Boost Your Online Sales: 101 Practical Methods

Boost Online Sales

Have you ever seen websites that sell products and wondered how much money they're really making?

Have you ever tried to sell a product online and found that it didn't fly off the “digital shelves” the way you hoped it would?

Maybe you've been led to think it's all a big scam or lie. Perhaps you think no one is really making any money online.

You would be wrong!

The truth is that although there is a lot of bad advice out there, and although a lot of JUNK is being sold in a very cynical matter, those that get it are REALLY thriving!

The web makes it possible to connect with a gigantic audience of billions of people and to provide them with all kinds of products in an entirely automated matter.

If you can create or find a great product and then share it with the right people, you can generate a MASSIVE PROFIT while you sleep.

It's that simple.

There are people out there who are GENUINELY making hundreds of thousands of dollars every month from this kind of strategy.

If you want to be an online entrepreneur, or if you already have an eCommerce store, then this should be very much of interest to you.

So, what is their secret? What do the top online sellers do differently, and what can you learn from them?

This article is going to share the answers. No gimmicks. No tricks.

Just 101 extremely powerful tips that can't guarantee you success, but which are extremely powerful in the right hands.

Table of Contents

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Description automatically generated1 Upsell

Selling once is great but selling twice is even better!

The hardest part of selling online is getting someone to open up their wallet and trust in your system to buy a product.

So, if you've got to that point already, don't squander it!

Take this opportunity to try and add something else to the package.

That might mean an additional small purchase to sweeten the deal, it might mean an accessory that complements the main purchase, or it might be upgrading the product to the “Premium Edition.”

Perhaps on the face of it, a $70 ebook is too much. But paying $20 more to upgrade the $50 ebook to the $70 premium edition with bonus materials…? That's a different story!

2 Free Voucher

A free voucher is another great way to turn that first success into a repeat success. A free voucher will let your audience buy a future product from you for a discount.

This both rewards their initial custom and also incentivizes them to buy more.

It's a win, win for everyone!

3 The Best Service

A simple-yet-highly-important strategy is to provide the best service you possibly can. This way, you can ensure that people will a) say nice things about you and b) want to use your service again.

As they say: what goes around comes around.

And this holds true in business!

4 Run Split Tests

Split tests involve creating two slightly different versions of the same sales page. You then compare the performance of each version, before adopting the changes across your entire site/marketing campaign.

Try comparing different colors, fonts, phrasing, and more.

Just make sure that you run the tests long enough that the results are actually reflective of a general trend – rather than just being a fluke.

5 Use a Narrative Structure

Narrative is often described as “SEO for the human brain.”

What is meant by that, is that by telling a story, you can get your audience to lean in and engage with what you're saying.

This is crucial if you want them to not only stay on the page but also buy from you.

Rather than dry facts about your product, try to find the human interest and turn it into an interesting story the reader wants to get to the end of!

6 Calculate Your CLV

Your CLV is your “customer lifetime value.” This tells you how much on average, each visitor who buys from you will be worth to your brand.

You get this number by looking at your current products, the conversion rates for each one, the profits on each one, and how many times the average user buys from you.

This number is important because it tells you how much a visitor is worth to you.

If you run an ad campaign and you are spending less than this amount per visitor, then you should be able to guarantee a ROI.

7 Use a Video

Video is extremely underplayed when it comes to the world of internet marketing. Not only is it not seen frequently enough, but it is also used only in a very narrow capacity.

In particular, while it is fairly common to see videos that simply read the sales script, it is far less common to encounter videos that work like conventional adverts: attempting to sell the value proposition by showing emotive footage cut together well.

This can be game-changing.

Hire a professional editor and get them to make your product look as amazing as possible. Add an incredible soundtrack, and you can motivate people to stop thinking and just click on that “buy” button!

8 Have a Pop-Over

Pop-overs, or Popu-ups, are boxes that appear over your page content and make the rest of the page fall dark. These can be an excellent way to grab attention and to promote a discount or offer.

Better yet, is that pop-ups can be tweaked to appear only under certain conditions.

The best example? A pop-over that appears when the user tries to leave the page.

