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Do This And You’ll Win In ANY Market
There’s one number you should focus on, if you want to dominate your market online.
You’ll never see this number mentioned in any newspaper article or magazine.
Hardly anyone understands it…but those who do often lead their industries.
What is this number?
Average Visitor Value (AVV)
Average Visitor Value is simply how much each website visitor is worth to your business.
If you want to dominate your market, aim for the highest AVV in your industry.
When your Average Visitor Value is higher than anyone else, you can unleash what Jonathan Mizel dubbed “The Unlimited Traffic Technique”.
The Unlimited Traffic Technique goes something like this:
If a visitor is worth $2 to you, but only $1 to your competition, you can pay them $1.50 per visitor to send all their traffic to you, and you’ll both be better off!
Over time, website visitors gravitate toward the two or three companies with the highest Average Visitor Value because those companies can afford to…
..spend more on AdWords and other forms of advertising…
…outsource more work…
…invest in more content generation…
…generate more exposure and publicity…
Bottom line: whoever makes the most money per visitor…WINS.
Split Tests That End In Tears
Blogs like this like to share case studies of successful split tests and other fabulous ways to improve your marketing ROI. (Hmm, that last sentence makes it sound like this blog is a real person, with thoughts, hopes and dreams. But I digress).
The reality is, some split tests end in tears, like this one:
Click on the image to see a screen-shattering big-ass version!
The original version (blue line) got off to a strong start, before the new version (orange line) made a thrilling resurgence. Then the two versions started to tend toward each other in a virtual dead heat.
Whilst we could run the test longer and see what happens, we’ve got over fish to fry. Other tests to run.
Of all the split tests we’ve run over the years, I estimate that 60% beat the control, 30% lose against the control and 10% end in a draw.
We recommend conducting at least one split test every 6 weeks. At that rate, odds are you’ll get at least 5 “winners” a year. Any one of which can make a BIG difference to your bottom line.
Video Case Study: Testimonials Increase Website Conversion By Up To 166%
Do testimonials still “work” as a conversion tool, or are modern consumers too savvy to be swayed by this marketing tactic?
We decided to conduct a conversion test to quantify the difference between a sales letter page with no testimonials vs a nearly identical page but with testimonials included.
Bottom line: the “with testimonials” version outperformed the “no testimonials” version by 166%.
Take a look at the video below to see how the test was conducted and the specific elements that made the “with testimonials” version work so well…
Watch The Video: Testimonials Increase Website Conversion
on YouTube
Website Conversion Optimisation Video – Why Do It?
When it comes to increasing website profits, the first question that comes to most business owners’ minds is:
“How can we get to number 1 on the search engines?”
In the following video, I explore some of the arguments for focusing not on generating more traffic, but on improving the proportion of visitors who take action on your site by opting in, enquiring or buying. Click below to watch now:
Or, you can watch this website conversion optimisation video on YouTube.
Online Marketing Case Study: ‘Upsell’ Strategy Boosts Online Sales By 56.3%
The best time to sell online is when customers already have their credit cards out.
In this case study video I deconstruct a real upselling strategy, showing you how adding a simple upsell process increased sales by 56.3%!!
Enjoy….
Watch the video: Website Upselling Case Study on YouTube
A transcript of the video is here:
Hi, this is Will Swayne from Marketing Results which is at www.marketing-results.com.au.
I’ve got a really interesting case study video to share with you today. This case study video is on the power of upselling. In this video, you’ll learn how we increased order page conversion by 39.2% while also simultaneously increasing average transaction value by 12.3% for a net revenue gain of 56.3% by just changing one thing.
As I mentioned this video is on upselling and upselling is basically the “Would You Like Fries With That?” strategy.
The principles to underline this strategy are a couple of things:
- Firstly, when customers are buying, don’t stop selling.
- Secondly, one of the cardinal sins of marketing, I believe, is actually limiting the value that you offer clients. There may be clients among your customer base who would buy more elaborate products or larger products or bigger bundles or products with more features, if you offered them. The fact that you don’t offer them is the reason why they’re not buying them.
So let’s quickly talk about upselling. Well there are a few people in the internet marketing community who are talking about it but very few people who know how to do it. Even fewer can quantify the value of doing it and almost no one is actually doing it. So in this example, I’m going to show you an actual example where you’ll see how to do it and what the potential results can be.
The website you see in front of you is a website called candlemakerscompanion.com which sells primarily a $27.00 e-book on how to create beautiful artisan candles for fun or profit and as you can see from this website, it’s a traditional sort of sales letter style website. There’s a sales letter, there’s a guarantee and then it’s $27.00 and by clicking on this ‘add to cart button’ you then proceed to an order page.
