DirectPayNet

Category: DIRECT RESPONSE

  • Essential Strategies to Start Your First Winning Email List

    Essential Strategies to Start Your First Winning Email List

    Are you ready to start building a powerful and profitable email list?

    Growing your email list is one of the best investments in time, money, and energy that you can make as an online business owner or entrepreneur. A successful email list is an essential element for driving leads and sales into your business—and it’s also a great way to stay connected with your customers. But where do you begin?

    In this article, we’ll discuss essential strategies for getting started on launching a winning email list from scratch. We’ll cover topics like creating compelling lead magnets that will increase subscribers, utilizing automated follow-up campaigns to maximize conversion rates, segmenting emails to increase open rates, and more.

    With these helpful strategies in hand, brought to you by the Email Paramedic himself, Troy Ericson, you’ll be on the path towards successfully growing a responsive and lucrative email marketing campaign.

    Establishing Your Email List Goals

    One of the most important steps in building a successful email list is setting your goals.

    Establishing your email list goals will help you create a basis for measuring the success of your email campaigns and list-building efforts. Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely (SMART).

    For example, if you have an e-commerce business, your email list goals may include the following:

    • Generate 10,000 new subscribers over the next 12 months
    • Increase overall sales by 15% within the next six months
    • Increase average order value by 10% within the next three months

    Once you have established your goals, you should create a plan to reach them. Here are some tips for creating an effective email list plan:

    • Create compelling lead magnets to entice subscribers
    • Utilize effective email marketing automation tools
    • Create an email list segmentation strategy
    • Send regular email campaigns with valuable content
    • Monitor email list performance and test different strategies

    By setting specific goals for your email list and creating a plan to reach those goals, you can ensure that your email list is successful at lead generation and sales for your business.

    Have email marketing questions? Ask us!

    Setting Up an Email Service Provider (ESP)

    The first step in launching a successful email list is to set up an email service provider.

    An ESP is a platform that helps you manage your email list and send emails to your subscribers. It’s important to choose a provider that is reliable, secure, and user-friendly, with features that make it easy to customize and track the success of your campaigns.

    Popular providers include MailChimp, AWeber, and Constant Contact, all of which provide comprehensive tools, support, and guidance to help you get started quickly. For more experienced users, there are other options such as ConvertKit, GetResponse, and ActiveCampaign, which offer more advanced features such as automation and segmentation.

    With these types of services, it’s possible to create automated email sequences and send targeted emails to specific groups of email subscribers. This is a great way to maximize the effectiveness of your email campaigns and help you build a more engaged and responsive email list.

    No matter which provider you choose, remember that the most important thing is that it meets your needs and helps you reach your goals. Spend some time researching providers and experimenting with different features to find the best one for your business. With the right provider, you’ll be well on your way to building a successful and profitable email contact list.

    Creating a Compelling Lead Magnet

    The first step to building a profitable email list is creating an irresistible lead magnet.

    A lead magnet is essentially a free downloadable resource that your potential customers can use to learn more about your product or service. It could be a PDF, an ebook, a video, a course, or some other form of valuable digital content. The more compelling the lead magnet is, the more likely your target audience is to sign up.

    When creating a lead magnet, it’s important to make sure it provides value to the user. If your lead magnet is nothing more than a sales pitch, people won’t be interested in signing up. Instead, your lead magnet should provide valuable information that your customers and prospects can use.

    To make sure your lead magnet is as effective as possible, take the time to research what your audience needs and wants. You can ask them through surveys or search online for trends in your industry. Once you know what your audience wants, you can create a lead magnet that meets their needs and exceeds their expectations.

    Additionally, you should make sure to include a clear call to action (CTA) within your lead magnet and link it to a landing page where prospects can sign up for your email list.

    Establishing an Email Autoresponder

    One of the most important steps in launching a successful email list is setting up an email autoresponder.

    An autoresponder is a program that enables you to send automated emails to people who subscribe to your list. Think of it as a personal assistant that helps you keep your email list well organized and running smoothly.

