Boost Your Online Sales with Audio and Video Support

Have you ever noticed when you are shopping at most any retail store there is background music being played and if you need help understanding how a product works or need aid in purchasing the correct equipment there is always a person near by to help you?

This is what your ecommerce or online sales website needs to achieve that comfortable atmosphere where visitors to your online store will enjoy shopping. When you make your store online comfortable with audio or video your customers are apt to stay longer on your website and that means a better chance of a sale.

Using audio in the form of quiet listening music will aid in keeping your customers online and enjoying shopping at your ecommerce store. They will feel comfortable and at ease which will allow them to browse your store and buy.

Another way in which audio on your website can aid in getting you more sales is when you can personally talk about a certain product and how it works, what it does, and just how the item can make their life easier. You will then be transforming your website into the feel of a retail store, with salesmen that offer their help to customers. Your customers will appreciate this extra feature and will also be able to learn about the products through listening instead of just seeing a product on a page.

Go the next step, add a video of how to use the product, how to install, or construct the product and show the many uses on the video of what the product can do for your customers. Now, you not only have a salesperson explaining the product, but you also have a technician showing how to use the product.

People are more apt to purchase products if they can tell that your website has real people behind the pages. Using audio and video will give your website that extra touch and your trustworthiness will go up as well. You will be providing your customers with a nice setting for shopping, a salesperson that can aid them with their purchase and a technician that guide them through the installation process.

Getting started with video editing is very simple.

The basic items you need are a video capture card, video capture software, the software to edit, your computer, storage space on your computer and a camcorder, VCR, or you can display your movie on your computer screen. You may also need MP3 Converter>, MP3 Encoder, CD Ripper, and MPEG Encoder.

Using audio and video on your ecommerce website to increase sales is a must. You will be giving the consumer what they want and deserve in our high tech world and they will not have to go to a retail store to have their needs met.

How To Increase Your Sales With Audio

Audio increases your sales. Point blank. Period.

Recent studies claim that audio can increase your sales up to 300%. Independent studies by Terry Telford, from The Business Professional, have shown sales increases of 163% on one website and 79% on another. Both tests were run over a 3 week period.

Regardless of your expectations for adding audio to your website, it won't hurt your response rate for whatever you are selling or giving away. In most cases it will increase it.

One possible reason for the increase in visitor response is the human factor. We're social animals and like to interact with each other on a personal basis. Audio on your website is similar to picking up the telephone and talking to the person “live.”

There's something about hearing another human's voice that instils a certain level of trust, even if it is a very small amount. It brings us that one little step closer to each other.

The next question in your mind should be, “How do I get audio on my website?”

You've got several choices; the majority are covered in The Definitive Audio Report. You can download the report for free from thebusinessprofessional.com/theaudioreport.htm

Very briefly, audio comes in two flavours. You've got the vanilla download or streaming strawberry.

The download version is very simple to configure. You upload your MP3 file onto your website and point a URL at it, like thebusinessprofessional.com/mp3files/webintro.mp3

When you click on the link, it automatically opens the audio player on your computer and you hear the recording.

The alternative to downloadable audio, is streaming. Streaming is useful if you want your visitors to listen to your audio without the ability or need to download it.

Setting up streaming audio is a bit more complex than the download version, but offers your audio a more secure environment since visitors can't download it.

To set up streaming audio, you need an MP3 file and software that can hide the actual location of your file. The software also needs to create Flash buttons for you so your visitors can push a button to listen to the audio.

The simplest software I've used to stream audio is Sonic Memo, from Jay Jennings. It takes all of 5 minutes to set up the software and then you can create unlimited streams on your website in 30 seconds flat.

Increasing sales by adding streaming audio to your site

If you have noticed, a lot of sites these days add streaming audio to their sites.

Those ubiquitous buttons that resemble little orbs with the play symbol on them? I'm sure you must have seen them.

A lot of marketers these days allow their site visitors to hear their sales pitch, or perhaps a testimonial this way.