9 Remove Ads

If you still have adverts for other products on your website – such as Google AdSense – then it is critical that you remove that as soon as you can.

All these ads do is send clicks away from your site, thereby minimizing your own sales.

10 Remove Navigation Elements

The same thing is true for other navigation elements.

Your sales page should not include easy buttons that will take visitors back to the homepage, or to other pages on your site.

Again, this only encourages your visitors to leave the page without having bought anything – which is precisely what you don't want them to do!

11 Target Better

Don't assume low conversion rates are a result of a sales script or design that isn't doing the job.

Just as likely, is that it is your targeting that is missing.

In other words, you may find that you are bringing the wrong people to your page, to begin with, who would never buy your product even with all the persuasion in the world!

12 Page Speed Matters

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Run the page speed optimization test from Google to see if your page is loading speedily.

This is extremely important as a slow page-load speed will not only hurt your SEO but will also cause a lot of people to leave your site before it even has a chance to load. People online are impatient!

And not just that, but keep in mind your website might well come across as less well-put-together and professional if it takes ages to load.

This reduces trust, meaning that people won't want to hand over their payment details.

13 Run Discounts

Discounts are a powerful tool to drive more sales.

These not only let you play with price points to see what people respond best to, but also allow you to increase the sense of urgency.

It's important when pricing your product to leave “space” for your discounts later on.

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Description automatically generated13 Money-Back Guarantees

A money-back guarantee is a no-brainer that is missing from a lot of websites.

The reason for this is money-back guarantees provide your audience with the assurance they will like the product – or be reimbursed. This, in turn, removes one of the primary barriers to sale and ensures that many more people go through with clicking “buy.”

At the same time, money-back guarantees will rarely be “cashed in.” This means that you really stand to lose nothing, and to gain an awful lot!

14 Use Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are an extremely powerful tool that a lot of sellers don't fully utilize. Stories have the benefit of feeling personal and very “in the moment,” which in turn makes them highly engaging.

What's more, is that Instagram stories often notify your followers to get them to tune in right away.

15 Know Your Value Proposition

The value proposition is one of THE most important aspects of your product and your business.

This should answer the question: how are you providing value.

In short, your product should make people's lives better in a very real fashion. Your job is to get your audience to visualize what this would look like and feel like – to work them into a frenzy that gets them to buy.

16 Try a Different Product!

If you really can't sell your product, then consider changing.

Don't let ego or stubbornness factor into this: if something isn't working, then move on!

17 VERIFY the Product

Verifying your product means ensuring there is an audience for it before you invest a lot of time and effort into it.

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This is a game-changing strategy for sellers as it almost guarantees success.

One example of how you can verify a product is by accepting pre-orders. This quickly tells you if there is a real demand for what you're offering and whether people are willing to put cash down. It also tells you just how much effort and time to spend on what you're developing!

18 Look at the Competition

Always do your market research.

Specifically, always see what the competition is selling and HOW they are doing it.

19 Sponsor an Influencer

A great growth hack for any product is to find someone with a large audience and get them to promote what you're offering.

This is something that a lot of people don't realize can be extremely powerful: it lets you not only reach a huge audience but also trade on the influence and trust the influencer has developed with their audience.

20 Increase Trust by Being Transparent

There are a lot of websites that will try to sell products by promising the Earth. These sites might use fake testimonials and outrageous claims.

The unfortunate truth is this does work… at least in the short term.

In the long term, you need to consider how this might be impacting your business and the trust others have in.

For instance: do you think influencers will want to work with you if you're trying to trick people into buying a low-quality product?

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Description automatically generated21 Retargeting/Remarketing

Retargeting and remarketing both refer to effectively the same thing: showing ads to people who have previously been on your site.

Google Ads offers this feature as do several other advertising platforms, and it can be highly effective.

22 Offer Freebies

Freebies are hugely beneficial for any marketing strategy and should represent a key component of what you are doing.

This is because a freebie helps to not only draw an audience in, but also demonstrate the value you're capable of delivering, AND help people to feel somewhat indebted to your brand.

