If you counted on Microsoft’s “Live Search” search engine to drive online conversions to your website, you’re in for a rude awakening.

Why?  Microsoft launched Bing, their new search engine a little over a week ago - they’re actually calling it a decision engine, as Aaron covered recently.

The decision factor is certainly something that Microsoft thinks will give them a leg up on Google and Yahoo (more so Google).  Some of the usability features in the new Bing search engine which help the user make a decision are:

• Related keyword search results, along w/ (only) the Top 5 results of the user’s original query.  This doesn’t happen for every query used, but Bing does attempt to “guess” what you’re searching for and expands on the search w/ 3 search results for approx. 5 related queries.
• Bing utilizes AJAX scripting to show a “preview” pane for most search results.

The Bing interface utilizes AJAX scripting to showcase the website previews and was discussed by Scott Grizzle of NeXplore Corporation, a developer of web tools and interactive advertising products:

“Bing is purported to have some pretty interesting features that make search more efficient such as a website preview pane, video preview, and helpful groupings of search-results by category,” said Scott Grizzle, chief marketing officer for NeXplore Corporation. Continue reading in AJAX World Magazine (6/1/09)

Sample screenshot of Bing preview pane (click image to view larger size):

Sample preview pane in Bing search results

Ok, so Bing likes to provide a variety of useful results and a preview… How does that affect you?

Read more »

Arguably one of the most difficult things to create and define for your website, the Value Proposition is also one of the most critical sales-enhancing components you can optimize.  Most websites fail to even include their value proposition in the site’s design and messaging, while others display it poorly and/or haven’t articulated it properly. 

If you’re not sure what a value proposition is, let us help you to understand it.  One of our earlier blog posts covers the Importance of Value Propositions and should help you get up to speed so you can begin working on your own value statement(s).

I recently participated in a Marketing Experiments webinar in which they went through specific ways to analyze your current value proposition and to get the most out of it that you can.  The details of that webinar can be found here.

In addition to the basic evaluations of analyzing value propositions, the team at Marketing Experiments has created a table/chart to help you determine if your value proposition is up to par.  The two key factors in the table are Exclusivity and Desire, two elements that your visitors will be thinking about when deciding whether or not to buy from you. 

Ideally, a good value proposition should be highly exclusive, meaning you’re one of the only companies in your industry offering the “value”.  There also has to be a high desire for that value, otherwise your the benefits will not be recognized.

In regards to creating and communicating your value to customers, the following ideas are suggested:

• Clearly differentiate your product/service from your competitor.
• Make sure that you’re competitive or on equal footing w/ your competitors on other levels of value.
• Stand-out from the competition w/ at least one unique value.
• Develop a value statement for your company, as well as your product/service; they are two different elements.

The details of the webinar will certainly help you to review your own website, but ultimately you will not know which value statement works best for your audience until you test it.  PPC ads and/or A/B testing are great methods to complete the testing of your value propositions.

Once you have developed your value proposition, test out different ways to communicate it to your customers.  It is one thing to have a value, but it is quite another to effectively communicate it.  Test, test, test…

Conversion, when used in the context of internet sales/leads, is the process of compelling a site visitor to take a desired action. These desired actions, or conversions, can manifest in many different forms. Some examples include sales, contact information left, catalogs ordered, membership registrations, and newsletter subscriptions…just to name a few.

Having a high conversion rate can depend on several factors: ease of site usability, a good value proposition, driving qualified traffic to your site, appropriate length and tone of content, and many, many more variables. Your conversion rate is easily calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of unique visitors in any given time period. For example, if a site gets 1,050 visitors in a month and 26 people sign up for membership (if that’s the objective), the site’s conversion rate is 2.5%.

26 ÷ 1,050 = 2.47%

Obviously, you will need to have some type of tracking system set up on your site to know your unique visitors. People often ask what a “good” conversion rate is. It has been said that if you’re converting at 3 - 5% you are doing well. This standard should be taken with a grain of salt, though, because it can vary greatly by industry. Some high-commitment, complex sales may only convert at less than 1%, while some others may convert visitors at 33%.

If you feel that you are not converting enough of your visitors, you may want to look into having a conversion analysis done on your site. This can provide some valuable insight into your site and you will surely learn some things that you may be doing wrong without realizing it. A conversion analysis typically involves an expert in the field “peeling back the layers” of your site by exploring the navigation, testing your shopping cart system (if applicable), conducting surveys, persona development to look at your site from several perspectives, and possibly multi-variate a/b testing. The depth of your conversion analysis will vary depending on what you opt for and the price.

MorePro Marketing, Inc. has a fantastic offer for site owners not looking to spend much money, but want to get some really great pointers. This is a great way to start figuring out where your site is really lacking and what services would benefit your site, your sales, and your bottom line the most.

