5 ways to get more people to buy more stuff

Do you want to get more people to buy more stuff?

I’m talking about your blog visitors, primarily.

But this also applies to your email subscribers, social media audience… anybody that you’re selling stuff online to.

Whatever your online business is, your ultimate goal is to get increased purchases.

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And whoever you’re selling things to, your baseline strategy is to get more people to buy more stuff.

Am I right?

So how can you get people to increase their purchases?

I am going to show you 5 of the top, tried and true methods.

1 – Discounts

The most obvious way to get more people to buy more stuff is to offer a discount.

If the product or service is your own, then all you need to do is drop the price.

You can do it permanently.

So if you have a membership site where people have to pay $27 a month, you can announce that you’re dropping the price to $19 a month.

Or you can do a special discount.

Let’s say your $27 a month membership fee is being cut in half for the next 7 days only.

Now, the problem is that if you already have people paying $27 a month, they won’t be too happy to learn that new members are paying less.

So you’d have to compensate them in some way to make them feel like they’re not getting a bad deal.

You’d probably need, in this case, to reduce their monthly subscription fee to the new $19 price.

Or, you might offer them a great deal if they pay the next 12 months in advance.

So, if they’re paying $27 a month, that totals to $324 a year.

How about offering them an entire year, paid in advance, for $199 a year.

That’s a great deal for them.

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But, it could probably be pretty good for you, too, if you find most people are canceling their memberships in 3 or 4 months.

This way, you’d actually make more money, plus, keep people from canceling their memberships for at least a year.

Affiliate discounts

Now, if you’re promoting affiliate products, you don’t have so much opportunity to offer discounts.

In that case, you have to watch closely for special deals that the vendor is offering, and immediately let your readers and subscribers know they can cash in on a nice discount if they act quickly.

Many vendors will also be open to making a special deal with you.

If you promise to do a special blog post, or video or webinar… they could offer a special discount for your followers only.

In this case, they’d give you a special affiliate link with special pricing.

But it would be a private deal just for your audience.

It’s a great way to get more people to buy from your affiliate link.

2 – Scarcity

Another way to increase sales is to use some kind of scarcity alert.

A scarcity alert could be in the form of a countdown timer.

That’s the little timer snippet you often see on sales pages that tell you that when the timer goes down to zero, the special offer ends.

So, for instance, a page editing software might cost $295 normally, but for the next 48 hours you could buy it for only $97.

You would then see a countdown timer that counts down the 48 hours until it hits zero.

After that time, the special deal goes away and you’d have to pay the regular price of $295.

Of course, you don’t need an actual timer to use this scarcity method.

You can learn how to use Marketing With Scarcity techniques from Yaro Starak.

You can simply say that as of a certain date, the price goes up.

That should be sufficient to get more people to buy whatever you’re promoting.

Dime sales

Dime sales work on the same principle.

Many vendors use them to get people to act immediately, rather than putting it off.

When buyers feel like they can casually make their decision any time they want, they tend to never get around to it.

A dime sale tells people that every time somebody buys the product, the price goes up a little.

So if someone is interested in buying it, they are much more likely to buy it “now” instead of later.

Nobody wants to pay more tomorrow, so they have a clear incentive to buy it today.

3 – Flash sales

Another way to get more people to buy more stuff is to offer quick, unexpected discounts.

A flash sale works really nicely with your email list.

Let’s say you have a coaching program that costs $297 for 30 days.

You promote this all the time to your email list.

Over and over again they see the offer.

They might be interested, but they procrastinate because it’s a bit pricey for them.

Then one day, they get an email with this subject heading: “50% off for my coaching program – ONLY for the next hour.”

Or, a variation might be: “50% off of my coaching program for the next 10 people who sign up.”

Find out 25 Ways to Increase Online Sales on WordStream.

So you see, a flash sale is really a kind of scarcity sale.

You’re telling people they can get a special discount, but if they wait, they’re going to miss out.

I don’t mean to suggest that this only works with your email list.

It’s great, too, for social media posts or even blog posts.

For blog posts, it’s especially effective if it appears as a popup or exit ad.

4 – Free trials

Consumers always love the word “free.”

If they’re interested in something you’re selling, but have some misgivings about it, a “free trial” can help them get off the fence.

It’s actually a 2-step sale.

That means, the first step is free and has a very low threshold of risk.

