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

Marketing Speed vs. Marketing Investment

1) Online marketing can generate responses very FAST - but the very fastest responses can cost the most, and in the short term, generate the lowest return on investment (ROI).

2) Online and offline marketing can use cash resources very EFFICIENTLY, generating the highest potential ROI – but focusing on the most efficient use of capital can be slower.

Most businesses desire a combination of marketing speed and efficient use of capital, hence they fall somewhere in the middle of those two points.

The “Time” variable supports marketing refinement through the process of testing, testing and testing. Market testing unveils the most effective ways to streamline your marketing activities, which can include determining the best copywriting, the best ad captions, the best graphics, the best email headlines, the best offers, etc. Nowadays, market testing is faster and more cost effective than ever.

The Five Most Common Website Problems

DO ANY OF THESE APPLY TO YOUR WEBSITE?
Here are five of the most common problems I encounter when analyzing websites and/or email campaigns:

No Offer

A website should have a clear offer. There should be something that a visitor can potentially DO: such as buy a product or service; subscribe to a newsletter; download a report; make a phone call for more information; request a consultation; add a comment; or in some way ACT. Particularly when presenting a product or service for purchase, the offer should be very clear, and as simple as possible. But even when you are giving something away for free, just as much importance should be given to the presentation of such an offer, since the freebie is an important way of generating an email list, which is very valuable.

No Call-To-Action

Even if there is an offer, if there’s no Call-To-Action, which is simply asking your visitor to do something, then the amount of responses will be greatly diminished.

The offer is presenting something that a visitor could potentially take advantage of.

The Call-To-Action, is directing the visitor to move from the potential of acting, to ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING.

“Buy Now” is a common Call-to-Action.

Other Calls-to-Action could be asking a visitor to click a link to subscribe to an email course, to enter a survey, to make a phone call, to win a free prize, to enter a contest, etc.

Too Many Choices

Is your website simple? Or is it confusing? Are there too many things that one could do? Are there too many links to click on? Too many ads? Too much of everything which results in a first impression of visual chaos? Visitors will simply go away.  Your web pages should be SIMPLE.

Bad Copywriting

Is your website copy clear and EASILY understandable? Is it presented using simple words with plenty of short sentences? Are there bullet points to break up the text? Is there plenty of white space to offer visual relief to the reader? Do you have engaging headlines in your page titles? Did you spell check your words? Is your punctuation and grammar in harmony with your readers? Is your copy BORING? There is much to know about copywriting, and if you want to boost your sales, hiring a professional copywriter is a powerful way to make the presentation of your products and services more persuasive. (Click here for Effective Copywriting Guidelines).

Not Enough Pages of Content to Attract Natural Traffic

Unless you are buying traffic, having only a few pages of content on your website will not attract much natural traffic. If you really want to attract free traffic through search engines, you need lots of content that is optimized for search engines, by using SEO.

Pay-For-Performance Marketing Services

Are Pay-For-Performance marketing services for you?

The obvious advantage would be the vested interest in the provider delivering the best and fastest service possible, in order to be optimally remunerated.

Such an arrangement is more like establishing a professional partnership than paying someone that you hope will generate more revenue for your company.

SkyworksMarketing pay-per-performance consulting provides a built-in mutual incentive for increasing your company’s leads, sales and profits as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Click the following link on Pay-For-Performance Marketing and Consulting to find out more, including the advantages and disadvantages for your business.

To get the details, you’ll want to download the free report, “Questions and Answers for Establishing a Pay-per-Performance (PFP) Business Expansion Partnership with SkyworksMarketing” on that page to find out if your company would qualify.

3 Steps To Online Marketing Success

The concept of online marketing success is easy. Now only if it were just as easy to achieve! The achievement of online marketing success is realized through continual refinement (testing): That’s what the real game of Internet marketing is all about.

There are myriad ways to establish the following Three Steps To Online Marketing Success. And the likelihood of achieving them all at once is low. (Each step needs to be continuously refined).

Achieving the success you desire with these three points will require some effort and especially testing, testing and more testing to refine what will work best for your products and services in relation to the market you serve. So let’s take a quick look at these three points which are factors of direct response marketing:

1) A Frontend Offer That Converts

Frontend marketing refers to promotional efforts focused on acquiring new customers, as opposed to backend marketing, which is focused on selling to existing customers.

The most important part of turning visitors into new customers is a good OFFER. The better your offer, the more sales you’ll get.

An offer is simply what you are presenting for sale.

However, the WAY YOU PRESENT the sale is where the power and effectiveness of a good offer is realized.

A vital component of frontend marketing is an offer that inspires visitors to purchase, which is a reflection of good copywriting.

Furthermore, a good offer includes an explicit (and often repetitive) call-to-action (“Buy Now”).

