Converting Visitors to Buyers

1
Converting Visitors to Buyers

• Stephan Spencer
• Managing Director, Netconcepts
• sspencer_at_netconcepts.com
• www.netconcepts.com

2
Your Visitors are Tough Customers

• They dont read they scan
• We read 30 slower off the screen than off of
  paper
• They dont scroll
• Over 60 of the time
• Anything important below the fold? Hope not!
• Theyre impatient they wont wait
• 8 second rule
• They cant remember much
• Our brains cant handle more than 7 items at once

3
If Your Sites Not Part of the Solution, Its
Part of the Problem

• Do you make it easy for them to do business with
  you?
• Do you solve their business problems?
• Do you save them time or money, or help make them
  more productive?

4
Make It Easy for Them

• Less is more. Keep it short and punchy.
• Dont just reuse content from print
• Minimize scrolling
• Use bullet points
• Use white space
• Restrict the number of choices available

5
Writing for the Web

• Must be value-added, compelling, interactive,
  fresh, well-written, concise, readable, tailored
  to the individuals needs
• No marketingspeak
• WIIFM
• Content needs to be written as much for search
  engines as for humans

6
No Marketingspeak!

• Skip the meaningless blather and cut to the chase
• Everyones leveraging, monetizing,
  repurposing, disintermediating, and
  synergizing
• And theyre all hawking solutions that are
  next-generation, best-of-breed, innovative,
  scalable, mission critical, real-time,
  dynamic, customer-centric, 24/7
• Did they use the B.S. Generator?
  (http//tinyurl.com/1wvi)
• Avoid industry buzzwords and jargon
• Put your site to the test
• the B.S. Detector (http//www.streettech.com/bs)

7
(No Transcript)
8
Dont Over-hype

• Soft sell
• Avoid exclamation points
• Avoid words like premier, leading, and other
  hyperbole
• No ALL CAPS (except in your legal disclaimer,
  where you must have it)
• Keep it real. Youll instill trust.

9
WII-FM

• Your visitors listen to WII-FM Whats In It For
  Me
• They dont care about your
• Letter from the CEO
• Mission statement
• Assorted press release hype
• Your site should not be a temple to the brand
  or a testament to the companys ego

10
You your vs. We our

• Web site copy thats all about us
• We all love talking about ourselves. But does the
  visitor really care?
• Should be a 71 ratio of you and your to we
  and our
• Is your site company facing instead of
  customer facing? Then youve got your butt to
  the customer.

11
Active Tense not Passive

• Conserves words
• Less wishy-washy
• More persuasive
• Read Think Active! article by Jeff Eisenberg

12
Verbs With More Punch

• Inject more punch into your verbs and
  concomitantly cut down on your use of adjectives
• For example, Immerse yourself rather than Take
  an audio visual journey
• Itll give your prose more personality. Set a
  tone appropriate for your target audience,
  though.
• Read Pump up Your Verbs article by Jeff
  Eisenberg

13
Writing for Search Engines

• Youre writing for search engines as much as for
  people
• Keyword-rich copy (keyword density)
• Keywords should be not just relevant, but also
  popular
• Overtures Search Term Suggestion Tool
  (http//inventory.overture.com) and
  WordTracker.com
• Prominent placement of keywords at beginning of
  first paragraph, in headlines, in titles, etc.
  (keyword prominence)
• Text-rich, constantly changing home page

14
The Offer

• Give a compelling value proposition
• Make it relevant
• Sign up for e-newsletter
• Free downloads (white paper, screensaver, etc.)
• A sweepstakes
• Etc.

15
Call-to-Action

• Invite your visitors to act
• Every page should have a clear call-to-action
  to get your visitors to take the next step

16
The Follow-up

• Maintain contact at least once every 90 days
• With each contact, try to get increasing levels
  of permission
• e.g. email -gt phone -gt in-person meeting -gt
  proposal -gt sale

17
Get Personal

• Mass customization a mass of markets, not
  amass market
• Tailor the content, speak to the user
• Rules-based personalization vs. collaborative
  filtering
• Example Amazon.coms 1-click ordering,
  Recommendation Center, Email Notification
  Service
• Use to highlight relevant products/services/inform
  ation, to auto-fill in order inquiry forms, for
  targeted promotions and for email reminders

18
Acquisition Funnel

• Map out the stages in your customer acquisition
  process
• E.g. Visit web site, sign up for e-newsletter,
  download white paper, trial user, customer, loyal
  customer, evangelist

19
Acquisition Funnel Example
Click to Web site
Download attempt
Downloadsuccess
Regis-tration
4-wkviewer
12-wkviewer
90
70
80
50
75
1
Fictitious conversion rates, for illustration
purposes only
Slide courtesy of Ann Shepherd of PointCast
20
A Hypothetical Step-by-Step Permission Marketing
Strategy

• First contact visitor signs up (e.g. for a free
  BMW screensaver) and opts in for emails
• Email campaign come in for a test drive and go
  in the draw to win
• At the test drive, invite them to become a member
  of BMW Owners Club, free
• Follow up with formal invitation letter
• Follow up by phone
• Maintain contact at least once every 90 days

21
Hyundai Case Study

• Campaign cost 75K
• Contest entries 39,502
• Handraisers 25,418
• Cost per lead 2.95
• Test drives 1,204
• Cost per test drive 62.29
• Sales 210
• Cost per sale 357.00

22
In Summary

• Writing for the Web means writing for unforgiving
  humans and search engine spiders alike
• Manage the acquisition process - the offer, the
  call-to-action, the follow-up, etc.
• Personalize

23
Further Reading

• Net Words Creating High Impact Online Copy by
  Nick Usborne (http//www.nickusborne.com/networds.
  htm)
• Guide To Killer Copywriting by Debbie Weil, a
  downloadable e-book, free when you subscribe to
  Debbies free email newsletter (http//www.wordbiz
  .com/signup.html)