The Ultimate Answer to More Leads and Customers

1) How do you convert more of your website traffic to leads?

2) How can you convert more of your visitors to customers?

These are critical questions for any business person interested in making their website work harder for them.

Although converting Internet traffic to leads or customers is only one component of the entire sales process, it’s a very fundamental and critical one.

The answers to both the questions above is not one of opinion or conjecture. The ultimate answer is obtained via testing. And the more testing you conduct, the better. (For more info, click “Testing” Your Way To Internet Marketing Success and view the video).

Testing is not a new thing. In fact, back in 1923 Claude Hopkins emphasized its importance in his book, Scientific Advertising.

What is new is how readily it can be conducted. As a point of comparison, I have a background in direct mail marketing, which includes testing different copy for the letters themselves, as well as different headlines, different envelopes, different offers, different calls-to-action, and other components.

I conduct such tests using volumes of Excel spreadsheets in conjunction with special codes in all the letters to ascertain which variables and combination of variables generate the greatest number of responses and sales.

Each test takes weeks to write, print and mail all the versions, and then measure all the responses. After the results are tabulated, I repeat the process to increase the responses even further.

If this sounds like a lot of work, well … it is.

But since 2006, sophisticated online testing can be conducted using Google Website Optimizer. Although this doesn’t work for direct mail letters, it works fantastically well for websites, which is the point of this article. (However, as a bonus, it can be used to test some variables for direct mail, as well).

Google Website Optimizer is a free testing application that helps online marketers answer the two questions above (and more).

In brief, Google Website Optimizer allows marketers to test different versions of complete web pages as well as specific elements on pages, to let your visitors tell you which variables help them to buy your products, or download your information, or whatever it is that you desire visitors to do on your website.

Following are two general categories of online market testing that can be executed via Google Website Optimizer:

A/B Testing

A/B tests allow you to test two or more versions of different pages against each other to see which performs best. If you are testing 3 different versions of a page, then you are conducting an A/B/C test and so on.

A/B tests are especially useful because they allow you to test major design decisions by placing two or three completely different designs against each other to find out which one resonates best with your visitors.

Of course, the downside is you can not pinpoint the elements that persuaded more visitors to convert.

Multivariate Tests

Multivariate tests allow you to test multiple elements of a page at the same time. This way you are able to test different headlines, different images, or different colors on a single page.

You can always think of A/B tests as a simplified version of multivariate tests.

The beauty of multivariate tests is the speed in which testing multiple elements can be conducted, and distinguishing which combination of elements inspired users to convert.

For more info on Website Optimizer, visit the following links:

Google Website Optimizer

Google Website Optimizer Blog

Internet Fraud and Work-at-Home Scams

Consumer scams are not new.

As an example, in the 1920’s, the Ponzi scheme (bogus investment swindle) was a notorious way to bilk individuals from their savings.  However, the idea of that specific scam goes back earlier, to 1857, when Charles Dickens described it in his novel Little Dorrit. The recent example of Bernie Madoff, operator of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, is testament that old ideas can be given a fresh suit to steal from people anew.

Of course criminal behavior goes back much earlier than Charles Dickens depicts. One of the Ten Commandments (“You shall not steal”) is indicative of how long criminal acts have been problematic to Mankind.

Nowadays, a modern way for criminals to put on a new suit is by cloaking themselves behind the Internet.

Examples of Internet Scams and Fraud

The list of ways that theft is perpetrated via the Internet is seemingly endless.

The FBI maintains a website resource of “Internet Fraud” and how to avoid such.  The FBI notes that the most common categories of Internet fraud include:

• Internet auction fraud
• Non-delivery of merchandise purchased from websites
• Credit card fraud
• Investment fraud
• Business fraud
• Nigerian Letter Fraud

That last is so well known as an example of Internet fraud that the FBI lists it on the same page as its own singular category. Although it has been bilking individuals of their savings “online” since the 1990’s, the scam goes back decades earlier in the form of direct mail and faxes. (For more info, click here for the Nigerian email scam.)

Work-at-Home Scams

Due to the recession and a demand for new income sources, “work-at-home” scams have seen substantial rises in activity. The following article and video from the ABC NEWS Business Unit, Google Sues to Stop Work-From-Home Scams, highlights a number of such scams, including the widely propagated Google work-at-home scam, which includes “fake news articles, fake news blogs and fake testimonials to promote their services and direct them to credit card processing sites like the one run by Pacific WebWorks, Google said.”

