Here are some straight forward ways you can increase conversions. These techniques are being used very effectively by the some of the world’s best marketing specialists because they just flat out work.
The best part is that while all these are considered to be advanced strategies, in reality they are all very easy and you can put them to use immediately.
Scarcity Tactics
Scarcity is a something you’ve most likely seen on different sales pages. There is a wide range of strategies that you can use, however they all basically work the same, and it goes something like this:
“Buy now before the end of the special pricing time frame or you will miss out on ____.”
Now, what kind of specials would they miss out on?
Here are a couple of thoughts:
1. Special discounted prices that’ll rise substantially when the time frame expires.
2. An offer or deal they cannot get anywhere else.
3. Unavailability of the product (due to shortage in inventory)
Basically, your job is to persuade customers to purchase your product right now. While some customers may leave the website only to come back later to make the purchase the majority of visitors that leave your site will never return.
If you want to seal the deal and make the sale, then you’ve got to do it right now while the visitor is on your site. Never give them an opportunity to leave without buying.
If you need a fast, simple approach to use scarcity on your site, then use a countdown timer.
Scarcity is truly the most effective technique for getting sales, because people simply hate missing out on a deal for something they really want. People just don’t like to pass up an opportunity on any deal.
By properly using scarcity strategies, you’ll get people to buy any given deal immediately instead of waiting and thinking about it. This little trick will increase your conversion rates more than anything else.
Offer Free Samples
Believe it or not, offering visitors something for nothing can really be a great way to gain trust and make the sale and it is based on the principle of reciprocity.
Let’s take an example of a grocery store where free samples of a product are being given away. Many will buy the product because they actually liked it, but also because they felt good about getting
something for free.
Most people will end up buying this product or even another one (even if they really did not intend to) because they feel compelled to after receiving something for free.
Many will buy the product because they actually liked it, but also because they felt good about getting something for free. Now there are some that won’t buy at all, but some will still feel some level of obligation for getting something for nothing. At the very least you have gained Good Will for the future.
A similar thing might happen in a shopping mall’s food court. Somebody would offer you a sample of pizza and you wind up eating pizza rather than the burger you had initially thought you were going to have. I know this absolutely works because it has happened to me before.
You can even re-enforce the ‘obligation’ they feel by subtlety mentioning you just gave them something for free. Many companies and organizations use this technique any time they give out free samples.
Have you ever been through an experience where you got a free trial of something and the company followed up with and you and said, “We hope you’re making the most of your free, no-obligation trial!” They are telling you that they’ve given you a free gift, and now they want you to purchase the real product or full version of the product.
The only advantage here is that, the free sample won’t necessarily be anything of a large monetary value and will increase the amount you make in sales versus what it costs you to give these free samples away.
Provide Social Proof
You may have heard that word-of-mouth marketing is the best kind, and it’s absolutely true. Think of yourself as a consumer. Wouldn’t you buy something if someone you knew or trusted gave a product a five star rating?
This is simply because people trust each other a lot more than they trust advertisers or marketers. This is no big surprise as most consumers are very skeptical.
Now there are different kinds of “social proofs” you can use on your websites to increase your credibility. Some of these include:
(a) Video Testimonials—Video testimonials are an excellent way to gain trust because visitors can see the feedback is coming from people that have actually made a purchase, however it will only help if the feedback is genuine.
(b) Testimonials—These alone most likely won’t do much unless you re-enforce them by including names and pictures of actual purchasers.
(c) Off-Site Reviews—If you can find people to offer positive feedback on their own sites, your product will sell more because of this third party endorsement. Your products will basically be pre-sold when visitors land on your page from someone else’s site based on their recommendation. Be sure to link to these reviews from your site.
(d) Case Studies—Another excellent type of social proof is case studies. If you can find genuine cases of individuals who have used your products and profited from them, then these case studies can skyrocket your conversions.
(e) On-Page Popups—On-page popups cannot be blocked by the visitor the way standard popups can. Additionally, they work extremely well if the appear to be part of the actual page. The common types of On-Page popups you will see are lightbox popups or slide up popups.
Give a Strict One-Time Offer
A one-time offer is something you can offer on very restricted basis. It’s a variation of the scarcity strategy, which we discussed earlier, yet it is extraordinarily effective. It guarantees the visitor that they will never see the offer again. If you offer this, make sure you offer it only once so your credibility doesn’t take a hit. If they see the same offer again later, they will never believe you again.
OTOs are generally shown after a customer makes a purchase and they don’t really affect your conversion rates, but they are effective at increasing the sales of other more advanced products or add-on products after the user has purchased your front-end offer.
Offer Various Payment Options
Have you ever realized that most online sales pages offer only two of the most common payment options—credits cards and PayPal? With the advancements being made in taking payments online you can now allow your potential customers various payment options like debit card payment or three month deferred payment etc…
If your product is expensive then you may want to consider a more affordable payment plan to help increase your sales. One of the easiest ways is to break the payment plan into three months of deferred payments. For example, many would find it difficult to pay $200 at one time for a tablet, but would be able to afford it in three installments.
So you could divide the sales price of your $200 product into a billing plan of $70 for three months. Then you would actually earn $10 extra for the same product just by letting the customer pay in installments. Try it and see the increasing conversions for yourself.
Know Your USP
USP? What does that mean to increasing your conversions?
USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition and your USP(s) is something that will separate you from your competitors in the eyes of your prospective customers.
Remember that a USP does not need to be unique to whatever you are selling and it might already be available in all of your rivals’ products. It is simply unique to your company since you highlight that feature and your competition doesn’t.
A well known case of USP can be demonstrated with Claude Hopkins’ taking a tour through the Schlitz brewing plant. While there, Hopkins saw the empty beer bottles being cleaned with steam.
The plant manager told him that he didn’t think that they could use the the steam cleaning of empty bottles in the advertising, because every beer company did exactly the same thing.
Hopkins understood that the normal consumer had no idea about this part of the process, so he highlighted this information in the Schlitz campaign, and the sales skyrocketed!
So remember, your USP isn’t essentially about being one of a kind. The USP is about telling your clients something that’s unique about you or your product.
