First, make sure your PDFs actually contain text. The search engines will crawl the text of a PDF just as they crawl a web page. Most graphics programs are capable of adding text to the graphics they create - but this is not actually “machine text”. If your PDF document was originally created in a graphics program, there’s a good chance that the search engines can’t read it. Stick with Word or other word processing programs for creating your original documents.

Make sure your text is optimized, just like a webpage. It needs to contain headlines and your important keywords. I haven’t figured out what the keyword density in a PDF should be yet, but I would suggest aiming for 3-6%.

Remember the crawl factor. Include links to your PDF documents from your webpages and vice versa, and use the appropriate anchor text. Depending on which version of Acrobat you’re using, there’s a good chance that the links from your Word document will NOT automatically convert into links in your PDF document. Don’t forget to use the Link tool in Acrobat to recreate your hyperlinks.

If you’re including graphics in your PDF, optimize the graphics before inserting them into the original document. This will help keep your PDF file size down - files that are too large can be abandoned by the search engines before the crawl is done.

Don’t forget to update the document properties. Often, the name you give your original document will be automatically inserted as the title in the PDF file’s properties. The PDF document properties - especially the title tag - are similar to an html document’s meta data. Something like “Report1.doc” isn’t going to help your search traffic much. After the PDF has been created, be sure to open it in Acrobat and tweak all of the properties and add the appropriate keywords.

Don’t be an early adopter. There’s no need to upgrade to the latest and greatest version of Acrobat since the search engines’ capabilities often lag behind the software’s development. Just because Acrobat 8 can create 3D CAD drawings, doesn’t mean Google can read them. If you do have the newest version of Acrobat, save your document for a lesser version (5 or 6).

Optimize the final PDF file. Be sure to use the built in PDF optimizer and Optimize For The Web options. This will help keep your file size as small as possible and also allow for an interlaced display.

Time to implement: With PDF documents, it’s creating the original file that is the time consuming part. After all that work, it’s definitely work the extra 10 minutes or so to make the few necessary tweaks in Acrobat.

I have some very interested split test results that I think will really surprise you. Here’s the story of a major retailer who increased sales over 7% by going against conventional wisdom.

Conventional web design tells us to minimize the number of clicks it takes for your visitor to make a purchase. So Michael was pretty satisfied with his clear, graphical web design. Upon entering the home page, the visitor was met by three big, fat, colorful “buy now” buttons - one for each product - neatly lined up next to each other. Clicking either button took the visitor directly to the check out page. There wasn’t a lot of clutter on the page, and the text was very minimal. Michael didn’t want to confuse or distract his visitors so he made it as easy as possible: one click was all it took to make a purchase.

But he noticed that lots of visitors abandoned their shopping carts after clicking the buy now button. Obviously something was wrong. Time for a split test…

The original page was kept as-is, a second page was designed as Page B and a third page as Page C.

On Page B, the buy now buttons were lined up vertically instead of horizontally and simple “more information” text links were added underneath each buy now button. Even though the products for sale were “no brainer” commodities, the suspicion was that some visitors still wanted a little more info before making a purchase.

On Page C, the buttons were replaced with text-only links, also aligned vertically, and more complex, text-heavy links were added under the buttons.

Here’s a quick idea of the basic layouts:

Page A

Page B

Page C

Now I will admit, most people who saw design C thought it would never work. It was too cluttered, there wasn’t enough white space and there were too many distractions.

Turns out they were wrong. In fact, 40% of visitors clicked the “learn more” links, and Page C resulted in a sales increase of over 7%.

I can’t exactly explain why the third design was more effective, but it’s possible that web users have simply been “trained” to scan down the page looking for text links, rather than scan across looking at graphics (think Google SERPs). And, in these days of banner blindness, maybe the colorful, glaring buy buttons were almost invisible. I can’t give you a definite answer, but what ever the reason for its success, this simple redesign is worth a try.

