April 10, 2009 by 1 Comment

Call to action – How to Increase Conversion Rates

One of the most important factors web site owners leave out at the end of their articles, blog posts or sales pages is the “call to action.”

Why spend time crafting your content that places your visitor in the buying mood only to leave them hanging? The call to action invites them to take the next step. It helps build a relationship with them so you can offer them ongoing information or future products.

7 ways to get visitors to take action:

1. Opt-in box

Create an opt-in box on your web site asking them to fill out their name and email in exchange for a free giveaway. A double opt-in is best. This is where the visitor fills out the form first then they receive an email asking them to confirm their subscription.

2. Free or paid reports

People love to receive free information particularly if it contains valuable nuggets of information they can act on. Your report doesn’t have to be long. 10-20 pages will be sufficient. The beauty of this method is that you are first giving something to your visitor before you receive something from them ie email address.

You don’t always have to offer something for free. Often a short report priced at $7.00 will generate more visitors than a free one because it is perceived as being more valuable. You can upsell your visitor after she has read the report by offering something even more substantial ie a series of instructional videos.

3. Free software download

You could offer a free trial download of your software. By actually using the software themselves your visitors will see how useful it is to them. For example after the 7 day trial they may decide to purchase the full version of the software.

4. Free web site evaluation

This is something web designers can use to attract potential clients. Suggest ways to improve their design, optimization and web copy so they can increase traffic and sales. After sending the report offer a more comprehensive analysis or send a proposal for doing all the improvements for them.

5. Free articles

Articles are great because they prepare your visitors mind ahead of your offer. At the end of your article place your call to action. This includes any one of the free offers mentioned above, a link to your web site (or offer) and who you are as an author. You may even link to related articles where you offer the same or similar product.

6. Free contest

Most people love contests if there is a chance they can win something they want or desire. For example offer a free ipod to the person that writes the most helpful comments on your blog to increase traffic to it.

7. Autoresponder course

Not many people purchase something after one contact. Often it takes 7 or more contacts before they make the decision to purchase. With a sequential autoresponder you can create a series of messages sent over several days. This helps build a relationship with your visitor plus you’re able to market your product to them with each message you send.

Your call to action should be included in all aspects of your marketing material as there’s not just one way to get a response from your visitors. If you employ any of the call to action methods mentioned above, you’ll increase your conversion rates and make more sales.

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Learn how to start and build a profitable online business with

“Highly Effective Article Marketing Strategies”

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Maryland Web Design

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: ,
May 5, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Article Marketing Success – Attract Traffic and Increase Conversion Rates

The key to article marketing success is to get lots of eyeballs reading your content. The other point of success is that your article needs to be so compelling that it draws the reader naturally through the content then responds to your call to action in the resource box.

Let’s say you get 100 people reading your article and only 1 buys your product. That means your conversion rate is 1%. If you get 300 people to read your article and 3 people respond to your CTA, your conversion rate is still 1%. If you continue building more traffic it may slightly increase your visitor numbers but your conversion rates will still remain the same.

How to increase conversion rates

1. Quality content

Place yourself in your visitors shoes and try to read your content from their viewpoint. Ask yourself “what’s in it for them?”

Did you clearly point out the problem the reader is having?
Did you offer multiple solutions to the problem?
Did you explain each solution clearly?
Does your content have a natural flow that pulls the reader through it?
Did you create a clear summary of the article in the concluding paragraph?

By addressing these questions your content will have more impact.

2. Call to action (CTA)

This is the only place you get one shot for your visitor to take action…buy your product or service or subscribe to your ezine. if you’ve done a good job pre-selling your product in the article your visitor will respond positively to your CTA.

The first sentence or paragraph of your resource box is where you make your offer. The next few sentences explain who you are and includes your web site address.

3. Sales page content

Your visitor gets taken to your sales page from the CTA in your resource box. If the sales page is not compelling it will not convert the readers into buyers.

Here are 7 ways to increase your sales page conversion rate

4. Download page

The download page is what visitors receive after purchasing your product. It should thank them for their purchase and clearly restate the name of the product to reassure the visitor the information is correct.

Provide clear instructions how to download your ebook…not all users are computer savvy. You might also offer another product here that will further help the reader.

If you attract lots of traffic to your articles and convert readers into buyers you’ll have created a successful marketing funnel or system that you can use repeatedly.

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If you want to attract a continuous stream of NEW visitors to
your website without spending a dime on advertising pick up a copy of
my new ebook”Article Marketing Strategies“…
to receive immediate and long-term traffic to your web site.

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO

Filed Under: Article Marketing Tagged With: , , ,
April 14, 2008 by 8 Comments

Increase Conversion Rates – Top 7 Ways to Improve Your Sales Letter Conversion Rate

In my previous article I discussed creating an attractive design for your ebook sales page to convert visitors into buyers. The other main factor is the quality of the content on the page. Your sales letter should pull the visitor through the page. This means the text and images must flow seamlessly together and pre-sell the visitor so he or she will want to click the order button.

Top 7 Ways to Improve Your Sales Letter Conversion Rate

1. Stress the benefits

Put yourself in your customers shoes and think what’s in it for them. Point out the problems they are facing and how your product
will help solve them.

2. Provide details

Detail what your product will do ie reduce weight, get more traffic. You might even include the whole table of contents
to show the detailed information covered in your ebook.

3. Establish credibility

Why should this person believe you..they’ve never met you? Include examples how this product helped you. Provide testimonials of people who have used the product. Other people’s opinions and experiences often carry more weight than your own opinion or experience. This probably is due to unscrupulous businesses giving false or incorrect information that burned their customers.

4. Create a sense of urgency

The majority of visitors arriving at your sales page will procrastinate and leave the purchasing decision for later. They may forget to return so how can you get them to come back?

Here are a few ideas…

a. You could say something like:

“this price is for a limited time only”
“pre-launch price”
“the price will increase after this date…”

b. One time offer

Warn the person this price will only be offered once.
When they return to the same page the price will have increased.

c. Create a pop-up

When they leave the sales page a different page will pop up displaying a reduced price ie “get $10.00 off the price if you act now”

5. Don’t include navigation bars

This will only distract your readers by having them click elsewhere. You need to create a single focus to maintain the power of your sales copy.

6. Offer an e-course

Create a series of follow-up messages using an autoresponder. This enables you to expose your offer several times (instead of one time) increasing the chances of the person buying.

7. Over deliver

Selling your ebook means you want to GET something (money) from your visitor. Provide a high quality bonus or bonuses that the visitor does not expect to receive. It will make help remove objections to their purchasing decision.

*****************************************
If you want to attract a continuous stream of NEW visitors to
your website without spending a dime on advertising pick up a copy of
my new ebook”Article Marketing Strategies“…
to receive immediate and long-term traffic.

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Site Design, Web Hosting, SEO

Filed Under: Ebook Creation Tagged With: , ,