If you are getting a lot of traffic from discount code sites in your analytics tool which converts well, then ask yourself this question: are these discount code sites delivering actual visitors, or are these visitors those I acquired and then once they reached my cart, left to look for a discount code?

How do you find out if this is a ‘legitimate’ sale from discount code sites, or your own traffic? This is not easy, but here is a list of things to look at:

1. Do you have a discount code field in the cart/checkout? If yes, how you stopping visitors from finding it online? If your answer is there is nothing we do, then you very likely have a problem.

2. If you use an affiliate network which distributes your discount codes to discount codes sites and this particular affiliate network has very high conversion rate (look  in your analytics and compare to other marketing channels), then very likely you have a problem. Provided the condition in point 1 is met.

3. Type into your search engine ‘mycompany discount code’, or whatever you call it. If your site isn’t on the top position for ‘mycompany discount code’ but all the other discount sites are and yours is nowhere to be seen, then you have a problem.

Solution. There is solution to every problem. Below are conversion optimization ideas from a few sites. Once you have tested it and implemented it, compare your conversion rates and traffic from discount code sites, and/or your affiliate network distributing your discount codes. If that dropped significantly, you have solved your problem and will save several thousands of dollars annually on affiliate’s fees.

1. autopartwarehouse.com

Next to the discount code field there is very powerful sentence: ‘How do I get this?‘. Once you click on it, a light box popup will open with email sign up box. Test it!

2. macys.com

Very similar idea, where next to the code we have: ‘find one now’, which leads visitors to a discount code page, plus there are banners displayed in the cart with discount codes too. That discount page is apparently one of the most converting pages on their site. Test it!

3. officemax.com

Officemax is ‘hiding’ the discount code field in checkout, however they still use the ‘how do I get these?’ allowing you to signup for their newsletter and later receive the discount code. Test it!

Looking to improve your conversion rate? I guarantee 10-200% conversion lift. Contact me at jan@proimpact7.com to request your FREE site conversion optimization consultation of your site, or call (+352) 6618-82070 to find out more about our conversion improvement guarantee.

Conversion optimization is one of the most effective marketing strategies an online business can use to increase site conversion and revenue.  It’s not uncommon to have results of 200% and more. Conversion optimization is so good that it’s like winning a lottery. Why? Because lottery is pure luck and doesn’t happen to the vast majority of people on this planet.  By contrast, conversion optimization is a proven marketing strategy, which within of a few months from the beginning of the testing will provide huge wins that can be compared to a lottery winning. And guess what, every business can be a winner.

Here is proof. I helped a business to increase their monthly revenue from $32,000 to $108,000 simply by testing.  That’s $912,000 extra dollars annually! Read the case study here. Or here is another one, with just one checkout test we increased revenue annually by $744,000. But despite such impressive results, many businesses have not started looking into testing yet.

So, here are 5 important steps to start winning your conversion optimization lottery every time you test.

1. You need an experienced conversion optimization person

Testing is a skill and experience plays a big role in testing wins. With a skilled professional you will get more successful tests and higher conversion rates. The money you invest on such a person will be returned to you in some cases 100s times over, literally.

2. You need a testing strategy

Testing for big wins requires a strategy. Don’t just test for the sake of testing. You need a solid a/b testing road map (plan) and to follow it. A plan allows you to start testing the most important site elements/pages with the highest conversion impact as first. Plus it will give you enough time to prepare follow up tests, while you run your test. Important: testing doesn’t come out of thin air. The analytics data, surveys, usability testing and experience are used.

3. You need your analytics data

I’m constantly being surprised by how many companies I work with that don’t have their analytics setup correctly, i.e. lacking sales funnels, goals and even ecommerce tracking setup on ecommerce stores. This applies even to companies which make $500,000+ per month. So, the data driven company is another step to your success.

4. You need the right testing tools

Nowadays, there are plenty of testing tools for vendors to choose from costing only $100-200 per month.  Google’s Experiments tool is a basic tool lacking a lot of important features. The intention of this testing tool is simply to introduce testing to people. Conversion professionals will use more sophisticated tools.

My favourite tool is Visual Website Optimizer. But also check tools like Optimizely and from Convert.com, which is getting better each time and is comparable to Visual Website Optimizer in terms of features and functionality. Don’t think that you need to pay big money for Adobe Omniture testing tool which will cost you from $4,500 per month if you are a small business. The current tools are just as effective.

5. You need to run your tests long enough (don’t stop your tests too early)

I’ve seen many tests from inexperienced clients and tests published on testing websites. A good 80% of them were stopped too early, i.e. as soon as their testing tool announces they found a winning variation. Stopping your test too early will cost you in revenue and it can actually decrease your conversion without even knowing it.

For example, I ran a test, where on the following day our testing tool announced that we found a winning variation and improved conversion by 87% and the data were 100% statistically valid. We had enough traffic, approx. 4,000 visits per each test variation. So what could be wrong? Well, after we continued the test and ran it for as long as it was required, the winning variation conversion dropped by 731% and we increased conversion actually by ‘only’ 10.49%. Imagine, if we had stopped the test prematurely and conversion actually dropped. Complete disaster, right?

