More Than Doubled Ecommerce Store Conversions With One "Trick"

[gtull2]

I hope this is the right section for this?

I'll try to be brief. I know it's going to be too long. Save your time and close this please unless you are into conversion/copywrite psychology.

I'm nowhere near a guru on ecommerce or conversions (or anything related to the internet for that matter). I'm probably at least twice your age. I'm not selling anything here. I'm not pretending to be anything. I just figured out something new to me, it's working, and for some reason I'm hoping to spark some intelligent conversations here.





Background

I have a little ecommerce store that's been running for going on a year. I have had stable conversions of just over 4% over this time.

I stumbled on a little "trick" that has increased my conversions from just over 4% to almost 9% since I implemented it a few weeks ago.

I'm hoping that a few of you could benefit from this. Maybe you will throw a tip my way in exchange? Maybe everyone else already knows this except for me?





The "Trick"

I wrote a 5.3k word article that answers just about every question that has ever been asked to me by previous clients. I have made this page required reading for all new clients. It's similar to a FAQ, but it's a lot more. The page is focused on selling me (my brand), stuffing them with more information than they can really process, and helping me to stand a million miles apart from any of my competitors.





Details

My store has four ways for people to contact me: telephone, text, email and live chat support. This has been necessary for me to get sales. I found that without this communication my conversion rate hovered around 1-2%. The problem with this is that it is a pain in the ass dealing with wuestions all day every day.

I have a FAQ article on the store like most of you do. It's a 500 or so word article that covers basic questions. It's blunt, to the point, and boringly business like.

Maybe a month ago I started thinking how badly it sucks having to explain everything over and over to everybody. I tried sending people to my FAQ page but they either disappeared or came back looking for a lot more.

I also thought about how the clients that I talk to the most, and really spend a lot of time going into tons of details, seem to convert at a much greater percentage. They also become repeats, and their average ticket is more. So I knew that information overload is successful.

I sat down a few weeks ago and thought about what I would want to know if I was a potential customer. Sure, each product page has a lot of information, but there are a lot of common gaps or missing details that aren't in the product page. The FAQ helped, but it was dry and didn't give enough. Each page on its own helped to sell that product or service, but did it really help to sell me/my brand?

I think I'm pretty good at hooking a customer once I communicate with them. The problem with this is that:
1- It's a real pain in the ass.
2- Not all of my potential customers will contact me.
3- I can tell them something and they will forget what I said 5 minutes later.

So I came up with a list of all of the questions that I could remember people asking me over and over. I have developed a pattern of answering these questions (especially over the phone) over the last year or so. I know what hooks people, so I had a good idea how to answer all of them.

I then had my son read me each question while we recorded his questions and I answered them. I acted like he was a potential client, and I was just talking to him over the phone like I do every day to real potential customers. I also asked him to chime in with more questions during each answer that I have if he felt like it.

When we were done with all of the questions and answers I spent a good chunk of the day making this new page. I made it look pretty good and added some nice graphics to drive the main points home.

The result was a page that didn't feel like a typical sales page or FAQ. It's neither actually. It reads as if you and I are having a real communication with two way dialogue.

On the bottom of this new page I added something like this:

"I hope all of this makes sense to you. I know that it's a lot to let sink in. If you still have any doubts or questions, do us both a favor and read it again. If you still have questions, please don't buy from me before you have contacted me."

I have now added a link to this page on every product page. It says something to the effect of this:

"Stop! Please do not buy this from me until you have read this page: link"

This statement is in an almost obnoxious spot on every page. To say that it stands out is an understatement. Needless to say, the hits on this new page are incredible.

I know I will need to do some more tweaking to the copy, but I love it. Apparently customers love it too. My sales have more than doubled, and I spend a fraction of the time communicating with buyers.

Now when a person contacts me the first thing I say is, "Wait. Have you read this page that I wrote that probably already answers every question that you could possibly think of? Please read this first and then come back to me."

Most of the time they don't even contact me again- they just buy.






Conclusion

This page reads like a normal conversation that I have every day (over and over) on the phone. It "feels" like a guy that really cares that is just trying to help a stranger. I'm pretty sure it's because I literally transcribed a conversation that I had with a customer (my son) and put it down in "ink".

I know it's too early to have really solid numbers, but I'm convinced that it will hold at at least doubling my conversions on this site. I'm now preparing to implement this same strategy on two other little ecommerce stores that I have to see if it will stand up in other niches.

Any thoughts or advice on this topic of conversion psychology is really appreciated.

 

[BotMe]

I found this to e a great "trick" and a good read. Thanks!

 

[propipper]

OP - I run an ecommerce site as well. Not sure what niche you're in or if you're selling physical or virtual products but really like the post.

I deal with a lot of the same issues as well and this is a very interesting twist since you're right - it's so easy to lose people (and sales) when you send people to a FAQ and they never come back and it's difficult to answer and address every inquiry that comes in.

Is the page laid out like an infographic? So, it's a little easier to read. It's a catchy phrase that helps instill some confidence in the potential buyer.

What you should do is run polls or interviews to new customers who you did not speak with to find their thoughts on why they ultimately decided to buy from you.

My sites are the opposite - in my niche, the more contact information you can put, the more the client gets put "at ease" knowing that we're a legit business - not saying you're not legit - just saying in my niche that works. I'd love to automate it more with less pre-sales inquiries if possible.

Good luck and post updates if you can. Would love to hear feedback of what works and why (from real customers).

 

[gtull2]

I found this to e a great "trick" and a good read. Thanks!

Thanks for reading all of it.

OP - I run an ecommerce site as well. Not sure what niche you're in or if you're selling physical or virtual products but really like the post.

I deal with a lot of the same issues as well and this is a very interesting twist since you're right - it's so easy to lose people (and sales) when you send people to a FAQ and they never come back and it's difficult to answer and address every inquiry that comes in.

Is the page laid out like an infographic? So, it's a little easier to read. It's a catchy phrase that helps instill some confidence in the potential buyer.

What you should do is run polls or interviews to new customers who you did not speak with to find their thoughts on why they ultimately decided to buy from you.

My sites are the opposite - in my niche, the more contact information you can put, the more the client gets put "at ease" knowing that we're a legit business - not saying you're not legit - just saying in my niche that works. I'd love to automate it more with less pre-sales inquiries if possible.

Good luck and post updates if you can. Would love to hear feedback of what works and why (from real customers).

Losing sales was a problem, but talking/chatting/texting/emailing pre-sales all day long with the same questions over and over was just killing me.

I tried to stop it. For a few months at one point I stripped all of the contact options. Either people just bought based off of what they read on the site, or they didn't. The result with that approach was a lot less money in my pocket but a lot more happiness in my life. That was fun for a while, but the greed for money suckered me back in.

I guess the sales page is a bit like an info graphic? There are a lot of pictures that break it up and add useful content. I mainly did that to prevent it from looking like a wall of text.

You mentioned that your site requires contact info to put clients at ease. I have exactly the same predicament.

What I love about this so far is that instead of the average phone call taking 15 minutes or so, within the first minute I just tell them to stop, read this page I'm sending them, and then call me back if they need to. Very few of them call me back.

I like your idea of polling. I need to put some more thought into that. Great suggestion.

I can tell you the two reasons for conversions that I hear over and over and....

1- They trust me.

2- They think I know more about this industry than anyone else that they have ever talked to.

You have me some food for thought with polling. I appreciate that and thanks for interacting with me!