Natural SEO vs. PPC Adwords Advertising

Natural SEO vs. PPC Advertising

According to the results of the iProspect Outsourced SEO Metrics & ROI Study (PDF link), 35% of the surveyed organizations that promote their web sites with natural search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click advertising recognize a higher return from SEO.

This compares to just 11% of marketers who report that PPC ads produce higher ROI. That means that three times as many webmasters who can measure the ROI of each method recognize a higher ROI from natural SEO than from PPC advertising.

Should you use PPC or SEO to market your web site?

The study confirms that you shouldn't focus on paid search engine advertising. While pay per click can be a good addition to your normal web site promotion activities, you'll receive a better return on investment (ROI) with natural search engine optimization.

Many webmasters that are new to web site promotion choose only pay per click advertising. Optimizing your web pages for natural search engine results involves a lot more work but in the long term, you'll receive a much better return on investment with natural search engine optimization. The numbers speak for themselves.

How to get a better ROI with your natural search results

To get a positive ROI with your natural search results, it is very important that your web pages are optimized for high search engine rankings. If your site is NOT optimized for natural search engine optimization it's costing you search engine real estate (placement), branding exposure, sales and bottom line... profits!

"Title TAG" (in red). This home page does not contain the basic requirements to get listed on the SERP’s. In the screen shot below pay notice to the:

1. Poor keyword title optimization.
2. No Metatags for Title, description and keywords.
3. No SE Rankings.

It is equally important that your web pages are optimized for the right keywords. You will only get a positive ROI from natural search results if you target keywords that attract web site visitors that are interested in buying your products.

Details on how to find the best keywords for your web site can be done through our Natural SEO Service with guaranteed first page placement. We optimize your sales letter page working with your content editor and develop S.m.a.r.t.™ SEO pages that are built around high traffic, niche market keyword phrases to capture your target market.

How to get a better ROI with pay per click advertising

Getting a positive ROI with pay per click advertising also depends on the keywords you use in your pay per click campaigns. In addition, it is also very important to use the right text in your PPC Google Adwords. Upon a brief analysis of an adwords campaign on "natural cure for diabetes" we noted a number of improvements that could be made using the text in this PPC ad.

In the screen shots below, we looked at one of your ads in comparison to a competitors correct use of text in adwords. The search phrase is “natural cures for diabetes” was searched.

1. 
   Note the ad titles. Ad 1 does not induce excitement and is redundant. This ad title uses keywords that do not need to be used in an adword campaign to get high ranking. Remember, you pay for your keyword phrases and assign an ad to them. The ppc ad should display your main keyword, as PPC Ad 2 does and should invoke an exciting statement like “Diabetes Breakthrough”.
2. PPC Ad 2 targets "persuasive buying points" in the ad text that are key points to interested buyers, ie., controls blood sugar, Free shipping, Helps Fast!, Safe & Natural and GUARANTEED. In PPC Ad 1, there are no "persuasive buying points" mentioned.
3. The next parameter is the URL at the bottom of the ad. PPC Ad 1 attempts to use the keyword “Natural”, which has been stated in the Google Search when the prospect typed in his search “natural cures...”, so there is no need to be redundant, use that space for something more advantageous like a phone number for tracking your PPC adwords campaign. Notice PPC Ad 2 strategically makes ample use of their ad opportunity to expose to the prospect their 1-800 number for PPC Ad tracking! Very smart use of an adword.
4. Overall, PPC Ad 2 is more persuasive and more powerful and ranks on the first page of the adword column of the keyword search.
5. One more piece of criteria is, for example, the domain name of the URL you choose to use when selling an ad. The domain name ProvenResultsHealth.com denotes an informational news site on first impression. Your URL allows you the opportunity to expose your product brand name. Try using your product brand name in the URL (or domain name) when using PPC. Even if buyers don’t click immediately, the targeted market who browse repeatedly under the popular search phrases containing the keyword “diabetes” will begin to trust your product the more they see the name of it show up on the SERP’s and PPC ads.
   

Use the wrong texts or keywords and you can pay a fortune on pay per click ads without getting something back.

If done correctly, pay per click campaigns and natural search engine optimization can both contribute greatly to your bottom line.


