This is the fourth posting in a series aimed at helping you as a Marketer evaluate conversion optimization services providers so you make the best possible decision of who to hire. You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here.

Q4: “Do you follow a specific methodology to optimization?”

There are lots of people “out there” who know how to use tools like Google Website Optimizer, Omniture’s Test & target, Optimost and such. (And this is especially true of Google Website Optimizer because it’s an easy to learn, free tool). However, very few of those people know how to increase revenues consistently by using the tool.

To know how to increase revenues by using a testing tool Read the rest of this entry »

This is the third series in a series of posting aimed at helping you as a Marketer evaluate conversion optimization services providers so you make the best possible decision of who to hire. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Q3: “What testing software does the services provider recommend?”

While technology is only a piece of the Conversion Optimization puzzle – it is a very important piece.

I have often listened to presentations where service providers use “testing” language but use no tools to run experiments. As a result, they are delivering nice-looking web designs but for sure they are not delivering statistically valid results!

(And, as anyone who has been reading our case studies or following this blog knows Read the rest of this entry »

I received a direct mail piece this morning advertising SMX East and it has a handy list of ‘6 essentials for search marketing success‘ on the front cover.

In the opinion of SMX, they are: Read the rest of this entry »

Interesting stats supporting the importance of keeping your key content above the fold recently from the Vertical Response blog. These stats are for email clicks, but the conclusion has been demonstrated repeatedly to be one of the top factors in website conversion rates too.

The email stats show:

43-60% of all clicks in an email happened in the first article which is mainly above the fold. Caveat, we have been using “anchor tags” above the fold to give readers a tease of what’s below. We think it has helped our click rate overall. (I try to lead with what I think is the strongest to pull readers in.)

15-30% of all clicks happened on the 2nd article.

6-8% of all clicks happened in the third article.

People avoid scrolling, reading and generally exerting effort so the Conversion Guru will design landing pages (and emails) to make your desired Actions happen above the fold.

The Google Website Optimizer team is looking for your feedback and putting some cash on the table to get it. If you give them an hour of your time to do some usability testing you’ll get a $100 adwords credit.

Sign up here

This is the second in a series of postings aimed at helping you as a Marketer evaluate conversion optimization services providers so you make the best possible decision of who to hire:

Q2: What increase in conversion rates should I expect and can you guarantee it?

The conversion rate lift you can expect will vary, of course, depending on how poorly your current landing page (or website) is designed and Read the rest of this entry »

At a time in the economic cycle when lead generation and sales enablement is most needed, when Marketers should be rethinking every investment they make and how it helps their company increase sales, a new and important study by the CMO Council comes out reporting that less than 20% of respondents say their Sales and Marketing organizations are extremely collaborative. (Read the report here) Read the rest of this entry »

Online A/B and MVT experimentation to achieve conversion rate improvement has been around for a few years, with tools such as Offermatica (now Omniture’s Test & Target), Optimost, and others.

However, since the launch of Google Website Optimizer (GWO) last year as a free tool, we started to see a dramatic increase in awareness –as well as a fast rate of adoption– of online testing as an extremely valuable strategy.

After all, GWO easily allows marketers to run experiments on their web pages and determine which layout, offer, creative and copy combination delivers the highest number of conversions – without having to spend additional dollars driving *more* traffic to the site.

But, as in most cases, technology is only part of the equation for success.

After testing staples like a red button (yes, they often do improve the conversion rate; just try it) and shorter registration forms (the shorter the better), marketers often run out of ideas of what to test next. Read the rest of this entry »

If you manage a website, there are several tools from Google that you can use to manage and improve your results.

On July 8 Google will be hosting the first free webinar the combines info about Webmaster Tools, Analytics, and Website Optimizer.

Check out details and sign up here.

In this week’s SherpaBlog, the brilliant Anne Holland presents the positions of two camps, the Brand Camp vs A/B Camp, and their approaches to beating the recession. “Whichever side you’re on — brand vs A/B — someone else on your team is evangelizing the other direction as the best way to beat the recession,” she writes.

However, with the due respect owed, I question one of her conclusions: “Who’s right and who’s wrong?” she writes. “Hate to say it, especially as a chief proponent of measurement in marketing, but brand should always win.” Read the rest of this entry »