But for our clients in lead-generation (and many in eCommerce) who couldn’t care less about advertising awards but who have a healthy regard for their bottom line, designing web pages that maximize the capture email addresses is definitely the sort of thing that keeps them awake at night.

That is why we are delighted to co-present our next interactive conversion optimization case study webinar with Stuart Hochwert, President of Prime Publishing LLC, on Tuesday, September 14th.

In this webinar we will show you how just one A/B Split Test increased the e-mail address capture conversion rate on FaveCrafts.com by 22.3%!

Capturing email addresses is key to the Prime Publishing business model. Prime Publishing is a leading Internet media company that operates community and e-commerce web sites in the crafting, home décor, wellness, diet and cooking categories and offer consumers the ability to share information through extensive online communities, enjoy their passions and make informed purchasing decisions.

Advertisers working with Prime Publishing reach highly engaged motivated female consumers covering a variety of topics from Frugal Living to Crafting, from Diet and Wellness to Lifestyle, Recipes, Home Decor and more.

Since subscriber permission is vitally important to Prime Publishing, Advertiser email is sent only to registered newsletter subscribers who have opted-in and confirmed their desire to receive them, increasing email address capture rate by 22.3% has had a tremendous impact on their business model.

Learn how to make a difference on your website’s email address capture rate on Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 at 11:00 am Pacific / 2 pm Eastern

Click here to register – capacity (as always) is limited.

FaveCrafts, a free content website aimed at crafters and part of Prime Publishing Group (a leading Internet media company that operates community and e-commerce web sites in the crafting, home décor, wellness, diet and cooking categories) worked with WiderFunnel to increase their e-mail address capture.

Testing, using an A/B/n strategy, increased the conversion rate on their AdWords landing page form by 22.3%!

Click here to read the FaveCraft case study.

Interested in more case studies on capturing email addresses?

Then, click here to learn how Tourism BC increased their permission-to-contact opt-in conversion rate by 12% with a few small (but oh-so-crucial) changes.

So the question remains: is advertising an art form meant to entertain the masses? Or is it meant to sell soap (or deodorant, as the case may be)?

In this troubled economic times, I vote for sales.

You?

If you are anywhere near San Francisco on Aug 19, 2010, you should not miss the one-day Conversion Conference event, part of SES and Connected Marketing Week by Clickz.

In my session, titled eCommerce Optimization, you will see case study examples of eCommerce landing pages and catalog sites that have had huge lift in sales through Conversion Optimization testing.

Can’t wait until then?
You should check out some of our latest Conversion Optimization case studies now.

Tips and recommendations that you may find from most consultants are often based on very little data and any actual test data is only applicable to the specific test situation. It’s always better to test the opinions of experts (better yet, to have a strategy for creating an endless fountain of Conversion Optimization hypotheses).

However, there is one common practice in home page design that is so egregious that I would consider it’s abandonment to be nearly a rule of Conversion Optimization.

The rule is this: if your home page consists of solely Flash content, you are hurting your business results, in almost every case.

The rule is even more strict if your Flash content is so heavy that it requires a “loading” animation.

For example, how much time do you think I will spend in my busy day to stare at this:

Turns out, it’s less time than it takes to finish loading.

So, the next time your web design agency recommends designing your home page with Flash, please ask them to show you an A/B test to prove that it will deliver results. If they’re smart, they’ll reconsider.

Personally, I have never been happier nor felt more invigorated by the absolute honesty of what we do, that is, by delivering measurable and objective business results to our clients, where opinions and guesswork have been taken out of the equation.

When Chris Goward and I first considered starting a conversion optimization services company, we immediately realized there were no models out there to take ‘inspiration’ from.

We definitely did not want to be an ‘agency’ (we fought hard against using that term to describe WiderFunnel) nor did we want to be a ‘consulting company’ either.

We wanted to be so much more than that: we wanted our clients to consider us partners. We wanted not to have to ‘sell’ to clients (other than their first engagement perhaps) because the business results of our work would speak for themselves. We wanted our clients to be delighted by our ability to understand their challenges fast and then deliver on our promises and commitments to them. And, most importantly, we wanted to make a difference in the business world and raise the bar in the practice of this wonderful discipline called Marketing. So here we are – and loving it!

