New Weekly LPO Radio Show on WebmasterRadio.FM

I am thrilled to announce my new  weekly Internet radio show “Landing Page Optimization (LPO)” on WebmasterRadio.FM

Tune in every Monday at 11am PST 2pm EST for the latest episodes.

I promise to make it an entertaining and educational half hour.

In addition to addressing key topics critical to LPO success, I will be interviewing knowledgeable experts  in the field.

The first 4 shows are “in the can”.

• The Importance of Landing Page Optimization
• Writing for Conversions
• Interview with David Szetela from Clix Marketing
• Interview with Jim Sterne of eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit

Stay tuned for the following upcoming inteviews:

• Sandra Niehaus  – author and VP of User Experience at Closed Loop Marketing
• Eric Hansen – CEO of SiteSpect
• Trevor Claiborne – product marketing manager for Google Website Optimizer

Bryan Eisenberg from FutureNow and Avinash Kaushik from Google have also promised to stop by for an interview in the near future.

If you miss any episodes, you can download them as a podcast later.

Check out the LPO show page on WebmasterRadio.FM

Catch you on the Internet airwaves!

Landing Page Optimization Book – German Edition

As many of you know, I wrote a Landing Page Optimization book and it was published early last year by Wiley Press.

I am gratified to report that it has been received very well. The book has already sold over 15,000 copies (making it a bona-fide bestseller in the technical book arena).

It has gone to a second printing with a better cover photo of me (as well as a $25 coupon for Google AdWords inside which means you actually make money if you buy it on Amazon).

It was also kind of a kick to find out that the book had also been optioned in five other languages:

• Chinese
• Korean
• Polish
• German
• Brazilian Portuguese

But I must admit that it is very bizarre to have the German-language translation of the book land on my desk courtesy of the publisher.

The cover color is more blood orange than the original and the dollar signs at the bottom of the sales funnel have been replaced by euros.

I can only understand a few words and the rest is gibberish (I guess now I know how some readers of my English language edition must feel )

Check it out on the German site for Amazon.

eMetrics San Jose Preview – May 4-8, 2009

The eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit is back on the West Coast at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California. The focus this year will be on how to increase profits with data that you already have. The conference will feature an all-star cast of really smart online marketers headed by organizer Jim Sterne himself.

I will have a busy presenting schedule (in addition to catching up with all of my friends):

• May 5, 4:25 – 5:15 -Your Baby Is Ugly – Live Landing Page Mini-Critiques – Stop by to have volunteers’ sites dissected live in front of a live audience.
• May 6, 4:15 – 5:00 - Avoiding the 7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design – Learn how to avoid common conversion mistakes that are costing you money.
• May 8, 9:00 – 4:00 - Landing Page Testing Crash Course – Join me for this intensive post-conference full-day workshop (additional registration fee required).

Hope to see all of you there!

Free Video Spokespeople Testing – Will it will work for you?

I recently wrote a blog post on Search Engine Watch about Using Video Spokespeople to Increase Landing Page Conversions.

Innovative Media has shown some very promising examples of how substantial conversion increases have helped their clients (such as Napster, Service Magic, and Rhapsody).

But the question remains – will it work for you?

The answer also remains – test it.

Unfortunately up till now testing has been a complicated and expensive proposition:

• Find an actor
• Write the script
• Shoot with pro video equipment against a green screen background
• Produce the video background
• Prepare it for web display with a “player” wrapper
• Pay for the video hosting and display during the test

What if  testing the video spokespeople was easy and free?

Of course you would test!

Through our partnership with Innovative Media’s InnovateAds division, we have made this a reality.

If you sign up for one of SiteTuner’s improvement-guaranteed full-service tests we will test a video spokesperson for FREE!

Yes that’s right – absolutely no strings attached – it is all included in our test. Innovate Ads will script, create, and host the ad for the duration of the test.

If the the presence of the video spokesperson ends up as part of the winning landing page in our test, we will even run a follow-up head-to-head test to determine exactly how much it contributes to conversion improvement.

After the test is over, it is completely up to you whether you want to have the video spokesperson continue to appear on your site. If you do, you simply pay the low per-view fee that you had previously agreed to.

Want to see if you qualify for this service? Contact us.

Case Study – 81% conversion improvement by lowering “barriers”

Our client Stratfor is a leading provider of independent analysis and forecasting on strategic geopolitical trends and events worldwide including, military, political stability, terrorism, and economic topics.

Their homepage is published in an online-newspaper type of format with the latest developments and stories:

When a non-member clicks on a story summary to get additional details they were taken to a so-called “barrier” page where they were asked for their email address in exchange for access to the article of interest.

The email capture is an important part of Stratfor’s marketing strategy and allows them to start an ongoing communication with the prospective subscriber. So the “barrier” had to stay. Working within this constraint, we developed a test strategy to at least lower the barrier. We changed supporting information, the page title, call-to-action format, and a number of other factors on the page.

