For those who aren’t familiar with the phrase, we at FutureNow define Unique Value Proposition as: The brief, memorable phrase that concisely and powerfully describes the value of your business and creates excitement in the prospect.  The value proposition is not a slogan or a phrase designed for advertising, although that is one potential use for it.  Instead, its purpose is to answer the prospect’s implicit question, “Why should I do business with you and not somebody else?”

If you haven’t yet developed, tested, and optimized a Unique Value Proposition, bookmark this post and stop reading. Go read this and this.  Oh, this one is good, too

If you do have a solid UVP already developed and placed on your homepage and other important landing pages, let’s get down to the business of taking your UVP to the next level!

Homepages and landing pages aren’t the only place where your UVP needs to do some persuading.  There’s a whole, entire experience with your company (marketing touch points, landing pages, conversion experiences, post-purchase support, etc.) that can and should emanate your UVP so that it can be felt through every second a prospect or customer spends with you.  That, of course, will help with the “memorable” part of the UVP definition.

Here are a just a few ways in which your UVP could “cascade” across the user experience:

• phone on-hold messaging
• marketing/merchandising/promotions
• email signatures from employees
• site navigation
• site graphics
• blog theme

If you have a UVP, does it currently inform design and optimization decisions?  Do your graphic designers and copywriters have it in front of them wherever they work?  How about Marketing, does the UVP find its way into promotions so they’re not run-of-the-mill?

Let’s look at some random ideas from real UVPs, and brainstorm on how businesses could leverage them across a holistic site experience.

These are paraphrased and excerpted from real UVPs out there on the Web.  [Disclosure: most of these come from present or past FutureNow clients.]

“…family owned and operated…” — Sure, this can differentiate.  It would be cool to see this “family” concept cascading across the site design with family member bios, in the About Us section, and maybe even through some humor, e.g. ‘Help us settle a family argument by picking your favorite of our new product line.’

“…guiding clients through the admissions maze…” — I like the mental image of a ‘maze,’ so there are lots of ways that could be incorporated into various graphics through the site.  And copy could play a part, too.  Imagine a confirmation message that says, ‘Congratulations.  You’re one step closure to making it out of the maze.’

“…enhance your relationships, finances, and spiritual life…” — 3 is always the magic number, so building these 3 aspects of life into a ‘trinity’ graphic showing the words and icons in perfect harmony could be very persuasive.  And it would make sense to have site navigation reflect these as categories.

“…what if understanding men could be easy?” — Using the ‘what if’ approach can be very persuasive, so imagine how a good designer and copywriter could team up to build that theme across an entire site?

“…connect to a thriving community of designers…” — Being able to connect with a ‘thriving community’ of any kind is compelling, but how to express that and substantiate it?  A ‘ticker’ could display every time a new member signed up for a community, or posted a comment, etc.  And graphics could be used to further enhance that feeling of thriving community.

This was just a one-sided brainstorm, so perhaps not the best quality, but hopefully they spark some ideas as to how you can work your own UVP further into the fabric of your online business.

Leave us a comment with any examples of companies you feel are executing on this concept in an elegant way.

The #9 prediction was that there would be “more Flash, not less” on websites in 2010.  The authors posit that Flash on websites will experience a resurgence online in 2010 due to increased adoption of broadband, improved track-ability, and new options for making flash sites more search engine friendly.  They also predict that flash will deliver the “rich, brand-extending experiences” that consumers are craving.

While I’ll keep an open mind for Flash in 2010, I still have many doubts built up from whenever Flash came out through 2009:

1. While more track-able, Flash still doesn’t offer the depth of analytics (or at least not easily) that other formats offer
2. While more search engine friendly, Flash still doesn’t offer the rich, index-able content that search engines still reward
3. Flash is still a “specialty” skill set, which makes site maintenance and optimization more tricky
4. There still seem to be usability/accessibility issues with most of the flash sites and micro-sites I see.  In most cases, people aren’t interested in learning a brand new interface on every site
5. I’m not convinced that consumers are looking for “rich, brand-extending experiences” that are best-served by Flash.  People are still task-oriented, and want to “get in and get out,” especially when it comes to researching purchases or making purchases
6. Flash sites seem to be the sites that display “creativity for creativity’s sake,” and don’t focus on the prospects’ needs, motivations, and goals.
7. Except for some niche applications, flash animation doesn’t accomplish much that AJAX and other similar approaches can’t do (without requiring a downloaded browser plugin)
8. While broadband may be continuing to grow, there are still PLENTY of customers (especially in rural areas) that don’t have lightning-speed connections.  Do you really want to exclude them in any way?

Are there exceptions to the above?  Of course, but exceptions won’t make something a trend in 2010.

Another thing to keep in mind about Flash is that there are really two schools of use:  One is using Flash animation, and the other is using the Flash format to deliver true video experiences.  In my opinion, using Flash to deliver video experiences is the more valuable of the two approaches, so maybe that’s where the resurgence in 2010 will come from?

Another question in my mind is whether Adobe’s recent acquisition of Omniture will have any effect on the track-ability of the Flash technology.  My bet is “yes,” but I’m not sure how soon changes will come.

So, Grok readers, what are your feelings about Flash in 2010? Do you plan on using it more?  Less?  The same?

1. It’s often where “low-hanging fruit” grows. Conversion obstacles can often be removed quickly, leading to large gains in a short period of time.
2. It’s an area where you’ve already succeeded in persuading the prospect. They are in the Late Stage of their buying process, so a relatively low investment can give you a relatively high return.  In other words, you don’t have to produce pages and pages of persuasive content to move the visitor forward in her buying process.
3. Customer expectations regarding their online shopping experiences are rising every day. If your competitor has a more optimized checkout, they may be taking market share from you.

There’s a very wide spectrum of online selling solutions, from a PayPal button on a single sales page to a highly-customized checkout with a floating/sliding/shining interface and behaviorally-targeted cross-selling.  Still, FutureNow’s clients tend to fall into 1 of 2 camps:  those with a 3rd-party cart and those with a custom-built cart.

There are pros and cons to each, which I’ll touch on briefly, but please don’t consider this brief post the authoritative work on the subject–there’s lots of research and reviews out there on the various shopping cart investment options.

3rd Party Shopping Carts, also known as “canned”: Some of the pros are lower cost, quicker time to market, and the efficiencies/convenience gained when you buy a package that handles payment gateway, fraud protection, SSL encryption, etc.  Some of the cons are lack of control over look and feel, lack of control over the user experience, and more difficulties encountered with testing and optimization.  The tradeoffs seem pretty straightforward, but a lot depends on the IT resources you have at your disposal.

