The power of SPLIT TESTING.
Q:What is split testing?
A: Rather than changing the whole of your booking process or the copy on your website, you should first test to see if conversions or page views increase or decrease because of the changes you've made. Sometimes even small changes to a website can make a significant change, however these changes can adversely effect the site which the site owner or webmaster wouldn't have envisaged.
Don't Rush
What webmasters believe will benefit the website may not be necessarily so and certainly may not be what the customer wants - SO - split test.
How?
Take a specific product and make the changes to the booking for that product only, hopefully you'll already know how that product performs so you'll be able to compare figures after the implementation and see if it has improved sales or reduced them.
Example
It's been said that a button saying "book now" or "buy now" isn't as successful as " add to cart" or "add to basket" so don't rush to your site and start changing buttons willy nilly, split test - change half your products to a new button for a couple of weeks and see the results, if it's not positive then revert back to the original button.
Continual Improvement
Once you've added a new method to your site and tested then leave it a while and then see if you can improve on it, never stop testing or trying to improve the buying process. Once sales are up then start sourcing new ideas and start improving again, then split test to see how that method performs.
All of these techniques come under the "conversion" or "call to action" umbrella and are the difference between a well managed site and a poorly managed site.
Ask
Have you got reliable customers, have you got a great rapport with certain customers? if so - ask them what they think of the new methods, listen to their views - reward them for their time but do get their feedback, it's the customer that matters.
Send out a survey, get a general feedback - ask, ask and ask.
Ending Notes
Never take for granted that the final version is the best - always check your competitors, when shopping on other sites always make notes of good ideas, websites are never finished they are work in practice.
Good luck
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Sunday, 8 March 2009
SEO monthly costs, search engine optimisation explained
SEO & Internet Marketing
Lets say you've chosen your Internet marketing company, you're happy with the package and the manner in which the seo work will take place, you've contacted them to discuss the price and are hit with an initial set up cost and then a figure for monthly payments - what the hell is this? you may wonder.
Well - SEO isn't a method or a technique that is performed overnight and that takes a minute or two to create great ranking results - lets look a bit further into what a quality seo company does to get YOU customers
Setting up SEO campaigns and their costs
The most important part of an SEO campaign is the initial setting up, This alone is a highly involved procedure that will benefit everyone, even the seo company - not in a financial way but in an information gaining way, an seo company needs to know about your business so it can structure it's seo campaign around that - it needs to research your competitors, learn about your goals & targets, it also has to look into your target audience and then determine what keywords they're typing in the search engines to find product and services such as yours. This information is key to a successful SEO campaign, however it does take up a lot of time and resources so a setting up cost is required but this will be money well spent. Without a setting up and evaluating your business an seo campaign will be meaningless.
Monthly SEO costs
Once the campaign is running and techniques have been administered, results will be scrutinized and further adjustments will be made to the site to respond to the results, any campaign that is to be successful will take months of researching, tweaking adding and removing certain elements to the campaign and website and it's these important elements that incurs a monthly cost, however don't gasp at these monthly fees which can range from £100 to £1000's as your increase in sales will far outweigh the monthly payments, you'll most probably after seeing the results and increase in sales will want more seo work done so that you can capitalise on the increase in visitors and sales. You'll get back far more than what you put in.
Call to Action
Any SEO company worth it's salt will give your website a survey and will probably recommend adjusting aspects of your site so that it will help convert customers into sales, why have all of this work done only to find your website isn't converting as well as it should - listen to the advice of the seo company and start improving your websites - sales process, usability, credibility and all round ease of browsing.
If you take your business seriously then don't discount or ignore this important marketing service - it could cost you your business.
Hope this has been helpful, and happy trading.
Lets say you've chosen your Internet marketing company, you're happy with the package and the manner in which the seo work will take place, you've contacted them to discuss the price and are hit with an initial set up cost and then a figure for monthly payments - what the hell is this? you may wonder.
Well - SEO isn't a method or a technique that is performed overnight and that takes a minute or two to create great ranking results - lets look a bit further into what a quality seo company does to get YOU customers
Setting up SEO campaigns and their costs
The most important part of an SEO campaign is the initial setting up, This alone is a highly involved procedure that will benefit everyone, even the seo company - not in a financial way but in an information gaining way, an seo company needs to know about your business so it can structure it's seo campaign around that - it needs to research your competitors, learn about your goals & targets, it also has to look into your target audience and then determine what keywords they're typing in the search engines to find product and services such as yours. This information is key to a successful SEO campaign, however it does take up a lot of time and resources so a setting up cost is required but this will be money well spent. Without a setting up and evaluating your business an seo campaign will be meaningless.
