FutureNow's GrokDotCom / Marketing Optimization Blog » Improving Conversion

Shopping Cart Optimization: Canned vs. Custom

Brendan Regan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:01:57 +0000

If you’re selling online, and you’re interested in Optimization, it simply makes sense to spend some time focusing on your shopping cart. It’s a key area of focus for a few reasons:

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.
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.
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.”

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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

A Clicks-to-Bricks Site Optimization Checklist

Melissa Burdon — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:30:06 +0000

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 clients who are driving traffic from their web sites to physical store locations. These clients share some basic challenges, so I’ve decided to cover things you should be focusing on if you’re an online business trying to drive traffic to a physical location.

First, decide what action you want your visitors to take. We know that you want your visitors to come off your web site and visit your physical location, but what actions do you want them to take ON your web site that demonstrate their interest in coming to your physical location? These are what we call micro conversion points. “Micro” because they are stepping stones on the way to some sort of purchase, which we call a macro conversion.

Here are some examples of actions a site might want the visitor to take to show their interest in moving forward. The following points should be tracked as micro conversion points, and you should optimize to increase these individual conversion rates.

A “locations” page where you feature your address and map with directions. If visitors get to this page, they are interested in where you are located, which shows strong motivation and intent.

Some sites feature a “Find the nearest location” tool.

Booking an appointment for a service or holding/reserving a product.

Contact us page, phone calls and emails are demonstrating that visitors are looking for answers to questions.

Tracking these micro conversion points is important, but it’s also important to follow through and track whether visitors who take these micro conversion actions are resulting in physical store purchases. Many companies track one or the other, but they seem to have a hard time tracking micro conversion rates on their web sites or they have a hard time connecting actions on a web site to actual sales in the physical store.

Here’s a list of questions you can ask yourself in order to get the right tracking in place to start seeing how your online efforts are resulting in ‘brick and mortar’ sales.

Tracking whether a store purchaser was originally a web site visitor:

Are you tracking all in-store purchases, asking each purchaser whether they went to your web site before they came to your physical store? This will help you find out general stats on how many visited your web site prior to purchasing.

Are you collecting email addresses and sending out surveys to in-store purchasers to find out how they came to your store?

For those who identify that they came to your web site before coming to your physical store, are you asking them if they already knew about your store and were just coming to your site to find the address/location or to call the store?

Are you asking them whether they were actually searching for something online, and found your web site as a solution to a problem (and didn’t yet know about your store) and they only found out that you had a physical store from your web site?

Tracking phone calls from listed phone numbers on your web site:

Is the phone number listed on your web site unique from other marketing efforts so that you can track it separately?

Is the phone number you list on various pages unique from the other pages on your site? In other words, if you feature a phone number on the about us page, is it a different number than the one on your contact us page? This would help you identify what pages visitors are making a decision to call from, and will also help you identify what types of things they are asking after visiting specific pages on your site.

Are you collecting enough information from the caller on the phone, so that you can match this up if the visitor turns into a sale in the physical store location?

Purely “clicks and mortar” E-commerce sites see the importance of optimization before the Holiday Season because it directly impacts their sales online. “Bricks and mortar” companies that use their web site to drive traffic to their physical store don’t see the direct impact as strongly, but this could be because they aren’t tracking the impact effectively. If you’re in this situation, use some of the tips above to begin tracking and optimizing. You still have time to optimize for the holiday season and beyond!
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

All Aces: Overlapping your Marketing Efforts for Better Results

Melissa Burdon — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:00:46 +0000

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 and sales by being very active with their marketing mix: radio, billboards, PPC, SEO, etc. They identified that there is a clear separation between their leads based on the lead’s motivations and, more importantly, their budgets. Some leads are looking for a small and simple web site with a custom design, with an approximate $500 budget. Other leads are looking for very complex web sites with a lot of tools and capabilities with a much higher budget in the $5000+ range.

The marketing team recognizes the difficulty in trying to effectively speak to these very different segments on a single site. Even using landing pages, there is the possibility that one type of visitor may be turned off by content they read that was written for another type. (FutureNow has a whole methodology for writing copy and mapping out buying paths for different types of visitors on a single site, but this takes a focused expertise and experience.) On top of trying to speak to all types on their main web site, this company creates completely different buying experiences on separate micro-sites for each segment. This drives more targeted and qualified traffic to these micro-sites. The micro-sites speak more directly to the segment and therefore move them through their buying process more effectively, without possible distractions from content that doesn’t speak to their motivations and needs.

They generate the smaller budget leads via radio ads. These radio listeners are driven to a micro-site in order to follow through on the messaging from the radio ad.

They also generate leads who are primarily interested in finding a web design/development firm in Utah via PPC ads with keywords such as “cheap web sites utah.” They send these visitors to a different micro-site and speak to their interests of a local company that can meet their web design needs.

As you can see, they send these very different prospects down customized buying persuasion paths based on the buyer’s motivation and need. By doing this, they are driving more targeted traffic to sites that have been more effectively optimized for a particular segment.

