Today we’re going to be talking about increasing sales by converting Pinterest traffic.
Many of you that I’ve talked to are engaging in “passive selling”, which means you’re just making money off of ads when Pinterest users come to your site. Today, we want to give you some advice on how to strategically sell on your site. Nikki Rausch, of Your Sales Maven joined me as a guest on the podcast for this episode. She shared tons of valuable information on how to make tweaks and changes to increase your sales conversions.
I first met Nikki at BizChix Live back in October. It’s an amazing conference for women entrepreneurs that Nikki and I both love. Crazily enough, Nikki lives in the town I grew up in. I’m so fascinated by what Nikki does that I knew I had to have her on the podcast.
Sales Coach and Communication Guru
Nikki works with entrepreneurs to teach them how to sell in an authentic way so that they’re able to build strong relationships and ultimately make more sales. She’s a sales coach and has an extensive background in neuro-linguistic programming. To put it simply, NLP is the study of communication. Knowing how you’re showing up in the world and how other people are showing up in the world allows you to be more flexible in your behavior. And since sales really boil down to relationships, communication skills are critical.
Pinterest traffic can be really bouncy. The user comes for a purpose and leaves fairly quickly. You have a small window of time to capture them. Scheduling, creating beautiful images, and having SEO-optimized pin descriptions are all great, but the real magic happens when they get to your site and you can convert them.
4 Tips for Converting Pinterest Traffic Into Sales
Tip 1: Tailor Your Language
Nikki has four tips on how you can change what’s happening on your website as it relates to Pinterest. I was probably most blown-away by this first tip she shares.
When you are writing – whether that’s content for your website, a newsletter, or emails – we tend to write from our own perspective. It makes sense to us because we think from our perspective, but your readers are interested in their own perspective. Most of us walk around thinking the world revolves around us and that can be counterproductive when you’re trying to draw readers to you.
Nikki recommends writing your sentences using the “you” perspective instead of the “I” perspective. Your readers aren’t coming to your site to hear all about you. When you change the language, it really draws them in. You want to make sure your message is about the reader and that it feels personal.
Tweaking the language can take a little effort and maybe some extra thought, but the result is closing more sales and creating stronger relationships. Answer their biggest pain points and use your testimonials wisely. Don’t be afraid to share what other people are saying and writing about you. If you don’t have testimonials, be intentional about gather at least three of them to use in your sales efforts.
Tip 2: List Your Prices
This advise runs counter to what many sales experts recommend, but hear us out. Selling is about the other person. It’s not about you, it’s about the client. You want it to be easy for your clients to work with you. One of the ways to make it easy is to include your prices on your website. If you can’t quote one price, have a price range.
Nikki believes that if people go to your site and they don’t see pricing, they aren’t going to pick up the phone and call you (mainly because it makes them feel uncomfortable). Some people will assume they can’t afford your services and not bother calling.
You’ve set your prices for a reason. You know the value of what you’re offering and you need to be okay with sharing that openly. People can then choose to move forward with you or move on if they can’t afford your services products.
Tip 3: Look for Ways to Say Yes
Nikki has a friend who is getting a ton of traffic to her site from Pinterest. That friend a certain free offer, and sometimes receives requests from people to customize the freebie using a different color or font, etc. Those requests annoyed her friend at first because it was already a free product. Nikki encouraged her friend to say “yes!” to those requests, followed by, “Those changes will cost…”
If you want the business, be willing to say yes. Think about how you can tweak your free product to make money off of it. Make sure you’re charging for your expertise. People are paying you, not just for a product, but for your years of hard work.
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Tip 4: ROO – Return On Opportunity
You’ve probably heard the term ROI, or return on investment. Nikki thinks ROO, return on opportunity, is just as important. If you are driving people to your site, they may not buy the first time, but you want to do something to capture their attention. Create an irresistible freebie that prompts them to join your mailing list. Stay engaged with these people because the return on opportunity comes down to the convincer strategy. Everyone has a limited number of times that they’ll say no to something before finally saying yes.
Looking for help with email copy so you can make it a no-brainer for them to join your list? Check out Kate Doster’s Email Marketing Fairy templates. Our Simple Pin readers are raving about these affordable templates and Kate is crazy awesome at writing copy.
You need to be building trust with your audience and draw them in so you can see that return on opportunity in the future. Take my Pinterest Planner for example. If someone decides to grab my free planner, and then a year later comes back to see if I have any new planners, I’ve given them an ROO.
We all want to experience an immediate response to our offers in the online community. When we don’t get that immediate response, it’s easy to get discouraged. It’s important not to forget about that return on opportunity. Your efforts you put forth today can lead to sales years down the line, even if they seem like a failure in the present.
It’s a long hard road to become an overnight success.
If you’re putting good content out, and you’re making it easy for people to work with you, you will start attracting people who will say yes to you. It’s strategy over tactics.
Action Steps
I know I have action items for myself after talking about all of this with Nikki. Take some time and jot down two action items to work on that will help serve your audience.
Nikki has created an eBook for you to help with this. It’s called “Closing The Sale: 3 Secrets of Master Closers.” It’s filled with so many useful and innovative sales tips. Go download it today!
Time Stamp:
Intro
1:35 – How Nikki Met Kate
4:15 – Sales Coach And Communication Guru
7:50 -Tip 1: Tailoring Your Language
21:23 -Tip 2: List Your Prices
27:38 -Tip 3: Look for Ways to Say Yes
31:18 -Tip 4: ROO- Return On Opportunity
42:30 – Action Steps
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I totally agree with Nikki about posting your pricing. Websites or sales/landing pages that aren’t up front with pricing are making a big mistake. Pricing is a factor in identifying your niche and the customers who are in that niche. You have to accept that everyone is not your target customer. Your target customer has a certain budget to work with. By hiding your price, you’re denying them the opportunity to say “I can afford this.”
I loved the tips, did not know that Pinterest could help so much in sales, thank you for sharing this incredible content!
You’re welcome!