100 Ways to Make More Sales Online

Looking for a way to Make More Sales Online? Suppose you’re trying to make money online. In that case, you have to face it sooner or later: conversion—that daunting subject—how to get more buyers out of the same amount of traffic.

The only reason why conversion is daunting is that you can go astray in a lot of ways. Most of them aren’t that hard to solve, but anyone of a thousand little problems can prevent you from getting the conversion you’re supposed to have.

Today, I don’t have a thousand tips for you, but I have 100 to get started.

Here are 100 fixes—some minor, some big—to make more online sales.

1. Can your product or service really solve an issue that people care about? How do you know that? If your introductory offer does not appeal to your prospect, you will be sunk before you begin. Make sure that you’re selling what people want.
2. Let the prospects know that they’re buying from a human being. Keep your language personal, friendly, and in most markets) informal. It sounds like a human, not a pitching machine.
3. Say a story about how you solved this issue on your own before you started selling the solution to others. Let the readers put themselves in their shoes. Let the prospect feel, “Wow t,his person’s a lot like me.”
4. Fix your typos, make sure your connections work, avoid the grammatical errors that make you look stupid. Restore your perspective that you know what you’re doing.
5. Check two of the headlines. If you’re looking for a contender, run it against a new headline. Keep removing the second-best thing. Google Ads is a convenient and effective way to do this.
6. Try to test the “ugly” edition of the sales copy—boring fonts, not a lot of layouts, no right colors. Weirdly, the depiction of bare-bones often works better. Don’t run ugly without testing it though, because it doesn’t always win.
7. Instead of sending traffic straight to the sales page, first, position it via a six-or seven-message autoresponder. Give them enough details to establish their confidence and let them know that you are the best resource.
8. Strengthen your call for action. Make sure you’ve told readers precisely what to do next.
9. Make sure you have described the product or service in adequate detail. If it’s physical, offer the measurements and some great images. If it’s digital, tell them how many hours of audio you have, how many pages are in PDF format. Don’t presume that your prospects already know any details—let it be spelled out.
10. Having traffic from ads or posting to a guest? Make sure your landing page is connected to your traffic source. If you’re running a pay-per-click “Breed Naked Mole Rats” promotion, make sure the words “Breed Naked Mole Rats” are in your landing page headline.
11. Master copywriter Drayton Bird tells us that any commercial offer should fulfill one or more of these 9 human needs: make money, save money, save time and effort, do something good for your family, feel safe, impress others, enjoy better yourself or belong to a community. And then, of course, there’s the apparent #10—make yourself irresistibly sexy with the romantic partner of your preference. I think Drayton is too much of a gentleman to have, but it’s about the best driver we’ve ever had to eat and breathe.
12. Now that you’ve established your basic human need, how can that be conveyed in an emotional headline?
13. Have you turned the features into benefits? I bet you still have some advantages that you can spell out. Know, the parts are exactly what the product or service does. Gifts are just what the prospect is getting out of it.
14. Put your photo on the sales page. Human beings are hard-wired to communicate with their ears. If the prospect can see you, it’s easier for them to believe you.
15. If you have a puppy, take a picture of you with your dog instead. There’s something about a dog that lowers almost everyone’s defenses.
16. You can only try using a dog picture. Believe it or not, it works occasionally.
17. Simplify the language. Using something like the Flesch-Kincaid readability scale to make sure you keep your text clean and clear. (Please remember that easy writing is not stupid writing.)
18. No matter how emotional the appeal might be, explain it logically. Offer people the facts and figures they need so that they can justify their own purchase. Even the most frivolous, pleasure-based purchase (say, a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes) can be explained with reasonable advantages (superior workmanship, uncommon fabrics, giving the wearer confidence).
19. What kind of delicious bonus would you like to offer? Peanut butter is good; peanut butter with jelly is good. Find the peanut butter jelly, the reward that makes your product even better.
20. Are you going to get your message to the right people? A list of people who really want what you’re selling and who are willing and able to buy?