Custom Shopping Carts: Some of the pros are a user experience that’s more tightly integrated with the rest of your site, better tracking for better analytics, easier to make changes and add features, and easier integration with testing tools like Google Website Optimizer.  The obvious cons are higher cost, more operational overhead, and slower time to market.  Again, the tradeoffs are the same, and a lot depends on your company’s resources, budget, and business goals.

Those prospects we speak with who are interested in optimizing for a higher return on their eCommerce investments often ask questions like: Can I optimize my 3rd party shopping cart? The answer is a definitive “Yes!” even on the most restrictive 3rd party carts. One of our clients enjoyed a 38% increase month-over-month in their “funnel conversion rate” just by adding some reassuring copy and links only in the areas of their cart they had access to: the header and the footer!

That’s an extreme example, but with our guidance, clients can make the best of their current platform, whatever it happens to be.  And many clients, after getting a few “wins,” decide they want to upgrade from a 3rd party cart to a partially or fully custom cart.  In that situation, we often work to optimize their checkout before it goes live, saving them time and money, and then continue to refine the customer experience and persuasiveness of the live cart through more formal testing. We also work with several implementation partners who grok Persuasion Architecture and can build custom carts based on OnTarget recommendations.

The point of all of this is that you shouldn’t defer or avoid Optimization based on what type of checkout platform you have.  Persuasion Architecture is “platform-agnostic,” and the best time for Optimization is always “Now.”

We often get asked:

How much traffic do I need before I start optimization?

Do I get enough traffic to my site to even consider optimization?

Will my tests take forever to run if I don’t have a lot of traffic?

How fast can I expect to see the results of optimization if my traffic is low?

These are natural questions from folks who haven’t dipped their toes into the optimization waters, but these questions indicate a few myths that I’ll attempt to dispel.

Myth #1: Traffic is the ‘magic metric’ when it comes to optimization

The fact is that the number of conversions is at least as important as traffic levels.  We’ve always said that a minimum threshold to do formal online testing is 5-10 conversions per week, and that this amount of conversions (regardless of traffic) can at least get you results in a matter of weeks instead of months.  A simple tool that illustrates the relationships between site traffic, conversion rate, and test durations is the Google Website Optimizer Duration Calculator.  This free tool lets you play around with data points and estimate test durations before you start your experiment.  I can personally say it has saved me a bunch of grief by warning me away from certain client experiments due to the duration estimates being way too long!  Try changing the page views metric, and see the impact on duration.  Now, try changing the conversion rate metric, and you’ll see it, too, can have a drastic impact on the duration.

Myth #2: Low-traffic sites won’t see results from optimization

The fact is that low-traffic sites can still see improvements from optimization.  Remember that “optimization” doesn’t just mean formal testing using a tool like those provided by Omniture or Google.  Optimization is about getting your company on a program of continuous improvement through hypothesis, change (via formal testing or not), and monitoring of the results of those changes.  Once you have “results,” you feed those learnings right back into the program and keep going.  Lower traffic sites may or may not be good candidates for formal testing methods like split testing or full factorial multivariate testing, but they may be great candidates for optimization!  We often try formal testing on low-traffic sites, and if it’s not productive, we switch our focus to “serial testing,” which means benchmarking the performance of something (an ad, a landing page, etc.), making a change, and then monitoring the impact of that change. Either way, we tend to get results.

Myth #3: Testing and optimization doesn’t really work for low-traffic sites

The fact is that optimization can definitely work, and even formal testing can work if you do it right.  One way to do formal testing on low-traffic sites is to focus on higher-trafficked pages.  Another is to test micro-conversions (e.g. reading product reviews as opposed to buying the product).  Still another is to make a B2C “view cart” page the conversion point instead of the purchase confirmation page.  There are plenty of methods to shortening the duration of a test, but we’ll keep a few of those to ourselves for now

Myth #4: It’s better to defer optimization until site traffic grows

The fact is that the time to optimize is always “now.”  There’s an opportunity cost associated with not doing anything, when you could at least be doing something less-than-optimal.  Your traffic may be less than optimal, but you can still optimize, and when your traffic becomes optimal, you’ll reap the rewards of earlier optimization work.  We’ve always used the metaphor of the “leaky bucket”:  If your conversion funnel is a bucket with a bunch of holes in it, why would you spend marketing money to pour more water (a.k.a. traffic) into that bucket?  Wouldn’t it make more sense to fix the holes, then start pouring more water?

We’re definitely invested in dispelling any other myths about testing and optimization, so feel free to ask questions or contact us if you think you have a unique case and aren’t sure if optimization is right for you.

The survey involved nearly a thousand participants ages 16 to 24, and the good news for us as online marketers was that 75% of respondents said that they “couldn’t live without the Internet.” Wow, that’s a bold statement indicating that the Web will continue to be a central part of that generation’s lives, and will be essential to how they research, form opinions, make decisions, and buy.

Maybe it’s not “bad news,” but the challenge this presents is: How will our generation of digital marketers and online businesspeople keep up with the attitudes and expectations of a new segment that doesn’t remember the absence of the Web?

"Kurt & Smitty" | Image from AMCTV.com

I can’t help but think of my latest TV series obsession, Mad Men.  The fictitious ad agency, Sterling Cooper, hired two young upstarts, Smitty and Kurt, to help them figure out what the youth of the early 1960s was thinking.  They informed their hopelessly old employers that the youth “don’t want to be told what to do or how to act. [They] just want to be.“  Sound familiar?  It sounds corny, but Sterling Cooper did the right thing by bringing in outside perspective to help them better empathize with their target audiences.

So, what are we going to do? Should all marketing teams have their own “Smitty and Kurt” to help them grok how Digital Natives want to interact with businesses?  Should we spend more time spying on our children and grandchildren as they network their always-available lives at lightning speed?  Let us know in the comments what specific tactics you’re using to keep up with what “the kids are into these days.”

Enter the “Product Configurator.” While it sounds a bit like an evil robot out of control, what we’re talking about today is simply an online application to allow prospects to customize a product on their way to buying it. This can be a lot of fun for online shoppers if done well, and lead to increased conversions or it can be a huge waste of money if the user experience isn’t really well thought out. If it’s planned out poorly, it may frustrate visitors and lead to a decrease in performance.

