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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appreciated send an email to sharon@notepage.net
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