21 Ways to Increase Profits
Here’s a collection of 21 ways you can increase the profits of your online business. I’m not doing a big discussion on each. Basically I just wanted to give you a “checklist” of items you could use to help improve your online profits.
DON’T try all these at once, or you’ll drive yourself crazy. Simply apply one or two at a time. Then refer back to this post for more ways to add profits to your business.
1. Add an Upsell.
Depending on your shopping cart system, you can add an upsell right at the point of purchase OR right after purchase. The best time to make the next sale to a customer is while they still have their credit card out or the Paypal password handy. They’re in a buying mood. Sell more to them.
2. Add a Deluxe Version.
Let’s say you sell a basic information course. You can add a deluxe version of the course which not only includes the information for example, but it also includes the templates to make it happen. If you’re selling the basic version for $200, you might offer the deluxe version for $300.
3. Increase testimonials.
As more testimonials come in for your product or service, add those to your sales pages. These can be text, audio, or video testimonials. As long as the testimonials are focused on the subject and concise, they will almost always improve your sales.
4. Write more follow-up emails.
Add more follow-up emails to your autoresponder sequence. Clients often ask me how many autoresponders should they have. The answer is as many as you can produce. I have a client now who has close to 2 years worth of autoresponder follow-ups in some of his series.
5. Contact your customers off the Internet.
Email is our core follow-up method, but it shouldn’t be the only method we use to contact paying customers. I use a print newsletter to my Monthly Mentor Club subscribers. Another great strategy is to send a postcard mailing to all your paid customers for your newest product launch or a special on one of your high ticket items.
6. Create services exclusively for your hyperresponsives.
Glenn Livingston teaches that 1 out of every 2,000 visitors actually produces 50% of your business profits. Staggering when you think about it. What if you started focusing on these select customers and selling high ticket products and services specifically for them? Maybe only 1 in 2,000 visitors would buy your $10,000 service, but those that do are your hyperresponsive customers creating the majority of your net profits.
7. Add payment options.
The average customer doesn’t think in terms of overall fees as much as they do the “easy monthly payments.” By offering your product in 2, 3, or 12 payments you can greatly reduce the price resistance they feel toward your offer.
8. Hook on a continuity program.
Add a continuity program to your offer. Just don’t keep it a secret. There is a different between forced continuity and hidden continuity. In addition, you can easily make the continuity an upsell portion of the offer.
9. Specialize to a niche.
If you can’t dominate your niche, then specialize until you can. Perry Marshall is one of the best examples of this as he became the Google Adwords guru. While he knows a lot of other subjects, that is the specialization we all know him for. Being a specialist allows you to raise your prices and generate more referrals.
10. Raise your prices.
I’ve done this for more than a decade and I still find pricing to be mysterious at times. I’ve had experiences where I doubled the price of a product and instantly more sales were generated. Other times an increase in prices decreased sales. I will mention this though from all my pricing experiences. When it comes to some type of service, I prefer to be on the higher side (not the most expensive) as the lower priced services make you seem cheap (and you’re limited in how many clients you can handle anyway).
11. Run a teleconference/webinar/live event.
Blogging and Twitter are all the rage, but the relationships built through them are limited. To increase your relationship level with your customers add on live events or teleconferences. Make it a special event where they can deal with your directly and ask you questions.
12. Allow JV Partners to Give Your Product Away Free
Obviously you can’t do this if you’re only planning one product for the market, but you’re not limiting yourself to that, are you? Offer one of your low cost products as a freebie gift to go with JV partner’s offers in your market. They’ll expose you to their audience, generating more customers for you, in exchange for the value you provide to their buyers.
13. Mix in more content/value into the sales process.
Give first and prove your worth. How much value does someone get out of your emails, your blog posts, and your teleconferences even if they don’t buy? If you improve their lives and help them succeed BEFORE they are customers, they feel a debt of gratitude…jumping on the paid offers you make.
14. Create an operations manual.
Create a list of activities you’re required to accomplish in your business to be successful. Create simple systems to follow for each. Now you have the tool to both keep you on track and to train your team members to do the work for you. Of course, don’t try to do everything at once. Slowly create your lists and your systems. Build a growing business that doesn’t rely on you.
15. Survey your audience quarterly.
Survey your audience. This could be a formal online survey or it could be as simple as asking them questions on your blog or over Twitter. Find out what needs and wants they have. The BEST WAY to make money online is find out what people want to buy, and then sell it to them.
16. Add multimedia.
Some people prefer written text. Others prefer audio. Still others like video to show them what to do. Give your audience what they’re looking for. I’ve found a well scripted video often improves conversion on your sales pages…and it definitely adds a more personal feel to your other sites.
17. Do interviews.
One of the best ways to begin a JV relationship is through doing an interview. I’ve also found them to be a great source of new subscribers and sales. If someone has an audience who may be interested in what I offer, I generally say yes to their interviews (as long as we can schedule them conveniently).