Before the advent of Macromedia Flash 6, the only way to stream audio was using real audio player which required users to download their bulky software, not to mention a web server that supported streaming.

The advantage of streaming audio is that visitors don't have to wait for the whole sound file to download before they can listen to it. Thus with streaming audio the playback is almost instantaneous.

Using flash 6 it is very easy to create these buttons that stream the audio from your website to the users browser.

A great flash tutorial on how to make these buttons is available at

http://www.flashkit.com utorials/Audio/Flash_MX-Kenny_Be-824/index.php

Now the question is how do you record your voice and keep the file size small enough?

If you were to make a recording of your voice with the "Windows Sound Recorder" that was 60 seconds long and save it, it would be 1.26 mb .wav in size.

But you can reduce this to only 117 kb if you made it a .mp3 file instead. Here's how to do it.

Open sound Recorder by going to Start/Programs/Accessories/Entertainment for (Windows 98)

Open sound Recorder by going to Start/Programs/Accessories/Multimedia for (Windows 95)

Press the "Record button" to start the recorder.

As you're speaking into the microphone your sound recorder should have a voice pattern.

After you're done press the "Stop button".

To hear your recording press the "Play button".

Next Click "File/Save As from the menu enter your file name and then click the "Change button".

Another window opens up.

Here For "Format" click the "Drop down button" and select "MPEG Layer-3".

For "Attributes" click the "Drop down button" and select
16 kBits/s, 12,000 Hz Mono 2KB/s.

Click OK.

Click Save and you see the conversion of the file to a .mp3

All done !!

Now all you have to do is pass this mp3 as the source to the flash file and you have instant audio on your site.

How To Be A Simply Irresistible Salesperson

Ever notice how some people have a certain energy about them that naturally attracts success. What is their magic secret? Who you are personally shows up in your sales approach. It's a big mistake to think that you can fool people when you are not coming for the right place. It's the subtle subconscious clues that you send your prospect that can make or break your sale.

Let's face it - People buy from people they trust. People trust people who are like them. The more you behave like your prospect the more they will trust you. This is the core of relationships.

Much research has been done on the determining factors of creating rapport with prospects. It's not what you say that counts, it's how you say it. These are the three components in communication for developing rapport. Words, Voice qualities and Physiology. These three elements equal 100%. What's your best guess on the breakdown?

Your words are only 7% of your communication. Your voice qualities are 38% and your physiology is 55%. That means that what you say is the least significant. How you say it and how your carry your body are the most important factors in your ability to create rapport with your prospect.

It's important to speak your prospects language. You already know how to be who you are - it takes an elegant persuader to care enough about the other person to enter their world. Everyone wears different glasses to perceive the world. Your job is to find out what glasses they are wearing and speak to your prospect about your services with their glasses on. When someone feels like you understand them, their trust level goes up significantly and are more likely to buy.

There are three basic types of people Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic. Identify which one your prospect is and enter their world. Keep in mind in different circumstances people are all three. People tend to favor one more than the others. You use both of your hands, but tend to favor one more than the other.

Selling Strategies for the Visual Person

Visual people tend to look upwards, speak rapidly and have high levels of energy. They love to look good and will usually dress to perfection. Visual people love visual information. They speak in visual terms and they want you to do likewise. They love to see the goods, not talk about them. The look of the goods is vitally important in assisting them to make a positive buying decision.

Keep this overview in mind as we present you with a picture on how to highlight your presentations to Visuals in a way that is both illuminating and compelling at the same time. Can you see what we are looking for?

1. For a visual prospect, a picture is truly worth a thousand words. Use charts, graphs, photos, and slides. Reinforce your presentation by using the blackboard. Bring videos if you have them.

2. Use visual words to pace their information gathering process. Develop beautiful pictures through your language. Use phrases in summation and closing like, "Is that clear to you?," "Imagine how this will...." or "How does this look to you?"

