We’ve all heard the saying “perception is reality.” And when it comes to website usability, there is no truer statement. Bottom line: if a user cannot find something on your landing page, it might as well not exist at all. Website usability has to do with how information is organized, how much emphasis is assigned to items, and how easy the information is to access for the … [Read more...]
What are You “Converting” on Your Website?
Conversion actions are measurable events that move a website visitor toward the mission critical activities that you have identified. Many people view conversions as large-scale or “macro” events, such as product sales or sign-ups for a service. In fact, most conversion actions are incremental micro-events that reduce friction and allow a visitor to continue moving toward your … [Read more...]
Emotional Motivators in Landing Page Optimization
Visitors arrive at your website with their own needs, perspectives, and emotions. How can your landing page influence them to take action when you don’t know what motivates them? Start with this basic truth: people don’t often make rational decisions. In fact, the capacity for abstract rational thought is only a recent evolutionary addition to our brains. We have mainly gotten … [Read more...]
7 Landing Page Fixes that will Skyrocket Conversions
Landing page optimization and testing can have a dramatic impact on your online marketing profitability. But even if you don’t have the staff or resources to do testing you can easily evaluate your landing pages for some of the most common conversion killers. Here are 7 simple landing page fixes that work across a surprisingly wide variety of circumstances and … [Read more...]
Usability Basics for Landing Page Optimization
If a visitor cannot find something on your landing page, it might as well not exist at all. Have you used common sense in the design of your landing page? You probably think so. But there is often a disconnect between how a website designer approaches a site design, and what actual users experience when they visit the site. The point of good usability is to make things easy for … [Read more...]
What is Your Website Worth? The financial impact of conversion rate improvement
Most business websites are developed for a specific purpose. They are focused on achieving a desired outcome from a particular audience. A website conversion happens when a visitor to your site takes the desired action, and likely represents a measurable value to your business. Calculating the value of a conversion can go a long way in justifying an ongoing landing page … [Read more...]
Landing Page Optimization – Testing your way to higher profits
In the online marketing world, a lot of time and resources are spent driving traffic to a website or landing page. Huge budgets are spent on pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, e-mail marketing efforts and search engine optimization. You analyze campaign performance with almost religious fervor in order to extract the last penny of revenue and profit possible from each internet … [Read more...]
Let’s Get Personal
Imagine that you are shopping at a department store and you ask a salesperson for men’s summer sandals and he takes you to the main entrance and drops you off. Your reaction?There’s a good chance you’re frustrated. You probably think less of the store for its poor service. You’re probably going to leave without buying any shoes. You might even tell your … [Read more...]
Passing the Test
In the May/June Affiliate's Corner column, I wrote about the ways super-affiliates prefer to be approached by affiliate program managers and merchants for the purpose of program recruitment.Wooing a super-affiliate over drinks and dinner with offers of exclusive landing pages, significantly higher-than-advertised commission rates, or showering them with free product samples … [Read more...]
Improving Conversions
Kimberly Griffiths knows all too well what it feels like to be drowning in a sea of debt. Like many Americans, she's faced credit card charges totaling tens of thousands of dollars. The difference between Griffiths and the average credit-card-toting American is that she conquered the interest-accruing beasts.Now Griffiths is passionate about helping others conquer it too. She … [Read more...]
Redemption
It all started with Asa Candler, a "prescriptionist" in Atlanta 112 years ago. A modest pharmacist who dealt in tonics and medicines, he bought an unassuming recipe for a patent medicine called Coca-Cola. When he gave out handwritten slips of paper for customers to try the new drink for free, the coupon was born.The simple yet brilliant marketing idea Candler conceived has, of … [Read more...]
You’ve Got Content, Now What?
I find that many website owners are divided into two camps. One camp is very good at developing unique content and garnering tons of search engine traffic, but they have a hard time turning that traffic into dollars. The other camp is great at monetizing traffic, but they can never generate very much traffic. In both cases the individuals involved eventually become discouraged … [Read more...]
Insurance for Conversion Rates
Designing for conversions isn't rocket science. It's just the ability to design a website with particular ideas in mind. For this column we're going to focus on some of the most powerful ways to make a site convert - emotion, unique value proposition and credibility. Master these three basic concepts and you'll be rewarded with soaring conversion rates.The life insurance lead … [Read more...]
It’s Just Direct Marketing
As I go around the country teaching workshops on pay per click (PPC) I get asked many varied questions on search engine marketing (SEM), depending on which city I happen to be in. Larger marketers seem to have more sophisticated questions; smaller marketers tend to focus on subsistence tactics. However, one theme seems to reoccur frequently: the myth that SEM is some kind of … [Read more...]
Know Your Audience
When designing a Web site, you must take the intended audience into careful consideration. Whether the Web site is business-to-business or business-to-consumer, the design will require a format that caters to the desired type of visitor, and it must also guide them through the intended process as comfortably and efficiently as possible.First, take into account whether the … [Read more...]