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A lot has been said in recent years about how using one’s gut/intuition/opinion is not the way to be successful in online marketing. From Avinash Kaushik’s “HiPPO” concept (marketing/design decisions often get made via the Highest income Paid Person’s Opinion), to a weekly quiz that shows us how our gut feeling is wrong at least some of the time, there is a growing understanding that marketing from one’s gut is a losing proposition. Data-driven marketing decision-making is the way to go.

However, there is a time when using gut or intuition makes sense, and that is during a specific phase of conversion rate optimization test design. I know what you’re thinking: Testing is all about data and science. That’s what you’ve been telling us for years! True, and true. But, you still get to exercise your intuition.

Here’s how…

After all the data has been examined, and you’ve cataloged all the things wrong with a page, it’s time to develop your hypotheses. This is the perfect time to use your gut. Once you know what’s wrong, you need a hypothesis on what will fix the problems and increase conversion.

You can certainly use “best practices,” and you can use data from prior testing if you have it, but ultimately I believe your gut can help you guess which levers to pull on to alter the response of your target audience. For example, will a crisp design matter? How about persuasive copy? How about psychological triggers like loss aversion, commitment, or credibility? Would using Personas help?

You can’t realistically test all those things in one experiment, so when it comes down to choosing your approach, your gut may well hold the answers.

So that is why Gut Marketing is bad, but Gut Hypothesizing is good. Oversimplified? Yes. But I needed a snappy title for my post

Speaking of the Gut being right or wrong in testing, have you signed up for Monday’s webinar?

It’s a case study about how one of our clients boosted their free trial download conversion rate by 17.4% through testing. And, we’ll talk about how we used data and intuition to develop hypotheses, with both positive and surprising results. I’m not sure how many of the 100 seats are left, but you’d best register right now »

If you have attended any of our monthly webinars, you have experienced the power of the GoToWebinar tool:

• We are able to deliver webinars of any length for up to 1,000 attendees
• You are able to interact with the speakers, not only by asking questions in real time but by “guessing which test variation won” via the polling and survey capabilities during our interactive Testing Game

Citrix Online wants to help its customers do a better job in marketing, including improving their own conversion rate

This Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 11:00 am PST/2 pm EST Citrix is sponsoring the newest webinar: “Learn from the Pros: The Top–5 Secrets of Landing Page Optimization”

The guest speaker will be Brenda Dentinger, Senior Customer Programs Manager, Citrix Online and she will lead the interactive presentation, including content on how to run successful webinar programs and GoToWebinar’s best practices for marketing professionals.

As Bernardo de Albergaria, vice president and general manager of collaboration, Citrix Online, put it: “Marketing professionals love GoToWebinar because it is incredibly easy to use and provides the tools needed to increase market reach, generate more leads and expand their business,” said Bernardo. “With insight from WiderFunnel and the power of GoToWebinar, they can improve their online conversion rate with skills they can use every day on their own website landing pages.”

To register, visit http://learn.gotowebinar.com/content/11029360

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“Come back! Come back!”

Can you actually beckon your ecommerce clients abandoning their shopping carts to come back?

Yes, you definitely can – and here is how.

But allow me to start this post with an “Aha Moment!” I had recently. A few Sundays ago I went with my mother for Dim Sum lunch to a local restaurant, a large and lively place. When I gave my name to the owner to be added to the waiting list, I noticed all the tables were large, accommodating 8 people or more. After a few minutes waiting, my mother and I agreed that it would be unfair to the restaurant owners for just the two of us to tie up a large table that could accommodate a big party, so we decided to leave (there are many similar restaurants on the same street and we’d find a less busy one).

As we stepped out of the restaurant, we suddenly realized the owner was running after us, yelling “Come back! Come back!” Clearly, she was not concerned about us occupying a large table or, in ecommerce terms, she didn’t want us to “abandon the shopping cart”: she wanted our business and was clear about that. So we turned around, returned to the restaurant, were seated and enjoyed the great food.

So this got me thinking about Conversion Optimization (as I guess most things do). Ecommerce Marketers can optimize the conversion funnel (aka, the online shopping experience) for great results. And yet, in the end, some people will go through the complete process – with the exception of just the last step — and bail out.

Can there be a way to fix that? Is there a way to run on to the (metaphorical) street and yelling “Come back! Come back!” to your shopping cart abandoners?

Yes, there is and it is called “recovering abandoned shopping carts”

Recovering abandoned shopping carts enables ecommerce marketers to carry out “end-to-end ecommerce Conversion Optimization” by optimizing both sides of the same coin: before and after customers enter the conversion funnel.

Want to learn more about recovering abandoned shopping carts? If Yes, then here is a webinar for you!.

To give you an opportunity to learn more about this hot topic, we have partnered with SeeWhy to present a webinar on Thursday, January 13 on how you can seamlessly optimize both ends of the same ecommerce coin:

• Before: optimizing the ecommerce conversion rate driving your web visors into your shopping cart

• After: optimizing the ecommerce conversion rate by recapturing those who (shamelessly) abandon the shopping cart anyway

You can register for the webinar here.

