How To Increase Sales Online

 

The Simple Headline Hack That Sold 147 Copies Of A “Dead” Product In 4 Days

Sometimes you want to bottle success, like when I found out how to increase sales online using a stupid simple tweak to the sales page headline.

Now, of course, there’s more to a sales page than just a headline, but that headline is like the menu in a restaurant window – if you don’t fancy the dishes on offer you won’t go in.

So it is with your prospective customers.

If the headline doesn’t capture their undivided attention, (a most precious commodity in this day and age), they’ll walk on by, or perhaps more accurately, click on bye-bye!

Is this headline hack, that I’m about to reveal to you, a silver bullet?  Will it magically increase your online sales no matter what you’re selling?

I’d like to think it would, but sadly I doubt I’ve come up with a magic bullet.  If I ever do, I’ll let you know when I’m throwing my house-warming party on my private tropical island because I’ll be super-rich!

Despite that, what you’re about to discover is nevertheless a powerful point to bear in mind and to experiment with, especially if you have a product, as I did, that just won’t shift.

Old Adages Die Hard

You’ve quite probably come across the acronym AIDA when it comes to sales, and in case you haven’t, let me tell you that those initials stand for “Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.”

Back in 2010, that was probably about the extent of my understanding of how to promote something, so I thought it would be no problem to sell my product which was intended to help writers overcome the dreaded “writers’ block.”

I gave my product the natty title of “Words From Thin Air.”

On the face of it, I had all the ingredients of success.

I’d identified a target market. (Writers)

I’d identified a problem which I was sure my market would pay to solve, (especially if they’re being paid to write!)

All I had to do was get their attention, keep their interest, arouse desire and tell them to take action, (which was to hit the “buy button!”)

I researched some tried and tested headlines, and based mine on the old favourite:

“When Doctors Get Sick This Is What They Do.”

I tweaked it to become something like:

“When Writers Get Stuck This Is What They Do…”

(No prizes for originality!)

I was sure that would, in one sophisticated swipe, get their attention and arouse interest at the same time.  I had curiosity in the bag!

Of course, you know what happened.  Even tumbleweed was loud compared to the resounding silence of no one buying my beautifully crafted product!

Fast forward four years …

In 2014 I hired a coach who, mercifully, understood sales and marketing somewhat better than I did.

I told him about “Words From Thin Air” and he asked to see the product.

He loved it!

(At this point, I had to decide whether I’d hired a coach who merely wanted to flatter me or if I had actually created something of value and quality.  I plumped for the latter.)

Not only that, but he was confident it would sell.

And so he came up with a different twist and a brand new headline.

Once we had the pieces in place, “Words From Thin Air” – a product which had sold nothing in 4 years – was relaunched and sold 148 copies in 4 days!

In fact, you can see what happened by the time the offer closed a couple of weeks later:

A total of 239 sales and a turnover of more than $2,500!

The Secret

So, what did my smart coach do that made all those sales, gave me a buyers list and launched my online career?

Very simple.

He picked on a trend and went straight for “desire.”

The trend at the time was writing for Kindle – not because hordes of people suddenly wanted to become authors but because self publishing on Kindle was being touted as something of a goldmine.

(That horse has bolted now, so the marketing would have to be re-thought out again if “Words From Thin Air” is ever to have another lease of life).

As well as choosing the burgeoning trend, the headline cut to the chase.  Because everyone at the time wanted to write for Kindle, (well, everyone in our target market which is all that mattered), the new headline simply read:

“Create Kindle Books In Under 3 Hours”

That’s the result they wanted!  At that rate, you could churn out two or three books a day … the dollar signs were in their eyes before they even started reading.

How You Can Increase Your Online Sales Doing This…

As I said, the Kindle “bubble” has been and gone.

But there are always new trends coming up, new things that people are trying in any market.

You don’t even have to have your own product – if you have an affiliate offer or CPA offer you want to promote using this principle, with a little imagination it will still work.

Would you like to see a simple way to find dozens, even hundreds of trending topics every day?

I’ve made a short free presentation, (it’s about 20 minutes), where you can watch over my shoulder as I tap into a free resource that makes these topics instantly transparent.

Go and watch it now – you’ll be amazed at the gold that’s right under your nose!