It may seem too obvious to state, but it would be fatal to overlook: a good offer must include a way to purchase, which can include a toll free number, web page, mail order form and/or email. In short, there’s got to be an easy way for a potential buyer to make a purchase once they’ve made that “Buy Now” decision.

If you are doing pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, a landing page is where the offer would be presented. (A landing page is where visitors are directed when they click on a PPC ad).

For more info, check out this link on Effective Copywriting Guidelines as well as this link on The Five Most Common Website Problems.

2) An Effective Backend Marketing System

Backend marketing refers to generating sales of additional products and services from your existing customer lists. Backend marketing is extremely important for your long-term business growth and for the overall success of your sales and marketing ventures.

Backend marketing is less expensive than frontend marketing since the largest expense relating to new customer acquisition has already been incurred.

Another important benefit of backend marketing is that response rates and sales conversions will typically be higher because your customers already know, respect and trust you, since they have already purchased from you.

Despite the benefits of backend marketing (low cost, higher sales conversions, higher profits, etc.), it’s the most ignored form of business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing strategies.

An integral component of backend marketing involves managing your customer database (database marketing) to better provide existing customers with the types of products and services that they have already indicated they are interested in, via their earlier purchase decisions, surveys, or other information requests.

3) Qualified Traffic!

Once you’ve got a product or service to sell and you have established an effective offer (with good copywriting), which turns visitors into customers (frontend marketing), and once you have a backend marketing program to sell more products and services to your existing customers, all you need is more traffic. And not just any traffic. You want QUALIFIED traffic.

Qualified traffic refers to visitors to your website who actually have an interest in what you are selling and have the capacity to make a purchase. If you sell pizza in NY, having visitors to your website from California doesn’t do much good for your bottomline. If you sell high-end jewelry and you have visitors who have very little discretionary income and cannot afford your products, that type of traffic is not going to result in sales.

Generating qualified traffic can be broken down into two broad methods:

A) Buying traffic through advertisements (especially PPC) or

B) Acquiring traffic naturally, primarily through search engine optimization (SEO) and social media.

Ideally, you would use components of both these broad methods, since PPC drives traffic immediately and SEO establishes low-cost traffic via search engines, but is not as immediate.

Having said that, since creating traffic revolves around establishing prospects, or leads, for your frontend (and then backend) marketing efforts, it would be useful to look at more specific methods. Hence, check out this link on Ten Lead Generation Models for more details.

Finally, one additional point should be emphasized, since it underlies all three steps: KEYWORDS. For more info, review this link on More About Keywords: How to Rank Fast!

So, although these 3 Steps To Online Marketing Success involve a number of related actions, the three steps comprise important reference points upon which your entire marketing efforts can be oriented.

Primary Driver of Online Ad Effectiveness

Dynamic Logic released findings from a study that identifies “creative best practices for driving online ad effectiveness and brand impact.” The research offers insight into maximizing creative quality, which, according to Dynamic Logic, is the primary driver of ad effectiveness, “even more important than targeting, size or format.”

♦ The branding impact of an online campaign is only as strong as your brand presence: Seek to highlight the brand prominently on all frames of an ad. Intrigue is rarely a good strategy in online campaigns. Consistent branding presence will aid in greater impact on awareness metrics.

♦ Because you often only have a moment to influence a viewer, each frame of an ad should be able to stand on its own: Each frame should work to drive brand awareness, communicate message/ benefits/ differentiation, and provide reasons to purchase and/or a call to action.

♦ “Reveal” ads are almost always ineffective: This is seen across all industries as a key component that differentiates best and worst campaign performers. A few exceptions to this rule are video ads, which are much more likely to succeed in this format but are still risky, as well as ads with high entertainment or comedic value.

♦ Keep the messaging very simple: No more than two messages should be conveyed in an online campaign. For example, within financial services campaigns, ads that were cluttered with heavy copy/text tended to underperform on ad awareness. Within the pharmaceutical industry, formats that allow users to roll over or scroll down to see legal information (not conveyed cluttered in frame) perform better on awareness.

♦ The use of human imagery is important: Human imagery appears to be a key factor in the success of most online campaigns but in particular, among financial services ads which have traditionally been more text heavy and therefore less effective at building awareness and persuasion.

Click here to view the Dynamic Logic announcement.

Google Webmaster Tools 101

Erik Dafforn at ClickZ has put together an intro for Google Webmaster Tools. In Part 3 he offers that, “GWT’s Crawl errors section is one of the most important reports that Google offers.”

Demystifying Google Webmaster Tools Reports, Part 1
A look at Google Webmaster Tools site configuration reports and why they are important.

Demystifying Google Webmaster Tools Reports, Part 2
A close look at the “Your site on the web”

Demystifying Google Webmaster Tools Reports, Part 3
Examining the Diagnostics reports of Google Webmaster Tools.

Demystifying Google Webmaster Tools Reports, Part 4
Examining the “Diagnostics” reports, from crawl stats to HTML suggestions.