Webinar highlights:

“Learn about the Two Sides of the Same (eCommerce) Coin”

Date: Thursday January 13th at 10am PST | 1pm EST

Presenters: Charles Nicholls, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, SeeWhy and yours truly

Length: 60 minutes

Cost: Free — But you must reserve ahead by registering

More revenues… More leads… Lower acquisition costs… Yes, we are *particularly* proud of the work we have been doing for Trafford Consulting where the winners are both our client, Trafford, *and* its client – a carbon-funded reforestation eco-business start-up. We will be sharing the results during our upcoming webinar on Tuesday, Nov 30, 2010

(Read the case study here)

The WiderFunnel client:

Trafford Consulting is a niche marketing agency specializing in promoting emerging and new technology start-ups on behalf of venture capital firms.

The end-client:

A carbon-funded reforestation eco-business start-up.

The context for conversion optimization tests:

• Trafford Consulting is a niche marketing agency specializing in promoting emerging and new technology start-ups on behalf of venture capital firms.

• While Trafford’s competitors still emphasize the use of traditional media, Trafford migrated to online marketing in order to deliver better ROI for its clients.

• Trafford Consulting has recently taken a majority interest in a Hong Kong-based ad network, further demonstrating a commitment to online marketing and firmly positioning itself to become a leading niche marketing firm.

• One of Trafford’s start-up clients is a carbon-funded reforestation eco-business and Trafford partnered with us to plan and execute a conversion optimization strategy promoting “The Green Guide”, a free investment report, in paid search landing pages.

The Conversion Optimization Test Results: 91.4% conversion rate lift

• A/B testing copy and form placement on paid Search Landing Pages for ‘The Green Guide’, a publication offering expert advice on Green Tech investments, generated 91.4% more leads.

The Business Impact on Trafford Consulting: Conversion Optimization as a Game Changer!

• Trafford has tripled in size since testing just a few months ago
• Client now get thousands of leads within weeks
• Lead acquisition costs slashed by 30%

The webinar:

I am delighted that Mushitak Dost, Trafford Consulting Director, will co-present with me at the webinar on Tuesday, Nov 30

We will take an in-depth look not only at the intricacies of developing a lead generation test but also will discuss the far-reaching business impact this strategy has had on both the carbon-funded reforestation eco-business start-up and Trafford itself .

Read the full case study here

As Mushitak Dost, Trafford’s Director said, “Our client [the he carbon-funded reforestation eco-business start-up] was blown away by the outstanding landing page test results. They’ve attracted more investors, have signed up important contracts and partnerships, and have tripled in size since we identified winning test pages eight months ago. This experience with WiderFunnel is changing the way we do business. With an optimized landing page, we’re able get our clients thousands of leads within weeks and we’ve significantly cut lead acquisition costs. Word of mouth is very powerful in venture capital circles and we’ve received a lot of attention as a result of the successful Green Guide tests.”

The June 2 webinar is entitled “Activate the Ten Steps to a Higher Conversion Rate”

WHEN: Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 2:00 pm EST/ 11 am PST
LENGTH: 50 minutes

If you haven’t yet registered, you should do so now: Here (Seriously, don’t delay: Bryan’s April 1st webinar, “Don’t Be April’s Fool: Proven Techniques to Maximize Your Advertising ROI” was booked solid!)

In the session, Bryan will walk you through his proven 10-step process to a higher conversion rate and you’ll learn concepts you can immediately put into practice, such as:

• The hierarchy of optimization,
• The principles of POA and GTC
• The 3 simple techniques guaranteed to give your pages a lift every time

Plus, here is your chance to ask Bryan Eisenberg a tough question (or two):

Simply post your questions here and Bryan will address them in his presentation (or respond to you separately, as appropriate).

(If you are in a rush, here is the registration link – otherwise, read on.)

You probably already know Bryan Eisenberg: he is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today and New York Times bestselling books “Call to Action”, “Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?” and “Always Be Testing” and has been the keynote speaker for Search Engine Strategies, Shop.org, Direct Marketing Association, MarketingSherpa, E-consultancy, Webcom, SEM Konferansen Norway and the Canadian Marketing Association, among others.

And on April 1st, you don’t have to leave your desk to hear him speak!

In this free webinar sponsored by WiderFunnel, Bryan will guide you through some of the recent changes in the online advertising world and provide you with strategies and proven techniques to maximize your return on investment from your advertising budget based on the latest developments in Internet marketing and advertising.

Are you are currently spending a significant marketing budget on Pay-Per-Click, Pay-Per-Call, and Social Media Advertising?

Then you absolutely owe it to yourself to learn the techniques you need to increase the ROI of these powerful advertising mediums.

Would you like Bryan to answer a specific question?

Easy. Simply post your questions right here on this blog and Bryan will incorporate them in his presentation.

WHEN: Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 2:00 pm EST/ 11 am PST

LENGTH: 50 minutes

COST: Free – But you need to reserve ahead by registering

REGISTRATION LINK here

BONUS! Each webinar attendee will receive an electronic copy of the “Persuasive Online Copywriting” ebook – The actual book on Amazon has sold for over $1000

WIN:
• Attend this webinar and you could be one of 20 attendees qualifying for a FREE custom landing page evaluation!

