How to Sell Online
How to sell online. How to sell more online.
To sell online you need to anticipate what the needs of your visitors will be and what information or task they will want complete.
Know this: Only 10% of people visiting most websites have an intent to buy something. The rest of the people are at another earlier stage of the buying process. They may want a catalog, to ask a question, to get a price quote. Make those tasks easy for people to find and do. The same thing applies to people visiting a store or a trade show. Not all of them are ready to buy yet.
How to sell more online
Make sure your website is effective at helping prospects at different stages of their selection/buying process
1. Most prospects visiting your website want to remain anonymous
They want information to help them make a decision and understand options and trade-offs. Does your site offer enough information to educate prospects? Can they get this information without having to give their email address or name?
2. Are you offering content as credible as the best third-party source?
Instead of marketing that sounds like a commission-motivated sales pitch with lots of happy talk about your product and too many superlatives, how can the information on your website sound more like a smart friend who will educate and explain things?
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Look at everything that’s written on your website with the skeptical eye of a reporter. Good journalists are objective and therefore credible. Would a reporter say this?
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You can really differentiate yourself if you are willing to be honest about addressing the recognized negative customer perceptions about your product or service. Dominos Pizza did this. In a series of documentary-style ads, Dominos admitted that its old recipe left customers complaining its pizza crust tasted like cardboard and its sauce was reminiscent of ketchup. And they reported doubling quarterly profits after they did this.
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If you sell a number of similar products, are you willing to share the strengths and limitations of each of the products like what a smart friend would do? Good-better-best helps customers understand the trade-offs between your products beyond just looking at the price.
3. Are you educating prospects in many different ways?
- articles
- white papers
- demos
- reports
- videos
- online training
- podcasts
- third party reviews
- testimonials from customers
- community comments
4. Think of your website as a consultant helping a prospect through the discovery and education process. Are you:
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Helping people who are evaluating the category?
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Helping people who don’t understand any of the industry jargon?
- Think of doctors you've met over the years. The best doctors use a different language when talking to other physicians and medical people (they use all the medical terms and jargon) and when they are talking to their patients and families, they have great bedside manner by using terms and words everyone understands or explaining industry jargon. Instead of saying to a patient, “Your epidermis is bleeding.” They say, “Your skin is bleeding.”
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A lot of writing for marketing is talking only to people who understand the industry and sometimes even company lingo.
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Helping people who are expert buyers?
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These people will be put off by information that is dummied down. They expect to see industry jargon and terms and if this isn’t used, they are frustrated and may not think the company is credible. They like a separate lane and area on websites.
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These people will be put off by information that is dummied down. They expect to see industry jargon and terms and if this isn’t used, they are frustrated and may not think the company is credible. They like a separate lane and area on websites.
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Helping people understand what they should consider when evaluating alternatives?
- The press does a good job of this. They suggest what to look for when evaluating a new grill or photo printing service. Marketers would be smart to follow their lead and offer this type of information on their websites.
5. How can website visitors talk to a human being?
If you’re selling an expensive and/or long-lead time product or service, it’s essential to allow prospects to interact with someone knowledgeable in person. And to let the prospect control how they want to interact: by email, phone or in person.
But if you’re selling a mass market low cost product or service, you can erode any chance of being profitable if you are spending too much time or money on customer service and pre-sales support. It’s often too expensive to interact with prospects. Banks created ATMs to reduce customer service costs and now many people would rather deal with the ATM than a teller. That’s true now for selecting airline flights and seats. It’s easier and faster to do that online yourself than to call the airline. How can you automate a process to make it better for the prospect than interacting with a person?
How can you help people who want to talk to someone in person and do this cost-effectively?
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Start a forum or community site, which they facilitate and monitor, to enable people to help other people (for free).
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Use online chat and outsourced telemarketing services.
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Constantly update FAQs (frequently asked questions) to address what most people are asking about.
If you want to sell more online, these articles may be helpful
You see, we're doing this anticipating job right now. Based on your interest in information about "How to Sell Online" we're trying to recommend the most relevant articles and advice to help you.
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About selling more online:
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Cross-selling
- Selling more to your existing customers
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How to increase website traffic
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Social media marketing
- Website usability testing
- Understanding different user learning styles
- Trigger events that indicate someone is ready to buy
- How to collect customer information
- Online behavior of market segments
- SEO search engine marketing
- Mobile website
- Create a smartphone app
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Cross-selling
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About websites
- How to create a website
- Determine if your website is working for you
- Create an online store (e-commerce)
- Create landing pages
- Analyze website actions, behaviors and visitors
- Write website content
- Websites - you'll find all the MarketingZone how-to guides here
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Purchase Process - the purchase process is changing in the age of social media and mobile phones. It's fast and easy to get advice and opinions from friends and colleagues.
- Trigger Events in Marketing that indicate someone may be ready to buy. Certain events, milestones, or seasonal activities may indicate that people are ready to buy. Identifying these "triggers" and reaching out to customers at the right time with the right message is a great way to attract new customers.
- Contact Plan - how to create a customer contact plan so that you are sending customers and prospects the most relevant information at the right time.
- ZMOT Zero Moment of Truth - Google's view is that search is now integrated throughout the buying process because of mobile phones and customers wanting to be smart buyers.
- Buying Process - How to sell more by helping prospects at all nine stages of the buying process.
- How to Sell Online - learn what to do to sell online
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