How to Sell Online: 10 Top Tips on the psychology of internet marketing.

Posted on 26. Jul, 2010 by Michael in Online Marketing, motivate me, starting a business

How to sell online is a question I frequently get asked by people who come to my workshops and buy my products and services. It’s not so much the technical aspects but more importantly the psychological techniques. What are the real tricks that get people to buy? In fact, the technical side of internet marketing is only a small part of your strategy (albeit a very important part). Much of how to sell online is simply about psychology NOT about how pretty your website is, not about how slick your banners or images are, and not about how well your site ranks. It’s about your psychology (how you think) and your buyers’ psychology (how they think).  It can be complicated but many of the principles that apply in offline marketing psychology apply online too, so there are some simple techniques to bear in mind. Ignore these and you are wasting your time with all the technical ‘diversions’. Concentrate on them and you will hugely improve your performance.

 1. How to sell online means finding keywords that define and articulate not what you offer but what your prospective buyers’ problem is. Admittedly, this is both technical and psychological but this is where you should be starting. Your visitors don’t so just find you by typing in your solution they find you by typing in their problem too. So make sure the words they use to do this are among the keywords you have on your landing page.

2.  Your landing page should not jump out and start ‘selling’ at a visitor straight away. It should provide part of the solution to the problem the searcher has written. You should then seek to invite them to some action to get the rest of your solution. This might mean calling you or giving you their email so that you can inform them of how they can get the rest of the solution.

3. Research on the psychology of browsing shows that we are getting less and less tolerant of sites that don’t help us right away. Generally, you have about 5-6 seconds for a visitor to take notice of what’s on your site if they are dissatisfied they’ll move on – so use that time in the most efficient way. A strong headline is the first step.

4. How to sell online and the psychology of internet marketing is often ignored when people set up their site. We instinctively know that there is a lot involved but we try to get our site to do far too much work – it can’t. Don’t burden your visitor with too many choices to make – find out about you, make contact, buy something and so on. This can be confusing and a confused mind quickly loses interest. Give your visitor a simple choice – to take action or to move away.

5. Show a visitor immediately that you understand their problem and have an answer to it. Show empathy that you know what they are going through in trying to find a resolution to their ‘problem’. I’ve mentioned before, we go online for 2 reasons: 1 to access our email, 2, to solve a problem. Aim to fill the gap posed by the second (then later you will be accessible from the first!!!). What problems do you propose to solve then provide that solution.

6. Ensure that in addressing your visitors’ problem you don’t overwhelm them either with all your information, how clever you are, or how you are just the greatest thing ever. We all see through that kind of vanity and ‘salesy’ type talk. Just offer a response to the reason/problem they have come to your page.

7. Give your visitor some good information that helps them to see that you are indeed the answer to what they need. Begin to tell them what the answer to their problem is (for free), then get them thinking about what they need to do for the complete answer and solution – which they will need to buy from you.

8. When it comes to what you charge for your product or service, get your reader’s attention away from what it costs. Because that does not help them and that’s not where you want them. You want them thinking about the value of the transformation you offer. When I buy products and services to build my business I don’t care what the provider is going to actually do – I just want to be sure I get the result I want.

9. Get your reader to think in terms of getting the solution NOW – not next week! Tell your prospects that you are offering a special price now but if they delay they will miss this and the price will increase. You can do this through offers and promotions of (lower price now, then higher price later).

10. Seek always to build trust and a strong relationship with your visitor. We tend to buy from sources we know, like and trust. Few people buy from sources online the first time they are visited so create content and information that is valuable to your visitors – so they’ll come back again and again…when they are beginning to know, like and trust you.

These are just a few psychological techniques that can help build your business. There are many, many more which I will blog about another time but these are some of the basic ones.

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Tags: how to sel on the internet, how to sell online, psychology of online selling, secrets of online selling, selling online