We surveyed more than 500 experts and selected fifteen of the most effective tips for increasing website traffic, conversion rates and profitability. Even better, each tip can be implemented in a half hour or less!
By Marty Fahncke
We asked more than 500 top DRTV, Internet and e-commerce marketers the following question: What is the number-one tip you can reveal which will increase traffic, conversion and profits for a website? (Oh, by the way--it has to be something which can be accomplished in 30 minutes or less.)
Why 30 minutes? We wanted something that was fast and simple enough that you could (and would) take action on right away. How many times have you heard about a tip or strategy that sounded great, but was so complicated and time-consuming (or expensive), that you never actually got around to implementing it? It's a common complaint. So we sought out simple, quick ideas that were nonetheless very powerful.
Following are the 15 top tips submitted, along with some additional comments or clarification added by yours truly:
1. A recent MarketingSherpa report noticed how consumers are far more likely to open transactional e-mails, like shipping and receipt e-mails, as opposed to promotional e-mails where you're pitching products. So, start adding your promotional items and cross-sells into those transactional e-mails. --Jim Kukral, jimkukral.com
MF: This one is such a no-brainer, yet I see very few people doing it. I'm even guilty of missing this boat--but 30 minutes from now I won't be!
2. Stay on top of the latest buzz related to your product categories. How to find it? Check social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us, digg.com and furl.net. Whatever is hot that week, write about it or include an article about it on your blog, newsletter or website. --Pauline Wallin Ph.D., teachmeinternet.com
MF: This could apply to your marketing and your customer service areas. Taking just 30 minutes to search what's being said about your product, company, or business category can open your eyes to what the customers really think.
3. Request customer feedback on your website, newsletters--everywhere. Some will give valuable testimonials. More important, though, is the honest feedback others will give about your site's problems and their unsatisfied needs. This data provides a huge competitive advantage for powering innovation and products tailored to what your customers actually want.--Mike Allen, shopping-bargains.com
MF: This advice is contrary to how many companies handle customer feedback. Some companies make it difficult, if not impossible, for a customer to reach them or provide feedback. The more you listen to your customer, the better your products and services will be in the future.
4. Send a survey to your customers via Survey Monkey.com. Let them know their feedback is important. Offer them a coupon in exchange for their honest feedback. Place the coupon code on the thank-you page of the survey along with a link to your website. Best of all, it's free! --Steve Newman, Marinermarketing.com
MF: You get market research information and a lift in sales simultaneously.
5. "Bad Apples out of the Bowl." Once each week, run an affiliate performance report in your affiliate tracking network. Rank the affiliates by conversion and scrutinize all affiliates with abnormally good and bad conversion rates such as those above 25.00% and below 0.25%. Usually, they are using undesirable tactics to market you, and this will weed them out. --Brook Schaaf, schaafco.com
MF: Affiliate marketing is continuing to grow as a viable and profitable online marketing strategy, but you do have to monitor it carefully. This tip is a fast and easy way to prioritize your efforts.
6. Make your landing page your call to action. Don't make the mistake of putting too much information on the first page. Make that information easy to find, but be sure to capture that order.--Wendi Cooper, cspotrun.com
MF: Use landing pages wherever possible and logical, rather than a "catalog-style" homepage. Given too many choices, many customers will choose to simply leave and not buy anything. Did the customer arrive from a paid search term? Send them to a landing page optimized for that search term. Did the customer arrive from an e-mail? Make the offer on the landing page match the offer in the e-mail.
7. Ask your customers--whether they're your best, most recent, highest value, most difficult--what they love about your brand. Why do they do business with you? What do you do for them that nobody else does? What do you do differently from anybody else that keeps them happy and engaged with you? If they answer positively, write their responses as landing-page copy on your site and test them out. If they answer negatively, you've just put your finger on the pulse of your business and you know what to do to fix your most pressing issues to turn it around and avert a looming disaster. --Jonathan Miller, ForgeBusiness.com
MF: If you use open-ended forms for a survey, rather than multiple choice buttons, the results might astound you. Giving people the freedom to respond however they like opens the door to your customers to provide a lot of great ideas. Further, turning around and using customer-submitted words and phrases in your ad and website copy will significantly increase your conversions. This is a variation of the Socratic method, which has been used successfully in classrooms for thousands of years--for good reason.
