In this issue:
- How Do You Measurably Increase Business from Your Site? 7 Ideas That Won't Cost You A Lot
- Reading Roundup: Web Services
- Call for Entries: Inc Web Awards 2002
- About Web Insights
Issue 13
original publication: March 22, 2002
last updated: May 18, 2004
Feature Article:
7 Ways to Measurably Increase Business from Your Site
by Deborah Christie, POP Interactive
Q How do you measurably increase business from your site? The answer to this frequently asked question may be simpler and less costly than you think.
A The answer is to focus on increasing the number of leads generated from your site -- rather than sales. Yes, focus on leads not sales!
To understand why this is so important, let's quickly look at user behavior patterns on e-business and e-commerce sites. Visitors hardly ever make a purchase or register on their first visit. Only after as many as six or seven repeat visits do they "buy". In addition, they spend very little time on these sites. And their intention to revisit your site to follow up are undermined by busy schedules and changing priorities.
To overcome these factors your site must turn inbound visits into outbound marketing opportunities. You need to turn anonymous users into leads during their initial visit to your site, because the only way to generate repeat visits is to proactively invite visitors back -- again and again. And the only way to increase website sales is to increase the number of repeat visits.
7 Ways to Generate Leads from Your Site:
Most of these ideas can be integrated into an existing site in a short amount of time and for little cost. Also, conducting a quick review of your site should turn up more great ways to measurably increase the number of leads you generate each day.
If you find these techniques don't work, you most likely need to look at your site navigation and content. These are the two major factors that cause visitors to abandon a site.
1. Email Notification Signup
Visitors in your target audience will opt in to a mailing list -- if you make it easy. Let them know they can sign up to receive an email about new products, services, events or promotions -- then make sure visitors can subscribe from the Home page as well as throughout your site.
» View Example
[http://www.walkabout.com]
2. Newsletter Signup
Like the email notification signup, visitors in your target audience want to receive your newsletter. If you offer a newsletter, make sure it is easy for your visitors to find it and subscribe to it.
» View Example
[http://www.marketingsherpa.com]
3. Offer To Email Reminders
If your site allows visitors to register for events or offers limited-time specials, you should consider letting visitors sign up to receive a reminder before the deadline.
» View Example
[http://lawcommerce.popinteractive.com/lc/offers/reminder.asp]
4. Download Signup
If you offer free demo software, a free report, whitepapers or other downloadable items that provide your target audience with a strong benefit, they will be open to completing a brief signup form.
» View Download Example
[http://www.aligo.com/register/download/index.jsp]
» View Report Example
[http://popinteractive.com/services/search_engine_marketing.asp]
5. Schedule a Demo
Offering online or offline demos is a good way to generate qualified leads. If your business is service based, you can offer to schedule a free consultation.
» View Example
[http://jamboa.montanab.com/academic_sched_demo.html]
6. Offer Live Help
Help your prospective clients find what they are looking for by offering live help. This is especially suited to e-commerce sites and not as expensive to implement as you may think.
» View Example
[http://live.landsend.com/callFormACD.jhtml]
7. Contact, Request and Feedback Forms
A common complaint of visitors is that contact information is hard to find. Do a quick check of your site to make sure it is easy for visitors to contact you, submit a request or provide feedback.
» View Examples:
User Behavior Patterns:
Below is some additional information on user habits:
- Number of visits before purchasing products or services, or registering? 5 to 7 (varies significantly from site to site).
- Average number of pages visited per site: 2 or 3 is considered a large number of page views for many sites.
- Average time per page: Less than 1 minute.
- Average length of visit per site: 2 to 3 minutes is quite common, and 10 minutes is a long visit on many sites.
- Users frequently are viewing more than one site at a time either by moving between them in one browser or by opening multiple browsers.
Related Reading, Resources and Case Studies
Reading Roundup: Web Services
Web Services have been receiving a lot of press recently. However, most people still don't know what they are. Hopefully the below roundup of articles will help shed some light on them:
Inc Magazine Web Awards 2002
Inc Magazine has just announced its call for entries for the Inc Web Awards 2002.
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