Every business has a goal or purpose. Many business related websites today count on their website for lead generation.  Currently, over 80% of our own clients will tell you that their end goal is to generate a lead online.  A lead is then considered anyone that emails or calls the company. 

After we setup a client and begin measuring their leads the inevitable question usually follows:  “Why do I get so many useless leads?”  The purpose of this article is to help explain online lead generation and also offer some helpful hints to improve the overall quality of the leads you receive online.

One of the most important, yet grossly neglected area of Website Design process is in the selection of the font and font size . Few designers realize that the font and font size can have a great impact upon the visitor’s initial impression and can significantly effect the overall bounce rate of visitors coming to the website.

If the font and font size is to his/her liking, he is more apt to stay.  If he/she finds difficulty in reading through the content due to the  font size , the person is more likely to leave the site for good. If you had given ample thought to analyzing your target audience and deciding upon the right font and font size you may very well help improve the overall time a person will spend on your site.

New Generation Fonts

Choose fonts that are easy on the eye and clearly legible. Verdana and Arial are considered a good option and offer easy reading. These are common and installed in all computers presently. These fonts look equally pleasing when taking out print outs of any documents from your computer.  Further to this point, text and the background color should contrast and this should offer easy reading. Black text and white background are considered the best selection by far.

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Have you ever been to an ecommerce website or any other website that sells products on it, only to be frustrated and/or uncomfortable about providing personal information or credit card numbers? In most cases, there are three major reasons why you may not feel confident:

1. There is no phone number to contact anyone if there are problems with shipping or with simple satisfaction.
2. There may not be proper guarantees in place in case things go bad.
3. The entire site is all about the product and not enough about the company Or even worse, little about the product and nothing about the company!

The contents found on your page, for the purpose of this article, is often what makes the difference between a high bounce rate and a low one.  Navigation and usability are also very important, but for the present argument, let’s just take a look at your messages.

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For many ‘business driven’ websites, the ultimate aim of all your efforts is to draw in visitors and either generate a lead or sale online.  But how do you get them to keep coming back for a 2nd, 3rd, & 10th time?

The Value of a Repeat Customer

Several surveys have revealed that customer acquisition is an expensive affair.  What this points to is the need to create a breed of loyal customers who would turn to you every time they need to make a purchase related to what you do. After all, repeat customers are known to buy a broader range of products and spend more lavishly as compared to one- time buyers. Larger spending means more business and carries the twin advantage of insulating you from the customer - creation expenses and also helps recoup your initial marketing expenses faster. Plus  a satisfied customer will more likely refer your site to his friends and relatives. Studies have revealed that on average a satisfied customer tells a minimum three of his friends about a product or service they like- - viral marketing at its best.

We all know that the best clients are the ones that keep coming back and/or send their friends as well!   Here is my list of ways to keep your visitors coming back for more!

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One of the common elements that run through all successful websites is the existence of a “testimonials”section. Why has a “testimonials" link become an indispensable part of every successful website development and website marketing process? The answer - testimonials build credibility, confidence and trust and dispel uncertainty and mistrust that most people could conceivably entertain about online products and services.

Increased Sales & Conversions

As usual, we always speak highly of the products / services we offer over the internet; but the fact remains that visitors are often skeptical. Prospective customers would prefer to believe what others would have to say about your services. After all we human beings tend to imitate; it is called the principle of social proof. It is then that we realize the value of what others have said about our products and services and the impression it has helped to build in the minds of prospective customers. All successful websites have realized the ability of testimonials to sway the mind of a customer and have made use of it to build credibility and trust. This in turn, leads to increased website conversion and sales.

Testimonials are considered the “secret sales force” and should be given due weight at the very website planning and development stage itself.

To most online marketers, driving traffic to a website is considered the ultimate aim of your internet marketing plan! Site owners tend to measure the success of their online business by the amount of traffic they are able to generate. This however, is often not accurate. Driving traffic and getting visitors no doubt is of paramount importance; but then, this is only half the battle and should not be the sole yardstick to measure the success of your website.

