Seven proven techniques you can use to improve your website’s conversion rates

To make money online, there are TWO key activities we must do well…

1. Getting Traffic
2. Turning that traffic into cash.

These are what separate the winners from the losers. The winners have figured out how to do these activities well while others are scratching their heads. Turning web traffic into cash is also known as “web conversion”. Therefore, increasing or improving the conversion rates of your web pages will have positive impact on your online business bottom line.

There are many ebooks that teach you how to get web traffic but not many talk about how to increase website conversion rates. Learning how to increase the conversion rates is very important because If your pages can’t convert, you are WASTING all your traffic.

In this article, I will share with you 7 techniques you can use to improve the conversion rates of your website. These techniques are also applicable if you are using Google Adwords and landing pages to promote products.

Let’s get started now…

Technique 1: Emphasize Product Benefits, Not Features – this is the most fundamental principle in sales but surprisingly not many people are using it. Most people like to blab about features of their product when selling, this is a wrong approach. They should talk about the BENEFITS instead. Because the only reason your visitors read your sales message is to find out what’s in it for them. And the best way to tell them that is with a list of benefits that will help them get what they want.

Technique 2: Identify Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – this is the most important asset you MUST have when selling online. Without a USP, you’re just another page in the million of pages on the net. It’s your USP that sets you apart from your competitors.

Technique 3: Write a Headline that sells – your visitors will all be in a hurry. Only with an attention-grabbing headline that promises to solve their problem and give what they are looking for, will slow them down and urge them to continue reading your message.

Technique 4: Use Subheadings as your Executive Summary – most people will scan your page before they decide to continue read the rest of your message or not. The subheadings should tell the summary of your page. So if someone was to skim through your page they will in essence get the main message.

Technique 5: Use Post Script (P.S.) – write a short summary of your entire sales message here, repeat some of the strongest benefits here. You will be amazed to find out that most readers will turn to your P.S. after skimming through your headline, subheading and page.

Technique 6: Include at least one free bonus – bonus will add value to your offer and increase your chances of making a sale. But don’t just through in any kind of bonus. Include bonuses that can complement your offer and make sure you sell the value & benefits of your bonuses.

Technique 7: Address the after sales concern – most visitors are looking for an assurance before they make their final decision. So make sure you reassure your visitors. One technique I use is to tell them about the 100% no question asked Guarantee. Tell them that they have nothing to lose to try the product.

Hope these 7 techniques are beneficial to you. If you use them consistently, you should be able to see an increase in your online sales.

Writing for the web is different from writing for print. Therefore in order to write an effective web content that gets traffic and sales, you must first understand how people read on the web. Recent studies reveal that most people merely scan the web content instead of reading them word by word.

So what does this tell us? For a start, it means that we need to be concise and precise! Short and to the point, with one idea per paragraph.

Secondly, write objectively with the attention to SHARE information rather than PROMOTE a product. Of course you can promote a product you love but make sure you have something VALUABLE to share first. Make your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and benefits as clear and concise as possible.

It’s Words That Sell…

“Words are. of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
– Rudyard Kipling.

Your content is made out of words. So in order to write content that sells, you must make the most productive use of words, words that address the NEEDS and WANTS of your readers. If you can do that, you will have no shortage of traffic because your visitors will keep coming back to your site. This is the SECRET of turning words into traffic.

Use of the right words can instantly persuade your visitors to become customers. But use of the wrong words can instantly destroy even the most professional-looking site.

Of course powerful words alone won’t make a sale. It’s a combination of powerful and motivational words that address the needs and wants of your readers that make sales. How do you know the needs and wants of your customers?

The answer is simple… Ask and LISTEN to your customers. I once read a quote that I never forget. But I can’t remember where I read it. If you know the author name, please email me his/her name at leonlioe(at)gmail.com

Here is the quote I never forget…

“You don’t need to have great ideas if you can hear great ideas.”
– sorry I forget the author name.

If you only remember one thing about selling and converting web traffic into sales, it’s this…

Understand and Become Your Customer

You may know your products inside out and upside down but if you don’t feel your customer’s needs and wants, they won’t buy from you. To feel your customer, you need to become your customer!

So when you have a chance to communicate with your customers, don’t just talk about your wonderful product but also ask your customers what are the particular features or benefits they would like to see in your product.

The one most powerful reference I’ve ever read on how to turn words into traffic and get sales on the Net is “Turn Words Into Traffic” by Jim & Dallas Edwards.

If you’re serious about learning how to convert your words into web traffic and sales, I highly recommend you to check it out.

Let’s face it… having traffic or visitors coming to your website is the first step, next step is how to convert those traffic into cash. In Internet Marketing, this is known as traffic conversion or simply “monetization”.

In other words, in order to convert your web traffic into cash, you need to have a monetization strategy. If you don’t have a monetization strategy, you’ll be wasting or throwing away traffic that visiting your site.

This article will provide some tips you can use to monetize or convert your traffic into cash.

1. Promote a product/service

If you’ve your own product (an ebook, software or service), always mention it in your site. If you don’t, you can promote other people products as an affiliate. There are many places you can find affiliate products to sell such as ClickBank, Commission Junction, PayDotCom, and ShareASale. These are the biggies.

Tip: If you can’t find the products you’re interested in there, try to search using the search engine. For example, if you’re interested in skincare products, just go to Google and type in “skincare +affiliate programs”. You’ll see many affiliate programs that offer skincare products. Signing up as affiliate is FREE. NOTE: DO NOT join any affiliate program that charges you a sign-up fee.

2. Viral marketing and list building

Create a useful ebook that is related to the topic of your site and make it available for people to download for free. You can put your website links and affiliate links in the ebook. Tell the readers that they can distribute or give the ebook away to anyone. With this viral marketing technique, you can increase traffic to your site, publicity and branding without having to spend a dime.

On top of that, you can also build your email list because people need to give you their name & email address before they can download your free ebook. Once you’ve their email, DO NOT bombard them with promotions after promotions. You need to try your best to build good relationships with your email list by providing them useful information, tips and more useful freebies. You can promote products to them but do so by PRE-SELLING.

3. Include AdSense Ads on your site

If you haven’t got an Adsense account, go to google.com/adsense and sign up an account. Follow the instructions and place ads on your site. Google Adsense will automatically display relevant ads for your site. Google will pay you when your visitors click on the ads on your site. Most people use Adsense, but of course there are other alternatives such as Chitika, Yahoo Publisher Network and Kontera. If your site receives good traffic, these programs alone can bring in nice paychecks for you.

Related Article: “Monetization Models“.