This week’s edition includes a Google Analytics 5 tutorial, website optimization tips from a marketing perspective, a reminder on the importance of website speed, how to avoid common small business website mistakes, and why incentivizing signups to increase micro-conversions:

- With Google Analytics 5 rolling out, KISSmetrics put together A Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics 5, a handy tutorial of everything you need to know to get started with Analytics in general, and specifically with Version 5

- Visitor data has become the key ingredient of conversion and personalization strategies for CMOs. Five Strategic Steps To Web Site Optimization from CMO.com lists some of the most current trends and tips in personalization to look for with respect to web site testing

- Research has shown consumers expect a website to be loaded in 2 seconds or less. Why Marketers Must Care About Site Speed from Search Engine Watch is a good reminder of the importance of site speed and is designed to fuel your desire to start assessing, benchmarking, monitoring and optimizing your site speed

- 10 Biggest Small Business Website Mistakes – and How to Fix Them from BNET is a top 10 of how companies mess up when trying to deliver their business message online, and what you can do to avoid them

- New traffic may not lead directly to a sale, but if it leads to a micro-conversion, such as a newsletter sign up, registration or social login, then it is very valuable. Why you should incentivize sign-ups, registrations from BizReport offers some tips on increasing micro-conversions resulting in a higher likelihood of a future sale

That will do it for this week and I’ll leave you with a quick reminder to request one free conversion idea for your website as well as to signup for our blog updates and conversion tips newsletter. If you have any tips, suggestions, or resources you’d like to share please leave us a comment below and please feel free to suggest topics that you would like to see covered in future Conversionator posts.

In order to succeed in copywriting for conversion, you must understand your audience and write in a way that speaks to them. Here are three ideas to get you started.

Know Your Audience

This means more than simply knowing statistics about your target market. You also need to understand the way they approach shopping online.

People rarely take the time to read every word in an article they discover online. Instead, they scan for information that seems important or that answers their questions. You can help people find what they’re looking for more easily by presenting information in bite-sized chunks, separated by subheadings or bullet points.

Copywriting for conversion makes writing easy to scan or skim. You want to provide people with the information in ways that they can use and understand it.

What’s In It For Me?

The basic question every shopper wants to know is how you can meet his perceived need.

Copywriting for conversion seeks to answer the “what’s in it for me” question by highlighting ways the reader will benefit from taking the desired action. That means your writing will need to meet two requirements: focus on the customer, not the company and focus on benefits over features.

That doesn’t mean you never discuss product features. There is a time and place for everything. Once you’ve engaged the customer and they’re focusing on a specific product, some visitors are going to want everything they can learn about a product’s features.

It’s more a matter of timing. First you need to focus on the “whats in it for me” question and then once you’ve got them engaged you’ll need to provide the information needed to close the sale.

We buy based on emotions. We justify purchases with logic. To close most sales, your copy will need to discuss both the benefits and the features. Just be sure to deliver the benefits first..

Write for a Variety of Shoppers

As you’re writing, remember that not everyone approaches shopping the same way. Some want to know what you can do for them. Some want to know why they should buy from you. Others want to know how your product is better than other products on the market, and still others want to know the minute details of each product you offer.

In addition, each shopper will be at a different point in the buying process. Some will be ready to buy right away while others will take time to compare and think about the decision.

In order to appeal to the broadest segment of your target audience, you’ll need to take each of these buyer types into consideration as you write.

Appeal to directly to your target market and all its variations and you’ll be more successful with copywriting for conversion.

Additional Resources

Copywriting Services

Copywriting Clarity and your Conversion Rate

Using Great Copy to Get Your Visitors to Buy

Conversion rates often seem to operate parallel to social media efforts rather than actually intersecting with them. Social media does a great job increasing the quantity of leads, but what’s the point if the website itself doesn’t convert well?

The good news is that you can improve conversion with social media by working to integrate your social media efforts with your other online marketing. Let’s look at a few ways social media can help you increase conversions on your website.

Increase Quality of Leads

While it’s true that contests and giveaways that you host on Facebook can vastly increase the quantity of your traffic, most of those visitors won’t stick around once the contest is over.

However, social media can also increase the quality of your leads by encouraging interaction with your company outside of your website, thereby generating interest among people who already want what you have to offer. For these targeted leads, you can expect to improve conversion with social media efforts, simply by getting your message to the right people.