23 Galvanize the Affiliate Marketing Community

Some people are reluctant to do this, seeing as they will think the community will end up “taking” their profits. This is the wrong way to look at it!

The right way to look at it is your affiliates will be selling more units on top of whatever you are managing. That is to say just because affiliates are selling your product doesn't mean you have to sell any less! You can continue to sell as you are, but you will be getting additional sales from those others who are helping you.

This can also help to increase awareness of your product!

24 Production Values Matter

This is true for your website, the product itself, any marketing material, plus certainly any videos.

High production values make your business look more serious and trustworthy, but they also help to make your products look that much more appealing and interesting.

25 Make it Sound Tangible

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One of the biggest challenges when selling online is your audience can't actually pick up the product and feel it in their hand.

This is an issue because it removes one of the big factors that will often drive sales: physical desirability.

Try to make up for this in your copy.

26 Have Tiers

You want your product to appeal to as many people as possible, so rather than having just one “version,” think about creating multiple different versions at different price points.

This also helps you to encourage people to move “up a tier” and thereby spend more than they otherwise might have.

27 Use Contrast

Contrast is the perfect example of how this can work.

This might mean selling a product for $10 and another one for $150 on the same page.

This makes the $10 product seem extremely cheap, which makes it an amazing deal. Likewise, though, the $150 product appears to be much more premium as a result.

28 Your Web Design as a Funnel

Ask yourself this simple question: A group of people looking at a computer

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When someone lands on your website, what is the first thing you want them to do?

How is your website ensuring this happens?

What is the single action you want them to do?

29 Link Everywhere

If you have a product, you shouldn't only be promoting this in ads.

Include links throughout all of your blog posts, in any videos, on social media… essentially anywhere that you possibly can!

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Description automatically generated30 YouTube Marketing

We've spoken a little about the importance of using video already. This is also extremely important when it comes to YouTube.

YouTube can be a very powerful tool for marketing as it has an excellent search tool that is easy to optimize for, and because it allows you to engage with your audience in a highly persuasive manner.

31 Running a Pre-order

Asking for preorders has a huge number of benefits.

This not only gives you some upfront cash flow, but it also gives you an idea of how much time to invest in your idea, based on how popular it appears to be.

32 Launch BIG

Pre-orders also help to build buzz for your product.

Launching your product in a big way is an extremely powerful way to gain that initial momentum.

33 Get Genuine Reviews

Many of your visitors can tell the difference between genuine reviews and paid reviews.

Ensure you have as many of the former on your page as you possibly can.

34 Give Away Review Copies

Another great way to get more people interested in your product is to give free copies/products to influencers.

This is a great way to get free exposure, as well as to network with people who could help you in future in a very positive manner.

35 How to Get Media Coverage

If you can get your products and items covered in the media, this can be just as powerful.

Look for the big news sites in your niche and get review units/copies to their key journalists.

Likewise, consider using press releases to gain more coverage. When it comes to press releases, consider that journalists are not looking to give you free exposure. They are only interested in stories that are genuinely interesting for their audience. So if you don't have an interesting “angle,” then you need to come up with one!

36 The Long and Narrow

A great web design for a sales page is long and narrow. This means that it should encourage your visitors to scroll down the page to keep reading. The further they scroll, the more “invested” they will feel in what they have read.

This, in turn, means that they will want that invested time to be “worthwhile” and as such, they will consider buying from you.

37 Red Buy Buttons Are Better

This might seem strange, but simply making sure that your “Buy Now!” button is colored red, can be a very effective way to get more sales.

This is because the color red has been shown to slightly increase heart rate and thereby make us more impulsive!

Make sure to test this on your site before changing all buttons though.

38 Reconsider Your Lead Magnet

If the lead magnet you are giving away is too high value, it actually has two undesirable effects: it encourages people to sign up who just want “free stuff,” and it devalues what you are capable of offering.

39 Have a Coupon Code

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This is a great way to get people to buy who otherwise might not, it's a good way to test out discounts, and it also lets you run deals with affiliates, influencers, and others!

40 Use a Countdown Timer

While this can look spammy, when used correctly, a countdown timer can be a powerful tool.

