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Once people realise what I do and have done for other people the next question is ‘what is the most important thing I should do for my site?’  People always want the magic bullet that is going to transform their site from ‘zero to hero’ in one easy step.

I hear this question from the start-ups I work with and encounter rather than the large successful mail order companies that we work with.  The successful mail order companies know they have the ‘secret sauce’ becuase if their brochure is converting then their website will  (it is just a case of ramping it up on-line).

However for those of you who are in the beginning of your e-commerce experience and are still looking for that secret sauce, then this post is for you.

Firstly mistake number one is not believing you have to incentivise people to buy.  When I first started out in ecommerce my first site did not have marketing, offers, promotions or anything to draw people in.  I thought then that my target customer would find it obtuse and refuse to buy from me.  A newbie mistake!

You need offers and incentives as with a new site and new brand you have to get the ball rolling somehow.  Think of a big steam engine that is really hard to start but once going drive itself with its momentum.  This is how an ecommerce site is at first.  You have to create the best offers you can to draw people in to start building your customer base.  Once you have offers that convert then you can roll this out to Pay Per Click and email marketing.

So what offers should you do?  You need irresistible offers that are a no brainer for the customer to get them on board.  You may have to sales close to the wind in terms of margin but if you have you ‘back end’ worked out then this will pay off.

I want to write about your ‘back end’ products later on in another post, but to avoid confusion this is the products you sell to customers once they have made their first purchase.  Without a backend most businesses are pretty much dead in the water so this is a case in point.

To create an irresistable offer you should consider these items

• Scarcity – the offer should have some form of scarcity, in that it looks to the prospect that not everyone can get this offer and there is genuine limited amounts of people who can grab this.
• Time dependant – your offers must run out at a specific time to make the prospect feel they are going to miss out.
• Social proof – you must back your offer up with some social proof that people like to buy what you are offering, testimonials with pictures are the best and try to be as specific as possible.
• Niche it – make your offer available to a specific set of people.  For example to students or to mothers etc.  Doing this will make them feel that they are getting a really good deal.

If you still feel horrified at pushing offers to your customers, then you will probably fail at what you are trying to achieve.  Clear your mental block and succeed!

What offers have worked for you, what did’nt work?  Please post your responses as a comment on this blog.