3. Glance upward occasionally. If you want your customer to imagine something or think visually, you can guide them to access visually. Looking upward will enhance their ability to form lasting mental pictures.

4. Write things down for your visual client throughout the sales call. Write important points down as you summarize. Encourage them to take notes. When you close the sale with a visual client write everything down so they can see the agreement.

5. Dressing professionally is important with any client. It is especially important with the visual client who will look for the "image" you have created with your clothes and your briefcase.

6. Visual clients "notice" everything. Pay attention to detail and the way things look. The package is as important as the product to Visuals.

7. And last, but most importantly, paint vivid and compelling pictures. The more vivid the picture, the more powerful the influence.

Selling Strategies for the Auditory Person

Auditory people tend to be more centered. Their eyes tend to move with their ears. Auditory people love auditory information. They speak in auditory terms and they want you to do likewise. They love to hear about your product, not necessarily see it. What others have said about your product is very valuable information.

Record this information in your mind so you tune in to your auditory prospect. Give them an earful of persuasion and listen to them to ask you for more. Can you hear what we are saying? Are we beginning to sing the same tune?

1. Use auditory words and phrases like, "Does that sound good to you?", "Are we in harmony on this?", "Shall I speak more directly about the facts and statistics?" or "This plate stamping machine is twice as quiet as the one you now have."

2. Quote testimonials and endorsements with your auditory clients. Auditory people think in "words" rather than feelings or pictures. They love to hear what other people have to say about your products or services.

3. Use your voice to hold the Auditory's attention. Change tone, volume, pitch and speech rate to verbally emphasize and enhance your sales points. Auditory prospects will pay as much attention, if not more, to how you speak as to what you say.

4. Tell the auditory customer lots of stories. Story telling in sales is powerful with everyone, and it is especially important with auditory prospects.

5. If you have to send them some information they often will not enjoy reading a brochure, so send a cassette tape outlining benefits, features etc. Use all the verbal information you can to move the sale forward. Get audio tapes into the hands and ears of your auditory leads right away. If your company does TV or radio advertising, ask your auditory client if they have heard your latest ads.

6. Have frequent telephone conversations with your auditory prospects. Even a brief call will mean a great deal to them.

7. Summarize agreements verbally after closing, using such a phrase as : "We are speaking about (summarize details.)" Remember, the Auditory hears everything. Give them exciting and motivating words that will play in their internally driven tape player long after the sales call is through.

8. It is important to know that auditory people find it hard to look at you and listen to what you are saying, so give them subconscious approval for looking away, by not demanding eye contact. They need to concentrate on what they hear and that's why they look away from you. Also, don't speak to rapidly or you will lose them.

Selling Strategies for the Kinesthetic Person

Kinesthetic people are more low keyed, typically the like to look down to connect with their feelings. Kinesthetic people love kinesthetic information. They react to kinesthetic terms and they want you to do likewise. They love to touch the goods, so let them get their hands all over the product. They must absolutely feel good about their decision, so help them get in touch with their feelings.

Grasp the important points in this section as we drive home the hard hitting strategies that work long and hard in putting deals together with the Kinesthetic. When these strategies sink in and you feel good about using them to nail down transactions with the Kinesthetic, you will have reached another plateau.

1. Use Kinesthetic words and phrases like, "Are you comfortable with this?", "How do you feel about that?" or "Do you need a more concrete example?" Talk about common interests, sports, family and let them know you care about their feelings. They want to know that you care about them and you are their friend.

2. Meet face to face with Kinesthetic clients. Don't rely too much on phone calls or written communication. They crave the head to head, belly to belly feeling that only one on one communication can give. Match them: if they have their jacket off, their tie loosened, do the same. They typically like to dress comfortably.