41 Don't be Spammy!

As a general rule, you should always maintain your integrity. This builds long-term business.

It means people will come back to your brand again in future, it means that serious influencers will want to do business with you, and it makes you seem more like a serious player in the industry.

If your ethos is to do whatever you can to drive a sale, then you will see your reputation and your business strategy crumble over time.

42 Consider a Funnel

Funnels involve using multiple different “touches” to gradually increase investment and engagement.

The idea is that you are going to get people to first download something for free, then to spend a little money on something small, then to pay for something bigger.

This is an excellent way to get people involved and to sell your bigger ticket items.

43 Try Scrapping the Funnel!

That said, some people spend so much time and effort focusing on their funnel, that they end up confusing and driving people away!

If you are losing the forest for the trees, then try scaling back and just offering a strong product outright.

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And if this seems to run counter to the previous tip, get used to it!

Successful selling is about adapting in the moment, experimenting, and seeing what works for you.

44 Always Warm Up Those Cold Leads

The best way to think about your sales process is like dating. You wouldn't walk up to a stranger in the street and ask if you could take them home! You could be the best-looking person in the world, but they know nothing about you, they have no reason to trust you, and you may be dangerous for all they know!

But if you spend time talking to that person first, if they know their friends like you, and if you have met them before. All these things add up to them coming home with you.

Selling is the exact same. You need to establish that rapport, that relationship, and that trust. Only then can you go about converting those people into paying customers. Do your due diligence!

45 Market in Person

Marketing face-to-face is an extremely effective way to make sales and can also be an extremely valuable learning tool. This way, you can see the feedback in person, and you can get a great idea of what's working and what isn't.

Next time you're out, try convincing someone to buy your product!

46 Social Proof

Social proof means things like testimonials or stats that tell the audience “everyone is buying this!”

This is a very powerful tool in your arsenal, as humans are social creatures.

If you can demonstrate your product is popular, and if people are enjoying it, then that will significantly increase the likelihood of others trusting in what you have to offer and buying from you!

47 Authority

Another option is to allude to authority.

We have discussed “becoming” an authority to some extent by posting smart blog posts and presenting yourself well on social media/video.

But while this can be very effective, it will never get you to the very highest positions of authority. What you can do though, is to get a quote or a reference from the highest authorities!

For example, you can get a doctor or similar authority figure to give you a recommendation.

There is serious moral implication here though, so make sure this is a genuine recommendation for a product you believe in!

48 Know Your Why

Your single product is a small part of a much broader business strategy.

This is why it's so important to “know your why.” In other words, you need to know what the overall plan is for your business, and what you want to “contribute” to the world.

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This might seem grandiose, but this is what makes the difference between having customers and having FANS. If you can build true fans, then you will never struggle to generate sales, and you will have a much easier time galvanizing that audience.

49 What is Your USP?

Your USP is your Unique Selling Point. To cut this story short: have one!

A USP makes you stand out from the crowd, and it gives people a reason to buy from you. Without this, they may as well buy from anywhere else.

50 It's All in the Presentation

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The way you present a product can make a HUGE difference to its saleability and the price you can ask for it.

Consider the difference that packaging makes, for example. Take your product, place it in a premium black box, and you can charge a whole lot more for it, and you'll find it sells better. People will even be happier with their purchase!

51 Obligation and Reciprocity

This is a powerful human urge.

Did you know that if you do something nice for someone, they will be overcome with an urge to reciprocate by multiple times what you offered them?

That is to say that if you give someone $1, they won't be happy until they have given you $10! This is likely because that initial $1 was spontaneous. The reciprocal nature of what they are offering makes their gift seem instantly lower in value.

This is powerful because it means that giving anything away for free can drive many more sales to your product!

52 Ask for Testimonials

We've discussed the importance of showing testimonials, so don't forget to ask for those in order to get as many as possible!

53 Respect Their Time

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With regards to every aspect of your sales, it is important to always respect the visitors' time.

That means that you should get to the point quickly, and you should ensure that everything loads and responds quickly and efficiently, too.

