Kristen Doyle 0:01
What if I told you that no matter what you’re selling, doubling your sales doesn’t always require finding new customers or launching new products. Over the years, I have helped 1000s of business owners improve their SEO and drive more traffic to their products.
Kristen Doyle 0:16
But there’s something equally important that a lot of my students and my clients need to focus on, and that is conversion rate optimization. Because let’s face it, all the traffic in the world will not increase your earnings if your sales page or your product listing doesn’t convince those visitors to turn into buyers.
Kristen Doyle 0:41
In today’s episode, I am sharing the math formula behind your product’s success and how to calculate and improve those conversion rates, whether you’re selling in simple product listings in a shop or a marketplace like TPT or Etsy, or you have custom sales pages and full fledged funnels for bigger offers. Plus, I’ll help you figure out what to prioritize first when you’re ready to start making improvements.
Kristen Doyle 1:09
Are you a digital product or course creator, selling on platforms like teachers pay teachers, Etsy or your own website? Ready to grow your business, but not into the kind of constant hustle that leads straight to burnout? Then you’re in the right place.
Kristen Doyle 1:24
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I’m Kristen Doyle, and I’m here to give you no fluff, tools and strategies that move the needle for your business without burning you out in the process. Things like SEO, no stress marketing, email list building, automation, and so much more. Let’s get started y’all.
Kristen Doyle 1:49
First up, let’s make sure we are all on the same page about what a conversion rate actually is. Really quickly, your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who take a desired action. In this case, we’re talking about purchasing your product or your offer.
Kristen Doyle 2:05
If 100 people view your product page and two of them buy that’s a 2% conversion rate. Simple enough. But the reason that this is so important is that boosting your conversion rate from 2% to 4% literally doubles your sales from the exact same amount of traffic.
Kristen Doyle 2:23
That’s why I get so excited about conversion optimization. It’s like finding money hiding in plain sight because you’ve already done all the hard work. You made the product, you listed it on the platform, or you posted it on your own website, and now you have an opportunity to get it selling better.
Kristen Doyle 2:42
You might be wondering what counts as a good conversion rate, or how to know if your products have room for improvement, and we’ll get there. But let’s start with that math formula first. So there is a really simple equation behind every single digital product success and the income that you’re earning from it. It’s just traffic times conversion rate times price, equals your income or your revenue.
Kristen Doyle 3:06
So traffic refers to the number of people that are viewing your sales page. You’ll probably see this listed as page views in the analytics on your website, your marketplace platform, or even just in Google Analytics. Conversion rate is that percentage of people who see the page and then actually buy and then the price, of course, is how much you’re selling it for.
Kristen Doyle 3:27
So if we look at that example that I shared earlier, if you get 100 page views with a 2% conversion rate and it’s a $10 product, then you make $20. The math is just 100 times 2% times $10 equals $20. Super simple. If you improve any one of those numbers on the front end of that equation, then obviously the number on the back end of the equation is going to grow.
Kristen Doyle 3:54
So if you increase your traffic, your revenue grows. If you increase your conversion rate, the revenue grows. If you increase your price, the revenue grows. If you improve on all three, then you see massive growth in your business. The goal is to be able to increase all of them, or at least find that perfect price and then increase your traffic and conversion rates.
Kristen Doyle 4:18
Now today, we are focusing on that middle piece, the conversion rate, because it’s something that a lot of people forget about, and it can offer some really quick wins. See, it is, in some cases, a lot harder to get more traffic to your product than it is to improve conversions from the traffic that’s already there.
Kristen Doyle 4:36
So if you can take that conversion rate and increase it from 2% to 4% now you’re getting four purchases for every 100 page views, and your income is $40 for every 100 page views instead of 20. Now, obviously I’m using easy numbers, but imagine where that goes if you have 1000s of page views or an even higher conversion rate.
Kristen Doyle 4:56
Alright, so let’s talk about what counts as a good conversion rate. On average, digital product, conversion rates typically fall between two to 3% for most online sales. So if you’re selling in your own store or you have a full sales page or a sales funnel, that’s a good benchmark to use for those areas. But marketplace platforms like TPT and Etsy usually see a little bit higher conversion rates.
