Stories Connect On An Emotional Level

Storytelling For Sustainability

Stories bring an emotional context to the unfamiliar, enabling us to not only process information, but determine if that information should sway us. Truth is, you can’t win anyone over with a superior argument. You need to connect with them on an emotional level.

>> Follow Marc Stoiber

Customer Stories

Online Storytelling Marketing: The New (Old) Way of Delivering Your Brand Message

Every company has a story to tell, they just have to find it. And the best way to find it is to start talking to your customers at a very personal level. Don’t just ask them what they think about your products. Talk to them about themselves and their experiences. Once you get into their psychology, you start getting qualitative information. If you’re a creative person, you’ll come out with a story.

>> Follow Dana Todd

If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.

- Benjamin Franklin

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.

- Dale Carnegie

If you are hoping to increase conversions, or you are simply interested in the art of persuasion, consider mastering the art of storytelling.

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Post tags: Benjamin Franklin, Dale Carnegie, Dana Todd, emotional marketing, Marc Stoiber, persuasion, storytelling
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It is much easier to double your conversion rate, than it is to double your traffic. One of the key components of conversion rate optimization is testing.

Google Website Optimizer was built for that very reason and is designed to give you the ability to test different ideas against each other in real time and see what works and what doesn’t.

Unfortunately, it does not seemlessly work with WordPress. In a typical setup, Optimizer would track visitors all the way to a confirmation page. Since most affiliate offerings require you to link outside of your site, you have no way of monitoring which pages perform the best. This tutorial is designed to show you how to track link clicks within your affiliate pages without requiring a confirmation page.

Step One

Setup your Google Website Optimization account.

Go to Google Optimizer and login. Click on “Create a new experiment”.

Step Two

Choose the multivariate experiment type.

Step Three

Check the “I’ve completed the steps above and I’m ready to start setting up my experiment” box and click “create”.

Step Four

Fill out the experiment details.

In this section you will name the experiment and specify the page to be tested. Put the test page as the confirmation page as well because we will be monitoring clicks on this page.

Step Five

Check the “You will install and validate javascript tags” and click continue.

Step Six

Install this WordPress Plugin and navigate to the page you want to test in the WordPress Admin Section.

You will see this below your WordPress text editor:

Step Seven

Install the control and tracking scripts inside each section.

Google provides you with several different scripts that must be placed within the test page for the experiment to work. The plugin has color matching boxes for the scripts which make it easy to match.

Place the control script in the control box and the tracking script in the tracking box.

Step Eight

Edit and install the conversion script.

The conversion script is designed to detect someone entering the confirmation page from one of the experiment variations. We have to edit the code to track link clicks.

This is how the code will look:

<script type="text/javascript">
if(typeof(_gat)!='object')document.write('<sc'+'ript src="http'+
(document.location.protocol=='https:'?'s://ssl':'://www')+
'.google-analytics.com/ga.js"></sc'+'ript>')</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var gwoTracker=_gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXXXX-X");
gwoTracker._trackPageview("/YYYYYYYYYY/goal");
</script>

This is the edited code that you will use to track the link clicks:

<script type="text/javascript">

if(typeof(_gat)!='object')document.write('<sc'+'ript src="http'+
(document.location.protocol=='https:'?'s://ssl':'://www')+
'.google-analytics.com/ga.js"></sc'+'ript>')</script>

<script type="text/javascript">
function doGoal(that) {
try {
var gwoTracker=_gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXXXX-X");
gwoTracker._trackPageview("/YYYYYYYYYY/goal");
setTimeout('document.location = "' + that.href + '"', 100)
}catch(err){}
}
</script>

Make sure that you replace the “UA-XXXXXXX-X” and /YYYYYYYYYYY/goal with the numbers that are in your original script.

For more information on this, visit Google’s help page.

Step Nine

Add conversion code to links.

In order to monitor specific links, we must add a snippet of javascript to each link we want to track.

This is a normal link:

<a href="http://www.example.com/promotion">Featured Products</a>

This is the link with the tracking installed:

<a href="http://www.example.com/promotion" onclick='doGoal(this);return false;'>Featured Products</a>

Step Ten

Set up the content test section.

Google provides two pieces of code that you put above and below each section that you want to test. In this manner, Google automatically replaces and switches between different content to test variations.

You can wrap the whole post with it or just specific sections of the content. I like to wrap the first paragraph, the body section and the call to action section.

Step Eleven

Install the headline and CSS page sections.

The headline of your blog post is probably the most important feature that needs to be tested. In order to test the headline you will need to make some light changes to the theme files.

Open up your single.php (for blog posts) or page.php (for pages) and header.php inside of the theme editing section of WordPress. Add the page sections to the headline and the CSS call.

CSS:

Headline:

Click the validate button and make sure there are no errors before continuing. It will let you know how many page sections you have available to edit.

More than likely you will get the following error:

This is due to the fact that the control script is not directly underneath the first head tag. Go into your header.php and move it (if it exists) or create it.

Step Twelve

Finally, create your variations.

Once everything is validated and you can now start creating page variations. Simply click add variation under each page section you want to test.

Happy testing!

Jason Capshaw is founder of MyWebTronics, an Atlanta web design firm.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Conversions, Google Website Optimizer, Jason Capshaw
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31 Conversion Optimization Tips – and Counting

How can you reduce Distraction on your pages? How many links can you eliminate? … You don’t sell features. You sell solutions to problems.