Thank you to our Conversion Optimization Clients

We never forget that Conversion Optimization simply did not exist, as we know it, just a few short years ago. So every client company and every individual client we work with (this link takes you to just a few of them, as many prefer to stay under the radar) is, without a doubt, a thought-leader and a visionary, in the truest Geoffrey A. Moore “Crossing the Chasm” sense.

We owe our growth and success to our clients and are grateful for their business.

But more than that, we are also grateful for their trust and their openness and, dare I say it, for their friendship which manifests itself every day.

Thank you to our Conversion Optimization Staff

We at WiderFunnel are blessed with a team of people who are passionate about Conversion Optimization and about the honesty of the work we do for our clients. They put in long hours and burn the midnight oil to deliver on our commitments, and are creative and flexible to always be improving on our processes and methodologies. They really care about our clients’ business results and know it is the result of their own great work.

I guess we all share this sense that we are doing something pioneering, something important and long-lasting – and Chris and I are infinitely appreciative for Team WiderFunnel’s ongoing support and inspiration.

And thank you to our Conversion Optimization industry colleagues too!

One of the nicest aspects of the Conversion Optimization niche is the incredibly high degree of collegiality that exists. Perhaps because the industry is growing so fast (so no need to dog-eat-dog), or because the industry itself attracts a certain type of player, I can say proudly that pretty much everyone enjosy each other’s company and collaborative style, including direct and indirect competitors. Whatever the reason, it is a privilege to be able to work in such an environment!

So we celebrated our third anniversary with cake and champagne – and look forward to the challenges and successes ahead with a strong conviction that we are doing “something right” as well as “the right thing” for our clients: delivering measurable and objective results we can be proud of.

That is why I was absolutely delighted when Andre Morys, the president of Web-Arts in Germany, invited WiderFunnel to play a key role in Conversion Camp, Europe’s first-ever Conversion Optimization Conference to take place in Frankfurt this September.

So, on September 2, 2010 WiderFunnel will be present at Conversion Camp — in more ways than one.

WiderFunnel at Conversion Camp

First, I will be delivering the keynote address to kick off the truly action-packed agenda Andre has put together.

My keynote is entitled Confessions of a Conversion Optimization Strategist and in it I will draw from WiderFunnel’s pioneering and ground-breaking work in the last three years and share with the audience the lessons learned. I plan to do an interactive presentation using multiple client case studies to illustrate the points and share with the audience the insights we have gleaned after completing hundreds and hundreds of successful experiments for clients such as eBay, Epson, SAP, Electronic Arts, Alfresco, BabyAge and so many others, both in North America, Europe and Japan.

But that is not all: I am also thrilled to announce that our client Patricia Hader from Intel will be presenting at Conversion Camp as well.

Intel at Conversion Camp

Patricia Hader, Senior Marketing Manager, Partner Marketing Group at Intel, and I will deliver a session entitled Partner Marketing Challenges and Successes: How Intel Up-sells and Measures Success on Its Partner Websites.

In this session, the audience will learn how Intel overcomes the challenges of limited data and uses Conversion Optimization to effectively market its processors across its partner network to ensure buyers get the right processor for their needs. This will be a fast-paced session, with Patricia presenting the optimization strategy Intel deploys, illustrating it with multiple examples.

On a personal note, I want to say I am absolutely delighted that Patricia, an online marketer for over ten years, has accepted the invitation to present.

As an evangelist of testing and optimization, Patricia has managed and promoted these disciplines in organizations she has worked for, which include Time Life, AOL, and Yahoo!

You can follow Patricia on Twitter here and review her profile here.

Conversion Camp – Update

I just returned from a vacation in Europe (I went without laptop or Blackberry… and learned to survive!), where I was fortunate to meet with Andre in Stuttgart. Sitting out in the sunshine, and over a wonderful lunch, he updated me on the Conference progress.

The Conference agenda is very powerful, showcasing a great mix of expert and industry speakers, and it is being very well received. As Europe’s first-ever Conversion Optimization Conference, Conversion Camp is already close to half capacity – with about 3 months still to go!

Most importantly, the vast majority of registrations are coming from industry clients and not service providers, ensuring the conference will not only be a great learning opportunity but a great chance for European marketers and ecommerce practitioners to network with each other.