You can segment your traffic by the different products or services that they are searching for. Or, you can segment your traffic by the different problems they are experiencing, or solutions they are looking for. Are you driving all traffic to specific landing pages, or simply a single homepage on a single web site? Are you optimizing your site based on different motivations? These are good questions to ask yourself in order to get started optimizing your primary web site.

On top of optimizing your primary website, you should consider the micro-site tactic in order to drive more targeted traffic to your company and quickly turn this traffic into leads or sales. This tactic is applicable to multiple online business models; whether you’re e-commerce, lead generation, or a brochure site.

Note: Micro-sites are entities that can become part of your overall marketing strategy and shouldn’t be created and then forgotten about. Along with your other marketing efforts, micro-sites need to be continuously optimized and improved.

Are you ready for the challenge?
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Myths About Site Traffic and Optimization

Brendan Regan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:00:12 +0000

Lots of folks have been asking us lately about the connection between site traffic levels and online optimization strategies. There are definitely some correlations, but there also seem to be some myths or mis-perceptions about those connections.

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.
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

The U2 Experience: Are You Giving Your Visitors an Experience?

Melissa Burdon — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:00:04 +0000

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 stage extended into the audience so that the performers could be a part of the audience, and the audience feel like part of the band.

Beyond this, their show created an experience of unity and opportunity. They demonstrated how far we’ve come today; 3 million people in Africa on life saving AIDS medications compared to the previous 50,000 in 2001. They demonstrated how far we still need to go; the 1990-elected Prime Minister of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for the last 20 years and isn’t able to the lead the people and bring about change.

I didn’t just see a concert this past weekend–I was part of an uplifting experience. I left the concert thinking about what I can do to make a difference.

Connect with people in a way that no one else does, and you will reap the benefits. It’s as simple (yet complex) as that! If you can figure out how to give your audience the “experience” U2 gave to their audience, there is no question that you’ll win. You don’t need to save the world in order to increase conversions, you just need to offer an experience and connect with people in a way that no one else does.

What is your brand? What are you selling? What experience are you offering that sets you apart from the rest? Don’t just feature plain written copy on your web site. Have an opinion, have a personality, and make a difference.

Here’s an exercise we’d like you to try: Pick one of your highest trafficked landing pages and re-write it with some personality, as a conversation. Create an experience for your visitor. Then post the URL of that page in the comments. Excited to see what you come up with
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Let Them Build Before They Buy

Brendan Regan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:00:54 +0000

Us Grokkers are continuing to focus on what types of things eRetailers can work on to make Holiday Shopping more enjoyable (and persuasive) for their prospects.

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!
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Help the Visitor Choose: Let Her Click to Compare

Melissa Burdon — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:00:04 +0000

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 these tactics.

I’ll touch on one that seems to work across the board to help boost conversion: the “click to compare.”

Have you ever come to a category page with an incredibly long list of products, and had a hard time narrowing down your options and choosing one product? Give the visitor the option to check a box next to each product on a category page, and then have her click on a button to compare these chosen products. This not only lets the visitor take note of which products interest her from the long scrolling list, but it also gives her the ability to compare more detailed features that don’t fit in the limited space of a category page.

One of our clients, a seller of home medical supplies, gives their visitors the option to check boxes next to each product they want to compare, and then click a large call to action to “compare checked items.”

This action results in a pop up where visitors are able to compare these chosen product options on a single page in more detail.

If you don’t already offer the visitor the option to compare, help her narrow down her choices and test a version of your site where you allow her to compare her product options.

Happy Testing
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

How Much Pre-Holiday Optimization is Enough?

Brendan Regan — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:00:39 +0000

Lots of our clients and prospects are asking questions along the lines of: I want to optimize before the Holiday rush, but I don’t want to introduce too much change at such a critical time.

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!
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Event driven promotions to make a sale

Melissa Burdon — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:31:07 +0000

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 boots. I cut myself off about a week ago, but happened to be looking on Marciano’s sale section of their site a couple of days ago. I was just browsing, people. Don’t you ever window shop?! The prices were alright. I added a few items to my cart but knew that I couldn’t make the purchase right now.

Now, I’m fully aware that Marciano sends out emails about once a quarter with promo codes that will let you take an extra 40% or 50% off all sale items. Since I cut myself off, I’m not going to spend another big chunk, but if I could find a promo code to take 40% off the total, I would definitely place the order! You know what I did next? I searched for Marciano promo codes, and I tried a few of them to see if any of them worked. None of the codes were successful.

What if Marciano’s web team tagged a couple of unsuccessful promo code entries in their shopping cart as an event, whereby they would then feature a pop up with a 20% off promo code? I, for one, would have followed through with the purchase.

First ask yourself what the possible barriers are that result in hesitation from your visitors and then ask what actions your visitors are taking on your site, which identify their hesitation? Finally, what are you willing to do to make the sale and help the visitor overcome her barrier or hesitation? Would this lead to higher conversions and overall revenue?