7 Step Action Plan for Guaranteed Top SEO Ranking iNETready Will Do for You

1. iNETready's SEO Service will decide with your Content Manager on the search phrase your page(s) to rank for. It is possible to rank the same page for several searches. We focus our efforts on a single search term to increase the power of each of your links.
2. iNETready's SEO Service will title your page with a variety of phrases you want to rank for. Your page title is prominent in search results, so we add additional descriptive words that will make humans want to visit your page.
3. iNETready's SEO Service will create a headline on your page that confirms the promise of your title. (This goes for adword text writing as well.)
4. iNETready's SEO Service will work with your Content Manager on your page content primarily for humans, but we use complete search phrases and separate the words in your phrase into the body of the text. This will help both humans and search engines to understand what your page is about.
5. iNETready's SEO Service will create links to your page using link text that contain high traffic keyword phrase variations. We’ll place these in natural places for these on your page, ie., the menu, footer links and links within your the text of your sales content.
6. iNETready's SEO Service will We get external links to your pages that also use variations of your search phrases. This will help not only your rankings, but will also garner visitors from these other sites.
7. iNETready's SEO Service will "Rinse and Repeat" meaning, no site is ever “done” - only “better”. So we continue creating content working side by side with your Content Manager, linking it together and getting links from other sites.

The Wit and Wisdom of David Ogilvy

by Dean Rieck

David Ogilvy was a college dropout, a chef, a door-to-door salesman, and a copywriter. Starting with no clients and a staff of two, he built one of the largest advertising agencies in the world.

He promoted the principles of testing and research and was a believer in the power of direct response advertising, which he considered his secret weapon.

On July 21, 1999, David Ogilvy passed away, leaving behind a legacy of effective selling principles. The most basic of which — one that far too many people forget — is that the purpose of advertising is to sell. That was the idea behind what may be his most famous quote, the first in the list below. But it underscores virtually everything else he said as well.

"If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative."

"Good copy can't be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You've got to believe in the product."

"I once used the word OBSOLETE in a headline, only to discover that 43 per cent of housewives had no idea what it meant. In another headline, I used the word INEFFABLE, only to discover that I didn't know what it meant myself."

"On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar."

"The advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything."

"The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife."

"The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be."

"The most important word in the vocabulary of advertising is TEST. If you pretest your product with consumers, and pretest your advertising, you will do well in the marketplace."

"There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50 per cent more readers."

"What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it."

"You have only 30 seconds in a TV commercial. If you grab attention in the first frame with a visual surprise, you stand a better chance of holding the viewer. People screen out a lot of commercials because they open with something dull. When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire."

"Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your family to read. You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine."

"Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them."

"Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals."

"I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information."

"If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out — either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time."

"Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn't sell much of anything."

One of David Ogilvy's practices was to make new hires work in direct response advertising for at least a year to learn sales techniques that work. More agencies should follow this practice. I think Mr. Ogilvy would agree with me that direct response principles are widely applicable and could greatly improve all forms of advertising and marketing regardless of the medium.

It was true when he said it. It's true today. It will be true tomorrow. "If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative."

Copyright © 2003 Dean Rieck. All Rights Reserved.

David Ogilvy - prophet of the digital age?

Over the past couple of weeks a number of bloggers have picked up on an old address by David Ogilvy, filmed in Bombay (now Mumbai) back in the 1970s and now available on YouTube.

The great man’s talking about what was then called “direct response advertising” - now known of course as “direct marketing”.

One blogger, Joe Reis of Androids (http://androidsagency.com), says: “The original ad man, David Ogilvy, gives a prophetic talk about the collision course of direct response and general creative advertising. I’m impressed (although not surprised) about how relevant his ideas of measurable media have grown in alongside the web.”

Another, Efraín Mendicuti (http://thedailyandthenotso.blogspot.com), comments: “Tell me you wouldn’t want to have him as THE ambassador for digital/on-line marketing today”.

But don’t take my word for it, click on the YouTube video below and judge for yourself. Just subsititute “direct response advertising” for “online marketing”.

Always be Testing!