One of the main reasons survey takers give for NOT buying retail items online is the inability to touch/hold/feel the product before buying.  This is a challenge that almost all eRetailers have to work to overcome, and letting them see their customizations in real time as they play around with different configurations and features can be a good tactic to make sure people make it all the way through checkout.  It can also be a way to make gift shopping more fun–seeing the product “come alive” as you customize it for someone special on your shopping list can be very persuasive and exciting.  Finally, product configurators can be a great way to convert Early and Middle Stage buyers; those who aren’t quite ready to pull out their credit card yet.  The ability to save what they’ve configured can be a “hook” to get them back into the buying process, or at least allow you to market to them as time goes on.

When I think of being able to customize a product and buy it, I tend to think of sites like CafePress.com and Zazzle.com who specialize in small items like hats, t-shirts, mugs, stickers, etc.  But I wanted to grab some more interesting examples for you, so let’s look at a couple West Coast companies who let bike riders have a little fun as they create unique products to purchase.

Example #1: Mission Bicycle Company

In the mood to build a custom fixed-gear bicycle?  Probably not, but use your imagination!  This site’s product configurator takes you step-by-step through the process, using clear copy explanations, a progress indicator, and friendly assurances.  They manage to do this using plenty of white space in a clean layout and flow.

In the end, you can see a mockup of your bike’s design, which components you’ve chosen, and an itemized price.  My favorite part is that it doesn’t get too heavy into jargon, which would make the n00b feel intimidated.

Example #2: Timbuk2

Once you’ve designed your fancy bicycle to ride around on the streets of San Francisco, you’ll need a cool bag to haul your laptop and other sundries, right?  This brings us to another West Coast company’s “build your own bag” product app.

Timbuk2’s site does a nice job of using actual photographic images as opposed to illustrative graphics.  It’s impressive that they cover the many permutations (bag types, colors, patterns, add-ons, etc.) with high-quality photos.  The flow through the options is very intuitive, and in the end you definitely feel like you’ve made something that reflects your tastes.  This makes NOT buying it very difficult!

So those are two examples in a very narrow niche.  I ask all Grok readers: Who else is doing a good job with this type of online app?  Who does it well in clothing?  Shoes? (other than Nike, please!)  Laptops?  Leave a comment about whose product configurator you like, why, and what product category it’s in.  Also chime in if you’re building something like this in time for Holidays 2009!

A valid question/concern, to be sure.  Our answer is, of course, “It depends.”  However, here are a few approaches that we’ve seen work:

Extreme Effort Until a Certain Date

Look at your previous year’s analytics and the upward trend of conversions closer to the holidays.  When did it start to trend up in a consistent manner?  Mid-October?  November?  Late-November?  Based on last year’s trend line, pick a date after which you’ll stop optimizing and stabilize your site for the Holiday rush.  Then, free up all the budget and resources you can to work on an optimization to-do list from today until your stop date.  After the Holidays, you can finish everything that didn’t get finished before your stop date.

Optimize the Checkout Process

Another approach is to focus solely on the checkout process from now until the end of the Holidays.  This means leaving the homepage, landing pages, content pages, etc. alone until 2010, and just test and optimize the cart pages to squeeze every last conversion out of those folks you’ve persuaded.

Merchandise for the Holidays (a.k.a. Deck the Halls)

Some clients want a site-wide approach that ties in with Holiday shopping and gift-giving.  This is less about optimization and more about seasonal relevance, but it’s still a valid approach that could lift your Holiday conversions.  Many sites simply throw a Holiday-themed graphic on their homepage and call it “done,” but the world-class sites have little touches throughout the site to put their prospects in a shopping mood.  eBay has done some nice, subtle things to dress their site up around the Holidays, and I’m sure they have something up their sleeve this year.  One of our clients last year used empty real estate throughout the site, including the shopping cart, to display some Holiday messaging and graphics.  They also updated their checkout through the last week of the Rush to indicate how many days were left to have gifts reach recipients by 12/24, creating a nice sense of urgency as well as being informative.

Split Your To-Do List

A fourth approach is to simply brainstorm every optimization you think could impact your conversion rate.  Then, use various criteria to split the list into “pre-Holidays” and “post-Holidays.”  Commit the resources and intensity to get the “pre” list done, then leave the “post” list until everyone is back in the office and the 2010 budget is approved .  This is probably the easiest approach, but carries with it the risk that you’ll implement some low-impact optimizations, when you could have implemented the high-impact items.  In this case, we recommend outside help to prioritize that list!

We hope these ideas help everyone find an approach they’re comfortable with, execute well, and reap the rewards!

The ones who make it through will be those who are passionate about the customer experience, AND who are able to prioritize their work between now and the “Holiday Crunch” so that the hours expended actually impact the number of sales they make.

Where do you start if you want your site to be a stellar performer this Holiday Season?  A great place for most to start is on Shopping Cart Abandonment.  That’s low in your sales funnel, where you’re losing customers who were already acquired via marketing and persuaded to buy from you!

Let’s examine a prioritized list of reasons shoppers listed that caused them to abandon shopping carts.  Then, we’ll offer actionable suggestions corresponding to each concern.  The data comes from the 8th Annual Merchant Survey, conducted by PayPal and comScore in April of this year.

#1 High shipping charges

We’re all aware of this challenge, and it’s somewhat out of your hands, but there are things you can do.  One is to thing is to test different shipping offers in the cart.  Another, if you have a certain order value that qualifies for free shipping, is to display how much more the customer needs to qualify.  For example, “You are $xx.xx away from free shipping!  Continue shopping »”

#2 Wanted to comparison shop

Make sure you’re saving customer carts for at least 30 days, maybe more for the Holidays.  A recent study sponsored by McAfee showed that the average time span between visiting a site and checking out was 34 hours! Acknowledge that this behavior is occurring and plan for it.  If you’re sending “cart recovery” emails inside of 24 hours, you may be really annoying your prospective customers!

#3 Leaving to Google a coupon code

If you have a coupon code capture field on your “View Shopping Cart” page, you may consider moving that capture later in the checkout process, when prospects are more ‘invested’ in the process and less likely to bail and go “coupon Googling.”  Some of our clients offer coupons right on their site as a way to combat this behavior, and it works.

#4 Couldn’t find preferred payment option

Most eStore owners offer a proper assortment of payment options, BUT are your customers seeing them at the point of concern?  We call these Point of Action Assurances.  When the prospect is in your cart, and wondering about their payment options, are you reassuring them at the point of action that you offer BillMeLater, PayPal, etc.?  Test different placements of those assurances.