Worth a test, right?!
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Compare to Your Competitors Before Your Visitors Do

Melissa Burdon — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:05:02 +0000

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, you ask? Compare your products and services to the visitor’s other options directly on your site. This will help you build credibility because you’re showing all characteristics and aspects of the product and service you offer, and are willing to display what might be better or worse about competing products and services. Let the visitor then make an educated decision based on this information. After all, the visitor’s main questions are; What’s in it for me? What makes you unique and different from my other options?

If you don’t make the comparison for the visitor, they’ll likely try and make a comparison on their own, and then perhaps the information they find out elsewhere will be skewed in the wrong direction.

Toyota gives us a great example, showing us how to effectively compare their product to their competitors. The screenshots show a compare tool that Toyota features on their site where you’re given the ability to compare a vehicle you’re interested in to all other brands and each model. They even show you the most common competing vehicles to the one you’ve identified. They make it easy for you to compare exactly what you’re looking to compare. They even have various in-depth comparison chart options, where you can choose to compare details on “cost,” “features,” “fuel economy,” etc.

Does anyone have any other great “comparison” examples? What other things can be done to achieve more and better transparency? Let us know. Need help making your online presence more transparent and effective? Let us know.
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Keep Them In the Cart this Christmas

Brendan Regan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:20:29 +0000

OK, Grok faithful, we all know that the Holiday Season is coming fast. Last year was “make or break” for a lot of eTailers, and this season will be critical for many more.

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
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Beware of Copycat Credibility

Brendan Regan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:14:46 +0000

I saw something today that disturbed me a bit (see pic). What you see is a free icon set I found with the standard 30, 60 and 90-Day Money Back Guarantee emblazoned in gold. I’ve been seeing similar graphics on websites more and more lately. We’re partly at fault because FutureNow helps businesses of all sizes by recommending design elements like these be put on their “to-do list.”

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?

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.

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.

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
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Great Technique Is a Habit, Not a Happenstance

John Quarto-vonTivadar — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:20:38 +0000

Have you ever wondered why ballet dancers look so elegant when they move? For the longest time, I always assumed it was because they were, well, ballet dancers (I know, that’s circular reasoning) — but really meaning “just born graceful, a natural dancer”. Do you think so, too?

As a swing dancer, I noticed that whenever someone new showed up at the Gotham Swing Club dances you could spot right away if she had a ballet background. Even though she might not know how to swing and made all sorts of mistakes, damn she’d make even the most common of mistakes look elegant. And it didn’t necessarily mean she picked up swing any quicker than anyone else; she simply looked good while moving through the novice ranks.

After talking with some pro ballet dancers, as well as several (actual) Rockettes, about how their job works, the one common element that I heard was that they spend several hours every day working on their basics. The same basics they learned on Day One when they were, like, 5 years old. They would never consider to not work on their Basic technique every day.

That’s why they look so good when they move. Their core technique is so embedded in their body that they cannot help but make it look great. Their good technique has become a habit. Their good technique doesn’t derive from what they are; it derives from what they do.

Do you to work on your core conversion techniques every day? It’s easy to forget and to fall back into bad habits, as I witnessed recently in a group of conversion professionals ! One member of the group had wanted the rest of us to vote for one or another nominee for some award (the details don’t matter). He didn’t get a great response rate so he used one of the most awful techniques possible: he created a shocking Subject line for his follow-up email, sure to get everyone who read it to open the email: “Microsoft buys Adobe for $24.6 billion” which of course is not only false but also has nothing to do with the nominee award balloting in question.   I knew right away that this is a fellow who doesn’t have his basics locked down far enough. He may be consciously competent in his regular works– he likely does fine work when he thinks about doing fine work — but there’s no way he’s unconsciously competent, doing great work even when he isn’t trying. He’s not practicing every day.

You may be thinking, “What the heck is wrong with a subject line like that?” Well, to start, companies who use such a technique rarely increase their conversion rate. Oh, you most certainly can increase your Email Opened rate ‘cuz of the catchy subject line; it’s not hard to craft a Subject line that induces “opens”. But the moment people realize they’ve been bamboozled — that the implicit promise of more info about the fictitious Microsoft-Adobe merger are not forth-coming — your chances of converting drop down to the pre-subject-line levels, or worse. You haven’t spoken at all to what’s-in-it-for-me to induce incentive to convert to the *actual* call to action (in this case, “vote for a nominee”; in most Grok readers’ cases, “Buy My product”, “Fill Out My Form”, etc).

Or, you may be thinking, “Well, in a group of Pros, it’s ok to slip a bit on the Basics, cuz you all know them”. And that’s just the point. A Pro doesn’t ever “slip a bit” on the Basics because, just like Pro dancers, they cannot do so without intent. Their core technique is so deeply embedded that slipping becomes a matter of conditions beyond their control: and writing the subject line of an email is completely within one’s control . So if you find yourself “slipping a bit”, you should consider that maybe you haven’t been working on your technique regularly enough. Great technique is a habit, not a happenstance.

What have you worked on, today, that better clarifies why your customers ought to buy from you?
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Don’t Make Me Sign In To Give You Money

Melissa Burdon — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:05:55 +0000

Nothing is more frustrating then making me jump through hoops to give you my money. I go to Warren Miller annually to get psyched for the upcoming ski season. Make fun of me if you wish, but it’s tradition ok?!