    By setting up an email autoresponder, you can ensure that your contacts receive timely and relevant follow-up emails. You can send:

    • automated welcome emails to new subscribers
    • reminders to contacts who haven’t responded to your emails
    • “thank you for your purchase” emails when someone goes through checkout
    • abandoned cart reminders
    • failed checkout discounts
    • giveaway opportunities
    • regular email newsletters about new products

    Setting up an autoresponder can help you increase the effectiveness of your email list and make sure that everyone on it is engaged.

    The best email autoresponders are those that come with features like list segmentation, automated behavior-based triggers, and advanced analytics. It’s important that you choose an autoresponder that fits your needs and budget. When selecting an autoresponder, make sure to consider factors like the size of your email list, the types of emails that you’ll be sending, and the time and resources you have available to spend on managing your list of emails.

    90% of all online businesses are high risk! Are you?

    Promoting Your List Everywhere

    There are many ways to promote your email list, including using social media, pay-per-click advertising, and even emailing current customers and prospects. Paid advertising is often the first option thrown out the window because new business owners don’t want to pay, but it is actually the fastest way to promote your list. Facebook ads are still one of the best tools to use in marketing strategies no matter how small your budget is.

    When you start to promote your email list, think about what will draw people in. For example, you can create a compelling lead magnet that offers valuable content to entice readers to sign up. Additionally, you should use good copywriting techniques to write headlines and CTAs that entice subscribers to take action.

    You can also use free or low-cost email marketing tools like:

    • email capture widgets (easily snag new customer email addresses)
    • pop-up forms, opt-in forms, and email sign-up forms
    • dedicated landing pages (high-quality homepage templates are free)
    • social media platforms (Facebook Groups, YouTube, LinkedIn)
    • podcasts (your own or as a guest host)

    Additionally, consider using referral programs or affiliate marketing to incentivize people who know your business to share your subscriber list with their social media followers.

    As a final note, you should familiarize yourself, albeit briefly, with spam filters. Email clients like Gmail and Outlook use different functionality to filter emails that come through, and you want to do everything you need to make sure your digital marketing efforts don’t end up directly in the waste bin.

    Monitor and Analyze Your Performance

    Monitoring and analyzing your performance are essential steps when it comes to successful email list building. When you track how your list is performing, you get valuable insights into what strategies are working and which ones need to be improved. Additionally, you can use performance data to identify opportunities to increase list growth and engagement.

    Start by setting goals to measure your performance. What are your goals for list size, open rate, click-through rate, and ROI (return on investment)? These metrics will help you determine how successful your email list-building efforts have been.

    Once you’ve established your goals, you can track your performance to see how you’re doing. Use analytics tools like Google Analytics or a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to track key metrics such as subscribers, open rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribes. This data can help you identify areas for improvement and help you adjust your strategy accordingly.

    Finally, make sure to use A/B testing to determine the effectiveness of different strategies. A/B tests let you compare two versions of an email to see which one performs better. This allows you to optimize your emails for higher open and click-through rates. It’s a great way to test different subject lines without sending new emails with the same content.

    An Email List Can Only Grow Your Business If You Have…

    …the right payment processor and merchant category in place, otherwise you risk getting your business shut down permanently and banned from payment processing forever.

    Your business deserves to thrive, and building an email list is only one part of the greater puzzle. Securing your payment ecosystem is also one of the most important steps you can take early on. Speak with our payment processing experts here at DirectPayNet now to find out what your growing business needs to succeed in the highly competitive e-commerce world.

    GET A PAYMENT PROCESSOR THAT SUPPORTS YOUR BUSINESS

  • Make Your Millions with These 7 Metaverse Business Models

    Make Your Millions with These 7 Metaverse Business Models

    You’re ambitious with a lot of drive. You want to make your mark in the metaverse and make some big bucks doing it. You obviously have big dreams!

    Join us on this journey through the best metaverse business models to date and start making your mark on the virtual landscape while raking in millions.

    The Metaverse, in a Nutshell

    Sometimes, it’s hard to pick which metaverse business model is best for your startup. You can get so caught up in the virtual reality buzz that you lose sight of the focus: your metaverse business model.

    From creating games and apps to selling virtual land or even fashion, there are a lot of options for entrepreneurs. The metaverse is full of opportunity. Hop on the bandwagon now and jumpstart your future digital business before even a limitless virtual landscape gets congested

    The future of connectivity is here. It’s time you joined the ecosystem.