We actually tested two order pages. The first order page in the test looks like this where it says, “Yes! I want my copy of The Candle Maker’s Companion. Get the Candle Maker’s Companion Plus $65 Worth of Bonuses for just $27.”
There’s a number of strategies in evidence there:
- One of them is this sort of affirmation strategy prior to purchase to make it very clear on the value that the client recieves
- Secondly is bonusing – to receive a lot more value than the sticker price.
- One is having an image of the product
- Another one is actually valuing the individual bonuses
- Reiterating the money back guarantee
- Having some privacy assurance messages, credit card and payment logos
- A checkout button or an add to cart, “click here to claim your copy now” buttons
But the key point that I want you to notice here is that there’s only one option which is what most people do. So we tested this original version against a different type of off page which you can see here.
So this page is very similar. It says: “Yes! I want my copy of The Candle Maker’s Companion.” There are two options for you to choose from. Please read below and make your selection. Below there—there are actually two boxes.
Here’s the first box which is identical to the first; adding it to the cart here. And here’s option two which is a bundle: “You can get the Candle Maker’s Companion plus the Handcrafter’s companion for just $17.00 more!” So again it’s adding a lot more value for a nominal increment in price. So it explains the connection between the two products. I’m not going to read it all but I’ll just read the first paragraph.
“The Handcrafter’s Companion is a complementary volume to The Candle Maker’s Companion. It provides you with everything you need to create fragrant bath and body products, for fun or profit!”
Further down, we say that: “The Handcrafter’s Companion is actually sold on its own website for $27.00” with a link so people can verify the value. Then again there’s an affirmation statement to get both products for a very reasonable price of $44.00 with all the bonuses then itemized again and then you go to the checkout.
I’ll show what the checkout looks like; it’s identical for each side of the test. So whether they order the upsell product or the planned product, it will go to this sort of shopping cart page.
Okay so let’s look at the results between these two types of order page.
This is a Google Website Pptimizer which is one of the conversion testing tools we use to help our clients and ourselves increase our conversion results. The blue line is the conversion rate on that original order page. As you can see, these lines change, I’ll talk about that in a second. The orange line is the conversion line right on the page with the upsell.
So you notice that these pages sort of change every time; that is as more data is collected, we get more certainty about the true value of the long-term conversion rate of either option. As we get to the end, we find that on this order page, the conversion rate is 31.6% with the upsell and 22.7% with no upsell, in other words, just offering one option. So that means that of every one hundred people that come to this page and see the upsell; 31 purchase. Of every hundred people that come to the page and they don’t see the upsell, only 23 purchase.
So what does that mean?
That means that with a very high level of confidence, statistically speaking (which is all this stuff is about) there’s an actual conversion improvement of 39.2% by offering the upsell option; simply by offering the upsell option. And there’s also an increase in the transaction value because the upsell is obviously more expensive than the regular product. We actually find that about 19% of orderers choose the upsell and 81% choose the regular product. So that has an increased transaction size of 12.3%.
So, when you combine the increased conversion rate on that page of 39.2% and you also combine that with the increased order value, of another 12.3%, that produces a net revenue gain through this one strategy of 56%, which is pretty substantial. The other thing is that’s just a revenue gain. The cost of traffic remains the same. So in terms of profit, this probably has boosted profit by about 300% or somewhere near that number.
So that’s a working example of how to do upsells on the web. You can do this with an e-commerce product or you can do it with a lead generation scenario. For example, you might offer a free report and on the thank you page of the free report, you then offer people a chance to have a consultation with you or go to the next step in the sale.
I’ll leave it there. I hope that’s been instructive. If you would like to know more about how we can help you implement this sort of strategy on your website, along with enhanced traffic generation and other conversion strategies, then get in touch. Thank you!
Nice Design Candy – Hand Drawn Opt In Form
Jared Goralnick alerted me to the fancy new hand-drawn opt in form at www.AwayFind.com.
It may be replaced shortly, so I’ve reproduced a (static) version below (click to enlarge).
This is pretty cool from a design perspective — I wonder how hand-drawn forms compare with the plain ole popup?
We can get 15%+ conversion on a popup form from “cold” traffic. I’d be interested to see if going the extra mile with design can boost this number. Anyone have any data on that?
Sales Funnel Optimisation Phase 4: Total Integration
This is the final instalment of a five-part series on Sales Funnel Optimisation. [See the introduction here].
