Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
AtricleZine - Without Conversion Rates You Don’t Know If You’re Mickey Mouse Or Mickey Mantle
A Sale is considered closed when the buyer and seller reach agreement on terms for the buyer to take ownership of a product or service. To get to this stage, the seller normally has to “close” the sale, by asking the buyer for their business. This is where the buyer raises “objections”. Objections generally fall into three main types. This article will explore the types of objection, how they arise and how to overcome and avoid them. Part II will then discuss the 10 most common objections, and how to handle them to close the sale. You must get the customer to reiterate the value that they are getting first and foremost.Potential customers generally raise objections for three specific reasons. Two of these are easily handled. The third however, normally points to a fundamental breakdown in the sales process. All is not however lost, and while most of these can be overcome, it is important to understand why they arose, and ensure future sales do not fall into the same trap.Sales objection Type 1 – Negotiation Tactics.Assuming that your buyer fully appreciates the value that your product will bring them, some still need to get a “deal”. The range of people looking for a deal can be entrepreneurs, professional procurement and government departments.You must get the customer to reiterate the value that they are getting first and foremost. This will strengthen your negotiating position. If it is confirmed that they really need this, and that they truly believe that you have the best solution for them, you must make a judgment call. This in effect means that you must also look at the lifetime value of
Again, conversion is an important measurement here. It can be applied to all of the changes you make to your site as you eliminate these ‘Butt Brush Factors’. Later in this article, I’ll explain how.
Attention All Shoppers…
“For the next fifteen minutes, in the frozen food section, free passion fruit sorbet for everyone” is a perfect way to instill urgency in shoppers to go to that section of the store and get the freebie. They know they only have 15 minutes, and they know that after that time they won’t get the lovely sorbet. This was Paco’s way of showing how stores could be more imaginative. The store knows that that section of the store is going to be jammed with people for that 15 minutes and can capitalize on impulse sales. That’s how it works in the retailing world, but what about online? Instilling urgency online is a major factor overlooked by many business websites. Some examples of how you might want to start employing this technique online are listed below.
1) Time Expiry Offer.
Just as in the above example, you could let your readers know they will miss out if
Search engine Google looks for determining the rank of any site on:1) Content of the site2) Link popularity of the site (i.e. the no. of inbound links to that site)Exchanging links with other sites is a great way to generate traffic to your website. Links done properly will repay the effort and not be subject to the whims of the search engines. No more need to be concerned unduly about SE algorithm changes.What Does It Mean By Exchanging Links With Other Site?You find a site that has similar content like your site. Then you can ask that site owner to put your site link in his site. In exchange you put his site link in your site.Why Have A Links Page In Your Site?A links page should give your visitors a choice of quality information and resources, not just a web page to improve your search engine rankings. Quality information on a links page is the best long-term strategy to improve search engine ranking.Search engines are becoming very sophisticated and realise that many sites are putting up links merely to improve their rankings.Therefore always exchange links with web sites that are connected with theme of your site.How Do You Find Link Exchange Partners?One way is to go to the search engines and look for sites that are compatible with your own. Send the webmaster an email requesting a link or phone him or her personally.An easier way is to register with the free link exchange program which will give you quality links and save you a lot of time. the following is a link exchange: http://www.linkmarket.net/How Can I
In Cyberspace No-One Can Hear You Shop
According to Paco, the main problem with websites is that, owing to media attention and the love of technology, retailers went online without knowing why. It’s true that in the late 90’s businesses were going online because their competition had, or because they feared that they would be left behind by not embracing the new technology. Not great reasons to spend time, money and resources on a website. The painful thing is that, since going online, most of these websites have not changed much for the better. Yes, they look nicer now, but the number of glorified poster sites I still see never ceases to amaze me. In order to combat this lack of purpose, I propose you look at four goals and adapt them to your own business requirements. One of these goals should be the primary focus of your entire website design.
1) Prospect Acquisition
To deliver qualified leads and prospects through the website.