    Let’s start with the basics: What is the metaverse? Is it new?

    The Metaverse is a term used to refer to an immersive, 3D computer-simulated environment that can be shared and navigated through virtual reality headsets. Similar to the World Wide Web, it’s an online platform where people connect with each other.

    The term “metaverse” derives from Neal Stephenson’s 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. In this book, the word refers to a virtual reality-based successor to the Internet. While virtual reality remains an active area of research in the real world, we’re still far from being able to build anything resembling the fully immersive worlds described in Snow Crash. Since then, many other books, films, series, and games have popped up that expand on the concept. Ready Player One, Roblox, and Fortnite are just a few examples.

    The metaverse is one of the most popular virtual worlds that exist today. It allows users to design their own avatars and explore a number of different environments. The platform offers hundreds of games for users to play, as well as thousands of different stores where they can purchase unique digital goods.

    The recent changes to Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant, Facebook, recently may have led to some confusion due to the name change, Meta. However, metaverse is not just from the company, Meta. It’s any virtual world/platform. Meta’s metaverse is the latest and could become one of the most popular social networking virtual reality platforms due to its reach. However, there’s also Decentraland, High Fidelity, Second Life, and Sansar, just to name a few.

    Each of these platforms offers equal and different opportunity for growth and profit.

    What are the seven business models of the metaverse?

    We’ve got 7 of the best metaverse business models right here, outlined and ready for you to take on your next venture.

    1. Advertising

    Advertising as a Metaverse business model is the most well-known of all models. It works directly on the Metaverse platform and gives developers a cut from the income generated from it. The Metaverse advertising model can be used in applications (including defi-apps), or on external websites or web pages for games.

    Metaverse advertising works much the same as it does in the real world. You don’t even need to have digital, metaverse-only goods to advertise. So, you can think of it as fresh grounds for marketing whatever your current products are. This is especially good for businesses that simply can’t offer service in the Metaverse or are on the fence about what’s possible and want to get a better feel before diving in.

    2. NFTs

    The most successful NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are not merely virtual representations of real-life objects. They are unique, interactive, and often have a low supply.

    Pets — CryptoKitties, CryptoPuppies and CryptoCelebrities — are the most popular collectible NFTs. CryptoKitties increased awareness of the possibilities of blockchain technology and helped to expand the Ethereum network. It also demonstrated that people were willing to pay for virtual goods in cryptocurrency (Bitcoin and Ethereum).

    However, you can create whatever NFT you feel like. It doesn’t have to follow the current trend.

    3. Digital Land

    Selling virtual real estate or other virtual space in the Metaverse (especially on Second Life) on the open market is by far the most popular business model for virtual worlds today. It has many variations such as land speculation, developing and selling “ready to build” lots, and renting land. Many people also work with real estate companies or brokers in SL to list their property or develop it for them.

    This is how it works: the Metaverse lets users buy into their own island, which they then use to build a business on. The revenue model for this type of project is similar to a traditional online business model. Users pay a monthly fee to rent their space in the virtual world.

    4. Avatar Customization

    Avatars in the metaverse are customizable objects that may be used by its users to represent themselves in virtual worlds, online games, and other online communities.

    The customization service allows these avatars to be customized by the user with different appearances such as hair style changes, skin finishes, clothing, and accessories. These services can be offered by the owners of the virtual world, or they may be offered by third parties with which the owner has a revenue sharing agreement.

    5. Virtual Goods

    Virtual goods and services have been a major source of income for many successful metaverse companies. A wide range of virtual goods can be sold online such as weapons for gamers, characters, clothing, furniture, and more.

    The most common way to sell virtual goods is via your own website where you provide the goods directly to customers. Examples of companies offering such services include Second Life’s Inworldz, There, and Red Light Center, as well as the video games World of Warcraft, Sandbox, and RuneScape.

    Another option is to sell your products through a specialized virtual goods marketplace like Second Life Marketplace or Sansar Store. These marketplaces allow you to sell your products without having to set up and maintain your own website, while also enabling you to reach a wider audience than would be possible with your own website alone.

