, only, chances are the visitor has lost interest before getting there. Make your offers obvious and often. Use a big button with clear instructions and sell the product.
Preserve time. If anything on your site takes too much time, you may just lose your visitor. Studies show that people will leave a site if the site or one of the pages on the site takes more than 5-10 seconds to load. If you have large pictures, optimize the picture sizes. Do you have forms that require too much time? Be aware that filling out forms will often cause visitors to leave. Don't ask for unnecessary information. Customers are leery if a website asks too many personal questions. Customers don't take time to continue searching if they are not able to find what they want. Look for 'time saving' techniques for your site.
Layout and web design is vital. Selling the most with the least is a good phrase to keep in mind. Make it easy to find your way around the website and all the information needed is readily available by a simple click. You need to have a professional clean and unified look. Make sure your pages have a common theme that is pleasing to the eye. Be sure your color themes match. Have a dominant color or two that will carry through the site, with complimentary colors staying in the same hue. If it's pleasing to the eye, it will draw visitors deeper into your site. Remember,loud and flashy is not always the best way to convert visitors. You don't want your site to look cheap. Keeping your website professional looking is vital to customer trust.
Pay attention to your customers. The Internet industry has customer age range as early as the teens to the late 80's. Customers come from all over the world, with varied cultures, and of course, male and female. How do you target such a broad audience? Make sure your website is clean. Never post anything that could be offensive to any group. Posting vulgarity, obscenity, or disrespect to any group of people will lose customers. Be careful of fads. If you post a picture of yourself, keep it professional. For example, unshaven stubble is a fashion statement, but it is not a professional statement.
Credibility. Posting awards, and past performance information puts a customer at ease. This helps people trust you more. Don't oversell! Making the product easily available for the customer to click is not the same as forcing things upon them. Ever go to the grocery store and pick up a magazine and have all those annoying cards fall out? That's akin to having pop ups, that you can't get out of. Perhaps they work for some people, but they are not professional. Allow the customer to decide where they want to go on your site. Your job is to make it an easy process. If they decide to click out, don't have one of those annoying traps that say: "Wait, don't leave this site." Your credibility is important to customer trust.
You must have reasons for people to visit and re-visit your site. If people are leaving right away, you have no chance of getting a sale. Keeping people on your site can include adding a search box, implementing a forum, and consistently adding new content. Give visitors a reason to return. But be cautious, your goal is to sell, be sure each of your additions will help funnel the customer towards a purchase. You don't want people to get distracted by adding to a conversation when what you really want them to do is buy.
Ask others to critic your site. I think some people forget one important step in developing a website. Step one, they create a site. Step two, they post it. Then they wait to see how it functions. In doing this they leave out a valuable step. Step 3: Ask others to critic your site. Often, websites are set up based on what the website owner or the graphic designers like, not on what the customer wants. Do your homework, check out successful sites on the web, and get ideas. Ask friends and associates to critic your site. Be flexible and willing to change. Make sure your main focus is on what the customers like and need. Your goal is to sell to the customer, so talk to real live customers and ask questions, find out their opinion and what they like and don't like about your website.
Use graphics. The old adage "A picture is worth 1,000 words" is true on the web. If a customer lands on a webpage with a long article and no photos, the bounce rate is higher. Your articles should be formatted so that they are reader friendly. Be careful which backgrounds you use. If the text is difficult to read because of a background color, people will not continue to read. Along with pictures, you can add bullet points, quotes, or anything that will break things up and draw the eye. Bold the most important words, so that your bold words tell the story in a brief form. If someone skimmed through and only read your bold words, they would have a good idea of what you are trying to say.
Layout and web design is vital. Selling the most with the least is a good phrase to keep in mind. Make your site simple. Put simple tabs at the top so it is easy to find your way around the website and make all the information readily available by a simple click. You need to have a professional clean and unified look. Make sure your pages have a common theme that is pleasing to the eye. Be sure your color themes match. If it's pleasing to the eye, it will draw visitors deeper into your site. Remember, loud and flashy is not always the best way to convert visitors. You don't want your site to look cheap. Making sure your website is professional looking is vital to customer trust.