Time to implement: This redesign is incredibly easy since all it involves is text - no need to create any graphics at all. Redesigning the page should take less than half an hour. The time consuming part comes in creating the new product information pages to link to; but hopefully, those will already exist. And, as always, I recommend that you perform a split test before making any changes permanent. Everyone’s target market is different. ]]> http://improvewebconversions.com/landing-page-conversion/how-to-yield-a-7-sales-increase-with-an-incredibly-easy-redesign/feed http://improvewebconversions.com/landing-page-conversion/website-not-generating-enough-leads-is-it-really-trying-to http://improvewebconversions.com/landing-page-conversion/website-not-generating-enough-leads-is-it-really-trying-to#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:15:59 +0000 Karen Scharf: Helping You Improve Web Conversions http://improvewebconversions.com/landing-page-conversion/website-not-generating-enough-leads-is-it-really-trying-to I have a client who complained that his website was not generating enough leads. So he hired me to critique the site and propose a new design.

When I took a look at the website, the problem was immediately apparent. As it turned out, his site was not capturing any leads because there was no incentive for his site visitors to supply their contact information. My client - by the way, my client’s name is Dave. If it’s all the same to you, I am going to refer to him as Dave (I’m sure he won’t mind), and I’m going to refer to his website visitors as “prospects”. Anyway, Dave mistakenly believed that having a “Contact Us” link was going to cause tons and tons of prospects to fill out an online form or to pick up the phone and call him.

Obviously the first thing I suggested was creating a lead generation campaign. Now, because Dave is selling a rather complex service, he also has a very complex sales lifecycle, and so our lead generation campaign needed to be a rather complex one. (You might want to refer to my complex sale graphic for more information on the complex sales process. Try to say that ten times fast!) http://www.modernimage.com/articles/complex-sale.htm

Here are the steps we took to improve his lead conversion - there are tons of ways you can customize this process to meet your own particular needs:

1. The first thing we did was actually create several lead generation devices in order to capture our prospects who are at various stages of the sales process. (Our downloads were a combination of PDF whitepapers and audio files.) We then advertised each of the lead generation devices on the home page with the assumption that the prospect will request the download that coincides with the stage in the sales process that he is currently in.

2. Next we created several different email campaigns using an online autoresponder system. Dave chose to use the same autoresponder system I use in my business because of its ability to link different email series with different product downloads. Depending on which lead generation device the prospect requested, he would be automatically registered for the corresponding autoresponder campaign.

Prospects at the very beginning of the sales cycle (the “Recognize A Need” stage) would naturally request the first lead generation device (because it was geared toward that prospect) and be automatically entered into Autoresponder Number One. Prospects who are farther along in the sales cycle (”Explore The Options”), who requested lead generation device #2, would be automatically subscribed to Autoresponder Number Two. Prospects in the “Narrow Down the Vendors” stage would be subscribed to Autoresponder Number Three, and so on.

The final message in each autoresponder series was an invitation to download the next lead generation device, and thus be automatically subscribed to the next autoresponder. The prospect did not receive a personal phone call from a company representative until after he completed the final autoresponder series.

Now I know you might be thinking, “Oh my goodness; you waited so long before any personal contact, you should have contacted the prospect by phone immediately.” However, in the course of critiquing my client’s original lead process, I discovered that the personal contacts were, by far, the most expensive step in his sales cycle. In addition, prospects really did not respond to personal contact when they were early on in that sales cycle. And so it was most cost-effective for us to wait until the prospect has cycled through all of the auto responders until making an initial phone call.

And obviously we thoroughly tested the landing page. We are currently running our A|B|C|D split test, and after several more months of testing we will be able to whittle down our controls and create additional pages to test.

Another critical change we implemented was simplifying Dave’s original registration form. His initial Contact Us form asked his prospects to provide information on everything including their shoe size (OK, I might be exaggerating a bit there). The form asked for so much irrelevant information that I believe it was scaring away too many prospects. We simplified the registration form and asked only for the most critical elements. As prospects ended one autoresponder series and were invited to download the next lead generation device, the registration forms became a little more complex. At that point in time, because we had already built up some trust with the prospect, we were able to ask for more personal information.

When we began the process, Dave was worried that we would not know exactly where the prospect fit into his sales cycle when the prospect first landed on the website. And, to be perfectly honest, we don’t know 100%. We’re making an assumption based on the lead generation device that the prospect requested.

Did the new campaign work? Well, prior to implementing this campaign, Dave was receiving literally no contacts from his website. Honestly, he received about two completed contact us forms per year. After implementing our lead generation campaign, Dave is receiving a steady stream of three to four new prospects on a daily basis. And because this is a complex sale involving a rather expensive service, three to four prospects a day, approximately 120 prospects a month, actually results in a hefty bit of revenue for Dave.