    6. Business Services

    Businesses that sell their services in the metaverse are often called “metaverse service providers”. Individual creators may start out as metaverse service providers and then grow their businesses into full-fledged “enterprises”, which are similar to other companies that exist outside of the metaverse.

    The business services model involves selling a service to visitors in your virtual world, whether it be land development services, avatar customization, furniture and decor, or similar services. These services can be sold either directly from your store or through the use of a shopping cart; commonly referred to as a “cart system,” “shopping cart”, or “storefront”. The most popular shopping cart systems are MetaCart and Floobo.

    7. Tourism

    One option is to start a vTime business (see below). Another option is to offer guided tours of your own location. If you have a particularly beautiful building or piece of land, or even just a well-designed city district, you can attract tourists and other visitors from around the metaverse by offering guided tours of your digital world to other users for a fee.

    One of the biggest features of the metaverse is how expansive it is in space and possibility. In the sense of tourism, that means users from anywhere in the physical world can explore areas they would otherwise never see in person through digital experiences. It also means you can create impossible lands only possible in a digital space.

    Chosen your metaverse business model? Good. Start getting paid for your digital goods.

    With the introduction of blockchain technology these and other business models are now possible. Also, new players have entered the marketplace that could become game changers in the metaverse space with their value propositions, such as not being limited by centralized servers.

    This is creating a hotbed of innovation that could lead to many more examples in leveraging blockchain, decentralized networks and digital assets while continuing to build on immersive, new technology and presence.

    The potential for growth and the scope of the metaverse opens up a myriad of opportunities for anyone with a competitive advantage. As people learn more about the Metaverse and its capabilities, we will see competitors begin to sprout from every direction. The key to success will be adapting a strategy that enables companies to compete successfully in this new era of digital/augmented reality. This can only come from foresight, ingenuity and understanding the potential for rapid growth in the metaverse market.

    Keep in mind that crypto, the metaverse, and any digital good is still considered a high-risk asset which means you are a high-risk business. As such, you will have difficulty finding a payment processor to keep operations profitable and steady as you grow.

    This is where DirectPayNet comes in. We specialize in high-risk merchant accounts, linking you with payment processors that will take you on. Don’t miss these opportunities the metaverse is bringing to the table. Get in touch with us today.

  • In Direct Response? Start Using Native Ads ASAP

    In Direct Response? Start Using Native Ads ASAP

    If you are a direct response marketer or entrepreneur with a desire to grow your business, then you should be using native channels. As you know organic and PPC traffic can take a long time to convert, so starting to use native ad platforms for driving targeted traffic is crucial for growing your business.

    Native ads are becoming much more popular today, as consumers are getting more adept at recognizing and blocking standard ads.

    We sat with Eli Cohen, an enthusiastic media buyer, to uncover what a native ad is, how it works, who it’s for, and how it can fit into your content marketing strategy.

    Check out podcast episode on Youtube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts for listening on the go.

    What is the definition of native advertising?

    Native ads are advertisements that blend into the regular content of a website. You can think of it like traditional advertising on print where ad placements appear as native content.

    They look like articles, videos, or other content on the page, making them less disruptive and more appealing to users and generally appear beneath the intended article in content recommendation widgets..

    Various types of native advertising can be displayed in various ad formats:

    Sponsored Content – This type of native ad is designed to look like an article written by a blogger. It’s typically placed at the end of an article or video and has a call-to-action button at the bottom. The entire page is branded with your brand’s colors and logo.

    Display Ads – These include banners, skyscrapers and leaderboards that are placed above or below the fold of the content you’re currently viewing. They often contain images with text or graphics only (no video).

    Social Media Posts – Social media posts can be used as both display ads and sponsored posts depending on how they’re formatted for each social network (e.g., Instagram vs Twitter).

    How do native ads differ from Facebook ads or YouTube ads?

    Fundamentally, native ads are more friendly for direct response marketers where as Facebook ads do have a specific look and feel.

    Consumers today are more aware of ads, and that means they are more able to ignore them (if they’re savvy enough). Ad blockers are more popular than ever. But even if a consumer doesn’t use a blocker, they can easily just scroll right past the ad once they see the telltale sign.