18. Test Everything
What should you test first? The biggest changes I’ve seen occur in offers, headlines, photos, intro paragraphs, and guarantee. The headline is the area where I do the most testing because you’re going to see a big change from one headline to another. If you’re not testing headlines, you’re leaving money on the table.
19. Add thank you page sales.
The thank you page is one of the best places to run a “catalog” style of related offerings…other products and services you have related to this item. I find the same is true on product inserts such as the inserts I put in my DVDs. I’ll put together 4 or 5 of my related products (or affiliate products) on these inserts with sales coming in through them.
20. Discipline yourself.
This is hard to do at times. I find I do best when I have a routine writing time. At such and such a time, you sit down and write. When I let myself get out of that schedule it’s so much harder to get the writing done. Pick some of the most important elements of your business and do them religiously every working day. Don’t let yourself get out of the routine.
21. Mastermind Group
It’s lonely if you try to go it alone. Some of the best ideas will come when you’re brainstorming with others in your field (or outside your field). In fact I find some of the best coaching sessions I have are when a client simply wants to bounce ideas back and forth to find the right solution for them (instead of just asking for advice). Get outside help!
Related Entries:- 5 Ways to Increase Your Average Income Per Sale
- 4 Income Streams in Every Business
- 35 Ways to Increase Web Profits
- 5 Ways to Boost Profits Today
- 25 Ways to Increase Conversion
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6 Responses to “21 Ways to Increase Profits”
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Terry,
As always – terrific advice.
Question: Have you tested upselling vs. downselling?
I work with lots of small independently owned companies – primarily in the retail sector (and a specific niche within that sector). I read with interest all the discussion in the Internet marketing realm about the upsell, but I hardly ever hear about the downsell. We advise our clients that the push to higher price points is more likely when you establish credible expensive price points. In other words, the $45,000 Lexus doesn’t appear nearly as expensive after you’ve just looked at a $90,000 Mercedes. And the $60,000 BMW seems all the more attractive when compared to the Lexus and the Mercedes. (It’s not a great comparison since you’ll not likely be able to shop at a single place for all 3, but you get the idea).
I’m just curious, from an Internet marketing perspective, how different the upsell strategy is compared to that downsell approach.
FYI, I am a customer of yours. Primarily, because you appear to have high integrity and character. For that reason I was attracted to learn from you. I’m not an Internet marketer (in the traditional sense of providing know-how in how to make money on the Internet), but I’m a student of marketing and have spent the past 3 years looking at the people who most dominate that area. You and a select few others strike me as head and shoulders above the others when it comes to integrity. I appreciate that in you. Sorry for the long comment. Won’t happen again!
Terry –
This is a terrific list, especially as I particularly want to work on optimizing my thank you pages and this blog post just gave me a reminder jolt.
Phyllis
Hey this is a great list! I met you at the ISS conference in 2007. I learned a lot from you then and have been subscribing to your list ever since.
Jackie Tulos
twitter.com/jackietulos
Great list for an emarketing guy to follow.
Hi Terry…
YET ANOTHER great post! This one’s a real keeper! Thanks!
I had a suggestion for you (kinda unrelated to this thread though).
It’s a subtle distinction — has to do with the words used, and the mindset behind the use of certain words. In this case it’s about the difference between “MAKING” money and “EARNING” money.
As I see it, an entrepreneur “makes” money (more or less “creates” money (profits)). A self-employed person “earns” money (by trading hours for dollars).
I noticed your report is titled… 10 Key Strategies for Any Business Owner to Earn More, Work Less, and Enjoy Life!
Maybe it would reflect the proper mindset a little more if it wasn’t “EARN More” but instead, if it said, “MAKE More Money.”
Just an idea.
Cheers!
– TW
Randy: The downsell can be quite effective. I’ve worked with a few clients and friends who have used it very effectively. Often what they do is put together an “ultimate” type of package. For example, maybe they include everything and the kitchen sink in a consulting type deal for $10,000. Then they offer their limited version (the one they would prefer to sell more of) for $1,500. The $1,500 version now seems like so much more of a bargain (they’d be glad if someone took them up on the $10,000 deal in that case, but it isn’t their target).
So yes, the downsell can be effectively used online as well. Online selling is very close to offline selling in strategies, we just deal with larger audiences at once.
TW: I personally want to keep the difference between the “making money” like many business opportunity people talk about and earning money which I see as trading value for the money. My goal in business is always to create and provide value in exchange for the money. So even if I’m not personally doing the work, I’m still earning it by the value created. And I see it as a little of a difference between anyone that is promoting ‘get rich quick’ which I hate. They always use the term “making money.” Again it’s a minor distinction, and this one ha more to do with my own viewpoint.