Your marketing arsenal is full of strategies to help you out perform your opponents.
Your strongest asset is your website.
If you are experiencing high bounce rates, visitors falling off mid-way through the conversion funnel, large amounts of traffic but low conversion rates, then your front line of defense is down.
Brian Massey in his recent Search Engine Land blog post cleverly described it as a, "Diagnosis of STDs (Social Technology Distractions) that has risen to alarming levels.
" His article was very well stated and you will hear similar tones expressed in this blog post as well.
It is no surprise that many online marketers struggle with conversion optimization.
Now that we have diagnosis, do we have a cure for conversion apathy? Our solution, talk about it.
Conversion rates for any given website are typically under 5 percent.
Marketing professionals who think they "get it" need to take a step back and look at their content marketing strategy.
The number one element in increasing conversions is content.
Let the data drive your decisions.
PPC campaigns can't be measured solely on click-throughs, you also have to look at conversion rates.
Landing pages need analysis; is the traffic that is reaching those pages qualified traffic? A strong conversion scenario needs both traffic and a positive user experience in order to translate leads to sales.
Make sure all touch points that a user goes through during the conversion process can be measured and tracked.
If you can't fully optimize a page for any reason from a usability perspective, make sure to at least include analytics.
This will give you access to future insight that can enhance the user experience next time around.
Recognize the distinction between confident copy writing and creepy sales pitches.
Know your audience, write and design your site around what you know to be true.
You are in an "industry" for a reason.
Your value proposition should be clear, concise and convincing.
Keep your content original.
It is OK to factor competitive analysis into the creative process, but don't be a copycat.
Flash is NOT a helpful conversion component.
If you remember nothing else from this post, remember this, rotating, flash based banners are a communication killer.
You have less than 10 seconds to keep a visitors attention.
Case studies show that flash consistently reduces conversion rates on landing pages.
In closing, remember you don't know everything.
That is why it is extremely important to continue testing landing pages, web pages and campaigns.
Testing is a critical component to understand your visitor's intentions.
What questions do you have about Conversion Rate Optimization?