3. Get the kinesthetic physically involved with your presentation. Have them mark up your brochure. Have them walk through your proposal. If you are demonstrating a product they can use, encourage them to test the product out to find how it feels. Encourage them to hold the product, use the computer, feel the car finish, touch the rock fireplace, walk around the yard, stroke the leather seats get comfortable on the couch, etc. Make sure they are always physically comfortable. If they are not, they won't stay "with" your presentation.

4. Tell moving, emotionally based stories about your product and, most importantly, about the impact of your product or service on people just like them. Strongly communicate your emotional commitment to your product, to what you are selling. Then link commitment to your commitment to serving them.

5. Glance downwards occasionally. Kinesthetic people will intuitively pick it up and know that you are emotionally involved in your product. You can also guide them to access their feelings by glancing down and getting them to follow your lead. Typically, they are not comfortable with constant eye contact.

6. Kinesthetic people often like to be touched. They shake hands forever, often with the old "two-handed, let's hold this contact for a long, long time" approach. Since this is so appealing to them, an occasional pat on the back will fire off strong positive feelings. When you close the sale or come to some major commitment, shake hands on it. That gesture means a lot to a Kinesthetic person.

Here are some words you can listen for to identify your prospects style and use in your presentations.

Visual Auditory Kinesthetic amplify active appears announce bearable blurry articulate boils down to bright ask callous clarify audible chip off the old block clear call cold clear cut chime come to grips with clue clear as a bell comfortable conspicuous communicate concrete demonstrate converse control distinct describe in detail cool dream discuss deep examine divulge emotional eye to eye earful experience foresee exclaim feel fuzzy express yourself firm get a perspective give an account of firm foundation glance at give me your ear get a handle on hazy (idea) gossip get your goat horse of a different color grant an audience grab idea harmonize grasp illustrate hear (me out) grip imagine hold your tongue hand in hand in light of listen hands on in view of loud and clear hang in there inspect noise hard-headed look outspoken hassle mental picture overhear hold mind's eye pay attention to hustle notice quiet intuition obscure quoted involve observe rings a bell lay your cards on the table obvious roar lose outstanding say lukewarm paint a picture scream not following you perceive shout pressure picture shrill pull some strings pinpoint silence push read sing rough read sound seized realize speak sense recognize squeal sharp scrutinize state slipped my mind see suggest soft see to it talk solid show tell stand out sight to tell the truth start from scratch sign tone stress sparkling clean tongue-tied strong stare tuned out support survey unheard of tap tunnel vision utter test up front vocal tied up vague voiced an opinion touch view well-informed tough vision whisper unbearable watch within hearing range uptight well-defined word for word warm witness yell wear

Your prospect wants to know that you care about them. It is very easy for a salesperson to sell their product or service based on their values. Your values are what sold you to sell your product. Your prospects values for buying may not be the same as your values. It is critical that you take the time to find out your prospects values, and what needs to happen in order for them to experience that value around your product.

1.How to determine someone's values. Ask your prospect "What is most important to you about buying ______? Request the top three values and put them in order of importance.

2. How to determine someone's rules or evidence procedure. Ask your prospect "What has to happen in order for you to know you have that result."

For example let's say you are selling cars. You ask your prospect - "What is most important to you about buying a car? " Your prospect replies -"I want a car that looks good, that is reasonably priced and gets good mileage." You ask your prospect - "What's most important the cars looks or the price?" He says "price." You reply "What's more important the mileage or the looks?" he say "The looks."

Now you know three very important things about your prospect - 1. Price is most important 2. Looks are his second value 3. The mileage is his third priority.

Now you ask "How do you know when a car is reasonable priced?" He says - "It's not more than $20,000." You ask "How do you know if the car looks good?" He says "When I get in the car I picture how I will look in it." You ask "How do you know when a car gets good mileage?" He says I take long road trips and 25-30 miles per gallon is good.

Now that you have all that information about your client you have eliminated all the guesswork and can appeal to his real values. Your prospect feels like you care about him because you took the time to ask a few simple questions. This strategy is like playing a dart game and scoring a bulls eye consistently, versus wishing and hoping that you will find out what is most important to your prospect.