Phase 4: Total Integration
After you’ve evolved from internal orientation to objective measurement through to user involvement, you’re ready to enter the phase that can potentially unlock the most rewards: total integration.
This is where the first three phases feed into each other in a never-ending improvement process:
- developing and prioritising strategies internally
- measuring your results objectively
- capuring insights from users to acceleratete the process
These aren’t “steps” so much as never-ending improvement loop.
So the ideal website development and optimisation process goes something like this:
- Conduct research of your market, competitors and opportunities.
- Develop your site based on your “best guess” (plus smarts and experience) as to what is most likely to work
- Measure everything so you can track what’s working and what’s not
- Try different approaches and if they work, keep them. If they don’t, revert back to the control.
- Glean insights from users to add new ideas to the mix. Selectively test, measure and optimise.
- Rinse and repeat!
With most optimisation processes, it is normal to reach a stage of diminishing returns, once the most obvious improvements have been made.
But in the case of online sales funnel optimisation, the field is developing so quickly that there are always new opportunities to test new tools and strategies.
Even if your online sales process is relatively “mature”, it’s still possible to generate ongoing improvements of 10 or 20 percent per month using this process.
About Marketing Results:
As Australia’s leading internet lead generation experts, Marketing Results specialises in helping fast-growth companies generate more enquiries and sales online while eliminating marketing waste. Find out more about our internet consulting services here.
Sales Funnel Optimisation Phase 2: Objective Measurement
This is the second instalment of a four-part series on Sales Funnel Optimisation. [See the introduction and Part 1].
Phase 2: Objective measurement
Yesterday we looked at some of the advantages and disadvantages of relying on internal knowledge and resources to develop your online strategy. Today we’ll look at the next phase – objective measurement.
Objective measurement tools tell you WHAT users are doing on your site and whether or not tweaks or changes are working.
I’ve written extensively elsewhere on these “quantitative” strategies, so I won’t expand further here, except to provide some examples of typical objective measurement tools and what you can use them for:
- Google Analytics – broad-based analytics package, great for showing a range of key visitor (‘How many visitors did we get last month?”) and conversion (“What percentage of visitors from search engines are downloading our White Paper?”) metrics.
- CrazyEgg – shows you WHERE on your webpage visitors clicked and presents the information as an easy-to-understand “heat map”
- Google Website Optimiser – multivariate testing tool. Use GWO to test different page elements (e.g. headlines, copy, offers or designs) and establish which elements convert best.
According to a survey we conducted last year of 324 Australian small and medium business owners, approximately 4 in 5 Australian companies have NOT yet evolved to this level. If you’re already using some or all of these quantitative tools, you should give yourself a pat on the back!
The great advantage of these tools is that they tell you what’s actually happening on your site — what’s working, and what’s not.
That allows you to test new things and if they work, keep them; if they don’t work, scrap them. This step-by-step process of is the basis of our online sales funnel optimisation service that we implement for SME clients.
The disadvantage of a purely quantitative approach is that you don’t have any insight into WHY users are doing what they’re doing. You have to make a “best guess”. While you can certainly produce dramatic results from a quantitative approach, these types of tools are relatively inefficient for answering the following types of questions:
- What do prospects and clients really think of our website?
- Which specific elements of my website or sales copy are unwittingly turning new customers away?
- What new ideas should I test to improve user experience and conversion further?
To answer these types of “WHY?” questions, you need to evolve to Phase 3: User involvement. That’s what we’ll look at tomorrow…
The Evolution of Website Sales Funnel Optimisation – Introduction
The central question of online sales funnel optimisation is, “how do we get better results than we’re currently getting, as quickly as possible?”
While sitting in a banana-chair in Punta del Este, I got to thinking about this question and the distinct but interlocking approaches and toolsets you need to maximise your online lead generation results including traffic, conversions and sales. Here’s what I came up with:
There is an “evolution” with four phases that can take you from getting poor/average results to excellent/outstanding results from your website.
Over the next 4 days, we’ll look at each phase in detail. Here’s a quick summary of what’s to come:
- Phase 1: Internal orientation:
Many companies and organisations design their websites in line with their own opinions and preferences. While this can be a great starting point for gathering content and ideas, in many cases this can be detrimental to your sales goals. What’s more, it doesn’t tell you anything about your customers and how they use your website.
