crash course in conversion optimization

A Crash Course in Conversion Optimization, Part 3

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Another key take away from the MarketMotive.com training course, Conversion Optimization, I recently completed, that I thought was applicable for us all in B2B marketing, was “Developing Your Framework” for how you plan to improve your customer’s online experience.

According to the presenter Bryan Eisenberg, most sites don’’t have a traffic problem,– they have a conversion problem. The average conversion rate of online traffic is 2%-3%, and the key to improving that conversion rate is improving the visitor’s experience. Developing your framework can help you zero in on how to do this, and you can start by asking questions like the following:

Who Are Your Customers?

  • Your target audience is diverse. For example, of those who visit your site, some may be first timers whereas others may be frequent visitors; some may have found you using one keyword(s) or PPC ad, whereas others may have used a different one; some may be local, whereas others may be international.
  • You have to research who your target audience is comprised of so you can know whom you are speaking to.
  • You have to create different pages or content that speak to these different groups or else they will have no reason to stay on your site. The content may be intersecting, complementary or outright opposing, – but it is up to you and the creative team to make it work. And testing can always help as well.

What Action Do You Want Them to Take?

  • After you have thought about who your customers are, think about what action you want them to take; and remember, these actions may be different based upon which segment they are in.
  • Think about it from a Macro (develop a partnership) and Micro (download a white paper) standpoint.
  • Know the KPI’s for each of these so you can track your success. And if something isn’’t working, have a plan in place for how to handle it.

What Is Most Important NOW?

  • As much as we’’d like to do everything, you have to prioritize based upon time and resources. So think on a Macro and Micro level, and prioritize according to that. Maybe you’’d rather fill in all the holes first, or concentrate on what will make the biggest impact, whatever it is, have everything down so you can just go down the list as each is completed.

Where Is Your To-Do List?

Eisenberg gives a useful set of questions to help you develop your to-do list:

  • What marketing efforts or parts of your site have challenges?
  • What do you think needs to be improved?
  • What do you want to test?
  • What efforts should you do less of? More of?

And as I said above, be sure and prioritize your to-do list based upon time and resources.

Before concluding, I would like to note that Eisenberg states that most successful organizations run 30-40 test a month, so be sure and constantly test your site to see what works and what doesn’’t in order to improve your customers’ experience and help convert their traffic to sales.