The job of a website is to give the visitor (prospective customer) all the information they need to make that buying decision. The simple phrase is educated, inform, motivate.

There is a well know acronym of AIDA
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
These are the four stages everyone goes through before they buy. If your web copy is not doing this and you are missing calls to action, then you are losing money. Lack of a call to action is one of the most common errors on a page. ‘Click here for FREE information’ is a simple instruction that will get people taking the action you want.

So how about educating and motivating? How do you get the interest and desire? A simple re-write of your site can have a dramatic effect on its success and it can pay for itself in no time at all. So what is the difference between selling and telling?

Product descriptions:
Available in black
In stock
Next day delivery
Available in jet black, allowing you to wear this beautiful necklace with almost every outfit you own. This can be delivered to your door overnight if the order is placed before 3 pm, and the item is: in stock

It is plain to see which of the above tells and which sells!
The plain fact is that, as a web marketer, it is your job to sell yourself, your products, and services, and you need to understand the difference. If you don’t, then your orders/inquiries are going to someone else.

1. Gather leads

Most website visitors interested in your products or services aren’t ready to buy just yet, but they sure have some questions and would like additional information (if it’s not too hard to obtain). Don’t make them search for it — put your contact information right in front of them. Every page of your website must have a call for action and contact options that are impossible to miss. 

Some examples include:

• Ask a question via email
• Call your sales phone number
• Request an instant call-back
• Sign up for special offers
• Contact for a price quote
• Download product brochure
• Submit an inquiry form
• Chat live with a sales representative
• Subscribe for a newsletter

When gathering leads, stick to the KISS principle. Don’t ask for more information than necessary. For example, if you only need to know your potential customer’s state of residence, don’t ask for a full mailing address. If you do all your sales via email, don’t require a phone number, or at least make it optional.

Be sure to provide a clear, concise statement about how the information you collect will be used. Assure your prospects that their contact data will not be shared with other parties, and they can stop receiving communications from you at any time.

2. Organize leads and prospects

Leads are useless unless they are properly organized. First, you must establish the systems and processes for recording all pertinent information for leads collected via different channels, such as websites, incoming phone calls, trade shows, and so on. Aside from the contact information, each prospective customer record should date and source, products and services of interest, subscription and contact preferences, and any other relevant data.

Your lead management system must also be able to record the history of all communications with a lead, such as incoming and outgoing emails, phone calls, voice mails, faxes, and items sent via postal mail. Each lead must be assigned to a sales representative, and categorized by the level of interest, size of the opportunity, and sales pipeline status (more on that later). Sales reps should also enter internal notes and comments about the prospect, and set reminders for future follow-ups.

Last, but not least, your lead system must be centralized. Every person involved in a sales process should have the ability to instantly access and update the information without the need to upload, download, and synchronize the data. This is especially critical if members of your team are geographically dispersed or telecommuting.

3. Convert leads to prospects to customers

This is where the rubber hits the road. There are some distinct steps in any sales process. Below is a typical example of a sales process. 

You can easily adapt its stages and definitions to your situation:

Lead – a contact that has expressed an interest in your product or fits the target profile of a potential customer.

Prospect – a lead that continues to express interest in your product or service after a two-way information exchange.

Qualified prospect – a prospect that has participated in a discussion with a sales representative and confirmed their need.

Confirmed prospect – a qualified prospect who has the info they need to make a decision and budget to go with it.

Committed prospect – a qualified prospect who has reviewed your price quote or proposal and has indicated that she is ready to move forward with you – but hasn’t yet.

Customer – ka-ching!

You can use your sales pipeline status report to not only organize and monitor the effectiveness of your overall sales process and individual sales representatives but to forecast sales as well. To estimate the dollar value of your entire prospect base, multiple the average probability of closing the sale at every stage of the pipeline by the number of prospects currently assigned to that stage.

Establishing and managing your lead conversion process is all but impossible without proper customer relationship management (CRM) tools. You will need a system that captures lead information from your website and other channels and integrates it with email, contact manager, calendar, and sales force automation software.

The companies that have established the systems and processes for converting leads to sales are already reaping the rewards.

One such framework that has been around for many years and proven to work is A.I.D.A. It’s a great 4 step way to boost your sales and is easy to put into practice. What does it stand for?

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action

Whether you are selling face-to-face, by direct mail, or on web site, this formula will increase your chances of converting prospects into customers. In this article, we’ll look at how following this formula can boost your sales letter responses and increase your conversion rates on your website.

Attention

When people receive sales letters or visit websites, their first action is to scan the page to see it applies to them. Before people go into the body of your sales letter or website, they have to see something that grabs their attention. There has to be a clear prompt that will make them sit up and want to read in more depth. The way to get them past the scanning stage and elicit attention is to come up with a bold opening statement or headline that will get them wanting to know more!

Your opening statement or headline has to include a benefit for your prospect and be compelling enough for them to want to know more information. Great attention-grabbing headlines can substantially boost your sales. Here are some examples:

• ‘The Secrets of Doubling Your Profits In One Year’

• ‘How to Get More Sales and Increase Your Leisure Time’

• ‘Finally Revealed – The Steps to Being a Successful Entrepreneur’

Get the idea? The headline should evoke a feeling of enthusiasm to get to know more about what you are offering.

