This is step 2 in your online marketing strategy. If you haven’t already read step 1, you can see how to start your online marketing strategy here.
Make it easy to buy. Millions are spent each year in focus groups, consumer research and user testing to optimize selling systems. Which is really good news for you and I because it means we don’t have to figure it all out for ourselves. Amazon, for example, is an excellent model to try to emulate when it comes to product sales online.
Straight up. This is important. Really important. But not quite as important as it might seem.
Only a small portion of your site visitors are ready to buy when they actually visit your website for the first time. You want to make it as easy as possible for them, and that’s what this post focuses on – but it’s not the only, or even necessarily the most important, factor.
So what does make it easy to buy actually mean when it comes to an online marketing strategy?
It means make sure there’s a clear call to action on every page. The main call on an informational page might be to sign up to a newsletter, but there should be a secondary call to action that people can take that will take them right to the buy action you want them to take. On more direct product or services pages, or sales pages, the clear call to action should be the desired buy action, with signing up to a newsletter being secondary – for those not quite ready to buy yet.
But, what exactly should that buy action look like?
For some it might be an online checkout with a product, service, or downloadable product. For others it might be a phone call to you to arrange a session. And that’s exactly the point. You should make it easy for your potential clients to buy. If possible, you should have a way online for your client to buy something. To commit to something. If you are a service provider, then that might entail booking an appointment, and you may handle all of that manually right now. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it would be in your best interest to not only provide a phone number where they can arrange it, but an online checkout where they can buy a session and you will call them to arrange a time. As an example. Provide them with options, but not too many. The key is to make it easy to do online if they want to do it online, and to provide a phone number if they want to talk to a real human being.
So, how does this form part of an online marketing strategy? Simple – once the folks who are looking for you find you (because you’ve followed step 1 and done your keyword research and provided content for it), you want to provide a clear and easy way for them to form a purchasing relationship with you. This benefits both you and them. If you don’t make it easy – you will lose business, it’s really that simple. netlek makes this simple by providing easy to use payment gateways that you can put on your site and make it easy for you and for your potential clients.
Next, step 3 of your online marketing strategy – making it easy for them to stay in touch. This is the most important step – and one of the main reasons why netlek excels at growing your business.