Coach Marketing Secrets - Shopping Cart Mistake #4 That Will Kill Your Sales

So far in this series on shopping cart mistakes we’ve looked at payment options, streamlining the checkout process, and up-sells.

In mistake #4, we’ll look at something that many coaches and consultants over-look - customizing the shopping cart.  Many think it is either unimportant, they don’t have the time or skill to do it, or they are trying to cut set-up expenses.  But the result is that they end up losing sales.

Mistake #4 - Not customizing the look and feel of your shopping cart

You want customers to feel like they are still on your site throughout the buying process.  If your shopping cart pages look different than your website, many customers will think that they have been hijacked to a different site and won’t feel secure about the purchase.

This usually happens when third-party shopping cart systems are used, such as 1ShoppingCart or PayPal.

The problem is usually one of the following situations: Read the rest of this entry »

Coach Marketing Secrets - Shopping Cart Mistake #3 That Will Kill Your Sales

You need more than a buy now button to your webpage in order to make sales online. There’s an entire buying psychology going through your client’s mind during their online shopping experience.

When you understand the psychology, your checkout process flows naturally and smoothly.  When you ignore it, customers abandon their shopping carts and leave in the middle of the checkout.

This article series looks at the 5 biggest mistakes that coaches and consultants make with their shopping carts.

Mistake #3 - Offering multiple up-sells on multiple webpages

When someone decides to buy your product or service, your goal is to get them to the “Submit Order” button as quickly as possible and in as few clicks as possible.

We’ve already talked about the importance of streamlining the checkout process in “Mistake #2 - Not streamlining the checkout process.” That streamlining is especially important when offering up-sells.

So what are up-sells?

Up-sells are offers to buy additional products or services.  You customer has already decided to buy a particular product and you suggest other related products that they may be interested in.  For example, if they buy a audio training course, you can offer them the written transcripts as an upsell.

These offers are made during the checkout process, usually right after the customer clicks the “Buy Now” button.  They are a great way to increase your income and help clients get more value from your products and services.

But the best place for an up-sell is right on the checkout page. Read the rest of this entry »

Coach Marketing Secrets - Shopping Cart Mistake #2 That Will Kill Your Sales

For your online coaching business to succeed, you need to be able to convert website visitors into sales.  Website traffic is great, and we all want lots of it.  But without sales, you don’t have a business - you have a hobby.

Here is mistake #2 that I see coaches and consultant make with their shopping cart that kills their sales.  If you’re making this mistake, just follow my simple recommendations, and you’ll definitely see an improvement in your sales conversion.

Mistake #2 - Not streamlining the checkout process

Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream.”  As an online marketer, here’s one of my dreams. My clients could just put their thumbprint right on their computer for scanning whenever they wanted to make a purchase. No more clicking a Buy Now button and entering in all their payment and shipping information. Ah, the simplicity!

While that technology is currently available, I haven’t seen it widely used yet. (See BiometricSolutions.com) In the meantime, here are a few things you can do to streamline the checkout process.

First, keep the checkout process to a minimum number of steps.  It’s been proven that multiple steps reduce sales. Note that if you are using a third-party payment processor, like PayPal, you won’t have much control over the steps in the shopping cart pages. But you do have control over your website pages.

Optimally, you want a 2-step process: they click a “Buy Now” button or link on your site and are immediately taken to one page where they enter information and click the order/submit button.

Here are additional tips to streamline the process: Read the rest of this entry »

Coach Marketing Secrets - Shopping Cart Mistake #1 That Will Kill Your Sales

Do you know the 5 biggest mistakes coaches and consultants make with their shopping cart that kills their internet sales?  You will once you read this series.

If you’re making any of these mistakes, just follow my simple recommendations, and you’ll definitely see an improvement in your sales conversion.

Mistake #1 - Accepting only one or two forms of payment

The more forms of payment you will accept, the more sales you will make.  I remember one instance when I really wanted to purchase a higher priced product, but the trainer couldn’t process my American Express, only VISA and MasterCard.  He loss that sale.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you start accepting chickens or bushels of apples in exchange for your products or services.  But you could offer any of the following:

• Multiple debit and credit cards: VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover
• PayPal (Many people consider their PayPal balance disposable income and PayPal is trusted worldwide thanks to eBay.com.)
• Checks that can be mailed to your business address (Not everyone likes using a credit card.)
• Monthly payment plans (If you offer a 90 day guarantee on your products, why not offer two monthly payments as an option?)

