What's Standing Between You and More Sales?
What's Standing Between You and More Sales?by Raynay Valles, www.jawdrop.comAre your sales where you want them to be? No? What shouldyou do first to build sales? First, assess where youare. Your answers to the following questions will put youon the road to increasing your sales.Question #1 - What have you done so far to market yourbusiness?Set aside ten minutes, grab a pen and paper, or a keyboardand write it out. Writing out what you have already doneis key. Once you write down what you've done, you may seeoverlooked techniques you can implement.Question #2 - How many leads do you get each week?If you have a store or website, your leads are your visitors.Many business owners don't know this critical number. Theyassume that if they have low sales, they just need to buildtraffic. They could be throwing money away. Here's how:Imagine spending money to bring visitors to an online storethat looks unprofessional or where visitors can't find whatthey want. Most, maybe all of the visitors leave withoutbuying. The same money that is spent on bringing moretraffic would be better spent making the website work orlook better.Question #3 - How many leads become your customers each week?When you know how many people visit each week and how manybecome customers, you know a very important number. Thisnumber is how well you convert visitors to customers. Is it1 in 100? 20 in 100? Maybe it's 1 in a thousand. Can yourbusiness do a better job in converting visitors to customers?Question #4 - Where do your visitors come from?Which ads are sending you leads or visitors? Which websitesand email newsletters are referring visitors to you?Question #5 - Where are your SALES coming from?At first glance, this seems to be the similar to "Where doyour visitors come from", but it's not. Website A may refera thousand visitors and give you 0 sales. Website B canrefer a hundred people and 20 buy from you. You'll wantto find more Website B's.Question #6 - What measurable outcome would you likefrom your marketing efforts?Lots more sales! Of course. But how do you hit thistarget? What are you aiming for so you can get more sales?You can't hit what you're not aiming for. Would you likemore visitors, more leads, and more phone calls from peoplewho want what you have to offer? Or, if you're alreadygetting plenty of inquiries, would you like to close moresales? Or would you like more current customers to buyagain?By evaluating what you have been doing, you can get ontrack to marketing better and building sales.Written by Raynay Valles, Online Marketer who specializesin building sales not just leads. For more information,go to http://www.jawdrop.com or email rvalles@...============================================================Article ends
How to make your site into a selling machine part1
How to make your site into a selling machine part1by Kathy Joyce-----------------------------------------------In order to succeed online you need to develop a greatproduct, write a website that sells, and attract targetedtraffic to your site.If you don't have one find a great product. The best type ofproduct is one that is consumable and in demand. If theproduct is good customers will repeat their order.Make sure that people can order easily from your site. Ifyou have lots of products then it's a good idea to have anonline shop where customers can put products into a virtualshopping cart (a CGI scripted program) and pay for them viapaypal or credit card on a secure order form page.The easier it is for customers to order from your site thegreater the chance of making sales.Choose a webhost that has a shopping cart package. I useinternetconnection and am very happy with the support theyprovide. http://www.internetconnection.net/pricing.shtmlIf you are a complete novice and don't know anything aboutshopping cart software then you may find this of interest.http://www.website101.com/arch/archive126.htmlYou need to tailor your site towards the customer who wantsor needs the product. You can do this by first imaginingthat you are that customer and work out what she or he islooking for when they come to your site. Provide them withthe benefits of using this product. Capture theirimagination. Will it save them money, make them younger,healthier, or is it just the right widget they need!! What'sin it for the customer?Imagine that this customer is a friend and you are having aone to one conversation with them over a cup of coffee. Usethe word "You" a lot as if you really are talking to them.Create a desire for the product and give them confidencethat it will deliver as promised.Make each page on your site theme focused. If you areselling more than one product or groups of products you willneed a page for each one. Think about the product. What doesit do? What are the benefits to the customer? Why shouldthey buy from you and not your competitor?Provide a solution to your customer for a problem they mayhave and make your text benefit laden. For example if youhave a product that may help eliminate pet odours from yourcarpet target pet owners and suggest the problem. Then tellthem about the benefits your product can have just as if youwere talking to a friend.Each page should focus on just several keywords related tothat product. What would a visitor type into a search engineif they were looking for this product or information? Thiswill rank your pages well in search engines for thosekeywords.In part2 I will cover getting the most wanted response fromyour visitors, writing an ezine and using autoresponders.------------------------------------------------------Kathy has her own mlm online business which you can visit athttp://www.healthandbeautytowealth.co.ukShe has written other articles to help you build your onlinebusiness.Subscribe to Kathy's new monthly newsletter healthtowealthemail:subscribe2healthtowealth@...-----------------------------------------------------------
