What Does The Successful Business

Have That You Don't?

Do You know what makes them successful?

They are making money, and how do they make that money?

Sales, and Repeat Sales!!!

If you are like 95% of Internet businesses this is probably the most difficult part of the business. Marketing is a very large part of any business; just having a product won't necessarily make you any money. The product must be promoted and not just everyone has the skills necessary to accomplish this task. Promotions can always be improved upon using a scientific approach. How can this be accomplished?

Here are a few Tips:

Is There a Need for Your Product?

Look and listen to what people are complaining about. If there is a large number of people looking for a solution to a specific problem; then if you can resolve the problem, you probably have a viable product. Sometimes you can improve upon products that already exist. Look for ways to make things better, faster, less costly.

What is Your Product?

You must determine all the positive aspects of your product and list them. Look for problems that the product will resolve. People want to know what the product will do for them. Always show the benefits not the features. People want to know what the product will do for them, not what the product has built in that will accomplish their desires (save time, freedom, safety, comfort, etc...).

How Will It Help The Users?

People want products that helps them and the way they feel. They look for products that will make their life easier. They want more freedom to do the things they really want to do. Sometimes this can be accomplished by pointing out the problems the customer encounters and then explaining how your product resolves those problems. When you answer these questions, you will be well on your way to having a good sales letter. 

Who Can Use It?

It doesn't do any good to try and sell something to someone that doesn't need the product. It is always best to determine and target your market for the best results. This may take a little thinking on your part but you will soon come up with a list of possible uses for your product. If you did a good job of defining what problems your product will resolve, you should have a good idea of the target market. Where did you look to find the problems your product resolves?

Sales is what you need.

How do you get these sales?

By reaching the segment of the market that can use your product. Most sales on the Internet happen because of a well thought out and tested written campaign, or promotion. Targeted traffic is the key to maximizing sales. Getting the traffic can be an expensive undertaking and planning is required. Targeting your market will reduce the expense, and increase your sales per click ratio. Good sales letters and targeting the proper markets with your campaign will result in improved sales.

Internet purchases takes one aspect away from normal store purchased products. You can't physically touch the product on the Internet. This requires the seller to paint pictures with words in a manner that allows the customer to feel they know and understand the product and what it can do for them.

Sales Letter Tips:

What is required to get people to read sales letters?

• An attention grabbing head line is first and foremost. Some of the best seem to start with "How To", "Hidden Secret Revealed", you get the idea. Then a strong lead in, maybe explaining problems being encountered, and how they can be resolved.
  
  
• Lots of white space (space between paragraphs) it actually makes the sales letter easier to read. Use bullets and sub headlines to draw attention to the next paragraph or portion of the sales letter. Each sub headline needs to be strong enough to keep the potential customer reading.
  
  
• Anticipate customers questions and doubts and explain how the product will deal with them. If similar products are available explain how yours is better. Make the end of each paragraph lead into the next paragraph as smoothly as possible.
  
  
• Create a sense of anticipation by making the product  available for a short period of time or a limited number is available. The customer needs to feel the offer may be gone if they wait to purchase it.
  
  
• Testimonials by satisfied customers or users of the product will help to convince the worthiness of the product. This tends overcome some of the doubts the customer may have about the product.
  
  
• A good guarantee is a must. Make a money back offer for some period of time; or maybe a free trial period. Something that inspires confidence in the products ability to do what it is supposed to accomplish.
  
  
• Tell the customer what you expect them to do (buy the product) and give them a simple way to accomplish it. The less steps involved the better. Each step required is another opportunity for the customer to back out, or click away.
  
  
• P.S.'s are used to summarize and intensify the needs and wants of the customer. In some cases there will be a pop up after you click away to explain why you didn't purchase the product.
  
• Follow up by sending a thank you page to your customer. You would be surprised at the "good will" you promote with this small gesture. I sometimes give supplemental information and other related offers. Some call this backend sales strategy, and it doesn't cost anything.
   

Don't Spend All Your Advertising Budget On one campaign 

Testing your campaign can and should be done. Remember Internet sales require word pictures explaining the benefits of any product, because you can't physically touch it. The feelings of the customer is a very important aspect of making a sale. Sometimes, a very minor change in a sales letter, or product can improve conversion rates and sales many fold. Cost efficiency is a necessary step for any business that is successful.

Prove your spending maximizes your income. Testing and tracking may seem like a lot of work, but without them, you're just guessing that your work and campaign will be successful. Testing, tweaking and continually improving your campaign and product is the key to success and future of your business.

First, there are so many variables involved this seems like a ridiculous task I felt the same way initially. Some variables, seem to out weigh others, and I believe the first to test is headlines. They have created the largest impact for me. Some times a change in price, you just have to test to determine what's best.

