This week’s edition offers tips on Google+ and Twitter SEO along with how to utilize key research findings on search patterns, “weapons of influence”, and eye tracking studies:

-  Google+ is rapidly evolving and is becoming a force to be reckoned with. 20 Ways to Improve Your Google+ Knowledge from Social Media Examiner offers tips and resources to help you keep learning about Google+ and ways to enhance your user experience

- MarketingProfs’ Behavioral Mindsets Influence Search Patterns summarizes the three distinct behavioral search patterns from About.com’s research findings into the various mindsets that drive Web search

-  Sometimes we are so focused on conversion metrics that we forget that we the people visiting our sites are human beings and not just integers in our reports. The Human Side of Conversion from Conversion Conference shares six identified “weapons of influence” and how to leverage these to persuade people

- Twitter is a natural complement to your site and a way to gain some additional spots on organic search engine results pages (SERPs), helping your website and its content get found. 7 SEO Twitter Tips to Rank Better in Search from HubSpot provides tips to help leverage your Twitter account for search

- Whn browsing a website, our eyes naturally look to the upper left to “get our bearings”, but our attention immediately goes to the center of the page. KISSmetrics put together What are You Looking At? Eye Tracking and What it Means for Your Website explaining how you can apply the knowledge of eye tracking to your site

That wraps it up for this week and I’ll leave you with a quick reminder to request one free conversion idea for your website as well as to signup for our blog updates and conversion tips newsletter. If you have any tips, suggestions, or resources you’d like to share please leave us a comment below and please feel free to suggest topics that you would like to see covered in future Conversionator posts.

Target market

In order for any marketing strategy to be successful, it’s vital that you know your target market inside and out. You should know what their common characteristics are, how they think, and what their needs are. One of the best ways to successfully identify your target market is to build a customer persona that highlights their commonalities. When you can easily articulate all of the following elements, you’ll have a pretty good grasp of who your customers are.

Demographics – This is the information that most people can identify pretty quickly. Age, income level, geographic location, sex, occupation, etc., all help to provide a general outline to your customer persona.

Needs -Next, identify the needs of your target audience. Do they need a great product at a cheap price? Do they need top notch quality, regardless of cost? Do they need detailed information about a particular topic? You can use the demographic information you collected in the first step to help answer some of these questions. You can also survey people that meet the criteria of step one to get their thoughts on the things that appeal most to them.

Current Online Shopping Habits – he next thing you need to know is how your target audience tends to engage online. Is there a particular time of day, day of the week, or time of the month they tend to shop? Do they browse a lot before making a commitment? Do they window shop? How much money do they spend online? These questions will help you determine how to design your website and the best ways to appeal to your potential customers.

Buying Personalities – Finally, take time to identify the various buying personalities of your target audience. Some will be quick decision makers who want all the relevant information in one easy to digest package. Others will want lots and lots of details that they can browse through at their leisure. Still others will want to know about the experiences other customers have had and why they should buy from you as compared to someone else. It’s important to cater to all the various buying personalities of your target market in order to reach the broadest group of customers.

As you develop your target market persona, you’ll get a better idea of what your customers are looking for and how you can best meet those needs. This is especially important if the people you’re selling to are radically different from you. Find out as much as you can about who they are and how they shop, and you’ll be well on your way to increasing online conversions.

This week’s edition offers tips on social sharing optimization, deciding between infographics or articles, creating an ‘Engagement Zone’, promoting your small business using social media, and some insights into decision making and willpower:

-  By making it easy for others to share your content to their networks, you’ll be significantly extending the reach of your content. HubSpot offers some suggestions to do just that in 7 Ways to Optimize Content for Social Sharing

- It’s hard to know when a topic would perform well socially as a linkbait article, and not as a blog post. Infographics or Articles: Which Type of Content is Best for Your Idea? from BlueGlass is a simple guide to help you understand which content type is right for the topic or idea that’s been selected

- Econsultancy presents the idea of an ‘Engagement Zone’ that integrates content access, next steps, calls-to-action and marketing automation into a custom conversion solution in Create An ‘Engagement Zone’ to Increase Lead Capture Rates for Your Funnel

- Forbes shares a presentation to help with online social media strategy in How to Use Social Media to Promote Your Small Business and be sure to view the comments on that post, lots of good ideas and feedback there as well

- In a recent study of one million people around the world, researchers found that most viewed self-control as their biggest weakness and character failure. Business Insider pulled out some of the best takeaways in 14 Facts About Decision Making And Willpower

That does it for this week and I’ll leave you with a quick reminder to request one free conversion idea for your website as well as to signup for our blog updates and conversion tips newsletter. If you have any tips, suggestions, or resources you’d like to share please leave us a comment below and please feel free to suggest topics that you would like to see covered in future Conversionator posts.