#5 Item unavailable at checkout

Yikes!  This issue simply needs to be dealt with on your product pages, before the cart.  If an item is out of stock, why not capture an email so you can notify when the item is back in stock?  Zappos.com does a good job of this when a certain size of shoe is out of stock.

#6 Couldn’t find customer support

Similar to #4, most online stores do offer good customer service options, but sometimes your prospects aren’t seeing them at the appropriate point in the cart.  Test those placements.  Also, if you use live chat support, and the chat service is “offline,” what is the customer experience like?

#7 Security concerns

Similar to #1, this is somewhat out of your hands…the Web isn’t 100% safe for shoppers, and they know it.  But, Point of Action Assurances, 3rd party security seals, and credibility of design are key.  Another great opportunity for testing different placements and different seals in the checkout.

Blogger’s Note: Apologies for excluding other winter holidays in the title of this post; I was just going for alliteration

The disturbing thought is that if this style of “starburst” guarantee seal has become so popular that there are free, downloadable icon sets out there, isn’t that beginning to hurt their credibility?  If everyone’s assurances are copycats, can a devastating loss of credibility be far behind? When something becomes a commodity, it loses value.

I don’t fault the designer, who was simply satisfying a perceived demand and trying to promote themselves and make a living.  But, I think we’re hurting ourselves as digital marketers when we settle for the same old generic approach.

When it comes to security, consumers do want to see the same badges across the Net; think Verisign, McAfee, and Digicert.  But, when it comes to business guarantees, I believe seeing the same badges across the Net will hurt credibility over time; it almost has to work that way.

So how do we fix this and make sure consumers find us credible over the long haul?

1. Demand more of your design/er – Let your creative resources be creative.  Ask for custom assurance graphics that reflect your overall site design, brand, and voice.  Better yet, ask them to be creative over and over again, and test your way to the winner.
2. Substantiate the claim – Make whatever visual element you come up with link to more information.  One of our clients has a guarantee linked to a popup window with simple (yet specific) content written in plain language explaining what they guarantee, how to get your money back, and how they are willing to bank on your satisfaction. In other words, put some skin in the game.
3. Avoid the “Set it and forget it” mentality – Last year’s assurances are this year’s BS, and will likely be even less effective next year.  The competitive landscape is always changing, and consumers get savvier and more skeptical every day. Just another reason to Always Be Testing.

Aside from my example, I’ve not seen much creativity in this area of web design.  Does anyone have examples they’d like to share of great, custom guarantee graphics? We promise not to copycat you

First, there was Jeff Sexton’s post about asking the right Persuasion Architecture questions before redesigning, which was inspired by a Seth Godin post. Then, Jakob Nielson had some good thoughts from the Usability camp about redesigns and how radical they should be.

Mr. Nielson’s thoughts resonated with me given that our OnTarget product is generally focused on incremental improvement of clients’ existing websites. He urges readers to avoid redesigns that involve massive change to a site’s user interface.  Why?  Because users (read: customers and prospects) hate change and love the familiar, even if we as marketers are sick of how our own sites look.  It’s always good advice to “evolve a UI with gentle changes rather than offer a totally fresh design.”  He also recommends “getting the basic design right in the first place, before you launch, so that it can live several years with minor updates.”  I think that’s a key point: a good (re)design is one that can stay fresh and current for several years, and accommodate a process of continuous improvement and incremental change.

I’ve seen many gorgeous site redesigns that didn’t stand up to that criteria–they weren’t well-coded, well-documented, or maintainable.  And when it came time to start optimizing, the marketing team found many unexpected constraints that made incremental changes more expensive than they bargained for.

Another point I’d like to drive home is that redesigns should be done with ROI in mind, not because internal stakeholders are sick of the look and feel.  There should be documented goals that can be measured, for example, increasing pages per visit by 20%, and increasing conversion rate by 5%.  And flexibility should be built in, so that you can always have a “to do list” of small improvements you can implement each month to incrementally build on your successes.

Finally, if you are considering a moderate to major redesign, keep in mind that usability testing can be done on very simple prototypes before you make major investments.  And, we love giving feedback on mockups, wireframes, prototypes, etc. because it allows our clients to launch with the best possible product, after which we start the process of continuous improvement.

If you’re interested in improving your product detail/landing pages and cross-selling, this video (and upcoming Part 2 video) is not to be missed.

One such ad brought me to a very tall landing page with the expected “sales letter” style copy. What struck me, though, was the hilarious call to action button at the bottom of the page.

And so I give you (drum roll, please) the Call to Action of The Day!

Do you Grok readers have any good (bad) examples you’d like to nominate for a Call to Action of the Day?  Leave us a comment.  The only rule is that it has to be silly!  Oh, and let’s keep it classy, folks

Selling expertise face-to-face is quite bit easier. The true Expert’s skills come across in their body language, their confidence, their humility, and how they carry themselves. Most of this non-verbal communication isn’t accessible online, so how can you use the Web to market and sell your expertise?

Here’s six ways we’ve found, in no particular order:
1. Persuasive Copy – One of the biggest (unspoken) challenges of selling expertise is persuading the prospect that it’s OK for her to give up control. The risk (especially in the B2B market) is that you bring in an Expert, and they do such a good job that you yourself are out of a job! How do you know that the Expert will make you look good to your bosses instead of bad? No one wants to feel stupid, and no one wants to lose face, so overcoming this objection online is very tricky. Persuasive copy is probably the best way to solve it. Look at this copy from Jeff Sexton’s sample fitness/training website from his post.

p.s. Once, a very long time ago, when I had just gotten my license, I was with my father in a rather [expletive] of a snow storm in the mountains of North Carolina in my new car.   The weather was awful and I was scared to death… and I’m not ashamed to admit that.  We were seriously in danger of sliding off the edge of the mountain.   Then, I remembered something he had told me years ago when I was a kid.

He taught me that if you’re ever in a situation where you happen to be traveling in a DANGEROUS situation, give the controls of that vehicle to the person with you who is most skilled at operating a vehicle under those types of conditions.   That means you should not necessarily take control yourself… or to give them to the person that’s been driving the “longest”… or to the person that has the most driving “certifications”…

You should give the wheel to the person who is BEST at navigating that car through that particular dangerous terrain.

So, rather than let my pride possibly take my car away from me:

I gave the controls to my new car in that dangerous situation to my father!

In this situation… ask yourself… “Who should I give the navigational controls to?”

See how the copywriter used a parable to let prospects learn it’s OK to give control to an expert who can handle a particular situation?

