term web log, a blog is a website published using easy self-service tools featuring text, graphics and videos on subject-matter important to the blog creator. Blogs typically include short commentary or news on a particular subject and are extremely important in engaging your audience. Blogging is also a great method to generate traffic from search engines.
Offline Marketing – an economical and often overlooked method of driving traffic to a website is publishing your website address in strategic locations offline. Traditional retailers have a strong advantage in converting store traffic into online traffic via signage, register receipts and shopping bags. Where can you publish your website to drive traffic offline to online?
Word of Mouth – referrals from friends, colleagues and relatives serve as the single, most-influential source of traffic to a website. Some marketers call this “Viral Marketing” as the word about your website can spread like a virus. This is a good thing! Respected referrals are the most effective method of driving sales conversions.
Conversion Loop Step 2 – RSVP
Once visitors become aware of what you do and the goods you offer on your site, you can confirm their desire – or get their RSVP. In the Conversion Loop, this is called Data Capture and Permission to Engage. People who opt-in to get email from your company have elected to receive information from your company.
Getting email permissions or Fans/Follows/Likes is key.
In Conversion Marketing, we call these people Interested Visitors. This process weeds out those who aren’t interested or aren’t able to come to the party. It gives you a pool of resources to work with and a way to maximize your focus. It gives you an audience to tell your story to.
Once you’ve acquired Permission to Engage, you’ll need to apply certain techniques when collecting your visitors’ data. You want to ask your visitors for enough information to target your marketing, but not so much that it intimidates them.
“Data acquisition increases only up to a point.”
People are often glad to give you their first name and email address. Asking for personal or lifestyle information can sometimes have the opposite effect of what you want to achieve. When the questions you’re asking become too invasive, participation drops off, and there’s a sharp decline in traffic. By asking non-personal questions, you can get more data from Visitors and a stronger likelihood that they’ll come back to you. Here are a few questions that are okay to ask in an online survey:
 | First Name |
| Email address |
| Zip code |
| Gender |
| Preference questions, such as likes and dislikes. |
Once you’ve captured data from your Visitors, you can segment your email list into groups, enabling you to send the most pertinent information possible to the interests of each group. For instance, if you operate a sporting goods store, you may not want to send weight lifting product offers to the golfers in your email database. The goal is to maximize the rate that your emails are opened to get return visits to your website. Targeting your audience with relevant information or product offerings will move people to pay attention to your messages.
Conversion Loop Step 3 – Confirmation
You’ve attracted people to your website. You’ve narrowed down your prospects to include only Interested Visitors, and you have their permission to engage. Next comes the engagement, or confirmation. In the Conversion Loop, it’s called Repetition. Less than two percent of first-time visitors purchase on the first visit to an unfamiliar website.
Less than 2% of first-time visitors purchase on the first visit to an unfamiliar website.
Establishing a bond of trust takes Repetition or a series of repeated exposures to your messages, brand or products. Your Interested Visitors have to get used to the idea of owning your product. It has to become comfortable. In fact, it has to be downright cozy before they’ll part with their hard-earned cash. Traditional branding studies show that it takes several branding exposures to achieve trust. This means that in order to trust you enough to buy from your company, your Interested Visitors must have repeated exposures to your message to build that relationship. Odds are they won’t do purchase on their own. You need to confirm with your visitors, using repetition, to stimulate purchase intent. You need to engage them again and again.
You have their permission and your audience wants to hear from you – they gave it to you back in Step 2. If you invest the effort in your Interested Visitors, they become repeat visitors to your website through the Repetition process. That means the two of you get acquainted, and they get comfortable with the idea of owning your goods (or coming to your party).
Here are some effective tools used in the Repetition process to create a positive response from your Interested Visitors and convert them into customers.
| Email newsletter with reminders of who you are |
| Social Media messages keep your message in front of consumers |
| Special offers to entice repeat visits |
| Compelling content relevant to their lifestyle or profession. Consider using articles, industry research, videos or audios recordings. |
Only a few people will buy the first time they visit a website – but they do buy! One key to creating a profitable website is to create an emotional attachment or a relationship with your company. Have you ever tried to create an emotional response from someone when face-to-face? What kind of things would you do to create an emotional response? Creating an emotional attachment can be a challenge face-to-face but how can you create emotion, like excitement or fear, in an impersonal online environment? Let’s explore 3 ideas used to create DESIRE online.
1. Emotional attachment
Testimonials – show pictures and statements from people who are delighted customers. People will gravitate to images or titles of people to whom they feel they can relate. Use imagery of people representative of your target audience who have had a need fulfilled by your product or service.
Security – you can help people feel rest assured with their purchase decision by providing these assurances:
| 100% satisfaction guarantee |
| Money-back policy |
| 30-day return policy, no questions asked |
Credit card logos – surprising studies have proven that products sell 25% more, in terms of the dollar value, when a credit-card logo is displayed near the point of purchase. People understand that if they’re not satisfied, they can use their credit-card issuer as leverage to get purchases refunded which do not meet expectations.
2. Relevance
Your website can be equipped with simple, yet effective tools which help your Visitors