At the end of the day increasing your sales is all about improving your communication. If you're talking to a prospective client face-to-face then you have a certain amount of time to communicate why they should buy your product or service. It's exactly the same when it comes to your website... only about 100 times more difficult.

When someone visits your website they don't have to be polite and listen to you ramble on. They can click the back button any time they want and go visit someone else's website. That's why your website should be the ultimate at communicating your message.

It's like having your best salesperson record exactly what they say to prospective clients so it can be repeated over and over again. In person or on the phone it's called your sales script. Online it's called your website.

It's also important that your message is unique to your business. If you're simply saying the same thing that all your competitors are saying then you're going to struggle online. When your competitors are just one click away from you it's important to get your message right so the visitor wants to find out more.

So if your unique message has anything to do with the "best products" or "best service" you may be in trouble. Because all your competitors are likely to be saying the same thing. I haven't met a business yet who honestly tells their potential clients they have the "second best products and service in town."

Personally I find this time of year to be perfect for asking yourself the hard questions about your business. It's often the time we think about what we'd like to achieve in the coming year and set goals for ourselves. So as you set your sales goals for this year ask yourself what portion you'd like to come from your website.

It's also a great time to take a look at the message your business is communicating. I've said it before but I'll say it again because I still haven't heard a more elegant question than Dan Kennedy's...

"Why should I do business with you - over all other alternatives - including doing nothing at all?"

The answer to that one question is what your website should be saying to every visitor you have. Whilst it's not always the easiest question to answer it's worth taking the time to think about it. Because once you have this answer it becomes a lot easier to increase your website sales.

Let me know your thoughts on the video by posting your comments below. I'm planning to do more regular videos like this and go into more depth about ideas and strategies that can help you increase your sales and grow your business.

This is how my business started although it was more by accident than my incredible business mind. Someone I knew heard me talking about websites and asked if I could help her improve her website rankings. So I did (I started web marketing with search engine optimization) and managed to achieve excellent results for her.

Then she asked me the fateful question of what I could do next. Purely from my own gut feeling I thought we should rewrite the website to make it more friendly and easy to use. So I did that, her clients loved it and suddenly she started pimping me out to all her other friends with businesses as well.

Do you know your market inside out?

However since most people reading this will be in business already it’s a bit late to go back and start all over again from scratch. But we can make sure we get to know our market inside out. We need to have a picture in our mind of our ideal clients so we know what they look like when we meet them.

So ask yourself some simple questions like:

• Who is your ideal client?
• Who do you love to deal with?
• Who makes you the most profit?

Describing your ideal client

The questions above will get you thinking and help you define your ideal client in useful terms. But I want to point out that you need to describe your client from multiple different angles. Because while most people focus on demographics I believe their psychographics are much more important for really being successful.

So what exactly does this mean?

Demographics

I think of demographics as all the statistical data you can collect on your market. Things like their age, income, location etc fall in here. But this is where most market research stops and I believe misses the real point of understanding your market.

Psychographics

While there are more technical definitions I view psychographics as the psychology of your market (funny that). This is where you really get in touch with your ideal client’s hopes, dream, problems, feelings and so on. This is where you really start to understand your ideal client on a deeper level.

I always find the best way to understand your market is to be part of it. This means that you’re solving a problem or fulfilling a desire for your clients that you once shared. If this isn’t the case then you need to do your best to feel empathy for your clients and really understand where they’re coming from.

Discover your ideal client’s story

I find a very powerful way of getting in touch with your ideal client is to write down their story. This means describing everything about them so you understand completely where they’re coming from. By doing this exercise you’ll have a detailed description of your ideal client and can then be on the lookout for them every day.

What you do next

Have a think about who your ideal client is and then really dig deeply into their psychology. From there you’ll have a lot more clarity about what drives them and be able to discover their story. Once your ideal client is in your mind you need to ensure you always communicate with this person throughout your business’ operations.

And if you’d like to learn how to really discover and connect with your ideal client then take a look at my Automated Selling Machine course.

Sales is all about the relationship. When we think about it we generally buy from people we like and trust. How many times have you decided not to buy something you actually wanted just because of the way the salesperson presented themselves?

Now building a relationship face-to-face is a lot easier than doing it online but this doesn’t mean we can’t do it. You can also do ok selling online from a faceless website that builds no relationship. However if you want to amplify your results and make more sales then you’ll want to build better relationships.