2. Video Testimonials – We talk about testimonials all the time on this blog, but text-based testimonials are intrinsically “fake-able,” and some skeptical prospects may dismiss them as less than real or authentic. We’re not sure why more companies aren’t leveraging video testimonials, which are a lot harder to fake. When someone believes in their heart that you’re an Expert, and they’ve placed their trust in you, that emotion should come across in a good video.

3. Search Engine Optimization – Let’s face facts…buying a Pay Per Click ad to tell me you’re an expert isn’t very persuasive. Seeing you (or even your name) a few times on the first page of organic search results is. There aren’t many businesses that don’t need to be working on their SEO, but if you’re selling expertise, you’d better be putting some resources towards showing up organically for your target keywords. NOTE: Proceed with caution–overly-aggressive search optimization practices can hurt your credibility with searchers AND search engines!

4. Have a credible web presence – there’s a whole field of study around online credibility, so I won’t spend much ink on this, but it’s worth mentioning that the credibility of your design, content, and even your social networking accounts will definitely have an impact on your ability to market your expertise.

5. A Good Track Record – Maybe this one goes without saying, but make sure your prospects can find your “track record” — your case studies, before and after comparisons, etc. And please don’t make them submit a lead form to get to them. Put the content out there and if they’re interested, they’ll reach out to you.

6. Publish or Perish – Somewhat related to numbers 3-5, what I mean by “publish or perish” (apologies for jargon from Academia) is that you have to be constantly proving and re-proving your expertise. Especially in the technology space, just because you were an Expert 18 months ago doesn’t mean you are now. So make sure that your case studies stay fresh. Keep updating your website to deal with hot topics in your field, and when you don’t have time to do either one, you’d better be blogging or micro-blogging. If you give out a strong, consistent signal, prospects gravitate towards you. If you get lazy, they’ll flounder around for a bit, then follow the newer, stronger signals.

[Ed.: If you didn't already know, FutureNow is the acknowledged Expert in the conversion optimization space. To prove we take our own advice, check out our website to see how we apply these same six principles to our own online efforts.]

Instead, we’d like to present our brief “Best Of” List so you can get some quick highlights from our (somewhat biased) perspective:

Here we go…

• Best Presentation: “How to Turn Your Web Analytics into a Money Making Machine.” Bryan Eisenberg, Avinash Kaushik, Jim Sterne, and moderated by Mike Grehan. I thought this presentation was great because it brought together a few of the industry’s uber-minds, and the subject matter was absolutely crucial: What’s the point of investing in search if you aren’t making money? How can you figure out how to make money off of search marketing if you aren’t properly leveraging data to drive decisions, experiments, and investments?  Great job, Bryan, Avinash, and Jim! The presentations were wonderful, but it was the Q&A that gave the session a life of its own.
• Best Booth: A 2-way tie between iProspect’s “gold mine” and Facebook’s sexy white couches and shag carpeting.
• Best Giveaway: OrangeSoda gave away a sweet orange cruiser bike. We even gave the winner some unsolicited advice on how to get it back home via car!
• Best Schwag/Tchotchkes: NO ONE.  We thought the schwag was pretty weak in general.  If you saw some great schwag that we missed, add it to the comments. One notable mention was PeoplePond’s fill in the blanks t-shirt (check out Jim Sterne and Bryan Eisenberg getting their t-shirts).
• Best Booth Outfits: SuperPages.com’s gold capes cracked us up and helped them market their new “superguarantee” concept.
• Best Announcement: Sandra Cheng’s announcement of the YouTube mega-test using Google Website Optimizer: 1,024 variations in a multivariate test on YouTube’s homepage! Not sure if they’ll be blogging about it, but stay tuned.
• Best Marketing Mantra: Another 2-way tie between People must be at the center of your search strategy–not keywords. by Charlene Li and Turn opinions into hypotheses. by Avinash Kaushik.  Both great phrases to market by; we couldn’t agree more

And to those folks we met at SES, it was nice meeting you, and keep in touch!

As I relate the following three eCommerce mishaps, be thinking about whether you can eradicate all of them from your business by the time the “Holiday Rush” hits. ALL are preventable, if you start today and take one item at a time.

Let’s start at the “precipitating event;” the spark that lit my desire to shop online…

1. An email with a promo code arrived.  w00t!  They paid attention to past purchases, and sent me a great promotion: 10% off a brand I’ve purchased before, and free shipping if the order exceeds a certain amount.

How They’re Losing Sales: Despite not mentioning an expiration date for the promo code, it was expired by the time I reached checkout.  I’m notoriously slow for opening emails from online retailers, but I bet I’m not alone.  Creating a sense of urgency with an expiration date is fine, but remember that shoppers sometimes go weeks without going through their personal email accounts to read your promo codes.

And now it’s Customer Service’s turn…

2. When the promo code came up as expired, I was understandably disappointed.  I’d just spent a fair amount of my weekend building up enough value in my shopping cart to qualify for the free shipping (Yes, I’m cheap.)  My credit card was out of my wallet.  So, I clicked the live chat in the cart to see if they’d extend the promo code, or give me an equivalent one.

How They’re Losing Sales: The live chat agent, while polite and earnest, was not able to do anything to help me (be a cheapskate).  They weren’t empowered by their employer to get creative and save me from abandoning my cart.  They suggested I call the “real” Customer Service during regular M-F business hours.  So my guess is that the live chat is being outsourced, which is fine, but if they aren’t empowered to save sales, they’re probably not giving good ROI.

Now stepping up to the plate, Technology…

3. I came back the next day with the intention of calling the retailer and trying to get them to extend the promo code or give me the equivalent deal.  So, I returned to the site and clicked “My Cart” to review what I’d put in there, and have it on-screen when I called.

How They’re Losing Sales: They didn’t save my cart! So many sites are saving cart items via cookie that I assumed my items would be there the following day or week.  So now I’m definitely not going to re-build my cart AND call them to try and negotiate the promo code.  I’m going to just repress the whole memory…maybe I’ll even forget the retailer’s brand in the process!

These 3 blunders may seem unconnected from a business perspective, but from a buyer perspective, they were all part of a persuasion scenario that broke down and turned a VERY motivated shopper into a lost sale.

I do like the site, and hope they can address these issues and stay in business.  But they and others will have a very painful holiday sales season if they don’t treat the disparate parts as a unified buying experience that must be nearly flawless to be profitable.

Sarah from Seattle tweeted Bryan the other week, asking for some advice on how to use web analytics, and specifically “goals,” to help her with a nonprofit website supporting the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.  We thought it would be good topic to explore a bit, so we’ll start with the basics.

