Category: Online Business

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Online Business

Why Upsells and Downsells Could be the Ticket to Your Business’ Online Success

First, some context. What exactly is an upsell and a downsell and why is it so important to your business?

An upsell is when your prospect has already said “yes” to buying something from you, and then they decide at the same time to buy something else. The classic example of this is the MacDonald’s “Would you like fries with that?’ The customer has already bought a hamburger and now the employee has nudged them into buying something else.

A downsell is when your prospect has said “no” to your initial offer so you present a second offer. Typically the downsell is less expensive than the original offer.  So, for instance, the customer decides the MacDonald’s hamburger is too expensive and decides to buy just an ice cream cone.

Now clearly this can and does happen in face-to-face situations. But did you realize this can also happen online?

So for instance, someone buys a product on your web site. Your web site can immediately present them with a second offer, the upsell.

And if the prospect clicks away, because they’re not interested in buying your product, your web site can also present them with a second offer, a lower cost offer than the one they were looking at.

So you’re probably thinking, this sounds a little complicated and I haven’t a clue how to start. Why would I want to do this?

Two reasons –

1. You’ll make more money. When you start using the upsell, you’ll increase your overall purchase amount. For instance, say your product is $100 and you offer a $50 upsell. Let’s say 20% of your buyers take you up on it. Now you’ve made an additional $50 on 20% of your purchases. (This can add up after awhile.)

Now, for the downsell, you’ve saved a sale you’ve probably lost anyway. Let’s say your product is $500, when someone clicks away, you pluck a piece out of the original product, say an ebook, and offer that for $97. Now you’re giving your customers a lower cost alternative, a chance to try your product out before spending a lot more money.

2. If you offer an upsell, you’ll increase customer satisfaction and decrease returns. Yes you read that right. Upsells can actually make your customers feel more satisfied doing business with you and less likely to want to return the product. Why? Because you’re helping them “skip” over buyers’ remorse. We all have buyers’ remorse after we buy something, which is when we regret our purchase. The intensity and the length varies depending on the buying situation. But if you immediately jump into and offer a second purchase, your customers are busy figuring out if they want to make that second purchase versus feeling bad over making the first one. And if they DO buy, then they’re that much more invested in you and your business and they WANT what you sold them to be what they’re looking for.

And the best part of this whole strategy? It’s automatic. You set it once and it keeps on doing it, over and over again. What could be better?

One final note to chew on as you make up your mind if it’s worth it or not – do you know what the most read page on a web site is? It’s your thank you pages. The page your prospects go to after they sign up for something or buy something. Don’t waste this valuable real estate – put an upsell on that page and watch your bank account grow.

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Online Business

Five Tips on How to Convert on Facebook Ads

Imagine that you are running ads on Facebook and you are really pushing the ads to get click-through, but you have a bit of a problem. People are not converting. Let’s go through a couple of tips on how you can change that around.

#1: Start with the basic – Aim to the “right” page

A good thing to start with before starting your campaigns is to look where you want to point the click-through. There are advertisers who miss out on conversionby putting up ad and pointing them towards a page on their website where there are a lot of irrelevant information which makes it harder to convert. If you are doing advertisement for a website with products the aim should be – click-through to a page with clear and direct converting elements. If you are selling T-shirts at a discounted price, that’s what people expect to see at the other end on your page.

An important aspect of Facebook Market Place ads is that you can also target your company’s Facebook profile page, from where you can engage and in that way convert. Again, it’s important to look over how that page looks and really try to engage and be active. If the page is empty and no one is active on it, there is a bigger risk that people will not become a fan.

#2: Dare to go out from your comfort zone

Think of Facebook of a great way to try to reach new audiences. One tip though is to start up multiple campaigns with different ads and A-B testing it towards different demographics. You might be surprised that groups you never tried to target before.

Another powerful aspect of advertising through Facebook is that you can choose different types of market place ads.  A study done by Nielsen/Facebook show that ads with social context has higher awareness and intent to purchase. This means that there is a feature included so that if your friends like the same Facebook page or product, you will see their names underneath.

#3: Spending the right sum will get you the right people

If you are new to Facebook Market Place ads, there is a system which allows you to bid in order to reach a certain type of user. This means that if you are keen to reach a higher valued user you will have to bid more. A higher valued user means someone who spends more time on page, this could be someone that maybe only login one time per day and therefore checks through the feed in more detail.

