Welcome back to “The Five Stages Of The Buying Cycle” series. In the previous part we discussed the “Build Credibility” part. Today, let’s have a look at the “Involve” part.

As mentioned , some visitors purchase within 24 hours after getting their attention. More buy within days. Some take weeks, even months, even a year or two earlier, wasted that time at Yahoo! or 1&1 (or been conned by a “Get Rich Quick”) and then…

They remembered your product. Do you know why?

They took one of the Masters Courses you find below. Or they use Search It! Or they read one or more of the “Make Your _____ Sell!” books.

The lesson? Involve those who procrastinate, those who made mistakes previously, in short those who fall into the “long sales cycle” category. The 3 sets of “Involve” landing pages (Masters Courses, Free Trials, and E-books) are powerful long-term sales-makers.

These are easy to promote. Everyone loves a freebie. Just tell your visitors that these are no ordinary freebies. For example, the #1 affiliate guru in the world, Allan Gardyne, has called The Affiliate Masters Course “the best course of its kind at any price, and it’s free!

Previous Parts:
1. Introduction
2. Get Attention
3. Grow Interest
4. Credibility

The seven eBooks below follow up with this post. You can get them free just by replying or giving a comment to this post. RECOMMENDED!!

Welcome back to “The Five Stages Of The Buying Cycle” series. In the previous part we discussed the “Grow Interest” part. Today we carry on with the “Build Credibility” part.

This is the stage where you convince your visitors that your product is the right choice for them. Actually, when done correctly, they convince themselves!

This is probably the easiest stage to accomplish because your product really must OVERdeliver on every promise. Create a ton of impressive landing pages and videos to help you. Show off your product’s delighted customers and other evidence of powerful results and you’ll make the sale!

The old phrase “people buy on emotion and justify with logic” is very evident during this stage. They need to feel the “emotion” from happy customers and find solid “logic” in the extensive proof of success, and comparisons with competitors, that you deliver. And you can deliver… in spades.

Build emotion as you build your “logic case.” Challenge your visitors to find proof of success. Challenge them to find a package so complete or a company that really cares as much. And…

Remind them to return to your product one last time if they are ever tempted to fall for “the lure” of any other system. If they compare, if they weigh the proof, your Conversion Rate will soar.

By the time your visitors complete this stage, they should (must!) understand that your product is so much more than…
Your product changes lives in so many ways, beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Naturally, your visitors also want to be sure that your product is the best…

Previous parts:
1. Introduction
2. Get Attention
3. Grow Interest

The seven eBooks below follow up with this post. You can get them free just by replying or giving a comment to this post. RECOMMENDED!!

For the next five days we go through the five stages of the buying cycle. Today we start with an introduction. I strongly recommend to grab the seven free eBooks that go along with this series. You can get them at the bottom of this post! Okay, here we go…

Your visitors arrive on your site (or read your zine, blog, etc.) at various stages of readiness to buy your product!…

1) Get attention!

Use landing pages designed to create awareness and get attention for customers who are…

* completely unfamiliar with online marketing
* slightly interested in online marketing or building an online business
* considering if/how to make money online
* failing at current efforts and looking for a better way (a huge category)
* seriously looking for ways to make money online (but don’t know your product yet).

2) Grow interest!

Once customers know about your product, they are ready for the next set of specialized landing pages! These people may be…

* interested, but want to know exactly what the heck your product is or does
* seeking more information about the process and tools
* ready for benefit-focused copy that is specifically relevant to them.

3) Build credibility!

At a certain point, your pre-customers move from info-gathering to credibility-seeking! These prospective new lifetime customers are…

* currently evaluating various online marketing products, including your product
* considering your product, but are unsure or otherwise have questions
* seeking reassurance about your product (history and position)
* comparing your product to others (ex., “Get Rich Quick” and old-fashioned Web hosting).

4) Involve!

Some customers are extremely careful, diligent info-seekers. Repeat exposure to high-value, free information and tools is perfect here. These folks are…

* getting closer, but need more exposure or “comfort” about your product
* procrastinating, so stay in front of them with free tools and info
* thinking seriously about your product and just need reassurance.

5) Close the sale!

The entire process funnels down to the final two landing pages. These pages shift from PREselling to SELLING. “Get the sale” from customers who are…

* ready to buy your product but have not made the final commitment
* 99% of the way there and are merely looking for the final reason to buy
* all the way there and are merely looking for the Order Page!

The above stages are meant to help you think about your customers’ mindset stages within the buying cycle. Keep in mind that they are not discrete stages…

* Each customer is at a slightly different place in the buying cycle.
* One customer buys within 24 hours of “attention-getting,” another may take months.
* And of course, you don’t deal with just one customer at a time. Of 1,000 visitors, each will be at a slightly different spot along the “Attention-to-Order” process.

So… your job is to move them all ever-closer to the final two “closer pages.” How do you address all of their needs?

* By understanding who your customers are and what they need (some only need 1 exposure to your product by you, but it needs to be the right one!).
* By choosing the appropriate landing pages to blend into your editorial content.
* Through repeat exposure, reaching them in different ways with different messages.

Your “time to sale” and Conversion Rate are directly related to how well and how many times you reach your target audience through different landing pages.

The seven eBooks below go along with this post. You can get them free just by replying or giving a comment to this post.  RECOMMENDED!!

There is nothing more frustrating than checking your website’s analytics and realizing that, although a visitor has just spent over 10 minutes reading through a single webpage, they have not made a purchase. Sometimes it can be almost heartbreaking, because no matter how hard you try to increase sales, turning a prospect into a customer can appear to be a near impossible task.

Sometimes the key to turning a prospect into a customer is not a change in your website content, but rather a change to your purchase page:

• Is it easy to find?
• Is it easy to use?
• Can your visitors trust you with their credit card information?

One of the reasons that it is difficult to turn a prospect into a customer is because the customer may have a difficult time locating the final sales page, gets frustrated, and eventually leaves your website to search for a better purchase elsewhere.

In order to increase sales, you will first need to check and make sure that your order form is easy to locate. Sometimes the best way to do this is to write a small paragraph that tells your visitors exactly where and how to find the order form. Also, try placing the link to your order form in an attractive, noticeable box at the top and bottom of your webpage, so that no matter what part of the page the visitor is looking at, they can find it easily.

Offering multiple payment options is another way to increase sales. Some visitors to your website may be uncomfortable providing their credit card online and may instead want to pay with PayPal. Others may not trust PayPal and instead choose to pay with check or credit card. Whatever the reason, the more payment options you have available, the easier it will be for you to continue turning your prospect into a customer.

It is also a good idea to improve your website’s credibility. One of the ways to do this is to offer secure encryption technology on your website’s order forms. In addition, offering a money-back guarantee (and sticking to it – something that many merchants have a problem with) is a good way to increase sales and offer a better user experience.

Finally, increase your credibility by offering a method of contacting you, whether it be by email or phone number or both. And make sure that this method is easy to find on your webpages and is easy to use. Providing your contact information can be doubly effective, because if a visitor sends you an email asking you a question about your product, you will be able to remind them of your product when emailing back. Reminding a visitor of your product is an effective way to increase sales.

Turning a prospect into a customer is no easy task. If you have noticed that although you are continuously tweaking the sales pages, but you are still not getting sales, following these guidelines can help offer another way to effectively complete the transactions you’ve been waiting for.