This is one of the sessions that really caught my eye when I was reviewing my itinerary for this trip. The session features some excellent speakers including Tim Ash, who is one of my personal favorites. In fact, Tim Ash will also be speaking at DOMAINfest this month as well so if you missed him at Affiliate Summit, you can see him later this month! Now onto the session!
Timothy Kerber - CEO, MemberGate Solutions (Moderator)
Split Testing
Creating alternative version of a site and testing different versions of a page. Tim recommendeds Google Website Optimizer – free and integrated with Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics.
It can be frustrating as a publisher to send good traffic for an advertiser and not seeing it convert. If this happens it is important to put these ads in less-visible places on the site. Top-converting ads should be placed in better locations. This may seem obvious but many developers often don’t pay careful enough attention to this.
Jennifer Myers Ward, CEO, ebove & beyond, inc.
Increasing Conversions
- Don’t force commitment. Let your buyers “buy” as a guest
- Don’t Keep Secrets: Make your return policy and your shipping charge easy to find
- Test, test, test…, and test again!
- What your competitors are doing isn’t necessarily the right thing
- Keep it simple. Don’t cram everything you sell into the “store window”
- Show them the way: Navigation is a roadmap, not a puzzle
- A Quick Read. Present content in outline format not as an essay
- Don’t Ignore them: keep in touch with your buyers
- What else do they need? Leveraging cross sell and upsell opportunities based on purchase
- Have a Strong Offer: Give them something they can’t get anywhere else
What is a good sales page conversion rate?
Good sites see a conversion rate of 10%-20% but this really depends on how targeted your online marketing efforts are.
Will split testing hurt your SEO efforts?
No! Google has said it themselves, they are fine with split testing and this will not impact your rankings.
Mike Allen, Chief Executive Shopper, Shopping-Bargains.com, LLC
Seven ways to make your Existing Traffic Convert better
1. Be The Expert – become the authority on the subject, embrace the tough questions, find solutions, empower people
2. Leverage Your Advantage – build partner relationships, offer something exclusive
3. Provide Better Content – be unique, give something away, provide great answers, drop the sales pitch (soft-sell)
4. Help People Decide – honest comparisons, reviews/ratings, images, provide details, gently lead
5. Increase Touch Points – customer service is critical, say thank you, help your users succeed, upsell opportunities about!
6. Build Lasting Relationships – customer service is critical, say “thank you”, help your users succeed
7. Monitor Behavior (analytics) – monitor what your readers are doing, survey your users, contact mega-users directly
Tim Ash, CEO, SiteTuners
Five Quick Tips Skyrocket Your Conversion Rates
1. Make Your Call-To-Action Clear – best way to do this is to de-clutter your page
2. Ask for less info – don’t ask for too much information from your users, ask for information that is absolutely necessary to complete the current transaction
3. Cut down your text – most people don’t read on the web, they scan, look for pictures, etc.
4. Keeping your promises – make sure that you keep every promise you make to your visitors
5. Make your trust visible – adding things like “As seen on” can increase conversions dramatically (Tim gave an example of a site that say 40% conversions after adding banners for media mentions)