Continue to learn. Ever met anyone who knows it all? I guarantee you have not, however, you may have met a few who think they know it all, maybe you can learn something from them, but don't listen to everything people say. You have to find what works best for you. Search the web for more information, ask successful people, read, and practice by trying something new. There are so many things you can do to be a successful affiliate marketer. The only thing that you should not do is give up.
The great thing about affiliate marketing is that you can partner with larger companies that have a similar theme as your own website theme. You can use their name, their logos, their awards and success. People will see names they trust and you will get customers. Look for companies that will treat their affiliates well. Good luck!
Sandra Turner
Gecko Software Affiliate Manager
Sandra Turner,
Affiliate Manager for Gecko Software,
We take care of our affiliates.
http://www.geckosoftware.com/affiliates.htm
One click at a time
Have you ever wondered how many people get on the internet in one day? Well, Twitter handles approximately 1.6 billion search queries per day! In the United States alone, there were approximately 213 million searches on search engines per day! How many people visit your website per day? And when they visit what do they do?
Click - click, leave? Or click - click, buy?
What is your bounce rate?Do you get viewers but lose them before they buy?What can you do to change your website effectiveness?
Trust at first 'site'.
The biggest hesitation customers have in purchasing over the web is the ability to trust the company they buy from. There are so many scams out there, that people are very cautious when they purchase on the web. Your web site must gain a person's trust in under a minute, or your bounce rate will be high. Professionalism is extremely important.
Steps to resolve a high bounce rate and gain customer trust
Make sure you're giving users what you promise in the search query. Be sure your key words bring them directly to what they are searching for, and have some sort of headline that immediately matches their search query. Most people will not take much time to search a website. If what they are looking for is not readily available, they will click out immediately and go to another option.
Supply a simple conversion path. Once you have them on your page, make your conversion path so easy to follow that a child could figure it out. Don't be too technical. You may be a computer whiz, but perhaps your best customer is just learning to use the web. Shopping on the web is still a relatively new experience for millions of people. Post a banner and a short testimonial, giving them a reason to click the banner. Never require a person to search for the link they need. If you are giving a testimonial about a product, put an obvious link right on the testimonial. Make sure that only the action you want them to take is linked. More links could cause distractions that might lead a person to click something that is of no value to your efforts. Be sure that your call to action, your check out, and your banner are easy to find. Post your most important information at the top of your page.
Take more than one approach. There are a variety of ways to market a product. Usually it takes more than one method to convert a person to buy. Write a promotional and post it, tell a story about someone's success, post a testimonial, show screen shots of the product. Most people are used to going to a store, picking up their product, holding it in their hand, turning it over and reading the information on the product cover. To sell a person on the web, make sure you have easy to read lists of what the product does and how it will benefit the customer. Have plenty of photos, showing the product. Everything cannot be put on the first page, so have simple clicks available to not only take them to where they want to go to get more information on the product, but get back to where they began. With a variety of sales tactics, your customers will respond to the one that makes sense to them. On the other hand, if they are not looking for a purchase, you need to sell them. A good strategy is to put your offer in more than one place, at the top of the post, in graphics in the middle of the post, and/or at the bottom of the post, and on other pages. If the offer is at the bottom, only, chances are the visitor has lost interest before getting there. Make your offers obvious and often. Use a big button with clear instructions and sell the product.
Preserve time. If anything on your site takes too much time, you may just lose your visitor. Studies show that people will leave a site if the site or one of the pages on the site takes more than 5-10 seconds to load. If you have large pictures, optimize the picture sizes. Do you have forms that require too much time? Be aware that filling out forms will often cause visitors to leave. Don't ask for unnecessary information. Customers are leery if a website asks too many personal questions. Customers don't take time to continue searching if they are not able to find what they want. Look for 'time saving' techniques for your site.