Furthermore, the article states “Google is warning customers to be wary of the following work-from-home promotions: Google Adwork, Google ATM, Google Biz Kit, Google Cash, Earn Google Cash Kit, Google Fortune, Google Marketing Kit, Google Profits, The Home Business Kit for Google, Google StartUp Kit, and Google Works.”

Protect Yourself from Internet Scams

Internet fraud is common. And even though “auction fraud” is one category listed by the FBI, the vast majority of purchases made via auction sites, such as eBay, are fairly transacted.  In other words only a small percentage are fraudulent.  The same is true for business fraud and online credit card transactions in general: the vast majority of purchases made over the Internet are transacted fairly.

On the other hand, work-at-home opportunities are particularly prone to fraud. According to the ABC video (link above) 54 out of 55 such work-at-home opportunities are scams.  That means any time you see an advertisement for some work-at-home “opportunity,” there is a very high likelihood that its sole intent is to scam you out of your money.

The US Justice Department lists a number of ways to avoid becoming defrauded, including:

• Being Careful About Giving Out Valuable Personal Data Online
• Being Especially Careful About Online Communications With Someone Who Conceals His True Identity
• Watching Out for “Advance-Fee” Demands

For more info on protecting yourself from Internet scams click on this link from the United States Department of Justice on Internet Fraud.

The Two Biggest Barriers to Hiring an SEO Pro

There are two barriers that complicate your attempt at finding an SEO professional for your needs.

SEO Hiring Barrier #1

Optimizing websites to improve search engine positioning is predicated upon understanding the ways that search engines utilize complex factors to determine which websites to rank higher. But the exact ways that such are accomplished is not only a highly guarded secret, it’s also continuously being refined and changed by the search engine companies.

Stated another way, the details of the best way to get SEO results for any given website are subject to some misunderstandings, not only among the individuals seeking to hire a professional for guidance, but even amongst SEO professionals themselves. Talk about an opportunity for “The blind leading the blind!”

Case in point: if an SEO professional seeks only to optimize technical factors on your website, without executing necessary offsite actions (such as inbound link building), then a significant portion of potential search ranking opportunity will be left wanting.

SEO Hiring Barrier #2

The reason most businesses are interested in engaging SEO services is to make more money. But there is a broad area between the “strategy” of how to use SEO effectively, and the “execution” of it.

Stated another way, you could potentially hire someone for economical rates to “execute” on-site SEO factors, but you may be missing the boat in terms of what is the best strategy to monetize the very site that you are attempting to improve.

SEO is a marketing channel, but there are SEO consultants who have no marketing background. In other words, you could potentially hire a highly competent technical practitioner who may sincerely execute an SEO campaign for you, but alas, you may see no increase in profits.

Do not fault such an SEO technician.

Such a person is a not a professional marketer.

Case in point: I recently spoke with a potential client who was interested in on-site SEO guidance to improve search ranking and to generate more money from the firm’s website. However, as this person was not a professional marketer, and was interested in keeping costs as low as possible, this person had pre-determined that money could be saved by optimizing only one component of the website. Unfortunately, this component had the least long-term potential for generating ongoing profit. The end result of such an arrangement would yield higher search rankings for the client for the determined area, but not the expected profits. And more to the point, not the return on investment that this businessperson was attempting to maximize.

BOTTOMLINE: There are not only misunderstandings among those tasked with hiring SEO professionals on what to expect, there are also varied perspectives among SEO’s on how to best achieve a given SEO goal. More specifically, because SEO encompasses the execution of many technical factors, the actual strategy of how to make money with SEO may be largely missed if the consultant is technically savvy, but has very little marketing expertise and experience.

What’s the Solution to the SEO Barriers?

It starts with you.

If you happen to be a seasoned and experienced marketer, including with SEO, but don’t have the resources to actually accomplish the necessary actions to achieve what you know needs to be done, then you don’t need to hire an SEO consultant for strategic profit making purposes at all. You simply need to outsource SEO execution. In other words, simply hire someone to put your strategy into practice.

On the other hand, if you are NOT confident about the best ways to use SEO to MAKE MONEY for your business and website, then you would be wise to seek and speak with an SEO professional who not only has experience establishing high search rankings, but whom is also an experienced Internet marketer with a focus on making money and improving your marketing ROI.

Outline For an Online Business

This is an outline of how to establish an online business. Although these steps are relatively simple and can be executed entirely by using free, or very low cost services, it’s the very first step that determines whether anything will happen with the rest of the steps:

1: Make a decision that you want to develop an online business and commit to some amount of time you can devote to it – ideally every day. (A failure in establishing personal commitment here will make the rest of these points moot).