Check out this article on Facebook for more information on how the auction works.

#4: Run ads when people will actually convert

Say that you are running a deli that is only open during the day as a business, well then maybe you shouldn’t run the ad throughout the whole day. You can pause the ads you are running manually through Facebook, but a tip is to use a tool designed for Facebook ads, like Qwaya. Through such a campaign manager you can easily start, stop and pause campaigns and ads through one interface.

Using something like a campaign tool can really save you money so you don’t miss by not pausing an ad during a time period where people won’t naturally visit your website.

#5: Get creative! It can pay off

As with any ad, a Facebook ad is about being creative with you material. Here’s some great tips on that to get you started. Remember to A-B test different ones to see which one fits your demographics.

 

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Online Business

The Secret to a Successful Online Business: It’s All About Building Relationships

People buy from those they know and trust. Nowhere is this more true than on the Internet, where you may never even meet anyone in person. Establishing a trust relationship with your potential online clients takes time, but it is well worth the effort!

Think about the last time you bought a product or service online, that had a substantial positive impact on your work or life in some way. If you were spending a good chunk of change (and perhaps investing a good bit of your time) on that purchase, chances are you did some research first: reading online forums and reviews to see what others had to say about them; contacting them directly with questions and observing how quick and helpful (and polite) their response was; maybe even buying a smaller product or service from them first. All to determine if you could trust this online business to deliver what they promise.

Your potential online clients are no different! They are going to want to know if they can trust you to deliver, too. Here are three specific ways you can work on building trust relationships online, and how each will help your business:

1. Get to know your customers.

This helps you more deeply understand what it is they need – making it a lot easier to tell them how what you are selling is going to meet their needs. Find out where they “hang” out, on discussion forums, social networks, etc., and get involved. Don’t just schmooze or try to sell your product right then and there — instead, add value to the conversation. If you are doing it right, you’ll be doing a whole lot more listening than talking.

2. Connect with your customer on a personal level.

Let them see you as a person, one who has some things in common with them. People will trust you, and ultimately buy from you, if they feel you are like them. This means being sincere and transparent – not pretending or making something up. If you can’t make that trust connection with one particular person, don’t force it – move on to someone else.

3. Keep up the trust relationship.

The relationship doesn’t stop after the sale! Clients who know and like you, and have benefited from what you have sold them, will tell others about you! It will be easy for them to recommend you because they are recommending a trusted vendor, not an impersonal business or product. If you’ve done a good job of providing them with something that makes their job or life easier, they won’t be able to wait to tell someone else!

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Branding Online Business

Optimize your Facebook Brand Page for Engagement

Facebook can be an endless sea of convoluted updates and comments for you and may seem difficult to keep up with. However, if you have some simple items in place, management can be a lot easier. Here are a few strategies for optimizing your Facebook page for branding your business.

1. Upload your logo or part of your logo. I say “part of your logo” because sometimes your first initial or caricature can stand alone. SEOMoz, for instance, has only a photo of their Moz robot as their thumbnail. This really helps with branding because you’re dictating to the consumer what to associate with your name. If you have a long explanatory slogan, people might not read it. Consider dropping that from the Facebook brand page image. Keep it nice and clean–appealing to the consumer when he/she first sees it.

2. Utilize plug-ins. Do you have an awesome company blog? Don’e be afraid to show that bad boy off by RSSing in the feed onto a new Facebook page tab labeled “Blog” or “Insights.” You can use tabs to create separate landing pages for a contest your company is promoting, for instance. You can use this page’s unique URL to send visitors right where they need to go instead of sending them to your Facebook Wall page and having to rely on them to find it (this never happens).

3. Always respond to comments–even if it’s not a question. Say thanks, ask questions. People are more apt to share photos or stories or recommendations with a business page that is well-managed. Always answer complaints, too. Don’t delete bad comments-you will only look as if you’re avoiding the problem. Address it head-on and you’re likely to turn a disgruntled customer into a fan again.

4. Use consistent brand messaging across all social platforms. Don’t have different people with different opinions managing the brand page on Facebook and Twitter and Google+. You want your audience to get to know your brand’s “personality,” whether it’s humorous or informational.

