Category Website Optimization
eBrand Interactive discloses 10 common website design mistakes you should avoid
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
Since 2002, we’ve been evangelists of marketing efficiency but not too many people wanted to listen. Why would they when there was so much low-hanging fruit? Every year an increasing number of people, flush with cash and credit, went online to shop. But those days are over and it really is time for companies to become more fully focused on efficient marketing.
My team of expert web designers and analysts have reached out to over 800 companies regarding providing a report that would include detailed, page by page analysis, of their site for the purpose of identifying anxiety inducing friction points, and other impediments, that cause abandonment of the shopping process.
Recommendations for site and conversion rate improvements were to be included in the report. To our surprise only two companies took us up on our offer (although several did attempt to learn as much as they could for free). Each of the companies we provided reports for have seen their conversion rates double.
Here is what Internet Retailer has to say about the importance of web site design based on good e-tail principles, and if you’d like, they’ve built a three day conference around it for you to attend: Web Design ’09 Conference
You may think your web store looks just great and you have a right to be proud of it. But did you ever sit with a focus group to see what problems they had with it? Did you ever have top web site designers analyze it to find flaws? And have you listened to e-retailers tell you how they’ve vastly improved online sales and conversion rates just by making basic design changes that eliminated the most common web site design faux pas?
Here are just 10 commonly known but often overlooked design mistakes referred to by Internet Retailer (we know of many more):
Posted by Tom Polanski in Growing a Business, Website Optimization, eBrand Interactive on November 19th, 2008
Conversion was the king – now it’s much, much more
by Gerry Bavaro
The financial crisis is top of mind among marketers across the U.S. Many are wondering what it all means for the advertising industry as a whole — and, importantly for us in search marketing, how we’ll be affected. Here is my take on how the changing macroeconomic environment will influence the evolution of SEM.
Conversion rate — king becomes God. Probably the most common question I’ve gotten from clients, prospects, and general marketers alike (even questions while on a panel at OMMA NY recently) is whether our clients have reduced their paid search spending in response to the current economic conditions. The answer continues to be “no.” We have not seen decreases in budgets. Instead, we’ve seen almost a 300% increase in landing page/Web site improvements being made to increase conversion rates, plus more formal landing page and ad copy testing.
It’s no secret that paid search is measurable, accountable, and a marketer’s profit center right now compared to other forms of media that do not perform as efficiently or possess its flexibility and control. We need to be careful, though. We’re spoiled by paid search — but at a time when consumers are tightening their belts on spending, looking for deals more than ever, and rising shipping and other costs of doing business are driving profitability down, campaigns must be more efficient than ever. There’s never been a better time for critical usability issues, messaging, and offers to be solved, changed, or tested across Web sites. Conversion is king, but will become God if you can acquire a marked increase in acquisitions or revenue at the same or decreased spend. For agencies and in-house teams alike, it’s always foolish to overlook how Web sites are performing in terms of converting visitors to desired customers; right now it can be the real difference between success and failure.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Website Optimization on October 7th, 2008
An eBrand Interactive project which dramatically increased a clients site conversion rate!
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
In an earlier article I discussed the importance of website optimization. When I first got into online marketing back in 2000, it was a gold rush for everybody. We’d get calls from advertisers requesting more “eye balls”. Remember those days anybody? Tracking was rudimentary. As the years passed web and site analytics have become more sophisticated and, as a result, more capable of delivering data about the IAO (interests, attitudes and opinions) of end user. However, even through 2007, many never questioned why 95 to 99% of their traffic wasn’t converting; even with all of that gathered intelligence. Instead most were focused on optimization of ad copy or other aspects of the media campaigns they had running across the internet universe.
Neiman-Marcus was the first company I met, years ago, that was using their data to improve the company’s e-commerce site and, subsequently, the shopping experience the site delivered.
In these tough economic times we’re steadfast in our belief that in these tough times optimizing your website for the purpose of increasing conversion rates is the best (and least expensive) investment a company can make. One of our clients, a nationwide brand, wanted to invest in display advertising on MSN as a means to drive revenue increases. Instead we pointed out that the site is already getting a tremendous volume of targeted, motivated traffic from the right audience but 98% of it wasn’t converting.
We suggested that it would be prudent to hire the eBrand Media Group to research and analyze the site. We delivered an extensive, deeply probing analysis of the site along with dozens of site improvement suggestions. We received this e-mail after only several of the suggestions were implemented:
Posted by Tom Polanski in Success Stories, Website Optimization, eBrand Interactive on October 4th, 2008
Tom Polanski discusses the importance web site optimization
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
We’ve recently completed an analysis of the website of a nationwide brand. The company was under the impression that it was their media plan needed optimization, when in fact, we proved that it was the web site that was failing them. They’re getting targeted, motivated traffic but the site is not converting. The return on ad spend could be greatly enhanced for many, many companies if there was an internal commitment to test and optimize the website. We’ve learned that there are at least a few reasons why companies don’t:
1. Ego investment – The site was built in-house and leadership within the company is adamant that nobody knows their business like they do.
2. Hubris – Nobody would be foolish enough go into court without expert representation yet many think that they can go into the marketplace on their own. The thinking is that all one has to do is copy what they think is working for their competitors. What we often find here are competitors cannibalizing each others bad ideas. In addition, since we’re marketed to all day long it’s relatively easy to be seduced into thinking we’re experts by osmosis.
3. Lack of in-house resources needed to change and test.
4. Ignorance – An inability to associate website analytics with the causes and conditions that are degrading the sites conversion rate. Moreover many don’t even know that their conversion rate is lower than the industry standard. Ignorance breeds risk-aversion and fear.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Tom Polanski, Website Optimization on September 24th, 2008