2) Sales/E-commerce
To sell products and services online directly through an e-store.
3) In-House Cost Saving
To cut costs, usually resources such as printed material or time, by automating in-house processes online such as timekeeping systems and human resource procedures.
4) Customer Service
To improve customer service by providing answers to queries and complaints online automatically where possible.
With the goal clearly defined, it is easier to measure the effectiveness of your site because you know what to look for. Conversion is defined in relation to the goal you’ve chosen.
So measure prospect acquisition as the percentage of visitors who give you their details out of the total number of visitors to your website. Measure conversion on sales as the percentage of people buying a product against the total number of website visitors. Conversion on in-house cost saving is simply the number of people using the system as a percentage of the number of people supposed to be using the system. A good internal policy here will mean this is a 100% conversion rate. The number of people using the resources and systems you have put in place as a percentage of total visitors to the support web pages can give you your customer service conversion.
So why measure conversion? Because it allows you to accurately measure the impact of changes you make by measuring the performance of your website before and after the change. With that valuable information in hand, you can make adjustments accordingly.
The Butt Brush Factor
In many instances in his book, Paco refers to ‘The Butt Brush Factor’ — the way people, women in particular, don’t like enclosed spaces where other people constantly bump into them from behind. It usually led to the prospective shopper feeling frustrated or feeling uncomfortable and leaving the store or going somewhere else. You might be thinking, “well how does that relate to an online experience?” It is true that no-one usually bumps into you from behind while you’re sitting in front of a computer, but how many times are you made to feel irritated, uncomfortable or just downright frustrated by a website? How often do you leave one and look at another because the first one doesn’t have what you’re looking for? This ‘Butt Brush Factor’ is incredibly relevant to websites, more so I think than even in ordinary retail. Here are some examples of common online ‘Butt Brush Factors’ that you will see in many business websites.
1) Latest News.
The landing page has the latest news about the company links. What exactly is the point of having a bunch of latest news links on your landing page? What good is that to a browser arriving at your landing page knowing and caring little about your company? A browser wants to know what you can do for him right there and then, not how your company stock is doing. An ‘About Us’ section is a much more reasonable place to put these links.
2) Awards.
A landing page with awards screams, look at us, look at what we’ve achieved, aren’t we clever? It also completely wastes space on the most important page of your website. It can be compared to what Paco said when he talked about going into a car showroom and seeing manufacturer awards. That is unlikely to make much of an impression on the average shopper.
3) Poor Headlines.
‘Welcome to Company Name’ is the most common waste of a headline I ever see. Probably the company is unknown to the visitor so you’re wasting his or her time. A headline, which communicates the need of the target audience and how you can solve that need, improves reading and click through by up to 35% in recent tests we made.
4) Submit Buttons.
Why tell the visitor to ‘submit?’ Submit actually means “To yield or surrender (oneself) to the will or authority of another” according to dictionary.com, so why ask innocent web browsers to do that in order to read your monthly newsletter? Subscribe to our newsletter is much more friendly, I would say.
5) Bad Use Of Flash.
This is a common problem with media companies in particular. I understand why they do these all singing all dancing interactive flash websites, which often are works of art and showcase their ability. However ‘skip intro’ is a common link on the majority of these websites. That is because some people find them a waste of time. Why have an intro at all? Why not just have a showcase of what you can do on a normal fast, efficient website which tells me what I need to know quickly? If I decide I have the time to look at flash animations I will.
6) Poor Use Of Imagery.
I’m guilty of this myself. We used to have a picture of a squirrel flying through the air with ‘what’s your objective’ on our landing page. It might have worked had we been selling nuts or seed, but a company improving website conversion? Not really relevant! It was more a result of my ego, pride and photographic luck in capturing said squirrel with my digital camera, and then thinking of a way I could use the picture, than thinking of a good picture which was relevant to what we were trying to say and using that. This kind of thing is repeated on many websites — people with briefcases, bridges, animals and other general graphics, which can be turned with words into anything you want the image to say. But on first glance, they don’t really show any relevance. All communication should be relevant and, ideally, persuade the user to do something.
