Is your website performing the way you want it to? If not, you may be one of the many people out there who are inadvertently learning how to lose sales or possibly not make a single one on their website. The thing is, no matter how much time and effort you put into creating the most stylish, creative website out, if you don’t give enough attention to the right pages and directing traffic to them, visitors will pass you by and sales will slip through your fingers.
Last week we talked about 7 Key Parts to an Opt In Page and the importance of any landing page, sales page or opt-in page having just one goal – this week we look at how you can lose those sales, or fail to have people sign up with you…
1. Confuse people
We’ve referred to ” a confused mind never buys” before: a confused mind also doesn’t sign up for your opt in or anything else you have on offer! One of the big mistakes many people are making is in directing people to the wrong page on their website with their advertising activities, often the homepage. You can have the coolest, latest design in homepages but the chances are your homepage gives people options. Your homepage doesn’t conform to the idea of having one goal and instead provides people with a veritable smorgasbord of options. They can click on any of a number of possible links within the navigation and while you may get some sign-ups using your opt-in form there, you will not achieve nearly as many as you would if people were directed to an opt in page in the first place.
The Treatment – Make sure all ads that you run are directed to an appropriate landing page. Your ads are usually targeted right? Give people what they are expecting to see when they click on it and don’t bamboozle them with too many options.
2. Don’t do any research
One of the best ways to waste a bunch of time (and possibly money) is to think that you already know what people want from you, or not even think about what people actually want when you create your “party starter” or ethical bribe that you’re giving away in return for signing up with you. Make the same mistake with what you’re actually selling and you could be out of business!
The Treatment – Do your research before you put a whole lot of time and effort into creating something. Not sure what to do? Check out this podcast we did recently for ideas…
3. Slap something together
We mentioned the key parts to the anatomy of a good opt-in page last week – the trick is in combining all of those elements and having something that looks good! When you think about it, appearance does matter to you when you sign up with someone right? If they look unprofessional or unfinished you’re not likely to give up your email address.
The Treatment – Get your landing page done professionally or use a tool which will create it for you. We love LeadPages for a program that is easy to use and provides a range of page templates that have already been tested for effectiveness.
4. Don’t follow up
What are you going to do once people give you their email address? Many website owners make the mistake of just sitting on their lists and only sending out an email blast when they want to sell something. What relationship does your list now have with you? The chances are they really don’t know a lot about you but as they realise your emails are only to sell them stuff, they don’t open them or they unsubscribe.
The Treatment – Make sure you regularly communicate with your list with a view to adding value. Be known for providing valuable information and interesting content. Email marketing is still very valid if you do it right.
What do you think? Do you have other tips for how to lose sales or fail to influence people? Let us know below…