Doing A/B or Multivariate testing to optimize your site used to require some in-house programming expertise or expensive 3rd party software. Thankfully, Google has provided us with a free alternative, Google Website Optimizer. While it may not offer every feature some of the other solutions provide, it is quite an elegant solution and getting better regularly.

Since Google Website Optimizer is free, there is no excuse for not testing regularly. Rather than spending money on more expensive testing tools, focus those resources on creating better copy and imagery. So there are no more excuses for not testing regularly. Remember what Claude Hopkins wisely said in 1923,

“Almost any question can be answered cheaply, quickly and finally, by a test campaign. And that’s the way to answer them—not by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort—buyers of your products.”

Now take action

1. Do not be afraid to test.
2. Sign up for and set up Google Optimizer
3. Write down the 5 things that concern you most about your site and then test them.

Enjoy!

Stay tuned for my next article, tip 9, "Improve the form of your web forms."

Be ready and willing to help

In the e-business world, your customer service, the degree to which you keep your customer delighted, starts the instant he or she lands on your web site. Online, customer service isn’t where you go when you have a problem, and it certainly isn’t what happens after the sale is completed. It is everything that goes into creating a superior online shopping experience from start to finish.

During the buying process, there are a host of questions that are raised. Answer these questions even before your customers think of them. Incorporate it into your selling process so that customers won’t have to leave their buying process in search of answers. In combination with prominent customer service contacts, visitors will gain confidence with their purchase. Reassure your customers that you are there, ready and willing to assist in all questions and concerns and longing to build a relationship with them.

Now take action

a) Keep the visitors engaged with the active window and the buying process, providing an easy and smooth path to the checkout and you’ll surely see higher conversions.

Enjoy!

Stay tuned for a great article, tip 8, "Always Be Testing!"

Point a critical eye to your check out process

Getting the visitor to “add to cart” is only half the battle. You’ve got to keep the momentum going throughout the checkout. A simple checkout is a good checkout, but you also have to answer all of the visitor’s questions as they’re going through the process. There are a few rules that all sites should adhere to when trying to put together an easy checkout that gives the visitor the information they need to make the purchase.

Now take action

1. Eliminate unnecessary steps. Don’t put to much focus on upselling (upsell in the cart, or upsell on the confirmation page and retro-add it to the order for bonus points) and only ask for information that is completely necessary in completing the transaction.
2. Let the visitor know that you value their privacy and you have a secured site.
3. Don’t keep the visitor in the dark about anything—clearly let the visitor know about shipping, return and tax issues.
4. Remind them what they’re buying ;)

There are many other things that you have to take into account but these are the high level items that you should focus on most when putting together an efficient cart.

Enjoy!

Stay tuned for tip number 7 to start optimizing your website called "Be ready and willing to help"

Don’t be indifferent to reviews

Reviews have been all the buzz the past couple of years. If you recently purchased something online, has a review influenced your purchase decision?

New research further illustrates their value:

• 77% of online shoppers use reviews and ratings when purchasing (Jupiter Research, August 2006)
• 63% of consumers indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has product ratings and reviews. (CompUSA & iPerceptions study)
• 86.9% of respondents said they would trust a friend’s recommendation over a review by a critic, while 83.8% said they would trust user reviews over a critic. (MarketSherpa)

Most people don’t seem to focus on all the factors involved in implementing reviews to enhance conversion. It’s important that you test and optimize for conversion and persuasion by focusing on the following areas:

Placement for Visibility
• Above the fold
• Size
• Stars or other graphic
• Near point of attention or action

Review Interaction
• Ease of reading
• Sorting
• Rating Distribution
• Use across the site

Single Dimension versus Multi Dimension Reviews
• What are the key attributes across different categories
• Can review content influence purchase decision

Credibility Factors
• Negative and Positive reviews
• Review Approval policy
• Reviewer Characteristics

What does a review mean
• Number of Reviews
• What questions are you asking
• Qualitative versus quantitative

Reviews are just one trend of the market demanding more authenticity and transparency and these are key factors in getting your visitors to take action. Anytime you have a choice between opening up more or less always opt for giving your customers more. Many companies have an unsubstantiated fear of “negative” reviews. You shouldn’t. Negative reviews don’t mean lower conversions. Research from BazaarVoice indicates that negative reviews can increase product conversion. This is likely due to the fact that customers realize that products are not perfect and want to know a products flaws as well as weaknesses. In addition, overwhelmingly negative reviews can help you pull bad products from your offering and merchandise better.