What benefit will you get from a visitor who comes to your website only to click the back button and leave? Have you thought for a moment how successful you have been in making a visitor spend a considerable amount of time on your website and drive your visitor to a predetermined end goal? Have you done a measurement overview of your site and analyzed the amount of time that a visitor stays on your website? Have you realized that there is a direct correlation between the amount of time spent on your website and its success?

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In my previous post describing a sales funnel development case study, I described a particular client that came to us to help them improve the conversion rate of website visitors. I also explained what steps we took to figure out what the problem of the website was.

If you haven’t read Part 1 of Perfecting Your Sales Funnel, please do so now!

The Creative Concept & the ‘Core Website Message’

As we suggested, since we decided to develop a top banner with three separate sections, we call that a ‘three part sales funnel’. Here is what we ended up with:

Now when the web site visitor comes to the site their eyes are drawn to content which describes their ‘core site message’!  Lets look a bit deeper:

• The first thing the user sees is a beautiful display of imagery in their three specialty areas; Kitchens, Basements, and Bathrooms.
• The visitor is also exposed to those precise keywords at the top which confirm what they are looking for.
• The visitor is then able to focus on the box that is of interest to them.

In my case, I will pick ‘Kitchens’. I read further in the ‘kitchens’ box; “Interested in your dream kitchen? We can help!” Then I am given the option to “Get Started”.

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Many people have been interested in a recent post that I made with regards to the importance of building a Sales Funnel in your website. I have received comments from people telling me that the idea is compelling and the thought of increasing website conversion rates without increasing internet marketing ad is something that is very interesting.

I also receive regular feedback from people that want to know how to build an effective marketing campaign. I have touched on this in the past. What I decided to do, however, is create a series of articles which take the TechWyse 3 Step Concept and compare it to real world examples.

For those of you that do not know the ‘3 Step Concept’ is featured prominently on www.techwyse.com and it works very simply, like this.

1. Planning & Development – planning and building a ‘conversion friendly’ website property.
2. Marketing & Promotion – deciding which internet marketing components will bring you targeted traffic that converts.
3. Measurement & Tracking – understanding the results of the development and marketing campaigns and improving.

As part of this series we will discuss each element.

In getting started, the first part of this series, and this article will be discussing the importance of sales funnel development, how it works and how the behavioral concepts are defined. 

If you’d ask me how many scientists are needed to remove a wall nail – well the obvious answer is NONE. Jokes apart, if you really want it to happen then you can persuade the nail to come off the wall.

Do I sound crazy? Well, that’s exactly what it means to persuade somebody to buy something online – be it consumer goods, luxury items, offers, gifts or services of any kind. It’s not a hardcore scientific formula from the books of a physics book but the knack that many marketers and scientists (read marketing purist) would tell you to do.

The best way to tackle this is to understand human nature, understand YOU as a buyer. What makes you tick and buy items that you may not even need? Well, it involves understanding the basic human nature which is often repetitive and works subconsciously the same way.

Here are some tips to ethically persuade people to buy from your web site online.

Show Them The Trend – Show What Others Like To Do

The finicky mind often plays an important role while making a buy. People often tend to look at what others are doing. The more number of people doing the same thing means greater comfort level they have in buying. The psychological phenomenon is called ‘Social Proof’. This means decisions are often based on the reactions or doings in mass. The feeling of the buyer is that his knowledge is bettered by knowing others are buying too.

1. What can you showcase as ‘Social Proof’? Here are some ways to establish yourself.

• Show a ‘most popular items’
• ‘People who bought this also liked…’ (go to Amazon!)
• Top selling items testifying the product or service

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Is your ‘About Us’ page doing all it can for your company?

Are you simply cramming your website with a laundry list of items that helped you get to where you are now?  Did you ever realize when someone does a search for your company that the ‘find’ usually ends up being your root domain and then your ‘about’ page? Many people do not realize that the ‘About Us’ page is about conversion and persuasion. The ‘About Us’ page is usually your first or last opportunity to give enough information about your company to that potential new client.

