Three Ways To Increase Conversions From Your Website

Three Ways To Increase The Conversion Rate Of Your Website

When a client says that they want to generate more leads, sales, revenue from their website, the most common tactic is to focus on increasing traffic, whether that is through increasing the PPC and/or social media budgets or adding more content in order to attract more organic search traffic.

One option that is often overlooked is increasing the conversion rate. For example:

That is a 50% uplift in results!

How do you achieve that? Here are three ways you can increase the conversion rate of your website.

1. A/B Test

A/B or split testing allows you to test two alternative versions of your page (page A and page B) so see which one has the highest conversion rate.

Conversion Rate Optimization

There are a lot of different things you can test on a page, but these are the three that I start with:

2. Optimize Your Form

ImageScape reduced the number of form fields from 11 to 4 and saw a 160% increase in the number of forms submitted and their conversion rate increased 120%.

Here are three ways you can improve the conversion rate of your form:

Test the button copy:

One of the easiest changes to make on a form. Instead of using the generic “Submit” text, tests have shown a higher conversion rate using “Click Here” and “Go”.

Conversion Rate Optimization Example

Form length really does matter:

Expedia has done a lot of testing on what is the idea length of form, and they found that by eliminating company name from a form they were able to increase profits by $12m.

Conversion Rate Optimization

Require Unnecessary Information

Testing has shown that reducing the length of a form from 11 fields to 4, can increase conversion rates by as much as 120%.

What changes can you make to your form?

3. Focus On Google Analytics

One of the most overlooked tools that can be used to improve conversion rate optimization is Google Analytics.

In the Conversions section of Analytics you can review your conversion funnels. By looking at the Funnel Visualization below, we’re able to see how many users dropped off from each step, indicating areas of optimization.

As we can see, it breaks down that we have a significant number of people dropping off after they reach the cart page. Maybe there’s an area for optimization to reduce that drop-off amount.

Conversion Rate Optimization Services
Need help increasing the conversion rate of your website? Need your landing page audited? Then contact us today and start converting more traffic into leads, sales and revenue.
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Springfield802 Vermont web design project

Vermont Web Design

Springfield802.com Partners with Braveheart Digital Marketing to Enhance Online Presence Springfield802.com, the premier digital platform for Springfield, Vermont, today announced a partnership with Braveheart Digital

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Consumer Behavior And Insights

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Consumer Behavior And Insights

In this episode of Five Questions with.. we’re chatting with Captify CEO and co-founder Dom Joseph about how  consumer intent and consumer behavior has changed as a result of  the Coronavirus.

Who is Captify?

Captify is the largest holder of search data outside of Google . We essentially bring in search data from publishers all over the web. Consumers who are searching outside of Amazon and Google for holidays, cars, different types of products, even just researching things in life and so on, we bring all that search data in and then use it to provide ad campaigns and insights to our clients. 

We bring in about 46 billion searches a month and Google does about 110 billion, so it has a relatively large scale, but we’re really focused on consumers who are specifically a little bit further down the funnel. You might actually use Google to research a topic, but since you want to buy something you would actually then go to the next level of publisher or partner, and those are the companies we work with.  It’s the on-site search data from those partners that provides us with the consumer insights.. 

We  provide value to our clients through consumer insights, using the data to derive the interest and intent that users are showing, informing media buying strategies with it. 

For example if you’re looking to sell more cars, it’s helpful to look at how consumers are searching and going through the consideration phase and then engage them across all channels from CTV to video and display native. A true omnichannel view of consumer behavior and the buyer’s journey.

How has coronavirus changed Consumer Behavior?

What we’re seeing is that obviously as Coronavirus broke there was a very abrupt change in consumer behavior. We have moved past the crisis and panic mode, and now we’re seeing a real shift towards people looking for a positive presence in their lives. 

We’re seeing higher trends in movies that provide comedic relief and escapism from the constant barrage of news. I know for one that I’m certainly doing that myself. I’ve stopped watching the news, I’m just tired of seeing day-by-day how many tens of thousands of people are affected, it’s all got a bit too much.

Another change in consumer behavior we are seeing is that consumers are really searching in a different way. We are seeing a huge rise in people searching for specific products, everybody looking for fitness stuff as well as home appliances to really enhance the way they’re spending their lockdown. 

Home office is also a big one, we’ve seen a huge amount of that. We’ve seen a huge amount of spend from our clients in all of these verticals.

So, despite the fact that many advertisers are clearly paused we’re still seeing that actually some of them are going for it in quite a buoyant fashion. Some sectors are clearly going to be in a very good way from this, everybody that’s advertising around food and home office and such, as I said. That’s reflected in the search behavior that we see.

We’re also seeing parents looking for new toys and new methods to entertain their children. Everybody’s starting to run out of ideas now having had this prolonged period indoors. 