21. Listen to the questions you’re going to get. What are people really not sure about? What’s causing them concern about your offer? Even if you outsource your email and/or service, it’s a good idea to read a random set of customer messages regularly.
22. Keep your most relevant sales elements “above the fold” (i.e., on the first screen, without scrolling, when readers go to your page). Typically that means a compelling headline, a fantastic opening paragraph, and probably either an excellent product shot (to generate some desire) or a picture of you to establish confidence and relationship). Eye-tracking experiments show that the most significant image should be at the top left of the page.
23. Check the direction of dual readership. Do your headlines and subheads tell an interesting story if you read it without the rest of the copy?
24. How’s your guarantee going? Can you say it with more confidence? Will your warranty remove the risk to the customer?
25. Are you taking PayPal? PayPal has its challenges, but it’s still a “funny money” for many customers. They’re going to spend free of charge from PayPal when they think twice about taking out a credit card.
26. Have you asked confidently and forcefully for sale? Is there hemming and hawing that you can edit?
27. What is the feeling of using your product or service? Can you make it more vivid with a testimonial video or a great case study?
28. Is there any excuse that your prospect would feel foolish to buy from you? They’re afraid they’re going to kick themselves later? That their families, partners, or co-workers will give them a hard time with this purchase? Fix it.
29. Do you use standard style conventions? Links should be pointed out. Navigation (if you have one on your sales page) should be instantly understandable.
30. Do you have testimonials? Do you have effective testimonials?
31. Will the prospect know everything that he wants to know to make this purchase? What issues could still be on his mind? How are you going to educate him to make him more sure in his decision to buy?
32. Does your shopping cart connection work? (Don’t laugh. Go test every link on the page that goes to your cart, and do it once or twice a day for the whole time your shopping cart is open—even if it’s 365 days a year.)
33. Was your marketing dull, huh? Remember the great motto of Paul Newman: “Always take the job seriously. Don’t ever take it seriously.” When the messaging is putting consumers to sleep, it can’t do its job.
34. Social media isn’t just chatting – it’s listening, too. What are your future customers moaning about on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, forums, blog comments? What kind of problems will you solve for them? What language are they using to identify their complaints?
35. Have you answered all their questions? Have they raised all of their objections? I know you’re worried that the copy will get too long if you answer every issue. It’s not going to.
36. Have you been so “original” or “creative” that you missed people? Remember the words of iconic ad man Leo Burnett: “If you insist on being different just for the sake of being different, you can always come down to breakfast with a sock in your mouth.”
37. Can you give me a free trial? 
38. Can you split the expense into a few payments?
39. Can you deliver an appetizing free bonus, one that the consumer can hold, whether or not he keeps the main product? A precious piece of content is working well for this.
40. Does the headline offer a profit or an advantage to the customer?
41. How are you going to make your ads too essential to throw away? How do you make the reader’s life easier just because you’ve read your sales letter? Dream of special reports, white papers, and other content marketing standbys.
42. Have you appealed to the greed of the reader? Not very good, but one of the most effective ways to react. (The excellent way to put it this way is to be sure you’re offering great value to your prospect”)
43. Is your message confusing, huh? A bright nine-year-old should be able to read your sales copy and find out why she should purchase your product.
44. Can you connect your copy to a fad, please? This is especially useful for web-based copying and short-term product releases, as you can be completely up-to-date. Only note that there’s nothing staler than the Macarena of yesterday.
45. Likewise, can you tie your copy to something that a lot of people are really concerned about? This can be news (oil spills, climate change, economic turbulence) or something relevant to a specific moment in your life (a mid-life crisis, anxieties about small children, retirement concerns).
46. Try a little bit of flattery. One of the first lines of all the sales copies came from American Express: “First of all the American Express card is not for everyo,ne.” The reader instantly gets a little ego boost from assuming that the card is for special people like him.
47. Is there a compelling and urgent reason to act today? If prospects don’t have a reason to move quickly, they sadly have a bad habit of procrastinating transactions forever.