Do you do business in Europe? Do you have colleagues in Europe, particularly in Germany and Austria?

If you do, you should forward the Conference link to them.

See you there!

Andre Morys and Raquel Hirsch discuss Conversion Camp in Stuttgart

Topics include:
- What is the LIFT Model and Kaizen Method?
- What are the most surprising test results we see
- What software should you use for conversion testing?
- Why SEO and CRO aren’t maximizing their potential to work together

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).

Ariely is an economist focused on behavioral economics, a field concerned with the bounds of rationality (selfishness, self-control) of consumers, firms, the government, etc.

According to Wikipedia (OK, I admit, I had to brush up on this), “behavioral models typically integrate insights from psychology with neo-classical economic theory. Behavioral analysts are not only concerned with the effects of market decisions but also with the issues of public choice, another source of economic decisions with some similar biases towards promoting self-interest.”

In other words, behavioral economics is all about marketing in its true sense.

Or, as Ariely puts it on his website: “When we make decisions we think we’re in control, making rational choices. But are we?”

Precisely here is where what we do, Conversion Optimization testing for increased conversion rates, fits in.

After reading just the first chapter of Ariely’s book you will realize that what we all do, as Conversion-oriented marketers, is constantly test behavioral economics hypotheses (I just never knew to call it that!).

As Conversion Optimization marketers, we test hypotheses about the relative advantage of various products and service offerings to web visitors by presenting test variations. Web visitors themselves estimate the value of those products and services based on their relative merit. We then determine which test variation delivers the highest perceived value to customers – and hence highest conversion rate for our clients.

But how do web visitors estimate the value of products and services based on their relative merit?

In his book, and with great wit, Ariely convincingly presents the reader with a model of how we all make decisions and judgments which are often irrational yet we convince ourselves that they aren’t because we are evaluating data and information.

Ariely leads with an example from the online and print publication The Economist. This example reads remarkably similar to the work we do every day as Conversion Optimization marketers at WiderFunnel.

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 1 – “The Truth About Relativity”:

“One day while browsing the World Wide Web (obviously for work-not just wasting time), I stumbled on the following ad, on the Web site of a magazine, the Economist.

• The Economist.com online Subscription – $59.00
• Print Subscription -$125.00
• Print and Web Subscription – $125.00

I read these offers one at a time. The first offer-the Internet subscription for $59- seemed reasonable. The second option -the $125 print subscription-seemed a bit expensive, but still reasonable. But then I read the third option: a print and Internet subscription for $125.

I read it twice before my eye ran back to the previous options. Who would want to buy the print option alone, I wondered, when both the Internet and the print subscriptions were offered for the same price? Now, the print- only option may have been a typographical error, but I suspect that the clever people at the Economist’s London offices (and they are clever-and quite mischievous in a British sort of way) were actually manipulating me. I am pretty certain that they wanted me to skip the Internet- only option (which they assumed would be my choice, since I was reading the advertisement on the Web) and jump to the more expensive option: Internet and print.

But how could they manipulate me? I suspect it’s because the Economist’s marketing wizards (and I could just picture them in their school ties and blazers) knew something important about human behavior: humans rarely choose things in absolute terms. We don’t have an internal value meter that tells us how much things are worth. Rather, we focus on the relative advantage of one thing over another, and estimate value accordingly.”

This example perfectly exemplifies what Conversion Optimization is all about: testing behavioral economics hypotheses online to maximize sales conversions.

While it is quite possible that (based on our experience with publishers) “the Economist’s marketing wizards” weren’t really testing anything and it most likely was a typo (maybe because the Economist’s marketers didn’t know about Conversion Optimization and tools such as Google Website Optimizer and Omniture Test & Target), the message is nevertheless clear.

As Conversion Optimization marketers, we are blessed by having the internet as our playing field.

The internet is unique. It provides us with an ideal environment where to run controlled “social experiments” in presenting products and services for sale, testing hypotheses and coming up with statistically valid results.

As business people, we end up with more –and happier– customers who are making ‘buy’ decisions based on the relative advantages of your products and/or services, able to estimate value accordingly.

And, of course, as business people you also end up with better and more efficient websites that deliver improved profitability.

So, while Conversion Optimization may be ‘Predictably Irrational’ — your company’s improved profitability isn’t!