Expert Article

Pre-Order Pages

It’s not too often these days that you’re able to find a real “piece of gold” for increasing your conversions.

You work hard to get a few percent here and another few percent there by testing words, headlines, backgrounds, images, etc.

You are always looking for that elusive tip that will “double or even triple your sales.” It seems more like hype than reality.

Using a Pre-Order Page
This simple little tip won’t double your sales, but it may add up to 20% to your sales. And it goes against the conventional wisdom….
It’s adding a pre-order page to your sales process.

Normally you strive for fewer steps in the order process, not more, but in this case more steps works in your favor. The pre-order page sits between the sales page and the ClickBank order page.

It simply details what the potential customer is ordering and the cost to the customer in a “matter of fact” format. Then the pre-order page asks only for the customer name and email address. Once submitted, the potential customer then moves onto the ClickBank order page, which is pre-populated with their name and email address. It’s that simple!

Why It Works
There are a couple of reasons why it works so well.

The first is your potential customer has less resistance to entering only their name and email address and therefore is more likely to take that first step.

And once that step has been taken, they have made a small commitment to the sale, which makes them more likely to take the next step – giving you their credit card details.

It’s like when you are at the beach, there are mostly two ways people get into the surf. Some people run down the beach and just dive straight in. A lot more people like to walk into the water, up to their knees, and get used to the temperature before they dive in.

Presenting a potential customer with an order form that requires all their information up front is the equivalent of asking your potential customer to run down the beach and just dive straight into the surf.

Whereas just asking for their name and email address as a first step, is a much lower risk option of checking out your order process. It’s more like walking into
the surf, up to your knees, just to get used to it before diving in. It’s a small commitment and providing it’s a positive experience, there is a lot less resistance
to taking the next step. In fact the first step creates a greater level of commitment to completing the next step.

The second advantage of using the preorder form is it gives you a list of “HOT” leads. You now have a list of everyone who completed the first step, but did not complete the order process. (This requires a few rules to be set up in your customer database).

These are potential customers that are almost “over the line” and may only need a little nudge, some additional information, or an extra incentive to get them to take the final step. A couple of autoresponders targeted specifically to those leads may be just enough to help them overcome any final objections they have, and complete the sale.

Article By Noel Jones