The Invesp Blog: E-commerce and Landing page Optimization

Internet Marketing Simplified

Chris Garrett — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:19:00 +0000

It can be frustrating for people who want to grow their business using online techniques. Everything seems so complicated.

You do not just have the marketing stuff, which seems a weird combination of creativity and psychology, art and science (along with a large dose of good luck). Then there is all the technical stuff, like emails, websites and advertising.

In fact the technical stuff is largely a commodity now, outsource it to a reliable contractor and all you need is the marketing approach. Thankfully at its core this can be really simple.

If you have done any reading at all about marketing I am sure you have come across the acronym AIDA. This stands for:

Attention/Attraction
Interest/Involvement/Interaction
Desire/Decision
Action

I learned from Wikipedia that some folks are adding an ‘S’ for Satisfaction now. I like that because for a while I have been teaching something similar. For now though let us concentrate on the old AIDA and assume that your product and service kick ass

Putting AIDA into action online comes down to:

Attract prospects and immediately tell them WHY you are talking to them.
Interest them in WHAT you have to offer in a way that appeals to their needs and Desires.
Help them Decide. Tell them WHY they should care, why NOW, exactly what to do so they Act.

This works in email, on the web, or even social media. Even better if you combine all three.

Attraction consists of getting attention, via an advert or a good email subject line. Interest is about the words and phrases you use, and of course video and audio can be used to good effect. Paramount is providing the “WIIFM” - What’s In It For Me. Give reasons rather than a list of features.

All this is pointless if the prospect does not take action, so you need to tell them EXACTLY what to do, make it easy, and give good rationale for why they should take action now rather than delay.

It’s easy to complicate all this stuff but nearly every tactic or technique boils down to this basic list.

Is the Customer Always Right?

Chris Garrett — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:58:50 +0000

When we get around to any discussion about customer service, and in particular customer satisfaction, a phrase is almost guaranteed to come up:

The customer is always right

But is that really true?

Before you answer, check out this YouTube video:

According to a Google search, the phrase was coined by a certain Mr Harry Gordon Selfridge of the department store fame. It is one of those phrases that is used by people who mean it literally, while the likely intent was probably not as cut and dried.

Yes, customer support staff should aim to please, that the company should be guaranteed to fix any reasonable issue, and customers should know that their problems will always be listened to.

It does neither any good to blanket agree to every demand, perceived grievance, or negotiating tactic, because some people are plain unreasonable. Some people use it as a license to make staff as unhappy as possible, or as a way of lining their pockets. Every so often there are people who just want to cause trouble, disturbance or offense. These folks are rare but I am sure everyone reading this will have heard of at least one horror story, likely more.

The biggest reason to not blindly follow the “customer is always right rule” is because it is unfair on your good customers. You know, the people who are good, honest, and need your help.

Just as the 80-20% rule holds true for most things, it is especially pronounced with “problem customers”. A small percentage of your clients will make up for the vast majority of your day to day problems, or the really big fires that need putting out.

If you allow yourself to be distracted by the serial complainer, the attention seeker or the “high sense of entitlement guy” you have less time for the people who are your best and nicest clients.

By no means be rude to them, try to help them as best as you can, but in the end you are better off not having them as your customer any longer.

So, in fact, “the customer is always right” is true. If they are consistently wrong, they should not be your customer any longer.

Focus on the people who can be helped, and fire the abusive, obstructive, bad payers, and loud mouths. Nurture the folks who make business a joyful partnership rather than a battle of wills.

What do you think? Please share your experiences and thoughts in the comments …

IRCE 2009 at a glance

Ayat Shukairy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:13:32 +0000

The IRCE 2009 was bustling with etailers and vendors alike, although the majority of people we spoke to felt that the numbers were significantly lower than previous years. Khalid and I arrived in Boston late Sunday evening and rushed our way down to the exhibit hall Monday morning to set up and then up to the ecommerce workshops to consult with online retailers. It was a busy Monday morning, and the entire stay was eventful and quite eye-opening.

Khalid and I both felt that the retailers sitting at our tables during the website consultations were engaged and interested. Website clinics are really a big hit because online retailers are given actionable items to implement and consider optimizing on their website.

