The mindset of the online buyer

Nothing could be sweeter than the sense of achievement and emotional high you get from creating a top converting landing page.  Yet, so few of us ever get the opportunity to see it with our own eyes. I don’t pretend to know all the answers to the secret serum that makes up the perfect converting page, but I do know one of them very very well.

"An Overnight Success, 20 Years Later…" Dan Kennedy – Ultimate No BS Business Book

No one figures this stuff out overnight, there honestly and genuinely is ZERO overnight success stories that are 100% true. Behind every one of them is the blood, sweat, tears and war wounds of unbridaled testing.

There’s many things you can add that will create an instant boost that should be on every landing page. Those generally go without saying like :

• Credibility Builders (UPS logo/SecureSafe, Merchant logos, Visa/MC Logos, Guarantees)
• Big Juicy Benefits
• Opt-in Box for future emailing and communication
• Strong call to action (buy/subscribe/purchase)
• STRONG proof (like a courtroom lawyer you must PROVE what you say.)
• Educational supporting material

But Beyond all that, let me tell you some secrets about the mental mindset of the online buyer, where their heart is at and how to get inside their head. This is really a wonderful way of increasing sales.

First off, your prospects or website visitors have questions that aren’t being answered on your product purchase page. That’s a genuine fact you must accept. Last week, I was looking to buy some answering machine software for my computer that answers the phone in my office because my current one was on the fritz. I was looking for something that would run on Windows 7 (or at least Vista) so the first thing I looked for on every landing page was "Vista Supported.." or similar.

I was also looking for answering machines that could email me to let me know someone had called. I’m often on the road, or out of town and I can’t be near my physical land line, but I having a land line because it’s cheaper than always talking on my cell phone. I was looking for some very simple features that are on 80% of the answering machine softwares out there, but could you believe how hard it was to find it?

A few days later I found myself looking for ram for my wife’s laptop. All I wanted to know was how much shipping would cost and how long it would take to get here. Would YOU type in your entire address/phone/etc and credit card just to find out you didn’t like how much it cost to ship? Or perhaps that it would take 17 days from Brazil? Nope, me neither!

ANSWER Every Question Prospects Might Ask…

Here’s some ideas to get your brains going on questions you might answer for the prospect.

Software

• Does it install quickly?
• How long does it take to setup?
• Can i download it right away or is it shipped?
• What version of windows does it support?
  and… will it run on windows 98? How about windows 7?
• Mac or PC? Big file or small file?

Physically shipped products

• How big is it?  (Yes in inches/feet etc..)
• How long will it take to get here?
• How much is shipping?
• Is it recyclable?
• How much is it and why is it that much?
• why so cheap?
• why so expensive?
• Can it be made smaller or bigger and if so why not?
• Is there a manual/dvd/cd/video?
• What else does it come with?

Ebooks/Electronic Downloads

• Who else has used this? What kind of results did THEY get?
• How will I get it? (Email/Browser download/shipping)
• What do you promise me about this?
• How many pages is it?
• Is there any support?
• How do I get ahold of you if I don’t like it!?
• What can you promise me that no one else can?
• Why are you charging that much?
• Why are you charging that little? (Xmas, Thanksgiving, Kid’s birthday whatever – Dunno why but people need a reason for a sale when the price is juicy)
• What other proof is there?
• Why did you write this? Why’d you make the product?
• What else does this strategy work on?
• Is there an affiliate program?
• Can I get a physically printed version?

There is a huge pile more I didn’t think of or that can’t even be thought of except by the consumer themselves. In sales, it’s called objection handling, however in the online marketing world, there’s no way to handle what you’ll never hear. Customers don’t very often email with why they didn’t buy (those that do are the precious few and you SHOULD listen to most of them). How do you KNOW there’s objections or questions still remaining unsolved?

How to Test for 90% of Buyer Challenges

Believe it or not, most people who don’t buy have two main strong reasons for not buying. One, they had an unanswered quesiton and they’re perfectly willing to find somewhere else on the web that will answer that question for them. Two, they’re just not sure about you.. Who you are, whether you’ll deliver it and your credibility.

How do you know what’s on their mind? I’ll show you!

Add FAQ and About Us pages to the bottom of your web pages — ESPECIALLY those pages that sell something. If you’re busy, don’t even bother taking the time to write anything on those pages!! What? Why would you do that? — Because it’s for tracking purposes. If you look in your StatCounter, Google Analytics or whatever your favorite stats program is, you’ll be able to tell what percentage of people who landed in this page went to About Us or FAQ or just simply left.

If you’ve got more than 10% of your visitors clicking on FAQ
…You’re not answering all their questions and you need to keep thinking up ways to answer anything someone could ever ask.

If you’ve got more than 10% clicking on About Us
…You’re not doing a good job of addressing credibility and proof and who you are on your sales page. Fix that!

Isn’t that awesome! I hope that helps increase your sales dramatically too.

Until Next Time
Daniel J Deyette