Here are the top 10 converting websites for May 2009*. These are based on Nielson Panel data and are calculated by user to final conversion. Conversion-rate data is based on visitor conversion rates, not session conversion rates: i.e., No. of unique customers/No. of unique visitors.

1. ProFlowers 38.6 2. Office Depot 28.0 3. Online Retail Total 25.6 4. Vitacost.com 25.0 5. Quixtar 23.4 6. ;Blair 23.4 7. Roamans22.6 8. 1800Flowers 20.5 9. Woman Within19.6 10. Spiegel 18.20

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

Benchmarks according to the FireClick Index

...continue to read "Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: May 2009"

Conversion rate = The number of people who take the action you want them to take divided by the total number of potential people who could have taken that action.

When you break that sentence down, you start to understand how to optimize your conversion rate.

Who are these people? Are they all the same? Do they have different characteristics, needs, questions? Do all these people have the same amount of product/service knowledge that you do? Are they…

...continue to read "How to Optimize Your Conversion Rate(s)"

Here are the top 10 converting websites for April 2009*. These are based on Nielson Panel data and are calculated by user to final conversion. Conversion-rate data is based on visitor conversion rates, not session conversion rates: i.e., No. of unique customers/No. of unique visitors.

1. ProFlowers 42.8 2. Vitacost.com 28.9 3. Office Depot 25.0 4. MetroStyle 24.5 5. Woman Within 23.0 6. Schwan’s 21.1 7. CDW 20.8 8. 1800Flowers 20.8 9. Landsend 18.8 10. Drs FosterSmith 18.30

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

Benchmarks according to the FireClick Index:

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Here are the top 10 converting websites for March 2009*. These are based on Nielson Panel data and are calculated by toolbar user to final conversion. Conversion-rate data is based on visitor conversion rates, not session conversion rates: i.e., No. of unique customers/No. of unique visitors.

1. Schwan’s 50.5 2. FTD 27.2 3. ProFlowers 24.3 4. Vitacost.com 23.7 5. Woman Within 22.7 6. Roaman’s 21.1 7. ColdWater Creek 20.0 8. Eddie Bauer 19.3 9. Blair.com 20.20 10. QVC 17.30

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

The online retail sector in…

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Many people have commented in past posts about ProFlower.com’s incredible conversion rates. You’ll often see them with a conversion rate over 30%. However, most people won’t dedicate the necessary resources they need to achieve such success. Over at EM&C, they cover what’s behind Proflowers.com’s incredible conversion rate by looking at their email marketing.

Here are a 7 things you can do to improve your email marketing performance:

1. Delete your entire email list! You might not need to be as drastic as this…

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No one but search engines and media properties make money from people clicking on ads. If you rely on sales of products or services, the revenue is a consequence of being seen as relevant to your visitors’ needs. After that click you must also instill trust, persuade visitors that you solve their problem, and that it’s simple to buy from you. The original conversion guru, New York Times bestselling author and ClickZ columnist, Bryan Eisenberg, will be presenting proven ideas…

...continue to read "Free Webinar: Post-Click Marketing: Maximizing Conversions Once Visitors Arrive"

Have you ever received great advice from a consultant but couldn’t implement it?

A recommendation is just advice, no matter how excellent, until you implement.

It’s only when you implement a recommendation that you reap the rewards.

Even when you know the advice is great you can get consulting indigestion.

You, the client, in consuming the advice can be the log jam or the hero of every consulting engagement. It’s rarely the consultant that makes the difference. If you choke or get indigestion then consulting leaves…

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1. Site-Perf – get an accurate, realistic, and helpful estimation of your site’s loading speed. The script fully emulates natural browser behavior downloading your page with all the images, CSS, JS and other files – just like a regular user. A unique feature is that site-perf.com allows to measure packet loss ratio with reasonable precision.

2. Customer Focus Calculator – will analyze the words on your page and determine if your copy is more about yourself or your customer. This tool will measure…

...continue to read "33 Free Tools to Make Your Website Better"

Customers say the darnedest things!

What can you say when the owner of a company that had a 4.12% conversion rate improves it by 17% to 4.82%  in less than a quarter and says “we’re sort of disappointed“?

Even when clients can’t commit very much budget or resources to execute our optimization recommendations they may still have very high expectations.

Has FutureNow became a victim of of our own success? Our process has made FutureNow very successful; we have many third-party documented case studies…

...continue to read "Realistic Expectations For Conversion Rate Optimization"

In the dark days of the dot-bomb crisis many companies asked us to train their staff. That’s a big part of how we built our reputation for helping companies achieve extraordinary conversion rate results with less resources. We conducted custom training programs ranging from 3 hours to 3 days that weren’t on our regular menu of services. We helped lots of companies survive and it still makes us proud.

Bryan and I want to make sure that you not only survive but…

...continue to read "Survival Training For Shrinking Marketing Budgets"