Observations during website clinics:

I had an interesting mix of individuals sitting at my table:

Those still did not have an online store but were hoping to persuade upper management.
Those who had just launched their online store.
Those who had been online for 10 years but had a lot of optimization work to be done.
Those who felt they knew everything they needed to know about online optimization.

Each group had their own set of worries and obstacles they needed to tackle in order to continue improving their websites. Overall we had excellent conversations. Online retailers benefit tremendously from website clinics.

Once the clinics had concluded, we made our way to the exhibit hall and that is where we spent the rest of our time at IRCE. It was my first time exhibiting, so did not anticipate the pain and aches to come.

I made quite a few observations about etailers and their vendors during my experience

All the retailers that passed through the aisles at IRCE exhibition halls fell into 3 MAIN categories

1. The ones who make a conscious effort NOT to make eye contact with vendors. They either:

Are not interested in anything because they don’t have the budget.
They are not decision makers in the company.
They like to do things in-house for ecommerce store and just come to the conference for ideas.
They think their company is doing very well as is.

I must say, it is tedious to keep saying hello and stop at every vendor. But similarly, if you are an etailer at IRCE, the wealth of opportunities to grow and expand your company are tremendous and available. Ecommerce is at the cutting edge in so many different areas, and during tough times, you need to stay current and distinguished.

2. The ones who don’t make eye contact with vendors but still say a quick hello:

They will not talk to you unless you catch their eye and ask them a question.
They may ignore you but take a quick glance at your display (and possibly come back if a message touches a nerve).
They are looking for solutions, but also hesitant for one reason or another (maybe financial).

3. The ones who are actively searching for solutions and will take time to stop at different booths to get information and figure out what is best for their company.

Retailers could choose from over 350 vendors displaying at IRCE this year. The exhibit hall was massive. In retrospect, I can understand when an attendee doesn’t want to respond because when you have over 1000 people saying hello and how are you today, it wears you out! I made me rounds around the exhibit hall, and it’s tough to keep that smile and talk to everyone that’s trying to grab your attention in some way, shape, or form.

The majority of ecommerce stores are aware of conversion rates in general terms

There is a wealth of information out there that etailers are still unaware of. Many were floored by sessions that were still at a very basic level.
There is always the assumption that if sales are good so no need to do anything further.
Very few online retailers have deployed conversion optimization or online testing whether or not they realize the benefits it can bring to them.

Numbers are down in general

You feel the recession at the conference because numbers are down and people are afraid to engage vendors usually because of financial issues.
Every conference we have attended thus far, numbers are lower. That doesn’t mean that competition is subsiding, it is only confirming the fact that the online retailers that don’t do MORE, will be getting less.

Certainly IRCE offers a little of something to every online retailer. Statistics are pointing to a large percentage of online retailers that want to get an edge through various marketing and merchandising techniques that will enhance the user’s online experience. This can only mean that those retailers avoiding on contact may be missing out on great opportunities to grow.

Your turn:

Did you attend the IRCE 2009?
What were your thoughts?
Did you like any of the sessions more than others? Did you hate any of the sessions?
What did the guys at IRCE do well? What could IRCE do better?

Getting Really Sick of the Offer Bait and Switch

Chris Garrett — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:12:09 +0000

I am sure you have experienced this or know someone close who has.

You see an offer, think it is exactly what you are looking for, and try to grab it while the deal is hot, only to be told “Sorry, we just sold the last one but we have this more expensive and less desirable option …”.

We experienced it just today.

There was a flight we found ideal for everything we needed for our winter vacation. It had the right stop over, and even the plane I wanted to fly on (the new Airbus A380!).

As we saw that flights were being picked off fast, and the price was going up like a rocket, we jumped on the booking button and bashed through all the required details, including all the passport information and so on.

I would like to point out they made sure my email was added to their newsletter at this point.

Next, next, next, right up to the final notice … sorry, these seats are no longer available. Please try again.

So they have ALL our details, right down to inside leg measurements and NOW they tell us the seats have gone?

A friend had a similar experience with buying a van for his business. He saw in the local news paper a dealer was offering a nippy little Ford in standard white with low mileage (one careful lady Grandma owner, used for taking kittens to salon).

He called up, made an appointment. When he got down to the dealer at the specified time he was told the van was sold out but …

It is obvious what these companies are up to.

They think once you have made a commitment and have enough feelings of ownership, that you will not want to lose that claim, and so are willing to buy whatever junk you are offered, just to avoid the loss.