5. Use your tools. Facebook has a wealth of information on its Insights page. Use this to your advantage. Find out how many people are talking about your brand, who is sharing information about your brand, the demographics of people interacting with your brand, etc. Use these metrics to inform your marketing strategies later. Have you seen a spike in 20-something men “liking” your page? Talk about things that are relevant to them (and you) for better engagement.

6. Use Facebook PPC if it’s in the budget. This is a great way to promote your brand and Facebook page. It can be especially helpful if you’re running specials or a contest. People will often sign-up to receive email updates or a newsletter for the chance to win something (just don’t bombard their inboxes or you’re going to lose them!).

7. Update A LOT. This doesn’t mean silly “fill in the blank” updates twice a day. I mean dig in. Research what’s going on in your industry or community. Talk to other brands and other people about what’s important to them. Don’t be so self-serving. It will all come around positively in the end. I promise.

8. Fundamentals are key. List all relevant information about your brand on the information page. This seems like a no-brainer, but we see people skip these steps all of the time. List locations, business hours and phone numbers. Upload photos of your facility and reviews from Google Places and Yelp!

These are just a few quick tips to keep in mind when creating and managing your brand presence on Facebook. There are plenty of other options that involve content and video creation to propel your Facebook brand page. With the Facebook Timeline rolling out for brand pages this month, there will certainly be more.

About the Author:

Amber Evans is the Social Media Manager at Visiture in Charleston, SC. You can reach her at amber@visiture.com.

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Online Business

3 Tips to Internet Marketing Even If It’s Not Your Cup of Tea

On the surface, starting an internet-based business may seem like a dream come true. A business owner can start a business out of her home, selling her products and services everywhere and anywhere in the world without big marketing budgets or lots of advertising. However, once she puts up her first web site, that dream often comes crashing down – it’s not nearly as easy as it first looks.

So, she does her research. She starts learning everything she can about Internet Marketing.

But it’s still not as simple as what the “gurus” say. Maybe the business owner is still stuck at her current revenue goals and she knows she could be making more. Maybe she feels uncomfortable or “icky” around her marketing. Maybe she agonizes over every negative email and feedback she gets. And maybe she feels like there must be a better way.

Here are 3 tips to use to get more success through Internet Marketing:

1. Pull up those big girl panties and get some business training. People start businesses for all sorts of reasons that have really nothing to do with owning their own business. They want freedom, to provide for their families, to not have a boss, to get their message out into the world, to make a difference. None of those reasons started with the words, “I love business.”

So it only stands to reason they have little to no training or experience in business. If that’s the case, it’s unlikely that business will come naturally. Learning to run a business is like learning to do any skill. Learn to run an effective, profitable business, and put Internet Marketing in its proper place, which is …

2. Internet Marketing is a tool in a business owner’s marketing toolbox, it is NOT a business model. There’s a certain amount of confusion about this whole Internet Marketing thing, that this somehow is a business model rather than a collection of strategies. While it certainly CAN turn into a business model, that’s not a desirable situation. Typically, when that happens, the business has turned itself into a “launch after launch” model, which is highly stressful on a number of levels (not to mention it’s not sustainable, long-term).

When a business owner views Internet Marketing as simply another tool in her toolbox, then her mindset changes. It’s just another tool – nothing more, nothing less. Certainly nothing to agonize about. Next step: focus on using that tool correctly.

3. If there’s a part of Internet Marketing a business owner really struggles with, she should take a good hard look at it. One of two things will most likely happen – either she’ll see the reason she struggles is because she has a block around something else, and if she wants to fix it she will work on the block. Or she realizes this piece is just not going to happen – either she really hates doing it or maybe she feels like it doesn’t align with her or her business. If it’s the latter, she will have to find another way to get the same results, or she’s going to have to accept the consequences of not doing it.

But how does she know which one it is? If it’s a block or something else? And if it’s something else, how does she make the choice to do something different? And how does she know what the consequences even are, before it’s too late?

This is a problem I’ve seen over and over again – conscious entrepreneurs making a choice around Internet Marketing based on faulty or incomplete information and not realizing the consequences until it’s too late. It’s something no one else is talking about… but I am.  Stay tuned for more!