Slides from Landing Page Optimization Webinar

Here are the slides from todays webinar on landing page optimization. Unfortunately the audio did not make the cut, so the slides will have to suffice. Thanks for attending!

| View | Upload your own

| View | Upload your own

Warm Regards,

Scott Miller, CEO

Author of "The ConversionLab.com," The worlds first "How to" guide to testing and optimization. Visit http://www.conversionlab.com/ for a special offer!

Searchme.com is awesome and could disrupt our notion of what converts

Check this out- Searchme.com visual search results.

If this takes off and gets traction, it has the potential to strongly alter how conversion takes place. Your loosely controlled meta description will no longer matter at getting people to your site- your actual design will! This search engine does away with tradition search results and uses an iTunes inspired "cover flow" to display website screenshots.

On a large screen, it is easy to pick out the primary value proposition and read key copy- if it exists. With this site, I can quickly make a decision as to whether or not a site even stands a chance at getting my business- without even visiting it.

Personally, I think this is one of the coolest technologies I have seen in a while, and have only begun to debate the long term implications on conversion. Certainly many of the same things still apply, but now you have to balance "organic search juice" with a compelling design and clear messaging.

This is something top sites have done a great job at for a long time, so it may be nothing new to them. But a quick glance through several searches on Searchme.com and it became clear- if this idea takes off, sites which don't strongly embrace conversion oriented design don't stand a chance.


Warm Regards,

Scott Miller, CEO

Free Webinar on Landing Page Optimization, 4-22-08

Do you want to learn how to increase your landing page conversion rate by 48% or more (sometimes much more)?

I am excited to announce we are putting on a free webinar on 4-22-08 at 2-3PM ET in conjunction with the team over at MarketingSherpa. Before I tell you much more about it, SEATING IS LIMITED and we are doing free landing page optimizations for attendees as part of the webinar!!

Sign up ASAP at http://www.vertster.com/webinar042208.asp to take advantage of this opportunity

The webinar will include a brief presentation by MarketingSherpa's Director of Research, Stefan Tornquist. During this part of the webinar, you'll learn top lessons from the new Landing Page Handbook. We will then conduct LIVE OPTIMIZATIONS of attendee landing pages, so make sure to provide your URL when you register.

Here are a few of the things you'll learn:

• Five types of Landing Page Tests that work best for increasing conversion rates
• See real creative samples and their results
• Get examples of increased conversions for PPC dynamic search, registration forms, creative elements, SEO landings, and mobile email
• Revealed- the biggest tips on measuring landing pages
• How to Justify budgeting for analytics and testing

Once again, space is limited, and we expect the fill the seats quickly, so don't delay!


Warm Regards,

Scott Miller

The 3 C's of Conversion (Plus One More)

I was in Chicago this week for the Search Engine Strategies Chicago Conference. While speaking at the session "Landing Page Optimization Clinic" I made a comment that seemed to resonate well with people so I thought I would repeat it here for anyone who did not make the session.

When I look at a page for the first time, I examine it under the premise of a simple framework I call the three C's of conversion. It goes like this:

Does your landing page:

1. Capture the attention of the visitor?
2. Communicate your primary value proposition to the visitor?
3. Close the sale, lead, or other offer you are making?

Each of these steps are essential to boosting conversion. On my snow-delayed flight out of Chicago, I thought I should add one more C to the equation: the Customer!

Obviously, with no customer, there is no sale!

The reason this is important is simple: upon arrival to your site, the customer has some expectation in mind, something he or she was looking for. In order to capture, communicate and close, your site must be as relevant as possible to this customer.

In the coming days I will be sharing more specific recommendations and insight on analyzing and improving your Cs of conversion.




Warm Regards,

Scott Miller, CEO

Author of "The ConversionLab.com," The worlds first "How to" guide to testing and optimization. Visit http://www.conversionlab.com/ for a special offer!

SES New York Wrap and Slides

As some know, I was in New York City most of last week for the Search Engine Strategies 2007 Conference. It was a great conference, only marred by a rogue Nor'easter on Thursday (when I left) that turned LaGuardia into a standing room only affair.

I spoke alongside Jamie Roche of Offermatica, Tim Ash from Sitetuners, and Tom Leung from Google Web Optimizer. Plus Alan Dick of Clawfoot Tub retailer Vintage Tub.

My presentation included two case studies: One featuring online store Tinyride.com and tested the effect of using the Hackersafe logo. The other was a Taguchi test from Business and Legal Reports (BLR.com). Following the presentation, was a short time for Q&A, during which people had some great questions.

If you attended the session, or are just interested. you can download my slides here.


