Category Archive for "E-business"

Many internet entrepreneurs upload a Landing Page and then wait for the money to roll in.

But usually, even if they get a good number of clicks from referral sources like PPC ads or AdWords, the visitors would not turn into subscribers, or buyers. They would not “convert.”

Here are three things you can do to increase your conversion rate.

1) Make sure the copy of your AdWord and the Title of the Landing Page are identical or use the same key phrases. Otherwise, your visitors will think they are not quite at the page they thought they would be. Disappointed visitors hesitate to do your bid.

For example, if your AdWord copy reads “Free Vacation” your Landing Page title should also read “Free Vacation” but NOT “Free Getaway” or “All Expenses Paid Vacation” etc.

2) Do NOT include ANY navigational links on the Landing Page. There should be ONLY ONE link — the button that you want your visitors to click, or the form that you want them to fill and its SUBMIT button.

If you give your visitors any chance to wonder around and “explore” other alternatives they will.

3) Personalize your registration form (if you have any) or the action button by publishing the photo of a good-looking Host, or your own photo.

The research shows that visitors convert at higher rates if they feel that the Landing Page is operated by warm-blooded humans like themselves but not by a cold server sending pages from the top of a dusty server rack somewhere.

If you are marketing your products and services through email, AOL’s proprietary mail system is your biggest challenge, whether you are aware of it or not.

Why? Because AOL has the highest percentage of rejects or “bounce-backs” according to a survey conducted by Dot Email among email marketers.

38.4% of those surveyed said AOL has the lowest mail delivery rate, in contrast to the Gmail which has the highest: only 7.1% said they experienced any problems with delivery.

These managers said MSN/Hotmail had the second highest mail-reject rate (21.4% of those surveyed) followed by Earthlink (17 %) and Yahoo (16 %).

AOL’s high rejection rate reflects how tough its spam filter is.

Thus the challenge for the email marketers is finding a way to make sure their opted-in AOL subscribers do receive their mail.

The solution is to include a detailed and clear white-listing procedure in your autoresponder or subscription form copy so that the members of AOL and other ISPs (like Earthlink) will know exactly how to clear and assign your mail to their “friends” or “save sender” list.

The extra work you will do in the front-end by including a clear step-by-step description of white-listing your delivery will payoff a big dividend in the back-end in terms of a higher rate of deliverability.

Social marketing platforms like MySpace (202 million members) and Facebook (46 million members) are getting more important by the month.

According to World Metrix, MySpace has received 106 million and Facebook 69 million clicks in August 2007. You have to respect numbers like that.

As the numbers tell, Facebook members are a more dedicated and passionate bunch because half of them are college students. They are major consumers of all kinds of electronics and gadgets, clothing and fashion, sports and entertainment — yet they are also an opinionated group.

If you make the decision to establish your footprint on Facebook you have to be very careful and play by the rules. Otherwise it may backfire on you.

Target, for example, is one company that managed to crack Facebook’s social code and accepted the necessity of becoming a part of the discourse before trying to sell anything.

It was a low key approach, built on the realization that college/dorm/campus experience is basically a somewhat lonely and scary experience for kids who are away from their homes for the first time in their lives.

By addressing their campus problems and concerns, Target succeeded in gaining acceptance and then offering its catalog as a “solution” to such issues.

Wall-Mart, on the other hand, neglected the specific characteristic of the youth group that Facebook caters to. It didn’t take long for Wall-Mart to realize that just offering dirt cheap products was not enough to win on Facebook.

On the contrary, the company suddenly became a target for its anti-union policy and the way it shoved small businesses and mom-and-pop stores into bankruptcy. Wall-Mart quickly shut off its discussion board but the damage was done.

McDonald’s received a similar cold shoulder on the Facebook for various reasons.

If you are considering to hang your corporate shingle on Facebook, be prepared to listen first and listen a lot before opening your mouth to praise your wares.

That’s one platform where it helps to stay low and lurk in the shadows for a while to understand the lingo, the issues and and the user profile before stepping up to the podium.