8. Has your website tuned into "WIIFM" (what's in it for me, the website visitor)? Your customers will judge in about three seconds whether it has. If it hasn't, they will leave. A quick way to start to tune into WIIFM on your website is to increase the occurrence of the word "you." --Tessa Stowe, salesconversation.com
MF: Take 30 minutes and look over your website copy. Are you saying "we" and "us" too much? It's quick and simple to change your copy to make it more customer-centric and more compelling, thus increasing conversions.
9. In 5 minutes, I created a referral contest for my e-zine to ask my current subscribers to refer potential new subscribers. I offered prizes for the most new referrals. In 30 days, I increased my e-zine subscription base by 30 percent, and boosted my website traffic as well. --Patricia Weber, prostrategies.com
MF: Are you asking your prospects and customers for referrals? Oftentimes, we spend a fortune in time and money looking for new customers, and forget to simply ask our existing customers if they know anyone else who could use what we have to offer.
10. Validate your pages. There are quite a few browser programs out there, from Internet Explorer to Safari to Firefox, etc. Chances are, your site passes the Internet Explorer viewing test, but with just a little coding error, it might look strange or even be inaccessible in another browser. To check a page for errors, go straight to the source at http://validator.w3.org. While you're there, make sure all of the links on the page work, too. --Maria Marsala, elevatingyourbusiness.com
MF: Firefox and other browsers are becoming increasingly preferred to Internet Explorer, so this tip becomes more and more important every day.
11. Engage your audience through podcasting. Audio podcasting is inexpensive and gives you a new medium to be able to market to customers. Companies like Podango, PodTech and others have created turnkey solutions specifically for companies seeking to use podcasting to reach their audience. --Chris Knudsen, ChrisKnudsen.biz
MF: It's all about reaching the customer at the right time, with the right message, delivered via the right media.
12. We added our website URL to all of our communications: print ads, catalogs, business cards and corporate e-mail signatures. The result? An increase in offline-sourced traffic and a sales jump of 115 percent the first month and 550 percent for the second month. According to our web logs, the sales referred for "other sources" (other than Internet) over the last year represented an average of 1.2 percent of the total web sales. After the strategy, this jumped to 7.2 percent of the total.--Gideon Kornbluth, prokompra2002.com
MF: In today's business world, I'm shocked when I'm given a business card or piece of marketing literature that does not include a website address. Yet it happens on a regular basis. Put your URL on everything (including your products).
13. The "30-Minute YouTube Sprint." Make an extemporaneous four-minute, hand-held, self-narrated digital video tour of your office, call center or warehouse. Show smiling faces of your employees. Craft a brief, keyword-filled description: Tour [your company's] [offices], [makers of the world's finest widgets]. Upload your video and text to YouTube and Google Video. Announce it to everyone. Go viral. --Jay Aaron, JayAaron.com
MF: For the DRTV world in particular, we often think of video only in terms of long-form or short-form television commercials. Let's not forget the ever-growing world of Internet video. The above tip can go a long way toward emotionally connecting your customers with your company. The more they get to know you, the more they will trust you and buy from you.
14. Start a CEO or corporate blog. You can set one up easily in less than 4 minutes. Sun's president, Jonathan Schwartz, made a blog post and got 11,000 hits the next day! It has created positive press and draws lots of traffic, exposure, and sales. --Linda Allen, BizRecipes.com
MF: One key thing to note: Sun's blog allows anyone to comment on postings. Sometimes the comments aren't positive, but they are still permitted and often posted. Transparency and two-way communication aren't things we see a lot in the electronic retailing world, but they should be.
And one final tip from the author:
15. Leverage PR opportunities. I invited more than 500 people to submit their tips for this article, and only about 60 people responded. Coming up with a tip for an article which will be read by thousands of people shouldn't have taken more than 30 minutes. When promotional opportunities such as that come along, take advantage of them!--Marty M. Fahncke, FawnKey.com
So there you have it. Fifteen tips to boost your website traffic, conversions and profits. If you execute just one tip per business day for the next fifteen days, in three weeks time, I'm confident that you'll be amazed at the results.
Marty M. Fahncke is president of FawnKey & Associates, a business advisory and management firm specializing in electronic retailing. A regular contributor to this publication, Fahncke also posts a blog at www.MartyFahncke.com.
