The Buy Button

Some of Each

Last week, we started a series on marketing your books, albums or art which began with the biggest of what NOT to do. It is easy for someone to tell you all of the what not to do, but harder to nail down the things to do. Today, we are going to strike a balance.

There is an ocean of difference between slathering the Internet with your buy link and putting your link under the mouse of those who will click it.

Dedicated Buy Page

Buy Today!!

Hurry! Before they are all gone!

Once considered the penultimate in vanity, the dedicated buy page is precisely what it claims to be: a page on your blog or website with no other purpose than offering visitors either your buy link or a shopping cart.

With the exploitation of social media as a platform to potentially reach millions of shoppers, consumers have developed blinders. Savvy users of Twitter have learned the URL shortener’s codes and routinely scroll right past buy links. Before they decide to click, Facebook and Google+ users are reading the teasers, which give away your intent immediately, or better yet…your teasers should.

Teasers

The lead in to your buy page should be straightforward. Whether you choose a bullet list of sell points or a short paragraph about this particular work, the teaser should hook the shopper into becoming a buyer. Ironically, telling your shopper Buy my book! is not what you need to do.

  1. If they were not already interested in buying, they would not be on this page.
  2. Overkill.
  3. Shoppers are looking for validation.

Yes, it is about selling psychology. The shopper on your buy page is already interested. Validate that interest with selling points instead of the command to buy. This makes the decision completely the shopper’s and significantly reduces buyer’s remorse if your product turns out to not be precisely what the shopper had in mind.

Good examples for teasers are:

  • One line excerpt from a review
  • 15 word Convince statement
  • Up to 50 words of undisclosed description

With a line from a review, your buyers are not taking your word for why they should buy. They are instilled with confidence by someone who is already happy with your product.

Fifteen words equal one line of powerful text. This appeals to the conditioned shopper’s mind, which has been trained by advertisers to remember tag lines and jingles. The best slogans are 15 words or less.

Revealing a secret about your product which is not found anywhere else on the Internet makes the customer feel rewarded for having gone to your buy page. It shows you still have something to offer. Your product has the potential to be a treasure trove.

Top Links

Download Button

Get Your Copy!

Do not make your buy page a deep sea fishing expedition. Your link should not be at the bottom after flash displays, superfluous images and massive blocks of text. It should appear in the screen without scrolling. The more you stuff in the space between the URL and the buy button, the better your chances your shopper will become a bouncer.

KISS: Keep it simple, seller.

You have done your best marketing before your shopper ever got to the buy page. Do not regurgitate or summarize it all in your teaser.

More Than One

If you have more than one product, do place them all on the same page, where feasible. What is the difference?

Good: Thumbnails for each product
Bad: High resolution, large images

Good: Like items together
Bad: Hodge-podge of everything you have to offer

Good: Thumbnails linked to purchase
Bad: Thumbnail linked to information page

Good: Clickable caption for more information
Bad: Information on the buy page

Your buy page is a gallery of your products. Your buy page is not a catalog. If your products need more explanation, give them their own information pages elsewhere. Do not send your shopper to the information page before they get to the buy button. Why not?

What are you selling?

Ads are a way of life. They are the bread and butter of most online ventures, since they fund other projects as passive income.

NEWSFLASH: Your shopper knows the ads on your pages are making you money.

When you send a buyer to another page (or a few pages) before the buy button, you shopper knows what you are doing: generating page views to increase ad income.

If you have fallen prey to the experts who were interested in selling ads, you can correct this immediately by delivering what your shopper is looking to find: a direct path to the buy button.

Free! (With Your Purchase)

Is your front page your buy page? Wow! You have the most important product on the Internet. You are your own infomercial!

Shopping Bag

Is it crumpled plastic or fabulous chic?

When you buy something, you inevitably get something from the seller for which you did not specifically pay. Yes, you did. Your product came in a bag. Whether it was a plastic T-shirt bag or a luscious over-the-shoulder sling, you did not have to wrestle the product out of the store in your bare mitts.

Bags are useful after the purchase. What are you wrapping your product in to hand it to your customer? Yes, I do realize you are selling a digital product which will not be carried out of your store.

Your bag is the information on your home page and throughout your blog or website. Are you offering something useful? Does it lend credibility to your product? Or is it only flashy screaming ads to buy your product? Or is it more than 1,000 words which say nothing whatsoever to do with your product?

If your answers were yes, yes, no, no, you are on your way to converting shoppers to buyers and buyers into repeat customers. If your answers were not, you are insulting the intelligence of your shoppers: Some who will be just offended enough not to buy your product and some who will be offended enough to tell others not to buy your product.

Enough is as good as a feast.

What should come after the buy button?

Zero

Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Nothing is a good answer. If you are in the infancy or nearing the end of your product’s selling life, you do not want to clutter up the shopping experience with copy your shopper will not read. Text after the buy button is as useless as writing a Before you use this product warning on the back of the receipt. Once the buyer clicks the button, they are off of the page. Save the effort. Put the text on a page before the buy button.

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Why should you skip high resolution images on your buy page? What is the most memorable slogan you know and what is the product? Where do you think testimonials go?

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(c) Ann Marie Dwyer 2012
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31 Comments

  1. Madison Woods

     /  March 3, 2012

    Good information. I’m working on some collections of flash stories to bundle and sell, but the prospect of figuring out how to get paid for them is daunting. I haven’t researched the shopping cart programs yet. Do you have a favorite or write your own?

    Reply
    • I no longer write any code any longer. I am researching them at the moment. I will be talking about it soon, but I can email you if you like.

      Reply
      • Madison Woods

         /  March 3, 2012

        I’m not in a hurry to choose yet, still gathering the stories. I’m subscribed and get your blog in my email so I should see it when you post. Thanks, though and if you haven’t written about it yet by the time I’m ready I’ll nudge you to see where we are with it 😉

        Reply

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