Now take action

a) Enable customer reviews on your site. Don’t know how? Contact a 3rd party, like Bazaarvoice.

Enjoy!

Stay tuned for my next article "Point a Critical Eye to Your Check Out Process".

Headlines Must be “Made to Stick”

The headline on your page is the one thing that about 80% of your visitors will read. Most headlines (and copy for that matter) suffer from what Chip and Dan Heath refer to in their book, Made to Stick, as “the curse of knowledge”— once you know something, it’s difficult to imagine what it is like not to know it.

Now take action

1. Make sure that everyone understands what your headline is about, even if they have no reference to understand it.
2. The headline should set expectations about the content it is referring.
3. When sitting down to create headlines be sure they are clear, enticing, and relevant. Then invest as much time as possible testing your headlines’ abilities to both (1) gather attention and (2) entice visitors to invest the next 30 seconds on your page

Stay tuned for tip 5 "Don’t be indifferent to reviews".

Enjoy!

Better Product Images Are Worth A Thousand Calls to Action

Having better-looking product images than other sellers will do wonders.

If recent research is any indication, product images are a major factor in converting visitors. In fact, 83 percent of eBay shoppers skip listings without images, while sites with galleries get 15% more activity and those with so-called super-size photos show a 24 percent spike in sales.

The better photo wins every time.

Most visitors have spent many more hours shopping offline, where the sensory experience is superior. We can touch, hold, smell, and feel products before we buy them. So it is a little puzzling why so many companies have done little to try to recreate the visual aspect of the offline experience by providing better, more and more detailed product images. Many skimp on the quality of their product images and use manufacturer supplied images. Ouch!

Want to see a another great example of product images used well. Check out TigerDirect.com. Not only do they show multiple product images they also redline the features for their visitors. The extra effort is worth it.

A good example is from Swell.com showing larger images and different views.

Companies with thousands of skus cringe at the idea of taking and managing a whole new database of product images. No need, you don’t need 7000 new images to make a difference.

The same holds true if you are in B2B; better product images are worth a thousand calls to action. Many B2B site offer downloads of whitepapers or demos for completing a form but fail to make the most basic of efforts to persuade them. Don’t just tell them about your whitepaper; merchandize it! Show a cover; show them how easy it is to read with all your pretty charts. Test to see which pieces matter the most.

Puma allows people to navigate around a high quality image of any product.

Now take action

1. B2Cs can start by taking their 25, 50, or 100 top trafficked/popular products and upgrading those images. Consider this a marketing expense rather than a development expense.
2. B2Bs can merchandise their offerings better. Don’t just tell visitors about your whitepaper. Show a cover; show them how easy it is to read with all your pretty charts. Test to see which pieces matter the most.

Stay tuned for tip 4, " Headlines Must be “Made to Stick” "

Enjoy!

Call Your Traffic to Action

If you don’t ask someone to do something, the odds are they won’t do it.

Every good salesman knows that you have to ask for the sale.

Online, it is essential that a website present its visitors with visible and enticing calls to action. Calls to action must be meaningful concise links that tell the visitor where they are going and why they should go there. Avoid cliches and overused links like “read more,” “click here,” “learn more,” and “submit” buttons. Replace them with something persuasive to get your traffic off their butts taking an action!

This technique is simple and very valuable.

Now Take Action

Build calls to action by combining an imperative verb and an implied benefit.

Example - Which hyperlink is more persuasive: a or b?

1. George found an investment secret that changed his life. Read More
2. George found an investment secret that changed his life. See how George doubled his income in one year.

Stay tuned for tip 3 "Better Product Images Are Worth A Thousand Calls to Action".

Enjoy!

10 Tips to Start Optimizing Your Website

Optimizing a website doesn’t have to be a complex task and, in fact, is more of a continual improvement process. You will never be “done” improving your website.

