Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [126]
This handling of the customer experience maintains the process beyond the sale. Simply because a customer has checked out does not mean they are not buying.
Friday: Implement Testing
At the outset of this chapter, I quoted the typical statistic of the “average” conversion rate. When I was in the Army, our physical fitness tests were graded on the ability to run 2 miles and perform a certain number of push-ups and sit-ups. You received 100 points for performing to a specific goal based on your age and height. A 300 was a perfect score for the fitness test, which a few could attain. On the other end of the spectrum, you could also pass by attaining the “minimum acceptable standard” of 60 points in each event. There were some for whom this was good enough.
This is how I view the “average” conversion rate, which is the minimal acceptable standard. If you set your goal to reach the “average,” you are setting very low goals. I find that many businesses are happily content to meet or slightly exceed the average conversion rate or the rates within their industry. As a result, they become fixed upon rates that are irrelevant and largely out of their control.
What is in your control is your conversion rate. Regardless of the average or of the industry or market, your conversion rate is within your control. The best standard of measurement is your own marketing performance. Did you meet or exceed what you did last year, last quarter, or last cycle? Constantly comparing your website’s performance to others leads to a myopic view that stifles creativity and innovation within your own company. Comparing and analyzing your own marketing and website performance on a constant basis is the only way that you will develop online marketing skills and wisdom that will exceed the “average.”
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Figure 11-27: Czech & Speake provides additional information to the new customer, rather than ending the process on the Thank You page.
One of the examples used in Tuesday’s readings was the example of Cabot Heritage Foundation and how the company affected its conversion rate with only a simple two-word change in the subscription text. The website, WhichWestWon.com, is a fantastic resource for getting ideas for your own website. Testing doesn’t necessarily mean creating large, wholesale changes to your website. It is, however, identifying small iterative changes that can be measured and compared.
A website is never “done” because it is the most dynamic marketing tool at your disposal. With the ability to track minute changes to content, graphics, placement, headlines, and hundreds of other small changes, you can significantly increase your conversion rates.
Consider Alta Colleges, which developed and executed an exemplary testing plan (www.searchenginemarketingstrategy.com/wwcs09/). This case study of Alta College and their agency of record, Location3 Media, shows the development and execution of an exemplary testing plan (http://www.location3.com/projects/westwood-college-case-study-2009). Location3 Media tested multiple styles of ads in both Yahoo and Google, and they were able to improve conversion rate by 57 percent by using geotargeting by state and region. Another layer of geotargeting was implemented by developing a local campaign wherever there was a physical campus location. This increased the conversion rate another 80 percent.
The most impressive testing developed in the landing page testing. The idea developed that more “right-brain” degree programs might respond better to a contact form on the left side of the page, while “left-brain” program applicants would respond to a page with the contact form on the right (see Figure 11-28).
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