Layout and web design is vital. Selling the most with the least is a good phrase to keep in mind. Make it easy to find your way around the website and all the information needed is readily available by a simple click. You need to have a professional clean and unified look. Make sure your pages have a common theme that is pleasing to the eye. Be sure your color themes match. Have a dominant color or two that will carry through the site, with complimentary colors staying in the same hue. If it's pleasing to the eye, it will draw visitors deeper into your site. Remember,loud and flashy is not always the best way to convert visitors. You don't want your site to look cheap. Keeping your website professional looking is vital to customer trust.
Pay attention to your customers. The Internet industry has customer age range as early as the teens to the late 80's. Customers come from all over the world, with varied cultures, and of course, male and female. How do you target such a broad audience? Make sure your website is clean. Never post anything that could be offensive to any group. Posting vulgarity, obscenity, or disrespect to any group of people will lose customers. Be careful of fads. If you post a picture of yourself, keep it professional. For example, unshaven stubble is a fashion statement, but it is not a professional statement.
Credibility. Posting awards, and past performance information puts a customer at ease. This helps people trust you more. Don't oversell! Making the product easily available for the customer to click is not the same as forcing things upon them. Ever go to the grocery store and pick up a magazine and have all those annoying cards fall out? That's akin to having pop ups, that you can't get out of. Perhaps they work for some people, but they are not professional. Allow the customer to decide where they want to go on your site. Your job is to make it an easy process. If they decide to click out, don't have one of those annoying traps that say: "Wait, don't leave this site." Your credibility is important to customer trust.
You must have reasons for people to visit and re-visit your site. If people are leaving right away, you have no chance of getting a sale. Keeping people on your site can include adding a search box, implementing a forum, and consistently adding new content. Give visitors a reason to return. But be cautious, your goal is to sell, be sure each of your additions will help funnel the customer towards a purchase. You don't want people to get distracted by adding to a conversation when what you really want them to do is buy.
Ask others to critic your site. I think some people forget one important step in developing a website. Step one, they create a site. Step two, they post it. Then they wait to see how it functions. In doing this they leave out a valuable step. Step 3: Ask others to critic your site. Often, websites are set up based on what the website owner or the graphic designers like, not on what the customer wants. Do your homework, check out successful sites on the web, and get ideas. Ask friends and associates to critic your site. Be flexible and willing to change. Make sure your main focus is on what the customers like and need. Your goal is to sell to the customer, so talk to real live customers and ask questions, find out their opinion and what they like and don't like about your website.
Use graphics. The old adage "A picture is worth 1,000 words" is true on the web. If a customer lands on a webpage with a long article and no photos, the bounce rate is higher. Your articles should be formatted so that they are reader friendly. Be careful which backgrounds you use. If the text is difficult to read because of a background color, people will not continue to read. Along with pictures, you can add bullet points, quotes, or anything that will break things up and draw the eye. Bold the most important words, so that your bold words tell the story in a brief form. If someone skimmed through and only read your bold words, they would have a good idea of what you are trying to say.
Layout and web design is vital. Selling the most with the least is a good phrase to keep in mind. Make your site simple. Put simple tabs at the top so it is easy to find your way around the website and make all the information readily available by a simple click. You need to have a professional clean and unified look. Make sure your pages have a common theme that is pleasing to the eye. Be sure your color themes match. If it's pleasing to the eye, it will draw visitors deeper into your site. Remember, loud and flashy is not always the best way to convert visitors. You don't want your site to look cheap. Making sure your website is professional looking is vital to customer trust.
Continue to learn. Ever met anyone who knows it all? I guarantee you have not, however, you may have met a few who think they know it all, maybe you can learn something from them, but don't listen to everything people say. You have to find what works best for you. Search the web for more information, ask successful people, read, and practice by trying something new. There are so many things you can do to be a successful affiliate marketer. The only thing that you should not do is give up.
The great thing about affiliate marketing is that you can partner with larger companies that have a similar theme as your own website theme. You can use their name, their logos, their awards and success. People will see names they trust and you will get customers. Look for companies that will treat their affiliates well. Good luck!
Sandra Turner
Gecko Software Affiliate Manager
Sandra Turner,
Affiliate Manager for Gecko Software,
We take care of our affiliates.
http://www.geckosoftware.com/affiliates.htm
Comments
Post a Comment