A 7 Step Program To Produce More Sales - Step Two
We discussed the 4 ways to increase your traffic in part one http://www.mpstrategiesfirm.com/articles. Out of the for 4 ways, option 2... increasing your conversion rates proved the best way to increase sales and profits.
What good is traffic if you can't get them to convert or take some kind of action? A low conversion rate requires many visitors before someone buys. Taking the effort to increase your conversion rate means spending less money and time to acquire new customers
Wonder how to increase your overall conversion rate?
You'll find the answer to that question in Steps 2 through 7... so keep reading.
Step 2: The Most Valuable Marketing Technique
I'd like to tell you this method remains one of those big dark secrets that every successful marketer keeps to himself. I am here to share that secret... but at last I can't. Every successful "guru" shouts it from the top of the mountain.
What do we choose to ignore even though we hear it over and over... you need to do a split test. Continue to run your business without doing them, you waste time, money and energy trying to figure out what you need to do. Like walking in the dark without a light... you will keep bump into obstacles. Do you want to keep bumping things or increase your sales effortlessly?
The cost to run a split test borders on zilch. It takes two things you can use over and over again. A tracking program and a split test script. Now most shopping carts combine these two elements in their features. How important do I feel about split testing... we give subscribers to our "Traffic to Sales" ezine a thank you split test script.
If you make changes based on the results of a split test and saw your sales double or increase by even 1%...
Wouldn't you be excited?
Splitting Is The Easiest Way To Begin Increasing Conversion Rates.
Simple Conversion Rate Formula...
X divided by Y multiply by 100 = %
Y represent the number of people who took action X represents the total number of people
Let's put this formula to use...
Every morning at Joe's Java Coffee shop, they have 100 customers (X) purchase coffee. Of those 20 (Y) buys a double mocha. Joe knows that he can increase his profits by selling more double mochas with the same amount of customers. So...20 divided by 100 = 0.20 multiply by 100 = 20%. The conversion rate for double mocha is 20%. He now knows that he'll need to sell 20 more to double his conversion rate.
You want to do the same to determine your conversion rate.
To get the most accurate numbers, you'll need a large sampling. A 1000 "unique visitors" is a commonly used number. Don't use hits, page views, etc. A "unique visitor" represents that one person who is your potential customer.
They may buy more than one product but still only one person.
Pay-Per-Click campaign will drive those numbers to your site fast. It's one the main reasons so many internet marketers use pay-per-click. Something else happens while you go for your base number...your setting up your control element for the split test.
Starting Your A-B Split Test
- Two versions The web page copy of your base number calculation is the control and a variation of that web page copy.
- For best results make sure the split test script evenly sends traffic between the to two versions. A good split test script will do this for you.
- What version received the most action? Set up your tracking program to record this information.
- Most people end the test too soon and end up with inaccurate information. The best results come from large sample size. 50 actions gives you enough data to make intelligent decision from the results.
- Wait for the results Depending on the actions you want your visitors to take and the amount of traffic to your site, a split test takes time.
Now you're ready to begin your split test. What will you test? I'll cover that in our next installment with Step 3.
Tina Valiedi is a contributing author for MPStrategies Firm a company whose breakthrough service unleashes the power of the internet to drive hidden potential clients to your site. Sign up for the Strategic Traffic Tips eZine at: