I recently received my certification from Avinash Kaushik’s web analytics program at Market Motive. My site needed more third-party credibility elements, so I enrolled and passed the test. I am displaying the badge on relevant pages of my site to let people know that it’s not just me saying I know how to analyze web analytics data to develop optimization strategies.

We can provide cues such as trigger words, graphics, colors and the consistent positioning of key elements to make it easy for our prospects to continue on our path and instill greater confidence at every stage. If the point of action on a landing page is a button that moves the user forward, whatever page they come to next should contain an obvious next step in the same location as the button they just clicked or as close as possible to that place on the page where their attention is still fixed. Also, once you have determined the contrasting, high-visibility color to use for your calls to action, be sure not to deviate from it as the process continues for the sake of cleverness or creativity. Take care not to introduce competing elements in close proximity to these crucial steps in the process of leading your prospects to the goal, be it a sale or simply the creation of a qualified lead.

Trigger words are most critical when linking Pay Per Click ads to the content that does the selling. There will be words that motivated the prospect to begin your process and if these words do not carry through the process you WILL lose a percentage of your potential sales every time it happens. The landing page that results from a PPC ad click MUST contain the same verbiage that was in the ad; specifically, the name of the product or service, which should be in the language of the customer – not your own industry jargon. That one seems obvious but is violated everywhere you look.

If you use picture of a gecko in your banner ad, use a picture of a gecko on the page that it links to and then on every successive page until the end of the process. Graphics, including background textures, page section dividers, call to action buttons, offer stars, trust seals and badges must be consistent across all elements and all channels. Even consider the fonts and formatting of headlines and other copy when creating all of the various pieces involved. Do not allow silos in your marketing department/team to inhibit this consistency. This brings us to color, study the effects of color on human psychology and try to incorporate what we collectively know about how this influences people, and above all, keep it consistent.

In this competitive environment with dwindling attention spans, if you promise something in an advertisement or any published content – you had better deliver it asking the very least effort possible on the part of your prospect or you will find your marketing materials abandoned at an alarming rate and find your marketing ROI going down the drain.

Many business owners will assume that they should have a web site built that reflects the messaging and goals of the offline marketing that they have used up to this point. They then go about hiring designers and/or developers to create a site accordingly. Often they are unaware of what things to ask for or require of the people who are creating the website. There are several problems with this approach.

A site that is hard to improve

Often the designer/developers will create the site using whatever technologies and processes that are most comfortable or convenient for them. Unless the designers and developers that have been hired or are on staff have taken into account web analytics and usability and have developed their approach or site building techniques accordingly - much time and resources can be spent creating a site that fails to function effectively as a sales and marketing tool for the business.

One such problem you could encounter is that sites can be created in such a way that as visitors move through a process that the page names or web addresses don't change. In this scenario, the site does not provide for success pages that can be tracked as goals by web analytics systems. It is very helpful to have unique pages that correspond to steps in a sales process or any multi-step site function. Using these page names a "funnel" can be created and monitored giving valuable insight into the behavior of users on your site. Many sites that use technologies such as Flash or employ dynamic coding such as ASP or PHP in ways that are not conducive to monitoring by web analytics software can cause problems when attempting to enhance the site's marketing potential. This means that it can be difficult (costly) or impossible to determine how visitors arrived at the desired location on the site, including:

• What words were used to search for your site
• What pages on your site visitors used to start the process that ended in a sale or lead
• What other websites they may have come from

It can also make it impossible to gather important information about your site’s visitors such as:

• Geographic location
• Type of web browser they use

These bits of information about your website's users can be used to greatly improve its ability to sell your services and/or products. A good relationship between your website and your web analytics setup can help with:

• Ensuring that there are no functions on your site that are not working thereby preventing people from doing what you want them to do
• Ensuring that the pages people see from searches match their expectations and are effective for keeping them on the site
• Identifying the best sources of visitors so that you can:
  • Tailor your pages to better serve them whether it be improving the text or making sure the site looks its best on a certain browser that the majority of your visitors are using
  • Work to build relationships with other sites similar to those that are sending you traffic and make sure to maintain relationships with those who are already helping you with that.

What works in a brochure does not work on the internet

There have been dramatic advances in marketing intelligence as it relates to the internet in recent years. We now have a deeper understanding of what makes a web site effective at creating leads or sales. This is often very different from other marketing channels in terms of language, amount of text or copy, and the ordering of information.

The site does not show up well in search

Before the first line of code is written or the first design for a page is created – even before the address for the website is chosen (the name of the business is most often not the best address for your site although it is wise to register it before someone else does!) the techniques for making best use of Google, Bing, and Yahoo (there are more but these are the only truly important engines) should be developed. The words your potential customers will type into the search box must be thoroughly researched and the results of that research applied to the writing of text on the pages as well as the choice of web address. It can be very surprising to find out what words people actually use when searching for your type of product or service. They can be very different from the way you describe what you do. These words and phrases are referred to as "keywords". Businesses new to internet marketing or those who are looking to refresh their presence on the web should insist that those who work on the site do some http://brentlawsoncreative.com/?p=686 Jeremy Biberdorf has had much experience with affiliate marketing and SEO. With several successful websites under his belt, he has launched a new personal finance blog called “Modest Money”. I have no doubt this will be another winner for him and he will have the opportunity to share his valuable experience and insight into personal finance with many eager subscribers. I was lucky to have the chance to design the logo and theme the WordPress site for him.

For most of the history of this new and critical marketing channel, web designers and creative agencies have put forth a vision of what a company’s web presence should be, based largely on hubris. Because of this, businesses have paid dearly — not just for the price tag of the new website, but for the lack of performance that follows the launch of the site. A business cannot benefit from a website that does not effectively transform visitors into customers. We live in a time of a great and emerging wisdom concerning the unique challenges of website usability and online marketing.

What is it that separates scientific research firms from web marketers? The willingness to fail. The expense of optimizing a website has also been a deterrent, but as the science of conversion optimization progresses, the costs associated with it are decreasing. In our culture of testing, we learn that without risk there is little reward, and every test that we perform teaches us something new about our clients.

What is this insight worth? Making changes to a landing page can result in lower conversions, even if the test is based on solid reasoning and research. However, this experience provides us with valuable knowledge that we can apply in the future towards a continually streamlined action plan for conversion optimization and website usability.

It is essential to make a plan in the beginning. The business model must be clear to those involved in the online marketing processes. After the team has identified the elements that are essential to website usability in regards to presenting the sales proposition and making it actionable for the visitor, an action plan that can extend for months can be generated. Be sure to take seasonality into account and any other outside factors that can affect sales for the business in question. Additionally, you should be realistic about internal buy-in and work immediately to head off any dissention from within. There are certainly going to be those within the organization that will feel threatened by this process of refining website usability, especially those who are responsible for the site’s current state.

It is a good practice to involve stakeholders in this process – allow them to help make decisions about what should be tested. Ask for feedback about the challenges that the business faces in regard to sales. It is important for those involved with conversion optimization to be viewed as partners, working together towards a common goal. Handing down commandments from atop a mountain of “web wisdom” will not endear those conducting the tests to those who may have their finger on the “stop” button. The strategies of offline marketing channels are not to be wholly ignored and can only serve to broaden the scope of website conversion optimization. The synergy created by reinforcing effective messaging throughout all channels is bound to be advantageous for brand perception.

However, the following is vital: the web marketing team should not promise a specific increase in conversion rate as a result of a given test to find the ultimate factors of website usability and conversion optimization. Instead, reinforce the following idea that ultimately strengthens the values behind the culture of testing: You are performing tests on variables in order to determine where to specifically invest time and resources for maximum gain. If a landing page enhancement, such as landing page optimization, fails to provide an increase in the conversion rate, it simply means that the next test on a variable will be more likely to succeed. If all parties involved are in agreement and are cooperating successfully, continuous testing is bound to increase website usability and add value to the web presence, justifying the costs associated with set-up and maintenance by demonstrating a steadily increasing return on investment.

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