Conversion

Improving lead generation

So you're less than impressed by your current lead generation results and you're wondering what you can do to improve matters.

Well, a good starting point is the wonderful world of buyer psychology. Increase your understanding of your clients, both regarding what they have in common, and the subtle differences in terms of how they buy, what they value, their motivations and so on.

Expecting all your leads to be generated by a single offer is rarely wise. You'll be missing out on all those genuine prospects for your products or services, who don't happen to be sufficiently excited by the title of your free report or whitepaper to hand over their contact details.

Paid search landing pages that convert

So searchers type in their keywords and they take a look at the natural links provided, then they see your paid search advert and they're curious, maybe this is what they were looking for, it sounds promising.

They arrive on your landing page, they take a quick look around - "Am I in the right place?"

And the answer to this question is fairly straightforward: it really does depend whether your landing page was designed with them in mind. For if not, then you can guess the rest.

Keywords

Look to appreciate the intent behind keywords - the words and phrases that searchers type into a search engine. There's a reason why the searcher used this combination of words.

For keywords:

• appreciate the traffic potential
• understand the prospect's intent
• recognise the stage in the buying process
• calculate the likelihood to convert

The buying cycle

When someone types in this particular combination of keywords, where are they in the buying cycle?

Some searches convert immediately, while others are used much earlier, when the person is doing initial research so any sale may come weeks or months later.

In general specific terms such as product titles are more likely to convert in the short term.

So when considering buying keywords, think carefully about appropriate landing pages that take into consideration the searcher's immediate needs. Anticipate and answer their questions.   

Persuasive copy continued

The Eisenberg brothers (and Lisa Davis), have plenty to say on persuasive online copywriting.

• What action needs to be taken?
• Who needs to take that action?
• How do we persuade that person to take the action we desire?

The reasons for shopping cart abandonment

Why do so many people end up abandoning their shopping cart?

Plenty of different reasons. Here are a few:

1. Simply comparing prices at this stage
2. Bought the item off-line
3. Decided against purchasing once the total cost was clear
4. Purchased from a competitor
5. Unresolved questions
6. Unable to buy using their preferred method
7. Got interrupted and didn't return to complete the purchase.
8. Error in the checkout process

Shopping Cart Abandonment

Of course you're alarmed at the percentage of shopping carts that get abandoned. And you'd like to reduce that number but first let's have a think about what's actually going on, then perhaps we'll have a better sense of the actual scope for improvement.

Your visitors are certainly interested in the product, but were they really on the verge of buying before they abandoned the shopping cart?

Naturally the visitor wants to know the price, the actual total cost to them of buying your product. And in all likelihood they are comparing this total cost to that of your competitors before making their decision to buy. But to get this information, to know the total cost involved, the final price inclusive of shipping costs, handling charges, sales tax and so on, the visitor almost always has to add the item to the shopping cart and fill in a few details.

So it should come as little surprise that shopping carts are being abandoned. Sometimes the total cost will be higher than the person expected, sometimes one or more of your competitors will turn out to be cheaper in this instance, for this person wanting a particular delivery method to their chosen destination.

Was there a problem with the shopping cart? - Not really.

There is often scope for reducing shopping cart abandonment. But the room for improvement is rarely on the scale that people imagine.

Converting search traffic

Most websites do a poor job of converting search traffic. One of the main reasons for this is that they fail to appreciate the subtle differences between the various keywords that they advertise under.

The keywords chosen give us clues as to someone's readiness to buy. The more specific the term, the more likely in the short term that it will result in a direct conversion.

Broader search terms indicate that someone needs helpful information. They are just at an early stage in the buying process. They need questions answered, they want to know about the choices available, they're looking to explore options first, before they make a decision to buy or not.

These more general search terms can be very valuable but the purchase is going to come much later and you'll need to construct a path that helps them to narrow down their choices and feel confident in their ultimate decision.

Persuasive copy for websites

Maria Veloso, author of Web Copy That Sells, has a simple blueprint for writing web copy, consisting of five questions:

1. What is the problem?
2. Why hasn't the problem been solved?
3. What is possible?
4. What is different now?
5. What should you do now?

Make sure you get them in the right order.

Persuasion 2

It is useful to think of two different types of step in the conversion process:

1. Macro
2. Micro

A macro step is your main objective; normally it will be either to sell, or to generate leads. So a macro conversion would be a sale in the case of an e-commerce website, or someone handing over their contact details if your site is designed primarily for lead generation.

Now there's a second type of step, seemingly less important, and yet crucial to each macro conversion: the micro conversion.

The micro conversion is typically to click on a link that moves the sales process forward. Are you doing enough to persuade visitors to take each step? If not, you can forget about macro conversions.