Granted cutting of costs to expand profit margins is necessary.  However you can only cut costs by so much without effectively ruining your business.  So when that limit is reached what else can a business owner do?  For e-commerce site owners the answer lays in increasing conversion rates.  A full site redesign can be expensive and still leads to a stagnate site, and the addition of features to stay competitive is helpful but won’t guarantee increases in conversion rates.  

The answer to increasing conversion rates in ‘09 lays in web Personalization.  What is it?  It’s holding a dynamic, personal, conversation with your site traffic via Personalized content zones.  

The traffic landing on your site is made up of hundreds of segments that can be defined by everything from their geographic locations, to frequency of visits, to qualifying keywords, to sites they’re referred from.  Each of these segments are ripe for conversation and in turn, the potential to increasing conversion rates.   This can be simply implemented on your site via several pieces of code and designation of several site real estate zones to hold this conversation.

Our current client base utilizing this Personalization service (and our testing of it) have resulted in significant YOY returns despite the current economic downturn.   Going that extra mile, and addressing each segment on a personal level, increases the visitors trust in your site and this goes a long way in their purchase decision.  

If you’re interested in learning more about Personalization and the benefits it will offer to your business in ‘09 be sure to sit in on the following webinar:  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/877786604

Don’t let the short term ruin the vitality of your business.  Business, like the tides has its ups and downs, be confident in the ebb and flow, keep true to the core of your business, your customers, and thrive.

What am i going to write about in this post? Guess…. Headlines? how’d you know, by the headline?   Yes in our high paced world headlines and taglines are becoming more and more important.  Customers no longer read, they thin slice their way across the internet picking up importance and meanings of pages by a handfull of words that catch their attention.

How Does this Effect Your Site?

If you want to ensure that customers stay engaged in your site it’s important that you have clearly strucutred Headlines and Sub-Headlines throughout all pieces of content.  Whether it’s your “About Us” page, product page or a section page for t-shirts… clearly written and formated headlines will mean the difference between a customer staying on your site or bouncing to a competitor.

Great Elaboratory Link -

Seth Godin elaborates - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/dewey-defeats-t.html

Enjoy!

One strategy used by Agencies to increase click-through rates of PPC campaigns (while decreasing CPC’s and CPA’s) is to Geo-Target their clients keywords and campaigns.  The impact of these strategies are fairly significant as demonstrated in a recent study by Marketing Sherpra.   However if you look closely, you’ll realize an important metric is missing, Conversion Rates.   

The agency in the Marketing Sherpra example was able to drive traffic efficiently and convert at low costs but they would have realized significantly hirer conversion rates if they worked in tandem with personalization efforts.  For example, lets say they used keywords geo-targeting New York.  They we’re able to pick these keywords up cheaply, however once a visitor landed on the site (and saw no refernce to NY) the trail of relevancy built by the potential visitors keyword, and the adtext, would have come to an end.  To fully maximize their advertising dollars the next step in this strategy should be to personally address that geographic segment on the landing page.

Now, unless the site created hundreds of variations of each web page to speak to each geographic segment how could they address these geo-graphic segments?  The answer lays in personalization technologies such as Sitebrand.  Their technology allows site owners to create custom banners that are automatically triggered based on the the visitors location.  Used in conjunction with advanced PPC strategies this is a powerful solution that has been proven to provide huge lifts in conversion rates.  

Shameless product plug.. where do you go to find this solution, look no further than Solid Cactus. ]]> http://conversionblog.solidcactus.com/2008/12/geo-targeting/feed/ http://conversionblog.solidcactus.com/2008/11/cause-for-a-celebration/ http://conversionblog.solidcactus.com/2008/11/cause-for-a-celebration/#comments Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:37:11 +0000 Jeff Petrosillo http://conversionblog.solidcactus.com/?p=74 On Tuesday the FCC formally agreed to open up the “white spaces” spectrum (unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels) for wireless broadband service for the public!

This is a huge win for the continued liberation of the Internet.  What is the potential here?  To quote Larry Page - 

I’ve always thought that there are a lot of really incredible things that engineers and entrepreneurs can do with this spectrum. We will soon have “Wi-Fi on steroids,” since these spectrum signals have much longer range than today’s Wi-Fi technology and broadband access can be spread using fewer base stations resulting in better coverage at lower cost. 

The future is bright and connected.  

More reading here:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/vote-for-broadband-in-white-spaces.html

http://www.wirelessinnovationalliance.org/?gclid=CIO2uKLD25YCFQYcHgodIx7K2g

Why should my ideal customer buy from me rather than my competition?

What is unique about my site?

What is my proposal to these customers i’m driving to my site?

What’s the one thing I do differently from my competitors?

What’s my compelling reason for people to trust me with their money?

What value am i offering to the market?

Once you’ve answered these questions, boil them down to a single sentence, a concept that you can use to tout your unique mix of value offerings across your website and the internet.

For a detailed look at the value proposition check out Marketing Experiments breakdown -

http://www.marketingexperiments.com/improving-website-conversion/powerful-value-propositions.html

Bonus: Marketing Experiments recently held a great webinar outlining the 13 steps to improve your sites results before the holidays.  You can catch it again here: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/images/multifiles/articulate/webclinic-10-30-08/player.html

If you’ve already activated customer reviews, product recommendations and live chat but are still looking to increase your advantage; the answer lays in personalization.  Think of it as a personal salesman who can relate to each and every customer segement.  I would expand on it further but sometimes you just have to admit that someone’s written it better… 

Check it out - http://blog.sitebrand.com/

While digging into data we are constantly putting ourselves in the mind of the consumer to determine what their motivations are (utilizing data from the marketing channel) and what archetype they are acting from (based on the core of the motivations).   We then map these consumers (based on patterns in the data from marketing to interactions on the site) into personas/tribes/segments.  Its this last step that enables us to cross the bridge into each consumer segments reality; allowing us to begin building the bridge back.  

This costruction process is an art and science that involves creating and testing alterations to the site, promotions and markeitng channels.  The better the results of the test, the more sound the construction of the bridge and the higher the number of conversions.   

With a little experience, sound data, and a handfull of advanced tools you too can begin melding your marketing/website experience to the desired experience of each consumer base.  And what’s a more perfect time to start then on the great all hallows eve

http://www.dmnews.com/How-customer-centric-retailers-ask-deeper-questions-and-get-better-answers/article/120138/

In summary, it breaks down the new vs. old marketing paradigm.  The switch from businesses examining “what” customers are doing to “why” and the importance of data in revealing actionable insights.  

Although some of the tactics he presents to tackle customer centric marketing are more complex than small businesses are prepared to handle, it doesn’t mean it should be ignored.

As long as you have a well oiled analytics system you can begin the shift towards customer centric marketing.  It starts with breaking down customer segments, analyzing their actions (bounce rates, stickiness, conversion rates, avg, order values, ROI) and then coming up with strategies to align yourself with the segments that provide the greatest value to your company.

This sounds like bad news until you read the first line of the article:

“US online retail sales this holiday season will reach $44 billion, a 12% increase over last year and the slowest growth rate to date”

http://www.marketingcharts.com

This is why i love being in the online industry, during a recession, when the market is crumbling around us, the bad times are marked by 12% Growth.

To activate your Yahoo Web Analytics click the link below for a PDF Activation Guide: yahoo-web-analytics-set-up

This is a great gift from Yahoo that finally allows store owners to compete on analytics and make business decisions from sound data.  It’s about time

Enjoy!