Nancy Hendrickson

Fellow authors – in addition to my career as a non-fiction author, I’ve spent close to 10 years doing website analysis for corporate, higher education, and personal websites.  Increasing your conversion rate (the number of people who purchase your book or service, rather than just looking) is a must for authors, whether self or traditionally published.

Below you’ll find the five steps I typically take to increase website conversion.  Try it – and let me know how this works for you.

1. Best Practices
Wikipedia states that best practices are the most efficient and effective way of accomplishing a task, based on procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.

In the  years that I’ve coached authors and entrepreneurs, I’ve discovered that the majority of people think marketing their books is an expensive proposition – - particularly when it comes to selling on the Internet.

Truth is, it can cost a lot if you have the bad luck of working with an unscrupulous “publicist”, or spend thousands on an ineffective pay-per-click campaign.

There are good publicists out there, but even the best publicists in the business will tell you (or they SHOULD tell you) that their efforts will get you noticed, but that notice does not necessarily translate to sales. Additionally, you may get people to your website via pay-per-click, but traffic doesn’t always equal sales–particularly if you don’t write compelling sales copy.

In my experience–with my own coaching clients and with my own books–the best way to market your book is through grassroots or relationship marketing (building relationships with site visitors). When people KNOW you, they are much more willing to do business with you. Think of your own life experience re: buying from people you know and trust, and I think you’ll agree.

I invite you to “pick my brain”, and use these three no-cost ways of getting yourself noticed on the Internet – - all without squandering your kid’s college fund!

If you were browsing in a bookstore and the person next to you – - let’s call him Leo – -  picked up a book you had written, you’d probably tell him you were the author, and before long a full-blown conversation would be in the works.

Leo would ask you about writing the book, you’d ask Leo about his interests . . . and a connection between the two of you would be established.  This doesn’t guarantee Leo will buy your book, but it does guarantee he’ll remember you.

Answering potential client e-mails works the same way. While autoresponders are effective tools, I don’t believe they can replace a personalized e-mail when a “Leo” is inquiring about your services. I would rather cut and paste the “canned” info into a personalized e-mail rather than having everyone who asks about my services get an autoresponder response.

Getting personal is part of relationship marketing.