You can start with just a few of your site’s pain points and begin helping your visitors convert. The following is a list of 10 common problems we find everyday when analyzing websites and some tips on how to solve them. Enjoy!

1. Find Trigger Words That Excite Your Visitors

People navigate the web by “scent.” Scent was first described by Xerox Parc to describe the parallels between human’s information-gathering techniques on the web and animal’s food-gathering techniques in the wild.

People seek information through the “scent” given offby their trigger words. According to research performed by usability guru Jared Spool, when a visitor found the trigger word on the landing page, they were successful at completing their task 72% of the time; if the trigger word wasn’t on the page, they were only successful 6% of the time. The scent of the key words kept them on the right path; lacking that scent, they stopped searching that particular “trail.”

This means your visitors are on a mission, they are goal oriented, and if they don’t see the trigger words they came to the site with, they are likely to move on to a site that has the right scent.

The solution is not that difficult. If a prospect arrives at a landing page having used a term like “buy baseball cap”, they must see “buy baseball cap” on the page.

Now Take Action

Make sure you have your visitors’ triggers words are visible, even use the scent for copy on each major button or link:

1. Complete this sentence: “I want to _____.”
2. Includes trigger words / strong scent

I hope you enjoyed this valuable piece of marketing information. Watch for the second tip to start optimizing your website called "Call Your Traffic to Action ".

How to Put Your Websites In An Order That Will Not Confuse Your Target Audience

There are three types of websites you need that are absolutely vital to your sales.

1. The Branding Site allows prospects to learn about you and your business
2. The Sales Letter Site sells a product, service or event
3. The Power Squeeze™ Site captures the contact information of your prospects

If I had to start all over again, the only site that I would ever put up is a Power Squeeze™ site, because that allows me to capture people’s information and market to them over and over and over again. From a sales perspective, realize that a confused mind never buys. Well, when a prospect goes to a branding site and there are tons of little different things to click on, the prospect is going to click away and he or she is never going to reach the outcome that you want them to reach. That’s why we have specific sites.

From a sales perspective, realize that a confused mind never buys. Well, when a prospect goes to a branding site and there are tons of little different things to click on, the prospect is going to click away and he or she is never going to reach the outcome that you want them to reach. That’s why you must have three specific sites, in this specific order.

1) Branding site
2) Sales letter site
3) Power Squeeze™ sites

I’ve noticed recently that either a lot of people are listening to what I have to say, because they’ve started putting their Power Squeeze™ sites in front of their Branding sites. And they’re putting it in front of their sales letter sites to capture people’s information. Have you seen a site where you submit your name and email just to get to the information you wanted? That’s a perfect example of a Power Squeeze™ leading to the Branding or Sales Letter site.

Here’s the interesting thing; If you put a Power Squeeze™ site in front of one of your sales letter pages, you will find what we have tested - your conversion rate does not change. The only thing that is changing is you are capturing more people’s information, so now you have the ability to market to people more and more. It’s just huge for us and it’s going to be huge for you too.

In my next article, I’ll discuss some big website myths.

Warmest Regards,


James Faasse`

Just SUPPOSE you can make money like this...

Would that change everything?

Make E-Mail Pull Its Holiday Weight

Just before Labor Day, I was in the local Food Emporium in UTC picking up provisions for the weekend, when I do a double take. There, in all of its sugar-coated splendor in the cookie and candy aisle, is an end-cap display with an assortment of prepackaged Halloween M&Ms, Hershey bars, and Snickers.

Come on, summer is barely over!

I waited for a couple of minutes to see if anyone had the guts to actually purchase their Halloween candy two months in advance. To my surprise, in literally seconds I observed half a dozen folks pick up multiple bags of Halloween candy. At first, I reacted with great disbelief. But the more I thought about this preholiday strategy, the more I found it useful in thinking about the ways in which marketers must wage their competitive battles during tight economic times.

Let's face it. We're entering the most important time of year for marketers, the peak holiday season, when consumer spending is at its strongest and the vast majority of sales take place. Especially critical during an economic downturn, strong fourth quarter sales can make or break the year, compensating for weak performance during the first three quarters.