You can spend a lot of time tweaking your design, adjusting keyword choice and placement, and playing with ad copy, but the fact remains that one of the most effective antidotes to bouncing visitors is giving them a reason to stay.

One reason is your call to action.

The Anatomy of an Effective Call to Action

Don’t just expect to stick a cute button on your website and have your conversion rate instantly skyrocket. While button design does play a role in getting people to respond, you’ll also need to plan a call to action strategy that compels people to do what you want them to do.

●      Identify a Need

No one wants to buy something they see no immediate use for. By showing your customers how your product or service will fill a niche in their lives, you create interest in what you have to offer.

●      Promote Benefit

Need isn’t always enough to sell a product, however. You must also show your customers how their lives will be better, easier, more relaxed, more organized, etc., in order to convince them to buy.

●      Make it Obvious

Your call to action button should be big, bold, colorful, and above the fold. The design of your page should direct the eye toward your call to action using white space, placement, and supporting page elements. It should be one of the first things people see when they land on your page.

●      Make it Easy

The action you want people to take should be clear, concise, and to the point. Use direct language to communicate what will happen when a viewer clicks the button rather than a vague “Click here!”

●      Make it Urgent

Give the reader a reason to click now instead of waiting till later. Include an incentive, a promotion expiration, or a limited time offer to urge immediate action. In addition, use strong active verbs in your button copy.

A Final Word

No matter how great your call to action is, you must also provide great follow-through in order to see your conversion rates rise. For instance, if you promise an easy process that takes less than a minute, make sure it takes less than a minute. Resist the urge to fill your forms with interesting, but unnecessary information, since people may get frustrated and drop out of the process. Designing a great call to action requires some forethought and planning, but if you do it right you’ll be rewarded with a lower bounce rate and a higher conversion rate.

• Top Stories/New Stories/Recent Stories - The most noticeable change is the update to the home page news feed.  Essentially, Facebook has updated how users get updates on their friends.  Now, at the top of your home page you will see

Top Stories

These are stories which Facebook believes you will find important.  They are highlighted with a blue tag in the upper left corner and prioritized at the top of the homescreen.

Recent Stories

These are the most recent updates from your friends.  They update over time and expand to reveal full content.

New Stories

These are real time posts that are numbered above top stories.  You have the option to click and expand this box to see recent posts.

Users can control which posts are top stories and what kind of stories they want to see from individuals and business by clicking in the upper right hand corner of posts.

• Lists

Facebook has created lists which automatically place friends in categories based on work, education, family categories, etc.  When users click on one of the lists it displays updates from those in these categories.  You can add people to this list merge categories or refine the category by clicking on manage list in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

• User Control Over Posts

Simply by clicking in the top right corner of posts, users now have more control over who they want to see in their newsfeed and what type of posts they like to see.

• Recent Posts Ticker

Recent activity now appears in real time above Facebook chat.

• Subscribe

Users can now subscribe to anyone’s public posts.  A subscribe button has been added to users profiles so that those who are interested can follow what they are saying without sending a friend request.

BUSINESS TAKEAWAY

Timing is even more important! These new changes favor recent posts as well as quality content when determining whether or not your updates will appear in your customers feed.  Be sure to consider peak timing when posting updates.

Users have more control; it is now even more likely that users will ignore or remove business pages whose posts do not interest them.   Keep quality content and avoid repetitive or dull information.

Subscriptions are great for individuals whose business involves their personal brand.  Instead of dealing with the awkwardness of rejecting a friend request or the stress that comes from maintaining strict professionalism when using personal profiles, the subscribe option allows for an easy divide between the personal and professional.