So, how can you use this idea in your own online marketing? First, take a cold, hard look at your website. If you want to capture leads, are you offering a REAL incentive for users to give up their precious contact information?

Next, consider the item or service you are marketing. Is it a no-brainer commodity that your site users will buy on impulse? Or is it a more complex, high investment item that might require educating the client before he is ready to make a purchase? A simple item can suffice with a simple lead generation process, but a complex item will require a complex lead generation campaign:

1. Create your lead generation devices for each stage of your sales cycle.
2. Create your autoresponder series for each stage of your sales cycle. Here’s the service that I use personally; you can sign up for a free 30 day trial: http://www.modernimage.com/autoresponder.htm
3. Optimize each of your registration forms, asking only for information that is necessary at the time.
4. Split test your landing page.

Time to implement: Now, I know I made it sound real simple. But to be honest, it is a very time intensive process. The split testing alone takes weeks. However, the increase in revenue should more than make up for the investment of time and/or money you spend revamping your lead generation campaign.

1. Ask for the sale!
Don’t be shy about asking your customers to make a purchase. There’s no need to wait until the very bottom of the page before you include an “Add To Cart” button. Your site visit might be ready to make a purchase after reading only one paragraph of your sales letter. Add multiple buy buttons to each page.

2. Help the shopper make a decision.
With so many e-commerce sites and so many products to choose from, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Help your site visitors choose a gift by breaking your merchandise into categories. Can you create a “Gifts For Men” directory, a “Products for the Office” directory, an “Items Under $10″ directory, etc?

3. Include options for visitors not yet ready to buy.
Maybe your site visitor is in a “just browsing” mode, or is comparing several different merchants. What kind of compelling offer can you make to grab this visitor’s contact information? He will probably be ready to buy sometime in the near future.

4. Beef up your guarantee.
Guarantees are most effective when they are completely spelled out. Don’t leave your visitor guessing. What exactly does “Satisfaction Guaranteed” mean? Who will pay for return shipping? How does a shopper request a refund? Include a link to additional information about your return policy and your complete guarantee agreement.

5. Make everything clickable.
Studies show that web site visitors click a lot more often than webmasters expect. If you have a graphic or an image, make sure it’s clickable. Make sure headlines are clickable and include text links in addition to buttons.

6. Take advantage of your Thank You pages.
Believe it or not, after a buyer has made a purchase, he is most likely to buy again. Maximize this opportunity by including complimentary items on your order confirmation pages.

7. Take advantage of your transactional emails.
Studies have also shown that transactional emails are opened nearly 75% of the time. This is another awesome opportunity to present complimentary items and increase your sales volume.

Time to implement: Each of these 7 fixes can be applied in less than an hour or two. Take a day, or spend the weekend, reviewing your site and implementing these suggestions. You’re sure to see an increase in your e-commerce sales in no time.

When Google “introduced” its universal search model, it grabbed tons of press for its “innovation”. Coincidentally, Ask has been using a universal search model since day one. So here’s a great place to get your feet wet and, shall I say, “practice” for optimizing for universal search. Consider these tips:

• Optimizing images for Ask’s universal search model is a little more complex than simply adding an alt tag. Yes, you still need to use an alt tag, and the alt tag should contain the target keyword. But in addition, the image’s actual filename should also contain the keyword AND the page text near the image should include the keyword.
• Create an account at Bloglines and add your blogs and feeds to your profile. Unlike most of their competitors, ranking in Ask Blogs is determined by relevance, not date. So be sure to maximize all your blog posts for your keyword phrases. Another feature of Ask Blogs is the ability to sort by popularity, so stickiness and incoming links become extremely important.
• Ask Mobile is a neat feature that provides mobile users with search results by reformatting websites into one column. Ask Mobile returns local search results to cell phone users (genius, isn’t it?), so be sure to include your address with city, state and zip on every page of your site to improve your possibility of being listed. And get yourself listed in Ask City by sending an email to askcitybusiness@help.ask.com. The email should contain the subject Ask City Feedback – Business and should include your business name and full address, your area code and phone number, your web address, your business category, your name and email address. Expect about one month before your listing in Ask City is approved.
• Be sure to submit your sitemap to Ask to ensure your site is thoroughly crawled. Without a sitemap, chances are your deep content will not be indexed by Ask. Put your sitemap in your root folder and add it to your robots.txt file. Then submit it to Ask by typing the following into your browser: http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http://www.YOUR-URL.com/sitemap.xml. Obviously, replace YOUR-URL with your own web address.
• Ask provides users with a website preview, so they can glance at the site before clicking the link. To guarantee maximum clickthroughs, make sure your best content is above the fold and that your site preview looks compelling.