In fact what happens is either bitter feelings and ranting to whoever will listen and on the internets, or severe feelings of buyers remorse. Neither of which are condusive to customer loyalty, excellent word of mouth or repeat/up/cross sales.

The lesson is obvious. By chasing the quick buck they destroy long term customer value, but by actually treating customers ethically and generously they could have a customer for life.

Are You Investing in Your Business or Sucking it Dry?

Chris Garrett — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:43:49 +0000

When was the last time you invested in your business? Have you scaled back your investment recently, or increased it? Are you updating your knowledge and skills, or hoping that the expertise you have gained previously will see you through industry changes now and in the future?

One of the challenges for social media evangelists is balancing the benefits with a healthy dose of reality. Many businesses are turning to social media not because they believe it is more effective than some other approaches to lead generation, but because they have heard that it is cheap or free.

This is a worry for two reasons.

There is always a cost to doing any kind of promotion, and for many of us time is actually not just money but worth more than money.
This fear of investing symptom hints at bigger problems, more fundamental than simple lead pipeline challenges.

I am a complete social media advocate, to the point where a large part of my work is helping people get more business with social media and answering related questions, but social media is NOT a replacement for investing in your business.

At the very least you should be investing time not just in “doing” your business, but growing, improving and creating systems for it. That is about productivity, testing, analysis and education.

We see around us lots of short term patches, fixes and “hot tricks”, and while some of these things might work for a time, it is not a way to build a long term sustainable business.

Yes, social media works, but it works best when allied with all your existing and proven best practices. After social media there will be another tool du jour. This does not mean you ought to dismiss what has worked for you in the past.

Now more than ever you need to invest time and money in making your business the strongest it can be. Create new services and products, launch and relaunch, learn from mistakes, network and partner. It will help you weather the storms and when the world economy picks up then you will be best placed to gain from it.

Incentives: Giving your customers the biggest bang for their buck

Ayat Shukairy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:18:46 +0000

During such tough times, incentives are everywhere. Companies are struggling to get customers through the door. Even major conferences are “extending deadlines” for their “early-bird specials” because, simply, people are not buying. But more likely than often, incentives do work. They motivate and persuade the customer that is in a latter part of the buying stages. But what if your incentives were designed to motivate the customer that is in the initial buying stages, or just a browser, as well?

What NOT to do when it comes to incentives:

Users aren’t stupid: Too many times you go to websites only to find that they’re offering a 10% discount on a price hiked item. There is something called comparative shopping, most users will compare to see where they can get the biggest bang for their buck. If you truly want your visitors to select your product, make sure the incentive makes sense, Dollar and CENTS.

Offering incentives on EVERYTHING: A client of ours had prices slashed on all items all year round. The business logic was when users see slashed prices they’ll be more motivated to purchase. With a .50% conversion rate, clearly, the incentive was not doing it. Users would come time and time again to the site only to see the same slashed prices. They figured, I don’t really have to worry about buying it now since surely prices will be the same, and probably reduced next time around. Know your users and get into their minds when it comes to designing incentives.

Scope the competition: the last thing you want to do is an offer the same incentive a competitor is offering. Yes know your competition, but not so you can copy them, but rather to offer a different spin on an incentive in order to motivate users to purchase from you over them.

The reality is that you need to understand why your customers are being difficult, in that why they are not purchasing MORE from you. What makes your customers “tick?”

What to DO when it comes to incentives:

Reduce price: The number one motivator is a reduced price. The reality is you can counter all the FUDs and concerns your customer has with a killer deal. Although you may not have name recognition, your site is not very optimized, etc., if a customer sees SAVINGS, they will prefer you over the competition in a heartbeat. There are customers loyal to specific brands, true, but the majority of users, especially during such tough economic times, are hunting for the best deal.

Limited Time and Supply: Ahh, the things companies do to user’s minds and psychology! Sites such as Woot offer a single item for a day. It’s usually an item that is significantly reduced in price, may not be very useful, but the user feels like they are getting an exceptional deal. There is limited time and supply of the item, so users are motivated to “act FAST!” There is not a single more effective incentive for users that are in the early buying stages. A user may not need the item at all, so really, they user may have not even started a buying stage and is merely browsing. The urgency of the matter motivates the user to purchase the item.