54 Sell Something Small

Selling something small from your website is a very effective way to get people used to the idea of buying from you. This way, you can save their details (making it easier for them to buy again), and you can demonstrate that you deliver on time and in a trustworthy manner.

Consider there might be two things putting someone off of buying from you which together ensure they do not. The first is that your product is too expensive, the second is that they don't know if they can trust your payment system.

Well now if you sell your first product for $1, they won't be put off by the price. And NOW when they come to buy from you again, they can spend $50 without worrying about whether the payment system works!

55 Remove Barriers to Sale

This is another example of removing barriers to sale.

There are many more things that might likewise put someone off buying. This can range from not trusting the payment system, to even not understanding the language you've written in!

Address every single objection you can think of and ensure that you are finding ways to combat them.

56 Point Of Sale Add-Ons

Point of Sale is the point at which the individual has committed to buying from you and agreed to spend money.

This is the point at which you've overcome the barriers to sale, so now it's time to try and maximize the income by adding to the basket!

57 Create Scarcity

Scarcity means making your product less available in order to encourage people to sign up and get involved quickly.

You can create more scarcity by offering a discount, or by limiting the number of items. This encourages a faster decision, which increases the chances of buying.

58 Make it Feel Premium

Do whatever you can to make your product feel premium and exclusive. That includes talking about it throughout your site in a manner that makes it sound elite.

59 Add a Support Bot

This can be a great way to engage with people as soon as they land on your site, but also to ensure that any pressing questions get answered quickly.

Tools such as Intercom and Zendesk allow you to add a support bot on your site.

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60 Offer Multiple Payment Methods

Don't force people to leave your site without buying because they don't have the necessary payment option!

PayPal alone is not enough – several entire countries can't use PayPal!

61 Try Existing Sales Platforms

Another way to make it much easier to sell is to use existing sales platforms.

These offer multiple options, they come with trust built-in, and many people will have already entered their payment details.

62 Use Rhetorical Questions

Rhetorical questions are questions you don't expect an answer to.

“Have you ever wondered why more people aren't in great shape?”

Questions like this are brilliant for your sales script, as they encourage the reader to engage with the content and to ask themselves those questions.

63 Font Matters

Font matters as it helps ensure your content is easy to read and can make a big difference to the seeming production value of your site.

Don't just stick with the default that comes with your website theme!

64 Headings That Tell the Whole Story

As mentioned earlier, the vast majority of people using the web are in a hurry.

This means that they do not have time to read a huge, dense, block of text. If that is how your site is greeting people, then it will put them off and drive them away.

To get this right, use lots of headings. Moreover, try to ensure that your audience can get the entire story simply by skim-reading through those headings!

65 Consult Your Audience

If you have an audience, then why not ask them what they would want to buy from you and how you could sell it to them?

66 The F-Zone

The term F-Zone refers to where the eyes go on your site when it loads. The F zone is the left side of your page and the top two rows (top and middle top).

By understanding this, you can make better use of your design.

67 Testing Your Copy

Test the copy on your website and how well it sells by using split tests.

That means creating two slightly different versions of your site with different sales copy and seeing which performs best.

68 Hiring a Writer

If you don't have a natural knack for writing, then don't try and wing it!

Your sales copy is CRITICAL to your success, so hire a pro!

69 Writing a Buyer Persona

Your buyer persona is the fictional biography of the kind of person that would buy your product.

Write this and make sure that you understand the psychology of that person and where to find them with your marketing!

70 Knowing Your Niche

As well as understanding the buyer persona, it's also important to understand the niche.

That means that you need to understand the topic and sell “what you know.”

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In other words, if you sell a fitness product, you should know about fitness. If you sell a product about fashion, you should have some experience in that world.

While this might not seem necessary, it is actually huge. That's because understanding the industry and niche is what will allow you to offer something really new and interesting that isn't derivative, it will allow you to know where the audience will be, and it will let you communicate with that audience in a way that they respond to.

Of course, it's not 100% required you know the niche well to sell (there are plenty of examples of sellers who don't and are still successful).

But if you don't know your niche, hire a writer who knows it inside out. This is more important than their writing skill!

