A blog is critical for SEO. It can also be a great lead generator and email list builder.
The Conversion Scientist™ is crucial to our marketing efforts.
Rich Page has a great list of do's and don'ts here with examples. You should take a look.
Annoying Ads
Unclear value proposition
Articles with no call to action
Not mobile optimized
Short articles, no sub-headlines
Cluttered sidebar columns
No social proof
Bland articles
Poor incentive to subscribe
No exit-intent popups
Start Here page
Forms are a key component of Landing Pages (in addition to Offer, Image, Trust and Proof). When a visitor considers completing a form — for lead gen, to subscribe or to purchase — it is the moment of truth.
So, it is sad that so many forms work to chase these ready customers and prospects away.
This article will give you some things to consider as you guide development of your website forms in these areas:
Right time of informing about problems/success
Right place for validation messages
Right color
Clear language
While this article discusses the bottom navigation bar for andriod apps, we often test "sticky" headers and footers on mobile websites. We call these kinds of tests "lead tophats" and "sticky shoes".
Our tests often don't favor the hamburger menu, so we are always looking for alternatives. This sticky shoe approach has the footer navigation change with context. Given the results, such an approach may increase mobile conversion and call rates for your mobile website.
I frequently say that there are thousands of ways to increase your conversion rate, lead generation and revenue. With that thought in mind, you should be less intimidated by this little list of 40 ideas from @KISSMetrics.
@tim_ash It's that magical moment in which a visitor becomes a lead or a sale; when they seek by their actions to start or continue a relationship with us. It is the moment they click a button. Conversion rate expert Tim Ash offers some great guidance on how to get your buttons clicked more and more.
Barry Feldman @FledmanCreative leads this article off with a most vivid depiction of our end goal: "Start with a dead mouse." This is the ultimate goal of our content marketng. We want to accomplish something. The rest is equally as creative. My new book discusses content in the conversion process at length. I hope it is as entertaining as Barry.
Good sense advice if you want your pages to reel in more leads and sales. I especially appreciate being reminded that "clarity trumps persuasion" a wisdom of Dr. Flint McGlaughlin of MEC Labs.
As I'm putting the final touches on my up-coming book, it is very clear that content is the most important conversion strategy: It influences and enables almost every other strategy.
If you need to get started on content marketing here is a pretty complete list of resources to get you started.
@LoriMeyer541 offers a nice summary of why conversion is important and important relationship between your traffic and your site's ability to convert. "You certainly need traffic because without it, your business is dead. But, traffic is not everything - unless you can convert it."Her prescriptions for making a blog convert require some heavy content development, but the larger point is this: You must offer something relevant to your readers to start them down the path of becoming customers.
What happens when you understand what your online recipe is? Magical things. More visitors. More sales. More leads. More revenue. This is not a job for a web designer or developer. As the business owner, marketing manager, or agency, you must know how to shepherd the development of a site into a repeatable, measurable formula. Here's an opportunity to learn more.
Here's the first line from this very helpful little post.
"0 sales! What? But we got 517 unique visitors this week!"
Airing your mistakes is not seen as smart marketing in many circles, but this kind of thing really is helpful. Besides the important moral of this story, there's another:
Failing the right way leads to success faster. Failing without knowing why invites unnecessary failure.
There are a number of best practices when it comes to creating forms on your landing pages.
Fewer fields increases conversion rate.
Avoid conversion killering fields like address unless you absolutely need them.
Add qualifying questions only to increase the quality of leads.
"Submit" is not a proper call to action.
No best practice is best for everyone, though. This infograph does a great job of putting some numbers behind the development of the right form for your landing page.
Retargeting Emails - Do E-commerce customers like or loathe them?
March 10th, 2011Leave a commentGo to comments
By Charles Nicolls, SeeWhy
At SeeWhy, when we first launched our remarketing service in 2009, Randy Stross wrote a piece about email remarketing in The New York Times suggesting that while remarketing might be a great idea for ecommerce websites, it's not a great idea for consumers. He likened emails following up on abandoned shopping carts to a salesman chasing you down the street if you didn't buy from his store.
There are major differences, of course. We've long argued that remarketing emails, when done well, not only drive conversions but also build brand trust.
They can deliver great service and provide customers with the confidence to return to buy-either online, by phone or in store. If Randy was right and customers universally resented the intrusion, then these emails wouldn't work.
In aiming to answer the question more substantively, I turned to data, and specifically email marketing benchmarks.
The key metrics to look at to determine whether customers like or loathe remarketing emails are:
the recovery rate
the open rate
the clickthrough rate
the unsubscribe rate
Frankly, the evidence is overwhelming: Remarketing, when done well, is appreciated by customers. Here's the evidence:
(1) The recovery rate
The recovery rate is the percentage of visitors that abandon shopping carts, and remarketed visitors thatthen return and purchase following remarketing. At SeeWhy, we measure recovery rates across all our customers, and currently the average is 20 percent.
So, one in five shopping cart abandoners come back and buy, having being remarketed. In some cases, the recovery rate is as high as 50 percent. Moreover, when remarketed customers buy, they spend on average 55 percent more than customers who didn't abandon their shopping carts.
(2) The open rate
The average email open rate for remarketing emails is currently 46 percent, m
I find it very refreshing that "Conversion Rate Optimization" made a top ten list for a successful search startup. "Conversion Rate Optimization is Essential, not Optional." These principles are helpful for any business that depends on the Web for leads or sales.