  

If you would like to keep these steps handy, I offer a FREE “Optimize For Ask” checklist which you can download right here: http://www.modernimage.com/freereports/optimize-ask.htm.

And unfortunately, according to a recent SilverPop study, up to 50% of visitors leave your landing page within the first 8 seconds. So, what can you do to increase your conversions after the click?

First, don’t panic, and don’t feel too bad. A MarketingSherpa survey revealed that conversion rates for email campaigns average only 5.67 percent (11.31 percent for free offers). So you’re definitely not alone in less than optimal campaign results. But if your conversions are significantly below these averages, you may want to take some time and implement a few of these changes:

Ensure that the text and promotional copy on your landing page match the text and promotional copy of your email campaign. Often times, the email message is written by a copywriter and the landing page is created by a web developer and the two messages are not in sync. One of the quickest fixes is to use the same headline on your landing page as you used in your email message.

Create a dedicated landing page for your campaign. If you are offering a widget on sale for $14, take the readers to the widget page. Do not dump them on your home page and expect them to crawl around looking for your widget.

Use the same look and feel in your email message or display ad that you use in your landing page. Landing pages that do not match the original ad end up confusing the visitors. They think they are in the wrong place and they end up clicking away from the page altogether.

Reduce your form fields as much as possible. Forms that require more than 10 fields result in significantly reduced conversions.

Eliminate navigation bars or other linking elements that might distract the visitor and cause him to click away.

Request a copy of my FREE report Discover The Secret To Generating More Leads With Your Free PDF Reports! for more information on coordinating your ad with your landing page. You can download a copy here: http://www.modernimage.com/freereports/pdfs.htm

Time to implement: The most successful landing pages are actually the simplest to create, so you will probably save time by implementing this tactic. You can reuse text, reuse graphics, and simply your page template to cut your campaign creation time in half.

In a recent survey, respondents reported that concrete, in-depth information on how to take advantage of the guarantee was more of a sales persuader than the wording of the guarantee itself. No need for fluff, just facts.

So, here’s an easy-to-implement Successful Site Secret for you: add a page to your web site telling your customers exactly what they need to do if they are unhappy with your product. Spell out your guarantee policy in its entirety. Does the customer need to call a special phone number? Write to a certain email address? Return the product within a set amount of time? What exactly will you do to make the customer happy? How long will it take to get a refund?

Giving specific information makes your guarantee come to life, which increases your credibility. And, as you know, increased credibility leads to increased sales.

Add More Weight to Your Guarantees

Instead of using overly gushy text, you can increase your site conversions by adding more “weight” to your guarantee with the use of visuals. Studies show that conversions go up as visitor anxiety goes down. A proven way of reducing visitor anxiety is by making your guarantee seem more “real” by associating it with a graphic. Simply adding a starburst or other type of call-out ext to your stated guarantee has been shown to increase conversions by a much as 22%.

Be sure to place your guarantee in close proximity to the call to action. And don’t confuse your visitor by using vastly different wording in your text and your graphic.

Need Some Images?

I’ve assembled a package of “guarantee images” that you may download freely and use at your own website.  Click here to grab the free images and have them up on your site in no time.

Time to implement: Creating a new page that specifically outlines your guarantee should take approximately 45 minutes. If you use one of the pre-made images mentioned above, you’ll be able to add your chosen graphic to your site in approximately 20 minutes.

A great way to draw the attention of the search engine spiders and to provide incentive for visitors to keep coming back to your site is by adding new and fresh content. But who has extra time to devote to content creation? You do - if you utilize these three super simple content creation strategies that you can easily implement in under an hour.

Start a blog.
A web log (blog for short) is akin to an online journal and it usually incorporates lots of links and comments from readers. Using a blog platform makes updates and delivery a breeze. Don’t make your blog a sales pitch. Instead, offer tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc.

The one downfall to blogs is that the large majority (over 90% according to one study) are abandoned soon after they’re started. Abandoning your blog can actually hurt your business’s credibility instead of enhancing it. If you’re concerned about your ability to maintain your efforts throughout the year, I suggest you create a “themed” blog and let your readers know it will only run during a certain season, for a particular sale, or some other pre-determined time frame. You can offer creative suggestions for using your products as gifts, unique ideas for your services, anything that relates to your website.