For more information on facebook, conversion optimization, and social media marketing “like” Diamond Website Conversion on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Whether it’s Google Analytics, how to tell stories with analytics data, debunking analytics myths, streamlining analytics reviews, or using Facebook Fan Pages Analytics for insights, this week’s edition focuses on all things analytics:

-  To help you get to know Google Analytics inside and out (covering the new version, latest updates, social engagement tracking, advanced hacks, and more), KISSmetrics offers up 50 Google Analytics Resources – The 2011 Edition

- People remember stories and they rarely remember a piece of analysis. How to Bring Storytelling to Analytics the delivery of a piece of business analysis or research

- Search Engine Watch put together Top 10 Web Analytics Myths… Dispelled, a helpful list that breaks down the meaning behind analytic terms to get a better understanding on what they really mean

- How to Review Your Marketing Analytics in Just 10 Minutes from HubSpot is a handy guide to a 10-minute, 5-point inspection to use weekly or bi-weekly in order to keep current on your latest metrics

- To highlights their analysis and what their customers are doing on Facebook, Simply Measured put together a list of key questions you can answer with Facebook Fan Page analytics in 13 Questions Answered with Facebook Fan Page Analytics

That will cover it for this week and I’ll leave you with a quick reminder to request one free conversion idea for your website as well as to signup for our blog updates and conversion tips newsletter. If you have any tips, suggestions, or resources you’d like to share please leave us a comment below and please feel free to suggest topics that you would like to see covered in future Conversionator posts.

However, many home pages fail to maximize their full potential, managing instead to fumble the ball and let visitors slip away.

You can increase your website’s conversion rate on your home page immediately by implementing these five essential tips.

1. Communicate Value Proposition ClearlyYour home page is more than just an entry portal. It is your opportunity to let people know what makes you unique. Position your value statement above the fold and make it stand out from surrounding content using font size, color, and surrounding white space.
2. Strengthen Your Call to ActionYour home page should include one primary call to action, which leads the viewer deeper into your site. It should be placed above the fold, should employ strong, action-oriented copy oriented toward increasing conversion rate.Any secondary call to action should not be in competition with your primary call to action. Overwhelming visitors with too much choice can leave them paralyzed instead of moving forward.
3. Images must reinforce your main messageEverything on your home page needs to work together to drive your visitors towards the next step. Images and video will attract your visitor’s attention so it’s imperative that they are an integral part of the story you’re telling on your home page. If the images on the home page and the copy tell two different stories, your visitor will be confused and your message will lose its impact and credibility.
4. Make sure your navigation and search are usable for all your visitorsMake sure your navigation is intuitive and that it is user friendly. Flout and drop-down navigation that requires precision mouse control to move from main menus to sub-menus can be difficult and frustrating for older visitors to use. Make sure all navigation links lead somewhere, and that users can find their way back easily once they’ve reached a destination.
   Evaluate your search box to make sure it’s visible and that it functions correctly. Check for flaws such as not including navigation controls on the search results page. Give visitors options if the search doesn’t return any results, or is not able to handle common misspellings
5. Keep your copy under controlBecause of your visitors’ time constraints, limited attention span, and limited patience, it’s important to keep your messages short, simple, and concise.Even those visitors who really want to read as much as they can about your services or products will appreciate informative headings and sub-headings and obvious links to additional information.

As you’re increasing conversion rate by optimizing your home page, don’t forget to implement a rigorous testing program. Testing enables you to see which elements are performing well and which ones aren’t, enabling you to make knowledgeable changes rather than operating off guesswork.

If you operate a brick and mortar business, there is a good chance your company may already be listed on the site.

How It Works:
When Foursquare users visit a location, they are able to pull up the app and “check in”.  This sends an update to their Foursquare friends about their location.  Visitors are able to see in real-time who is at a location enabling them to find and meet up with their friends.  They can also post these check-ins to Twitter and Facebook.   Users are also able to see tips, reviews, photos, and other information left by previous visitors.

Promoting Your Business
A large incentive given to users to check-in, is discounts and specials offered by businesses.  Foursquare shows users all of the specials offered by businesses within 10 miles of their current location.   These specials are chosen and posted by businesses who have claimed their location on the site.  Here are a few examples of different types of specials one can offer foursquare users as described by Foursquare.com:

• Friends Special: “ You set the minimum threshold for a group of friends you’d like to reward for visiting your business together, and the Special is only redeemed if that many friends check in (based on a user’s foursquare friends)”
• Flash Special: “Just like a flash sale, this Special runs out. Set the number of Specials you want to unlock per day and it’s first-come, first-serve. After that, no more Specials for the day.”

Mayor Special: “The foursquare Mayor is the most frequent visitor to your venue over the past 60 days. This is a way to reward your best customer, while stoking competition for the prize.”

Monitoring Your Listing
Even if you don’t plan on taking advantage of Foursquare promotions, it is very important to make sure you’re listed on the site and listed accurately.  Claim your venue or add your location and check back to see what your customers have to say about your business.  The foursquare platform can reveal some great insights into what customers like and dislike about your company.