The important thing to remember is that website visitors are not just some number you see in your analytics package... they’re people who want what you’re offering.

Becoming “unprofessional”

Most website owners seem to be scared about appearing “unprofessional” to their visitors... whatever that means. They like to pretend they’re some big faceless corporation that does millions of dollars of sales online. However the truth is most buyers prefer to deal with a real person as they know they’ll be looked after.

Think about some of the service providers you visit on a regular basis. You’re probably not shopping around for a new hairdresser every time you need a haircut as you’ve built a relationship with one in particular. This is probably the same for your car mechanic, dentist, doctor and even your favorite restaurants, bars and cafes.

We like familiarity and this is what our relationships provide us with. We know what to expect before we arrive. And the irony is that you probably have businesses that you visit that don’t even give you great results but you still visit them anyway because of the relationship you’ve formed.

But I digress… here are some ways to help build personal relationships with your website visitors:

Unleash your personality – Your personality is your strongest point of difference in your arsenal. It’s something your competitors can never replicate (although they may try) and can help you stand out. So never be afraid of using your personality when it comes to communicating through your website.

Be a real person – We’re surrounded by marketing that is based on a world of make believe. Now while everyone likes to live the fantasy it’s always nice to come back to earth and deal with a real person at the end of the day. Present yourself as a real person with warts and all to deepen your relationships even further.

Be unique – As you present your personality to the visitors remember to pick out what makes you unique to make yourself really stand out. It’s most effective if your uniqueness also resonates with your visitors but not necessarily. You’ll be amazed at some of the random things I put into my content and the responses I receive.

Be genuine and authentic – I want to be clear that we’re not inventing a personality to fit your market as eventually you’ll be found out. You want to take natural parts of your life and share them with your visitors. You should always come from a place of authenticity as our aim is to build trust… not destroy it.

I should also mention that you’re going to find some people on the planet who don’t like your personality and uniqueness… that’s just a part of life. The good news is for all the haters you attract you should be attracting equal (and hopefully greater) amounts of people who love what you’re doing. So don’t mind the haters and keep on fighting the good fight.

What you do next

Look at how you’re communicating with your visitors at the moment and decide right now how you can make it more interesting. The next step is to simply jump in and see what kind of results you receive. Just note that some people won’t like the transition while others will love it… as I said above this is just a fact of life so keep going and the results will follow.

And if you'd like to learn more ways to achieve better relationships with your website visitors use my Automated Selling Machine course.

By first knowing where you are this will help move you towards your website’s goals. It’s like deciding you want to go to New York but not knowing what city or country you’re in at the moment… this makes travel very difficult. In a similar way by setting goals and knowing your current position you can plan out step-by-step how you’re going to grow your website.

What do you measure?

There are a whole ton of things you can measure for your online business. However some people get so tied up in measuring everything they can that they forget why they’re really measuring… to get results. I believe you’re much better off to start by measuring a few key things and then building on it from there.

Not to mention that starting with only a few Key Performance Indicators make you much more likely to follow through and actually use them. So I break down the things you should measure into three simple categories:

• Traffic – How many visitors do you have and where are they coming from?
• Conversion – How many new subscribers do you have? How many sales?
• Client Amazement – What client feedback are you receiving? How many refunds are being requested?

These should give you a good overall picture of your website that you can add to as you feel is necessary.

How do you measure?

Probably the best (and free) tool for measuring your website statistics is Google Analytics. Just sign up for a free account and you’ll be able to track your website visitors, where they come from and even how many are converting into subscribers and sales. It also gives you a wealth of other data that you can use to make improvements.

You’ll also want to know your sales figures and gather client feedback through surveys and other means. The idea here is not to overwhelm yourself with lots to do but create some nice simple systems so you have all this information easily available. After all it’s no good having it if you’re not going to look at it.

I use what I call a Web Business Dashboard to keep track of my key figures. Every Friday I have one of my outsourcers go and find out the necessary figures and add them to a spreadsheet. Then I look at the spreadsheet first thing on Monday morning as I plan my week. All it takes is a quick glance to see how each website is doing and whether anything needs further action.

What you do next

I suggest you create your own Web Business Dashboard so you can easily see what’s going on with your website. Then make an appointment with yourself at a particular time each week to review it. It’s definitely worth it and you should feel some excitement as you watch your website’s performance improve as well.

If you'd like some help setting up your Web Business Dashboard and turning your website into a lean, mean sales machine then drop me an email and let's chat.

