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Marketing Tip: There Is A Time For Selling And A Time For Closing The Sale
by Marty Bradfield
Business Skills Articles
Published on this site: December 3rd, 2010 - See
more articles from this month
Most commercial webmasters enter the online sales process at a
great disadvantage... The disadvantage is that they have never
worked in sales, nor have they studied the fine art of copy
writing...
Many webmasters spend a considerable amount of time
second-guessing themselves about when and where to ask for the
sale...
Amazingly, many websites you visit will make a great case for its
products or services, and still fail to ask for the sale... This
happens primarily because the person writing the copy fears
coming across as just another used car salesman...
But, it should be noted that if a prospect takes the time to read
your sales copy, then you as a copywriter will be doing a great
disservice to your prospect by not giving the prospect an obvious
and easy way to buy your products or services...
If you're not going to ask for the sale in a clear and obvious
manner, then you should save everyone the time and trouble of
having to read your sales copy in the first place...
There is nothing worse than visiting a website, taking the time
to read the copy, and not been able to find the link that will
allow you to make a purchase...
Knowing When To Ask For The Sale
I have heard a lot of discussion concerning when to ask for the
sale... Many webmasters, including myself for my first five years
online, get into the mindset that they have to describe their
product or service offerings in full, before asking for the
sale...
However, not every person who visits your website is unaware of
your offer... In fact, a certain percentage of those people
visiting your website decided to visit your website, because they
are ready to buy NOW...
As a result, you should provide your visitors the opportunity to
buy your products or services, as soon as they land on your
website...
A buddy of mine, who writes sales copy for a living, suggested
that any sales page should provide at least four "calls to
action", enabling prospects at all levels to make the purchase,
when they are ready to make the purchase...
The four levels of prospects that you should take consideration
for, include:
- Repeat buyers, who know exactly what they are buying;
- New buyers, who have been pre-qualified to purchase what you
are selling;
- New buyers, who need a general introduction to your products
or services, before they are ready to buy; and
- New buyers, who need to learn everything there is to learn
about a particular product or service offer, before they make
that decision to buy.
For repeat buyers, when they land on your website, the only thing
they want to know is where to go to buy your product or service
NOW...
New buyers, who have been pre-qualified to purchase what you are
selling, are people who may have learned about your offering from
somebody else or through a another website... These folks want to
see a quick summary of your offer, so that they know they are in
the right place... After they have seen your quick summary, they
want your buy button...
New buyers, who need a general introduction to your products or
services, before they are ready to buy are the kinds of people
who do not like to read... They want to get a general overview
and a few details from you, before they make their decision...
Once they have made the decision to buy, they want quick access
to the buy button...
The fourth set of buyers will read your long copy, word for word,
and probably even read it two or three times... These people will
probably even browse every page of your website to determine if
you have more information to share with them about the product or
service that you are selling... These folks will suck in every
available piece of information that you are willing to give them,
before they reach for the buy button...
The lesson to be learned from the four types of buyers is that
you should present a "call to action" or a "buy button" at
every opportunity, frequently and obviously...
When To Sell, And When Not To Sell
If you include your purchase page on a page separate from your
sales page, it should be noted that you should leave the sales
copy off of your purchase page...
The reason is because most people who have clicked the button to
go to your purchase page are already sold on your offer... If you
attempt to resell somebody on your purchase page, you risk
talking the person out of the sale...
If you have set up systems that will enable you to pre-qualify
and pre-sell your product or service, then it is best to send
those people directly to your purchase page, as opposed to
sending them to your sales page... When you have pre-qualified
and pre-sold your product or service, you do not want to talk
your prospect out of completing the process...
Many professional online marketers will construct several sales
pages to enable them to make their offers in a variety of
different ways, usually writing each sales page to address a
variety of prospects, with different needs...
Driving Traffic To Your Website
The hardest part and easiest part of any website is driving
targeted traffic to it...
Depending on your skill set and your budget, delivering a
targeted audience to your website may be the most difficult thing
you have ever done...
For others, getting traffic is the easy part... Those
professional online marketers who have honed their skills and
their sales message will eventually buy traffic from a number of
online sources...
If your sales copy is good and sales conversions are reliable,
buying traffic is as easy as falling off a log... There are
literally thousands of traffic sources online from which you can
buy traffic...
The trick to buying traffic is to make sure that you are able to
make a profit on the traffic you buy... Those people who can
consistently afford to buy traffic are those who track their
results and learn how many people they need to put on their page
to get a sale...
Once you begin to understand the effectiveness of your sales
copy, then you can easily put traffic through your website... And
more importantly, do so reliably at a profit...
Marty Bradfield teaches the Basics of online marketing and
Cutting Edge Techniques used by online marketers, to develop lead
generation systems for new businesses. He recommends the 80-page
report that outlines 35 Proven Traffic Generation Techniques used
by professional marketers to build their online businesses:
http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/multiple-traffic-streams.html
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