E-mail becomes more important than ever during these tough economic times. That's because e-mail is unquestionably one of the most cost-efficient marketing channels out there and it targets existing customers, a group far more likely to listen and respond to your messaging and promotions than new prospects. How can you maximize your e-mail efforts to capitalize on the fourth-quarter buying activity?

A few basic tips:

* Cut through the clutter. Your message is vying for attention within some very full inboxes this time of year. Marketers must ask themselves, "Why would a consumer open this e-mail when there are 25 others in the inbox?" and "Why would a consumer take advantage of this offer when she has 25 others to choose from?" Your communication needs to rise above the proverbial holiday noise. Make sure your offer is compelling and your message action-oriented. This isn't brand-building time, this is "buy now" time. Make an offer the buyer can't refuse.

* Focus on testing, targeting, and analytics. Targeting and testing are the two best ways to ensure that you're sending the optimal message to consumers. Now is a great time to start mining customer data to create more advanced segmentation schemes that would improve relevance during the holiday months. Marketers may find, for example, that some segments respond better to content-based e-mail (such as gift guides) while others are more driven by deals.

* Test to improve response and reduce e-mail fatigue. If you aren't doing so already, consider implementing multivariate testing schemes that would allow you to determine the optimal content, creative, and offer mix for your campaigns.

* Extend your reach. Already have prebuilt marketing campaigns? Increase the number of targeted geographies and the number of lists to which you send. This can have a multiplicative effect on campaign returns. Marketers are finding it much more difficult to keep their e-mail list growing organically, but e-mail list rental, especially during the promotion-driven holiday season, can help grow that list quickly during a period where consumers are primed to buy.

* Use transactional e-mail to up-sell and cross-sell -- but follow the rules. "Thanks for your order" is a nice message, but it falls short in capitalizing on the opportunity to sell additional product and services to current customers. Using order confirmations and service messages to market related products and services can be extremely effective and lucrative, particularly during the holiday buying season. But be certain to follow CAN-SPAM regulations. Keep the main focus of the message, including the subject line and body of the e-mail, on the transaction or service message at hand and the promotional messages as secondary elements.

* Use e-mail to drive a social media strategy. For marketers who have been hesitant to roll out a full-blown social media strategy, this holiday season marks an excellent time to test ways to use e-mail marketing to generate more consumer involvement with your products. For example, product reviews from peers have become extremely important to buyers, as a growing number of consumers say they look to these reviews even more so than to professionals to help them decide about product purchases. Consider including customer reviews in your e-mail promotions and newsletters, and include a link to a feedback page where customers can input their own stories. Once consumers see that your company is listening to what they're saying, engagement will increase quickly.

We head back to work this month for four incredible months of opportunity ahead of us. The fourth quarter each year (regardless of economic conditions and electioneering) holds great promise and opportunity for those who are ready. Are you?

Five Simple Tips for Lead-Generation Sites

Several of my recent columns have dealt with testing and optimization. Today, I'll focus on the other half of the online marketing world, those who must drive leads through their site.

Review Your Lead Generation Forms

Typically lead-gen site forms fail in two major areas:

* Many lead-gen sites simply copy forms from a site they like, giving little thought to the nuances and the difference between their business goals and the site they copied. The result can lead to a slew of unqualified leads, or low conversion to lead.

* Some companies make their complex lead scoring requirements the visitor's job. We worked with a client with a highly complex lead scoring system that, in turn, created an intimidating lead form with a dozen intrusive questions and several drop downs with more than 20 choices. Only the most determined of leads would actually complete the entire form. The obvious result was an offensively high form abandonment rate.

The obvious advantage to collecting information from potential prospects in a lead form is that it can help a business convert more qualified leads. To solve both of the above problems, there's one successful approach: use a two-part lead form.

On the first page, ask the minimum amount of questions possible for a visitor to become a lead, where each field is a required field. Ask for the contact information and little else.

On the second page, ask several more optional questions that will help the company better qualify the lead. Above the form, explain that the more information they provide, the better you can prepare for a conversation with them. With this technique, even if little (or no) information is provided on the second page, you at least have contact information that the sales team can follow up on.

