Ten Tips to Convert Those Clicks Into Sales
There are many who say the key to getting your cash register to ring on the Internet boils down to customer confidence. When people believe in something, they will buy it. But as long as trust is an issue, there is no way to close the deal.
With that in mind, here are ten tips you can use to improve your affiliate marketing efforts. By making a few simple adjustments, you should be able to get your sales back on track.
1. Let your prospects see your product and offer before they are required to provide any personal information. You want to capture names and contact information, but trying to do so first puts the cart ahead of the horse and turns off many potential buyers. What can you let them see first?
2. Limit the use of Flash introductions and large visuals that take time to download. If your landing page takes more than a few seconds to load or cannot be quickly accessed, research has shown that up to 80 percent of your clickers won’t be willing to wait for your offer. You only have a few seconds, so make the best use of it. Remember: You only get ONE chance to make a FIRST impression.
3. If you have a guarantee, state it up front and don’t muddle it with fine print or asterisks. Too many affiliate marketing sites promise no risk, but few seem to deliver.
4. Make product information easy to find by providing appropriate navigation tools and clear instructions. No clicker wants to spend time hunting for information.
5. Keep everything simple. Period. And that includes checkout.
6. Use branding to create a consistent, organized image throughout your site. Prospects appreciate and trust orderliness. Also, the more times they encounter and recognize your brand, the more likely they are to remember and have confidence in it.
7. Speak the language of your customer. That doesn’t just mean translating everything into Spanish or French. It also means using the kind of words, tone and manner they are used to. Geeks, for example, speak a very different language from the rest of us (or so I’ve been reliably informed!).
8. Get permission to store customer names and contact information so they don’t have to fill it out again next time they visit, and then use it (i.e., “Welcome back, Margie!”).
9. Keep you site up to date. When visitors return, there should always be something new for them. One of your goals, after all, should be repeat business.
10. Give people what they want. Prospect inquiries and customer feedback should be treated as valuable research information. Use it to tweak your offer and create a compelling reason to buy.