Anyway, I just went to warrenmiller.com and found out that I could buy tickets for one of the Utah shows directly at Abravanel Hall’s box office web site, so I went here:

http://www.arttix.org/

to find and buy the tix for myself and 5 of my friends.

I could search by event name — which was great — and it was easy to find the three Warren Miller shows that are being shown at this location. I chose my time and date and clicked “Buy Tickets”. Let’s not even get into the horrible “view seat map” tool, but check it out if you want to see how to seriously frustrate visitors. This experience is a really good example of what not to do unless you want your visitors ripping their hair out! Anyway, I chose the option “best seats available” and put it in their hands because I had no way of determining what seats were the best. Of course, I’m having to trust that they are actually giving me the best seats. But whatever.

The real fun starts at checkout. On the shopping cart, I click to “check out” and they bring me to a “create an account” page. They either let you log on if you already have an account or they make you create a new account.

I couldn’t remember if I bought last year’s tickets through this site so I “create a new account” and fill out their many fields and click “register”. I then receive an error message that I already have an account associated with that email so now I have to go to another page and try to remember my password in order to login! I don’t remember my password. You call this business?! I now have to say that I forget my password and have it sent to my email account in order to sign in.

Oh, by the way, throughout this entire time, my order is no longer available for me because I had 10 minutes to checkout and all of the jumping through hoops that they made me do, took longer than 10 mins. Maybe my “best seats available” are now gone? Readers, if there is but one thing you change today, please let visitors checkout as a guest — don’t make them create an account or sign in just to give you money.
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Website Redesign Roundup

Brendan Regan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:39:47 +0000

Lots of talk about redesigning websites lately. Maybe it’s because summer is ending, and the Holidays are right around the corner (for e-Tailers, that is)?

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.
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Nobody wants to read your sh**!

Jeff Sexton — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:05:33 +0000

Most valuable writing lesson ever. Or so says Steven Pressfield in this blog post on how his first professional job as an advertising copywriter indelibly carved this truth on his psyche:

“Nobody wants to read your shit.

Let me repeat that. Nobody–not even your dog or your mother–has the slightest interest in your commercial for Rice Krispies or Delco batteries or Preparation H. Nor does anybody care about your one-act play, your Facebook page or your new sesame chicken joint at Canal and Tchopotoulis.

It isn’t that people are mean or cruel. They’re just busy.

Nobody wants to read your shit.

There’s a phenomenon in advertising called Client’s Disease. Every client is in love with his own product. The mistake he makes is believing that, because he loves it, everyone else will too.

They won’t. The market doesn’t know what you’re selling and doesn’t care. Your potential customers are so busy dealing with the rest of their lives, they haven’t got a spare second to give to your product/work of art/business, no matter how worthy or how much you love it.”

Every online copywriter – no scratch that – every writer, marketer, advertiser, business owner, and entrepreneur should go read this post in its entirety.

This very powerfully states what Future Now has long taught: prospective customers are task oriented – they have lives and they are not on your Website because they are interested in you, or your company, or how you’d like to “position” yourselves within the industry. Your online visitors have a problem and they are really only interested in whether or not you have a viable solution.

Once you understand that, you can move away from we-we copy in order to focus on providing visitors with:

Ongoing visual and text assurances that they’ve come to the right place to find their solution – i.e., provide good scent.

Copy that speaks to them about what matters to them. Establish empathy with WHY they need your solution. Figure out what has driven them to need your product or service, and make sure you address those felt emotional needs as well as ALL of their lingering, sales-killing questions and doubts.

Pathways/links that allow each visitor to choose their own path, to either take the express train to grabbing what they need and converting, or to drill down to richer content on those elements where they need to assure themselves that you are, in fact, selling a real solution to their specific problem.

Nobody wants to read your copy. But if they’ve voluntarily come to your Website in search of a solution, chances are good they will scan, skim, and yes, even read copy that addresses their task at hand.

The difficult part is often the task of separating out “your sh**” from the copy that’s actually needed to address visitors’ concerns. Hiring outsiders often helps with this. Personas are also extraordinarily helpful. And so are the guidelines outlined in Steven Pressfield’s post – go read them!

And then go kick some online marketing a**

P.S. If the name Steven Pressfield seems familiar, you may have read his (highly recommended) non-fiction book, The War of Art. Or possibly his extremely popular historical fiction (also recommended).

[Editors Note: The author of this article is now blogging at jeffsextonwrites.com]

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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Redesign? Ask The Right Questions!

Jeff Sexton — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:24:22 +0000

Seth’s blog post on “Things to ask before you redo your website” is a must read for everyone involved in online marketing.   Seriously. If you haven’t seen it yet, go read it now.

What I love most about this list is the way it segregates into sub-components or elaborations on Future Now’s three questions that are the basis of Persuasion Architecture:

1) Who is coming to the site?

2) What is it they are trying to accomplish?

