It is not always about a better product, a better price. Those two things are not the secret. The secret is better marketing and a better website.
The simple truth of the matter is that a website is a living, breathing creature and in order for it to succeed it needs a huge amount of attention (visitors), plenty of watering (content updates) and tons of sunlight (marketing).
When I say "better website" I am not talking about new amazing graphics or breathtaking flash animation. That helps, but a better website means a site that is fast loading, informative, and easy to navigate. Your website does not have to look amazing it has to be amazing. It needs good content! Some of the best
The number one reason people get on the Internet is because they are looking for information. Your job is to supply that information. Your job is to keep a steady supply of new and fresh information coming to your visitors.
Is your website old and stale? Was your last update back in 1998? If so, what do you expect when it produces nothing for you? Would you plant corn, walk away, never water it, never give it sunlight, never give it fertilizer and expect it to yield a crop. Of course not, that would be insane!
Yet there are many businesses that do just that with their website. It's absolutely crazy! The way to increase online sales is to keep your website updated with fresh content and to update it often. Statistics show that visitors return to a site an average of 7 times before they buy for the first time. By keeping your website loaded with great content you will ensure visitors will return time and time again and you will be seen as an industry leader and expert.
I can hear you saying it already. "Where do I get fresh content?" You create it! Once you have added great content, your next step is to do it frequently. If you do this I guarantee that you will see your website traffic increase dramatically!
Let's review how you can actually increase sales and make money online.
1. You need customers to come to your website. (Obviously, you say) The way you get them is.....
2. You need excellent marketing to a very targeted audience. The more targeted and focused your marketing is, the more successful it will be.
3. You need to keep your site informative, interesting and fresh.
You need to become the authority in your industry. I believe that 80%
of websites fail to keep visitors because the information on the site
is dull, boring, and anywhere from 3-4 years old! Next time I want to
tell you how you can increase sales by increasing prices.
I have seen
it work for many businesses and the owners are absolutely thrilled.
Yes, it really works.
Some Extra Tips for those looking for the next step in
website promotion
Many people have the mistaken notion that all it takes
is to put up a great looking website on the world wide
web and the riches follow. After six months of watching
no visitors or no sales, many of them will blame the web
designer (Of course some blame should go to us if we had
made a lousy website.) and shut off the website pointing
to the large number of dot com companies now biting the
dust. So, what is the magic, if there is any?
Many successful websites spend many times their cost of developing the website on marketing the website. Marketing is an integral part of your eBusiness strategy. Remember, just because you have the best mouse trap, the world does not make a path to your house. (The path you may see is the one made by the departing mice!)
1. Develop Relationship with your customers
Studies have shown that people rarely, ever, buy on the first visit. They have to get comfortable with you. They have to know that you are here to stay and not like one of the myriads of dot com sites that are closing doors. You want to make sure that your potential customer has your name in front of them. Keep in touch with your customers by means of
2. Become an Expert by Submitting Articles to Other ezines and Magazines
You can build presence and reputation through publishing well researched, content-rich, helpful articles in others ezines. You can also get some of your articles published in other relevant websites.
Another way is to participate actively in relevant newsgroups and discussion pages and making postings to them.
3. Optimize Your Website for Search Engine Placement
Some people spend all their effort in getting their pages listed high on the search engines. Although getting listed high in search engines is important, you do not want to spend all your efforts in doing just that. Search engines keep changing their algorithms all the time and you will be on a never ending loop by chasing this far dream. The best way to get a high rating is to provide good content in your website. I believe that "content is king!"
There are certain things you can do to improve search engine listings. You should know about key words and meta tags. All your pages should have the key words and meta tags to attract robots. Resubmit your web site to major search engines once in about every 4-6 weeks. Too frequent submissions may get you dropped by some search engines. Some drops you after 6 weeks if you do not submit your listing again.
Develop strategies to build your "trademark" so that when people think about needing a service they will think about you rather than having to go to a search engine to find you. If you can develop your trade mark to that extent then you will be on the driver's seat.
4. Classified ads in ezines and free classified sites.
Ezines are good way to advertise because your ad is placed right in the prospects "face." S/He has requested the ezine and is likely to read it. Spend some time studying the results of specific ads and keep running the ones that work and changing the ones that don't work so well. (How you word your advertisement is very important. We will cover that separately.)
5 Banner ads through banner exchanges
Some services such as link exchange is good because they will also give you some idea of how many visitors come to your website. Do not place more than one banner on any page. Skip the banner on any page if you feel that the banner would detract from the page's effectiveness.
6. Develop your own custom mailing list
This is very important so that you can contact your customers without spamming. There are a variety of techniques you can use to develop this list, such as through subscriptions to your ezine, request for information or special reports you distribute, etc. Make sure that you have a privacy policy and assure your visitors that you will not sell their names to put them at ease.
7. Reciprocal Links
This is a very effective technique. Contact webmasters of similar sites and offer them a link in return for providing you with one. Having your web site listed by others also improve your search engine rankings - many search engines use the popularity of your site as a relevant criterion.