48. When you write, do you imagine a reader? Don’t write to a crowd—write to a perfect customer whom you want to persuade. Your tone and voice will naturally become more consistent, and you will find it easier to find the perfect information that is important to your point.
49. Tell the reader why you are making this deal. This is the “reason why in copywriting slang, and it virtually always stimulates response.
50. Will you get an endorsement from someone that your customers respect? Celebrity endorsements are often important, but you can also find “quasi-celebrities” within your niche who are as influential as national figures.
51. Can you have a product or service demonstration? If it’s not something that can be shown on film, consider sharing a convincing tale about how your offering solved a thorny problem for one of your customers.
52. How much do you use the term “You?” “Is it possible to be bumped up?
53. How much do you use the word “we?” “Can this be eliminated? (‘I’ actually fits better than ‘we,’ which appears to come across as corporate and cold.)
54. Keep up late tonight and see a pair of informants. Keep your pen and paper handy. Write down all the sales strategies you’ve used. Translate at least three of them to your own business in the morning. (Remember, you can change tone and level of sophistication to match your buyers.)
55. Have you found yourself a business leader?
56. Is there the elephant in the living room? “In other words, is there a big objection that you haven’t posted because you just don’t want to think about it? You have to face all the inconvenient realities head-on. Don’t believe that if you don’t bring it up, it’s not going to happen to your prospects.
57. How’s the follow-up? Do you have the time to answer all of the questions that come in? Note, questions are also veiled objections. Prospect questions will give you perfect talk points for your letter of sale. You may want to bring some support in the form of a friendly V.A. or temp to help out with your email during a major launch.
58. Is there a number in your headline, huh? Maybe there should be.
59. Likewise, have you quantified your benefits? In other words, you’ve translated “time saved” to “three full weeks saved—a lot of time to go on a life-changing vacation—every year.” Put several results you can generate for your clients.
60. It’s odd, but “doodles” and other handwriting-like elements can improve response—even on the internet. Hundreds of hand-written fonts are available, which can be transformed into visual elements with Photoshop or simple logo-generating software.
61. Will your headline make the reader want to read the first copy line?
62. Will the first line make the reader want to read the second copy line?
63. Will the second line make the reader want to read the third row?
64. Throw in some more evidence that what you say is true. Proof may come from facts, testimonials, case studies, news reports, or current events that explain the concepts on which your product or service is based.
65. Compare apples with oranges. Don’t equate your product’s cost with that of a competitor—compare it with a particular type of item that costs a lot more. For example, compare your online course with the cost of one-on-one personal consultation.
66. For this reason, it’s always a good idea to have at least one platinum-priced item on sale. They make anything else you’re selling look pretty affordable by comparison.
67. Making the order page or form easier to understand. Complicated order pages make customers anxious.
68. Remember to refresh your bid on your order page. Don’t expect buyers to recall all the specifics of what you just (almost) sold her. Please re-state those benefits.
69. Have a telephone number where people can call for questions. I know this is difficult to manage, but it can improve your response by a surprising amount.
70. Include a screenshot of what you’re offering if you can.
71. Is there a lot of irritating navigation that keeps the customers away? (Most of all are cheap-looking advertisements that pull people away for a penny or two.) Get rid of it. Focus your reader’s attention on this one-column deal, stripped of distractions.
72. Put a caption on some of the photos you use. The captions are the third most read part of the sales copy, after the headline and the P.S. The caption should show a persuasive advantage to your product or service. (Even if the profit doesn’t match the picture.
73. Link the picture to your shopping cart while you’re at it.
74. Making it extremely quick to read the first paragraph. Using simple, persevering, and persuasive sentences. A good story here will work wonders.
75. Does your presentation match up with your offer? If you’re offering luxury holidays, make the graphics and language sound luxurious? If you sell teen fashion, is your style trendy and cute?
76. Are you trying to sell a blog post? Instead, submit buyers to a well-designed landing page.
77. Halfway into the launch, and the sales are all listless? Come on up with an exciting bonus and get it on your list. This is what Frank Kern calls, “picking up the cool.”