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
• Sales, Marketing and eCommerce Leaders and Managers with revenue responsibilities
• Search Engine Marketing practitioners interested in improving the ROI of campaign investments.

So, building on that new wave of interest, I am pleased to tell you that on Wed, Feb 24, we will be presenting our next client case study where we optimized for phone call conversions: “Learn How to Make the Phones Ring 48% more with A/B testing!” (who comes up with those headlines??)

Cook - An American Express Travel Representative

Success was outstanding: the client improved their phone calls by 48% each day.

To register, click here.

We worked with ONP to plan, develop and execute a Conversion Rate Optimization strategy. The strategy we recommended and executed included an A/B/n experiment to quickly establish a higher starting point for further optimization.

The results? An amazing 210% conversion rate lift to Order Form entrances.

Want to learn how we did it and get a few take-aways for your own Ecommerce businesses? Great! Here is the info on the February 3, 2010 webinar:

Length: 50 minutes

Cost: Free – But you need to reserve ahead by registering here

Presenter: Chris Goward, CEO, WiderFunnel Marketing Optimization

Bonus: Attend the webinar and win a FREE Custom Landing Page evaluation

Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/574166939

I am absolutely delighted to tell you that Bryan Eisenberg, the online marketing pioneer and recognized authority, the man who has focused his career on teaching businesses how to improve online conversion rates, will be delivering two free webinars as part of our Master Webinar Series.

Here are the details:

• April 1st, 2010: “Don’t Be April’s Fool: Proven Techniques To Maximize Your Advertising ROI”

• June 2, 2010: “10 Steps to a Higher Conversion Rate”

You can learn more about these free webinars and register by clicking to go here.

Now, “just in case” you need this info (because you are brand new to conversion optimization…) here is a bit of background on Bryan:

Bryan Eisenberg is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today and New York Times bestselling books “Call to Action”, “Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?” and “Always Be Testing”.

Bryan has been the keynote speaker for Search Engine Strategies, Shop.org, Direct Marketing Association, MarketingSherpa, E-consultancy, Webcom, SEM Konferansen Norway and the Canadian Marketing Association.

He is also the co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Web Analytics Association. Bryan serves as an advisory board member of Search Engine Strategies, the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit and several venture capital backed start-up companies (i.e. Bazaarvoice, iPerceptions, UserTesting.com, ClickEquations, etc.) and is on the board of trustees of the Direct Marketing Education Foundation .

Want to learn even more about Bryan? Go here.

And “the new” is Landing Page Optimization for more PHONE CALL conversions.

We at WiderFunnel are certainly seeing an increase in the number of clients wanting to drive not only more online conversions on the site but more phone calls as well (sometimes the objective is to increase both; other times, it’s only about driving more phone calls to the call centre).

Landing Page Optimization for Phone Call Conversions

The new challenge, then, is how to optimize the conversion rate of phone calls by running conversion optimization experiments. Our first webinar of the year on January 13, “Boosting AdWords Landing Page Phone Call Conversions by 42%” will showcase just that.

In this upcoming webinar, we will show how visionary Saint Jude Retreat House, a private drug and alcohol addiction facility, used conversion optimization to lift customer telephone inquiries by 42% as a result of improving the persuasiveness of its paid search landing page.

You can register here (remember, maximum capacity is 150 – so better register now).

Another “new”: The pay-per-call business model

But marketers are not only increasing their demand for more phone call conversions on their own landing pages. A whole new business model is emerging: the pay-per-call business model (or PPCall).

Pay-per-call is like the cost-per-click (CPC), CPA and CPL marketing model but done with phone calls, not clicks.

According to Telmetrics, the pay-per-call models are poised to experience “explosive growth” in 2010.

Now, while Telmetrics has an incentive to forecast this trend (they provide “innovative call measurement solutions to help advertisers maximize the effectiveness of their marketing programs” as well as “track and analyze consumer response to any direct response broadcast, online or print campaign that features a call-to-action response phone number”), marketers committed to improving the ROI of their marketing investments need to pay attention, especially if they drive local business.

PPCall online ads encourage the user to establish phone contact rather than sending them to a web site – and this is where the real potential lies. And big players are entering the industry.

According to Marketing Vox, vendors are rolling out pay per call ad products. AT&T Interactive has updated its YELLOWPAGES.COM iPhone app called YPmobile (the latest version has new features including Video Profiles and Pay Per Call Ads). Following a pilot program, ShareASale.com opened its ShareASale Pay-Per-Call Center to its network of 2,500 merchants last month. RingRevenue provided the platform for the ShareASale Center. It has also partnered with LinkTrust to offer similar services to merchants and other networks.

So, stay tuned for more growth in the accountable advertising space in 2010 – and you can start by registering for WiderFunnel’s first webinar of the year on January 13, “Boosting AdWords Landing Page Phone Call Conversions by 42%”