Perhaps you’re investing in affiliate marketing and have created some really captivating holiday banners for your affiliates, or maybe you’re investing a lot in PPC this holiday season.

Are you simply looking at whether a marketing effort is converting and bringing in sales? Are you ignoring the step-by-step process visitors are going through from the marketing effort, to final conversion point, and making some assumptions for why one marketing effort might be converting more effectively than another?

Don’t just look at conversion…

...continue to read "Increase ROI On Your Marketing Efforts this Holiday Season"

I decided to participate in the Black Friday craziness by taking a ride up to the Park City outlets to see what the hype was all about. I must say that I got sucked right into the whole thing. Take an extra 20% off the lowest listed price–now that’s what I call a deal. Every store had their own Black Friday special, but there were a few stores that were obviously missing the point. On a couple of occasions, when I…

...continue to read "Holiday Promotions Your Visitors Can’t Resist"

Every time I see a button or text link that includes or says “click here,” I pull 10 hairs out of my head.  I have a lot of hair, so the good news is that I won’t go bald anytime soon.  It’s troubling to see that so many sites are still using this language within their calls to action. Using this flimsy phrase makes the call to action weak!

If the call to action is underlined copy, visitors realize…

...continue to read "“Click Here” Makes Me Rip My Hair Out"

A lot of people who call us want to know what the average conversion rate is for a particular industry, because they’re trying to assess whether their website could be performing better and could therefore benefit from website optimization.

The problem is that there isn’t a one size fits all answer to this question, even for a particular industry. There are so many factors that could be influencing your conversion rate.

The first step in recovery is admitting there is something wrong.…

...continue to read "There Is No One-Size-Fits-All Conversion Rate"

Because I live in the optimization world, I sometimes assume that certain web site strategies are common sense and obvious. I sometimes forget that the only reason why they are common sense and obvious to me: Because I analyze and optimize web sites all day, every day. That’s a bit of an unfair advantage!

At FutureNow, we work with clients in a variety of industries and business models: e-commerce, lead generation and catalog. Lately, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some…

...continue to read "A Clicks-to-Bricks Site Optimization Checklist"

Generating targeted traffic and conducting website optimization are critical to increasing online sales. Ok, yeah, you already know that

But did you know that traffic generation and website optimization aren’t mutually exclusive? There are tactics that will help you accomplish both goals at the same time, and one FutureNow Partner recently spoke to me about a tactic that’s working well.

Our Partner is a software development firm that specializes in web-based applications and good old web development and design. They are currently gaining leads…

...continue to read "All Aces: Overlapping your Marketing Efforts for Better Results"

I just saw the U2 concert in Las Vegas this past weekend. The stage setup and effects were mind-blowing. The lighting and sounds were exceptional. It was honestly the best show I’ve ever seen…but it wasn’t really the lighting and sound that did it for me. There was really only one thing that set it apart from anything else…

U2 wasn’t just entertaining their audience with lights and music, they created an experience that the audience could be a part of. Their…

...continue to read "The U2 Experience: Are You Giving Your Visitors an Experience?"

A lot of companies agree that they have problems with their category pages. Coming into the Holiday Season, it’s incredibly important to think of those things that will help the visitor move through her buying process easily, and improving the customer experience on category pages can have a real impact.  Optimizing category pages can prevent “pogo sticking” behavior, reduce bounce rates, and improve overall conversion.  Our clients are bold enough to work with us to verify the best of…

...continue to read "Help the Visitor Choose: Let Her Click to Compare"

Why are some of your visitors hesitating when they get to their shopping cart? What barriers are they running into that stop them from taking action on your site? What are you doing at these points to try and close the sale once you’ve identified that the visitor is hesitating?

I’ve been shopping online a little much this month. I got a new painting for my home office, I bought fabulous athletic sunglasses, and a pair of gorgeous above the knee…

...continue to read "Event driven promotions to make a sale"

Your visitors are empowered with the ability to access information with the click of a button. You can’t pull a blind-fold over their eyes or manipulate them into anything. They’ll find out the truth with or without you being upfront about what that truth looks like. Being transparent means that you’re being vulnerable, exposing all your wrinkles, scars and bumps, but it also means you’re fully disclosing what makes you better and different.

How can you be completely transparent on your site,…

...continue to read "Compare to Your Competitors Before Your Visitors Do"