With that information you know exactly what to focus on with your prospect versus focusing on what you think he values most. Not only is it clear in your mind you have made it clear for them in their mind. Your prospect is much more prone to say yes when he is more certain about what he wants.

Speak to his values in the order he placed and pay close attention to his evidence procedure for getting those values met. He has given you the combination to unlock his buying strategy. When your prospect indicates his second value is looks is giving you a clue that he may be visual. You would speak to him in visual terms.

Lastly, you want to attract sales, instead of chasing, selling, promoting, seducing or going after it. Attraction is when people come to you. Selling, promoting, seducing and chasing is when you go after them. When you set up your life for sales to come to you invite effortless success into your life.

How to set up your life for irresistible attraction:

1. Eliminate Adrenaline . People relate adrenaline to success. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Adrenaline is a source of energy. Humans will go to any length to get the quickest easiest source of energy. Adrenaline produces energy - not the healthiest source, but it is continually available. It is not attractive to always be on the go and looking at your watch for your next appointment. People want to feel that you are 100% present with them. Stop rushing and speeding to get to your next client. When you show up harried with too many things on your plate, you take away from your ability to attract.

2. Bump Your Self Care Up To First Class. Take extraordinary care of yourself. People spend more time and money on their cars then themselves. Do things daily that add to your vitality and energy. ie. walk, drink more water, breathing exercises, stretch, eat healthy foods, validate your accomplishments and increase your self esteem, etc.

3. Eliminate Incomplete's and Tolerations From Your Life. Resolve your problems. Set up your life so that you stop creating more problems. Begin to solve problems for a lifetime. Stop putting out the fire of the day and eliminate the fires from ever starting again. Restore your integrity. Be 100% responsible and accountable for your life. Eliminate the holes in your life. Where are you being depleted? By whom? Plug up the holes in your life. Attraction can't find you until you're ready. Get ready.

4. Communicate Constructively. Communicate constructively in every communication. Say nothing but the very best. Eliminate gossip from your life. Let people know you are really listening to them. Let people you know you "get them". Listen to who they are not just what they are saying. Always tell the truth. This means more than not lying. There is a level of telling the truth that will truly set you free and attract others to you. Increasing your awareness, language and reserves will afford you any consequences of telling the truth.

5. Create Reserves In Every Area Of Your Life. When you have reserves you are always at choice. When you have reserves you can fully respond to your life versus reacting. Reserves of money, prospects, time, energy, opportunities, love, etc. You need much more then you think you need. The process of creating reserves will strengthen you. When you have abundant reserves, you'll become an even stronger magnet for what you want - because you won't need it.

6. Deliver It All. Always under promise. Even under promise what you know you can deliver. Deliver 20% more. Be anticipatory. Start fulfilling needs others haven't even thought of yet. Open up conversations for service in areas other's haven't thought of. Create demand. Add value to whomever or whatever you encounter. We all have something to add. Add it. When you add what you have to other's lives, you become much more attractive.

7. Show That You Care. Want a lot for others, perhaps even more than they want for themselves. Then share it. Tell people who they are no just what they do. Remind them if necessary. Give genuine compliments. Release your attachment to the outcome. Be gracious and caring. Don't be in a situation where you need business to survive--buyers smell this and run.

8. Have A Strong Community. Have a strong professional network. Have resources that you can refer. Surround yourself with positive people that believe in you. Eliminate toxic people from your life. Be careful who you let into your tribe.

9. Be a Model. Be a walking example of the benefits of your product or service. Credibility can be instantly established when your prospects learns how much you personally enjoy your products or services.

10. Attitude Of Gratitude . When you are grateful for what you have, you get a whole lot more. Seek to serve instead of just seeking to sell. Lastly, Remember the mission and forget the commission.