3) What action do we want them to take, and how do we ensure this matches up with what they are trying to accomplish? In other words, what do they need to know/feel/believe in order to confidently take that action?

Separating out Seth’s List

Here’s how I see Seth’s list falling into those categories:

1) Who is coming to the site?

Who are we trying to please? If it’s the boss, what does she want? Is impressing a certain kind of person important? Which kind?

Who are we trying to reach? Is it everyone? Our customers? A certain kind of prospect?

What are the sites that this group has demonstrated they enjoy interacting with?

Do people find the site via word of mouth? Are they looking to answer a specific question?

Will the site need to be universally accessible? Do issues of disability or language or browser come into it?

2) What is it they are trying to accomplish?

“If it’s the boss [that we are trying to please], what does she want?”

“Are they looking to answer a specific question?

Does showing up in the search engines matter? If so, for what terms? At what cost? Will we be willing to compromise any of the things above in order to achieve this goal?

3) What action do we want them to take…what do they need to know/feel/believe in order to confidently take that action?

What is the goal of the site?

In other words, when it’s working great, what specific outcomes will occur?

Are we trying to close sales?

Are we telling a story?

Are we earning permission to follow up?

Are we hoping that people will watch or learn?

Do we need people to spread the word using various social media tools?

Are we building a tribe of people who will use the site to connect with each other?

Is there ongoing news and updates that need to be presented to people?

Is the site part of a larger suite of places online where people can find out about us, or is this our one sign post?

Is that information high in bandwidth or just little bits of data?

Do we want people to call us?

How many times a month would we like people to come by? For how long?

Operational [and larger] Questions

Yet, while Seth’s persuasive questions are covered within these three categories, there’s a pile of operational questions left over:

How many people on your team have to be involved? At what level?

Who needs to update this site? How often?

How often can we afford to overhaul this site?

How much money do we have to spend? How much time?

In other words, what will this cost us? A question that opens the door for much larger debate of, do we really need to incur this cost in the first place? What makes us think we need a redesign?

And that gets us to the question that our own Jeffrey Eisenberg tackled within his free report 7 Big Questions of Highly Effective Online Marketing. For starters he suggests that people interested in redoing their site should ask the big questions first:

Do we need a redesign, or can we work with what we have?

Exactly how would a redesigned site better serve our visitors?

If the best-converting sites are often boring in their design, are we willing to design our site with that in mind? [in other words, do we have the intellectual integrity to separate out an notional "want" for a prettier/slicker website from a real business need]

Will we incorporate a scientific testing methodology into our redesign so we can optimize user interactions based on predictions of how our different audience segments will engage with the site? [in other words, are we really serious about redesigning to improve performance? Serious enough to bake accountability into the very fabric of the redesigned site?]

And if you’re not sure if you need a redesign, perhaps it’s best to take a cold hard look at your current Website in order to:

Isolate what isn’t working and what is

Determine whether you need to re-conceive your site because too many elements bog down the original design

On Target as a Precursor and Follow-up to a Website Redo

While Future Now has been involved in hundreds of successful Website redesigns and renovations, Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg clearly saw that there were far more sites out there in need of optimization and improvement than full scale redesigns.

And far more Website owners who couldn’t answer the majority of the questions posed in Seth’s post and Jeffrey’s report.

That’s how OnTarget was born.

OnTarget allows Website owners to gain insight into what is and isn’t working with their current site, and provides them with prioritized recommendations to optimize the site, fix the leaks, etc. Think of it as an incremental redesign based on measurable results.

With OnTarget it is only when major persuasive and usability obstacles can’t be surmounted without major retooling, re-skinning, etc. that a site redesign is contemplated. And in those cases, the business owners are able to answer those critical questions posed by Seth and Jeffrey.

This often means walking away from big redesign projects. But it always means providing the client with the wisest and best use of his online resources.

[Editors Note: The author of this article is now blogging at jeffsextonwrites.com]

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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Track Calls, Not Just Clicks

Melissa Burdon — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:48:34 +0000

When you think of improving your web site’s conversion rate, you probably think of increasing sales or leads online. The “clicks’ are the actions you are tracking as conversions for your web site.

One of my clients from over a year ago, was successfully implementing our recommendations. He was seeing increases in his conversion rate, measuring success in “clicks”, or more orders being completed online. After speaking with one of his customer service reps one day, I was informed that her call volume had increased substantially since working with us. She was also able to convert a high percentage of these callers into sales because they were better informed. Unfortunately, because they weren’t tracking these calls as conversions, we were unable to prove to the owners that call volume and conversion rates from phone calls were a measure of the success of our project.

It’s just as important to track phone calls, not just clicks, as conversions for your web site.

For some high ticket items, or for some industries that are more cutting edge, visitors may be more likely to want to speak with a representative in order to get questions answered, gain confidence and place an order via phone. There will always be the visitors who simply don’t feel comfortable placing an order online and want to speak with a live person in order to place their order. These conversions should not be ignored. The improvements you make to your site will directly affect call volume and the conversion rate of these calls.

