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Timothy Kerber (CEO of MemberGate Solutions), moderated a panel at Affiliate Summit West 2012 consisting of Mike Allen, (Shopping-Bargains.com), Tim Ash (SiteTuners and author of Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions) and Jennifer Myers Ward (ebove & beyond) on How to Quadruple Revenue Using Existing Traffic.
While the target audience was listed as affiliates / publishers, I personally think merchants who attended got more out of the content, as affiliates can pre-sell then direct the user where to buy, but it’s the merchant who can really increase revenue via cross-sells, upsells and a simple checkout process.
Here are my notes from the session, slightly cleaned up and important parts highlighted
- Split-testing
- Multiple versions of the same page, randomly show to visitors
- Tools
- Google Website Optimizer (free)
- Integrated w/ Google Analytics
- Unbounce
- Optimizely
- Google Website Optimizer (free)
- Affiliates give good traffic to back merchant (advertiser)
- Lengthy content / hard to read content
- Don’t require a login for guests to buy
- Don’t keep secrets (show return policy and shipping charges clearly)
- Keep it simple
- Navigation is a roadmap, not a puzzle
- Quick read show content as an outline, not an essay
- Continue to sell to your customers
- Leverage cross sells & upsells
- If selling a suit, recommend a tie. If buying a tie, don’t recommend a suit!
- See: GoDaddy
- Be intelligent
- Put 1 upsell on the thank-you page
- Have a strong offer give them something they can’t get anywhere else
- Google is OK with testing, but permanently put winning version live
- Don’t cloak, bait & switch
- Be the expert
- Become an authority
- Embrace tough questions
- Find solutions
- Establish trust
- Leverage your Advantage
- Build partner relationships
- Offer something exclusive
- data / wisdom / analysis
- coupons
- access
- you!
- Be unique
- Give something away
- provide real answers
- demonstrate trust
- Honest comparisons
- Reviews & ratings
- If you have side by side options, show the most expensive one first.
- Quality Imagery
- Photos, screenshots
- Provide details
- Gently lead
- Don’t force the sale
- Not everyone buys the first time
- Social media
- Newsletters
- Customer service
- Say Thank You
- Help your users succeed
- Survey your users
- Focus on goals
- Seek advice from others
- Make adjustments as necessary
- Wash, rinse, repeat
- Make your call to action clear
- Declutter
- Ask for less info
- Absolutely necessary
- Current transaction
- Cut Down on your text
- People don’t read on the web
- They scan, look for places to click, look at photos
- People don’t read on the web
- Best Digital Cameras consumers reports example
- As seen on media logos
- Over 200 satisfied clients
- Download statistics (social proof)
- AttentionWizard.com
- Upload screenshot, get predictions
Comments
James Seligman
Some great little nuggets in there. Looks like my whiteboard just got a little more crowded.
*Seems like whenever I take notes, I can never read them when I get back home.
James Martell
It sounds like it was a great session. I am sorry to have missed it.
Mike Allen
Nice post, Eric. Thanks for sharing.
One comment I wanted to add during our presentation but couldn’t remember at the time when asked about alternatives to Google Analytics . . . is Performancing Metrics (PMetrics) – http://pmetrics.performancing.com/. They have a nice free version and some very inexpensive pro options. Very easy to use and some really good data!
Eric Nagel
I’ve been meaning to check out http://piwik.org/ – since I tag each visitor with an ID, and pass that as a subID, I could then take network revenue figures and push them back into the analytics. I don’t think I can push figures back into GA at a later time
Mike Allen
AffiliateReporting.com has some great tools (premium) for subID tracking via affiliate networks.