I think generally the consumption on the internet and watching videos is so much higher right now too, which in combination with our search data is evolving to the areas I mentioned above. 

We’re also seeing a huge influx in video inventory, which has led to a big opportunity for advertisers to take advantage of perhaps cheaper inventory, and more being available in CTV and so on. That in turn is shifting advertiser patterns as well.

You can hear more of our interview with Dom Joseph on our YouTube channel.

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Should You Be Advertising Right Now?

Digital Marketing

Should You Be Advertising Right Now?

We are a month or so into a Stay at Home order in New England and a like many small business owners you are wondering whether you should pull or pause your ad spending as the COVID-19 crisis puts a strain on your businesses.

The good news is that research shows that your buyers want you to continue to advertise.

A March 2020 survey by GlobalWebIndex asked internet users in 13 markets whether companies should continue advertising as normal. Nearly four in 10 US respondents agreed, and a similar share (35%) were neutral, compared with 28% who disagreed.

These results are similar to what we saw in a survey from Kantar, where just 8% of consumers in 30 countries believed that businesses should not advertising during this crisis. 

This does not mean that your messaging now will be the same as before the pandemic. 

In fact 77% of respondents said they wanted advertising to “talk about how the brand is helpful in the new everyday life,” and 75% said it should “inform about [the brand’s] efforts to face the situation.”

The type of messaging we are seeing work really well right now is advertising that shows that you are part of the community and what you are doing to help your employees, customers and community.

Here is a good example from Ford Credit giving customers that they have some breathing room around their car payments.

Or this tweet from Budweiser announcing they are diverting their sports budgets to crisis aid efforts.

If you have gone dark with your advertising and are ready to emerge stronger and clearer, we can help you. Contact us today to get started.
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B2B Sales – Account Based Marketing

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B2B Sales - Account Based Marketing

In this episode of Five Questions with.. we’re chatting about B2B sales and how to do Account Based Marketing with Andrew Fox from AdDaptive Intelligence

Who is AdDaptive?

AdDaptive is focused on revolutionizing companies’ B2B marketing approaches by reaching niche audiences about midway down the funnel. By advertising only to targeted accounts and decision makes that matter most, they eliminate a lot of wasted ad spend.

Using data to focus on your best targets

Success for any B2B sales or account-based marketing campaigns is measured in the numbers of appointments made or revenue generated. leads and sales.

Quick definition: Account-based marketing, also known as key account marketing or ABM, is a marketing strategy that focuses on a set of target accounts within a market. It uses personalized campaigns designed to engage each account, basing the marketing message on the specific attributes and needs of the account

AdDaptive provides a B2B analysis report that can help you understand your target audience by name, location, NAICS code, revenue, total employees and years in business.

You can select the attributes of the businesses and decision makers you want to reach, or you can onboard your own data to build new custom audiences. With these custom audiences you can amplify the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and deliver better customer experiences, achieving a higher return on your marketing budget.

How is the Corona Virus impacting client’s ABM campaigns?

The approach is still the same in that we’re all people first. There is not a difference between B2B and B2C. It’s just people to people marketing.

Being authentic and emphatic goes a long way.  Connect with people on a human level first. Reach out and touch base with them on a personal basis, making sure they’re okay. Understand that people are taking time to understand this new world because nobody had a global pandemic playbook that they could bring up and start implementing.

As a result, clients are looking for is a consultative approach. They want to know what is going on in their market and when it is safe to launch a new ABM campaign.

What does the future look like for B2B Sales?

It depends what industry you’re in, what business you’re in. Some industries have been hit harder than others and will take longer to bounce back.

Many companies we work with have not cancelled campaigns, they have just pushed them off a few weeks or months. As a result, I do think we’ll have a strong second half of Q2 and then a robust second half of the year.

If you have questions on B2B sales or account-based marketing, please fill out the form below.

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The Three Traffic Sources For Startups

Paid Earned and Owned Traffic

The Three Traffic Sources For Startups

I was recently re-reading Randall Stross’s book, The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Most Exclusive School for Startups. Inside is a quote from Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham about growth rates for start-up

A good growth rate during YC is 5-7% a week. If you can hit 10% a week you’re doing exceptionally well. If you can only manage 1%, it’s a sign you haven’t yet figured out what you’re doing. A 5%-7% weekly growth rate is extremely aggressive but if you want your start-up to get traction in the market, it’s a good growth number to aim for..
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Paul Graham
Y Combinator

The big question then is “how do you do that”?

There are three sources of website traffic for a startup. In order to be successful and meet Paul Graham’s growth target you need to master at least one of these, if not two of these traffic sources.