71 Find “Lookalike” Audiences

A lookalike audience is a demographic or niche compromised of a similar type of person, with similar interests. This group is perfect for selling to because it will have many of the same interests.

But at the same time, it might not have been exposed to what you are offering. A great way to find these lookalike audiences is to look for tangential interests.

For example, fitness and martial arts are audiences with a lot of crossovers.

72 Create a Viral Hit

If you can create a viral video or blog post, then this can drive a huge amount of traffic to your product! Study those who have blown up.

Look at the title they used, the implementation of story, and take a look at why their audience reacted the way they did by reading their comments.

You’ll find clues!

73 Team Up

Teaming up with other creators and influencers is an excellent way to reach a larger audience and potentially to have more impact on your market.

74 Reduce Choices

We've discussed the benefits of contrast and selling tiered products.

Sometimes, however, having multiple choices can actually be a bad thing. This is because people can sometimes find they experience “choice paralysis.”

Here, there are so many options a person can end up freezing and not knowing what to buy! To try and avoid this being the case, try to reduce the number of things that you are selling.

75 Invest in High-Quality Images

Filling your sales page with beautiful images makes people want to spend more time there, makes you look more professional, and simply helps you to sell more!

76 Invite to Contact

Invite your audience to get in touch with you. This is a great way to sell, and especially when selling services!

End your homepage with a phrase like” click here to buy now”, and you may well find no one really takes you up on that offer. But if you end it with “get in touch if you have any questions,” they will be more likely to take an action.

This is a small step that then allows you to market to them and convince them to buy from you.

77 Answer Objections in Your Copy

People thinking of buying your product will find they have to face a lot of objections that are preventing them from making the leap.

Maybe they worry the product will be just like others that they've tried and not been impressed with. Or maybe they think that you won't deliver the item in time.

Your job is to second guess these second guesses and to include answers to those objections right in your sales pitch.

“This isn't just another program!”

“If you don't like what you see, we offer a full money-back guarantee!”

78 Give Away as Much as You Can for Free

The more value you can offer for free through your website, the more you will draw people into your content, the more you will demonstrate your value, and the more you will encourage them to buy from you in future.

79 Optimize for Mobile

More and more people now buy products online via mobile – so make sure your site is ready for that.

80 Emotion

One of the most important things to do in your sales copy is to make sure that you are trying to get an emotional response.

People don't buy based on logic. People buy based on emotion.

Your job then is to work them up into a frenzy such that they will buy from you as soon as they can.

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81 Understand Intent (This is Important!)

Intent is one of the least understood concepts in marketing – and it is one of the most important.

If you are using keywords to drive visitors to your site, then it is not enough to think purely in terms of what terms people are searching for: you also need to think about what the things they are searching for are in service of.

In other words, there is no point in targeting a phrase like “free fitness downloads” because those people don't intend on spending money.

Think about intent in everything you do.

82 Build Your 1000 True Fans

The article entitled “1000 true fans” by Kevin Kelly (https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/) suggests that if you gain 1000 true followers that love what you do, you will never struggle to make sales or promote your work.

There is a lot of truth in this because those people are going to buy every product that you create, they are going to help you market and promote what you are offering, and they are going to help you to communicate that to others.

83 Try the Soft-Sell on Social Media

Selling isn't only a matter of trying to force your products down people's throats.

In fact, the soft sell will often work better, particularly when selling something for a higher price.

For example, a great strategy for a fitness trainer is to simply post lots of images of their workouts and those they are creating for clients.

Then just wait for people to message with fitness questions, which you can then develop into sales opportunities!

84 Track, Measure, Tweak, Optimize

This is one of the most important things of all when selling: you need to make sure that you are constantly tracking and watching your products to see what is working and what isn't!

Don't just set up your sales funnel and leave: collect as much data as you can, try running split tests, look for correlations, and generally continue to refine and optimize your process.

85 Engage With the Community

Have you ever seen a product or a seller seemingly “come out of nowhere” to take a whole niche or industry by storm? Weeks ago no-one had heard of this person, and now they're generating huge sales?