Also it’s very important to include into your testing strategy a site survey, usability testing and fast tests turnaround.

If you follow all these steps, then winning your testing lottery this year shouldn’t be just a dream.

The New Year 2013 is here and because it supposed to be a ‘Conversion Optimization Year’, I would like to offer one free conversion optimization test on your site to any ecommerce store with more than 20,000 visits per month.

Terms of this offer:
-    Your website must have more than 20,000 site visits per month
-    You sign to a minimum 3 months conversion engagement starting from the end of the first winning statistically valid test

What you get:
-    Free test
-    Free data analysis
-    Free test management
-    Free A/B testing road map
-    Free 100,000 tests visitors allocation for your first test

Exclusions:
This offer isn’t valid for our current or previous clients and is valid only by 31st January 2013.

Not sure if conversion optimization is for you? Read our case study, where we increased revenue from $32,000 to $108,000, i.e. by 235%!

Want to improve your conversion rate this year? Contact me at jan@proimpact7.com or call.

Conversion below 1%? You could improve your conversion rate by as much as 200% within a year. Here is the proof! Does your website suffer from very low conversion rate below 1%? Have you tried ‘everything’ but still making the same money each month? Firstly, the good news is, you can very likely increase your conversion rate by over 200% within a year, as you can see on the screenshot below which compares October 2012 sales vs. October 2011 sales. As well as focusing on conversion rate which is up by 253%, also have a look at the revenue, which went up from $32,000 to $108,000, an 235% increase.

Now, have a look at the traffic level in the screenshot below. Compare to previous October 2011, the traffic this October 2012 is down by 14%, or by 3,470 visits to be exact, however the revenue is still up by 235%.

Now the question is why your site isn’t doing as well, as for example this one shown above? Based on my experience working with clients I observed several patterns that helped them improve their conversion.

The clients that improve their conversion rate have this in common:

1. They use Google Analytics and have the ecommerce conversion tracking setup, i.e. they know what their site conversion rate and revenue is, plus some basic goals.

This might sound strange to you, but over 80% of websites I come across, don’t have ecommerce tracking setup and therefore don’t know their site conversion and revenue. Also, I notice no goals setup. In all these cases, they have Google Analytics installed, but it allows only tracking of visits and the basic stuff.

2. They are educating themselves

My best clients are always those who already have an understanding of what conversion optimization is, understand its possibilities and many times educate themselves by going to webinars focused on conversion optimization. Simply put, these clients are spending their time learning how to improve site conversion and they believe in it!

3. They act fast

Once they realize, that the only way to improve site revenue is to hire a conversion optimization agency, due to the lack of in-house knowledge they go about it fast and start the engagement almost immediately.

4. They are usually business owners

Again, from my observation, once a business owner personally takes things into his hands, everything is much smoother and faster.  I remember working with one very smart marketing director in Germany who I was approached by on behalf of their business. He understood the potential of conversion optimization, however his boss wasn’t excited about the amount of changes required and the cost of doing it (design, development, testing software), so the process stopped before it even started and very likely went back to doing what they did for years and are still wondering why they can’t improve their sale. Generally speaking, large businesses are very slow because of the all processes and annual budgeting policies.

5. They listen

This is very important. If a conversion rate professional suggests testing something based on his experience where it worked really well and that an incentive is a must, or that that Magento Ajax checkout they use should be changed, then by listening they can gain between 20-100% improvement. For example, I recently spoke to a client who uses Ajax checkout and I suggested him to change it immediately as we already increased the conversion on another client website by over 40% by changing it. He still hasn’t done it, because of the cost even though he was making several ten thousands dollars each month from his website. By the way, he could make extra $300,000 a year, but I still wasn’t able to get him to do it. Honestly.

Is your site conversion below 1%, or you feel your business isn’t making as much money as it could and your marketing needs to be improved? Contact me at jan@proimpact7.com to request your FREE site conversion optimization consultation of your site, or call (+352) 6618-82070 to find out more about our conversion improvement guarantee.

Are you still using Magento Ajax one page checkout, similar to one below in your ecommerce store? Then you might be affected, as very likely it’s costing you 20-40%+ in revenue each month.

After working with several different clients on conversion optimization of their website in recent months I have discovered that each time we implemented our version of checkout, we always increased conversion by 20-40% versus the Ajax one page checkout.

On the screenshot below you can see the difference in conversion and revenue after implementing our winning checkout version. Monthly revenue increased immediately by almost $20,000, or by $240,000 annually.

My hypothesis as to why Magento one page checkout isn’t converting well is probably this type of checkout with hidden next steps causes friction in visitors, who feel that this is not going to be easy and therefore they tend to give up. Also, in some older browsers and especially if the Java script is switched off, then it simply won’t allow visitors to continue to the next step.

Here you can download our conversion improvement calculator to see how much money your Magento Ajax one page checkout is costing you.

If you are still using Magento Ajax checkout then call me at (020) 7617-7848 or contact me at jan@proimpact7.com and I will help you to increase your checkout conversion and revenue from your Magento one page checkout.