Conversion Optimization: The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers

by Khalid Saleh, Ayat Shukairy

Overview

How do you turn website visitors into customers?

Conversion Optimization offers practical advice on how to persuade visitors to make a buying decision -- without driving them away through data overload or tedious navigation. You'll learn how to use marketing principles, design, usability, and analytics on your site to increase your buyer-to-visitor ratio, whether you're involved with marketing or designing a large ecommerce site, or managing a modest online operation.

Based on the authors' broad experience in helping businesses attract online customers, this book addresses every aspect of the process, from landing visitors to finalizing the sale. You'll learn several techniques for blending successful sales approaches with the particular needs of the people you want to attract. Are you ready to do what it takes to get a double-digit conversion rate?

• Explore case studies involving significant conversion rate improvements
• Walk through different stages of a sale and understand the value of each
• Understand your website visitors through persona creation
• Connect with potential customers and guide them toward a conversion
• Learn how to deal with FUDs -- customer fears, uncertainties, and doubts
• Examine the path that visitors take from landing page to checkout
• Test any change you make against your original design

"The Web is unique in its ability to deliver this almost improbable win-win: You can increase revenue AND make your customers happy. Yet most websites stink. Worry not, Khalid and Ayat to the rescue! Buy this book to follow their practical advice on how to create high converting websites that your visitors love."--Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0 and Web Analytics: An Hour A Day (both Sybex)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449397692
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Khalid Saleh is co-founder of Invesp, an ecommerce optimization company. He has more than 12 years of experience in ecommerce architecture, design and implementation, and is an in-demand speaker at industry events such as Emetrics, SMX, Conversion conference, DMA, PubCon and ACCM. Khalid is also the chief architect behind the first conversion optimization intelligence platform.

Ayat Shukairy is co-founder of Invesp, and focuses on website usability and online persuasion. She is a frequent speaker at industry events such as Search Engine Strategies and Web 2.0. Ayat is regularly quoted in publications including Internet Retailer, Retail wire, and Medill. Ayat is Invesp’s lead conversion architect helping companies such as HowStuffWorks, RHDJapan, and Home Gallery Stores generate an average 65% improvement in conversion rates and online revenue.

Table of Contents

Advance Praise for Conversion Optimization; Dedication; Preface; How Should You Read This Book?; Who Should Read This Book?; Who Should Not Read This Book?; About the Examples in This Book; If You Like (or Don’t Like) This Book; How to Contact Us; Safari® Books Online; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: The Journey from Clicks to Sales; 1.1 Converting Visitors to Buyers; 1.2 Landing Pages; 1.3 Fifteen Years of Change; 1.4 Conversion Rates; 1.5 What You Can Accomplish; Chapter 2: The Numbers Behind Your Website; 2.1 Macro Conversions; 2.2 Key Performance Indicators; 2.3 Micro Conversions; 2.4 Building Budgets for Ecommerce Sites with Conversion Rates; 2.5 Lifetime Value (LTV) of a Customer; 2.6 Budgeting for Lead Generation Sites; 2.7 Monetization Models and Conversion Rates; 2.8 Bounce Rate; 2.9 Exit Rate; 2.10 Quality of Traffic (Visitors); 2.11 Resources; Chapter 3: Getting to Know Your Customers: Developing Personas; 3.1 What Are Personas?; 3.2 Benefits of Personas; 3.3 Market Segmentation Versus Persona Development; 3.4 A Case Against Personas; 3.5 Back to the Basics: Creating Customer Profiles; 3.6 Brief History of the Four Temperaments; 3.7 The Four Temperaments and Personas; 3.8 Putting It All Together; 3.9 Your Website from a Different Perspective; 3.10 Personas and Copy; 3.11 Adjusting Your Selling Process Through Personas; Chapter 4: From Confidence to Trust; 4.1 Value Proposition; 4.2 Continuity; 4.3 Congruency; 4.4 Social Proof; 4.5 Membership/Professional Organizations or Affiliations; 4.6 External Reputation; 4.7 Design Aspects; Chapter 5: Understanding the Buying Stages; 5.1 Deciphering the Buying Stages Online; 5.2 Complexity of the Product and the Buying Funnel; Chapter 6: FUDs; 6.1 The Buying Decision and FUDs; 6.2 Getting “Personal” with FUDs; Chapter 7: Appealing with Incentives; 7.1 What Are Incentives?; 7.2 Incentives Versus Value Proposition; 7.3 Positioning Incentives; 7.4 Behavioral Incentives; 7.5 How to Apply Incentives; 7.6 Additional Tips for Using Incentives; Chapter 8: Engagement; 8.1 Measuring the Effectiveness of Engagement; 8.2 Social Media; 8.3 Customer Reviews; 8.4 Cross-Sells and Upsells; 8.5 Customer Feedback Tools; 8.6 Informational Videos; 8.7 Virtual Closets; 8.8 Virtual Help; Chapter 9: Testing: The Voice of Visitors; 9.1 The Basics of Testing; 9.2 Creating a Successful Test; 9.3 Forty-Nine Things You Can Test on Your Website; Chapter 10: Be Iterative; 10.1 When Conversion Optimization Succeeds; 10.2 When Conversion Optimization Fails; 10.3 The Upward Spiral; Colophon;