>> Follow Chris Goward

Copy that Converts: Interview with Copywriting Maven Roberta Rosenberg

You need the words to make the sale, period. Whether we’re looking at text-only email, a simple direct mail letter or even skywriting for that matter, the words are the key to the message. However, as I mentioned in a previous response, good design supports the message and makes it easy, even pleasant to read. It also helps direct the reader from point to point, acting as a visual roadmap to the essential bits and pieces that deserve particular attention. However, what’s even more important than the creative – copy or design – is a strong, attractive offer and visitors who are hungry for what you have to promote.

>> Follow Roberta Rosenberg

If your focus is on receiving commissions from affiliate product referrals, how many of your site’s visitors go on to purchase one of the affiliate products you promote? Think it should be a lot more? So did I, and that’s why I honed my technique to increase the conversion rate. Eventually, I took the lessons I learned and turned them into the Q&A Formula. Check it out sometime.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: affiliate products, Chris Goward, Conversions, Marketing
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Every marketer that has a website has learned about bringing visitors to their site through SEO. He knows that a proper SEO campaign takes a lot of time and patience, but in the end, he’s rewarded with great rankings. Conversion optimization is also a patient task and is another never-ending process. But through constant testing, you’ll be able to dramatically improve your conversion rate.

If you offer a service of some sort this will more easily apply to you, but many of these techniques can be applied across the board no matter what kind of niche you are in. Conversion rate doesn’t only apply to selling a product or generating leads from a website. It can be applied to anything that you want a visitor to do when they get to your website/blog.

Perceived Authority and Trust

No one will use a service from someone they don’t trust. Building trust is crucial in getting a customer to complete a transaction. I’ve found (and many agree) that including customer testimonials, press mentions, secure website certificates, a physical address, and a picture, as well as maintaining a personal tone within your web content are all instant solidifiers in capturing the trust of an impatient web visitor. In order to complete the trust picture, you should make sure that you are keeping the search results clean with online reputation management.

Speed of Service

A potential customer doesn’t like wasting a lot of time, so don’t give them junk they don’t want or care about on a landing page. For example, when searching for [surety bonds], people want to get in and out as fast as possible so we keep a clean layout and short, concise content that gets to the point. If you run a fitness site, you may want to have a lengthy article that gets the reader emotional before deciding to buy your service/product. It all depends on your niche, so you’ll have to test to see which method works best. Either way, make sure to show your visitors what you want at the top of the site as you only have a few seconds to grab their attention to start them down the conversion process.

If you offer a service, be sure to have a fast follow-up. Through our bonding site and other experiences I’ve had, I’ve found that the more quickly we follow up with a web site contact, the more likely they are to turn into a completed transaction or customer. It’s important to immediately contact users whether through a live customer agent or even a simple email system to let them know that you received their info and will act on it shortly.

Testing, Testing, Testing

A major aspect of conversion rate optimization is testing. You need to find what works best and what just doesn’t make the cut. An easy way to do this is to use Google’s website optimizer. This allows you to send half of your traffic to one version of a page and the other half to a different version. Not sure if ‘Military Housing‘ converts better than ‘Military Homes‘? This will let you know. Then you can test it against a different phrase and keep the one that works the best. After repeating the test for a while, you will eventually find the phrase that always gives the best conversion.

Test form layouts, test different pictures, test everything. This is the biggest advice I would give people. You may not realize it, but a different picture or even a different background color can increase your conversion rate. With the proper dedication and a little time, you can turn visitors into customers.

This guest post was written by Kevin Kaiser of Surety Bond Co., a surety bonding agency.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Conversion optimization, Conversion rate, Marketing, online reputation management, Search engine optimization
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Do you give web site visitors the opportunity to download a free trial of your product or service with the intention that they will come back and purchase? How are you following up with these visitors? Asking them to fill out a form and immediately giving them the download on the next page is not the best way to generate a quality opt-in list. Collecting accurate opt-in information from these visitors is essential to follow up education and making the sale.

Download giveaway opt-in conversion is extremely simple when done with the correct process. Unfortunately many businesses are leaving significant profits and subscribers on the table by using the wrong methods.

Wrong Way:

A visitor comes to your site and they fill out a form to request your free download. Upon submission of the form they are taken to your thank you page where you provide the link to download.

This person has been given your download but you have not given them a reason to subscribe to your list. They might have given you a fake email address and in all likelihood did give you a fake email knowing that they just need to get to the next page to receive your information. Since you can’t follow up with them you might have lost a sale.

Correct Way:

Insert the AWeber opt-in form on your site. Within eye site of this form provide information about the importance of subscribing to your list. Add value to your list by giving them compelling reasons to subscribe. Make it clear that the download link will be provided in the email they receive after confirming their subscription.

On your thank you page (or redirect page) they are taken to after they fill out the form you need to provide information on verifying. Verified opt-in allows you to ensure that the person subscribing did so with his or her own email address and didn’t provide a fake or malicious email. Let the visitor know that they should check their email inbox. Tell them what the subject line of the email says so they know what to look for. Convey that they must click on the link inside to verify and receive the download link to your product.

In the autoresponder they receive after verifying, give them the download link. Since they are subscribed to your list and have confirmed that the address they provided is valid you can effectively follow up providing more information about using the free or trial software, training tips, and further benefits or features earned by becoming a customer.

Using these techniques you are sure to increase your sales when converting free downloads to paid customers.

Sean Cohen, Director of Client Relations & Development of Newtown, PA based AWeber Communications, Inc. an opt-in email service provider. With 7 years managing opt-in autoresponders, automated follow up and newsletters for small businesses.

Learn more about effective email follow up.

Looking for FREE, high-quality web site or e-zine content?

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: autoresponder, Aweber, AWeber Communications Inc., Conversions, Director of Client Relations & Development, e-zine, eye site, free trials, Newtown, opt-in lists, Sean Cohen, subscriptions, trial software, web site visitors
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