Rented or Paid Traffic

The first traffic source that most start-ups use is paid traffic. Paid traffic gives you time to allow your other traffic channels to grow and evolve. It allows you to get product market fit, find those those first customers and find out if you have product market fit.

The most common paid traffic sources are Google Adwords (PPC), Facebook ads, display ads, retargeting, paid influencers and paid content promotion.

With paid traffic you are able to contribute content and engage with the audience. You might be able to control the conversation, but you do not own anything else (data, relationship, creativity, etc. etc.). Hence the name rented traffic.

Without the initial steady stream of visitors from paid traffic, you might never get enough data to growth hack your way to success. That is why paid traffic is the most important traffic source for many startups. Over time, that might change, but it is rare to see a startup succeed who does not buy their initial visitors.

Owned Traffic

The second most common traffic source is owned traffic. Owned traffic is traffic from properties that you own. You own the customer relationships. You make the decisions around content, creativity and evolution. The more owned properties you have, the more chances you have to drive traffic to your website.

Examples of owned properties are websites, blogs and customer forums. Social media properties like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter can also be considered as “owned sites”.

One of the most overlooked owned traffic sources is your email list. You have total control over the timing of the messages you send to your subscribers. And when you click “send,” your messages get delivered straight to them.

The challenge for start-ups is that owned traffic takes time. It takes time to organically grow a following via social media or build an email list. That is why owned traffic is usually the second traffic source that startups tackle.

Earned Traffic

The third traffic source is Earned or influenced traffic. This traffic is online word of mouth, usually seen in the form of mentions, shares, reposts, reviews, recommendations, or content picked up by 3rd party sites. It is traffic source that you cannot directly control. For example you cannot directly control whether people will “Like” you on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, and then visit your website and become your customer. Nor can you control whether a a piece of content you have produced goes viral. Earned traffic also includes organic traffic from search engines. Traffic from organic search is considered earned traffic as you cannot control how much traffic the search engines can send you. But like other influenced traffic you can impact this by following SEO best practices. The challenge for startups with earned traffic is that it is too difficult to predicate, especially in the early stages. You cannot build a growth strategy hoping that you make it to the front page of Hacker News or Business Insider. That is why this is usually the third traffic channel that startups focus on.
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Why Do Jewelry Stores Fail at Storytelling?

Why Do Jewelry Stores Fail at Storytelling?

There are few purchases in our life that emote more emotion than jewelry. We buy jewelry to mark significant dates in their lives – engagements, weddings, birthdays, anniversary’s, promotions, etc.

Each jewelry purchase has a backstory, which is why I am astonished to find online jewelry stores focus just on the product and not the emotional connection with the piece of jewelry.

Take Blue Nile for example. One of their featured products on their home page is a Aquamarine and Diamond Halo Loop Dangle Pendant which sells for $2,300.

Blue Nile Pendant

These are the words that Blue Nile uses to sell this beautiful pendant:

This beautiful drop pendant showcases an exceptional pear-shaped aquamarine gemstone suspended from a delicate diamond loop halo of brilliant diamonds set in 18k white gold.

That’s it? Just 25-words. Cold and sterile is what comes to mind when I look at this page.

Its not just Blue Nile that does this. Look at Cartier one of the premier brands in the world.

There is no price on these beautiful earrings, but you can be sure they cost a pretty penny. And Cartier displays these earrings with 55 words and one picture. Not very compelling.

Compare those two examples with how Rolex positions its watches.

Rolex Watch

Notice the difference? Rolex uses lots of pictures and 439 words to evoke why you want to own this particular watch? See the difference in language here between the Blue Nile page and the Rolex page? Blue Nile uses very few words that are product specific. While Rolex talks a lot about the product, it is also using evocative language to make you feel invested in the product.

There was a great interview recently on eMarketer with Simon Sproule, Aston Martin’s global director of marketing and communications, about advertising to high-net-worth consumers.

While Aston Martin are focused on the luxury market there are learnings from their approach to storytelling that is applicable to all companies in all markets, especially Jewelry retailers.

Aston Martin’s approach to storytelling and marketing is based on this according to Sproule:

“If you’re talking about content in the sort of broader sense of the term, storytelling is the way in which we engage with the high-net-worth market on a personal basis. There’s a baseline to the brand, which is a story and a set of values that we tell consistently around the world. One of the hallmarks of the great luxury brands, of great brands in general, is the consistency of storytelling.”
Simon Sproule
Aston Martin’s global director of marketing and communications

If your jewelry store does not have a story to tell about your products then they are just selling another commodity. You have no way to differentiate your brand or your business. Creating a brand story is about building something that people care about and want to buy into.

It’s about thinking beyond the utility and functionality of products and services and striving for the creation of loyalty and meaningful bonds with your customers.

A brand story is not just a catchy tagline that’s pasted on a billboard to attract attention for a week or two. Your story is the foundation of your brand and a strategy for future growth.