Warm Regards,

Scott Miller, CEO

Author of "The ConversionLab.com," The worlds first "How to" guide to testing and optimization. Visit http://www.conversionlab.com/ for a special offer!

A useful tool for collaborating on test designs

Every once in a while I come across a 3rd party tool that works really well, and can be used to improve your testing efforts. In particular, there are a few browser extensions that I love. Many of these require the Firefox browser to work, so if you haven't made the switch yet, go ahead and get Firefox.

One of the challenges of designing multivariate tests is getting everyone in your organization on the same page. Thats where Fleck comes in. This browser extension lets you add "sticky notes" to annotate any web page.

We just started use it to mark up pages and indicate where variables are and even provide guidance on proposed variable options. This vision can be shared around with multiple people in multiple organizations before the test assets are actually built and the optimization is running.

Here is an example of a test design for my ebook site TheConversionLab.com:

http://extension.fleck.com/?sh=788d04e7f5d3dad9de1c4bf0b9315f16f3fad065

Note: Fleck is currently in beta, and appears to choke on the CSS layout of this page slightly. It goes to figure that this is the only site I have ever seen Fleck have an issue with.


Warm Regards,

Scott Miller, CEO

Author of "The ConversionLab.com," The worlds first "How to" guide to testing and optimization. Visit http://www.conversionlab.com/ for a special offer!

New Articles on Taguchi and Multivariate Testing

Today we posted three new articles to our testing resources site. One of these is an old repeat from the blog, although updated slightly, and two are all new. If you are wondering about Taguchi based testing, you will find these useful:

What is Multivariate Testing
Wondering about the buzz surrounding Multivariate testing? Check this article for a plain English explanation about why you need to start doing it.

Multivariate Optimization vs. A/B Testing
Whether to use A/B or Multivariate testing is a question most marketers face. This article helps you understand some of the important differences.

Taguchi who? I don't speak Japanese!
This article describes the origins of the Taguchi Approach and summarizes a Taguchi testing framework.



Warm Regards,

Scott Miller, CEO

Author of "The ConversionLab.com," The worlds first "How to" guide to testing and optimization. Visit http://www.conversionlab.com/ for a special offer!

Test Idea 1006- Testing Highlight Text

It's been quite a while since I last posted any testing ideas. The funny thing is that I went in and edited one of my old posts, and now the "improved" Blogger application thinks it's a new post :)

Hence... I decided to write a real new post this morning. Coming up with ideas to test can be difficult, particularly if you have already done quite a bit of optimization work on your pages. But have you ever considered finding a few key phrases in your sales copy, and applying a yellow highlighter like background to them?

This can be a real eye grabber and can really improve response in some circumstances. Most times we've tested it, it works well.

The key is to identify the main value propositions in your copy and apply a highlighter type style to them. Use something like this in your external style sheet to create the above effect:

.highlighter {
background-color: yellow;
}


Remember, your mileage may vary, so always test this with either a split test or multivariate test to confirm that it actually helps.

Warm Regards,

Scott Miller, CEO

Author of "The ConversionLab.com," The worlds first "How to" guide to testing and optimization. Visit http://www.conversionlab.com/ for a special offer!

Upgraded Blogger Platform Today

Just a quick housekeeping note: I upgraded to the latest and greatest version of Blogger today, with moderate success. It appears all my posts and everything made it over okay, but currently the xml file appears to have a formatting issue that my parsing code doesn't like. In English that means that display of the blog is kind of bunged up on http://www.vertster.com for the time being.

Warm Regards,

Scott Miller, CEO

Author of "The ConversionLab.com," The worlds first "How to" guide to testing and optimization. Visit http://www.conversionlab.com/ for a special offer!

Wall Street Journal Article Underlines the Need for Testing

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, you may have seen an article titled "Online Salespeople Get Pushy." The article profiled a number recent shopping experiences which ended somewhat badly as a result of online chat mechanisms. The premise of the article "As Web Retailers Ramp Up Live Help to Boost Sales, Customers Start to Grumble."

Hmmm... I found the article troubling and really short on data. Several different cases were presented, from retailers such as Overstock.com, Dell, and Apple. What was not presented was any kind of objective data showing that in fact online chat is actually decreasing sales conversion rates at online retailers. Rather, I think the author keyed in on a couple of bad experiences and painted this useful risk reversal technique with a broad negative brush.

What it comes down to is that like most other sales boosting efforts online, this can and should be tested. Always. Had the author commissioned a couple simple split tests, she may have written it differently.

Will this article trigger some business owners to rip down their "Live Person" buttons? I wouldn't be surprised. My message to you: Test it first to see what the effect really is on your sales.