Even the most “nonprofit” website still has goals, and let’s face it, they’re still “business” goals. Keeping that in mind, I’m going to try to label some different types of business goals you could track in web analytics, and how to measure success.

1. Memberships & Donations – We won’t spend much time on this one because it’s pretty obvious.  Most nonprofits’ main business goal is to solicit memberships or donations.  And tracking them using web analytics is no different than ‘for profit’ sites.  The only caveat is that (unfortunately) human nature seems to dictate a longer consideration cycle for donations than, say, buying a fancy new smartphone.  Knowing this, it’s wise to track the content and micro-conversions that might lead to a donation (micro-conversions).  Think about downloading brochures and visiting particular pages about the mission statement, leadership, whether donations are tax-deductible, etc.
2. Logistics – For physical spaces like galleries, museums, and parks, there are goals related to logistics that indicate a strong likelihood of a visit.  These should be tracked as goals, and optimized on an ongoing basis.  Some examples here are downloading a map, visiting a page that lists directions and hours of operation, or even interacting with content related to “events.”  For maps, it would be great to track that a visitor had mapped from their location to the nonprofit’s location, as that indicates strong intent to actually visit.  For events, some sort of “add to calendar” micro-conversion would indicate strong intent.  Another great goal to track regarding events is getting prospects to sign up for time-sensitive “reminders” via email or SMS.
3. Opting In to Content Pushes – That’s an odd phrase, but my way of saying that nonprofits should be tracking goals where prospects allow you into their lives a bit.  Anytime a prospect opts to become more than an anonymous site lurker you achieve a portion of your business goal!  The Burke Museum has lots of great options already, so it would just be a matter of tracking goals related to: subscribing to their blog, signing up for their email newsletter, taking action to follow them on Twitter, and taking action to friend them on Facebook.  If you can’t track with 100% certainty that a conversion has occurred, track the action taken (e.g. clicking a Facebook icon) that shows strong intent.

Note that most web analytics programs won’t necessarily allow you to track all of these things as goals “out of the box,” but with some technical knowledge (especially JavaScript), perseverance, and creativity, they’re all quite achievable.

Calling all NPOs! What else are you tracking (or wishing you could track) as goals in your web analytics?

My question to Grok readers is:
Will Amazon’s infamous pressure-cooker culture eventually overtake all the innovations and friendliness of Zappos’s culture? Or, is the alliance a perfect shot-in-the-arm for both groups?  Will Zappos start bundling books with patent leather pumps?

But I just felt I had to call out an example of how poor copywriting and writing for search engine robots can ruin a decent Unique Value Proposition.

I was referred to a site to look at their homepage design (see screenshot, highlighting is mine), and immediately noticed that they had a prominent Unique Value Proposition (UVP) statement, which was promising.

The UVP statement wasn’t the best I’ve read, but at least it was an attempt that could be tested and refined. But the sub-text under the UVP was what irked me enough to write this post.

Someone decided to “we-we” all over the UVP! And it looks like they also tried to write for search engine robots instead of humans with credit cards:

“We specialize in custom ties, custom bow ties, bowtie / cummerbund / handkerchief sets, custom cufflinks, matching gift boxes, women ’s scarves, and much more. We can custom make your neckwear any way you desire. We have both standard ties and clip on ties as well as extra long ties for your custom ties. We even have custom ties for boys as young as 6 months. Our products are great for corporations, organizations, churches, choirs, schools, uniforms, athletic teams, fraternities, formal and special events, and many more.”

Notice that by focusing on SEO only, they end up with copy that will resonate with no one.

Here’s the official tally from our free We We Calculator:

Your Customer Focus Rate: 37.50% (3 customer-focused words)

Your Self Focus Rate: 62.50% (5 self-focused words, and 0 mentions of the Company Name)

You speak about yourself about 2 times as often as you speak about your customers. Might that have an impact on your effectiveness?

I’m not a Search Engine Optimization guru, but I’d wager that any SEO prowess you lost by fixing that kind of copy could be made up by 1 or 2 quality, keyw0rd-rich inbound links from reputable, related sites, don’t you?

I’m not a mind-reader, but I think it’s due in part to an all-or-nothing mentality where nothing short of a full optimization ‘project’ is worth putting effort into.  Most companies are more interested in redesigning their websites all at once instead of incrementally, even though incremental optimization is far less expensive, less risky, and more accountable!

Maybe you heard the expression – how do you eat an elephant, one bite at a time!

Sometimes, we tell our clients to redesign and optimize a small design element of their site; their call to action buttons, for example. And they seem tentative and slow to implement the recommendation.  Why?  Maybe because they think it has to be 100% optimized right away, or that it has to be perfect to be worth taking action on.

A useful model to get past this mode of thinking is to use the Hierarchy of Optimization which we’ve talked about on this blog in the past.  It’s a great mental model to show clients the roadmap of how they should be optimizing, and in what order.

Take a quick look at the hierarchy diagram, and then I’ll apply the model to real-life design elements that most sites should be taking a look at.  Note that the Hierarchy has 5 levels: the Functional, the Accessible, the Usable, the Intuitive, and the Persuasive. While you can apply the 5 levels at a “macro” level on your entire site, you can also apply them at the “micro” level on a single landing page or even small design elements.

Example 1 – Call to Action Buttons

• Persuasive – Do all the layers of the pyramid work together as a cohesive whole?  Are you actively testing your buttons?  Do all your calls to action pair an imperative verb with an implied benefit?  Do they answer WIIFM?
• Intuitive – Do your buttons look like buttons?  Do they look “clickable”?  Do they feature 3-d effects, shading, or rich surfaces?
• Usable – Are your calls to action always located in a consistent position on pages? Do they follow the prospect’s eye path as it travels down the page?  On your forms, do the buttons line up with the “scan line“?
• Accessible – Is there alt text behind your calls to action?  If you use graphics, do they load and render in all your supported OS/Browser combinations?
• Functional – Do all your pages even have a primary call to action button?  Are any of them broken?  Is anyone responsible for occasionally testing them?

Example 2 – Testimonials

• Persuasive – Are your testimonials architected to answer questions and overcome objections through out the prospect’s buying process?  Are your testimonials as ‘real’ as possible, using pictures of the customer?  How about video testimonials?  Are you constantly testing to find the right formula for your business?
• Intuitive – Do your testimonials follow common design patterns for displaying quotes?  Are relevant testimonials placed on key pages to answer your prospects’ unanswered questions? Do you attribute quotes with name, location, and other relevant information?
• Usable – Are your testimonials readable?  Are they an appropriate font size and contrast?  Do prospects have to go hunting for them, or are they spread throughout the site?
• Accessible – In this case, Accessible and Usable can be thought of as essentially the same layer of the pyramid.  See Usable.
• Functional – Do you have testimonials?  Are they legitimate?  Do you have permission to attribute the author with at least a first name and last initial?