    Here are the differences between these three ad platform giants:

    Native Ads — Native ads are a more direct form of advertising on news websites and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These paid ads can be targeted towards specific audiences based on their likes and interests. Native ads are designed to appear as organic editorial content (or advertorials), so that users don’t feel as though they’re being advertised to.

    Facebook Ads — Facebook is an effective platform for creating visual content because it allows you to target your audience by age, gender, location, interests and connections. If you’ve got a compelling story to tell through text alone, then a Facebook ad can help you reach new people right in-feed who aren’t already following your brand or business page.

    YouTube Ads — YouTube video ads are similar to native ads in that they appear within videos on YouTube itself. These ads can appear during regular video playback or before or after certain videos play automatically when users browse through their subscriptions list (or when they search for specific keywords). They’re also displayed along with normal recommendations from YouTubers and influencers.

    Google Ads — Google Ads are the text-based ad units that you see at the top of search results pages on Google and other web sites around the world. They’re also known as text ads or text links (or sometimes banner ads). These ads appear as boxes with text headlines and descriptions, which may include a link to your website or landing page as well as a phone number or email address so users can contact you directly.

    What are the advantages and disadvantages of using native ads?

    Advantages

    The main advantage of native ads is that they don’t disrupt user experience as much as other types of paid media. This makes them ideal for brands looking to reach out to consumers at scale without disrupting their experience.

    For example, if you’re targeting women aged 18-35 who love travel photography, you can use native advertising campaigns to promote your trip to Iceland by creating an article about it on Buzzfeed, The New York Times, or Forbes.

    Native ads are more relevant than traditional display ads because they are matched with specific branded content on the website or application where they appear. This means that users who see native ads are more likely to engage with them than with other types of online ads – which increases their chances of conversion.

    Because native advertising content is long-form or editorial, you can use SEO to gain traffic from search engines as opposed to relying entirely on programmatic placements on the publisher’s website.

    Disadvantages

    The downside of native advertising is that it doesn’t allow you to track metrics like conversions or optimize towards specific goals like e-commerce or email signups (though this may change soon). However, if your goal is brand awareness or building credibility among a specific audience, then native ads are a great option.

    It’s difficult to measure the success of these ads because they are not very targeted, and there is no way to track them unless you use conversion tracking codes in your native ads (which most advertisers don’t). The only way to know if your native ad campaign was successful is by looking at how many visitors it generated, but this is not always a good indicator of success because it doesn’t distinguish between visitors who just came to check out your ad and those who actually converted on it (or didn’t).

    What sort of targeting can you do with native ads?

    Native ads are placed within the content of a visual medium. You can target your audience based on interests, locations, demographics and behaviors, and retarget them by connecting to other advertising platforms via 3rd-party solutions.

    Interests

    You can reach your target audience by targeting their interests. If you are promoting products or services related to travel, you can target people who are interested in travel. If you are selling education courses, then you can target people who like to learn new things or who have shown an interest in education.

    Demographics

    You can also target users based on their age, gender and location. This allows those using digital advertising to only show their ads to the right people in order to increase conversion rates and click-through rates.

    As an example, if you’re selling baby clothes and toys, then only parents with children under 5 years old will see your ad, as they are more likely to be interested in buying baby products compared to other people who don’t have children yet or who already have older children (who might not be interested in these types of products).

    Behavioral Targeting Options

    Behavioral targeting works by tracking a user’s actions across the web, including what websites they visit, what they like and dislike, what they search for and more. You can then target those users with relevant ads based on those behaviors.

    With behavioral targeting, you can advertise your brand or product to people who are already interested in your industry or niche. This allows you to reach out to audiences who will be receptive to your message rather than wasting money advertising to everyone on the internet.

    Native Ads Are Generally Geared Toward an Older Demographic, but That’s Changing

    Native advertising is exploding in popularity — and with good reason. It’s a cost-effective way to reach consumers, and it’s much more effective than traditional display ads.

    Native ads have been around for years — think infomercials or magazine inserts — but they’ve really taken off in the last few years as social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok have become more prominent. Ads on these platforms sneak into the news feed like any other post.

    This is an opportunity for you, as a direct response merchant, to hop back on board before it becomes too competitive and too saturated.

