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May 2, 2008
This from Bill Flagg of RegOnline talks about how he has continuously works on optimizing the account signup page for the RegOnline website to maximize the conversion rate. [via Brad Feld]
What a great post to encounter first thing this morning. I just had this discussion with two separate clients in the past two days on how to optimize their account signup and newsletter subscription forms. Some great advice from Bill:
Here's what I learned to ask myself and my team... 1. Which information is a must-have? Do I have to know where they came from or can my web analytics tell me? 2. Which information could we collect later? For example, we collect billing information when the client goes live with their event. 3. Eliminate the rest. If a piece of information doesn't create a change in action, then I eliminate the field.
I agree with Bill 100% and often ask a couple more questions to get this right. Of course, you're never done asking questions. You should always be testing you forms to achieve greater conversion!
1. What data can you market to? If you're asking for address, birth date, phone number and the like - are you really going to market using all of that data or are you just collecting it because you think you need it (or your CEO thinks you need it)
2. How does the data tie into the rest of your CRM and database marketing efforts? If you're a B2B company you'll want to and need to know different things than a CPG company.
3. What's the "form fatigue" factor and how do you eliminate data point collection to ease up on your customer's patience.
January 18, 2008
During a social media seminar this week, I mentioned that some websites
have areas where they 'explain' what the social bookmarking tools are
for visitors who are interested in using them, but who may not know
what they are. While basic, this is important if you really want to enable your content for sharing and subscription.
AdAge has a great example of this with their "question mark" next to the "Share & Save (?)" section.
Scroll toward the bottom of this article to see the "Share & Save (?)" section. You'll notice that they not only have the ""Share & Save (?)" section but also a newsletter subscription link at the bottom of their articles. This is a GREAT manifestation of virally enabling and enabling subscription to your brand/content.
http://adage.com/agencynews/article?article_id=123168
Then, click on the question mark and you'll be brought to a section of
a page on their site that houses all of their RSS and social sharing
information.
http://adage.com/rss#share
For organizations just starting out in social sharing and RSS, AdAge
has a great model for how to bring your customers into the fold.
AdAge has a great example of this with their "question mark" next to the "Share & Save (?)" section.
Scroll toward the bottom of this article to see the "Share & Save (?)" section. You'll notice that they not only have the ""Share & Save (?)" section but also a newsletter subscription link at the bottom of their articles. This is a GREAT manifestation of virally enabling and enabling subscription to your brand/content.
http://adage.com/agencynews/article?article_id=123168
Then, click on the question mark and you'll be brought to a section of
a page on their site that houses all of their RSS and social sharing
information.http://adage.com/rss#share
For organizations just starting out in social sharing and RSS, AdAge
has a great model for how to bring your customers into the fold.
March 8, 2007
Being involved in a business that deals in what I call 'intensely local' websites (many of our customers pull from a radius of less than 20 miles, some have business jurisdictions that are fractions of that). When you look at the accuracy of your average Google Local or Superpages search, it's not bad, but I'm amazed on a daily basis how many businesses simply haven't taken advantage of putting their URL, or even correcting their business information in Google or any of the other online directories.
Imagine my surprise when I was doing some research for an upcoming seminar, trying to highlight our local Internet prowess, only to find out that our own Chamber of Commerce has one major flaw with it's Google Local listing... It's LINKED TO ANOTHER WEBSITE! Now, it's not all bad, at least the link goes to the local newspaper, and the chamber listing does show up in the organic search as the first listing (one would hope that it should), but nonetheless, the URL is wrong in the listing.
Don't bother contacting them, I already have. However, it will be interesting to see how long it takes them to correct it. This reminds me of a presentation I saw recently over at MarketingProfs where Stephan Spencer and Brian Klais of NetConcepts mentioned a local hospital which has some material that was commented out which said something like "Jack designed this website with a swiss-army knife and a pack of gum" or something like that... The point is, you can't put your 'stuff' out on the Internet and then go on vacation.
ACTION ITEM: Go Google yourself. Then, check the local directories. If anything about your information is incorrect or incomplete, get it corrected. If your URL is not listed, but it could be, get it in there...
> Google Local
> Superpages.com
> Yellowpages.com
> Yahoo Local
> Your listing on websites in your local area...
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