Besides what I hope are useful questions to ask yourself, the point of all this is to encourage everyone to start today on optimization, take baby steps, and work your way up the Hierarchy.  As the old saying goes: You can’t eat an elephant in just one bite!

Here are 5 key, unanswered questions (beyond shipping costs) of the shopping cart:

1. Do you offer alternate forms of payment (aside from credit card)?
2. Are you safe and secure?
3. Why are you asking for this information?
4. Do I have to set up an account to buy?
5. Do I get to review my order before we transact?

I recently bought a Father’s Day present online from a gift retailer, and their overall shopping cart process was “OK.”  I would give it a “B-” grade; it was good enough to get me through the purchase without bailing, but not nearly good enough to earn brand loyalty.  But, they did a good job of clearly answering the 5 Questions, and it was enough to help them “Get The Cash.”

I captured some elements of their billing page so you could see how their design answers the 5 unanswered customer questions.  When you click on the screenshots, can you pick which design element answers which question?

Are you adequately answering the 5 unanswered questions? Whether your confidence level is low, high, or somewhere in between, we know you could run some interesting tests to validate your assumptions about how well you’re doing, and you might increase your funnel conversion rate in the process!  Want help?  Let us know.

We thought we’d share some insights so that if you’re thinking about an optimization program, you can avoid the pitfalls and reap the rewards.

There are many, nuances of course, but I’d boil it all down to 4 basic steps.

Step 1 – Get Help

Those who get a personal trainer are more likely to accomplish their fitness goals.  In the world of online marketing, those who get expert help are far more likely to achieve their business goals than those who try to “DIY.”  The help you need is cross-disciplinary: you need expert eyes looking at aesthetics, usability, copywriting, marketing strategy, split testing, personas, pay per click, search engine optimization, and more.  Of course, we’d like to be considered when you go looking for outside help.  But if you don’t hire us, do hire someone!  Even if we don’t get your business, we’ll take solace in knowing that the Web is getting better for customers, little by little.

Step 2 – Get Out of Project Mentality

There is a tendency to think about improving a website, or any marketing, as a one-time project with a beginning and end.  We believe this is the wrong approach to optimization.  You may think you can join a gym for 3 months, lose some weight, then cancel your gym membership and still maintain your improvements.  But only a true lifestyle change can help you accomplish fitness goals.  Same goes for Optimization, also known as Continuous Improvement.  The shift out of project mentality needs to be addressed within your organization (culture), with your vendors, and especially with those who are going to “own” the implementation of your continuous improvements.

Step 3 – Budget For It

Closely related to Step 2, Step 3 is to budget for a process of ongoing optimization.  Since it’s not a project that ever should “end,” it should always be in the budget, right?  We’ve written before about our opinion that in a recession, optimization is the last thing that should be cut from marketing budgets.  If you join a gym and see improvements (you drop a few pounds, keep them off, and feel better in general), why wouldn’t you budget that gym membership for at least the next couple years?  Also keep in mind that “budget” doesn’t just mean a line item in a spreadsheet.  Budgeting your internal resources time is important, too.  OnTarget clients budget 10, 20, or 40 implementation hours for their team per month, for example.

Step 4 – Celebrate the Wins, Learn From the Losses

I’ve already written about celebrating the wins, even if they’re small.  Part of the celebration process is stepping back from the day-to-day process of Optimization and acknowledging that the process as a whole is effective.  And publicizing wins is probably the most effective way to make sure Optimization costs stay in the budget no matter what! As far as losses go, we define a “loss” as a tested optimization change that decreased a KPI.  One of the great things about digital changes is that if they don’t work, un-doing them is pretty quick and painless.  But, too many clients back away from testing, changing, and optimizing because of a loss or two.  Again using the weight loss analogy, weight fluctuates, and just because you gain back a pound that you lost, doesn’t mean you quit exercising.  The key is to learn from the failed change, and inform your next round of optimization.  That way, it just feeds back into your cycle of continuous improvement.

Hope this is helpful, and would like to hear your thoughts in the comments on if you think there are other Steps to Optimization that deserve a future post.

• #1: That video was a waste of time.  They could’ve conveyed the same information in way less time.  My questions aren’t answered.
• #2: That video was awesome!  I feel much more educated about their service now, and it was very professional-looking.

Scary, right?  The video was professionally shot, edited, and produced.  It conveyed good information, but it did so in a style that started to persuade one tester, and didn’t remotely persuade the other tester.

It got me thinking about how important video can be for persuading B2B site visitors, but also about how different types of videos are persuasive to different types of visitors.

I think a lot of sites go out and get themselves a video to stick on the homepage and think that they’re “done,” and that their conversion rate will start doubling every week or so.  But, I propose that one video may not be enough, because you’re trying to persuade people in very different personality profiles.  Further, I think the truly optimized B2B site can benefit from multiple videos, in multiple styles, in multiple sections of the site, from multiple video-production vendors!  I’m sure I’m not making any friends with budget-constrained site owners, but hear me out.

The real budget-waster is investing in one video that tries to be “all things to all people.”  You’ll end up with a disjointed video that’s too long for anyone to tolerate.

Let’s take a minute to review some common types of videos featured on B2B sites:

1. The “Get to know us” Video – these videos are great for showing the people behind the website/business.  Humanistic customers will love them.  Methodicals will probably hate them.  Our friends over at SunPop Studios excel at this kind of video, by the way. Check out some of the samples on his website.
2. The “Make the complicated more simple” Video – these videos help explain complicated concepts in ways that web copy and static visuals can’t do as well.  The Competitive and Spontaneous will appreciate this kind of high-level content.  My favorite creators of these types of videos are the folks over at Common Craft.  (Note: this isn’t just because I share a certain dreary hometown with them)
3. The “Product Demonstration” Video – perhaps the most common video on B2B sites, this one takes visitors through the benefits and features of a digital product using voice overs, animation, and screen recording.  Depending on how detailed they are, these videos might resonate with Spontaneous or Methodical customers.  The number of vendors that do these types of videos is too large to single out a favorite.  In fact, most digital agencies can do high-quality product demo videos these days.  If you’ve got a favorite, drop it in the comments, please.
4. The “Testimonial” Video – these videos add a human touch to the standard, text-based testimonial.  These again will be attractive to Humanistics, but the added layer of “realness” can help move the skeptical Competitive decision-maker.  They can be testimonials about the working with the company, or about a particular service, like our OnTarget video testimonial.