This often happens because that person has already put in the groundwork. The way you do this is by actively engaging with the community.

That might mean joining a forum or a subreddit, where the aim is to simply communicate with those people, to ask smart questions, to offer useful ideas, and to make genuine friends. If you can do this, you can become an important part of that community.

Now, when you go to launch your product or service, you'll have a huge built-in audience of people who love what you do and want to see you succeed.

These are now your “friends”, and they will try to help you sell just as you would try to help any friend.

86 Be Realistic

Not seeing those sales come in right away?

Don't worry! This is normal, and it can take a long time until you start generating a significant passive income.

Be realistic and remember that even if you are making $10 a day, that's still $70 a week, which can make a big difference on top of your regular income!

87 Respond to Criticism

If you get a bad review or find an unhappy customer, don't react negatively.

First, recognize the audience is always right, and losing profit from one sale is not important in the grand scheme. So offer them money back without question!

But now is the time to respond to any public criticism so that your audience knows you are listening and you're trying to improve (don't try to excuse or undermine the issue).

Likewise, this is a great chance to learn and to improve the experience for future customers!

88 Don't Try to Appeal to Everyone

You shouldn't try to make your product and your sales approach appeal to everyone. A simple rule of thumb is that if you appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one.

A product that appeals to no one is necessarily very bland and generic, which ultimately makes it uninteresting.

Know your audience and make bold choices to accommodate them. This will ensure that when the right person finds your page, they will be much more likely to buy!

89 Have a STRONG Brand

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On that note, it's important to have a strong brand.

That means making sure that your logo, site name, and design all communicate what your product/brand is about and who it is for.

This can make a big difference in your ability to sell and to generate passionate followings.

90 Generate Interest

Something we've alluded to a few times throughout this book is that your product should be designed to generate interest.

The web is absolutely jam-packed with products that look and sound the same. Selling yet another book on fitness or dating is difficult to make exciting.

But that's what you have to do: find ways to make your item seem unique, different, and game-changing. Do this through your sales pitch, the choice of product itself, and the way that you present it.

91 Communicate

Communication is an important strategy in general.

For example, when someone posts on your Facebook wall, always be sure to answer back.

This makes your audience feel like there are real people running your business. In turn, this means they will feel much safer ordering from you because they know they can reach you if anything goes wrong and they are unhappy with what they receive.

Remember: the web is not just a platform. It is a forum. Use this tool to engage in two-way communication, and you will be using it to its fullest potential.

In this article by SFZ, real-life examples of successful communication with potential clients are shared. Check it out to see how to find your customers' pain points and start communication.

92 Fail Fast

Fail fast means that you should aim to get your product out and to create a pitch a quickly as possible. Once this is done, the next step is to start selling.

This may even mean that you begin selling before everything is perfect. Perhaps you're still working on your logo, or refining your text?

But what this does is that it allows you to very quickly perform a litmus test that will tell you if your audience is interested. It also means you can compare multiple products in rapid succession.

This approach is powerful because it allows you to adapt and iterate on the fly.

93 Test

Imagine you have an idea for a product, and you begin accepting pre-orders. Over the next several days, you receive hundreds of thousands of orders and it is all going extremely well.

Then the launch day comes, but instead of sending the products out automatically to everyone, your system falters. No one gets your product. You wake up the next day to an inbox FLOODED with emails.

When you go through the laborious process of responding individually to every order, you find many of your emails are blocked. Disaster!

Always test your sales system by being a customer yourself. This is especially important for a pre-order, but it's also a good idea for any other type of product.

This will let you know what your audience is experiencing, which will help you when it comes to customer service if nothing else!

94 Don't be a Cliché

We've mentioned several times that you should avoid being spammy or too “salesy.” Over the long term, this is going to help you to establish a better reputation and sell more.

But how do you avoid falling into that trap? How do you stay honest?

One simple mantra to remember is: don't be a cliché. Don't sound like every single other seller!

95 Hire a Pro

Hire a professional whenever possible to handle your web design, to help you with your copy, to put together videos.

Invest in this business idea if you are really serious about making it as successful as possible. RESIST the urge to do everything yourself to save money.