Again, conversion is an important measurement here. It can be applied to all of the changes you make to your site as you eliminate these ‘Butt Brush Factors’. Later in this article, I’ll explain how.
Attention All Shoppers…
“For the next fifteen minutes, in the frozen food section, free passion fruit sorbet for everyone” is a perfect way to instill urgency in shoppers to go to that section of the store and get the freebie. They know they only have 15 minutes, and they know that after that time they won’t get the lovely sorbet. This was Paco’s way of showing how stores could be more imaginative. The store knows that that section of the store is going to be jammed with people for that 15 minutes and can capitalize on impulse sales. That’s how it works in the retailing world, but what about online? Instilling urgency online is a major factor overlooked by many business websites. Some examples of how you might want to start employing this technique online are listed below.
1) Time Expiry Offer.
Just as in the above example, you could let your readers know they will miss out if t
Traversing your way through the employment market is harder than it has ever been at the moment. There is far more demand on every position available these days, especially if you are aiming to get a good, well paying job straight out of college. Getting an education is only the first step to working your way up the corporate ladder. Following graduation, you have to work your way up through the company before finally achieving the role that you always dreamed of. In most cases, it is actually getting into a company to start with that poses a problem. That is where temporary job openings actually come in.A lot of people actually end up moving from job to job every few months because they do not actually feel as challenged by their job as they should. Boredom and a lack of prospects actually encourage people to leave one job without another to go to. Individuals may therefore find themselves in need of an income whilst they are in between permanent jobs. Again, temporary job openings can come in handy in this situation.Whether you are looking to get your foot on the career ladder or just for something to provide a stopgap, temporary job openings may just be for you. There are some agencies out there that will assess the needs of any given individuals and then offer them temporary job openings according to the answers to their questions. Artists and designers can use these agencies to tap into freelance work opportunities as well as temporary job openings. This all point to the fact that these agencies provide an excellent resource for any individual looking for work.The great thing about Turbo-Charge Your Viral Marketing- Five Easy Ways
The world of marketing has changed. With increasingly better educated and more skeptical consumers, marketing methods must be increasingly accountable.Questions being asked by CEOs and business owners from the largest companies through to the smallest solo operators include:· How can you be more confident about your ability to quantify your return on your marketing investment?· How can you prove the effectiveness of your marketing?· How can you define, measure and take action on your return on investment?· How can you match your marketing to meet your corporate goals and expectations?· How can you predict what would happen to sales if the marketing budget were cut?· How can you forecast the impact of your marketing program on your sales?· How can you integrate modern marketing methods into your existing marketing plans?· How can you convince your boss that marketing does deliver measurable results?· How can you convince your boss to increase and not decrease your marketing budget?One of the emerging tools that answers these questions is viral marketing. Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influenceWord of mouth marketing and personal referrals or recommendations from peers are the most powerful marketing tools. Email and the Internet have extended this by providing technology that induces Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users, creating a potentially exponential growt
1) Latest News.
The landing page has the latest news about the company links. What exactly is the point of having a bunch of latest news links on your landing page? What good is that to a browser arriving at your landing page knowing and caring little about your company? A browser wants to know what you can do for him right there and then, not how your company stock is doing. An ‘About Us’ section is a much more reasonable place to put these links.
2) Awards.
A landing page with awards screams, look at us, look at what we’ve achieved, aren’t we clever? It also completely wastes space on the most important page of your website. It can be compared to what Paco said when he talked about going into a car showroom and seeing manufacturer awards. That is unlikely to make much of an impression on the average shopper.
3) Poor Headlines.
‘Welcome to Company Name’ is the most common waste of a headline I ever see. Probably the company is unknown to the visitor so you’re wasting his or her time. A headline, which communicates the need of the target audience and how you can solve that need, improves reading and click through by up to 35% in recent tests we made.
4) Submit Buttons.
