1. Keep search engines in mind when designing your site. Include
keywords and META tags in your web pages to improve your ranking
with search engines. For information on how to improve your
search- engine ranking with keywords, go to
http://www.FiveStarWebDesign.com/keyword.htm.
2. Design your web site based on your Unique Selling
Proposition. Why should prospects buy from you instead of your
competition? What sets you apart? What makes your products and
services unique, better, and more desirable? Do you provide
hard-to-find expertise, the best customer service, lowest
prices, highest quality, fastest service, or strongest
guarantee? Back up your claims with testimonials, statistics,
results of studies, and other data. Stand out from your
competition. Offer more. Make your offers unique. Be original.
3. Put the benefits of your site and your USP right on top of
your home page. Many web visitors never scroll down past the
first screen of information. Give your potential buyers the
information they need as quickly as possible.
4. Include an "Opt-in" form to collect your visitors' email
addresses. An opt-in form captures the email addresses of
interested prospects and gives you permission to email them.
Getting your visitors' e-mail addresses and building opt-in
email lists is essential to staying in touch with your prospects
and turning your visitors into buyers. Offer something valuable
to get your potential buyers' email addresses such as a
newsletter, free report, consultation, discount, or special
offer.
5. Stay in touch. Visitors rarely purchase the first time they
visit a site. They want to get to know you before they are
willing to spend money. Communicate consistently with your
prospects through online newsletters and email messages. Give
potential buyers reasons to return. Provide valuable information
in your ezine. Mention what's new on your site. Provide special
offers and discounts to your subscribers. Invite them to visit
your web site again and again. These techniques work. Try them
and watch your prospects become buyers.
6. Ask for feedback. Find out what potential buyers want. Use
feedback forms and email surveys to conduct market research. Ask
what products and information they're interested in. What
benefits are most appealing. What price they would pay. Analyze
the feedback and adapt your site as needed.
7. Write compelling sales copy. Effective copy works just as
well on the Internet as it does in direct mail. Attract
potential buyers with benefits. Start each web page with a
compelling, benefit-oriented headline. Tests have proven that
the more you tell, the more you sell. If people aren't
interested in your products or services, they won't read past
the first paragraph. If they are interested, you can't tell them
enough.
8. Motivate readers to do what you want them to do with action
verbs. A call to action such as "call now," "order now," and
"click here" can dramatically increase sales. Give precise
instructions. Tell them exactly what to do. For example, tell
them to subscribe to your ezine and give you their email
addresses. For more examples of action verbs, see "Increase
Sales, Subscriptions, and Traffic With Action Words" at
http://www.profitablewebstrategies.com/action.htm.
9. Make purchasing easy. Take a good look at your ordering
process. More information at
http://www.profitablewebstrategies.com/ordering.htm.
10. Include your URL on each web page. This will make it easier
for people to go back to your web site.
Take a look at your web site and see how many of these elements
are missing. Implement these proven direct marketing strategies
now to increase your online sales!
P.S. Read more in-depth articles at
http://www.profitablewebstrategies.com
About the author:
Web design built on proven marketing strategies!
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