In our next article, I’ll share mistake #2: not streamlining the checkout process.

About Karen: Karen Brunet is an award winning web designer and a “Shopping Cart Queen Certified” service provider and Shopping Cart Secrets member. She provides PayPal and 1ShoppingCart expert services to coaches and consultants.

3 Questions You Must Ask Before Investing in Any Traffic Generation Program

Traffic - it’s the lifeblood of any online business. You’re looking for ways to get more of it to your coaching or consulting website.  And it’s most likely one of your top business goals for the coming year.

There are dozens of ways to get traffic.  Almost every week, I’m hearing about a new course or method.  Someone is finally revealing their “push-button, easy traffic generation method that practically runs itself.”  Sound familiar?

Some of these automated techniques do actually work - for the right type of businesses.  However, I find that many are not good choices for coaches or consultants offering services online.

In this article you’ll learn how to avoid wasting money on traffic generation methods that won’t work well for you.

The next time you see an offer for a traffic generation program that’s supposed to send you a flood of traffic, ask yourself these three simple questions. Read the rest of this entry »

If Coaches Ruled the World…

What if coaches ruled the world?  What would that look like?

Here’s my favorite response from a contest Milana Leshinsky held asking that very question.

Being a web consultant for coaches and consultants, I just nodded my head and laughed when I read it.

“Presidential elections would take place via Twitter and Facebook and everyone would have access to the total vote count.  Healthcare plans would come with a bonus CD and opt-in to a health coaching program to provide ongoing, life-long, optimum health.

“Coaching would be on the education curriculum from the 10th grade, and colleges would offer it as a degree program.

“Spouses would no longer be able to cheat on their partners because whomever they approached would insist on giving them coaching to work things out with their partner.

“The worldwide slogan would be, “Whatever problem you have, there’s a workshop for it”

- Heather Markel, www.culturetransition.com.

I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did!

New FTC Rules and Guidelines – Do You Need to Delete Old Testimonials?

In light of the new FTC rules, do you need to delete old testimonials?  There was a lot of concern about this issue when the new guidelines were announced.

Quick Recap: Part of the new FTC rules stated that any testimonials used should reflect the current opinion of the person giving the testimonial.  The important word here being “current.”  Just how current does the testimonial need to be?

Here’s some clarification from the interview between Jim Edwards and FTC assistant deputy, Mr. Rich Cleveland that addresses this question.

FTC Opinion: The FTC’s opinion seems to be that it is misleading to continue to use a testimonial if you don’t know that the person who gave it still feels the same way about you or your product.

Depending on the company and the product, the FTC considers testimonials that are two to four years old to be stale.

And let’s face it.  Some sites use testimonials that are so old they might as well be hieroglyphs written on stone tablets.

Now two to four years is still a broad range.  How does the FTC determine which are “stale” testimonies for your business? Read the rest of this entry »

Websites for Coaches – Get High Ranking in Google for Your City Keyword

After our recent SEO for Coaches class, I got this great question from Allison. It’s about gettting high ranking in Google for a city other than the one you live in.

“I just finished the SEO call for the second time. I realized that one of my issues is that my pilates studio is located in Mechanicsburg, PA. This is a suburb of Harrisburg, PA (the state capital). I am at the top of page one in Google for Mechanicsburg Pilates. What can I do to get high ranking in Google for Harrisburg? Since the two towns touch, I would expect about half of my clients to search for Harrisburg and not Mechanicsburg Pilates.”

Answer:

That is a really good question. As coaches and consultants, we can often live anywhere and don’t necessarily have to live in a big city.  On the other hand, our clients are often searching for our services online under the “big city” name and not our little suburb.

This is especially a problem for people living in metropolitan areas, like Chicago and Los Angeles, where your city is now a part of the whole area known by one name.  But your mailing or street address is still the smaller suburb.

So what do you do?  Here are a few strategies to help. Read the rest of this entry »