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 (more…)

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.

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) (more…)

What do you read when you are not reading about marketing? What are your favourite blogs – marketing, technology or otherwise? Let me know – I am always in the hunt to find new, innovative thinking ‘out there’ that will educate, inspire and (please, oh, please) entertain me.

Which blogs do I read, you ask? The usual suspects, of course, but one I like in particular is Bob Gilbreath’s, The Challenge Dividend (www.challengedividend.com/) and have been following it for some time now.

As Bob states in his masthead, “This blog promotes a revolutionary idea that is actually pretty simple: Challenge Leads to Improvement” In it he discusses all sorts of ideas from all sorts of sources, always philosophizing about – and providing evidence for - how only challenges (and our perception of a situation as being a challenge) lead to innovation and improvement in science, in business, in your life. (more…)

Most internet marketing projects, including conversion optimization A/B testing or Multivariate testing, will require the IT (Information Technology) or IS (Information Systems) department to get involved. For marketers, this can often be an uncomfortable step for several reasons. (more…)

We’ve been saying for a long time now that Conversion Optimization is an important tactic to include in your “economic downturn strategy”.

While I think Forbes may be premature in it’s optimism that online advertising will avoid feeling a Recession, it’s our belief that Conversion Optimization at least should be counter-cyclical.

Online marketing is clearly more measurable and accountable than offline and deserves to have an increasing proportion of advertising spend. But that also means that it will get even more competitive and expensive as the large players pour more effort into it. During difficult times you need to spend more time sharpening your axe to increase your competiveness.

Ed note: What’s the best way to sharpen your internet marketing axe? Try Conversion Optimization.

This morning, Google launched TV Ads, the latest in their expansion into offline media.

More than ever, it is important for marketers to integrate analytics and conversion optimization reporting from multiple channels. This is just another reason why I’m so excited about the new phone call tracking service, TrackYourCalls, that is about to open for private beta. (more…)

Media multitasking is not always a bad thing, Marketers.

This week eMarketer released their findings about Kids Juggling Media, which shows that they’re going online while watching television, often to visit websites they see on TV and discuss with their friends. And it’s not just the kids that are involved in this. The trend over the past few years has been to replace desktop computers with laptops, which are more likely to be used while the TV’s on.

Passive TV becomes Interactive

The media will be inclined to put a negative spin on this, but this can only be good for smart marketers. (more…)

Take a look at your stats for one of your important landing pages. What’s your current conversion rate? It’s probably less than 10% if your desired Action is a purchase. If you’re trying to get a lead or offering a free download you may be as high as 50 or 60%.

Now imagine if you could get a 100% conversion rate.

That means every single unique visitor to that page would successfully complete your desired action. Of course, that’s not possible.

Why can you never get a 100% conversion rate? (more…)

If you didn’t make it out to Tom Leung’s luncheon event in Vancouver on Feb 7, here’s a video of the whole session. It was an packed event and you can feel the buzz in the room.