This SES Chicago recap will cover Bryan Eisenberg’s “21 Secrets of Top Converting Websites”.  Also included are 5 steps to great conversion rates next week.

My recaps will include some useful tidbits that I picked up during day 1 of SES Chicago.  Tweets were made from @marketwire as well as my personal handle @shinng using the hashtag #seschi and #rt2eat.  So what is the meaning of the latter hashtag?  Well, the creative marketing team @marketwire wanted to give back for the holiday season so we decided to take advantage of the Marketwire presence.  For every ReTweet of our tweets that include the hashtags #seschi #rt2eat, Marketwire will be donating $1.00 per RT for a max contribution of $500 to benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository. 

SES Chicago Session – 21 Secrets of Top Converting Websites

Moderator: Anne Kennedy (SES Advisory Board, Joblr.com, Beyond Ink)
Speakers:  Bryan Eisenberg (SES Advisory Board, NYT best selling author)

This was my favorite session from Day 1 of SES Chicago 2009 because it was jam packed with information.  This was probably the reason why I was so exhausted afterwards.

Bryan Eisenberg was an engaging speaker and an even better presenter of providing information with real life examples.  Before listing the tips provided during session “information overload”, below are some other notable quotes.

• Optimization is more than a single page, it’s the whole journey.
• IT = BPU (Business Prevention Unit) /Nick Shin – having heard this the first time, this one will stick.  Best quote of SES Chicago 2009.
  

The 21 secrets to top converting sites:

1. They communicate UVPs (unique value proposition) and UCPs (unique campaign proposition).
   • Examples of websites that do this well: Vitacost, Mailchimp, Gotomeeting
2. Makes persuasive and relevant offers
   • But make sure the offer doesn’t disappear at checkout.  The offer should appear throughout the entire buying process.
3. Reinforces offers
4. Maintains scent
   • Example: Victoria’s Secret – In their banner ads and subsequent landing pages, they maintain the same branding and idential images and colors
     
5. Makes strong first impressions
6. Appeals to multiple personas/segments
   • Example: Mint.com
   • Personas build predictive models – simple and robust
7. They don’t do slice and dice optimization.
   • 4 types of web visitors – spontaneous, humanistics, methodical, competitive
   • Test for impact not variations
     
8. They leverage social commerce – user generated content drives natural search
9. They use it for navigation.
   • Example – Golfsmith’s “sort by” function
   • By adding the “sort by” option, Golfsmith’s conversion went up by 160%
10. They use it for promotions – user generated content drives promotion
    
11. They use it for credibility.
12. They use it for feedback and research.
13. They use persuasion principles by using the following:
    • Scarcity
    • Authenticity
    • Consistency
    • Consensus
    • Liking
14. They even make forms interesting by putting images.
    • Average cart abandonment=72%
    • When a visitor is ready to check out after putting items in a cart and the website requires to create an account, be sure the coupon code is inserted appropriately to prevent visitor from leaving the page and eventually the website.
15. They provide a point of action assurance, i.e., response time matters.
    
    • Average lead loses 6 times the effectiveness every hour the lead is made to wait
16. They keep you in the process.
    • An example was shown of a popup where 2 buttons were present.   Make sure that the clickable buttons are not of equal weight.  You want to make an emphasis on the button that you want the visitor to click.
17. They consider email preview.
18. They budget for experience.
    • They focus on continuous improvement.
    • They align customers and business objectives.
    • Interesting fact:  At any given point, Amazon is conducting 200 tests.
19. They utilize a system for prioritizing.
20. They make data driven decisions.
    • To do web analytics and optimization correctly, you have to make a to-do list regularly.
    • Ask yourself: what marketing efforts or parts of your website have challenges?
21. They know how to execute rapidly.
    • Move past top 10 “to-do’s”
    • Focus on trends – what’s spiking up/down
    • Stop out-of-control keywords and save your budget
    • Capitalize on hot campaigns quickly to boost profits

5 steps to great conversation rates next week

1. Identify the problems, review analytics, check for high exit pages, check for high bounce rates for key landing pages
2. Create a to-do list of what you would like to improve
3. Document hypothesis for thinking on how to fix it
4. Prioritize your to-do list by resources and impact
5. Start testing