Kristen Doyle 5:22
The theory is, this is because of two things. First of all, people who come to a marketplace platform are already shopping. So there’s that buyer intent to make a purchase. They’re just trying to decide which product they’re going to buy.
Kristen Doyle 5:36
The other thing is, there is some built in trust as far as knowing that their payment information is secure, knowing how they’re going to access the product after buying, knowing that a product has gotten lots and lots of positive buyer reviews in the past. So typically, if you’re selling on somewhere like Etsy or Teachers Pay Teachers or some other marketplace, you will see a little bit higher conversion rates on average.
Kristen Doyle 6:01
So your benchmarks to look for on Etsy are around three to 5% and on Teachers Pay Teachers around 4 to 7%. Now I know I just shared some benchmarks for you to use as goals, but really the most important metric for you, as you’re working on your own conversion rates isn’t to compare to averages outside of your own business, averages for other people’s businesses, averages in a marketplace. It really is to focus on your own conversion rate average and focus on improving your own numbers, not just trying to reach arbitrary numbers that somebody else told you are right or best
Kristen Doyle 6:41
All right, so now that we understand the math, let’s take a look at the customer psychology that gets people to make a purchase. Because in order to increase your conversion rate, you have to know what this buyer psychology kind of path is, and be able to address the issues at each stage, depending on where people are when they find your product, right?
Kristen Doyle 7:03
So there are four stages, psychological stages that buyers go through before they make a purchase. The very first stage is called awareness, and this is where the buyer knows that they have a problem. They recognize that this is an issue, and they want to solve it.
Kristen Doyle 7:21
A lot of times when you’re selling something, maybe through Facebook ads, or you’re sending out email campaigns to people who haven’t actively sought out a solution that you offer. A lot of times those people are in this awareness stage, you’re hoping to catch the people who know they’ve got a problem, or maybe they just need to be triggered to remember that they have a problem, and then you can start selling to them.
Kristen Doyle 7:45
The second phase is called consideration. This is where people already know they’ve got a problem. They recognize it, they know they want a solution, and they’re in the phase of starting to look for that solution, or compare the different possible solutions that are out there.
Kristen Doyle 8:01
This is typically where people start when you are selling in a marketplace platform, because, like I said earlier, those people are already buyers. They’re in that shopping mode where they are looking for a solution when they go to that marketplace.
Kristen Doyle 8:18
The third phase is decision. This is where people have looked through lots of possible solutions, and they’re working on narrowing down and making the best choice for them. If we are talking about a marketplace that’s a little easier to understand, because they might be comparing your product to someone else’s.
Kristen Doyle 8:34
If we are looking at a sales page or sales funnel, they probably are evaluating and trying to decide if your product is going to solve their problem. They may not be comparing it to other offers that are out there, because maybe they aren’t really looking at those other offers, but they are trying to decide if this is going to be best for them and if it’s going to meet their needs and solve their problems.
Kristen Doyle 8:57
And then the fourth stage is action. This is where we want to get them. This is why they are making the purchase. They are ready now to click that Add to Cart button, but you still have to get them from add to cart or clicking that, yes, let’s do it button to actually giving you their payment information and finishing the checkout.
Kristen Doyle 9:16
When it comes to this psychological stages that buyers go through, you want to make sure you’re optimizing your sales page for each stage in that path. So when it comes to the awareness phase, make sure you are immediately calling out the problem that your product, or your course, your membership, whatever it is solves. You want to immediately call that out right at the beginning.
Kristen Doyle 9:43
You also want to spend some time building trust and credibility. This is important for that consideration phase. You want to really highlight what’s in your product or offer, but not just highlighting what’s in it, addressing any hesitations,objections, questions they might have. That’s important for the decision phase.
Kristen Doyle 10:04
And then the action stage is really all about removing friction points, making it as easy as possible for people to go ahead and check out. If you have multiple steps people have to go through to get to that checkout button, see how you can streamline that. Just make it as easy as possible remove as much friction as you can from that part of the process.