What story are you telling your customers?

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Inbound Marketing ROI Unlocks Budget

Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing ROI Unlocks Budget

A 2018 study from Hubspot illustrates that companies see higher ROI as a result of their inbound marketing practices.

A survey of over 6,200 marketing and sales professionals in 99 countries showed that over 53% of marketers see a higher ROI from inbound marketing tactics than from outbound.

Higher ROI from inbound marketing

The higher ROI is resulting in higher budgets, with 46% of teams have higher budgets in 2018.

Higher Inbound Marketing Budgets
Where are marketers spending this increased budget? One area is video channels
Marketing investing in video
However, what is really interesting is the difference in enthusiasm around video the C-Suite to individual contributors but also the difference in opinion about what are the best distribution channels to use.
Where to invest in video

The Inbound Sales Process

The first step to understanding your inbound marketing ROI is to understand what your sales funnel looks like. A typical client inbound marketing funnel looks like this:

Inbound Marketing Sales Process

Identify

Identifying the right business opportunities from the start can be the difference between a thriving business and a failing one. Knowing what to look for also helps salespeople create a predictable, scalable sales funnel.

Connect

Inbound salespeople connect with leads to help them decide whether they should prioritize the goal or challenge they’re facing. If the buyer decides to do so, these leads become qualified leads.

Explore

Inbound salespeople explore their qualified leads’ goals or challenges to assess whether their offering is a good fit.

Advise

Inbound salespeople advise prospects on why their solution is uniquely positioned to address the buyer’s needs.

For the three areas (identify, connect and explore), use your analytics data to determine what your average conversion rate is for each category then compare it to the tangible fourth category—advise.

As you go through this process, working backward in some cases, you’ll discover a dollar expenditure that applies to each bucket into which you can split your inbound marketing efforts.

After that, demonstrating ROI is as simple as comparing those numbers to the amount of sales those efforts generated. If the number is positive, then the budget should be increased.

 Contact us today and let us work with you to measure the ROI of your inbound marketing efforts. 

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Creating Killer Buyer Personas

Guide to creating killer buyer personas

Creating Killer Buyer Personas

Buyer personas are representations of your ideal customers. They help you understand your customers (and prospective customers) and make it easier for you to develop content tailored to the specific needs, behaviors, and concerns of your ideal customers.

The best buyer personas are based on market research and insights you gather from your actual customer base (through surveys, interviews, etc).

Depending on your business, you could have as few as one or two personas or as many as 10 or 20.

Buyer Personas include:

Buyer personas are not:

While we develop a buyer persona that represents your ideal customer, we also develop a negative persona representing undesirable customers. Negative personas may include potential customers who are not economic buyers of your services.

How do you use buyer personas?

Buyer personas allow you to personalize or target your marketing for different segments of your audience. For example, instead of sending the same email to everyone in your database, you can segment by buyer persona and tailor your messaging according to what you know about each audience member.

How do you create buyer personas?

Buyer Personas Example:

Background (job/family/career path/education)

  • Head of Human Resources
  • Worked at the same company for 10 years; worked her way up from HR Associate
  • Married with 2 children (10 and 8)

Demographics: M/F/Age/Income/Location

  • Skews female
  • Age 30-45
  • Dual HH Income: $140,000
  • Suburban

Identifiers: Demeanor/Communication preferences

  • Calm demeanor
  • Probably has an assistant screening calls
  • Asks to receive collateral mailed/printed

Goals: Primary goal, secondary goal

  • Keep employees happy and turnover low
  • Support legal and finance teams

Challenges: Primary challenge, secondary challenge

  • Getting everything done with a small staff
  • Rolling out changes to the entire company

What can we do? To help them achieve their goals and overcome their challenges

  • Make it easy to manage all employee data in one place
  • Integrate with legal and finance teams’ systems

Real quotes:About goals/challenges etc

  • “It’s been difficult getting company-wide adoption of new technologies in the past.”
  • “I don’t have time to train new employees on a million different databases and platforms.”
  • “I’ve had to deal with so many painful integrations with other departments’ databases and software.”

Common objections: Why wouldn’t they buy your product/service

  • I’m worried I’ll lose data transitioning to a new system.
  • I don’t want to have to train the entire company on how to use a new system.

Marketing message: How should you describe your solution to your persona?

  • Integrated HR Database Management

Elevator pitch: Sell your persona on your solution

  • We give you an intuitive database that integrates with your existing software and platforms, and lifetime training to help new employees get up to speed quickly.
By developing buyer personas, you focus on the objections and challenges that your target audience has. This allows you to clarify your marketing message and elevator pitch so you can more effectively communicate with prospective clients. To get started with your buyer personas and your digital marketing program, contact us today.
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