Advanced Conversion Boosters

In addition to the simple basic methods of boosting conversions, there are also a number of advanced tactics you can use to increase your conversions even more. These methods are being used successfully by the world’s top marketing experts, and it’s because they work! But you don’t have to be a big-time marketing guru to use these tactics. Best of all, these tactics, while advanced in nature, are actually really simple to employ on your own websites!

Scarcity

Scarcity is a tactic you’ve probably seen on sales pages before. There are many different methods of scarcity, but they all work basically the same. You tell your visitors that they must purchase within a set timeframe, or they lose out on some big benefit.

What type of benefit could they lose out on? Here are a few ideas:

• Special pricing that goes up when the timeframe is up
• A special bonus they won’t get
• Or even the change to buy at all (such as with limited copies)

Basically, you need to give users a real incentive to buy NOW. Sure, people may leave your site and come back later to buy. But the majority of people who leave your site will NEVER come back. If you want to get the sale, you’ve got to get it immediately. Don’t give them a chance to leave without buying right this minute!

Free Stuff

Believe it or not, offering visitors something for free can actually be one of the most powerful sales motivators you’ve ever seen, because it’s all about reciprocity.

You see, most people have a sense of conscience. When someone does something nice for them, they feel they need to do something nice in return.

For example, if someone in a grocery store gives you a free sample of a product, you feel somewhat obligated to buy the product. Some people will buy it even if they don’t like it simply to avoid hurting the person’s feelings who gave them the free sample. Others may like the product and decide to buy it partly for that reason, and partly because they feel obligated. Some won’t buy at all, but a lot of those people still feel some guilt.

Have you ever gotten a free trial of something and the company sent you a message saying, “We hope you’re enjoying your free, no-obligation trial!” They’re reminding you that they’ve given you a gift, subtly hinting that it’s time for you to reciprocate by purchasing the full version.

The great thing is that it doesn’t have to be anything of significant monetary value. Something very small can accomplish the same effect. For example, a short free report or even a 10-cent ink pen. You’ve given them a gift, and they feel they need to reciprocate.

Social Proof

You may have heard that word-of-mouth is the best type of marketing, and that’s true. It’s because people trust each other a lot more than they trust marketers. Of course, it’s no wonder that’s true. It’s human nature to be skeptical in the first place.

There are several types of social proof you can use on your websites. Some of these include:

• Testimonials – These alone probably won’t do much unless you make them more real by adding contact information, photos, and ideally if the people giving them happen to be well-known.
• Video Testimonials – Video testimonials are even more powerful, because visitors can see they are real people. Sure, it could be your mom and favorite cousins to start out with but as long as they honestly like your product, it could only help.

• Off-Site Reviews – If you can get real people to offer their own reviews on their own websites or blogs, it’s even more powerful. This is especially true if those reviews are unbiased. It’ll get visitors pre-sold before they come to your site, and you can even link to those reviews from your own site.
• Case Studies – Another very powerful type of social proof is the case study. If you can find real examples of people who have used your product or service and it benefitted them greatly, these case studies can really boost conversions!

Interstitial Ads

Another advanced tactic you can use to improve website conversions (or blog conversions) is to use interstitial ads. You’ve almost certainly seen these at various websites like Forbes.com. They force you to watch a screen that contains nothing but an ad along with a countdown timer that says you’ll be taken to the content in a few seconds, or you can click the link to go immediately.

These ads are a lot harder to ignore than a standard banner ad, because they are so much more in-your-face. Some people don’t even realize they can skip the ad, so they sit and stare at it until the countdown timer disappears and redirects them to the content.

On-Page Popups

On-page popups are not blockable the way standard popups are, and they’re also more effective because they seem more likely part of the page. They are also known as lightbox popups, or they can be slide up popups or other types.

One-Time Offers

A one-time offer presents an offer on a very limited basis. It’s a type of scarcity tactic, which we talked about earlier, but it’s more compelling than some, because it promises to never present the offer again.

OTOs are usually presented after a purchase, so they don’t necessarily boost initial conversions, however they are incredibly powerful at boosting sales of a more high-end product or add-on product once you’ve gotten the user to buy something cheaper or simpler.

Offer Various Payment Options

Did you know that most online sales pages only offer one standard payment option, such as credit card or PayPal? Some may offer two. A few offer three. But the more options you offer, the better.

Not only that, but if you have a very expensive product, you might consider offering a payment plan. For example, Amazon has started offering payment plans for their Kindle Fire tablet device, because a lot of people felt that $200 or more was too much to spend all at once. So they break the payments up, making it much easier for people to buy.

Know Your USP

A USP is a unique selling point, also known as unique selling proposition. Basically, it’s what sets you apart from your competition in the eyes of potential customers.

Keep in mind that a USP does NOT have to be unique to your product. It might actually be present in ALL of your competitors’ products. However, it’s unique to your company because you point the feature out and they don’t!

A famous example of this is when Claude Hopkins took a tour of the Schlitz beer plant. During the tour, he noticed the empty bottles were being sterilized with steam. The plant manager told him he couldn’t use that in the marketing, because every beer company did this. However, Hopkins realized that the average consumer wouldn’t know this, and when he added this information to the Schlitz campaign, sales soared!

So it isn’t necessarily about being unique, but about presenting something as unique to your customers.