Kristen Doyle 10:26
All right, with that customer journey in mind, let’s talk about the five key elements that you need to optimize, and I’ll share some specifics for whether you’re selling on your own site or on a marketplace platform. All right. First up, let’s talk about product visuals and first impressions. Your product needs to pass a three second test. Sometimes you’ll hear people call it a scroll test or a caveman test. Can someone understand what you’re selling within three seconds of looking at it?
Kristen Doyle 10:55
Now, three seconds isn’t very long. We can’t read very much in that time, so your product visuals are going to be huge when it comes to this. Make sure that your product mock ups or your thumbnails, whatever images you’re using on the page, instantly communicate what the product is. On a product listing page, this is not where you want to be using stock photos or anything that doesn’t really show your product well.
Kristen Doyle 11:20
Of course, you want to make sure your photos are professional. They’re clear. They’re sized right for the platform that you’re on. If you’re on a marketplace, make sure those thumbnails look good even at the smaller sizes, because sometimes people won’t click to blow those up bigger. So make sure those thumbnails are clear even in smaller sizes.
Kristen Doyle 11:38
When it comes to sales pages, if you’ve created a full sales page on your own site, you want to make sure that that very first image they see before they start scrolling. We call that the hero image, is a really high quality image, and it either shows your product in context, if it’s a more tangible thing that they’re getting. Or if it’s something less tangible, something like a course or a membership, make sure that the image you’re choosing and the text that accompanies it really conveys that transformation that you’re promising them.
Kristen Doyle 12:07
The second major conversion factor is how you’re letting people take a preview of your product. See if you can give people a way to try before they buy, this really helps reduce that purchase anxiety and make them feel confident about what they’re buying. There are lots of different ways to do this, but essentially, you want to provide some sort of strategic samples that show the quality of the product without giving everything away.
Kristen Doyle 12:33
For a printable in something like a TPT or an Etsy store, you want to show some completed examples of that work, or clear previews of what they will get when they download. If you’re selling something like clip art or design elements, you want to show close ups of the art that they’re going to get and usage examples. If you’re showing close ups, you can definitely watermark them so people can’t steal those and use them. But you want to make sure that you are showing the quality of the art that people are giving.
Kristen Doyle 13:03
If you’ve got templates, maybe show some before and after examples, some examples of the template by itself, but also how it might be used for different people in different circumstances. If it’s a course or maybe a membership, offer them a free lesson or free one little piece that gives them just one aha moment, anything like that that you can do, lets people see the quality of your work, and it helps them trust it more, so they’re more willing to spend money on it to get the full thing.
Kristen Doyle 13:34
All right. Next up, let’s talk about your product description. This is somewhere that a lot of people really miss out on opportunities. So the way that you’re describing your product, whether it’s in a product listing or it’s in a sales page, you really need to make a psychological shift from telling people what you’re selling them, what is in your product, what is in this offer, to telling them what they’re going to get from it. Think about the outcomes or the benefits for your buyer.
Kristen Doyle 14:03
Make sure that you are explaining how your product is going to solve a specific problem. Every time that you list a feature, because, yes, we do need to list what’s included, every time you list those features, tell them why they need this. Be thinking to yourself, what’s the benefit? What’s in it for them? Why did I include this feature? This can make your product descriptions, your sales pages get kind of long, so be sure that you’re breaking it up with bullet points or icon lists or something like that, so it’s easy to scan.
Kristen Doyle 14:35
And as you are writing your copy, be thinking about the common objections people might have, and go ahead and address them. A lot of times, the features we include are to fix those objections, those Yeah, but what ifs, that people are thinking. So make sure you’re addressing that when you’re naming those features or those parts that are included in your offer.
Kristen Doyle 14:59
Now, the longer your product listing or your sales page gets, the more important it is to be strategic about how you structure it. Make sure that you are getting that most important information out up front. So lead with that. Be sure you’re including anything technical that matters, making sure that that stuff is included so people don’t purchase, and then realize that it won’t work for them because of some technology things or compatibility issues, and make sure you’re using headers, you’re adding in images on sales pages, you are using icons or bullet lists or emojis, whatever you can to really break up those walls of text and make it easier for people to read and also to skim.