78. Are you waiting for your prospect to make so many choices? Confused people are not purchasing. You should have at most three choices to choose from—something like “silver, gold, or platinum.”
79. Look for something that’s ambiguous in your copy. Replace it with clear, concrete detail. The details are reassuring and make it easier for the prospect to see yourself using your product.
80. Numbers are the most reassuring information. Translate into numbers whatever you can.
81. Look for any spot in your copy that could make your prospect quietly say “No or “I don’t think so and rework that spot. You want the possibility of mentally nodding in agreement the whole time you read your message.
82. Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself again. Prospects frequently do not read every word of the letter of sale. Find ways to restore your call to action, the most significant incentives, and your assurance.
83. Tip on a truly exciting advantage early in the copy, then spell it out later in your sales message. (Be cautious, though, of curiosity-based headlines, as they historically do not convert as well as profit-based or news-based ones.
84. Using the two mystical words of a convincing copy.
85. Effective marketing does not sell goods or services—it sells rewards and big ideas. What’s your big idea, huh? What are you selling? If you’re not sure, go back to our 10 human needs in #11 above.
86. If you’re selling something physical, make sure there’s a way for them to get expedited delivery. The opportunity to place a rush order increases the response, even if the customer does not take advantage of it.
87. Put a Better Business Bureau, a Hacker Protected seal or similar badge on your sales page.
88. Can you make your bid underpriced? Surprisingly, even in a poor economy, a number of consumers would not purchase a product or service if it appears too cheap to be worth their time.
89. Do you use the term “Buy Now on the button of your shopping cart? Instead, try “Add to Cart,” “Join Us or similar text. Focusing on the word “buy” factor has been shown to reduce the response.
90. Enable your prospect to take a picture of himself buying. Speak about it as if it’s already owned. Describe the life he’s going to spend as your client. If you want a great example, go to J. The website of Peterman. None have ever done better than that.
91. Cures sell much better than prevention. If your product is mainly preventive, locate the “cure” components and place them in the front and middle of the prodcore Solve problems people now have rather than avoiding problems they may have someday.
92. If your funny ad isn’t going to convert, try playing it right away. Humor is, by its very nature, unpredictable. It can work well, or it can kill your conversion. If you can’t find out what else could be wrong with you, this might be the guilty party.
93. Are you the understatement king? The Sultan of Subtility? Get over it now. At least in your copy of the sale.
94. How’s your P.S. going? (You have a P.S., don’t you?) Is that compelling? Usually, you want to re-state either the most interesting value, the assurance, the urgency factor, or all three.
95. Split the long paragraphs into the shorter ones. Make sure there are enough subheads for you to have at least one per computer. If the copy seems daunting to read, it won’t be read.
96. Increase the size of your font.
97. Include a “takeaway.” No, it’s not a hamburger and fries—it’s a sign that your deal isn’t for everybody. (In other words, you’re trying to take away” your fantastic deal from those that don’t merit it. If you’re secure enough to tell customers, “Please don’t order this product unless you meet [insert your qualification here],” you prove that you’re not desperate for a sale. This is almost uniformly appealing.
98. Are you putting this bid in front of your cold prospects? What if you put a version of it in front of people who already purchased something from you? Your current consumer base is the biggest market you’ll ever have. Make sure you give them enticing deals on a regular basis.
99. If they don’t buy your primary bid, consider sending them to “down-sell.” This is a low-priced product that offers the prospect a second chance to get something from you. Know, even a very small purchase would give you a buyer to sell later. Building a list of buyers is one of the wisest things you can do in your business.
100. What about your product or service that makes people feel better about themselves? In the end, it all has to come down to this.

Conclusion

If your basic offer doesn’t appeal to your prospect, you’re sunk before you begin. Make sure you’re selling something people want. Sound like a person, not a pitching machine. Try testing an “ugly” version of the sales copy. Instead of sending traffic right to a sales page, put them through a six- or seven-message autoresponder first. Strengthen your call to action to make sure you’ve clearly told readers what to do next.