Limited Time Offer: If I know that oldnavy.com is offering free shipping for a limited time, 3 days, I’m likely to make a decision to buy something rather quickly. But even more effective is a site such as Endless.com, they used to do this very well (I haven’t seen it in a while), where once you place an item in your cart, they offer you a further reduction in the next few hours. What a motivator for someone who thought: “oh, I’ll put in my cart and comeback later!”

As a two way exchange and the bridge between customers and companies, incentives do more than make the transaction process easier for consumers. A good incentive will also help companies in several different ways. Some of these include:

Raise response: Even if customers don’t take the bite on an incentive, it will get attention. A little PR for your business can go a long way. Even if the attention comes in the form of inquiries about your company, that’s a good thing. The best incentives for raising response include free trials, free gifts or contests.
Increase profit: Of course, the best incentive will generate enough revenue from customers to increase profits. PR, attention and inquiries are great, but profits are what will keep your business afloat in the long run. Incentives to increase profit include enhanced versions of a product or membership fees.
Promote loyalty: Promoting loyalty will gain your company devoted customers. Much of a company’s revenue comes from repeat customers, so it makes sense for incentive programs to focus on customer loyalty. Such incentives include reward programs, email promotions and subscriptions.

We’re all aware of the typical free shipping, buy one get one free offers, and it’s not always about the incentive you offer, but the way you word it and the way you MARKET it. What are some successful incentives you’ve used in the past?

Back to the Basics

Ayat Shukairy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:04:09 +0000

Remember when conversion optimization could get 20 – 30% increases in conversion rate by making simple changes such as a button’s color, a headline, or place a phone number in the top right corner of a page? Ahh, the good ol’ day. Well they’re pretty long gone – now with what the economy in shambles and more tech savvy shoppers. Companies that still rely on changing a button and adding bolded text are failing to recognize that those surface changes will not impact conversion rates as they used to.

So, now with the current situation and struggles, what can we do to ensure that we maintain and grow current conversion rates?

First and most important is planning what and how you want to optimize. This includes the entire approach from knowing the market (persona development), to analytics assessment, to optimization prioritization, and finally to filtering projects based on highest level of impact and lowest levels of effort.

Understanding Your Market: I was sifting through our blogs to see how many posts cited: the importance of understanding the market and persona development; I soon realized that any post about conversion optimization had referenced the importance of understanding the market in some way, shape or form.

I will reiterate, because we can’t stress this enough: the more you know about your market, persona traits, online behaviors, demographics, psychographics, etc., the more you can cater the site to address their needs.

But what can I add that’s different?

A practical tip:

If you know your market well enough, you know what they’re concerned about. Typically, customer/client concerns tend to flare-up right before they contact you or during the checkout. Place an assurance center that addresses their Fears, Uncertainties, or Doubts (FUDs) there.

Analytics Assessment: This goes hand in hand with understanding your market, because trying to understand the market requires a deep look at trends online, segmenting data and traffic, and measuring different marketing initiatives and their success/failure.

Yeah, we know that, right?

A practical tip:

Looking at the analytics closely requires a deep analysis of the navigation summary and various trends there. For instance, during checkout, ensure that users aren’t bouncing back and forth from the 1^st page to the 2^nd page and back again. That can tell you a number of different things, but something to consider is that maybe there’s information presented in the 1^st page of the checkout that users need to verify after getting to the 2^nd, 3^rd, and sometimes 4^th page of the checkout. Eliminating the bouncing around through the checkout has increased client’s cart abandonment rates 35%.

Optimization Prioritization: Once you have the information about your market and the analytics assessment, you can start to prioritize areas of optimization based on exit, bounce or conversion rates. List the areas with as much detail as possible and reasons why they need to change. Map out different scenarios based on your market information, and make informed decisions about what to test.

A practical tip: Reduce testing scenarios. Testing a million scenarios will get you results, but only after hundreds of thousands of impressions on the page, and in many cases a couple of years. If you’ve done your research well enough you will know to test only a few scenarios for specific elements throughout the page.

Conversion Optimization is part art, part science. If you do not have experience, you have a lot of tools that will help you master the science portion for conversion optimization projects throughout your site. The most important thing to remember is that optimization must be a consistent strategy like any marketing effort or initiative at your company. Additionally, always consider optimization to be an iterative process. It’s something that you will revisit time and time again.

