Topics Include: Capitalizing on Conversions, Mark Eberman Joins Hodgson's Staff, Join Us at CVC's Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony

Capitalizing on Conversions

In today's business market, every customer counts, so making sure your website landing pages are optimized for conversions is critical. Marketing wisdom says people who are comfortable with their current situation are not good prospects for buying. They just don't care enough to make a change. And, much as I'd like to think people make rational buying decisions—they don't. In general, people get by on intuition and gut feeling, with the occasional after-the-fact rationalization to justify our decisions. So a successful landing page needs to influence visitor's emotions and move them out of their comfort zone. I read a recent article in Web Marketing Today by Tim Ash, President & CEO of SiteTuners.com that identifies three scales to evaluate how well your site is designed to increase customer conversions.

Anxiety vs. Trust
Sitting in front of a Web browser doesn't seem like it would produce much anxiety, but giving up personal information, allowing people to contact us, and paying by credit card all have significant fears associated with them. Anything that you can do to minimize anxiety will help conversion. This includes having clear privacy policies, detailed shipping directions, unconditional return policies, client testimonials, certifications, and trust symbols that show that you conduct business with integrity.

Confusion vs. Clarity
Simple and intuitive is good. Unfortunately, a lot of sites assault you with bright colors, boxes, flashing advertisements. There's too much text in too many fonts that are too small. Navigation is difficult. A company's internal interests wind up competing for real estate and prominence on the home page. New items get added, but nothing ever gets taken away. By emphasizing too many items on a webpage, you destroy a visitor's ability to find key information and wind up preventing them from making a decision. Fixing major usability, coherence, and cognitive problems can have a major conversion rate impact.

Alienation vs. Affinity
We are all members of formal and informal tribes—fans of a specific sports team, residents of a certain zipcode, graduates of a certain school, employees of a certain company. Human beings have an innate desire to belong and to be recognized for who we are and what we value. The editorial tone of your landing page needs to conform to visitor's values and beliefs. Images of people should help visitors self identify, color schemes need to fit in an appropriate palette, button text and call to actions should use their language. By personalizing your site to your visitors' tribes, you are much more likely to appeal to their sensibilities and move them to action.

Whether you are selling goods, services or ideas, maximizing your web site to appeal to your visitors' emotional selling points and moving them off their comfort spot will lead to increased conversions. And I imagine we could all use a few more of those these days.

Mark Eberman Joins Hodgson's Staff

Mark Eberman recently joined Hodgson's team as a project manager. Mark has over 12 years experience in the web/interactive world, including extensive experience with e-commerce, affiliate programs, email marketing, paid search and SEO. Previous employment includes work at Threespot Media and Acorn Media, where he worked with clients such as the Brookings Institution, Peace Corps and the Paley Center for Media. A cyclist, Mark is planning on logging 3000 miles on his bike this year. He's also an avid cook, homebrewer and guitar player. So, I imagine he throws a great party, with the good food, presumably good drink, and entertainment all at his fingertips.