Incorporate RSS feeds.
Really Simple Syndications (RSS) allows you to add news and information from other web sources onto your own site. Visitors can also subscribe to your RSS feed (you’ve probably seen the little orange icons throughout the web) and be notified whenever you update your site’s content. You can notify visitors when you announce a sale, when your stock changes, when your shipping deadline is drawing near, and so on.

Use polls and surveys.
People like to share their views and learn more about other people’s views. Surveys provide instant gratification on both counts, since the results are generally displayed immediately. The most effective polls are short and easy. Ask readers to choose their favorite among several offered items. Ask them to vote on the best Christmas gift for a 6 year old boy. Not only do polls and surveys increase your visitor interaction, but the information you collect can be extremely valuable to your future marketing efforts.

Survey Monkey is a tool that allows you to create polls and surveys that are hosted online. You develop your survey on the Survey Monkey site then copy and paste the link into your website. No coding experience or database support is needed.

Ask your readers to contribute.
You might be surprised at how many readers are willing to contribute content to your website just for the glory of seeing their name in print. You can also take advantage of article directories as long you follow the publishing guidelines. Just make sure all the user generated content you include is relevant to your site and to your visitors.

Keeping your website content updated doesn’t have to be time consuming and doesn’t have to be expensive. Tools like blogs, RSS, surveys and user-generated content allow you to keep your site fresh and interesting.

Be sure to keep it quick and simple. When you’re busy “running your business” you don’t always have time to try out innovative features and learn new technologies. Use proven tools that are readily available and your visitors are sure to return again and again. And your search engine rankings will improve as a result!

Time to implement: Each of the above tactics can be implemented on your site in approximately one hour. Start with the one you’re most interested in and incorporate a new tactic each day.

Unfortunately, it’s that very simplicity of the blog that often causes the most problems. Because they’re so easy to use, many bloggers assume their blog is a “plug ‘n play” technique that requires no tweaking whatsoever.

If you’ve simply installed your blog and started typing, you might want to check it against these top 6 credibility issues:

1.  Being an anonymous author
Because most blogs are not full-fledged websites, many bloggers think they don’t need an “about us” page. But maintaining complete anonymity reduces your credibility and in time, reduces your readership. Always include a page listing your credentials, experience, certifications etc that is easily accessible from within your blog.

2.  Not including a face to put with the writings
Our human brains are actually wired to remember and recognize faces and, subliminally, seeing a familiar face puts us all at ease. Including your picture on your blog enhances your credibility and increases your “likeability factor”. If you want to use your blog to position yourself as the expert in your field, be sure to include high-resolution, camera-ready photographs that the press can access and use easily.

3.  Not writing for the web
Yes, a blog is akin to an online journal and yes, it is OK to express your opinions in your posts, but your blog is no place to ramble. Web browsers don’ read, they scan, but most blogs are not designed to be scannable. Always use descriptive headlines and sub-heads and stay away from all caps, which reduces reading speed by over 10%.

4.  Trying to be cute
It’s easy to open your blog and start typing away, forgetting that you’re actually creating a business correspondence. The next thing you know, you’re using insider clichés, referring to others on a first name basis, referencing industry jargon, and your writing is no longer clear to your new readers. While it is important to be personable, it’s not necessary to create a junior high clique.

And along those same lines, don’t assume all your readers have been with you since post #1. If you reference a past article, include a link to it. If you talk about something that’s happened in the past, include enough information so your new readers will know what you’re talking about.

5.  Using obtuse navigation
One of the great benefits of a blog is that the navigation is done for you. Unfortunately, most blog navigation defaults to listing posts by date. This makes it difficult to navigate and follow a particular topic. Take the extra step and break down your posts by categories.

6.  Not having a domain
If you’re trying to position yourself as an authority, it’s imperative to have your own domain name. Not only does it look more professional, but it telegraphs that you are in for the long haul. And while it might be tempting to get started with a free service with plans to move to your own domain in the future, be sure to consider the time and hassle involved in moving your blog before you make your final decision.

Time to implement: It only makes sense to take time to make sure your blog is right. Most of the techniques mentioned above will add less than 10 minutes to your actual posting time.