Introduction: A few weeks ago one of my
Ebook Times subscribers wrote to me asking why she
was making so few sales despite having a steady stream of visitors to her
sales page.
Below is a copy of the reply I sent. I decided to reproduce it here (warts
'n' all) because I think it's an area that affects a lot of us -- especially
when we're starting out.
Here goes...
---------------------
There are so many factors at work when selling a product online that it's
difficult to pin-point what's working and what isn't without really getting
into the habit of testing everything.
I know you're not interested in throwing more money at this, but I would
contend that you need to start using testing and tracking to really find out
how to grow the business.
For example, recently I spent $40 on getting 40,000 banner impressions
across a range of sites. Those impressions are still going on at the moment
with about 20,000 or so already displayed. So far, those 20,000 have brought
in about 400 visitors.
Now, before I started properly testing everything, I would have made a few
assumptions about those 400 visitors.
For example, I would have assumed that, at the very least, they would have
resulted in 2 or 3 sales. The reason I would make that assumption is because
Dynamic Popup Generator makes, on average, one sale for every 40 or so
visitors. It's easy to see why I could jump to the conclusion that the 400
visitors would have resulted in at least enough sales to make a profit on
the $40 invested.
As it happens, however, not all visitors are the same. From those 400
visitors I haven't made a single sale! In fact, all 400 visits to date have
resulted in 2 people downloading the demo and nothing else.
Now, if I wasn't tracking the visitors that clicked on the banners, I would
never have known that. I would have assumed that, on the law of averages,
those visitors would have resulted in a few sales and, therefore, I was
getting a decent return on my investment.
The big lesson to learn from that is you need to track and test everything
or else you risk throwing a lot of money down the drain.
If you run an ad in an ezine, you need to know how many people clicked the
ad. That can be achieved using a basic click-tracker. But, knowing how many
people who clicked is no good at all if you don't know what they did after
they arrived on your page. Did they order? Did they sign up for your
newsletter?
If the ad sends you 1,000 visitors you'd be tempted to run it again. If you
found out, however, that those 1,000 visitors produced just 2 sales -- and
the ad cost more than that to run -- then you'd know that you need to look
elsewhere to find the right kind of traffic for your offer. (There are other
factors at work as well, of course. If, for example, the ad gave the
impression that the visitor would get something for free only to arrive on
the site and find nothing, that would reduce the chances of getting a good
return from those visitors).
Personally, I do all my testing and tracking using the script at
http://www.dynatracker.com. Since I've started using it, it's opened up
a whole world of possibilities. Now I can invest money in advertising and,
when I find a source of visitors that results in sales, I can continue
investing in that source. When I find a source of visitors that produces
nothing, I drop it and move on.
Another big factor involved in making sales is, of course, the sales page.
Again, the sales page isn't something that you write up and then forget. It
should be constantly evolving and improving. Again, using something like
DynaTracker, you can constantly test different versions of your sales page
to see which one produces most sales.
Let's say, for example, that you have two great headlines and you don't know
which one to use. So, you do a "split test" -- 50% of your visitors will see
one version and 50% will see the other version. After a time you'll see
which one performs best. Then you can continue using that one and start
comparing other aspects of the page such as the opening paragraph, the
bullet points, the PSs, etc. (On my Dynamic Popup Generator site I learned
that having the demo sign up box at the top of the page produced less than
half as many sales as having it at the bottom of the page...)
Again, on the sales page, I think you should take some time out to
critically examine it with an objective eye. Compare it to other direct
sales pages to see how it matches up.
Without wishing to be mean, I think there's room for improvement. For
example, as you go down the page, it splits into two sides and starts to
become an little crowded and even a little 'messy'. You'll see that the vast
majority of direct sales pages follow a coherent start to finish (top to
bottom) pattern. This allows the visitor to follow a direct line down
through the important points in the easiest way possible.
You should also look at using a table to hold the contents of your page
together rather than taking up the full width of the screen. If you're not
sure how to do that, just go to a site like Dynamic-Popup-Generator.com and
save the page to your PC (click 'Edit' and then 'Save as...'). Now, open the
page up in your web editing software and replace the content with your own.
There are probably other factors we could discuss, but I think I've covered
the two most important ones. By watching how others are doing it, you have
scope for improvement on your sales page. And, by testing and tracking
everything, you can invest your advertising money safe in the knowledge
that, if it brings no sales, it WILL bring some knowledge and you won't be
just shooting in the dark.
---------------------
Conclusion: I know you've heard it often enough already, but testing and
tracking really IS the key to growing your business.
If you download it today and start tracking just a FEW of your links and
start split-testing just SOME aspects of your sales pages, you'll have a lot
of fun learning what works and what doesn't -- and, of course, you'll have a
lot MORE fun seeing how that information helps you grow your income very
quickly.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michael Hopkins is a Successful Web Marketer and Owner of BizzyDays Ebook
Publications. Visit Now to Download Original Ebooks for Free at:
http://www.bizzydays.com
This Article First Appeared in Michael's Newsletter, Ebook Times. To subscribe
visit:
http://www.ebooktimes.com
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