Fun with maths

Here's a quick example of what a small increase in your website conversion rate can achieve:

100 visitors per day x 1% conversion = 1 sale or say $47 per day
100 visitors per day x 2% conversion = 2 sales or $94 per day

So over a year you'd have the following results:

1% conversion = 365 sales or $17,155
2% conversion = 730 sales or $34,310

And that's comes from making some one-off changes to your website. To look at it the other way you'd have to attract 200 visitors to your website per day to get the same sales figures. I don't know about you but that sounds like a lot of hard work to me!

What website conversion actually means

Website conversion is the experience your visitor receives that might make them want to become a purchase. Website visitors are very fickle creatures and if we don't capture and hold their attention then we're going to lose them to the next website. So you have to make your website captivating and worth hanging around on.

Most websites are boring and offer little value to the visitor. They talk all about the company without giving any compelling reasons to choose them over a competitor. If someone walked into your physical store would you start by saying to them “Our company was founded in 1957 and is the leading provider of blah blah blah?”

Then why do you do that with your website?

How to improve your website conversion rate

There are two main factors to get someone to buy online:

1. Desire
2. Trust

Increasing someone's desire

Many marketers and sales people think there job is to convince, cajole, persuade and harass people to buy from them. This is why selling has such a bad reputation and why many of us hate doing it. However I believe selling is all about giving the visitor what they want.

But first you have to figure out what exactly that is. What benefits you're offering your clients. Then you can clearly and succinctly explain to the visitor why buying from you will give them what they want.

Gaining your visitors' trust

The second big factor is trust and this is especially important when selling online. After all you're just a faceless website floating out there in cyberspace. How does the visitor know your business isn't being run by some Nigerian while he waits for a kind soul to help him unlock his uncle's $23 million fortune?

Ok so that may be a little extreme but most of the human race lives in fear of being ripped off. It's bad enough wondering if a product will live up to the promises when you buy face-to-face let alone over the internet. Therefore you have to do everything in your power to earn the visitors trust.

Why improving your website conversion rate is worth the effort

We've already done the math to show just how powerful this concept is but let's take it a step further. You probably have a website that's already receiving at least some traffic. So what if you could simply change the way your website communicates with those visitors and increase your sales overnight?

By making changes to the way your website converts visitors into clients you can get dramatic results in a very short space of time. When I work with clients we notice a decent bump in sales as soon as the new webpage is uploaded. And that's not even including all the other components of a successful website marketing system.

What you do next

So if you like money I suggest you look at your website with new eyes. Ask yourself if you can stir up more desire and create more trust with your visitors. Your website sales will thank you for it.

And if you'd like to learn more about how to make your website sell including detailed instructions on how to use my 6 Components of Selling system then check out my Automated Selling Machine course.

So why do you need a web marketing strategy?

Your website's goals will determine what your objective is and your strategy is how you're going to get there. Without either of these your website becomes like a rudderless boat that just goes any way the current will take it. Personally I love to highlight this point with a conversation from Alice in Wonderland:

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don't much care where.
The Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.
Alice: ...so long as I get somewhere.
The Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.

The sad truth is that most of us start a website like Alice with a vague idea of where we want to go and no idea how to get there. First you need a set of clearly defined goals that display your outcome with some milestones along the way. Then you can start to design your web marketing strategy.

What is a web marketing strategy?

For me a web marketing strategy is a clear and concise 1 or 2 page document that answers 4 questions. You don't need a 50 page business plan as we all know this will go straight in the drawer to never be seen again. Your strategy should be in front of you every day so you can constantly refer to it and make sure you're on track.

Your strategy should be the perfect combination of rigid and flexible. This means that there are times when your strategy is working perfectly and you just have to keep executing it to see even more results. The idea is you don't get distracted by a million fabulous opportunities that come your way each day.

But you also need it to be flexible enough so when something isn't working you can try something else. This also means you can add new ideas into the strategy but only when you're sure they're not going to disrupt your core efforts. And for the record my experience says you should be trying different actions for 3 to 6 months before deciding that they don't work.

How to create your web marketing strategy

In my mind your web marketing strategy simply answers 4 big questions...

1. Who is my ideal client?
2. How will I amaze them?
3. How will I turn website visitors into clients?
4. How will I get traffic to my website?

