If you are serious about selling anything online, I encourage you to read Lauren Carlson of Software Advice‘s post What Buyers Want.
This one post covers these critical topics:
- Pricing
- Using Industry Jargon
- Making your demos easier to access
- Third party validation (testimonials, reviews)
- User Testing
Remember my advice in my post on why bloggers should have a hire me tab to break down your services and include the prices? That goes double for business sites that sell products or services.
In the recent Software Advice survey,when asked, “What content to buyers find most useful when researching a product” pricing information was #1.
Buyers visiting your Web site want price above all else.
Software sites – especially enterprise software sites – almost never reveal the prices or even hint at who their target audience is. Analytics companies often make the same mistake. If what you sell is enterprise level only, it just makes sense to let small businesses and individuals know that so they aren’t wasting their time or yours.
“Most vendors hide their pricing behind a landing page or make you call to get a price quote. If pricing is the number one piece of information that potential buyers are looking for on your site, wouldn’t it make sense to, you know, put it on your site?”
“I want to know the cost of the software. This way I can quickly determine what software I should even investigate. For instance, I do not want to investigate a $3,000 piece of software if I am only wanting to spend $300.”
Since the enterprise folks can’t even define enterprise it is no wonder they can’t write clear copy. While that site tries to make anything businesses use ‘enterprise software’, the size of businesses they are actually targeting are usually Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, HP, EDS, major banks, etc. You get the picture. Their target audience is NOT a Mom and Pop shop or blogger.
Although this survey was done about buying software,
the results apply no matter what you sell.
It simply makes no sense to withhold the information that your buyers came to your site to research and most want to find. I encourage you to read the entire post because the advice they provide on how to structure a business Web site is excellent.
Understand and apply their tips
Your site will convert much better.
The Internet is PERFECT for giving every kind of person exactly what they want because you can offer only the highest level, concise information. The masses hate to read! (Unlike most of us bloggers.) See these stats:
- 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school
- 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
- 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
What that means for Web designers is that the main pages should have very limited text on them and LINK to additional information. Doing that gives the masses who will not read the bare minimum and allows the people like me who want to know everything before they buy to easily find more detail.
AVOID COMMON COPYWRITING MISTAKES:
Few realize how many businesses ASSUME (and you know what that breaks down to) their potential customers use their industry jargon. BIG MISTAKE. Many of your potential buyers have no idea what your industry has named products or services. If you want to reach more people you have to include what THEY call what you do.
Definitely read the tips in that article on how NOT to write your product descriptions. Then go beyond that and ASK people who contact you what they actually searched on. Ask THEM what they think you do. Brainstorm keywords and research them.
Writing in corporate-speak instead of real information was my number one pet peeve when I worked for IBM. The copywriters responsible for what appears on many corporate sites should be ashamed of themselves for focusing on impressive sounding double-speak full of twenty dollar words that mean nothing. Perhaps they would be better off in politics.
What do YOU think? Do you have any tips that aren’t covered in that copywriting tips article?
Gail Gardner
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Showing the price is great advice but I’m not sure if it would work for me.
I do affiliate marketing and I just want them to click on the link.
If they need to click the link to find out the price then that might get them to click.
I’m afraid if I give them the price immediately they might not click the link and go to the seller directly. If they click on my link at least they will have a cookie for 24hours.
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Hi Danny,
Affiliate marketing is different in that if your prime objective is sending visitors to the merchant’s site you are pre-selling, the price needs to be on THEIR site rather than yours. In that case you don’t necessarily need the price on your own site – they just need to be able to get to it.
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Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
Of course it does help if you do comparisons on your site.
I see a lot of people buy something totally different then what the link was pointing to. So just getting that click is really important, no matter why they click.
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This is one of the sensible post about what customers want. If you are seller or a service provider then first you need to know about what your customers want and you are able to give them best deal or not. It is the fact customer always think about pricing first after they consider other things.
It is very important to give very clear information and instructions. I completely agree that users hate to read, so one needs to keep texts on a bare minimum and always have to highlight what’s most important.
Price is also important – and real price – not some appealing nice sum that by the time of the buying doubles or triples up because of fees and extras and all that. Even a larger sum gives a better experience if it’s real.
I understand that a potential customer wants to know the price. I’ve been known to scan a salespage and after not finding it after about 10 seconds I just left. There is something to be said for your company having the ability to frame the price in the potential buyer’s mind though. The balance of which to focus on more can shift from one end of the spectrum to the other depending on how high of ticket items you’re selling.
Hi, I’m agree with you. I hate when I cannot see price of products or services, in special when I have to click “add to cart” button to know prices. Marketers need to build informative pages, and include prices all the time.
There are some cases in which buyers will visit your site to see the other services a website offers. Ask, how can they approach or contact you or know other clients’ reviews?
