One marketing technique may work wonders for someone, but that
doesn't guarantee that it'll do the same for you. The only way
to really know what works for YOUR products and YOUR target
audience is to experiment. Testing and experimentation are
crucial to increasing your profits.
1. Try using the occasional pop-up window to get more
subscribers to your newsletter. Some people *really* hate these,
so use them sparingly. For example, you could have a window pop
up only the first time someone visits your site ... or you could
have one appear whenever someone leaves your site. Try different
scenarios to see what works best.
2. Change the price of your product and see what impact it has
on sales. Even if your sales drop, you may still come out ahead
when it comes to profits. Note: your sales may not drop at all;
I increased the price of my own booklet from $12.95 to $19.95
and sales stayed the same. You never know until you try.
3. Test different sales copy on your website and in your
autoresponder. Should you come on strong, be subtle, be
extremely detailed? Does long sales copy do better than short
copy, or vice versa? Do you get more sales by spreading your
sales copy on multiple pages, or by putting it all on one page?
Be sure to make backups of your previous work; if you find the
new copy kills sales, you can always restore the previous
version.
4. Track your advertising. There are a number of commercially
available ad tracking packages that can help you see which ads
are working well and which aren't. Discard anything that doesn't
work, and try to improve on ads that appear to work well.
5. Experiment with the navigation of your website. For example,
change the number of clicks required to get to your ordering
page, or change the flow of navigation so that your visitor
always ends up at an ordering page.
6. Test different types of links. You might try short ads in the
margins of your web pages vs. text links within the context of
an article, for example.
7. Test response rates between direct links to your sales page
and the use of a follow-up autoresponder. Sometimes people just
need an extra 'push' or a reminder to order. (make sure your
autoresponder has an easy way for your prospect to unsubscribe)
About the author:
Angela runs several successful sites dedicated to helping
beginners profit from the Internet. Her new web magazine, Online
Business Basics, features step-by-step tutorials for eBusiness
'newbies'. To take the guesswork out of starting and building an
Internet business, click over to
http://www.onlinebusinessbasics.com/
