In This Section Search Engine Optimization
Cost-Per-Click Campaigns
Newsletters
Web Analytics
Visitor Conversions
Marketing FAQs

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Search Engines & Directories
SEO Defended

Converting Visitors into Customers

The more expensive it gets to draw traffic to a website the more important visitor conversion becomes. Now that so many businesses are actually spending money on web marketing they're beginning to wonder how to make their advertising dollars go further. That naturally leads them to wondering what percentage of visitors to their site are actually responding in a desired fashion - conversion.

GET TO KNOW Your Visitors

There is a certain amount of trial and error involved in website management and marketing. No matter how many times you do it, there are always surprises. In order to keep the surprises to a minimum, it is essential that you observe how visitors use your website. Here are just some of the web statistics worth tracking:

Unique Visitors
Total visitors
Number of pages per visit
Average time per visit
Originating search engines
Originating sites
Keywords used in search engines
Entry/exit pages
Visitor locale
Visitor patterns and pathways
Most popular/unpopular pages

Combine this information with actual conversion rates from the website and you begin to get an idea of what's happening.

What is the visitor/conversion rate?
How are our keywords performing?
Is the homepage directing visitors to the most important content?
What are the surprises?

Another way to get to know your visitors is to experiment with different response mechanisms. There is more than one way to get people to interact with your site:

Contact Us Form
Email Page
Sign up for a newsletter
Registration Form
Shopping Cart
Need Help?
Want an Analysis?
Ask a question / Quick Question Form
Request a quote
Marketing Surveys
Use advanced search capability
Contact a local rep
Download a white paper
Download a CAD file or spec sheet
Call an 800 number
Use an estimator, calculator

Depending on the kind of site/business you have you can also consider adding a message board where visitors can interact with each other.

Customer Communication

Your website can become a gathering place for you customers, a place they return to find out what's new with you. This is certainly true from a marketing standpoint - you send an email announcement about a new product with a link back to your site.

Your website can also be used for customer service.

Just imagine a secure area of your website where customers could log in to retrieve information particular to them. Say you're in the meeting planning business and you have a group traveling to a certain destination. Your website could serve as the retrieval point for all the information each traveler needs. Instead of making a flyer or brochure for each group, you create a webpage. You assign a password for that page and you have a protected area to post information you only want certain people to see.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - the most commonly found form of customer service online. If you stay on top of these questions adding and changing as necessary, you can eliminate a whole lot of phone calls from customers.

Forms and Surveys - get the information you need before talking to the customer.

Instruction Manuals and even Training Videos - just imagine the possibilities.

Ancillary Projects to Extend and Improve Your Website Marketing

Just imagine the many projects/products/services that can be derived directly from your website such as:

Email Blasts
Newsletters
Brochures
Flyers
Ads
Directories
Sales presentations
Market analyzes

Your website is the sum of all your marketing parts. It contains your whole story from which you can pull the pieces you need to tell parts of the story. For instance, your brochures can be edited from your website. So while the initial content development may seem daunting, just imagine all that you can do with it once you have it online.