Now, you can track your call analytics alongside your web analytics. Not only can you view the number of phone calls but you can also set the phone call URL as a goal in Google Analytics, so that you can see the value of these calls. Now you can calculate offline conversions, which have resulted from online marketing efforts.

By using unique phone numbers for your different marketing communications channels, you can track which traffic source generated the call, allowing the company to improve their overall marketing campaigns. When a visitor is referred from one of the traffic sources, a unique phone number will appear on your web site, allowing you to track conversion rates for phone calls. This will help you determine which keywords, sites, or PPC campaigns generate the most phone calls, and in turn, which ones result in successful conversions via phone.

Check out this screencast to see how ifbyphone has integrated their solution with Google Analytics.

Screencast – http://public.ifbyphone.com/demo/google-analytics-integration-screencast

Are you tracking your calls and your clicks properly?
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Cross-post: How to Improve a Product Page, Part 1

Brendan Regan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:59:00 +0000

Today, Ralph Wilson’s internet marketing resource, Web Marketing Today, posted Part 1 in a two-part video interview with our Bryan about concrete ways to improve product pages for higher conversions. In it, Bryan explains how FutureNow took on the product page design of eCommerce heavyweight Land’s End, and shows how you can use layout changes to test the buying path on your own product pages.

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.
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Just Say The Thing – Why Relevance Always Wins

Jeff Sexton — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:35:48 +0000

My friend and brilliant copywriter, Chris Maddock, frequently exhorts his writing students to “Just say the thing.” This advice is based upon Chris’s extensive experience in what’s working right now for radio ads – and just as importantly, what’s no longer working for any type of copywriting.

Google and the Internet have trained us to ruthlessly sort for relevance, and we now demand messaging formatted for, and adapted to, rapid sorting. If visitors can’t get on your website, perform a 7-second scan and immediately see exactly:

what it is you do,

what your offering, and

why they should care,

those visitors will leave.   Basically, you’ve gotta “just say the thing” (after which of course you still need to go on to close the loopholes, substantiate your claims, provide rich content, etc). And these web preferences have spilled out onto our demands for traditional media as well.

Great creative enhances the clarity and power of your message…

…But often times, the finished product won’t necessarily “feel” creative. Non-copywriters will tell you it’s too plain. No one will be impressed. Even visitors might not be impressed- yet they’ll convert!

Here’s a perfect example of that:

So first a caveat: this Kodak landing page isn’t perfect. As an incentive for already established Kodak Gallery members, it’s a strong offer. But Kodak has left themselves an out/loophole by reserving the right to end the free shipping beta program. And this kills its ability to draw new members.

Frankly, I don’t want to upload all my photos to their gallery based on the promise of free shipping, only to then have the free shipping yanked away from me. How much better would it be if they had a free shipping Opt-In program for new and existing members, a program you automatically join with any $12 or higher purchase from their gallery, and a guarantee from Kodak to continue to honor free shipping privileges for all existing members of the program even if they end the program.

Nevertheless, the thing to concentrate on here is how simply they just laid out the deal right in the headline. The copy just says “the thing” and it’s straight-up about their intentions. Also, notice how stunningly clear the comparison chart is. Not fancy, just brilliantly clear in conveying shipping savings available through Kodak Gallery.

And even though no one will remark on what brilliant writing Kodak’s copywriter cranked out, or on how freaking cool the graphic designers chart is, both the copy and the chart are remarkably effective.

The trick is to not let the “plain” style fool you. Just test it against copy with more snap, crackle and pop. Test it against a prettier graphic, or against whatever “feels” right to you. Over time, when clarity consistently wins out in your A/B tests, what “feels” right to you will change – and you’ll start writing much more effective copy.

[Editors Note: The author of this article is now blogging at jeffsextonwrites.com]

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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Low Hanging Fruit: Cherry Picker or Lettuce Picker?

John Quarto-vonTivadar — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:37:55 +0000

When you think of a cherry picker, do you conjure up images of someone who only picks the easiest or ripest fruit? Or does it perhaps have some artisanal connotation, waiting until only the proper time before action is taken? Is that how you go about optimizing your web site?

Or are you a lettuce picker? The sort of person that toils for long hours in the field and accomplishes a long day’s back-breaking labor of work that most white collar business execs would consider a less-than-optimal career.

That fact is, when it comes time to harvest, virtually the entire crop must be worked on at the same time. You don’t have time to cherry pick, and anyway the average business isn’t expert enough in how and what to optimize to know which portion of the crop should be cherry picked. Instead, when that crop is ripe, it’s time to get out there in the field and put in a 14-hour day getting it harvested.

Often when we speak wiith prospective clients new to OnTarget™, they have the impression that there is some magical formula that leads to higher improvement rates and that it can be achieved without any hard work or commitment. The reality, however, is that our most successful clients who enjoy on-going regular improvements of 40-80% in their conversion rates year after year are the ones who are implementing change on a regular basis. They’re lettuce pickers, and not so proud as to let hard work get in the way of increased revenue.