And yes I've put them in that order for a reason. If you're not going to amaze your clients and create a unique experience for them then no amount of clever sales techniques or traffic generation will save your website. First you need something worth selling then you can worry about creating an irresistible offer and putting it in front of your target market

What you do next

Write out the 4 questions above and answer them for your business. If you find yourself asking some hard questions about your business then that's a good thing. By asking the hard questions we get clarity and this will lead to dramatic improvement in your results.

If you'd like to learn more about designing your web marketing strategy and how to make yourself stand out online (which is key) plus get a lot more clarity on the first 3 questions then check out my Automated Selling Machine course. If you're tired of having a lackluster website now is the time to do something about it as tomorrow your competition will be. It's your choice who wins.

I believe this makes procrastination the number one epidemic in the world. Because if we could cure procrastination then I’m sure we’d all be able to be fit, healthy, rich and enjoying wonderful relationships. If only we could get ourselves to do the things we need to do for success.

As Mark Twain so eloquently puts it… “Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow.”

While this is fascinating it’ll have to be an idea for another article because for now I want to look at...

How procrastination affects selling

Procrastination all comes down to our two friends pain and pleasure. We procrastinate in the moment because the perceived pain of doing a task is greater than the perceived pleasure we get from completing it. We procrastinate to avoid pain and gain pleasure... at least in our minds perception.

The same is true when we come to buy a product or service. All the pain associated with making a bad decision comes to the surface and we procrastinate. The trick is we need to give visitors a reason to do it right now rather than put it off till later.

You need a strong call to action

If you want someone to do something you need to create a strong call to action. Something that will move visitors over their procrastination hump so they take action in the moment. We need to avoid the all too common “I’ll think about it” even though everyone knows there’s nothing really left to think about.

Here are some quick ways to create a successful call to action:

Deadlines

A deadline simply means they have to take action by a particular date or time. If you remember back to your school days it was pretty easy to procrastinate on your assignments on a regular basis. That was until the deadline loomed and suddenly the pain of not finishing your assignment became a lot more painful than just getting it done.

Limited quantity

People hate to miss out on stuff. We love exclusivity and the significance it gives us. So if you’re selling something that’s only available in limited quantities you should let people know and increase their motivation to buy right now.

Special offers

Everyone loves a special or the chance of getting a great deal. How many times have people told you the sticker price and then what they really paid for it? And special offers don’t have to just be all about discounting... get creative with them.

Bonuses

If you can add a bonus for people that buy right away your sales will increase. Bonuses are like giving gifts with purchase and everyone loves presents. Some marketers even go as far to sell the bonuses rather than focusing on the actual product you’re receiving.

All of the above ideas can also be combined in various ways to increase your response. If you have a limited quantity of a product that’s on special and comes with a bonus but only if you buy before the deadline. Well I think you can see for yourself how powerful this can be!

What you do next

Simply go and add a clear call to action to all your offers. Remember to be creative but also make sure your offer is still clear. There’s nothing worse than losing the sale because you made your offer too complicated for anyone to understand.

And if you'd like to learn more about creating effective call to actions along with 9 other ways to increase your website sales then check out my Automated Selling Machine course. Or just do it next week when you have more time

For those that don't know... infolinks are those contextual ads that you've probably seen when browsing websites. They take words from blog posts and other publishers and link them to relevant ads in their network. For example if I wrote "search engine optimization" in my blog post it might pop up a little ad for a search engine optimization firm when you hovered over it and then you could click through to their website.

Anyway... the breakdown of the different countries is as follows:

Now I find this interesting for a number of reasons. The obvious one is if you are a NZ content publisher you're going to make more money from having contextual advertising like infolinks on your website. This is because you are paid by the number of clicks you receive on the ads on your website.

But it's also interesting to ask the question why New Zealand has higher click through rates in the first place? I'm sure there's a bias because we're exposed to less ads of this type than the US and other countries with larger populations. However is that all it is... just because it's more unique here?

My other thought is that kiwis might be more trusting of advertising (and also inundated with less of it). That's why we're more willing to click and see what the advertiser has to say. I'd be interested to know whether Google Adwords would produce similar results for their ad network as well.

Ignoring my speculation the fact remains than kiwis are more likely to click on contextual ads that are relevant to what they're interested in. For whatever reason this may be a great way for you to reach the local market. Or if you have a lot of traffic this might be another revenue stream for your website as well.

Thanks to Sarah and the infolinks team for the exclusive and you can download the full report here (right click and "save target as...").