Monthly SEO costs
Once the campaign is running and techniques have been administered, results will be scrutinized and further adjustments will be made to the site to respond to the results, any campaign that is to be successful will take months of researching, tweaking adding and removing certain elements to the campaign and website and it's these important elements that incurs a monthly cost, however don't gasp at these monthly fees which can range from £100 to £1000's as your increase in sales will far outweigh the monthly payments, you'll most probably after seeing the results and increase in sales will want more seo work done so that you can capitalise on the increase in visitors and sales. You'll get back far more than what you put in.
Call to Action
Any SEO company worth it's salt will give your website a survey and will probably recommend adjusting aspects of your site so that it will help convert customers into sales, why have all of this work done only to find your website isn't converting as well as it should - listen to the advice of the seo company and start improving your websites - sales process, usability, credibility and all round ease of browsing.
If you take your business seriously then don't discount or ignore this important marketing service - it could cost you your business.
Hope this has been helpful, and happy trading.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
email marketing, direct mail services, enewsletters
What an affordable method to keep in contact with your customer's, this method is such an overlooked or unknown system of improving your company's sales.
Half way there
You're already connected to the converted as they most probably signed up to your newsletter list, previously bought a product from you or even just enquired, with some basic info such as an email address you can send targeted, interesting and relevant email newsletters to your customers inbox.
General construction of a newsletter
First rule is to have a great subject title that will catch their eye and lead them to open the email, once you've accomplished this you now have to dazzle them with great headlines, a few relevant pictures and then most importantly exclusive money off deals for the product that they're interested in, make it exclusive by a week or so, let them be the first to get the money off bargain, let them know only a few are remaining - push them into buying that product there and then.
Don't just sell add some free info, tip and advice or write a small paragraph on how your company is doing, thank your customer's for their continual support and custom.
Targeted customers
Intelligent email marketing can also be broken into sub categories, maybe based on the region they live, the type of product they had previously purchased, this can be more successful than a general email newsletter to everyone.
Email marketing split testing
Try different email techniques to determine which was opened more, brought in more click through rates and obviously which brought in more purchases. Send them out mid week then test, next time send out in the weekend, then test. Don't ever stop testing - it will pay off and you'll begin to build slick email marketing campaigns every time.
Hope this gives you a quick insight into the powers of email marketing.
Half way there
You're already connected to the converted as they most probably signed up to your newsletter list, previously bought a product from you or even just enquired, with some basic info such as an email address you can send targeted, interesting and relevant email newsletters to your customers inbox.
General construction of a newsletter
First rule is to have a great subject title that will catch their eye and lead them to open the email, once you've accomplished this you now have to dazzle them with great headlines, a few relevant pictures and then most importantly exclusive money off deals for the product that they're interested in, make it exclusive by a week or so, let them be the first to get the money off bargain, let them know only a few are remaining - push them into buying that product there and then.
Don't just sell add some free info, tip and advice or write a small paragraph on how your company is doing, thank your customer's for their continual support and custom.
Targeted customers
Intelligent email marketing can also be broken into sub categories, maybe based on the region they live, the type of product they had previously purchased, this can be more successful than a general email newsletter to everyone.
Email marketing split testing
Try different email techniques to determine which was opened more, brought in more click through rates and obviously which brought in more purchases. Send them out mid week then test, next time send out in the weekend, then test. Don't ever stop testing - it will pay off and you'll begin to build slick email marketing campaigns every time.
Hope this gives you a quick insight into the powers of email marketing.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
SEO, Internet Marketing for Holiday & Travel Websites
We're pleased to announce that our Bronze, Silver & Gold holiday & travel SEO packages are now published, the three search engine optimisation packages are:
Bronze Package
Designed to increase visitors and bookings for holiday property owners such as Gite complexes, Villas and farmhouses, the prices are very affordable and ideal for the expat or second home owner.
Silver Package
Perfect for the small to medium sized holiday and travel business, ideal for an established business that has overheads and needs a significant increase in company and brand exposure resulting in an increase in bookings.
Gold Package
An extended package suitable for the large corporate holiday and travel companies that require in-depth SEO to enhance all search engine listings for their holiday categories.
For full details of the packages learn more here, holiday and travel SEO.
Bronze Package
Designed to increase visitors and bookings for holiday property owners such as Gite complexes, Villas and farmhouses, the prices are very affordable and ideal for the expat or second home owner.
Silver Package
Perfect for the small to medium sized holiday and travel business, ideal for an established business that has overheads and needs a significant increase in company and brand exposure resulting in an increase in bookings.
Gold Package
An extended package suitable for the large corporate holiday and travel companies that require in-depth SEO to enhance all search engine listings for their holiday categories.
For full details of the packages learn more here, holiday and travel SEO.
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