Are you a hard-working lettuce picker when it comes to your website? Are you guessing at what changes will improve your site? Or do you work diligently every week, every month, and every quarter to effect continuous improvement?
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

Six Ways to Sell Your Expertise Online

Brendan Regan — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:07:32 +0000

Many of our clients are in the business of being Experts. Some are consultants, some are advisors, some highly-skilled professionals within their field. The challenge with using the Web to market one’s expertise is that the online world is full of charlatans, and most people who’ve hired a few “experts” have had at least one of them not live up to their claims and produce poor results.

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.]
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

FAQ Page = A Sign Warning Drivers of Potholes

Jeff Sexton — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:06:56 +0000

Think about it: if those questions really are FREQUENTLY ASKED, why the heck isn’t your regular copy answering your visitors’ questions?

Unanswered questions keep visitors from buying/converting — that’s not theory; it’s a fact!

So why, oh why, would you knowingly allow your persuasive copy to ignore a frequently asked question? Why would you possibly be content with hiding the answers to your prospective customers’ questions in an FAQ page? Are you trying to weed out all but the most determined of customers?

While I don’t have confirmed experimental numbers to back this up (yet), common sense says that for every customer willing to search for an answer on an FAQ page, there are dozens more who simply give up on the purchase or look to your competitors for the answer.

So instead of erecting a sign saying, “Beware of persuasive pothole, please drive around this hole by visiting our FAQ page,” and hoping your visitors are motivated and alert enough to navigate such an alternate route, why not simply fix the persuasive gaps in your copy. Here’s how to do that:

If you currently have a FAQ Page, Here’s What to Do/Check

1) Determine where visitors are most likely to access your FAQ page. Look at your analytics to see where visitors are within their site visit/shopping process when they attempt to look at your FAQ. Do they do this early on in the process or later, as a last resort?

2) Get a sense of context by going to those identified FAQ access pages. You’re not just interested in the questions themselves, but in the context in which they are asked, so look at the page in terms of why visitors would be on that page. Note that a persona-based or scenario-based analysis helps with this.

3) Go to your FAQ page and think about the emotional concerns behind the questions. Here are a few examples taken from actual FAQ pages, along with the emotional concerns that probably underlie those questions:

Will we have access to the instructor to ask questions during the online ____ course? Translation: “how interactive is this course – how much better is it than just buying a book or a CD DIY-type course?“ Going one step deeper: “I’m afraid I might not get the support I need to actually improve my skill level — how can you reassure me that your course will help me actually kick ass, rather than being an unused resource that makes me depressed about my own personal suck-factor?”

How long will a [durable home good] last? Translation: “you’re asking a premium price and presenting yourself as the last ____, I’ll ever need – so what kind of proof do you have/historically, exactly how long will one of these suckers hold out?”

How do I know that my ____ is working correctly? Translation 1: “You’ve sold me on the theoretical benefits of your fancy schmancy _____, but I still feel like I might be getting suckered, so how can I confirm for myself that your device is really doing what you say before my 30-day refund clock runs out.“ Translation 2: “I know this is crucial to making sure my ____ doesn’t die an early death, so how can I reassure myself that I’m not breaking my very expensive and brand-new _____?”

What are your return/exchange/warranty policies? Translation: “Hey, idiot, you were too stupid to put any kind of point of action assurance near your buy/add to cart buttons and I’m not about to give you my money without knowing this stuff.”

What differentiates you from other _____? Translation: “Someone told me I should check you out, but I’m not impressed so far – either you’re oblivious as to how hard you’re making it for me to figure out what you do and why I should do business with you, or you just plain suck; so which is it?”

What kind of care/cleaning/maintenance does ____ require? Translation: How will this fit into my life? Will I have to baby this thing? Can it handle the normal knocks and dings of daily life without falling apart? In 6 months or 2 years, will I look back on this purchase as a waste?

4) If you have live chat or a published phone number, comb through those records or ask your customer service reps for the questions people ask and where they are on the site when they launch the chat service or call in. Once you have the list of questions gleened from Live Chat and Phone trasncripts/experience, repeat the process used in #3 by examining the emotions and concerns behind the question. How do those results differ from your FAQ?

5) Address underlying concerns or questions within your regular Website copy. You don’t necessarily have to do it with copy, as pictures, testimonials, videos, user reviews and other site elements can also address these concerns, but make sure the questions get answered.

Are there any excuses for having a FAQ?

Well….yeah. Sometimes when you really need a “knowledge base” library, but you don’t want to call it that, or when you want to make the hard core geeks in your audience feel better about asking their un-frequently asked questions, a FAQ page can work. Just make sure you ALWAYS provide links back to sales pages from within your FAQ answers. Once you’ve answered the visitor’s question, move them back onto a persuasive path.

Oh, and sometimes there are some Q&A’s you might actually want to hide, like in this Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 FAQ – notice the first question ; )

But seriously, realize that an FAQ is basically a junk drawer; you’re shoving stuff there because you haven’t taken the time to find a proper home for it. You realize this question may come up, but you haven’t figured out where it would come up – do the hard work to uncover the context and emotion behind the question and finding a better place for the answer within your copy becomes relatively easy.

