Online Conversion

Bryan Eisenberg is a great teacher and is one of the fathers of conversion science. In this post, he asks his audience to make recommendations on pricing tables, those pages that ostensibly help us to choose the right product for us.

Here are my suggestions.

The main purpose of a page like this is "Help me choose." Choice, as it turns out, is a conversion killer, so these pages can be very helpful. This page needs to tell me which is "The best value." A badge would be helpful, probably on the most expensive item.

The little "signal bars" are unique and may be helpful, but don't really tell me at a glance what I want to know.

The copy is unhelpful. Instead of "Essential productivity..." how about "Great system for a tight budget." Instead of "Yield better results..." how about "Good value ready for your network." Instead of "2nd Generation Processor..." how about "This system has the power to do heavy number crunching, video editing and graphics."

There are too many prices here -- four to be exact. I say, pick two: Savings and total price. Crossing out "Starting price" is a proven way to communicate value.

Finally, put the coupon code near the "Customize & Buy" buttons to give those transactional shoppers an extra push.

What do you find frustrating about this page?

Video has a relatively small part in my book, so I wanted to give you some more depth with this article by Joe Watson.

One of the things that freezes us when we're going to do video is the question, "what will we do?" From a conversion standpoint, the question is, "what will we test?" This implies more than one version of a video. There are ways to cut a video to test for length, style and focus, but testing implies multiple treatments. That's why we've been offering a video piloting service called Video Science.

Storyboarding may be the thing that gets you past considering. I know it works for me.

I only touch on the issue of Mobile Apps in my new book Your Customer Creation Equation. So I'm happy to share this very helpful infographic on Mobile websites vs. Mobile apps.

Is it just me, or is it clear that mobile websites are the way to go (except in extreme situations)?

In my upcoming book, I make the case that email is preferable to social media for storing market attention. You might think that, in the era of mobile devices, my preference for email may seem quaint.

Think again.

Clearly, mobile devices and email go together like milk and Cap'n Crunch cereal. Only healthier. Enjoy these stats and keep that email coming!

I only touch on the issue of Mobile Apps in my new book Your Customer Creation Equation. So I'm happy to share this very helpful infographic on Mobile websites vs. Mobile apps.

Is it just me, or is it clear that mobile websites are the way to go (except in extreme situations)?

How is this touching video different from your corporate press release? In every way. "The Human Voice is Unmistakeable." In Your Customer Creation Equation (coming in June) I make the point that your business should be using the content it naturally makes to feed your audience.

Clearly Michael Lazerow is good with an iPad and Keynote.

What are you good with?

It is a great sign that @SEOMoz included Conversion in their grand plan for Content Marketing. This infograph considers conversion a key component of content marketing, but in my upcoming book on conversion I make content a key part of conversion marketing. Different approaches, same result.

Enjoy the Infograph.

I'll be presenting on Killer Conversion Copy at @convcon in Chicago, and one of my basic premises is "Killer copy comes from killer copywriters." If you are deciding how get your site to perform better, this list of copywriter attributes is spot on.

You can still save on Conversion Conference Chicago June 25-26. I hope to see you there.

This is a very geeky look at what makes video go viral. Very geeky. That's why I love it. Dr. Brent Coker introduces us to the Branded Viral Movie Predictor (BVMP). Yes, it even has an acronym. If you've considered doing a video in the hopes that it might "go viral," read this first and be sure you have the appropriate doses of congruency, emotive strength, network involvement and paird meme synergy. Don't you love science?

This is a very geeky look at what makes video go viral. Very geeky. That's why I love it. Dr. Brent Coker introduces us to the Branded Viral Movie Predictor (BVMP). Yes, it even has an acronym. If you've considered doing a video in the hopes that it might "go viral," read this first and be sure you have the appropriate doses of congruency, emotive strength, network involvement and paird meme synergy. Don't you love science?

 @KISSMetricsYou want to have a high-converting website. You really do. I'm not kidding.

It makes all of your marketing much cheaper by turning more of your paid and organic traffic into sales. It grows your business more efficiently because your visitors are finding what they want. It gets you off of the "more traffic" treadmill so you can focus on providing great products or great services.

Here is another awesome summary of the things you could be doing to make your site convert better.

Consistency is key in conversion. Automation helps us stay consistent. That is why I like this article from Christopher S. Penn. Best takeaway: Install "Shortcode Exec PHP"

Your brain works on two systems, one of which is the "adult" -- critical, discerning, investigative -- and the other which is "intuitive." While the intuitive just wants to have fun, the Adult shows up when there is a problem. If you are appealing to the intuitive with your website, don't do things that cause problems, otherwise, mommy will show up and ruin the fun.

If none of this makes sense, please just read this interesting article based on Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

The folks at Rejoiner were kind enough to include me in their list of conversion rate experts to follow on Twitter.

In my new book I liken abandonment to cholesterol: there is good abandonment and bad abandonment. SeeWhy.com CEO Charles Nichols was the person who helped me realize this, and his article shows you how to support your visitors natural need to abandon before they buy.

Wordpress themes often work against the Conversion Scientist. Too often they don't offer important templates, such as landing pages that work without navigation and sidebars, landing pages that incorporate video and more. I have built pages with both Thesis and Genesis, and currently Thesis is my preference. However, Genesis plus Premise is also working for me.

I've been seeing a lot about the film Caine's Arcade lately. The think that stuck out to me was his pricing model. Buyer psychologists would be proud. Find out why.

The blog volcano wants to ERUPT. But it won't unless you are doing some basic things in your posts and articles. Here are eight important and relatively easy to follow tips to give your posts and articles legs.

The folks at ConversionVoodoo give us two simple questions we should ask before creating a landing page. The "elephant in the room" here is that one landing page probably isn't going to work, as different people respond to different ads, and thus need a different landing page. What you know about them will make all the difference in your conversion rates.

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.