Develop More Than One Lead Form

Many sites still link to one lead form on the site. Consider placing lead forms in several places on the site. Providing lead forms on each product/service pages and on other key pages allows you to track where the lead form was filled out and provides a helpful nugget of data for the sales team as they contact that lead.

Avoid Asking for the Lead Too Early

While recently shopping some demand-gen companies, I did a Google search for Eloqua. The second paid listing for Marketo caught my interest, so I clicked through.

click to enlarge

Someone on my staff ended up on a landing a page that successfully enticed them to learn more -- specifically this person wanted to see the video demo. Unfortunately, one couldn't watch the video without filling out the lead form.

Many visitors in this situation aren't ready to begin the sales process by filling out a lead form with only a promise to watch a demo. My colleague was one of those visitors and bailed. Ironically, another member of my team noticed that the logo on top of the page was a link to the Marketo home page and was able to watch a demo video without filling out a form.

While it may be a "best practice" to limit visitor choices on landing pages, this certainly isn't a persuasive practice, especially for someone in the early stages of the buying process. My colleague didn't know what Marketo was, and certainly wasn't ready to give up personal information at this stage to find out. Marketo is losing conversion opportunities by not providing more actions on this page for visitors who aren't ready to give out personal info until they know more.

How to Do Lead Gen the Right Way

Our partner and marketing to women guru, Michele Miller recently blogged about Jenny Craig's successful persona-based marketing plan. Whether on purpose or by intuition, Jenny Craig's celebrity spokeswomen appeal to specific personas and buying types. As we dug further, we were even more impressed. We Googled both Queen Latifah and Valerie Bertinelli and were surprised to find that Jenny Craig had purchased some AdWords ads on those two terms.

Even better, as we clicked through the ads to their landing pages, we noticed that each landing page was crafted and had elements for the persona type that would be attracted to each celebrity.

We extrapolated that Latifah appealed to a more humanistic persona. The page was filled with relational language giving the overall impression to the humanistic persona that becoming a lead for Jenny Craig meant starting a relationship -- a key motivator for a humanistic buyer. Take a look at the page and see if you can see the strategy at work.

click to enlarge

Bertinelli's page reflects her methodical style, thereby making it easier for a methodical prospect to get more information. Elements on this page are more information focused and allow for the methodical persona to take action their way. Can you see the difference a persona-based page makes?

click to enlarge

Aggressively Optimize Your Lead-Gen Process

Many e-commerce sites pour resources and time into improving their checkout process. Lead-gen sites don't seem to have the same commitment to testing and optimizing their lead generation process. If you're a lead gen site, your lead-generation process is your checkout process -- it's just as critical to your business as a shopping cart is to an e-commerce site.

What have you done lately to improve your lead-gen efforts? Let me know and I'll share it with my readers.

Minimize Shopping Cart Abandonment

20 Tips to Minimize Shopping Cart Abandonment

It's October. Are you thinking about Christmas time conversion rates yet?

Industry research shows up to 75 percent of shoppers abandon their online shopping carts before completing the checkout process. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that statistic, but shopping cart abandonment is a significant problem. Numerous factors influence this rate, but I'll address those that move the lever in the right direction this week and next.

* How many steps are in your checkout process? This is usually what most people focus on. Our clients' checkout processes range from one to seven steps. We've discovered the number of steps is not all that critical. One client was able to bring the checkout process from six steps down to one; we found no correlation between reduction of steps and reduction in abandonment rate. Once people found what they came for, they found the time to check out no matter how many steps were involved.

Should you change the number of steps? Yes! But if you don't have an inexpensive and simple way to test, it may not be worth the time, effort, and expense of reducing the number of steps in the checkout process. Try some of these other ideas first.

* Include a progress indicator on each checkout page. No matter how many steps in your checkout process, let customers know where they are in the process. Number the steps, and label the task clearly for each step. Give shoppers an opportunity to review what they did in previous steps and a way to return to their current step if they go back.

* Provide a link back to the product. When an item is placed in the shopping cart, include a link back to the product page. Shoppers can then easily jump back to make sure they selected the right item. I was shopping for a printer and wanted to know how many and what color cartridges come with the printer. It wasn't obvious where I should click to review the product description. I had to navigate using my back button until I got my questions answered.

