The first thing I want to talk about in this five part series is the importance of pinpointing our target audience. One of the biggest mistakes made by many people new to internet marketing is that they start with an idea for a product. I can tell you about lots of people who have invested thousands of dollars and years of their time creating sophisticated products only to discover that nobody wanted them.

One way that you can increase your sales conversion rate is to make sure that you have a clear profile of your ideal customer. The more accurate your profile the more likely it is that you will be able to find the places that are frequented by the people you want to attract. I call this "Off site targeting", your objective is to invest your time and advertising budget wisely by targeting traffic quality rather than traffic in quantity . The more precise your targeting the higher quality your traffic and the higher your conversion rate.

I have a membership site in a niche market and I was disappointed with the conversion rate so I set up an exit survey to ask folks why they weren't signing up.

I was well and truly gobsmacked when I read the feedback from one person…. So I set up a split test with one change and my sign ups increased by a massive 420%

What was the change?

Well, I was using Mr Puddy's Launch Formula Marketing script and there's a box that allows the visitor to insert a coupon, or promo, code. I removed it.

Why did it make such a difference?

Well, it's like the lady said when she filled out the exit survey… she said "I saw a box for a code and I wondered how I could get discount. I didn't want to pay full price if there was a special offer."

The moral of the story…

If you're not testing you're almost certainly losing money!