2: Determine the business focus. If you already have an offline business that you want to promote, then you have a place to start. Otherwise, determine your area of focus around these two variables:

a) Are there people who will purchase a product/service you are offering?

b) Are you interested enough in this product/service that you will be able to devote some time to it every day?

3: Start a blog on that subject.

Although there are very simple and entirely free blogging platforms that you can use to start immediately (Blogger.com and Wordpress.com), a better choice is to pay for your own website name and host your own blog software. Here are the steps to accomplish that:

a) Buy your own website name (less than $10.00/yr)

b) Subscribe to a web hosting service (less than $10/month)

c) Download and install the Wordpress blogging software (free) from Wordpress.org (note the “.org”).  Many hosting services will walk you through this process.  (For more info, click the following link for You Need a Professional Wordpress Blog).

4: Start an email subscription service, such as an email newsletter, to develop a subscriber base that you can build a relationship with. Click here to for more information on giving away valuable, free information, to build an email list.

(In fact, this would be a good place to plug my own free newsletter: to find out more, click Skyworks Orbit.)

5: Create content every day on the subject of your blog. This is important enough that it deserves special emphasis. You will need traffic arriving to your website. You can either buy traffic or grow traffic naturally. If you are going to develop traffic naturally (free), you’ll need to develop a lot of content over time. The more content that you have, the more reasons search engines have to bring traffic to your site. There is considerably more to know about this subject, but for the sake of simplicity, recognize that a lot of content is needed. (Click here for more information on Generating Free Traffic with Blogs).

6: You need a product or service to sell online. This relates to point 2 above. If you already have a service and/or products, you are already set. (Even so, you will want to consider NEW products and services). One simple option (not the best option) is to create an eBook that can be sold from your blog. (Or, you can hire someone to write an eBook for you.) However, generally speaking, eBooks are not as effective as they used to be, especially since, for many subjects, there are lots of established “Free” eBooks already. The point is you need some kind of product or service, and if you don’t have anything to sell right now, physical products, and especially digital products, represent business opportunities that can scale up more effectively than providing services.  “Scaling up more effectively” refers to increasing  business profits with an increase in sales, without a proportionate increase in labor.  (If you sold 10 widgets last week, you may be able to sell 20 widgets this week without hiring more staff).  On the other hand, in some cases providing services may be an easier to way to start a business.  Conversely, since there is only so much time in a day, the amount of service that can be delivered by a business is limited, even when more personnel are hired to deliver the service.

7: You’ll need a way to accept money online. There are many shopping carts available online, which facilitate the exchange of money on the Internet.  A very simple one to start with is Paypal. Although there is no fee for using Paypal, they do take a small percentage of your payment as a commission. As your business grows, there are other paid options, that will save you money, as long as you are generating enough business to make it cost effective.

8: Steps 5 and 6 need to be repeated to expand your income opportunities. Furthermore, if you have a product/service that is purchased month after month (consumable products, such as vitamins, and/or online services that are paid monthly, are some examples), the built-in repeat sales establish a very good business foundation.

NOTE: Although these steps are relatively simple, it should be emphasized that there are more details to know to expand your business faster. Further, step 5 includes an ongoing and continuous flow of activity that should not be undervalued.

The real point is that it is SIMPLE to get started!

What’s the Best Length for an Internet Video?

Question: Since videos can be published online of any length (even if broken into a series of segments), what would be the best length for a self-created video?

Answer: It depends on the purpose of the video and who it’s for.  The following are guidelines and you could find exceptions for each.

1) “Introductory Videos” are short: 30 seconds to 2 minutes, and no more than 4 minutes. If you want to expose a brief message to as many potential viewers as possible, who do not otherwise know you, the shorter the better. Anytime someone clicks on a video they are making a small time commitment and a shorter video just makes it easier for someone to make that decision. If they like what they see, then they may be more inclined to watch a longer video from the same creator.

2) “Content Videos” or marketing videos should be less than 10 min. These are videos that have good info and can even be condensed highlights from longer videos. They have the potential for being passed along to others should the content be valuable, interesting and/or entertaining.

3) “Training Videos” can be any length. Training, or educational videos could include how to use a specific software, or how to perform maintenance on an engine, or how to use a specific camera, or anything you can imagine. These could even be complete seminars. However, the longer a video is, the less likely it would gain traction as a property that gets passed along broadly (although anything can happen on the Internet). In other words, if a 3 hour presentation could be edited down to less than 30 min, it would generate more views. However, given a valuable enough seminar, there would still be a smaller amount of viewers who would watch the entire 3 hours.