By using our advanced TuningEngine we were able to examine over 100,000 alternative page designs and find the one that performed the best. The winning challenger (see below) had an 81% higher conversion rate than the original page, while still accomplishing the marketing objective of retaining the email capture.

Read the detailed case study.

Landing Page Testing Nirvana – OnDialog/SiteTuners

I am often asked – “why isn’t everyone doing landing page optimization and testing?”

Considering the potential for huge profit increases, what is holding people back?

Problems with 1st generation landing page testing

There are two major issues that stand in the way of widespread landing page optimization:

• How to prepare your landing pages for testing and “instrument” your test
• How to collect, analyze, and interpret the data to find the best performing page

Up till now these have been difficult and painful problems. Programmers, webmasters, and I.T. staff had to get involved to make sure that your landing page testing code did not “break” the current page. This slowed down the testing process, and made testing cycles longer because they became tied to code-rolls and software release cycles on your website. Testing initiatives spearheaded by marketing staff were not usually at the top of the priority list for the I.T. department.

Even if you could instrument, QA, and prepare your pages for the test, you still had to figure out how to collect and analyze the data.  Many testing approaches require you to understand the complexities of inflexible test designs involving fractional  factorial testing arrays (see the whitepaper The Truth About Taguchi to learn more about the drawback of traditional landing page testing math).

They also forced you to examine complicated statistical reports and and make judgment calls about which page versions in your test were the best. You had to  “watch the pot boil” instead of working on other higher-value-added activities. Without a strong background in math it was easy to get led astray and not find the best performing page in your test.  Sure, you might have found a better performing version than your original, but you were almost guaranteed to leave money on the table.

The bottom line with the old approach was typically the following:

• Long preparations for each test
• A lot of painful work instrumenting the test pages
• JavaScript code added to your test pages
• Involvement and coordination with I.T. staff
• Restrictive and arbitrary test designs
• Long data collection periods
• Complicated test monitoring
• Time spent collecting data on suboptimal “known losers”
• Not finding the best page out of the tested alternatives

There has got to be a better way…

A breakthrough 2nd generation testing approach

If you are an online marketer, what would your landing page testing nirvana look like?

I bet it would have all of the following characteristics:

• Fully controlled by the marketer (no outside involvement)
• Simple visual page design and preview (no coding or page tagging)
• Clean test pages with no JavaScript artifacts added to your pages
• Tests ready to collect data in a matter of minutes
• Unrestricted test designs (flexibility to throw in as many good ideas as you have)
• Ability to run much larger tests and find the best answer with a lot less data collected
• Adaptive display of pages that quickly cuts out known under-performers
• Automatic “one button” data collection and analysis (no oversight required)

Luckily such a system is not just a fantasy mirage – you can start using it today.

SiteTuners has licensed its unique TuningEngine technology to OnDialog.com to create a unique and compelling value proposition landing page optimization (read the press release).

OnDialog is a leader in landing page creation and management software. It’s SaaS (software as a service) web based solution has the following powerful features:

• Ability to create flexible page templates (that enforce your visual and layout guidelines)
• Easy visual creation of page content (including forms)
• Publishing of pages to multiple personalized URLs (ideal for affiliate and PPC programs
• Creation of personalized and segmented  page content based on business rules
• Integration with leading CRM systems including SalesForce, NetSuite, and SugarCRM
• Connections to payment gateways for e-commerce transactions
• Support for multiple page flows and microsites

SiteTuners unique TuningEngine technology has been fully integrated with OnDialog and offers many advantages over traditional tools:

• Much larger test sizes with higher data rates (1000 times larger that standard parametric MVT)
• Considers context and variable interactions (how well all variable on the page work together)
• Adaptive – zeroes in on the best performers and eliminates “dogs” early
• Fully automated – provides the results of a simple head-to-head between best “challenger” page and the original

OnDialog has a full range of cost-effective offerings for any business size:

• Free – Try the software for free
• SMB – For small businesses
• Pro – For interactive agencies with multiple clients, and mid size businesses
• Enterprise – For larger interactive agencies, affiliate networks, or enterprise clients

If you are interested in participating in the Beta program for the Pro or Enterpise versions of the Ondialog powered by SiteTuners solution, please contact OnDialog.

Conversion optimization guarantees success in 2009!

Few things in internet marketing come with a money back guarantee – with the exception of SiteTuners optimization testing!

Our full service testing service includes a performance guarantee. If we cannot increase your existing conversion rate by 5% or more, the test fees are either prorated or free.

Are your landing pages or website a great candidate for conversion optimization? If so, perhaps we should explore how SiteTuners flat fee, full service, guaranteed testing services could help ensure a great 2009. Please let us know if you would like a detailed information package or a call from SiteTuners to help better understand your options.