Your e-commerce traffic is booming! But your sales aren’t …
What gives?
This can be one of the most frustrating scenarios an e-commerce owner can experience. You’ve done all that you need to do to get into the “Top 3” in your market niche.
You’ve put together an awesome website using Shopify.
Yet, somehow, you still aren’t making enough sales to justify running the store. What can you do to get your visitors to buy from you?
You can’t just give the store away …Your frustration is understandable, but we can help.
We’re going to share with you effective marketing tips to help you persuade your visitors to take out their wallets.
Give Them Something For Nothing
97% of customers admit to looking for deals when they shop.
And if you aren’t offering them something for anything, you might be losing a lot of customers. Now, we’re not saying that you have to give away the store.
Instead, what we’re saying is find something that you can afford to give away, and use it as a “bartering” technique – if I do something for you, you do something for me.
In this example, you’ll give them a free pair of headphones with the purchase of a pair of sunglasses.
So you’ve given them something (free sunglasses) in exchange for something from them (the purchase of your sunglasses).
While no one wants to “lose” money, a lost sale is costlier than the loss of a $5 pair of headphones.
Use The FOMO Principle
FOMO, or the fear of missing out, is a great way to hook your customers. All too often, a customer will walk away from a sale simply because they think they can get it at a better price at another time.But, you can stop this by putting a limited quantity warning on the website, or a countdown timer, to push them into a FOMO purchase.
You can even use the FOMO principle with your coupons. If you need more sales, maybe you can discount your store even more than normal – with one caveat …
… 25% off until May 1.
Well, if it is already mid-April, they only have a few weeks left to capitalize on this great deal, which could push them into a FOMO purchase.
But, don’t just put limited inventory and then replenish it as soon as it “empties” out. Instead, let it go two weeks or longer before you replenish your inventory. This way you don’t look like you are being shady or dishonest in any way.
Don’t ruin your reputation using a marketing technique. A ruined reputation is worse than bad marketing and search engine bans.
Let Others Convince Them To Trust You
People want to trust, but they don’t want to trust you. They know you want to sell them a product and make a profit off of their purchase.
They don’t expect you to be honest or trustworthy. So, how do you convince them to trust you?
By showing reviews from others who’ve already purchased from you. In some cases, you can even show them their friend’s reviews on that same product.
People trust that others aren’t trying to sell them a product (like you are) so they’ll be more open to what is being said.
If the review is good, the chances of you making a sale are almost 100%.
So, are you using reviews on your product listings?
What about social media reviews?
If you aren’t, you’re leaving a lot of sales on the table – which is one reason why you aren’t converting as you should. And if you need an even bigger push, you can always use social media influencers.
Influencers have large followings that trust their recommendations. Using Influence.co, we found 4 influencers that had more than 2,000,000 followers.
By incorporating them into your marketing plan, you’ll get new visitors who are ready to buy, simply because they trust an influencer (someone else) to give out good recommendations.
Remember, you cannot do this on your own – you need help from others too.
Be Friendlier
And finally, a customer is more likely to buy from you when you are willing to work for them.
What do we mean?
Well, don’t let a bad customer experience cost you a sale. Most of the time, a customer isn’t trying to “get over on you” but they get caught up in the details.
Using your online customer service live chat, or another medium such as email and/or phone conversations, find a way to satisfy the customer enough to close the sale.
Your goals through the whole process should be:
- Connect with the customer.
- Empathize with the customer.
- Work towards a solution.
- Ask for the sale.
A common phrase you’ll hear in the sales industry is ALWAYS BE CLOSING (ABC Principle).
And that’s what you should be doing too.
But you’ve got to find a way to do it where the customer feels you went out of your way to help them. If they feel you worked for them and not the sale, they’ll be more likely to recommend you to their friends (indirect marketing).
Another marketing trick you can use to close a FUTURE sale is to use an “oops” coupon.
Send them an email after the conversation saying something along the lines of “We want you to be 100% satisfied with your experience. Here’s a coupon for 10% off (OOPS10).
Keep track of your “oops” coupons and you’ll probably see that you are converting at a fairly high rate – which means you’ve become friendlier and more profitable.
Conclusion
There is more to e-commerce than simply creating a professional-looking store.
Even if you’ve installed the Oberlo plugin into your Shopify store to help with product integration, the Recommendify plugin to personalize your customer’s experience, and the Sticky Cart plugin — three of the must-have plugins for dropshippers — your success in e-commerce still isn’t guaranteed.
You need to have an airtight marketing strategy that will get you truckloads of highly targeted traffic. Using the marketing tips we’ve discussed today, you should be able to convert your visitors into buyers.
Convincing a visitor to “pay up” isn’t always easy – but you can “make them an offer they can’t refuse.”
And that’s the point …
You don’t want them to walk away.
Too many e-commerce owners focus on getting visitors to their website but totally forget to focus on their on-page conversions and marketing. Even when they are on your page, you are still marketing to them – the angle is the only thing that changes.
By using these marketing tips, your conversion rates should start to increase and your store profits should rise significantly.
Suggested Reading:15 e-commerce trends to watch out for in 2019.
Do let us know your feedback via comments.
This post has been written by a guest author – Gary Lewis.