[Editor’s note: The author of this post is now blogging at jeffsextonwrites.com
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

FutureNow’s “Best Of” List from SES 2009 San Jose

Brendan Regan — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:06:38 +0000

Bryan and I had the honor of attending and speaking at this year’s Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose. The amount of blogging and tweeting going on during the conference was phenomenal, so we won’t attempt to “cover” what went on.

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!
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.

How to Handle Jargon and Acronyms

Jeff Sexton — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:39:14 +0000

Here’s an issue/question that arrived in a comment to my post on Playing an Idiot Online [emphasis mine]:

“Brilliant post. We get this all the time, when designing websites for our clients……..But our clients will often use the line “but my customer understands this terminology, these acronyms, my customer is from a particular niche and they all use this terminology”…….It can be hard to argue this point, the client knows their customer better than us…… Yes usability tests would be a good way to prove to a client this problem, however it can be very difficult to find users who fits the persona.”

Thanks for the comment, Hamish, and I’ve run into that situation a few times myself. So here are a few strategies for dealing with that which have worked well for me:

In working with the client

Properly frame the discussion: “So what you are telling me is that if prospective clients come to your site and are not as familiar with these acronyms and terms as your “ideal candidate,” your OK with turning those prospects away and losing the sale?” Ultimately, it’s their site, if they want to only speak to “insiders” and the hard core, then that’s a legitimate business decision, just frame the question in business terms so they can acknowledge the bottom-line costs to such a strategy.

If the client relents when you ask him the “are you willing to lose the sale” question, suggest that you create and link to early-stage and newbie-friendly material. There is certainly no harm in taking an industry term and giving a fresh nuts-and-bolts analysis of it. At best you’ll get a chance to demonstrate your expertise; at the least, you’ll get some keyword rich and internally linked content.

Perform a Marketing Copy Autopsy on a piece of their current collateral. Pull out all the self-applied labels and adjectives to show them how the jargon is really just covering up a lack of substantive content. That should open up the client’s eyes, and if the autopsy reveals copy with substance, that’s a good sign that maybe the client is correct in their customer-knowledge assessment.

Do what Seth Godin suggested in the first place: get a flip cam and interview some past or current client customers. Don’t just test to see if they know the terms, but ask about the implications involved.   Knowing what a graphics card is isn’t the same thing as knowing why it can be critically important to have a powerful one if you’re looking to play hard core video games.

In crafting the clients Web copy

Spell out acronyms at least once per main landing page, so if, say, COTS was a heavily used acronym, the site would say Commercial Off-the-shelf Technologies, once in a while, as sort of a reminder or lifeline for the reader.

Insist that no more than 1-2 terms or acronyms appear in any sentence. The problem is often not just that jargon or acronyms are used, but that they are triple and quadruple stacked on top of each other in complex-compound sentences. That’s when you end up with something like this: “Drawing on our long-term experience as systems integators, solid relationships with our suppliers, and a commitment to the successful execution of the concept of COTS in mission-critical applications, our reputation — and our customer base — has grown.” Whew! Even rough familiarity with the industry terms isn’t enough to save most readers from having their brains “go splat” while reading those kind of sentences. The more complex and technical the material, the more you need simple sentence structures.

“Aerate” the text with videos, graphs, and photos that provide a sensory experience of the most important technical terms or acronyms. Imagine a sidebar or box that shows a COTS case study, complete with before and after pictures of the off-the-shelf consumer item and its new military cousin along with a cost comparison showing the savings involved. As another example, I suggested showing beam shots of the different power LEDs in my product page critique of BalckDiamond’s Headlamp.

An now for a dissenting opinion.

Legendary copywriter Bob Bly has a well known article titled, “Six Things I know for Sure About Marketing to Engineers.” Point number five plainly states that:

“5. Engineers are not turned off by jargon—in fact, they like it. Consultants teaching business writing seminars tell us to avoid jargon because it interferes with clear communication.

This certainly is true when trying to communicate technical concepts to lay audiences such as the general public or top management. But jargon can actually enhance communication when appealing to engineers, computer specialists, and other technical audiences.

Why is jargon effective? Because it shows the reader that you speak his language. When you write direct response copy, you want the reader to get the impression you’re like him, don’t you? And doesn’t speaking his language accomplish that?

Actually, engineers are not unique in having their “secret language” for professional communication. People in all fields publicly denounce jargon but privately love it. For instance, who aside from direct marketers has any idea of what a “nixie” is? And why use that term, except to make our work seem special and important?”

As I said, if you are narrowing your focus to a special group of insiders – or at least want to appear that you’re doing that – then an unapologetic use of jargon can work great. But I’d still try to test working in a few of my bulleted strategies

And here’s a little desert video on advertising terms – fair warning, though, George Carlin’s language may not be workplace appropriate:

Click here to view the embedded video.
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Starting as low as $1000 per month: FutureNow's OnTarget provides on-going expert analysis and prioritized recommendations to improve website conversion rates 40-80% or more. Lead generation and ecommerce versions available.