Of course, regardless of how long or short the video is, you might as well increase its chance of gaining viewers by incorporating the 6 Ways to Optimize Your Videos for Maximum Search Impact.

Lead Generation and Sales Conversion Statistics

Lead generation, as part of the marketing and sales process, boils down to connecting buyers with sellers. The overall process can be very short, such as when a consumer lands on a web page and determines that they will make a purchase right then and there. (For example, buying a book or a DVD).

However, for businesses that have more expensive and/or complex products, as well as businesses that provide service offerings requiring person-to-person conversations, there is an inherently longer sales process.  Of course the more expensive or more complex the offering, the longer the sales process.

Lead generation is a vital component of establishing the initial flow of potential customers or clients (beginning with an “inquiry”), who would then move through a sales process, ultimately resulting in money being exchanged. Of course, not every inquiry will turn into a sales-ready lead, and only a percentage of the those leads will become qualified prospects, and in turn, only a percentage of those will become customers or a clients.

Lead Generation Statistics

So, what would be some benchmarks for a lead generation and sales process?

The following chart from Sherpa sheds some light on to that question. This chart and statistics represent “Average Conversion Rates in the Marketing-to-Sales Process.”

“We wanted to know what percentages of leads in each stage of the pipeline are likely to advance to the next stage. As this chart shows, on average, nearly four in 10 leads move from initial inquiry to being sales-ready, and approximately the same ratio advance from sales-ready to qualified prospect. As might be expected, the trend deteriorates moving to the next stage where only three in 10 qualified prospects convert to a sale.”

It cannot be overemphasized that these numbers represent “averages.”  The specific percentages along  the various stages of the sales conversion process will be more or less effective depending upon the quantity of education required before buying decisions are made, as well as the quality of the  information provided, and the effectiveness of sales personnel closing the entire process.

Regardless, the chart serves as a practical reference for marketers launching sales campaigns for which they have not yet established any metrics for comparison.

Using Transitions in Video Editing

In video and filmmaking terminology, a “transition” could be defined as the way in which any two video shots are joined together.

The first point to understand about transitions is that misuse or overuse of transitions is a sign of an amateur, in the same way that overuse of slide transitions in a PowerPoint presentation are unprofessional. Especially if too many different types of transitions are utilized.  In short, any way that transitions call attention to themselves and distract from the video continuity would be poor utilization.

Conversely, when used professionally (“not” to the point of overuse), effective transitions bridge different video shots together to produce a better message or story flow.

There are more transitions than depicted in this article, but the following are among the most widely used.

Video Transition: The “Cut”

The most common transition is the “cut.” This is simply one video clip changing instantly to the next shot.

Cuts are the best way to keep the action or momentum moving along at a good pace.

Straight cuts are not only simple, but they create smaller overall file sizes, which are an advantage for web videos. (In other words, adding transitions create larger video files, and on the Internet, smaller files are desirable).

Video Transition: The “Crossfade” or “Dissolve”

The next most common transition is the crossfade, or dissolve. This is simply one video shot gradually changing to the next.

The timing of crossfades can be made shorter or longer and they generally provide a more relaxed feel than a cut and slow the pace of the video.  Dissolves can better convey a sense of passing time than a cut.

Video Transition: The “Wipe”

A wipe is a more complex transition, and includes a number of variations.

One way to think of a simple wipe would be imagining a single sweep of a slow windshield wiper as a transition from one shot to the next while it moves across the screen.

Variations include an iris wipe, a heart wipe, a clock wipe, and a star wipe, in which the name approximates the geometric manner in which the wiping motion occurs.  Examples: an iris wipe is like an expanding or contracting circle. A heart or star wipe is like an expanding or contracting heart or star.  And a clock wipe moves around in a circle.

Video Transition: The “Fade”

Two key transitions are fade-up from black and fade to black. Fading in from a single color, such as black, conveys a sense of “beginning.”  And nothing says “the end” like a fade to black. (Fades can be used with other colors, too).

Conclusion: Keep it Simple

Effective integration of transitions should always be inspired by some aspect of the story that is being conveyed in your video. For example, a transition may signify a change in location, or a change in the pace of the action, or simply the passage of time.  If there’s no specific reason to use a transition, keep it simple and use a cut.

Another application of transitions is to smooth out minor video (or even audio) errors, which could appear more prominent with a cut, but which may be less apparent by a well-placed dissolve.

As a concluding note: Transitions should not call attention to themselves. Their job is to subtly support the video story or message.