For more information on foursquare, conversion optimization, and social media marketing “like” Diamond Website Conversion on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

This week’s edition offers insights into both effective ‘About Us’ pages and Twitter share buttons, along with email newsletter best practices, creative ways to get customer testimonials, and over one hundred social media integration suggestions:

- ‘About Us’ pages are often the most neglected page on your website but it is very likely among the most visited pages. ClickZ provides some guidelines to help break down the facade of anonymity of the web in 5 Traits of Effective ‘About Us’ Pages

- The BrightEdge Social Share Report – September 2011 reveals Twitter Share Buttons Drive 7x More Exposure For Web Pages. Their analysis results clearly point out an enormous social marketing opportunity that can be implemented immediately at almost no cost

- Email Newsletters: Best Practices for Small Businesses from Mashable shares four best practices to help ensure your business and your customers benefit from email newsletters

- Great testimonials tell people that your product or service is not only legit, but that other people are seeing great results from it. The question is, how do you get believable testimonials and KISSmetrics takes a look at some options in 7 Creative Ways to Get Customer Testimonials

- Pam Moore, The Marketing Nut, offers up tips to integrate social media into your business starting today in 125 Ways to Integrate Social Media to Zoom Your Business which should be more than enough to get you started

That’s all for this week and I’ll leave you with a quick reminder to request one free conversion idea for your website as well as to signup for our blog updates and conversion tips newsletter. If you have any tips, suggestions, or resources you’d like to share please leave us a comment below and please feel free to suggest topics that you would like to see covered in future Conversionator posts.

I’ll admit it, I love having a GPS. No longer do I have to drive into gas stations and ask directions… my little lady is there to guide me through rights, lefts, detours and alternate routes until I hear the magic words “your destination is on the right”.

When you’re writing for your website, your copy needs to provide a sort of GPS for your readers. Good copy will guide them to the information, products and services they need or want.

Here are some things that can help improve your copywriting GPS system:

It’s not an audience it’s a group of individuals

Yes, you need to identify your target audience. Identifying your target audience will make you’re your website more relevant and interesting.

However, when you write for your website, you are having a conversation with an individual, one-on-one, you’re not the Pope speaking to the masses from a balcony.

Bottom line, identify your target audience and then create from that a couple of “individuals” or personnas and for each piece of copy that you write, pick out one of these personnas and write the copy as if you were writing it just for them.

Initially everyone worries that if they write as if they were writing to an individual, that they will have gotten so specific that they’ll end up with a target market of 1. Actually, the opposite is true. When you write to an individual the copy comes to life. The copy ends up being personal, engaging and the members of your target market think that you wrote it especially for them.

Identify a Need

When you write copy to an individual, it’s easy to identify their needs, after all, you know this person, they’re a friend.

A good friend, who’s a big reader, just got a Kindle. She couldn’t wait to tell me how buying a Kindle would make my life so much easier. I can remember the essence of a passage in a book, but I can’t quote it directly from memory and sometimes I can’t even remember which book the quote came from. With a Kindle I could tag sections of books I was reading, so I could reference them easily an quickly.  No more fumbling around pulling 4 or 5 books off the shelf looking for a quote.

Of the target market made up of business book readers, am I the only person who would find this feature really helpful?

Demonstrate Your Unique Fulfillment of That Need

Another friend just got the iPad2. You can download and read books on the iPad as well, tag them and retrieve quotes later.

I could meet my need with either product. How do I choose?

If I’m like most consumers, I’m going to work out the differences between the products, the companies and the offers, and make a decision.

Now days, visitors open up 3 or 4 browsers, pull up 3 or 4 different websites and start comparison shopping.

Demonstrating your value, what makes you unique is pulls visitors to your products and services. Differentiation doesn’t need to be all about words. Images and video can also be used to demonstrate and show your company’s products and services are superior to your competitors.

Respect Your Audience Enough to Write Well

Grammar and structure supply the mechanics of your copywriting for conversion road trip. If the GPS is faulty, you’ll be at the gas station asking directions.

Why frustrate people with incorrect grammar and structure? Give them an enjoyable experience that allows them to focus on your outstanding products and services rather than on the blunders in your text.

Understanding your audience and knowing how to speak to them as individuals will point you in the right direction as you begin copywriting for conversion. Guide, educate and engage your visitors, and they’ll recommend your website to their friends—and that means more conversions for you.