Want More Sales? Write A Barry Bonds Sales Letter
Want More Sales? Write A Barry Bonds Sales Letterby Dean PhillipsAnyone may use this article free of charge, provided the artticle isnot altered and the resource box remains intact.I'm not a baseball fan. Never have been. In fact, I hate the sport.However, I am a Barry Bonds fan. Here's why: Barry Bonds possessesthe exact same intangibles every great sales letter possesses. He'sloyal, consistent, powerful, and hits a ton of home runs, year afteryear after year! Those are all things that great sales letters doand have done from the very beginning.And believe it or not, of all the aforementioned intangibles, thenumber one intangible is loyalty. All great sales letters remainloyal to one of the oldest of all copywriting basics: the AIDAformula!You MUST write every single sales letter using the following classicAIDA formula. If you are loyal to the formula, the consistency,power and home runs will follow. That's a proven fact. Here's theformula:A=ATTENTION I=INTEREST D=DESIRE A=ACTIONLet's break down each letter, so that you can understand the fullimport of the formula:A=ATTENTION: The very first thing your sales letter must do is getyour prospects attention. The best way to do that is with aneffective headline.So, what's an effective headline? An effective headline is anyheadline that answers this question: "What's in it for me?" That'sall your prospects really care about. What's in it for them? Here'san up-to-the-second example of an effective headline: "Want MoreSales? Write A Barry Bond Sales Letter."So, what makes the title of this article an effective headline?Three things: First of all, I answered the "What's in it for me"question--which in this case would be more sales. Secondly, Ibrilliantly interjected the curiosity factor. I made you wonder whata Barry Bonds sales letter is. And last but not least, the headlinemade you read this article.And that my friend is the whole point! You want prospects to readyour sales letter!Now, we come to the second letter in the aforementioned AIDAformula: I="INTEREST." After you get your prospects attention, youwant to get them "INTERESTED" in your product or service. You dothat by immediately telling them what your headline promises. Youdon't waste their time with a bunch of fluff and garbage that nobodybut you cares about.Tell them what they want to know, starting with the very firstparagraph, and continue to tell them, right through to the very lastparagraph. If you keep them interested, they'll keep reading, rightto the very end--just like you're doing now with this article.Next comes the third letter letter in the formula: D="DESIRE." Youhave to make your prospects "DESIRE" your product or service. Andthe way to do that is with benefits, benefits and more benefits!Remember, just keep telling them what your headline promised. Also,tell them what they stand to gain by purchasing your product orservice. More importantly, tell them what they stand to lose, ifthey don't purchase.Push their emotional "hot buttons", by using magic selling wordslike, new, save, amazing, free, guaranteed, security, no-risk, lookyounger, feel better, etc!Finally, we come to the last letter in the formula, but certainlynot the least: A="ACTION." You want to close your sales letter witha call to action! In other words, ask them for the order. It'simportant to ask for the order at least six or more times.Here are a few examples of effective closes:1. "Just click on the button below to order NOW--Risk-Free!"2. "To get your FREE web site--Order NOW!"3. "Limited time offer! Order NOW!"Something else that's very effective is to include a post- script(P.S.) at the end of your sales letter. Your post-script shouldinclude an enticement of some sort, to get your prospects to orderNOW. You should also use the post-script as a final callto "ACTION!"Here's an example of an effective post-script:P.S. If you order within the next 7 days, you'll also receive apersonalized calculator mouse pad absolutely FREE, with yourcompany's name embossed in gold lettering! Order NOW!"You can also use a post script to tie everything together, bysummarizing your most important benefits.Another reason that you should use a post-script is strictlyelementary. Studies have shown that most people, when reading asales letter will read the headline and then immediately zoom rightdown to the bottom of the page to check out the price, and see ifyour offer is anything that they'd be interested in.WARNING: Don't be fooled by the simplicity of the AIDA formula. It'sbeen proven over time. It's powerful, and it works. In fact, thepower is in its simplicity.Also, when writing a sales letter, there are two critical points youmust NEVER, EVER forget:1. Most people don't make a buying decision based on logic. Theymake a buying decision based on their emotions. They justify theirdecision with logic, after the fact.2. People don't want to feel like they're being coerced or pushedinto anything. They want to feel like they arrived at a buyingdecision completely of their own free will.Go back and read those two points again. Obviously, that's a veryfine line to walk. But you MUST learn the distinction, if you wantto master the art of writing effective sales letters.In closing, follow the AIDA formula faithfully and it will rarelylet you down.And remember, when writing your sales letters, ALWAYS, ALWAYS,ALWAYS answer that one question we all want to know: "What's in itfor me?"Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer,publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can bereached at mailto: dean@...Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net