Why tell the visitor to ‘submit?’ Submit actually means “To yield or surrender (oneself) to the will or authority of another” according to dictionary.com, so why ask innocent web browsers to do that in order to read your monthly newsletter? Subscribe to our newsletter is much more friendly, I would say.
5) Bad Use Of Flash.
This is a common problem with media companies in particular. I understand why they do these all singing all dancing interactive flash websites, which often are works of art and showcase their ability. However ‘skip intro’ is a common link on the majority of these websites. That is because some people find them a waste of time. Why have an intro at all? Why not just have a showcase of what you can do on a normal fast, efficient website which tells me what I need to know quickly? If I decide I have the time to look at flash animations I will.
6) Poor Use Of Imagery.
I’m guilty of this myself. We used to have a picture of a squirrel flying through the air with ‘what’s your objective’ on our landing page. It might have worked had we been selling nuts or seed, but a company improving website conversion? Not really relevant! It was more a result of my ego, pride and photographic luck in capturing said squirrel with my digital camera, and then thinking of a way I could use the picture, than thinking of a good picture which was relevant to what we were trying to say and using that. This kind of thing is repeated on many websites — people with briefcases, bridges, animals and other general graphics, which can be turned with words into anything you want the image to say. But on first glance, they don’t really show any relevance. All communication should be relevant and, ideally, persuade the user to do something.
Again, conversion is an important measurement here. It can be applied to all of the changes you make to your site as you eliminate these ‘Butt Brush Factors’. Later in this article, I’ll explain how.
Attention All Shoppers…
“For the next fifteen minutes, in the frozen food section, free passion fruit sorbet for everyone” is a perfect way to instill urgency in shoppers to go to that section of the store and get the freebie. They know they only have 15 minutes, and they know that after that time they won’t get the lovely sorbet. This was Paco’s way of showing how stores could be more imaginative. The store knows that that section of the store is going to be jammed with people for that 15 minutes and can capitalize on impulse sales. That’s how it works in the retailing world, but what about online? Instilling urgency online is a major factor overlooked by many business websites. Some examples of how you might want to start employing this technique online are listed below.
1) Time Expiry Offer.
Just as in the above example, you could let your readers know they will miss out if
Information business online has turned out as an attractive career option especially for retirees and work-at-home moms or dads. Their lifelong experience is so enriching that sharing them on the Internet can fetch very good returns. The downside to this extremely rewarding venture is lack of sufficient knowledge of how to present it online.It's rarely that the older generation does not have it in them to run an information business. But since the Internet is a relatively new phenomenon, often the technical skill to put up a website becomes a barrier to give effect to information business.Then again, simply putting up a website is no solution at all. It must have a direction to grow and enough content to lead it to that direction. This last point is important because it is easy to fall prey to know-all ubiquitous website designers who will make you believe that a good-looking website is all that you need to flourish on the Internet.Nothing can be farther from truth. A website, even if it is not good-looking, can bring good returns if you play your dices well.What then are the main points you ought to consider as you plan to start your information business? Here are 3 of them that are most potent:» Lack Of Direction» Way To Proceed» Finding The NicheIn this part, we'll briefly look at the 3 points to prepare for to start an information business. In the second part of this article, we'll examine 2 barriers, namely lack of technical skill and undue expectation that may stand in the way of successfu
3) Poor Headlines.
‘Welcome to Company Name’ is the most common waste of a headline I ever see. Probably the company is unknown to the visitor so you’re wasting his or her time. A headline, which communicates the need of the target audience and how you can solve that need, improves reading and click through by up to 35% in recent tests we made.
4) Submit Buttons.
Why tell the visitor to ‘submit?’ Submit actually means “To yield or surrender (oneself) to the will or authority of another” according to dictionary.com, so why ask innocent web browsers to do that in order to read your monthly newsletter? Subscribe to our newsletter is much more friendly, I would say.
5) Bad Use Of Flash.
