Free Website Content
Why Pay for Advertising That Does Not Yield Sales, Increase
Your Conversions
Why pay for advertising that does
not yield sales?
Before you part with your cold hard cash, consider various
ways to increase and maximize your conversions. The
term conversion simply represents the number of website
visitors that take the action that the web publisher
desires. In most cases, conversion refers to an individual
browsing a website and purchasing the product(s) or
service(s) being sold. The idea is that a browser has
been converted into a buyer.
What if you could increase the number
of people that visit your site to customers who purchase
or take action on your site by 1 percent. What would
a 1 percent increase in conversion mean to your bottom
line? Even on low ticket items, a 1 percent increase
in conversions can be potentially staggering when considered
over time.
How do you increase conversions?
Obviously the copy is critical in converting a 'browser'
into a 'buyer' and while a webpage should be optimized
for search engine spiders, search engine optimization
should not be at the expense of web surfers. Webmasters
must balance search engine optimization with sensible
copy that calls the website visitor to the appropriate
action.
What about advertising?
Keyword advertising can be very effective. In order
to increase the conversion of keyword advertising, create
continuity between your keyword and your landing page.
Use the same words in the ad as in the landing page.
Keep in mind that landing pages do not have to be part
of a websites normal navigation. Webmasters can customize
landing pages to cater to a specific audience, advertisement,
or search term.
Ultimately, the goal is all about ROI
or return on investment--publishers aim to make more
than they spend. For every dollar you spend in advertising,
you want to make a profit of $ 2.00 or better. That
means in many cases you will need to monitor any changes
in sales and web traffic, and determine what specific
actions are resulting in the sales increases.
When evaluating advertising campaigns,
consider whether the results will be long term or short
term. Long term results from a short term expense could
involve a website design. Short term results are generally
things like ezine advertisements that result in sharp
sales spikes that don't generally last.
Consider whether the expense is a one
time cost or ongoing. Equally important, determine whether
you can reliably track and measure the results of the
advertising campaign. Can the results be reproduced
by spending more money?
Targeted advertising will convert at a
higher rate than non-targeted advertising. It is critical
that advertising be targeted, so that you can maximize
your conversion and increase your ROI.
On the other hand, if you have a low conversion
rate, spending money on advertising is not likely going
to produce significant results or a high ROI--so before
you part with any hard earned cash take a look at your
conversion rate.
Why pay for terms that are not converting?
Monitoring is critical to any advertising campaign.
As a webmaster, you have a whole host of tools that
allow you to track the actions that your visitors take.
Use these tools to analyze and test theories that relate
to conversions. When determining areas of low conversion,
evaluate weblogs. Look at the abandon rate by viewing
single access web pages. Use cookies to track the actions
that browsers on a website take, do they return and
purchase at a later date? Another option is to track
customer actions using javascript that is embedded in
the website's webpages.
Pay particular attention to what keywords
result in traffic, and what keywords result in actual
sales. Anyone can purchase traffic with the keyword
phrase "free money" but how many of those who click
are going to take the desired action on your webpage?
Keyword terms that are closely related to the product
or service being sold are going to have a higher conversion.
It is important to filter phrases or keywords, that
do not convert or result in unrelated traffic (due to
synonym use).
What about the landing page?
When designing the landing page think about the action
you want and emphasize it; remove all other distractions
from the webpage. The landing page should be designed
in such a way that the website is driven to the action
you wish for them to take.
Unique URLs or special landing pages can
be instrumental in tracking a advertising campaigns
success. They are also helpful when you conduct split-testing
sending users to different web pages, and then tracking
the actions that result.
What common problems result in poor
conversions?
Poor web site design can result in a low website conversion.
Websites should explain the product or service is that
you are selling in simple terms. The website navigation
should be intuitive, and it should not be difficult
to locate what visitors are looking for. Avoid vintage
web graphics that are of low quality, or fonts that
are unreadable. Avoid color schemes or font size that
alienate web visitors, colors should be used to highlight
important points. Webmasters should avoid small font
sizes or fonts that are not easily readable.
While some items are easy to measure,
others become a little more nebulous, it is difficult
to know whether enhanced graphics will increase sales,
but they should be considered when evaluating a poor
conversion rate.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds
and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for
NotePage http://www.notepage.net
a wireless text messaging software company.
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be greatly appreciated send an email to sharon@notepage.net
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