Are You Using Caveman Techniques in Your Marketing?

Chris Garrett — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:29:32 +0000

Someone just tried to sell me over the phone again. This was not a cold call, it was down right subzero.

When will people ever learn?

Here are all the things the person got wrong:

This was my very first contact with this company
They did not know who I was or what I did (and this was a business to business call!)
My home number is ex-directory
While scripts can be useful, this guy stuck exactly to the script without pausing for breath, even when I tried to interrupt
His only answer to my objections was “but you are missing out, it is really good”
At no point did he ask any questions other than if I wanted to buy his product

You know you need to woo your prospect? This was the caveman approach to dating.

Now do not get me wrong, the direct approach can work, but far better if:

You do your research
You get to know the prospect
You relate the product as a solution to the prospects current needs
You warm up gently
You answer objections, preferably before they are raised, but absolutely when they are raised

Simple stuff really.

Personally, I do not do any sales, have not done for a few years, because my customers come to me pre-sold. Much better for a shy and reserved person such as myself.

If you would like to know how, I have written a free 7 day series on creating content sites for business which is a good start.

How does blog Rank calculates the ultimate rank?

khalid — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:12:51 +0000

Since I submitted the list of top 50 SEO blogs from blog rank to sphinn, I received a large number of emails asking me how does blog rank determines the ultimate rank calculation. So, here is the answer.

Currently, blog rank indexes and collects data for about to 20,000 blogs. You might notice that not all of these blog are displayed in the system. We wanted to work out more issues with algorithm before releasing more blogs. We currently use over 20+ different factors in determining the ultimate rank logic. Some of these factors include [this is by no means is a comprehensive list]:

1. RSS membership

2. Yahoo incoming links

3. Yahoo indexed pages

4. Google indexed pages

5. Google PR

6. Monthly visitors

7. Pages per visit

8. Link to page ratio

9. Compete Alexa,and Technorati ranking

12. social sites popularity (Digg first page stories, Stumbleupon reviews, Delicious bookmarks, Redditt, Propeller and mixx)

The factors of course are not all given the same weight. Factors which can be manipulated such as, incoming links and pages indexed by Google or Yahoo, have less weight compared to factors such as, pages per visit or RSS membership. Additionally, each blog receives different weight for the above factors depending on the category it is listed in, because it is measured against all the blogs in that particular category. For example, if a blog is listed under two categories: social media and blogging, it will most likely receive different points for RSS membership, Digg first page stories, Compete Ranking, etc in these two different categories.

Finally, batch data updates run for blog rank on daily basis. While we continue to tweak the ranking logic, we do not edit the ranking for any of the categories manually.

I am in the process of collecting all the questions I receive regularly for blog rank to create a FAQ. Please feel free to leave a comment here or drop me an email khalid at invesp dot com

About 6 months down and 6 months to go - what’s your business up to?

Ayat Shukairy — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:13:40 +0000

It’s almost 6 months into 2009 and a great time to reevaluate resolutions and goals. Honestly, I don’t even know how these first months passed so quickly, I’m still getting my feet wet! But really, businesses at this point have a better idea of where their company is going during this recession, what major final decisions they will be making, and whether or not it’s a good time for their company to make any “investments.”

For us here at Invesp, we’ve decided to push forward, regardless of how business is going, not that we’re complaining. We’re of the mentality that if we don’t invest big now and work hard now, then when?

What I’ve noticed with clients though is that we get either extremes. Some are eager to shine at a time when every other company out there is afraid to spend an extra dime. These companies are likely to sign up with us within 1 week. On the other extreme there are those companies that can’t contemplate spending another dime during tough times.

And then there are the in-betweeners: companies that the sales cycle lasts a year or more until they muster the courage, or others that contact us but then disappear for a while until they’re ready to negotiate again. It’s interesting to see the different attitudes and business mentalities during these times. More interesting, of course, will be to see which companies fair well at the end of the storm.

So what was your resolution for your business? Was it growth, or stability? If you want to maintain stability what are you doing, just riding it out without venturing into different initiatives? Or does stability mean taking necessary steps to maintain last year’s status? Whatever it is, now is a great time to evaluate how far along you’ve come and consider next steps. Share with us what your resolutions were, and what you are doing to achieve them.