It’s one thing to get visitors to your website. It’s quite another to get them to purchase goods or services from it!
Once you have your website up and running and a shopping cart system in place, the next step is to make sure your website does its job. Here are some tips to get your sales cranking:
- Make it easy for visitors to find your products and services. Easy site navigation is important, so make sure your primary product page is listed on the main navigation menu for your site.
- Cross-promote products throughout your site. For example, on your services web page, you might add an anchored link that says, “Purchase a Gift Certificate for Consulting Services.”
- List all of your products on a single shopping cart page along with separate anchored links to complete product descriptions on individual pages.
- Include real user testimonials (not the manufactured kind from friends and peers) throughout your site and on sales pages for maximum impact. Never underestimate the power of testimonials!
- Depending on your target audience, you may want to include a printable order form for people who don’t want to place orders online. Give them a way to mail and fax the order to you.
- Make sure your purchase process is simple and easy to use. Test it out by making a purchase yourself. Are there any steps missing? Is the information confusing?
- Set up a thank-you page. When a customer completes an order with you, make sure they are returned to a thank-you page. Industry reports indicate that the thank-you page is a highly effective place to up-sell additional products. For example, the thank-you page could say: “People who bought product ABC also rave about product XYZ. Click here to order XYZ at 25% off!”
- If you are promoting multiple services or products, put a “Featured Service” section on your home page or in the sidebar of all of your web pages. Change the offer each week or month to keep it fresh and interesting.
These simple steps can help turn your site visitors into repeat customers. Good luck!