So before you start putting makeup on your CEO and rolling the cameras, I advise that you spend some time thinking about the scenarios your visitors are acting out on your site today, what questions or concerns aren’t being addressed, and if or if not video is the right medium to educate (and begin to persuade) them. You may find that several short, less slick videos that answer your personas’ un-answered questions, placed strategically throughout the site, are more persuasive than that super-slick, Hollywood-style video.  See?  I’m was actually trying to save you money

In our fast-moving industry, what gave ROI six months ago might not today.

Take, for example, the design pattern I like to call the “SEO Footer.”  This design element takes many forms, but essentially it’s using the footer of your website navigation to house keyword-rich anchor links as a means of increasing Search Engine Optimization.  It’s a decent idea, and was extremely popular a few years ago, but I personally find them ugly, hard to scan, and hard to use.

Personal opinions aside, we’ve got a great candidate for an optimization test.  Why?  Because its impact on your site’s SEO is much less clear than it was a few years ago.  And if it’s not giving you ROI on organic search traffic, guess what?  It’s just cluttering up your site design and hurting your chances of converting customers.

I’m the first to admit I’m not an SEO expert, and the real SEO experts have written some good stuff on this topic, but in my research, I couldn’t see any evidence that sites are testing to see if this tactic is still “paying off” like it did 6, 12, or 18 months ago.  So, there’s your free test recommendation.

“Wait!  What Do I Test? And How Do I Interpret the Results?”

Run a simple test where some portion of your traffic sees a version of your footer stuffed with juicy keywords, and some portion doesn’t.  Measure its impact on whatever conversion matters to you, or whatever conversion might rely most on intuitive navigation.  Examples: Visiting a specific section of your site devoted to a business vertical and downloading a white paper, or browsing and finding a particular product and adding it to a shopping cart.

You may find the presence or absence of your SEO Footer has no impact on conversion.  That’s OK, because you’re also going to dive into your analytics and/or your SEO reports and see if the absence of the footer hurt your rankings/traffic.  If removing those extra keywords has positive or no impact, then you may as well remove it in the name of simple, clutter-free design.  If removing it has negative impact, then you should optimize the existing design to make it look as good as possible, and resolve to test it again in six months.

Use this method to make every site element earn its right to be a part of your design, and you’ll optimize your way to ROI.

Here’s my take on some of the stages in developing an optimization culture:

• Acceptance – this is the stage where a business realizes that Optimization has value, and in order to reap the rewards, the status quo isn’t going to work.  Something additional has to be done, which calls for some combination of the following: a shift in focus, additional resources, new tools, and working with outside experts.
• Testing the Waters – this is the stage where the business starts testing and optimizing, and often gets some big wins just by making minor changes to their site, or removing basic conversion roadblocks.
• Infatuation – after getting some wins from “low hanging fruit,” our clients sometimes become fixated on testing and optimization.  They check their test dashboards multiple times a day, they cheer when they see Google Website Optimizer’s green bar, and they wring their hands when they see any yellow or red indicators.  The less-disciplined business will often lose focus at this point and miss out on all the fun/profit.
• Thinking About Resources – after things have settled down, there have been a few wins, and a few inconclusive tests (inconclusive changes still give you incredibly valuable data and piece of mind), the business starts to think about how to support an optimization process long-term.  They realize that this process isn’t free; it takes hard work and resources to create and administrate tests.  They evaluate their current teams and whether they can properly support a culture of continuous improvement.  This is a magnificent stage to witness, and once a business knows their resources, it’s much easier to stay OnTarget.
• Getting Analytical – once in the habit of optimization, we start to see clients question their assumptions, their vendors’ assumptions, and generally why the data is the way it is.  This is when things get fun.  Often, clients write me with test ideas or analysis of their very own, and I know that the training wheels have officially come off.
• The New Way of Doing Business – this stage shows our clients becoming calm and nonchalant when a site change gives them double or triple-digit improvements.  They are equally happy when a test has a negative or inconclusive impact, because it’s all part of the continuous improvement process.  They realize that even single-digit increases achieved on a regular basis will have incredible effects on their bottom line, like compounding interest in a bank account.

I hope this proves helpful, and I hope that more and more of our readers will develop an optization culture. Just please let us know if you need any help.

One of the first things I noticed (and liked) was that the homepage was quite tall.  Many designers seem averse to tall homepage designs, thinking that everything simply has to be above the fold.  The fact is, visitors will definitely scroll if the content is engaging and answering their questions.

For the sake of dissection, I’m breaking it into top section, middle section, and bottom section, so click on a

thumbnail to see each section a bit bigger.

Top Section  – Things We Like to See

1. The correlation between the parent company and the product brand is clear but unobtrusive.  A simple link takes you to the parent company, and the word “presents” above the brand sets up the understanding of the parent/child relationship.
2. Unique Value Proposition is prominent and below the logo
3. Key benefits are bulleted for fast-moving personas.
4. Primary and secondary calls to action are clear, prominent, and the primary button is above the fold.
5. Bonus: this is of no real value, but re-size the browser’s width and you’ll see the top of the design do cool stuff!

Middle Section – Things We Like to See

1. Uses graphics to illustrate a process/concept.  Not everyone loves to read; some visitors love diagrams.
2. Expands on the core concepts with brief paragraphs and uses bolding.
3. Provides a screenshot of the application, so visitors can get a sense of its intuitive or “magical” interface.

Bottom Section Things We Like to See

1. Use of video demo.  Not everyone loves to read or look at diagrams; some visitors love video.
2. Deeper level of detail about system requirements, pricing, etc.
3. They support a cause.  This isn’t just a cute gorilla-themed design; they are using a portion of profits to support a cause they care about.

Suggestions for Improvement

I’m obviously a fan of this design, so I’ll offer the site owners a few optimization concepts.

• Test.  If you’re not already testing your homepage, you’re missing out.
• You have well written copy, but linking key phrases can drive traffic into the site to get their questions answered and convert.
• Your “save the gorillas” angle is too easily-missed.
• The diagram in the middle section could be interactive.
• Calls to action only at the top of the page.  I’d repeat them lower on the page, even if they were just links in body text.

Now, who else wants some dissection and optimization?