MarketingExperiments.com Web Clinic Podcasts

Are you missing sales by chasing after conversions instead of generating leads? Is your website out of synch with your business model? Getting prospective customers to land on your pages is just the beginning. You have to capture leads before you can develop a relationship. In this clinic, we will look at the results of recent optimization testing and what they showed us about improving lead generation, and therefore conversion.

Professional marketers have long known the importance of knowing and being able to convey the Unique Value Proposition for their company or organization. Many will spend weeks and months tuning and refining their "UVP" statements. And it IS truly essential that you have, and can concisely state a unique and compelling value proposition. However, effectively expressing your value proposition through your website involves more than just the words you use. Every aspect of your site is communicating your value proposition and conflicting messages may be hurting your conversion. Marketers must understand how to protect their landing pages against the #1 threat to conversion: SITE FLOW DISRUPTION. In this clinic we will reveal how the two dangerous forms of disruption - Discontinuity and Incongruence - can keep customers from responding to your value proposition.

What do you do with a test when conversion rates don't validate? We have all probably designed a test webpage or offer email that we expected to dramatically outperform the control and been stunned when performance was poor, or the results came back inconclusive.

Through online optimization testing, we strive to discover which webpage or email message will perform best by trying each version with a random sample of target prospects.We decide during test design how much difference we must see to warrant making a change, and what level of confidence we need to consider the data "valid" using statistical methods. But is sample size the only factor that should be considered when assessing the validity of our test results? In this clinic, we will identify the four greatest threats to test validity, and look at some case studies that reveal the dangers of relying on a "statistically valid" sample alone.

Anyone who has set up or managed a paid search campaign can testify that there is an element of art involved in realizing the full potential of every advertising dollar. Part of mastering this art form is understanding the nature and role of relevance in paid search, and more importantly learning how you can use this understanding to improve the performance of your paid search campaigns. In this clinic, we will look at several case studies that reveal the underlying principles of PPC relevance as they pertain to keywords, ad copy, click-through-rate, and conversion.

We are all familiar with the concept of using incentives, such as product discounts, free gifts or free shipping, to boost sales. However, rarely have we done the kind of research that allows us to think through the true principles and the mathematics of developing highly effective incentives - that is, ones that result in the maximum profit at the end of the day. In this clinic, we combine foundational marketing and business principles with recent research findings to explore a simple but effective way to track down your "ideal incentive" using the two key criteria of Perceived Value Differential and Return on Incentive.

When prospective customers arrive at a website, they come with a specific intention or motivation. They may have come simply to browse or out of curiosity or by mistake. However, many come with the intention of making a purchase. For those prospects, it is the efficacy of the website’s purchase funnel--the pages that make up the buying process--that determine whether the visitor becomes a customer or merely a statistic. Among the factors that influence the probability of conversion, an element we have called "friction" is key for us as marketers. The reason is that, unlike Motivation or the product factors of Value Proposition, Friction is something that we can significantly influence with comparatively little energy or cost; and the conversion gains we receive can be disproportionately high compared with the level of investment.

As marketers we simply can’t afford to ignore growing social media marketing opportunities. While social media is never a total marketing solution, this niche area of marketing comes with a new set of theories, tactics and methodologies that every marketer should be aware of. For the past 12 months, we have used video sites, blogs, social networks and discussion forums to drive targeted traffic to five different sites. This clinic will cover how researchers drove 165,204 page views and spent only 1.7 cents per click driving traffic using social media optimization. It will also help marketers consider the role and use of social media optimization in their strategic marketing plans.

Which will perform better, a landing page that has one clear objective or one that has multiple objectives? As marketers, we are continually faced with the dilemma of determining what to show customer prospects when they arrive at our sites. Should we present them with just one offer or option, or give them several and let them choose? What if I have what they want, but fail to show it? Do customer options and distracting page elements cause confusion? In this brief, we use recent research with real-world companies to illustrate 5 fundamental principles of landing page clarity that you should use to maximize conversion.

In this clinic we identify the essential elements of website conversion and use them to design "sticky" landing pages that maximize clickthrough to your order process

In this clinic we will study the factors that determine the efficacy of online marketing Email copy at generating clicks and sales. During the Live Clinic, Dr. McGlaughlin shares the findings of MEC's research on Email copy effectiveness and illustrates the principles of effective Email copy writing to optimize actual messages submitted by MEC Journal members.

In this clinic we will study the factors that determine the efficacy of online marketing Email copy at generating clicks and sales. During the Live Clinic, Dr. McGlaughlin shares the findings of MEC's research on Email copy effectiveness and illustrates the principles of effective Email copy writing to optimize actual messages submitted by MEC Journal members.

Content advertising has become a staple of online paid advertising. In fact, presuming Google AdSense is reflective of the marketplace, of the more than $6.7B spent on search-related online advertising in 2006 according to March, 2007 IAB figures, about 37% or $2.5B will go to content ads. Does whether a content ad or offer link stands out from or blends into the host site's native content make a difference in its performance? New Marketing Experiments research suggests that the answer is...

The architecture we use to manage our business may not be the same structure we should use to market it. Our business is to serve our customers, make it easy for them to get what they want, and create an image of class and competence that elicits goodwill.

In this brief we will look at how customer anxiety level, based upon the appearance of your landing page, will influence buyers' perceptions about you, and how these impressions translate into purchase decisions. We will also provide 7 essential ways to reduce anxiety and improve site conversion