Yes! I agree with that because knowing price first before buying the products is what the customers want to know. It is good to consider that the customers are very particular with the price of offered products. It has a good advantage for the buyers the fact that negotiation is happened if the price is not convincing with them.
If the marketer can think as the customer, then he will be able to understand what the customer wants. It really difficult to sell a product that the buyer actually doesn’t need and it is not effective as well. And your points are clear and they are really valuable.
[Note to Anjana: I approved this comment so I could let you know that I do not approve links to adult content or bad neighborhoods which includes any site related to gambling.]
An easy to see price and a big button saying something like “buy now” or “click to add to cart” are always a good idea.
It’s sad really that so few have been in a bookstore in the last 5 years. The Borders chain is now going out of business, so that won’t help matters either.
Yep, there are three main factors…..price, price and price.
It’s easy for me to understand how frustrating it is to land on a web site for the exact type of product to fill your needs and see there is no price listed. Withholding that type of information where it should be in the first place and making visitors jump from page to page until they can find the price makes you appear suspicious and you lose customers, I think! I always try to be up front in my descriptions and pricing because I place myself in the consumer’s shoes.
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That is of much interest to me and anyway it is the price who has to be born by the purchaser and therefore an idea of the price or if there is a chance of negotiation, a fair range seems to be the possible answer.
Hiring a Reviewer is a good idea for online products.
Honestly, I’m one of those who are not fun of reading books..
I learned reading through blogs.. LOL
Its true, withholding information on price do not give a good impression but on the other hand its also true that competitors may take advantage of this information which may cause harm to the business. We’re talking about transparency in higher levels which is quite hard to witness.
I understand that price should be indicated online, but I have some kind of psychological barrier not to write. You know I think that the competitors shouldn’t see the price which can vary depending on the order and desires of the customers
Pricing is a very important aspect of an online business, and having it readily available – not hard to locate – within a website is important. I personally don’t like to have to contact a company about price unless I seek a very customized product. In this case, however, an estimate price helps me determine if I want to proceed with my order with said company.
I agree not offering prices is the worst. It’s understandable if a company offers many services where pricing could change depending on what items the customer wishes to add, but basic prices should still be given so the customer at least has a general idea. I have never once ‘called for a price’. If it’s not on their website, I move on to another.
I absolutely agree that price must not be at the first page. Potential buyers might not continue reading about the product if they see they couldn’t afford the price.
I dunno who thought this was new news, but it’s right either way. I for one can’t stand having to click through to the paypal page to see the cost.
The salesman example is Sales101 – A B C – Always Be Closing. 😉
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Hi Dennis,
Many companies still insist on making you contact them personally or allow them to phone you before they will give you any idea what the price is. That is VERY common on sites that sell software or upscale computer solutions of any kind.
I once encouraged an enterprise software solutions company to at least reveal on their site who their target audience was (Fortune 500 companies) or to better target their pay per click ad spend to that target audience. They refused both ideas.
I truly don’t understand why. Mentioning that you sell something suitable for large corporations only makes sense to me but apparently they think it would discourage potential buyers. I have no idea how.
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Yes, over a certain price point, usually 4-5 figures it is expected…these idiots hiding their $27-$94 tags is ridiculous.
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It is also important to give them easy access to a road that leads them to the next step towards their purchase. Imagine you travel in a crowded city without street signs, you will get easily upset if you are not finding your target destination soon. This is what happens when users visit your website.
Hi Andreas,
That a business site should have a sales funnel is definitely true. Perhaps I’ll have another guest post about that aspect of Web design in the future.
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The problem with having an up front, on-your-face display of price in the first page is that price becomes the focal point. This reduces the scope of branding and also gives competition a leg up on what is happening.
Hi Amanda,
Price doesn’t need to be on the first page, but IMHO it does need to be on the site in a logical place. I NEVER advise competing on price; however, it IS necessary to provide sufficient information so that potential buyers can determine if your solution is in their price range.
One of two things will happen when there are no clues to what something costs:
1) Potential buyers will assume if they have to ask they can’t afford it and never even inquire
2) Both buyer and seller will waste much time dealing with inquiries from the wrong potential clients.
People like me live in a different world than traditional businesses. We believe in Fair Trade so that both buyer and seller benefit.
Traditional business worships squeezing everyone else for maximum profits. They write books about people like Sam Walton whose Wal-Mart has done more to destroy the U.S. economy than many other corporations combined.
The only explanation for why people are still shopping at Wal-Mart given Wal-Mart’s unfair practices is personal greed. Selfish people want their bling and to pay less than reasonable prices for more junk they don’t need (and soon food they can not afford – the end result of the wide path many covet).
I elaborate more on why sharing your prices makes more sales in my post on How to Get More Freelance Work. Most people need simple yes/no choices and that post explains why and how to get them to decide.
Car salesman don’t ask “which car do you want?”; they ask “do you want the red one or the blue one?” because most people today are incapable of making complex decisions for reasons too myriad to go into here.
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