You simply can’t do everything yourself.

96 Be Clear and To-The-Point

This is something that is extremely important for businesses in particular.

It is almost frightening how many company homepages are filled with copy that literally makes no sense. It is just a collection of buzz-words like “cloud solutions” and “teamwork” and “experience.” This is often done in an attempt to sound professional, but in fact, it does nothing more than simply scaring away your audience.

Instead, your aim should be to communicate as clearly and efficiently as possible what it is you're doing/selling and why people should care.

Drop the jargon, be simple and clear and get to the point!

97 Have Multiple Opportunities to Buy

If you have a long sales page with lots of text in a narrow format (as you've been instructed to do here and no-doubt elsewhere!), then you are following the best advice for your sales page design.

However, this can backfire if you just have a single buy button that is small and placed right at the bottom of your page.

Instead, make sure you interlace your content with lots of opportunities to buy. By doing this, you ensure that your audience can act on that impulse as soon as they are struck by it – rather than having to scroll down by which point they've lost the interest.

Every few paragraphs should be punctuated by a buy button!

98 Be a Consummate Professional

In every interaction with your customers, you must be as professional as possible.

That means every email you answer should be extremely professional: even when responding to aggressive and unfair critique!

It also means that you should bend over backwards to ensure your customers are happy.

This is your business, and you might feel that it is your right to be able to tell rude customers where they can go! By doing this, though, you are going to find that you ultimately just put off your audience and end up developing a bad reputation.

Venting a little steam is not worth it in the long term if it means destroying your reputation and your business: they've won!

99 No Hidden Costs

Never include hidden costs in your products. This might seem like a great way to get more people to buy, but ultimately it will hurt the experience of your product.

Instead, you should aim to over-deliver. This means that you are going to provide more value than you promised. So if you promise that your delivery will be in 5-6 days, you should aim to get it to the recipient in 4 days. Include freebies with your product, and make it more premium than you need to.

Doing all these things will help you to build the best relationships with your customers, and word will spread.

100 Don't Give Up

One of the worst things that you can do when it comes to selling a product online is simply give up. If you don't find that your products are selling right away, this doesn't mean they aren't sellable, and it doesn't mean you're bad at this!

There's actually a whole lot of luck involved in selling anything online. You need to have the right product, at the right time, and offer that to the right audience. Even then, it will take time and effort to get to where you need to be.

You might find yourself starting to wonder if the whole “passive income” thing has been over-exaggerated. Is it really possible to make money while you sleep?

I'm here to tell you that it genuinely is.

101 Sell Something You Are Proud Of

Finally, in order for anything else in this article to be effective, it is absolutely essential you are selling a product you believe in and you are proud of. This is going to impact on the actual process of selling in countless small ways.

It will impact how genuinely and effective your sales pitches are. It will have a huge impact on how enthusiastic you are when talking about it, and it will greatly affect your ability to continue selling when it doesn't seem to be going well.

What's more, is that if you are selling a genuinely good product, then you're going to find that other people are more likely to want to help.

There is an unfortunate tendency online for marketers to look for a quick and easy win. They want a way to sell something fast, that will help them to make a lot of money quickly. They think the best way to do this is to find the product that sells for the most money and likely appeals to most people.

But in the long run, this doesn't work. Think about the biggest brands in the world. Notice what they have in common? They all sell something that is genuinely useful and high quality. They all have strong branding, a mission statement, and a committed fan base.

We're talking about companies like Apple, like Nike, like Microsoft, even if you aren't a huge fan of those products, there is still no denying that they are well made and useful.

The Bottom Line

As you can see then, there are TONS of things you can do to boost your online sales. Just a few simple tweaks can potentially gain you a whole 5% or more on your conversion rate.

But there are also key principles to keep in mind. The MOST important principle is that of human psychology. It is learning what makes people tick, what motivates them, and how you can understand this in order to make a lot of sales.

It means providing something genuinely high quality but also interesting and unique. Then you need to be able to communicate that uniqueness in a way that gets people excited.

The bottom line is this: if people are excited about what you're doing and they're excited about your products… then you're going to sell.

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