Give us a call today for more information!

(866) 249-2432

Ask yourself in, at most, 10 words: “Why Should People Buy from My Website?” This is the start to finding and expressing your value proposition.
 
A value proposition is a statement that expresses the key reason why a prospect should buy from you or leave his or her contact information.  It should leave an impact on your visitors and be displayed prominently on the landing pages. Continuing on within your site, it should be expressed somehow (with logos, images, etc.) throughout.
 
A competitive analysis will help you identify your value proposition by uncovering your company’s strengths and weaknesses. By differentiating yourself from your competitors’ offers, you will excel in at least one element of value; thus, becoming the best choice for some customers. But…you cannot determine what the best choice for your customers is unless you know and understand your customers. It is important to discover your market’s motivation, perceived risks (or concerns), and obstacles they have about purchasing your product/service or leaving their contact information. Once you understand your market, you can address their needs and concerns in your value proposition.
 
Touch Points for Assessing your Value Proposition:
 
a.       It shouldn’t contain too much promotional language.
b.      It communicates who your market is, what you can offer them, and why they should accept your offer.
c.       It is articulated in 1-2 sentences.
d.      It differentiates you from your competitors.
e.      You can really deliver what you’re promising.
 
Lastly, one thing to keep in mind, the creation of your value proposition may be an evolutionary process. I recommend using A/B Testing to determine which versions have the greatest impact on your potential customers. If you would like more information on A/B testing, Multivariate Testing, or Conversion Studies feel free to give us a call!

866-249-2432

Welcome to the first set of tips from MorePro’s Conversion Corner. Rebecca is a conversion analyst, based out of Phoenix, specializing in consulting with website owners on how to convert more of their visitors to customers. Certified through Marketing Experiments, she uses the most recent techniques and up-to-the-minute research to find the best layout for a site.

Below are some free pointers from Rebecca on how to improve your site’s conversion rate:

Create a sense of urgency with stimulating copy, bold action statements, and special promotions. Effectively communicate how visitors can benefit from the product or service. The next step is to tell your site visitor exactly what you want them to do.

For your site: Add action statements, or call to actions, that speak to the visitor and their needs throughout all of the pages, for example:

• Call Today
• Get Your Quote Today
• Need Help Choosing?
• Questions? Contact Us
• Contact Us for More Information
• Compare Cases
• Buy Now
• Learn More
• Add to Cart
• Get Organized!
• For a short time only
• Act now – offer expires August 31st

In order to give the visitor the option to read the content on the page or just take action, the call to actions should be located at the top of the page and at the bottom. Use clear actions statements at the end of every topic and consistently throughout the site. However, be careful of not overdoing it as you might come across as being overly pushy, but being too conservative won’t produce strong marketing results.  You need to find a balance.

Feel free to reply with comments, ask questions, or just give me a quick call toll free at (866) 249-2432. We’d be glad to give you pointers for improving the conversion rate of your website.

One of the top site analytic/measuring companies in the world, Nielson/NetRatings, announced plans to shift from reporting Page Views as the metric of how popular a site is, to using how long users spend on a website (or Time Spent on Site).

With the continued emergence of AJAX, dynamic content, online videos and other new technologies, the “page view” has lost it’s accuracy, which has led marketers to rely on other metrics like “time spent on site”.

There’s a lot of talk about how this affects where Google ranks among other sites… The talks are trivial in my opinion, since Google is primarly a search engine and visitors aren’t suppose to spend a lot of time on the site.  The visitor is suppose to quickly find what they’re looking for and go to another website.  Spend time worrying about non-search engine sites, not Google.

Like duh! It takes a study to find out people use the Search Engines for researching businesses in their local area. This article by Greg Sterling at Search Engine Watch covers a recent survey by Nielsen//NetRatings and local search engine marketing firm WebVisible.

One of the points Greg made was “One of the issues with local search is defining what constitutes a “local search” in the first place. It’s not as obvious as one might think. In its definition of “local search” comScore has historically tracked traffic volumes on Internet yellow pages sites, mapping sites, selected “local search engines” and general search engines where queries have geographic modifiers. As inclusive as that definitions may sound, it’s a fairly “conservative” approach that, in my view, fails to capture a broad range local search behavior where the query is ambiguous but there’s a local intent behind it.”   This left out the searches done for telephone numbers, store hours, addresses. etc. One of the most surprising findings was the 51% of the searches used a non-specific term (”dentist”).  So this means there might still be some money to be made for “Search Engine Training Classes” which could be taught next door to the rooms used for Traffic School and who knows taking a course might finally eliminate the problem of people typing in the full domain name in the search box.