Kristen Doyle 15:42
Because as important as it is that we write these words in our sales pages and our product listing, people are most likely not reading every single word, so you need to make sure that you’re laying it out to grab their attention and draw their eye to the most important parts.
Kristen Doyle 15:58
All right, fourth on my list, and this is a big one, is how you’re using your social proof. Social proof is important because it tells people without you having to say it outright. Other people love this, so you will too. It’s important to think about quality versus quantity. If you’re on a marketplace, a large number of reviews can really help, because they usually have those star rating systems that are listed right up by the product title, and if people see that you have a 4.9 rating and you’ve got 1000s of reviews, that makes you look really trustworthy.
Kristen Doyle 16:32
On the flip side, if they see you have a 5.0 rating, but only one review that 5.0 doesn’t mean very much, because it’s just one person. So large numbers of reviews can be really helpful. If you’re on a marketplace. Within the product listing itself, on a marketplace, or your own website shop, or if you’re using standalone full sales pages, the quality of the review is a lot more important.
Kristen Doyle 16:57
So when you’re choosing reviews to copy paste or to screenshot to put in your sales pages, pick those very carefully. Look for ones that have specific results. Look for numbers. Anytime someone shares a number like this saved me four hours of work, or my students are scoring 20% higher on their tests. Whatever it is, if you can find reviews with numbers, those go a long way. So look for anything with numbers. Look for things that have specific results the buyer got out of your product or your offer, or specific features, things that they loved about it.
Kristen Doyle 17:33
Another thing to look for is those objections. So if someone says, I was worried about this, but this product addressed that and fix it. And it was perfect, even though I was worried about this thing. Those are really good ones, because chances are, if that buyer had this concern, this objection, then other buyers will too.
Kristen Doyle 17:53
Think about where you’re putting social proof throughout your page as well. You don’t want to just put it at the bottom. I know typically when we’re on marketplaces, TPT, Etsy, Amazon, everywhere, those product reviews are way down at the bottom, and that’s fine, because some people will go down there and look for them. But think about where else you can put some social proof throughout the page.
Kristen Doyle 18:14
Use that social proof to break up your sales pages so that people see it as they are reading. You can also put the social proof right next to the objection that it addresses. If someone talks about a certain feature they loved, put that testimonial right next to where you share about that feature. And then format matters too. So if you can, use photos or screenshots wherever you can, because that is going to build more trust. See, savvy buyers know that you can type any words you want into your description or onto your sales page, but if you can add a screenshot of someone else’s words, that builds a little bit more trust.
Kristen Doyle 18:58
When it comes to sales pages, and really, you could do this in product listings as well. If you have numbers of satisfied buyers or students or members that are really impressive, big numbers. Use those numbers. Show those in your sales pages. Likewise, if you’ve got logos of people who have a lot of respect in your niche. Those are maybe clients of yours or places you’ve been featured, highlight those. Put those logos on the page, and then highlight those ratings and reviews as well.
Kristen Doyle 19:32
All right, last up, let’s talk about pricing strategy. It’s not just about the number. You really want to price based on value,according to the problem you’re solving, not just how long it took you to create or how many things are included in it. When it comes to different platforms, if you’re on a marketplace, you probably need to compare your pricing to the competition to make sure that your pricing is positioned competitively.
Kristen Doyle 19:58
You don’t want to be the highest, but you also don’t want to be the lowest within your category of products. So look for similar products and try to get your pricing to fall somewhere kind of the top half of the middle is usually a good place to start. And then you can adjust based on your conversion rates. When it comes to things that you would be selling through a custom sales page, things like courses and memberships, you can compare. You can look at what else is out there, but really focus on creating that value stack that shows everyone what they are getting and how much value that is, and then comparing it to alternatives.
Kristen Doyle 20:34
So if you have a course on how to DIY something, compare the price of that course to how much it would cost to hire you or some other professional to do this thing for them, or how much it would cost to figure it out on their own, because there is a cost involved in figuring things out on your own without your course. Maybe it’s a time cost, not a dollar cost, but think about that comparison framing that you can do based on whatever you are offering.