Test Methods and Thoughts:

Establish a way to identify each change you make and its impact on sales. This sounds like something difficult but it is actually pretty easy in most cases. I use my own method because I have unlimited auto responders. I just create a different auto responder for each trial test. The statistics I receive from the auto responder will tell me how many hits received. I then tie the auto responder to a particular sales site page. By knowing the total number of hits and the total number of sales to a specific page; I can determine the conversion ratio.

One thing I didn't mention was how I try and determine the target audience and the number of possible respondents. This is a little more difficult and the most time consuming for the beginner. If you don't have a very large list that can be broken down into smaller increments for Feedback_form.html purposes you will have to do some more work.

Search by keywords and determine other sites that may be similar but different. If your product is in competition with a site you probably want to look elsewhere. The ideal site would be one that is complimentary to your site. Make a list of these sites and keep it.
 

Then I check to see if those sites sell advertising and if so, how many subscribers. Most of the time I captured most of this data during the initial stages of my product development. I have learned that I will need additional information when I am ready to market my product.

Some of the time you can offer a percentage of sales to the owner for their posting of your ad, or sales letter. Other times you may have to pay a fixed fee for the service. I have found the most reasonable pricing for this service is usually lists of 2500 or less. I also keep a report card for each of the sites based upon hits and sales.

The unscientific part of this type test is how well the subscribers to these lists have been screened and how nearly they fit into your products category. The trick is to try and maintain as close a relationship as possible to your product type. That being said, The more controls you can control the better your chances of success. People visualize things differently and you need to determine what triggers the largest group to buy your product.

Run the campaign you have developed through a complimentary list of known size. This will become your benchmark (point of comparison). You have to start somewhere and this is it. Next, change a variable and run it through another complimentary list of preferably same number of members. Compare the numbers and determine which results in the most sales.

If the lists are different in size, then you will have to use the conversion rates for the comparison. I divide the number of people on the list by the number of sales and the smaller the number the better. (example: list size 2500, number of sales 50, 2500/50=50 ratio=1:50) This means that 1 out of every 50 people bought the product (1 out of 30 would be better and 1 out of 75 would be worse).

I like to see a minimum ratio of 1:50 this is a 2% sales rate. I'm sure this will create some discussion and I'm not an expert or a millionaire. I have had sales between 2% and 4% (1:25) and made a little money. Keep Feedback_form.html and tweaking until you find a suitable profit. If nothing works, it may be time to start over, or sell your rights to someone else if possible.

There is a point of no return for Feedback_form.html, I can't tell you exactly where it's at because each individual, product, price, and market is different. Each individual has to determine what they expect gain and make that decision. Testing,  comparing, tweaking, and documenting is a good way to move your sales in a positive direction.

 

Testing Hints:

• Change only one variable (thing) at a time. Very minor changes can have large impacts on response rates by customers. If you change more than one variable at a time, they may counter act with one another and give false information. Beginners many times make the mistake of thinking they know what the buyer wants and why. I know, I made that mistake and paid for it.
  
  
• The first variable that I change is my headline, then sub headlines. Sometimes renaming your product will make a significant difference. The only way to know for sure is make a single change run it through a complimentary list and see how it compares to your benchmark.
  
  
• I have had some success with changing the price. Remember if you reduce price you will have to make more sales to make the same goal. Conversely if you increase price it takes less sales to reach the goal. I read somewhere that you should set your price with a 7 for the last digit (ex. 39.97, 39.47). Of course the oil companies does pretty good with a .9 on the end for a gallon of gas ($2.409 per gallon U.S.A.)and going up.
  
  
• Each new test must be individually identified to determine results of changes. I like to reach a given number of sales say 50 before making comparisons. The closer the sales numbers the better the comparison. A larger sample size is also better statistically but this isn't actually a scientific method. I use it strictly as a pointer to keep me hopefully moving in a positive direction.
  
  
• Remember Your sales letter, or ad should remain constant except for the one variable being changed. Use your benchmark in each case and then make the one change to it and then run your test. Keep copies of each test and document the conditions and the results. After a while you will know better what works and what doesn't by studying the various results.
  
  
• Maximize your gain by studying and learning from the various different methods and results compiled. You may see some significant patterns develop from studying the results. Incorporate these into your next project and it may save you some time and effort.
  
  

Using the methods outlined above you should begin to see an improvement in your time and your bottom line. Following proved methods will get you started much faster. I have seen the difference between guessing and Feedback_form.html and believe me Feedback_form.html pays off by improving sales.

Sales are the life blood of any business:

Without sales there will be no money to sustain your business. In fact without sales you don't really have a business, just a money consuming hobby. Successful businesses know how important sales and cash flow is in relationship to their success.