'Net Features : conversions

Conversion Critic: Analyze Landing Page

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:15:00 GMT

Search marketing agency Engine Ready released ConversionCritic today, an online tool for search marketers designed to help them analyze and improve landing pages. The service is free of charge right now and is definitely worth a look if you're aiming at generating a few more sales from landing pages.

ConversionCritic scores pages based on 37 criteria, for example, "Does the copy focus more on selling the benefits versus the features of the product or service?" The tool then provides feedback on the marketing effectiveness, offer clarity, readability and engagement or suggested modifications of the landing page. I tested Website Magazine's new professional membership landing page and was pleased with the results, but did see some room for improvement.

“The dynamics that persuade a visitor to be your customer are numerous and complex, and depend on your product/service offering, competitive influences and the demographics of your target audience,” reports Engine Ready’s CEO Jamie Smith. “ConversionCritic is a great online tool for search marketers to see exactly which on-page factors are contributing to higher conversions and what improvements are needed to further increase the conversion rate.”

2008 Online Retailer Holiday Strategies

Mike Phillips — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:38:00 GMT

Shopzilla's 2008 eHoliday study, conducted for Shop.org, reveals some strategies that online retailers are taking this year to beat a sagging economy. The study surveyed 60 online retailers from October 1-20, as well as 2,040 online buyers from September 29-October 3. And while many fear a slow holiday shopping season, apparently online retailers feel differently. More than half (56.1%) expect holiday sales to increase at least 15% over last year. So how do retailers plan on boosting profits?

Many retailers will deploy improved website features to lure and maintain customers. Improved or added site search is cited as a popular strategy this year (42.9%) as are functionalities for consumers to evaluate offerings - product video (42.6%) and customer reviews (32.7%) - that are designed to drive conversions.

One of the more prominent offerings for consumers will be free shipping, or reduced shipping costs. More than three quarters of retailers (78%) plan on offering free shipping, with conditions, during the holiday season, by renegotiating terms with shipping providers and reducing other promotions.

Many retailers will also focus on promotion this year. Social networking comes into play, with a full 25% of survey respondents adding a Facebook page this year to attract consumers. Brick-and-mortar retailers plan on offering email registration in stores (74.3%), advertise their website in stores (71.4%) and offer the ability for store employees to place online orders for customers (51.4%).

And there's good reason for heavy promotion this year. Of the more than 2,000 consumers surveyed, 20.1% say they have less money to spend this year, while 10.6% cited a poor economy. One in ten plans to spend less this year online due to high shipping charges, while 33% cite free shipping as a top reason to buy online.

Looking at these results, there are few surprises. Consumers are focused on saving money, while retailers are focused on increasing conversions. What are you doing this year to attract consumers and drive sales?

Fewer Clicks Equals More Success

Mike Phillips — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Have you ever read an article about how to improve conversions, and the author says something like, "you need to turn browsers into buyers," to which you scratch your head, sigh and return to your regular tasks? Probably so. The reason this happens so often is there is little on the Web in the way of practical guidance on how to actually make those browsers become buyers. Let's change all that. One of the most effective ways to improve conversions is to reduce the amount of time it takes for users to get to the purchasing page. It's also one of the easiest.

Landing pages and search boxes are powerful ways to shorten the distance to a sale, so identifying the holes in our own marketing and merchandising on landing pages and throughout your entire site will show areas for improvement.

Landing Pages: Websites featuring immense product databases with tens of thousands of products should be linking directly to landing pages and allow affiliates the option to direct their own customers to custom pages of top-selling products in a specific category. This reduces the risk of your customers (browsers) navigating through many different products to find the one that initially brought them to your website. Designing, developing and promoting landing pages (especially on a massive scale) is time consuming, but the benefits of increased conversions are a motivating force.

Search Boxes: After your customers arrive on a landing page the hard work begins. While only a portion of users arriving on a custom landing page will be in true "buying" mode, granting quick access to refined information through search boxes is one way to turn the browsers into buyers. Functional site search has been shown to increase conversions dramatically as users are directed away from traditional search return lists and toward the products they are looking for specifically. Imagine, all it takes is removing a few clicks from the browsing process.

Live Support: Far from the norm, live support functionality on a website goes a long way towards reducing unneccessary clicks and improving conversions. If you're able to staff a team of live operators (either by phone or chat), they not only assist users to find the information they need when they need it, but provide an opportunity to build all-important trust with consumers, increasing the long term value of each visitor and customer.

Improving your conversion rate only slightly has a strong multiplier impact on your sales and revenue numbers and is the ideal way to take advantage of the traffic you already have today.

WideMile's Multivariate Optimization Platform

Administrator — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:28:00 GMT

Widemile announced at SES New York today the beta availability of its third-generation optimization platform, a browser-based application which helps online marketers maximize campaign performance by testing and optimizing landing pages and other web content for higher conversion rates. Twelve partners will use the new platform on behalf of their clients including Ascentium, Avenue A | Razorfish, BrandDigital, Closed Loop Marketing, DDB Worldwide, Palazzo Intercreative, Pop, Portent Interactive, Red Bricks Media, SolutionSet, TMP Direct, and ZeroDash1.

"After years of intense development, we’re thrilled to now make our optimization technology and expertise available to leading search and interactive marketing firms," said Robert Bergquist, Widemile CEO and President. “Advertisers, big and small, rely on their agencies for online strategy, creative development, search expertise, media planning, and other marketing guidance and support. Campaign optimization is highly complementary to these core agency services. We are working with our partners to spread the use of optimization and drive improved returns on ad spend and client website performance.”

Website Magazine contributor Dante Monteverde interviewed WideMile's Bergquist at Ad:Tech in New York.