Sell Multiple Products Through a Single ClickBank Account

A ClickBank merchant account allows you to define and sell up to 50 separate products. If you have more than one product in your range, it makes sense to sell them from a shared ClickBank account. Here are three good reasons why:

• Every active ClickBank account incurs a setup fee of $49.95. Why pay this more than once?

• Managing multiple ClickBank accounts adds unnecessarily to your administrative effort

• The combined sales of multiple products through one account will significantly boost your Marketplace ranking

Unfortunately, the architecture of the ClickBank system has, historically, not been well suited to selling multiple products from a single account, especially for merchants who use affiliates to promote their products. The problem is that, although you can define 50 products within ClickBank's account control panel, you can only specify a single landing page URL - the destination page that your affiliates will refer their prospects to.

The result is that all referrals must arrive at your site via a common page. This forces you either to present all your products on a shared sales page or to create an intermediate page, from which your visitors must click through to see the product of their choice. Neither option is ideal as they both create obstacles that will distract your prospects and seriously reduce your conversion rate.

For optimum sales effectiveness, affiliate referrals should go directly to the sales page for the product of interest. This is known as deep linking and is widely acknowledged as the best way to convert affiliate referrals into buyers. But ClickBank's lack of support for this technique is a major barrier that inhibits effective use of its growing affiliate network.

To tackle this problem, a number of pioneering merchants have developed their own techniques to work around ClickBank's shortcomings. Some of these innovations have even evolved into successful commercial software products. Most implementations rely on intercepting the inbound referral and automatically redirecting it to the relevant product page, as indicated in URL parameters passed by the referring affiliate. There are several variations on this theme, but they share a common gambit - using scripts, installed on the merchant's web server, to intercept and redirect requests.

However, the need for smoke and mirrors to fix ClickBank's limitations may soon be a relic of the past. In October 2003, ClickBank announced plans for major improvements to its hoplink system - improvements that will all but eliminate the need for workarounds or enhancement products.

The new architecture - known as the enhanced hoplink system - employs a more flexible referral URL format, in which affiliates are able to specify the numeric code of the product they are referring their prospects to. Using this code, ClickBank's server will look up the corresponding sales page URL and send referrals directly to it, handling cookie-tracking and other admin chores in the normal manner.

The main attraction of the enhanced hoplink system is its simplicity of implementation and maintenance. Whereas add-on products require at least a moderate understanding of script installation and configuration, the hoplink system is maintained entirely via the ClickBank account control panel. This means that a merchant selling multiple products (even across multiple web domains) can expose them for affiliate deep linking, simply by configuring the relevant sales page URLs in his account.

At the time of writing, ClickBank has published the format of the enhanced hoplink URL, but has not completed the database and control panel changes that will allow the configuration of multiple landing pages. So, although we can visualize the new architecture and dream of the benefits it will deliver, we remain in eager anticipation of its release.

10 Amazing Ways To Jump Start Your Sales

1. Find a strategic business partner. Look for ones that have the same objective. You can trade leads, share marketing info, sell package deals, etc.

2. Brand your name and business. You can easily do this by just writing articles and submitting them to e-zines or web sites for republishing.

3. Start an auction on your web site. The type of auction could be related to the theme of your site. You'll draw traffic from auctioneers and bidders.

4. Remember to take a little time out of your day or week to brainstorm. New ideas are usually the difference between success and failure.

5. Model other successful business or people. I'm not saying out right copy them, but practice some of the same habits that have made them succeed.

6. Take risks to improve your business. Sometimes businesses don't want to advertise unless it's free, sometimes you have to spend money to get results.

7. Include emotional words in your advertisements. Use ones like love, security, relief, freedom, happy,
satisfaction, fun, etc.

8. Ask people online to review your web site. You can use the comments you get to improve your web site or you may turn the reviewer into a customer.

9. Out source part of your workload. You'll save on most employee costs. You could out source your secretarial work, accounting, marketing, etc.

10. Combine a product and service together in a package deal. It could increase your sales. If you're selling a book, offer an hour of consulting with it.