8 Business Stats You Should Double In 2008

Written by Dave Navarro on February 6, 2008

As I mentioned yesterday in How to Double Your Sales (Over and Over Again), an easy way to improve your overall sales is to find a bottleneck - an area of your business where you’re not very efficient or effective - and tweak it. When your customers stumble across a path to your products that you have neglected to make smooth, a little sprucing up can make a lot of difference.

This is especially true at those tight bottlenecks where a potential customer isn’t moving on to the next phase of your sales cycle. For example, it’s probably going to be easier to take a 2% newsletter signup rate to 4% than it is to take a 15% sales page conversion rate to 30%. (Or is it? Feel free to defy that limiting belief in the comments.) Let’s jump in and take a look at 8 sales-driving metrics that you can double in 2008.

Name Drops - Who’s Talking About You?

In the online world, having other people talk about you is like a basic form of currency. There’s a “social proof” that’s invoked when someone with an audience mentions your name, your brand, or your product. Who’s talking about you? What simple ways could you double that number?

Click-Throughs

Take a look at how many people visit your blog posts or articles. If you don’t understand a few basic principles of constructing solid headlines, you’ll only tap into a fraction of potential page views. Fortunately, five minutes at Copyblogger will help you double that in no time.

Read-Throughs

When it comes to blog posts, articles or even sales copy, the first paragraph is the first impression that either makes or breaks you. If you’re not consciously laying out a compelling string of sentences, you’ll lose customers when they lose interest and click away without reading. Spend a few more minutes at Copyblogger and learn how to double the number of people who stay glued to your content.

Newsletter Opt-Ins / RSS Signups

With the pressure to drive sales, sometimes you may neglect to make it easy, attractive and compelling for people to sign up to your newsletter or RSS feed. Take a moment to look at what you’re doing and ask yourself what small tweak could double your signup stats.

Calls To Action

You want your readers to have a transaction with you eventually. Are you only giving them one opportunity, or are you presenting them with a good reason to do business with you again and again? Doubling this stat isn’t about sending more “buy now” messages, but about providing value, and providing a chance to transact at the same time.

Repeat Purchases

When a customer buys from you, how often do they buy again? If this stat is low it’s not necessarily an indicator that you suck, but that you’re not providing an easy and compelling reason to purchase again. (Yes, I’m using ‘compelling’ all over the place.) What simple change could you make to offer your customers a great reason to do business with you again?

Referrals

Word of mouth = GOLD, GOLD, GOLD. If you don’t get referrals, it’s likely that you’re not asking enough (or asking in the right ways). Think of what makes you refer someone else’s business to others, and take a fresh look at your own business. Doubling this number may not be as hard as you think.

Reference Customers

Happy customers = DIAMONDS. How many success stories or rave reviews do you have for potential customers to see? Again, this comes down to asking (and asking in the right way). Consider this the most important stat to double this year.

Upcoming articles over the next few weeks will cover these areas (and more), so why don’t you subscribe to this blog so you don’t miss any of them? And feel free to add your any “stats to double” I haven’t covered so far.

Now It’s Your Turn

Take a moment and think of how you might double one or more of these states in your own business (or how you’ve done it in the past), and leave your wisdom in the comments below. Don’t forget to subscribe to the comments as well so you’ll get a steady stream of valuable tips from everyone who shares their experience as well.

You know what to do,
Dave

(PS, the Becoming an Early Riser $12 special expires TODAY, so if downloading it is on your to do list, now’s the time to do it!)