There’s nothing worse than convincing a prospect to go through your sales copy, click through your funnel, choose your product, enter their billing info, then get to the check out page only to drop off…
Disappear…
Vanish into the ether.
There’s a secret top marketers and copywriters use to keep those abandoned carts and vanishing prospects to a minimum, and that’s what I’m going to reveal to you today…
They’ve Made An Investment Too
On the surface, this really is perplexing when you think about it.
If the prospect read your sales copy, watched your videos, attended your webinar, and then progressed through the funnel…
Bought your upsells, entered their billing info…
They’ve actually invested quite a bit of time and emotional energy to get to the Check Out page…
You’ve convinced them to get that far.
And they’ve convinced themselves that your offer is worth more than their stack of money.
But as they clicked on your offer, added your product to the cart, possibly adding a One-Time-Offer and an Upsell to the original offer…
Something happened…
Momentum was lost, and your potential client forgot why they ended up on the check out page.
They dropped off the map one short step away from buying.
The Sad Truth
Whether we’re talking about a sales letter or a sales funnel, getting a prospect to walk with us through the buying process is a delicate dance.
There’s a little bit of fear on their part.
They may have limiting beliefs you need to overcome.
It’s possible your funnel or copy (or both) wasn’t quite right… maybe it was too long… maybe the language was wrong…
There’s always the chance they became distracted and walked away before checking out–forgetting all the benefits your product will bring them by the time they returned to their computer.
In short…
They forgot why they wanted to buy from you.
The Secret
There is a way top marketers and copywriters rekindle the emotional fire, and jumpstart the momentum as the prospect nears the finish line.
This works for sales letters and for sales funnels…
In fact, the language will be similar for both, with some subtle differences.
So let’s not waste any time, and get into it.
Secret 1: Remind Them Why They Got There
The most powerful thing you can do when the prospect gets to the Check Out page is to remind them why they’re buying the product in the first place.
You want to restate the transformational benefits they’re going to receive buy purchasing your product.
Remember that the transformation is different than the product features.
One common way to think about it is, “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.”
You also want to remind them that the product is scarce, and that the special offer they’re receiving will disappear after your product campaign is over.
If you have bonuses, remind them of the bonuses they’re getting… and that not checking out now will forfeit the bonuses.
Essentially, you need to resell them on the product to maximize purchases, and reduce abandoned carts as much as possible.
You don’t need to recreate the sales letter–just take the highlights–but you need to rekindle their interest to give the sale enough momentum to cross the finish line.
But what if that isn’t enough?
What do you do about the people who still drop out of the sales process?
Secret 2: They Abandoned Their Cart… Make Sure You Don’t Abandon Them
Regardless of how good your copy is, you will still have abandoned carts.
Don’t do what most people do: don’t forget about these prospects.
Selling to people who don’t know you is virtually a lost cause.
The people who abandoned their cart know and like you well enough to get to the Check Out page of your funnel.
They know you.
Selling to them… or getting them to complete the sale they started… is infinitely easier than selling to a cold audience. (Click here for a discussion on how to warm up cold traffic.)
So what do you do?
Here are some tips for reaching out to the prospects who didn’t make it to the finish line:
- Email Campaign. Send them a series of emails restating the benefits of the product. Maybe give them a special offer or bonus to get them across the finish line.
- Direct Mail. If they got to the check out page, it’s likely you captured their address. Send a multi-step direct mail campaign to remind them of the unfinished order. Offer them a discount, bonus, or other offer to get them to buy.
- Text Messages. Not many businesses use this option, but if you had SMS messages as part of your opt-in, then use it to your advantage. Give them occasional reminders–with links–to get them back to the Check Out page.
Let’s face it: everybody buys at their own pace.
The best thing we can do is respect people’s “purchasing timeframe”, and keep giving them opportunities to finish the buying process… on their terms.
Maybe they wanted the product, but realized at the end that they really couldn’t come up with the money and needed time to figure it out…
Maybe something at work blew up, and they just didn’t have the time to finish…
There’s no way we can know, so it’s up to you to give the prospect every opportunity to realize the benefits your product will bring them.
Maybe The Offer Wasn’t Right
Another thing to consider is that this wasn’t the right offer.
Maybe you offered them a high-ticket coaching program, which your prospect loves, but just isn’t at the stage of development to need something that intense (and expensive).
So change it up.
Move them into a different sub-list, and send them an offer to a different product.
They may love you and want to buy from you, but the product they abandoned may not be right. Try sending them another one.
Another tip: ask them why they didn’t buy.
Send them an email with a survey… perhaps with a discount coupon attached to it to get them to respond (and buy something from you).
It never hurts to ask, and the information they provide could be incredibly valuable.
Conclusion
Sales is a delicate dance, and the choreography is even more difficult when you’re selling online instead of in-person… everything needs to be just right in order for a sale to happen.
Assuming that when a prospect gets to the Check Out page they’ll only need to see a list of what they’re buying is a mistake.
Instead, you need to:
- Remind them of the transformational benefits they’ll receive by completing the check out process.
- Review the amazing bonuses that are only available to those who buy during the current product campaign.
- Follow up with people who abandon their carts… give them a chance to buy on their own timeframe.
Using these secrets from top online marketers and copywriters will ensure you capture every possible sale… and this can be the difference in creating a winning sales funnel.