Interest

Having got past the first stage you have their attention, you now need to further develop their interest. In this section of your letter, website, or presentation you start by focusing on what they will get out of buying your product or service – the benefits which they will get. To get the most out of this you have to be very clear about who your target market is. It’s no good trying to explain the benefits of the reader is in the wrong industry – they will not be interested.

To keep them interested, highlight the pain or pleasure they will avoid or gain by dealing with you. You have to convincingly answer the ‘What’s in it for me?’ question.

Desire

Now that you have got them interested in all the benefits they will get when they buy, you go for the jugular and hammer this feeling home by stoking up their desire!

Remember that people buy for emotional and not logical reasons. If you sell items that can make people feel sexy, feel better about themselves or possibly make them more attractive, you can create desire by describing how your products will help achieve their dreams!

If you are not lucky enough to sell these products or services, don’t despair, there are other ways to create desire. Offer a range of bonuses, which may cost you very little, but maybe appeal to your potential customers. Put a time-limited offer on the deal, for example, 14 days in which to respond to receive the bonuses.

Action

The last part of the 4 step process is Action. If you have done everything else correctly but don’t directly ask the customer to buy, then the chances are you won’t make the sale. Make it easy for them to buy so you can capitalize on all the emotions you have created.

First, ask them to buy! Include a ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Click Here to Order’ button to make it very clear what you expect them to do next. If you are face-to-face just come out with it and ask if they are ready to complete the deal!

To remove all obstacles that can stand in your way, make sure you have some ways by which you can take payment. Acceptance of credit cards are becoming almost necessary and is the best way to secure a sale while the customer is in the mood, especially on the Internet. If you are relying on them to get out their checkbook, write a cheque, write out an envelope and then post it, I’m afraid you are likely to have lost a sale. So make it as easy as possible.

Take another look at all your sales literature, website, and sales pitch. Are you following the AIDA 4 step process? If not, revamp it all and watch your sales and profits grow!

This is the one question that every Internet Marketer is seeking the answer to. If you know how to motivate people to buy, you can increase your sales and conversion rate. And wouldn’t that be good for your profit and your business?

So what motivates people to buy?

It is often said that you should give people what they need because that is what they are going to buy. That may well have been the case once. But, sadly today, society has changed, and people no longer buy what they need.

Instead, they buy what they want and what they crave – hence people struggling to put food on the table but have a 42” plasma TV, satellite system, and a bottle of Jack Daniels!

You need to pitch your product not as something they need, but as something they absolutely must have; make it so they crave your product and absolutely must get their hands on it.

People also buy because they want to get pleasure from what they buy. Someone doesn’t walk into a car dealership and buy a top-of-the-range Mercedes because they need it; a Skoda or Toyota would have done the job just as well.

They buy the Mercedes because they want the pleasure that goes with it. Whether this is the comfort of the car, the joy of all the gadgets, or the fact that it is a status symbol – they drive a Mercedes! Whatever their reason, it will be because they have associated pleasure with owning a Mercedes, and so they buy one when they could have saved tens of thousands of dollars and bought a cheaper car!

Another reason people buy is that they want to avoid pain. Volvo is one of the best-selling cars in Europe. Why? They are not the prettiest of cars, nor that expensive, nor are they of the perceived class of a Jaguar, BMW, or Mercedes.

Volvo’s sell well because people want to avoid the pain associated with car accidents. Volvo’s are some of the safest cars on the market and as such appeal to people who want to protect their families and passengers.

These are three of the main ways that people are motivated to buy. If you can work out how to use this in your sales copy, your emails, your newsletter, and your website, then you can convert more visitors into paying customers.

Identify your target market and learn their pain – what problem are you solving with your product?

Understand this and your sales copy can become smoking hot, and you can boost your conversion rate!

1) Product / Service Image Size

Chances are you’ve got images that represent or depict your product or service — that’s a common-sense way to add familiarity to what you have or do! An eye-tracking study has shown that small images are oftentimes overlooked and that medium-sized images (210×230 pixels) provide near a 150% increase in the amount of time spent looking at the image. The same study has shown that people tend to focus their attention on photographs that contain a human face. Medium-sized pictures with faces in them retain interest longer!

2) Linking Images

The same study showed that people click on pictures, even when there is no indication that the picture is a link. For those images of products, link the image to the product page where they can buy your product! For those images depicting services, link the image to the related service information page or a contact page! Always link your images to the next step of your conversion process!

3) Call to Action

Visitors interested in your product or service may not know what to do to get it. Or they may be interested enough to purchase or subscribe, but only if it’s easy — otherwise, they’re not interested. This often-overlooked scenario is easily overcome by a call to action link on every page. The call to action could be as simple as, “Find out more about XYZ Widget Model 3 here!” It could be a Buy Now button underneath an image. The most important part of content written for sales is to make that call to action. You’ll quickly see that doing so will have you smiling to the bank! Always have your visitors do something!

After you’ve implemented these three simple changes into your website, sit back and watch your stats increase. You’ll find that getting more conversions is a very pleasing scenario! As one last word of advice, other eye-tracking studies (and possibly the same one I’ve referenced throughout this article) have confirmed that many people let their eyes wander below a picture when there’s the text below it. Use that to your advantage by placing “Buy Now” buttons underneath your images. Good luck!



Source: http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/photos.htm