This is a common problem with media companies in particular. I understand why they do these all singing all dancing interactive flash websites, which often are works of art and showcase their ability. However ‘skip intro’ is a common link on the majority of these websites. That is because some people find them a waste of time. Why have an intro at all? Why not just have a showcase of what you can do on a normal fast, efficient website which tells me what I need to know quickly? If I decide I have the time to look at flash animations I will.
6) Poor Use Of Imagery.
I’m guilty of this myself. We used to have a picture of a squirrel flying through the air with ‘what’s your objective’ on our landing page. It might have worked had we been selling nuts or seed, but a company improving website conversion? Not really relevant! It was more a result of my ego, pride and photographic luck in capturing said squirrel with my digital camera, and then thinking of a way I could use the picture, than thinking of a good picture which was relevant to what we were trying to say and using that. This kind of thing is repeated on many websites — people with briefcases, bridges, animals and other general graphics, which can be turned with words into anything you want the image to say. But on first glance, they don’t really show any relevance. All communication should be relevant and, ideally, persuade the user to do something.
Again, conversion is an important measurement here. It can be applied to all of the changes you make to your site as you eliminate these ‘Butt Brush Factors’. Later in this article, I’ll explain how.
Attention All Shoppers…
“For the next fifteen minutes, in the frozen food section, free passion fruit sorbet for everyone” is a perfect way to instill urgency in shoppers to go to that section of the store and get the freebie. They know they only have 15 minutes, and they know that after that time they won’t get the lovely sorbet. This was Paco’s way of showing how stores could be more imaginative. The store knows that that section of the store is going to be jammed with people for that 15 minutes and can capitalize on impulse sales. That’s how it works in the retailing world, but what about online? Instilling urgency online is a major factor overlooked by many business websites. Some examples of how you might want to start employing this technique online are listed below.
1) Time Expiry Offer.
Just as in the above example, you could let your readers know they will miss out if
In my experience I have seen many levels of introvert and extrovert. Let me share some of my own.* Invite me to a party -- I'd rather have a root canal* Have me speak about something I'm passionate about in front of a group of people -- I shine.* Put me in a "casual" networking group -- root canal please.* Put me in a "structured" networking group where I can ask for what I need and help others at the same time -- I'm in heaven.We all have our levels of how we interact, the environments where we thrive and the environments where we are extremely uncomfortable. I have seen many people go into business for themselves, myself included, that would rather give up their dream than to market their business and themselves. I was almost one of those statistics. I almost QUIT my dream until I discovered the secret.I'm sure you've heard the phrases for successful marketing, Find Your Passion; Market from your Passion; Marketing from Within, etc. This is actually correct, but there are a few more steps. Too many times we focus on things we can't do (weakness) versus the things we can do (strength). The most common phrase I've heard is "I don't want to feel like I'm selling." Then we have this belief we're supposed to market from the standard marketing box; cold calls, networking groups, speaking, knocking on doors, etc. NO! You don't need to jump directly into the marketing box first. Get out of the should(s) and the can't(s). Step into what you do well and what you enjoy first, then, open the marketing door.The Secret1. Give yourself permission to redefine marketing to fit yo
Again, conversion is an important measurement here. It can be applied to all of the changes you make to your site as you eliminate these ‘Butt Brush Factors’. Later in this article, I’ll explain how.
Attention All Shoppers…
“For the next fifteen minutes, in the frozen food section, free passion fruit sorbet for everyone” is a perfect way to instill urgency in shoppers to go to that section of the store and get the freebie. They know they only have 15 minutes, and they know that after that time they won’t get the lovely sorbet. This was Paco’s way of showing how stores could be more imaginative. The store knows that that section of the store is going to be jammed with people for that 15 minutes and can capitalize on impulse sales. That’s how it works in the retailing world, but what about online? Instilling urgency online is a major factor overlooked by many business websites. Some examples of how you might want to start employing this technique online are listed below.
1) Time Expiry Offer.
Just as in the above example, you could let your readers know they will miss out if they haven’t subscribed or bought your product by a certain time.