* Add pictures inside the basket. Placing a thumbnail image of the product increases conversions by as much as 10 percent.

* Provide shipping costs early in the process. If possible, provide an estimated cost while visitors browse. They want to buy but want the answers to all their questions when they want them. Total cost is one of those critical questions. Also, if the shipping information is the same as the billing information, include a checkbox to automatically fill in the same information.

* Show stock availability on the product page. Shoppers should not have to wait until checkout to learn if a product is out of stock. Also, give an estimated delivery date. Deal with the "I want it now" mentality, and let them know when they should expect to get their products.

* Make it obvious what to click next. Include a prominent "Next Step" or "Continue With Checkout" button on each checkout page. Make the button you want them to click next the most obvious. One top 50 e-tailer mistakenly placed its "remove from cart" and checkout buttons next to each other. Neither stood out. Many people ended up clearing their carts. When they went to check out, they found nothing in there and immediately abandoned the site in frustration.

* Make editing the shopping cart easy. It should be simple to change quantities or options, or delete an item from the shopping cart. If a product comes in multiple sizes or colors, make it easy to select or change values in the shopping cart.

* Make it your fault. If information is missing or filled out incorrectly during checkout, give a meaningful error message that's obvious to see. It should clearly tell visitors what needs to be corrected. The tone should be the system was unable to understand what was entered, not the visitor made a foolish mistake.

* Show them you're a real entity. People's concerns start to flare up during checkout. Let them know you're a real company by giving full contact info during the checkout process.

10 Upsell Strategies That Will Increase Your Profits

10 Upsell Strategies That Will Increase Your Unique Personalized Gift Shop Profits

By James Faasse

It can be very expensive to attract new customers. For a unique personalized gift shop like TheYouniqueBoutique.com, a company can cut down on those expenses by "upselling" to those new customers. For example, let's say you're selling a personalized photo quilt with a
simple photo layout pattern for $159.95. You tell people they can upgrade to a more complex photo layout pattern on the personalized photo quilt for only $10.00 more. Or perhaps when the upgrade the quilt pattern layout they receive a discount gift certificate, which the customer can use for a later purchase or pass on as a gift for whom they are having the personalized photo quilt made for.

That's upselling! Your goal is to get more money out of the first sale. Below are ten upselling strategies you can use to increase your profits.

1. Deluxe Upsell-You could sell a basic product and tell people for a little more money they can receive the deluxe personalized gift edition.

2. Money Upsell-You could offer people the rights to sell the product they are buying from your business as a reseller of unique personalized gifts. You could charge an extra $30 dollars to get the reproduction rights.

3. Discount Upsell-If you're selling a product people may order again in the future like personalized wedding cake toppers, you could offer them a figurine option of one standard wedding cake toppers body with one custom wedding cake topper body at a discount.

4. Time Upsell-If you're selling a product or service people subscribe to, like a blogazine, you could tell them if they subscribe for two years instead of one, they can receive it half
off the cover price.

5. Quantity Upsell-This is similar to the discount upsell. The only difference is you increase the discount by how many personalized cake toppers they order. If they order 3 it's a 10% discount, if they order 5 it's a 15% discount.

6. Package Upsell-When you're selling a personalized baby shower gift you could offer similar products in a package deal. Tell the people the other personalized baby gifts are cheaper with the package deal versus purchasing them separately.

7. Affiliate Upsell-When you're selling a unique personalized gifts you could offer someone else's product as an upsell. You would have to make a commission on the product in order to profit.

8. Free Upsell-You could offer a free sample or trial of your custom bridal jewelry (your first sale would be free) and then tell people if they order the full set right now they will get a discount on wedding tiaras and bridal head pieces.

9. Extra Upsell-There are many things you could charge extra for at the time of sale. It could be personalized gift wrapping, imprinting, custom designs, etc.

10. Extended Upsell-If your personalized gift comes with a warranty, you could ask people if they would like to extend the warranty one more year for only $30.

In conclusion, you can use one or all these strategies to increase your online personalized gift shop profits at the point of sale, or for any online store for that fact. Don't be afraid to use your imagination to come up with other upsell strategies. Use those category catalog pages as Upsell Landing Pages!