    Once you get set up with an account on a native ad network, you need to get your payments ecosystem squared away. Working in direct response, you’re a high-risk business. You need a high-risk merchant account to get your business linked with the right payment processor and bank to avoid unwarranted freezes and shutdowns.

    Get in touch with our team here at DirectPayNet today to get started with your merchant account so you can focus on conversions instead of unfreezing your bank account.

  • 3 Simple Truths to Decrease Chargebacks AND Increase Conversions

    3 Simple Truths to Decrease Chargebacks AND Increase Conversions

    3 Simple Truths to Decrease Chargebacks AND Increase Conversions

    Welcome to Part 2 of our FAQ with Satwant Phull on his podcast, The Payments Show Podcast.

    In Part 1, we talked about the shocking truths of high-risk merchant accounts and how to prevent (or save) your business from getting shut down, suspended, or frozen.

    Here, we’re taking things a step further and discussing what to look out for when considering chargebacks and what you can do to increase conversions.

    You can check out the podcast on Spotify, Apple, and Stitcher.

    1. The Chargeback Threshold You Should Never Reach

    First thing’s first: we’re talking about the chargeback criteria set by Visa. Mastercard and other credit card companies have similar criteria, albeit slightly different. In general, if you can aim to stay below Visa’s threshold, you’re all good.

    Visa sets the rules. Every credit card processor that allows transactions through Visa’s network has to abide by Visa’s rules. The same goes for any credit card network (Mastercard, American Express, Discover).

    0.9% and 100 Are the Magic Numbers

    You need to remember both numbers, not just one or the other.

    What they refer to are:

    1.     Having no more than 0.9% chargeback-to-sales ratio, AND

    2.     Having no more than 100 chargebacks per month.

    Even if you have a ratio of 0.7% but have 105 chargebacks, Visa will flag your account. Or if you have 20 chargebacks but a ratio of 2%, that’s a flag. You need to stay under both thresholds to prevent chargeback shutdowns.

    Your Processor Also Has Chargeback Criteria

    As if Visa’s criteria weren’t stringent enough, the processor you use will also have its own rules which might be the same or lower than Visa’s. For example, a monthly chargeback number of 95 or a ratio of 0.8%. It depends on the processor.

    If you regularly experience chargebacks hovering closer to Visa’s thresholds, then work with a processor that mirrors Visa’s criteria.

    Stripe Is Not a Processor

    This is also why Stripe is so cut-throat about chargebacks, cardholder disputes, high-risk businesses, and sales volumes.

    It’s why Stripe is so cutthroat about chargebacks, high-risk businesses, and sales volumes. Stripe has one master merchant account and allows businesses to use part of that with a sub-merchant account. The chargeback ratio doesn’t apply individually for each business using Stripe, it’s for all Stripe businesses.

    Stripe has a different rule than the 0.9%, 100 set by Visa (they would have blown way over this every month). But what Stripe does is compares your typical chargeback quantity with your current number. So, if you typically have 3 chargebacks per month and for some reason you now have 6, Stripe will shut you down.

    A lot of our clients are former Stripe users who have been shut down. The best route is prevention—you don’t want to get shut down and then find a solution in your panic. You want to prevent a shutdown from happening in the first place, and the best way to do that is by having your own merchant account.

    With your own merchant account, you don’t have to worry so much about the month-over-month ratio. If you suddenly spike from 3 to 6 chargebacks, it’s not such a big deal.

    2. Don’t Ignore Your Payment Descriptor

    How many times have you signed into your bank or credit card statement and seen a charge you didn’t recognize? What was your reaction?

    We’re willing to bet you panicked, thought there was a mistake (e.g., stolen card, charged too much), and you wanted to dispute it.

    Cardholders go through this far too often, and now it’s far too easy and habitual that they dispute the transaction instead of research it.

    The fact is that, while credit card fraud is real, friendly fraud from customers disputing genuine purchases is much more common. By fixing your payment descriptor, you can change the way customers see and dispute charges from your store. Your descriptor is a great chargeback fraud prevention measure.

    Merchant Accounts Allow You to Set Up Custom Descriptors

    When you have your own merchant account, you can set your own descriptor. You have 22 characters for the descriptor and 13 characters that can be used for the location. Make sure you put your business name in the descriptor, don’t leave it as some random string of characters. Your company name needs to be front and center.

