How to Double your Conversion Rate
Without Increasing Search Engine Marketing
Steve Gibson
Gigi Fotou

How many repeat customers do you have? For most wholesalers, repeat customers are the backbone of their enterprise. But unfortunately, statistics show us that many wholesalers have less than a 50 percent return customer rate. Why is that? While attracting new business is essential for growth, isn’t it much easier to sell products to those who have already bought from you?
Bear in mind that once a customer places his first order, he has overcome the three challenges to any online sale: Perceived value, trust and safety, and competitive view. This means you have far less work to do to complete another sale by working on tactics specifically designed to encourage many repeat buys.
If you are not successful in turning customers into your clientele, you are not working your back-end marketing strategies. And if you are not working your back-end, you are simply not taking advantage of your full conversion capabilities.
Consider the following strategies you can begin implementing immediately:
Create an Affiliate Program – The selling point of affiliate marketing is that it benefits everyone involved: Merchants love it because they only pay when a certain action is made on behalf of their ads; affiliates earn livings simply by having visitors to their site click on the ads – either in a pay-per-click, pay-per-lead, or pay-per-sale basis.
Coupons on their next order — Include a coupon in every order shipped for a percentage or dollar amount off their next order. Make certain the coupon is time sensitive with a specific expiration date to encourage quick action. If your current shopping cart does not provide for an easy coupon system, it may be time to start looking for another cart. Yes, coupons are that important.
Include a bonus or unexpected gift with order — This could be a sample or promotional item with your name or logo on it. For example, one of the most effective gifts is an eBook because it is inexpensive to produce and easy to distribute. Attach an ad for your backend product to the gift. Your return customer will likely be in a favorable state of mind to read your ad.
Follow up phone call — Call your buyers one to two days after they have received their products. Ask them about their purchase process, shipping time and arrival condition. Are they happy with the products, do they have any questions, and most importantly, would they like to place another order? Asking for another order may seem presumptive but it is the perfect time to push a larger buy on one or many of the current items they have purchased. Although courteous calls like this can take some time, they can result in a 25 percent increase in sales without an increase in your marketing budget.

Publish a Company Newsletter — Newsletters can come in many forms, cover a variety of subjects and are much more potent than generic e-mail campaigns. The key to an outstanding newsletter is to make it worth reading and that means making it valuable to your reader. Make this more than a marketing message; give information that will help increase your retailers’ sales, such as industry news and statistics, success stories, positioning and promotional ideas. Of course, always include a link to your main page and mention any of your top promotions. In most cases, the frequency of a newsletter should me no more than once a week.
Branding — You would be surprised how many times someone in a warehouse ran out of an item and did not know where to reorder it. Print your name, logo, web address EVERYWHERE…on your packaging, packing slips, invoices, wrappers, shipping labels, and anywhere there is some remaining blank space.
“Customers Only” – Creating a “customers only” area on your site conveys the message that they are VIPs and part of an elite group. Fill this area with helpful content, interesting articles, invitations to an event and even some free downloads to really boost this area’s traffic. Subtly promote your product ads without being too evident.
In today’s competitive online business environment, success is sometimes measured not just by great leaps and bounds but by measured tactical increments. It is true that serious online businesses have great looking websites and targeted traffic. But not all of them have the patience, motivation or knowledge to go the extra mile and attract that one segment of their buyer base that will most likely double their sales for next to nothing: The returning customer. If you’re not putting effort into your back-end campaign, you can be sure your competition already is.

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Steve Gibson and Gigi Fotou are partners in Skyabove® Skyabove® is a full-service internet marketing agency specializing in both Front-End and Back-End promotion. Call them today for a free detailed consultation at 714-553-4894 or contact them on-line at www.skyabove.com. They currently have two national locations to serve you better.