Let us dissect the why’s and how’s of ‘About Us’ pages

Why an ‘About Us’ page

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As was mentioned in a previous post, any business website has a purpose or end goal.  If the purpose to your site is lead generation, then you should be paying special attention to learn how to generate more leads!  One of the key ways that I have discovered in my time at TechWyse is the importance of the ‘contact form’.  If you’re a PPC marketer you probably have made sure you or your client have a form somewhere on the website.

Logically then, contact form optimization is important for lead generation for any business website.  

Listed below are my ‘bakers dozen’ list of things you can do with your contact forms to make sure you are generating leads for your website!

1. Place your form ‘above the fold’.  The higher on your page the more visible it is.
2. Put the contact form on as many pages as possible.  If you use landing pages for PPC, make sure you have one there as well.  Conversions will go up!
3. Remember the less fields you use in your form the more requests you will receive.
   Make a strong demarcation between required fields and non required fields by using asterisks next to the required fields. (Don’t overkill forms with asterisks). Read the rest of this entry »

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Why do you have a website?  Do you have a website because everyone else has one?  Or do you have a proper plan and will use your website as a marketing tool to help your company deliver on one ultimate goal or purpose?  Every business operates because it has a single overall goal;  that goal in most cases should be no different then your website goal.

So lets talk about it. 

What is the purpose or goal for most business websites?

Every online entity can be categorized to have 3 distinct and separate website goals;

1.  Lead Generation - Developing leads either through phone calls or emails.  These leads then get passed on to your sales teams and the magic is up to them to convert them!>

2.  Ecommerce - You are selling a product on the internet.  You have images, enticing words and a full shopping cart which allows people to complete a transaction online.

3.  Branding - Just getting your name out there from either PPC Impressions or first page SEO ranking.  One suggestion for name branding is Facebook.  Imagine you are advertising to millions of people targeting your specific demographics without them typing a keyword.  Another great option is using the content network in Google AdWords.  You are advertising your product on a specific website.  For example advertise your Pink product for Think Pink Month on a website for women such as womansday.com

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An Introduction to Sales Funnels

About Sales Funnels

• Who is your perfect website visitor?
• What product or service is most conducive to attracting their business?
• What imagery, and call to action can you place in the top banner to persuade the visitor to learn more?
• Once on the sales page what offer can you make to persuade them to complete the goal of the sales funnel?
• What further information can you offer the visitor once they have clicked through to your ‘sales page’?
• How do you want the visitor to contact you?

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A great deal of talk these days focusses on how to convert visitors to achieve a prescribed end goal; that is generating a sale or a lead.  These days marketers know how important a conversion friendly website design is in stabilizing their online business conversions. I jut thought I would touch quickly on one feature that I have often seen as overlooked by many online marketers.  Optimizing the images on your website! (both in e-commerce websites and B2B websites) 

A Simple Strategy for Persuasive Copywriting 

One thing I am a huge proponent of is simplicity and that’s exactly the way I approach persuasive copywriting. It really doesn’t matter whether you are writing for a PPC ad, landing page, organic content or any other form of writing,  does it? If people are going to engage your writing there is always the need for persuasion. When it comes to simple structure and keyword trigger order will make or break reader retention.

Here are 4 basic rules I adhere to before composing any article.

1. Reverse rolls before you write. Put yourself in the reader’s situation.
2. Who is your reader? Have you researched your targeted readers?
3. Once #1 and #2 are completed, start persuasive writing.
4. Remember/ research many of the sore spots or pain points while composing your content.
5. What words catch your eye and trigger you when you read on your writing topic? Can they form topics for persuasive in your writing?

   Visitors that are coming to your website are scan readers and look for trigger words. With the correct trail of trigger words you can increase visitor experience and conversion with good persuasive topics. The way we do this is understanding the power of mind controlling trigger words. They require logistical planning when a visitor is moving through goal fulfillment (conversion) on your site.

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