    If you’re an online shop, the best thing to put in the location section is your phone number.

    For e-commerce businesses, adding a location can actually harm you in the way of chargebacks and customer disputes. Customers can see that, call the issuing bank, and say, “I’ve never been to Miami, some fraudster must be using my card.”

    Even though it isn’t a fraudulent transaction, the customer doesn’t know that.

    If you add your business’ phone number, the customer can call you when they have questions regarding the transaction instead of their bank. A refund is always better (and cheaper) than a chargeback.

    If you don’t have a phone number, add a URL. The purpose is to turn that section into a fast and easy way for customers to either understand what store the purchase is from so they can have an a-ha moment, or so they can contact you and request a refund. Whatever contact information you have, put it there.

    This is one of the easiest chargeback prevention methods any business can do, even on Stripe.

    Always remember that refunds are easier, faster, and way less expensive than chargebacks. Anything to avoid chargeback fees is worth it. Work on your return policy, too.

    Yes, We Encourage New Business Owners to Start Out with Stripe

    Contrary to what you might believe, we actually advise startups and entrepreneurs to get their business up and running with a service like Stripe initially.

    Until you start processing $50k per month, aggregators are a fast way to get some processing history. You don’t need to worry about adding value to your bottom line and following the tips and tricks we often share because your concern is getting your small business running.

    Because opening a high-risk merchant account takes about 2 weeks, it’s faster to open an account with Stripe.

    Stripe won’t be keen to shut you down until your sales volume starts to increase exponentially. But that won’t happen in the first months of opening your store.

    When you start to approach $50k or something less, that’s when you need to look into opening a merchant account. You’ll have the payment processing history to back up your application and you’ll get an account open before fears about being MATCH-listed arise.

    3. Target the Low-Hanging Fruit to Add a Few Percentages to Your Checkout Conversions

    Now that you’re operating smoothly, you have chargebacks under control, and your payment processor and acquiring bank backs your business, you can start focusing on conversions.

    Get Fresh Eyes on Your Sales Funnel

    You need someone who doesn’t work with/for you to go through your sales funnel. Get a family member or friend to buy something from your site as a trial. Tell them to note when things really work and when things really don’t.

    You already know how to navigate your own sales funnel. That’s why you need an unbiased view of how it works. The smallest details can really kill a sale.

    An example Satwant gave goes back to the CD era. A business owner wrote “duplicates” on their site for customers to get a duplicate of the CD they’re purchasing. Yet people continued to write in asking how they can buy copies. And that was the problem. Once he switched the one, single word, “duplicate”, to “copy”, everything worked like a dream.

    Understand Your Demographic

    The customer experience needs to be designed for your target demographic in every way. You can’t slack off at the checkout page thinking you’ve already got the sale.

    For example, we once worked with someone who’s audience was folks above the age of 55. By increasing the font size on the checkout page, that client saw a bump in sales.

    You need to pay attention to the little things. Like making sure the credit card input box separates every 4 numbers so users can better avoid making mistakes. A frictionless experience always works better.

    Understanding your demographic can also help you support or remove various payment methods fro your checkout page. Some businesses can run on debit cards, others use crypto. Most will need to support credit cards, and that means making sure your checkout is secured with 3D Secure, AVS (address verification service), and CVV (security code). These help with customer validation when making online payments.

    Sell More of the Same

    When it comes to upsells, don’t question it. A lot of people wonder what they should be upselling, but the best product to upsell is exactly what the customer is buying.

    If the customer is getting a 3-month supply of weight loss supplements, sell them 6 months’ worth. You already know they want that product. Instead of making them come back in 3 months or risk chargeback disputes from the card issuer every 3 months when the transaction goes through (if it’s a subscription), put it in the upsell.

    A High-Risk Merchant Account Serves 90% of Online Businesses

    We can’t say it enough. Most online businesses can identify with a processor’s or aggregator’s definition of high-risk business. From your industry to card-not-present transactions.

    Don’t risk it. Open up a high-risk merchant account and save your business from the hassle of freezes, suspensions, and shutdowns. Speak with our team to open yours up today.