Kristen Doyle 21:04
So those are the five things to optimize. You might now kind of be wondering, Where do I start if you sell more than one product, which most of us do. So let’s talk about which products to focus on first and how to prioritize. I always tell everyone to start with the data that you have. So look at your numbers. Let that guide everything that you do, as far as optimizing existing products.
Kristen Doyle 21:29
My recommendation is to start with your best sellers. A lot of people want to start with the thing that’s not selling at all, but the thing is, those best selling products have proven demand in your market, because people are buying it, and you already have some momentum and are getting a lot of sales. So the improvements you make here are going to have a bigger impact.
Kristen Doyle 21:52
See, those best selling products probably already have more traffic than the ones that aren’t selling well. So if you can increase your conversion rate by 1% on something that’s getting 1000 views a month, you’re going to make more money than if you increase by 1% on something that’s only getting 10 views a month.
Kristen Doyle 22:09
The other thing is, you can use those best sellers as a good place to test the changes that you’re making and figure out what works for your audience before you start updating everything. It’ll be faster to test on those best sellers, because you’re getting more page views, and I’ll talk about that in a minute. All right, let’s talk about letting your data lead you.
Kristen Doyle 22:27
So if you have a lot of traffic, but your conversion rate is low, then you want to focus on those conversion elements, those key elements that I just shared, because your goal is to get that conversion rate up. If you have a high conversion rate but you’re not getting any traffic, then you need to leave those key elements alone and focus on marketing and focus on optimizing for search. So look for the right search terms. Start sending this product out and emails to your email list, post about it on social, run some ads to it wherever you’re running ads.
Kristen Doyle 22:27
And then for those products that are needing both, my advice is to start with the conversion elements first, and then focus on the traffic, because you really want to improve those products, so that when you start sending a lot of traffic to it, you’re making the most of that traffic. But in reality, start with whichever one is easier for you and whatever it is that you’re actually going to do.
Kristen Doyle 23:29
Because I know sometimes when we sit down to work on conversion elements, if that feels hard, we just will keep putting it off and never get it done. So if the other thing feels easier, than go for it. The important thing is just to be making progress. When you’re doing this, you want to make sure that you are measuring your results to see what’s working and what’s not. So document all of your before numbers that would be the traffic, the conversion rate and the price.
Kristen Doyle 23:58
Test just one change at a time, if at all possible. So when we’re talking about these conversion elements, test, one change. Test, swapping out your images. Test, changing up your description. Test, just one thing at a time if you can, because that’s going to give you the best data about what is working and what’s not. If you change 10 things, then you’ll at the end of the day, know my changes worked or my changes didn’t, but you won’t know which changes worked and which didn’t.
Kristen Doyle 24:27
So if you can just test one thing at a time and give those changes enough time for you to check the after data, compare it to the before data, and see the difference and have reliable data for that. So my recommendation is that you get at least 200 page views in between tests and record your data and check it each time.
Kristen Doyle 24:48
All right, let’s talk about some action steps. I know I have thrown a lot at you today. What I want you to do now is go look for your top three to five sellers and run them through a quick check of each of those five key conversion elements.Check the data too, and pick the one part that seems the weakest to improve first. Set yourself a calendar reminder to review those conversion rates again in about 30 days, or whenever you think you’ll get 200 page views, to check and see if this has positively impacted your conversion rates, and then continue to make similar changes.
Kristen Doyle 25:24
Now, if you are selling on multiple platforms, you want to make sure you’re looking at data on each different platform, because you might need to optimize differently for the different places that you sell. I hope this episode has really shown you the power of understanding the math behind your digital products, and how even a little tiny improvement in your conversion rate can really increase your income without having to create new products or find new customers.
Kristen Doyle 25:50
If you found this valuable, I would love for you to take a screenshot while you’re listening to the episode. Do it right now and then share it with a friend who sells digital products too. And if you haven’t already, don’t forget to hit the follow button so you won’t miss next week’s episode. Thank you so much for listening, and I’ll catch you next time!