2) The First Number.
Your website could offer the first 50 subscribers a free e-book or could advertise that the first 50 items sold will be at a 30% discount. This could be combined with a counter showing the number of places/items left, so that the browser thinks “I have to subscribe before those places are taken up”.
3) The Nth Number Competition.
The website states that if you are subscriber number 1000, you get a free website makeover, again combined with a visible counter of the current number of subscriptions. This could be tied into a referral deal so that if the subscriber is not the lucky number and does not get the deal, at least he could be offered something for making the referral while his friend might still end up being the lucky number and win the prize.
So how does conversion relate to all these changes? The conversion rate should and can be measured in every instance.
The Science Of Online Marketing
There are two incredibly significant lines in Why We Buy:
“Science is by and large the study of very small differences” and “When you change one thing, everything changes”.
The first ‘very small difference ’ and ‘changing one thing’ situation I came across in my online marketing career was a complete mistake. I was working for a large press organization and one day I had to change some HTML code on a sales form. By mistake, I removed a voucher entry field from the form. As a result, people could no longer enter their voucher number to get a cheaper deal. Conversion improved by three times. I told our editor who was amazed but instructed me to put the voucher field back on the form while they figured out what to do. There was a good reason for the voucher; in fact, it was the entire reason the page was there. However, putting the voucher entry field back resulted in a drop in conversion to almost the identical sales that we had been getting before my mistake. The voucher idea was eventually scrapped on that page and sales sky rocketed again. The reason, we ascertained, was that visitors figured that they could get a cheaper deal with a voucher. The voucher could only be gotten by physically buying a newspaper and that limited us to around 10% of the audience. Nine out of ten people visiting the website did so from a place where they couldn’t buy the newspaper at that time, so it was obvious that the voucher idea could only be good for the local readers. This experience was a catalyst for me personally, and from then on, I began to understand the importance of measurement online. In particular, the measurement of conversion.
So in order to turn the online changes you make into a science, follow three simple rules.
1) Measure Conversion.
Conversion is a percentage, a calculation of the number of people who take the action you desire as a percentage of the total number of visitors to the page. Using percentages makes the actual number of people arriving at a page irrelevant. It becomes possible to compare a busy week with a quiet week.
2) Change one thing at a time.
An average page has lots of variables: graphics, headlines, paragraphs, sentences, links, testimonials and probably a lot more. By only changing one thing and always measuring for the same period of time (30 days is good), you will get a fair result. So for instance, if you change a headline, look at the page click-through and if possible the length of time an average visitor stayed on the page for 30 days before the change. Make the change and measure the results for the next 30 days. Then if conversion is higher (more people reading or more people clicking through), keep the change. If it’s lower, revert to what you had before.
3) Experiment.
Don’t limit yourself to headlines. Copy, content, graphics, adding competitions, etc. — try them all. But remember the rule: change only one variable at any one time.
Summary
I’ve desperately been trying to keep this article short; I think I could have written an epic on this subject. If I were in the same room as Paco Underhill, we would have an awful lot to talk about. However what I’m trying to say is that businesses should start waking up to the fact that online marketing is as much a science as Paco demonstrates in the retailing world. Measuring conversion rates online is the beginning of making it scientific.
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.atriclezine.com/article/79140/atriclezine-Without-Conversion-Rates-You-Don8217t-Know-If-You8217re-Mickey-Mouse-Or-Mickey-Mantle.html">Without Conversion Rates You Don’t Know If You’re Mickey Mouse Or Mickey Mantle</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.atriclezine.com/article/79140/atriclezine-Without-Conversion-Rates-You-Don8217t-Know-If-You8217re-Mickey-Mouse-Or-Mickey-Mantle.html]Without Conversion Rates You Don’t Know If You’re Mickey Mouse Or Mickey Mantle[/url]
Related Articles:
Who is Customs Broker in Russia
Getting an Accountant Job – 8 Accountancy Networking Tips
To All Those That Just Don't Get It
Bookmark it:
|