Archive for July, 2005
Hey jetBlue- how much revenue does Online Flight Check-in generate?
Another short anecdote to end the week on an educational note!
I’m trying to arrange my travel plans for the fall dates that are filling up ever so quickly. Shop.org’s Annual Summit is coming up in Vegas, so I’m thrilled at the opportunity to fly jetBlue again. Love jetBlue. Can’t praise them enough. Their flight service, that is. Their conversion practices, now that’s another story.
Anyone who’s familiar with our stuff, or ever heard us speak, knows of the 3 questions every page on the site must answer (if you don’t, email me). What’s the action you’d assume jetBlue would like most visitors to their website to take? Looking at their homepage, I think it must be getting more legroom, or checking in for their flights! Surely they must receive some comissions from the skycaps who don’t have to deal with all the passengers checking in, right?
Ok, ok, so maybe they’re unfamiliar with the Active Window- not a crime (though for anyone doing business on the web, it should be). Well, atleast they have these handy Quick Links over here to help me out. Let’s see, why am I here… TO BOOK A FLIGHT. Guess that’s not one of those things jetBlue would like me to do quickly.
At this point, I’m laughing out loud. Ahhh, a top navigation link to Buy Tickets– comically, the graphic icon is of a person sitting in a seat, while the intuitive icon of an airplane links to a note from the CEO. Doh! Since I’m sure he and I will be old friends now, I’m booking him on a little vacation where the "Book Your Flight!" Call to Action isn’t such a challenge to find!
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Written by:Howard Kaplan
Calculate Your Conversion Rates
Measuring site performance is vital. Yet many of us have trouble understanding exactly what should be measured. Obviously, an essential key performance indicator (KPI) for all sites is conversion rate. In addition to overall conversion rate, there are two others. Let’s explore all three:
- Overall conversion rate: Total number of actions considered conversion divided by total number of visits. This is a site’s overall effectiveness rating for getting visitors to fulfill your goals within a single visit.
- Scenario conversion rate: Total number of visitors starting a specific scenario divided by total number who complete it. Scenario conversion rates enable you to quickly identify specific conversion processes that require improvement or ones whose successes should be modeled.
- Conversion over time: Several measures that reveal a site’s effectiveness in generating conversions over time. Use this for situations where conversion is likely to occur over time or multiple visits.
Overall Conversion Rate
Overall conversion rate accounts for people having numerous goals when visiting a Web site. Probably you do, too. It provides a more accurate picture of how effectively a Web site serves people and accomplishes your goals on a per-visit basis.
Generally, it should be used only to evaluate broad, sweeping changes. Use it to evaluate the results of a site redesign, a specific marketing campaign, or new site-search technology.
Continue reading my column at ClickZ…
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Does your messaging really matter?
A quick anecdote from my walk to the office this morning.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn, there’s approximately 326 excellent Italian Patisseries per square block. Luckily for each of them, on this seemingly 100 degree morning, there were no shortage of customers in need of cold drinks, and a cool place to read the morning paper. Cafe after cafe I walked past in search of my morning Iced Coffee, and each one had a line longer than the next, until I found just what I had been looking for- an empty cafe. Inside I went, had my cocktail poured in no time, and was on my way out the door when I noticed something pretty interesting…
The sidewalk sign they had out front read "Hot Cinnamon Buns, fresh from the oven"
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Written by:Howard Kaplan
Forbes.com - Do You Market To Women?
If you want women to buy from you then you should be reading Michelle Miller’s WonderBranding: Marketing to Women blog. I say that beacuse she’s awesome smart, a friend, a partner (through the Wizard of Ads group) and because Forbes thinks so too.
Take a look at what Forbes.com has to say about the WonderBranding: Marketing to Women blog.
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Written by:Jeffrey Eisenberg
When Setting Goals For Your Site, Shoot For the…Industry Benchmark !?
"Hey John, did you see our conversion rate is 1.71%!"
"Woooooohoooooooo, I just saw on the Fireclick index that everyone dropped to an average conversion rate of 1.50%"
"Those poor suckers"
"Let’s break out the Dom and celebrate!"
When setting goals for your site’s conversion rate I suppose you could look at the collective metrics of your online peers, use these conversion rates as a benchmark, and celebrate if you happen to be doing better. But what if you are doing worse? Then you should look at these metrics as something you should aspire to, right? You could do that. Sure you could, but why would you? Here are the conversations most should be having…
"Hey John, did you see our conversion rate is 1.71%, we are losing 98.29% of our visitors!"
"Boooooohoooooooo, I just saw on the Fireclick index that everyone dropped to an average of 1.50%"
"We all suck"
"Let’s roll up our sleeves"
I know that is harsh, but someone has to be.
Celebrating this offensively low benchmark is like celebrating when your Corvette tops out at the 15 mph mark.