To accept a free trial, you spend nothing and you can cancel when the trial period is over.

So you get to try it out, see how it works for you, and then make a purchasing decision.

So, it’s a really powerful way to get more people to buy more stuff.

The Mini-Commitment

You see, a lot of people are hesitant to see an offer and make a purchase all in one step.

That’s a direct or 1-step sale process.

But many more people prefer to sign on for a free trial before purchasing.

So even though not everyone will end up buying, a lot more will.

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By the time they get to step-2 in the sales process, two things will have happened.

First, they will have had time to actually start using the product.

Second, they have made a mini-commitment to purchasing by signing up for the free trial first.

That means, they feel like they really SHOULD buy it at the end of the trial period because…

1 – They’ve already been using the product or service
2 – They feel like they owe it you to make a purchase, since you gave them a free look at it

Now, these things are not necessarily conscious rationalizations, but they are often built into the buyer’s psyche.

Offer a “test drive”

A free trial is like when you “test drive” a new car.

Lisa Sicard has compiled a quick Beginner’s Guide To Selling Merchandise On Your Blog at InspireToThrive.

You wouldn’t just buy it by looking at it, or because the salesperson told you to.

But by jumping in and test driving it (step-1), you’ve made a mini-commitment to yourself and to the salesperson.

You may not buy the car when the time comes (step-2), but you’re far more likely to if you test drove it first.

Test drives, like free trials, really help to get more people to buy more stuff… cars, services or anything that you’re selling.

5 – Bonuses

Bonuses are what you could call “ethical bribes.”

In essence, you’re telling people they’ll get a reward for making a purchase.

It’s called a bonus.

And nothing will get more people to buy more stuff than a good bonus.

Let’s say you are selling an ebook showing people how to create a squeeze page.

Well, if you offer 3 free, done-for-you squeeze pages to anyone purchasing your ebook, that’s a bonus.

A bonus can be just about anything, including coaching or some other service.

The beauty about bonuses is that they can really get more people to buy your product if they are high quality.

Bonus quality

You can offer a low quality bonus, like a one-page list of resources, or a poorly written, out of date ebook.

And many online marketers do, because they figure it’s free, so the quality doesn’t matter much.

There are two problems with that.

People may not buy your product if the bonus looks like junk.

Or, they will be disappointed with the bonus, especially if it’s the main reason they purchased your product.

And it often is.

Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll request a refund.

But it probably does mean that they’ll never buy anything from you again.

If you’re trying to build an honest, long term business, make your bonuses very high quality.

Market your bonus

Don’t just offer your bonuses.

Market them.

In other words, make sure people know how exciting your bonus is.

Don’t tuck it away in small print on your sales page.

Put it big, bold in the center, with video demos, testimonials to the bonus and all that good marketing stuff.

Then promote it.

Instead of telling people to buy some great product in a social media post, try letting them know about your great free bonus.

When they’re hooked on how good the bonus is, then tell them what they need to buy to get it.

Chances are, when you’ve really sold your bonus, people don’t even hardly care what the front end product is.

You’ll get more people to buy it just to get the free bonus.

5 ways to get more people to buy more stuff

Now don’t think that getting people to buy more stuff is a trick or a gimmick.

There certainly are ways to convince people to buy from you, and I’ve laid out 5 of the best ways above.

I can help you make your blog profitable… see how!

But at the end of the day, what you are trying to get them to buy had better be as good… preferably even better… than they expect.

A sales pitch is only a trick or a gimmick if it’s offering people something that will not help solve their real problems.

But if it convinces them to buy something that truly will improve their lives, then it’s your job to make that pitch as artfully and consistently as possible.

So now, I’d like to hear from you.

Please leave me a comment below.

Tell me if you’ve had trouble getting people to stop straddling the fence when it comes to making purchases.

Have you had success getting them to hire you to perform your services?

What methods have you tried to move people into the buyer’s column?

Which of the methods I’ve discussed here do you think are most likely to get more people to buy more stuff?

-Donna

PS: Don’t forget to share this article on your favorite social sites. Much thanks 🙂

• Bio
• Blogging Magic

Donna Merrill

Donna is a well known blogger and creator of "Blogging Magic" - an intensive guide to blogging. "Blogging Magic" is for beginners who are trying to figure out how to bring their blogs to life with tons of visits, comments and social media interaction. It's even for advanced bloggers looking to reach new levels of authority and engagement with their audience.