Fundamentals Track Converting Visitors to Buyers; Persuasion Architecture Tuesday, June 19, 2007 – 1:45p-3:00p
First Speaker: Jeff Eisenberg, Future Now, Inc.
Is everybody really full? No? Good. It’s hard to pay attention when you’re really full.
If a tree falls in the forest and no one can hear it, is there a sound? Who cares? If no one can hear it; who cares?
When we started our business in 1998, it was the time of the dot-bombs. At the time, everyone wanted eyeballs… as many as you could get. There was a belief that eyeballs had credit cards. Today, it’s search engines. Everyone thinks search engines and searchers have credit cards. It’s not getting the people to the site, it’s getting the people to actually buy. I’d rather have 2 visitors that buy, than 2 million who don’t.
Anemic Online Conversion Rates -- What we’re seeing now is, instead of conversion rates trending up, they’re trending down.
(Slide) Shop.org State of Retailing Online 9.0 3.2% in 2002 2.4% in 2003 2.6% in 2004 2.4% in 2005 (/Slide)
In direct response, if you’re getting conversion rates like these, you throw a party. But you can’t compare DR to web. They’re fundamentally different, and cannot be compared apples to apples.
The Opportunity Cost Game – How much do lost opportunities cost your business per day? (Showing slide from Overstock.com… a DVD landing page. 92% abandonment rate.)
When we think about optimizing a web site, we think about two different levels of opportunity. Persuasion (marketing) and conversion (buying). Persuasion is where the huge opportunities lay.
(Slide) Eisenberg’s Hierarchy of Optimization (Pyramid)
Persuasive Intuitive (Does it feel natural and doesn’t make me think?) Usable (Is it user friendly?) Accessible (Can everyone access it?) Functional (Does it do what I need?) (/Slide)
How to Set Up Persuasion Architecture (Different Audience Types) Spontaneous: seek top sellers and new releases, impulsive Humanistics: care about reviews, emotional Methodicals: investigate by genre, logical Competitives: hunt for actor, title, etc.
It’s much easier to double your business by doubling your conversion rate than by doubling your traffic.
To Drive Persuasive Momentum 1) Who are we trying to persuade to take the action? 2) What is the action we want someone to take? (Macro vs. Micro) 3) What does that person need in order to feel confident taking that action?
Step 1- Define the conversion goals of your test - What action do we want them to take? - What page will we test? - Where do we judge success (define success criteria)
Step 2 – Who are your Profiles? - How many different types of profiles will you have that would participate in this campaign? - How do they buy? - Methodical, Spontaneous, etc..
Step 3 – Do the Creative - Create the pages, PPC ads, emails or advertisements (online and off)
Landing Page Optimization - A/B vs. Multivariate ( http://services.google.com/websiteoptimizer/ ) - Section Test ( Just test one small section, but tested 5 variations plus control)
7 Formulas to Online Success
1) Product Images Tell a Story – Make sure the picture tells the user all the information the user needs. 2) Test Headlines. 3) Calls to Action – Get Them to Click 4) Point of Action Assurances 5) Make It Obvious and Expected 6) Don’t Make Them Wait – Speed of site… slim down the file sizes for images to speed the load. 7) Does Your Site Stink?
Jared Spool: “… a web page can do only one of two things: either it contains the information you want, or it can get you to the information you want.”
Studying drop-off data indicates that would be customers visiting your site lose the relevant “scent” of what put them on the trail to your site; without that scent, they are unmotivated to go on.
Buyer’s Behavior and Modeling
It’s not about what, but why Understand your customer’s motivation and tailor the message specifically to address those customer’s wants and needs. When you have multiple types of customer “types”, make sure that wording and imagery speaks to each type to keep them interested and pull them down the “information scent trail” right through to conversion.
Second Speaker: Eduardo Valades, President of iHispanic Marketing Group
Top Optimization Strategies for Herramientas de Produccion’s Website: - Creative Keyword Research + Information Architecture - Unique Titles and Meta Tags on all pages - Content, content and more content o HTML text, NOT text on images and NO FLASH - HTML code design issues that have impact - Other “off-page” considerations - Link Analysis - Web Analytics Software -- Tracking is everything - Precise Conversion Strategy: Call to Action
Optimization Achievements - Easy access to all product categories - Clear and clean background - No Flash - Attractive pictures - Numerous calls to action - Created 400 pages of content, all of which is now indexed - Well structured website - Fresh content with news, events, expo information, etc. - Improved the relevance of pages about products - Increased online request conversion rate from 0.5% to approx. 6%
Additional recommendations by Future Now, Inc.:
PRODUCT PAGE -- Change of text color from blue to black and hyperlinks in blue underlined text -- Move “Solicitar cotización” button from the left to the right, more prominent, and above and below the product description -- Button should say “Request quote and find out if its the product for you” OR “Request quote and we’ll contact you immediately”
CONTÁCTENOS PAGE: -- Elimination of every field that is not absolutely needed -- Informing users about how long it will take to get back and how they will get back -- Centralization of the “Enviar” button and its graphical representation -- Testing of buttons like “Please contact me” OR “Send now and we’ll contact you in X hours”
One of the biggest problems our clients have is that they don’t have in place the infrastructure and support systems to handle the influx of new leads/orders/customer calls. To maximize ROI, you have to make sure that there the capacity to respond to the rise in customer requests/orders/etc in a timely manner.
Questions and Answers
Q: What page elements are the most important to generate conversions?
JE: Design is something ppl have known about for a really long time. Look at heatmaps. There’s a rule of threes. Divide the page up like a tic-tac-toe board. It’s the corners and edges that people tend to notice. We’re not symmetrical, so it’s the things on the periphery that we notice the most… not always things right in front of us. Also, higher contrast and brighter colors tend to make clearer what the user is supposed to be doing. They understand the call to action better.