There are several reaons why online conversion rate apathy abounds. First, many sites are making boxes of money, big boxes. Second, some of the money in those boxes is labeled PROFIT. Third, it is hard to miss something you never had, that being the 98.50% of visitors that never converted. Also consider that those 98.50% of people don’t LOOK like people, they usually just show up as bar or a pie slice on metrics software.
But still that 98.50% worth of missed opportunities has got to be bothering someone. Anyone?
I know it bothers all of us at Future Now.
When we take on a new client we often calculate what their conversion rate should be. Some sites should be converting at 50% or more, others in the 20-40%, almost all should be converting in the low double digits.
So next time you set conversion rate goals, do me solid.Set your bar a wee bit higher than the online benchmark. And if your are still chicken to set it for a 20-50% conversion rate, then you can even set it at a less intimidating number.
How about aspiring to lose only 90% of your visitors?
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Written by:Persuasion Architects
Do You Have Any Women Visiting Your Site?
Then here is a blog you’re gonna need to subscribe to.
Future Now’s very own VP of Client Services, Holly Buchanan, has officially entered the blogosphere. You’ll find plenty of examples and practical nuggets that you can implement in your online efforts to sell and market to women. Holly knows her stuff, but please don’t take my word for it, just take some of her advice and your improved conversion rate will convince ya.
Check it out!
Marketing To Women Online - How To Shatter Stereotypes and Understand what She Really Wants
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Written by:Persuasion Architects
Are You A High-Tech Guinea Pig?
If so, our pals over at Techsmith are looking for a few good folks to test a new software/web application. You should have either novice-intermediate or good computer expertise. Participants from both groups wills work in pairs, so you may apply together. There will be monetary compensation. The tests will take place on Saturday, July 30, at Fog Creek Software’s office in Manhattan and will last an hour.
Here is what they are looking for…
Helper-Group (7 people)
- Intermediate to good computer expertise
- Possible experience with PC-Sharing-Systems
- Web-Experience
- Feel comfortable helping other people
Victim-Group (7 people)
- Novice to intermediate computer experience
- Some Web-Experience
If you fit into one of the above categories and are interested inparticipating, please send an email to Betsy Weber at TechSmith to apply: b.weber@techsmith.com
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Written by:Persuasion Architects
Optimize Online Lead-Gen for Offline Sales
Internet Retailer reports Internet retail sales in the U.S. are ballooning at a very healthy rate, about 25 percent in 2004. But as I reported last year, the Internet still influences more offline spending. When the transaction is completed somewhere other than an online shopping cart, how do you measure and optimize your site’s role in the conversion process?
With the new marketing and advertising landscape, companies are demanding greater accountability for their ad spend. Current technology and better persuasive planning can help a company not only increase the lead/cross-channel pipeline but also to measure and optimize it.
Drive Mass Media to Your Site
If your company spends a significant amount of money buying mass media, tracking effectiveness can be tricky. It may not be completely accurate, but you can likely measure which channel generates the most traffic for your site:
- Use friendly, easy-to-remember URLs in mass-media campaigns. If you want to compare campaigns by using a unique URL for each, use differentiating URLs, such as “go.clickz.com” or “read.clickz.com” rather than “www.clickz.com/tv/1234.html.” If you use a forward slash (”/”), it generally won’t work. If mass-media visitors actually remember the URL, they’ll likely just go to your home page and forego anything after the slash.
- Create a different offer for each campaign. Or, track campaigns with a coupon code on a printed piece. Beware: only certain customer types will actually participate in an offer.
- Realize mass media is mass media. Judging mass-media campaign effectiveness on a cost-per-lead basis is almost impossible. When you buy any mass media, reaching a bunch of people who will never buy from you is unavoidable. It’s also extremely difficult to funnel mass-media activity into a specific channel (e.g., a landing page) and measure it with any degree of accuracy. You’ll likely send traffic to some of your other channels, too (e.g., a call center or a brick-and-mortar store).
Continue reading my column at ClickZ…
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Beware of Large Numbers!!
If you converted 1,000,000 visitors into subscribers to your paid online service in one year, surely you’d considered yourself an online success, right?
But what if you had 7 million unique visitors, per day?
What if your digital competition was non-existent?
What if your brand was so strong, it drove 40 million visitors to your offline product, in just 3.5 months?
Would 1 million subscriptions still feel the same?
Major League Baseball thinks so, but I must respectfully disagree.
If you’re not ruthlessly focused on measuring and improving your site’s Conversion Rate, you still don’t get it. Marketing on the ‘net is a pull medium. Visitors are volunteers in the process. Clicks are people.
Each link on your site represents an active decision your visitors make. Whether you find yourself converting an "industry average" 2-3%, or even an "excellent" 10-12%, you must still consider the problem from the other side- what is your site doing that is actively driving 88% of your visitors away?
Don’t be fooled by large numbers from your Analytics, especially if the largest numbers are still those of visitors being turned away from your site dissatisfied.
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Written by:Howard Kaplan
The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow; doh!
ClickZ.com stats is reporting the obvious: Wireless Users Want Local Content
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Written by:Jeffrey Eisenberg