- Phase 2: Objective measurement:
Objective measurement tools allow you to reduce subjectivity and manage by fact rather than by hunch. Measurement tools tell you who is visiting your website and what they do when they get there. - Phase 3: User involvement:
Measurement tools are very good at telling you WHAT users are doing. But getting website users to tell you WHY they’re doing it is one of the best ways to gather useful optimisation ideas. Until recently, professional user testing was beyond the reach of most SMEs at $250+ per user. Now, thanks to a new web-based service, you can buy user tests from only $29 per person! We’ll look at this in more detail in Phase 3. - Phase 4: Total integration:
While each of the previous three phases have a part to play, they become exponentially more effective when used in concert. Give this process the time it deserves and it will reward you with increased sales and reduced marketing costs.
Tomorrow we’ll take a closer look at Phase 1 – Internal orientation.
Ask Your Website Users How You Can Improve: 4Q Review & Case Study
When it comes to boosting website conversion, I’ve always been in the quantitative camp – “send enough users to different versions of your landing page and look at which version works best (i.e. delivers the best conversion results)”.
And that approach works great, but there’s still plenty of room for qualitative tools to help increase your conversion rate (in fact, the two play very well together.)
Conversion optimisation isn’t about software and tools
The tools you need to do A/B and multivariate testing are relatively mature, and they’re not just cheap, they’re free (try Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer for starters.)
But the tools aren’t the constraint. The constraint is knowing what to test. You not only need to devise the right test elements, but you also need to apply a proven process to increase conversion on an ongoing basis.
Coming up with “stuff to test” happens in a number of ways, including marketing expertise and experience of what has worked in the past. Another valuable source of information is to rely on the voice of the customer to help you answer the 4 critical site experience questions…
The 4 critical site experience questions
- How satisfied are my website visitors?
- What are my visitors at my website to do (their purpose)?
- Are they in fact completing what they set out to do?
- If not, why not? If yes, what did they like best about their experience?
Knowing the answers to these questions can provide you with new optimisation ideas and priorities, straight from the customer’s mouth. You gain insight into WHY visitors are doing what they’re doing (or not doing!) on your website.
How We Used the Free 4Q Survey Tool To Answer The 4 Critical Questions
Late last year we used the free 4Q exit survey tool (a collaboration between Avinash and iPerceptions) to ask our website visitors the 4 critical questions.
Here’s how the invitation process works (from the 4Q FAQ page):
4Q employs a two-stage invitation process. When visitors arrive at your site, they will be presented an invitation to participate in a survey after their session. If they accept, a second, minimized window, which contains the survey itself, will be launched and will wait in the background for the visitor to complete his or her session. 4Q surveys are designed to be collaborative brand building exercises, not annoying browsing interruptions.
The tool is, by design, extremely simple. Here’s a sneak peak at the control panel:
4Q Exit Survey Control Panel Screenshot
Once the survey is set up, it’s a case of insert-the-code and away you go.
One of the nifty features is the ability to adjust the survey invitation rate — so only a percentage of users are invited to participate. For our test, we used 20% of site traffic.
4Q Survey Results – What We Discovered
- Over the course of the test, 46 surveys were completed
- The overall “task completion” rate was 75% (i.e. 25% of people who completed the survey were unable to do what they came to do on the site.)
- A few responses were “junk”, but that doesn’t matter. We are looking for patterns and bright ideas.
- What they liked: a number of users commented on our use of fact-based website optimisation methods and liberal availability of online marketing case studies.
- What they didn’t like: a few users were looking for information/articles and resented being “sold” to.
Bright ideas:
Here are some examples of useful gems from the survey which we have translated into action:
Bright idea #1:
I had trouble finding the right subscription, which a friend forwarded me initially. I suggest having a ‘subscribe’ link in your email subscription.
Bright idea #2:
Well, I loved the case studies; I really felt like I was connecting with a business that had succeeded as a direct result of their relationship with you and I wanted to be one of those too. But It wasn’t clear which of your services they had used to achieve those results when I went to look on your Services tab to find out more.
Sample output from 4Q
Final thoughts
Was using 4Q worth the effort? You bet it was. It is very quick to set up, provides a good user experience and yields measurable and usable qualitative information.
We have since installed 4Q surveys on several sites for our SME consulting clients and a couple of Enterprise clients as well. In each case, the results have been well worth the effort. In one case, the results have heavily influenced the direction that a major site redesign is taking. Better to know this information NOW, rather than after the redesign has taken place.
When you take your instructions directly from end users and marry them with scientific testing and tracking, you can also cut weeks or months of your conversion improvement cycles. And you know what they say about time = money!
Why not give 4Q a go? And if you need help with an orchestrated program of traffic and conversion improvement, get in touch and we can explore whether or not we’re a ‘fit’.
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