Encourage Page Improvements

If you’re planning to host a contest or post a link and you expect a large influx of traffic, that’s great motivation for making sure your landing pages measure up to intense scrutiny. As you seek to improve conversion with social media, focus on optimizing landing pages and product pages that will be seen by the majority of your traffic.

You may see a temporary drop in conversion rates because of the traffic increase, but once the contest is over, the improvements you made to your page will result in long term conversion rate increases.

Increase Credibility

Integrating social media into your website can have a big impact on conversion rates by increasing your credibility with visitors. People tend to trust companies that their friends trust, so if you incorporate

YouTube videos or Twitter streams on your landing pages and people see that you have a large social media following, they may be more likely to buy from you. The more you can integrate social media into your other online marketing efforts, the better you’ll be able to measure ROI for your social strategy.

While social media often seems to be vague in terms of measurable results, you can improve conversion with social media by taking steps to integrate it with your website, improve your landing pages, and increase quality leads that will ultimately lead people to take the actions you want them to take.

Additional Resources:

Social Media Strategy: What You Need to Know

Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

Are You Engaging Your Customers With Social Media?

- Social Media Examiner recently posted a very helpful article on How to Optimize Your Blog for Google with visual guides that show you how to easily optimize your blog for search engines

- Is Your Website Optimized for Google Instant Previews? Goggle Instant Previews helps boost the relevance of click-throughs and The Communications Strategist explains the importance of ensuring the answer is yes and provides a few links to helpful Google Instant Previews resources

- Google Small Business Blog offers some handy Tips For Creating a Free Business Listing in Google Places with the focus of the post being adding useful descriptions and relevant categories. Be sure to check the previous two posts in this three part series

- Google Website Optimizer 101 from Conversion Rate Experts is a quick-start guide to conversion rate optimization which includes a list of 108 ways to improve your website’s conversion performance

- While Google isn’t giving the same kind of authority to tweeted links as it is to other web-based links, it has admitted using ‘social signals’ like tweets to help it determine a page’s ranking. How To Use Twitter To Boost Your Google Rankings from Search Engine Land offers some basic tips to developing your social media influence on Twitter for SEO benefit

That will do it for this week’s Google-palooza edition and I’ll leave you with a quick reminder to request one free conversion idea for your website as well as to signup for our blog updates and conversion tips newsletter. If you have any tips, suggestions, or resources you’d like to share please leave us a comment below and please feel free to suggest topics that you would like to see covered in future Conversionator posts.

Should your customer’s experience on your website be more important to you than the amount of merchandise they purchase from you? The answer is yes, if referrals and repeat business are an important part of your business model.

Improve Your Conversion Rate

Conversion optimization is not just about selling to that new visitor. If you are not doing a good job of attracting repeat business from your existing customer base and if you are not getting referrals from satisfied customers, you are leaving money on the table.

Increase Your Profit Margins

Increasing your repeat customers and referral business will not only improve your overall conversion rates but it will also be good for your bottom line. Changing your mix of business will lower your customer acquisition costs and therefore increase your profit margins.

Tips to Improve Your Customer’s Experience

Here are several ideas to help you improve your customer’s experience.

• Constantly peruse your site to make sure that it is user friendly. Check to see that navigation is easy, the information accessible, and the contact page is easy to find and easy to use
• No suprises – customers hate to be surprised by restocking fees, higher than expected shipping charges, failure to provide critical information (this product will require an XYZ cable which is sold separately) or a guarantee that really doesn’t deliver on its promise.
• Emphasize to your customer service staff the need deliver high quality customer service at all times. Little things can be so important, like prompt, polite, and energetic responses to e-mail inquiries.
• Find ways to make everything crystal clear in the eyes of the customer. Almost all customer dissatisfaction incidents stem from a misunderstanding, so the clearer your information is, the less likely a customer will be disgruntled with the outcome.
• Emphasize that you do want to talk with your customers, and that their feedback is welcome. One of the worst things that your customers can take away from your site is the perception that you only want the visitor’s money and could care less about what they think.

Overall, the main principle you need to incorporate into your online business is terrific customer service. You will never be able to completely satisfy everyone, but you will find that the overwhelming majority of your customers will leave satisfied. In addition, not only will they want to buy from you in the future, they will recommend you friends and family.