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Monday, March 22, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
A Little K.I.S.S. Just in Time for Valentine’s Day.
I have to admit, I love to read our blog. I love the insights my colleagues routinely bring to the table–and the fact that, like world-class athletes, they make it look so easy! But sometimes, when I try to put all the pieces together, I find my head in a whirl of information, overwhelmed by the complexities of internet marketing and website optimization…and that’s when I have to get back to basics. I remind myself to Keep It Simple, Silly! So, to honor that, I’ll try to keep this quick, and neat; like a peck on the cheek.
First and foremost, a solid conversion optimization plan should be rooted in process, not just effected willy-nilly. The process we follow with our OnTarget services provides two main benefits: 1) generating results quickly and 2) eliminating the easier problems first so that we can have firm ground (ie. cleaner data, with fewer unknown variables) on which to stand when we go to tackle the more difficult questions. It follows three main steps:
Step 1 - Maximize the revenue that is already on the table. Some people refer to this as picking the low-hanging fruit. If you’ve been reading other FutureNow books and articles, this is what we call eliminating the conversion barriers. When your customers come to your site ready to buy your product, or ready to submit their information to be contacted, and something they encounter in the process stands in their way of doing that, you are leaving easy money on the table. The goal here is to find the things keeping those Late Stage buyers from doing what they came to your site to do, and fix them.
Step 2 - Find more of the same. Now that you have plugged up the holes in your checkout process, and you’re maximizing your potential revenue, why not pull more people into the system, and really make use of the situation? This means identifying more sources of those same late stage buyers, and bringing them in the door so they can do what they were born to do: convert!
Step 3 – Turn your attention to the reasons why the rest of your traffic is not quite ready to buy yet, and address those. This final step is what we would call refining the persuasive scenarios. It where those three ever-important questions (1. Who is my customer? 2. What is the action I want them to take? 3. What is the information they need to feel comfortable taking that action?) start to fall out into different groups (ie. personas) whose unique communication styles will impact the scenarios you have to deliver in your efforts to persuade.
After all, what sense would it make to start with Step 3 first? You’d only be driving more people into a funnel that is full of holes, and wasting perfectly good opportunities!
It should also be data-driven…but that is a no-brainer. What kind of scientist comes to a conclusion based only on conjecture, without having observed events and analyzing the data surrounding them? It just means make it rooted in reality. With the power of the internet to measure the actions your visitors take, and the accessibility of tools to help you do that, there should be no excuses for not having data to back up your changes and tests. And if you do that, your process will be customer centric by default. Tools like Google Website Optimizer and OnTarget track what your customers do do, in real time.
Last, but certainly not least, your process should be continuous. That’s not just because getting your website in shape is just like getting yourself in shape: a lifestyle commitment (there isn’t botox for website optimization yet). It’s also a simple matter of math. When questioned about the most powerful force in the universe, Einstein quipped, “Compound interest.” That is the same math behind continuous optimization. When you make little increases each month, they build upon one another, and add up to big improvements over time.
In Improving Conversion, Optimization Strategy, Personas, Website Optimization, continuous-improvement, conversion optimization, optimization-process
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