Why Customers Won’t Buy (Despite Getting To Your Product Page)

Imagine you own a toy-truck company.
And on your toy-truck website you sell red trucks.
And blue trucks.
And green trucks.
And yellow trucks.
And mauvish-orange trucks (ok, so I'm running out of primary colours)

Which means you've pretty much got a Products Page with loads of trucks.

So logically, or so you think, the customer will head to your website, and buy your products, because hey, the customer wants a truck.

If only it were this easy to sell products online…

First, it's pretty darned impossible to sell anything off your website unless you have a list of sorts. Yes, I know that Amazon and Apple don't have a list, but they aren't just some website sitting out there.

The reason why customer head to these websites, is because the biggie-companies get bucketloads of PR and do tons of advertising.

But let's just suppose you do have a list…

And let's suppose you do (through email or your blog or some other media) drive customers to that ‘product page', where you're selling a fair bit of product.

So why does the customer get to the product page and not buy?

Hmmm…this requires a detailed answer. And if you stick with me, you'll see just why your customer won't buy, despite being on the product page.

The first issue is distraction.

Your customer gets to the page. She sees red trucks, blue trucks, and green trucks. And all the different coloured trucks she'd so like to have.

She goes up. Down. Sideways. And then runs out of time. And vrooom, she's outta there.

You see what you've just done?

You've confused the customer. Distracted her. Instead you should have clearly followed a sequence.

So what does the sequence look like? And what are the components of the sequence?

1) The promotion in your newsletter/blog
2) The structured testimonial
3) The importance of focusing on just ‘one truck'
4) The importance of urgency and bonuses.

So let's head off to the first step

Step 1: The promotion in your newsletter/blog

Let's say you insert a promo in your sales letter–for just one or a maximum of two products. So the promotion is for the ‘red truck' (and possibly another product).

The client sees the link and click to the specific product.

Now here's where it all turns to custard.

You cannot, cannot, cannot send them to a product page. You can't send the client to a ‘truck page.' You have to send the client solely to the ‘red truck' page–with complete details about just the ‘red truck.' So your page contains information about the ‘red truck', frequently asked questions about the ‘red truck', testimonials, yada, yada, yada.

And this promotion can be (as I said) in your newsletter, blog or even in Google ad words.

In fact this ‘red truck' factor is how Google ad words works best too

If you're looking for a red truck,and you type in ‘red+truck' in Google, it will pop up all instances of ‘red truck'.

And if you look at the organic Google search on your left, you may expect some sort of dumbness on the part of the website owner.. The dumbness being, that the page may not end up on a ‘red truck' page, but may end up instead on a site that has trucks, and other stuff.

But when you click on the Google ad, you're not exactly in a charitable mood.

That link on the ad needs to vamoose you right to the ‘red truck page', not the ‘blue truck page', or the ‘green truck page.' Of course, the worst thing you can do is to take the customer to the ‘all trucks' page. Darn, now you've completely confounded the poor girl. She's going to be all distracted with all those truckies, and instead of buying the ‘red truck', she's in la-la truck land.

Wouldn't the ‘all truck page' give the customer a choice, though?

Wouldn't that cause the customer to buy what he wants? The customer has told you what she wants, by clicking on a specific link. You offered him a ‘red truck'.

He responded (to the exclusion of all other distractions) to your ‘red truck.' Now by taking her to the ‘All Trucks' page, you've distracted her. And in doing so, taken a huge risk of losing the sale–and believe me, you're more likely to lose it, than gain it.

Which brings us to Step 2.

Step 2:The power of structured testimonials

You may think it's all very fine to have a promotion, and nothing else, but hey, if you really want a superior response, you need to have a testimonial. And not just any ol' testimonial, but a structured testimonial (refer to the Brain Audit on Page 65)

Now if you don't have an awesome testimonial, at least have a testimonial.

You may not be able to insert a testimonial in a Google Adwords, but in most other instances, you will indeed be able to put in a testimonial. So do the smart thing.
Put in the testimonial.

Ok, rolling on to Step 3

Step 3: The importance of focusing on the ‘red truck

When the customer gets to the specific ‘red truck' page, talk only about the red truck.

Put in only stuff that's related to the red truck.
Testimonials.
Details.
Pricing.
Yes-Yes Offer
And all the ingredients that give the customer a Full Story.

Don't get tempted to show the customer links to blue trucks. Or vermillion trucks. They're there for the ‘red truck.' Let them buy the ‘red truck.'

4) Urgency and bonuses increase the response

Give bonuses. And make the bonuses applicable to the ‘red truck'.

Load the bonuses up as high as you can, to make the ‘red truck' offer really useful for the customer. Now these bonuses could be: Red Truck Club Membership; Red Truck Jacket; Red Truck whatever. These bonuses need to really add up, so that the client sees; “Yup, I'm-uh-getting-a-good-deal-here-baybeh”

Note: The bonuses don't have to cost you a fortune. They just need to be valuable to the customer. So the Membership may not cost you a lot, but is of great value to the customer.

And urgency counts. Now urgency can't be done every day, or it loses its meaning. So urgency needs to be done on a periodic basis. And as rarely as possible. Your customer is indeed watching.

And if they see you having these weekly sales, they're going to realise there's zero-urgency after all. So if you're going to have urgency by giving the customer a special bonus (not available otherwise), then make the darned thing count. Keep the urgency rare. Make it urgent. When we have an urgency notice, we restrict it to three days.

That's it. No exceptions.

Which brings us full circle…to a summary of sorts

1) The promotion in your newsletter/blog.
2) The structured testimonial.
3) Keep the customer on the ‘Red Truck' Page (without distractions)
4) Urgency and bonuses increase the response factor (and consequently sales)

So do we simply get rid of the Product Page with all the ‘trucks?'

Hey, no one is saying you need to remove your product page. There's always the window-shopper who will indeed buy. So there's no need to trash your product page quite yet. Or ever.

Red trucks.
Blue trucks.
Green trucks.
Who knew a bunch of trucks could cause so much confusion, eh?