Wireframes are one of the tools I use to communication page changes to Conversion Sciences clients. If you've been through this with me, you'll know that I believe in pen and "paper." My favorite commandment:
"Thou shall not wireframe alone."
Stock photography is the lazy designer's crutch. Ironic considering that most pages miss a most basic marketing truism: "Show the product." This post offers some great insight into proper use of images on your Web pages.
The keys to good landing pages is helping the visitor to decide what to do and what is important. Color and shape are two ways to announce visually what matters. I love this selection of tools (though I hate MS Paint).
Even a marketer that is mocking up pages can use these tools to emphasize what is important for a designer.
New tools for the conversion lab.
I rarely find "Top Ways" lists for which I agree with everything. This one is spot on, 12 times out of 12. If you are running a blog, these are the things to look at (and I need to make some adjustments to The Conversion Scientist blog).
By @WAWorld
These are some of the tools you want in your lab. They are the beakers, bunsen burners, mass spectrometers, and Geiger counters tha tyou use to test and evaluate your online marketing experiments.
From Web Analytics World
I recommend a kind of social media strategy that we call "Content-oriented" social media. This strategy revolves around creating content and sharing it with your social networks. If it gets shared around, you generate more qualified prospects to your site to convert. Clicks are measureable, which we like at Conversion Sciences.
Here are nine errors we make that limits the amount of sharing that goes on around our content.
NOTE: In #8, the writer defines six sharing personas. Note that 7 of the 8 prefer email as a tool of their sharing. This is an article on social media. The insinuation is that email is a social media tool. You may know that I call email the largest social network on the planet.
Just saying...
@KISSmetrics - Google Analytics has become a very important tool in helping us diagnose your site and increase conversions. I'm spending much more of my time showing businesses how to setup Google Analytics to give them amazing insights into their visitors. This list is pretty intense, but if you're getting up the learning curve on GA, it can't be beat.
What Seth calls a "Use Case" we call Personas in the world of conversion. Otherwise the benefits are the same: understanding your most important visitors, ending bad relationships with poor customers, and getting everyone on the same page.
@widerfunnel "We have tested rotating offers many times and have found it to be a poor way of presenting home page content." Enough said.
Businesses love rotating banners because they are cowards. They are afraid of picking something and running with it. They don't want to lose a chance to get everyone. Well, when you try to sell to everyone, you sell to no one. If you won't listen to me, please, read Chris Goward's article. When it comes to testing, the Wider Funnel people konw what they're doing.
@SeeWhy provided one of the most mind-changing ideas to come out of last week's Conversion Conference in New York:
Shopping Cart Abandonment Isn't Necessarily Bad
Some shoppers must abandon once or twice before they can buy.
But when it's time to close the deal, you don't want your shopping cart to choke. This infographic is a fantastic summary of the best practices to keep someone in the buying process, and getting them back if they need to abandon.