Double your business - at no cost!
There are 2 reasons for this headline. First I want to test the
effect of the subject line of a newsletter on opening rates. This
promise seems to me to be one of the sexiest for any web marketer.
They may not believe it but they should at least have a look to see what
it is all about.
Over the last 3 months the open rate on these newsletters has dropped
to about 20%. This is data provided by my email service provider,
Vertical Response. You should be cautious about comparing it with
your own data from other service providers since there are variations in
methods of collecting the information. Next month I shall tell you
the result for this issue.
The second reason for this subject is to reiterate a message I have
explained before but that has yet to be acted on by most website owners.
The key to the profitability of websites is their effectiveness in
converting visitors to customers.
Search Engine Marketing budgets are mainly spent on Pay per Click
advertising to attract visitors fast, or on optimisation to improve the
position in natural rankings so as to attract those same visitors at
lower cost. Yet it is quite normal for successful sites only to
'convert' 1% of their total visitors.
If you can double that conversion rate to 2% you win twice the
customers without any additional expense in attracting them in the first
instance.
To succeed you must understand your customers and provide them with
the information and service they want. The main areas to check
are:
- Your own credibility as a supplier. Have you told them who
you are, how you are organised and given them reason to choose you
as against the competition?
- Your Home page. Most visitors will start here and your
have up to 10 seconds to persuade them to look further. If the Home
page does not succeed the rest of the site is irrelevant.
- Your site navigation. Can visitors find the information
they need quickly and easily? Do you encourage them to go to
the checkout or sign up pages?
- Are you getting the type of customer you want? Inevitably
many of your leads will not be suitable or immediate potential; but
you need to check that your target customers are included.
- Are you testing regularly other formats and ideas? Don't
make assumptions. Develop hypotheses. Then use the ones you have
proven to work.
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