No sales? Here's your 10-step rescue plan
By Dwain Jeworski
Imagine: After weeks of hard work, your website is finally live. You've officially been open for business an entire week.
And yet you haven't made any sales.
Not. One. Single. Sale.
Arggh!
Don't despair -- we've all been there before. In fact, it's
one of the most common problems people ask us to solve for them.
Here's something that'll help ease the pain of turning a "dud" site into one that rakes in the profits...
IMC's surefire "My Website Ain't Making Money!" troubleshooting checklist!
If
you recently launched a new web site and aren't getting the results you expected, you need to ask yourself every single question on the list below, starting at number one. Once you're able to answer "yes" to all ten questions, I guarantee the sales will come rolling in.
Print out the following checklist and start your troubleshooting right now:
#1. Is there actually a market for your product?
By that I mean, are you
positive you're selling a product or solution people are
actively looking for online -- and not finding?
That is the formula for a successful business.
The best way to answer this question is to do keyword research with a tool like
Keyword Discovery or
Wordtracker to confirm whether people are using search engines like Google and Yahoo to hunt for something just like your product -- but not finding it.
It all comes back to supply and demand... You want to make sure people actually
want to buy your product before you try to sell it!
#2. Are you getting enough traffic?
Before you can really judge your website's effectiveness, you need at least
1000 unique visitors (not pageviews). If you've only had 100 visitors and haven't made a sale, be patient! You just need more traffic.
Once you've had 1000 visitors,
then you can begin to assess how effective your site really is.
#3. Are you getting the right kind of traffic?
If you've had 1000+ visitors to your website and you still haven't made a sale, find out where your traffic is coming from. That'll help you know if it's targeted or not.
(By "targeted," I mean, visitors who are actively seeking out your product and are therefore extremely likely to buy it.)
The best way to get the RIGHT traffic to your site is by
bidding on extremely targeted keywords in the pay-per-click search engines.
If you drive 1000 visitors to your site -- using extremely targeted keywords in your PPC ads -- and you
still don't make a sale, then we know the problem isn't the quality of traffic you're getting. It's your website.
So let's take a look at that next...
#4. Is your headline effective?
If your site doesn't have a
compelling headline that clearly communicates a powerful benefit, your potential customers aren't going to stick around to see what you have to offer.
Writing a better headline is typically the easiest way to fix a floundering website. If you get more people to stay on your site and read your offer, more people will buy your product.
#5. Are you distracting your visitors from your main sales message?
You need to get rid of everything that encourages your visitors think of something other than the product you're selling and the problem it solves.
This includes: links to other websites, Google Adsense ads, banner ads for other products, free articles that don't support the sale... the list goes on.
Keep your visitors focused
only on buying your product -- and your sales will go up.
#6. Are you using testimonials effectively?
Like I said in last week's editorial, testimonials are one of your most powerful selling tools. Nothing says, "Buy it now!" like an unbiased third-party recommendation.
If your site is brand new and you don't have any testimonials yet, give your product to a few friends and ask them to provide you with testimonials on how well it worked for them.
#7. Does your guarantee take away the risk of buying?
A good guarantee is an essential selling tool -- especially on the Internet. Unless you're a major brand (like Sony, Wal-Mart, Pepsi) that your customers inherently trust, you need to let them know you'll stand behind your product.
Reassure them that if they're not 100% satisfied they can return it to you and get all their money back. And remember, a longer guarantee usually results in
more sales -- and
fewer refunds!
#8. Is your price too high? Or too low?
Most people know that if you price your product too high, you'll hurt your sales. But this can also be true if your price is too low.
People get suspicious when the price is far below their expectations. They think it's probably "too good to be true" -- and as a result, they don't feel confident making a purchase.
#9. Is your ordering system easy to use?
Just because
you can figure out how to navigate through your ordering process, it doesn't mean your average customer can.
If you want to make sure your ordering system is "user-friendly," find a few friends who aren't very Internet savvy and get
them to order your product.
Watch over their shoulders and take notes. Where did they get stuck?
Make sure you fix whatever problems they encountered -- because your potential customers are encountering them, too -- and most likely leaving your site in frustration without buying!
#10. Do you have good salescopy?
If you aren't using well-written salescopy to sell your product, then you'll never achieve online success. It's that simple.
Your copy needs to use all of the selling tools I mentioned above to present a strong, linear sales message. It doesn't matter whether your particular site needs short copy or long copy, the fact will always remain: Your product isn't going to sell itself! You need
words to do the job.
So there they are... the 10 questions we ask whenever we look at a website that's not turning visitors into sales. I have never answered "yes" to all 10 questions without seeing a
substantial improvement to the site's conversion rate.
Now,
if you're scratching your head, wondering what a good salesletter looks like... how to test pricing... how to write a headline... or how to use the pay-per-click search engines -- then I have to be honest and tell you, you need more help than we can provide in a single newsletter!
If you want detailed, step-by-step training on everything I mentioned above, then keep an eye on your inbox tomorrow!
Dwain Jeworski is IMC's VP of Marketing 
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