Conversion Optimization: Increase Sales without Increasing Ad Budget or Traffic

It's amazing the number of prospects and clients that we run across who continue to drive more investment monies into additional means of advertising and sales without optimizing or making better use of their current online traffic, foot traffic, or current advertising. The concept is simply conversion optimization, getting the best ROI for your current traffic or advertising investments. Though the industry is bursting with new tools to test and improve the conversion rates of existing traffic, prospects and repeat customers, there is a scientific and testable method to get the most ROI for your investment dollars through conversion optimization including:

Opt-in optimization (opt-in or squeeze page improvement) - getting more visitors to become a part of your voluntary marketing relationship list to either become a solid client or to share your services with others based on using smart autoresponse software and effective email marketing campaigns
User testing (Many people don't purchase from you because they don't understand your navigation or get lost on your site - user testing is getting recorded feedback from people who haven't seen your site - this is an eye-opener and makes the site more understandable and user-friendly - then changes are made based off of what helps your common visitor the most)
Eye tracking software (helps by recording what voluntary test visitors' eyes are looking at and what they are missing - then we make improvements to optimize the areas that we want them to see easiest and most for converting sales)
Split Testing (making 1 change on a single web page, such as the headline, graphic, locations of items, buttons, links and calls to action - then running a live test with real visitors to see which changes improved the sales conversion, clicks or other goals we help set - this is the scientific way to improve a site and increase sales)
Multivariate testing (when you have more than 1000 visitors per month, multi-variate testing is just like split testing, only testing multiple things on a page at once. Split testing is normally used for pages with lower traffic volume, whereas multi-variate testing is used for higher traffic pages)
Google Website Optimizer (This is a free tool by Google that allows you to set up split tests, Multivariate tests, and goals, and the tool gives your real live results so you know for a fact which changes on your page created more conversions or sales - no more guessing games)
Converting Window Shoppers into Excited Customers (A series of feedback and response tools to get casual visitors more engaged, including feedback contests, social networking contests, viral marketing contest, user video testimonial contests, badges and awards for top users, and other exclusives to draw more interest and sales from your web browser tire-kickers)
Improving Value Proposition (testing different formats for describing the benefits of your products and services that make sense in your customer's language - not necessarily your industry language)
Targeting Benefits vs. Features (finding and testing weaknesses in the sales copy of your messages, helping people to understand how the bells and whistles of your services and products benefit them, not just listing great features. Instead of telling them the drill outperforms other drills by 5000 RPMs, we help the layman know. . . your drills drill faster without sacrificing accuracy)
Building Trust - (Intelligent relationship marketing that helps warm up cold visitors by capturing their information, giving them wonderful value and solutions while demonstrating your own competence and trust-worthiness)
Use-ability Testing - (Running many different batteries of testing to find out where and why people are getting stuck on your site and in your marketing and sales process)
Proper Survey and Response Techniques - (knowing how, why and where your prospects and customers need to see improvement in your services - instead of just the standard "on a scale of 1-10" surveys that give a nice grade card, but don't tell you "HOW" to improve your process - including kiss insights tools, barometer, Iperception's 4Q survey and more)
Attention or Attention Span Challenges - ( keeping the prospect interested, engaged and involved without becoming a professional entertainer- unless that is what you do for a living!)
Social Proof - (helping improve the immediate trust factor by providing evidence from 3rd parties that your services are legit, that you run with integrity, and that they don't have to contact your secretary in China, to get a hold of your book-keeper in India, to find that you are reachable)
Focusing on the Real Niche - (using a variety of testing and surveys as well as research to find out the real niche that you are working with vs. the perceived niche - additionally- using tools to find out what niches are being missed and how to connect with them)
Reducing Perceived Risk - guarantee split testing and improvement cycle - using small advertising campaigns to prove that there is a return on your message and advertising before increasing the exposure and media, SEO or advertising investment on a larger scale)
Improving Follow through on delayed decision - (Every sales funnel has attrition or dropping point where potential buyers fall off the sales track- this process helps by segmenting your users in ways that help you no only understand what they like and dislike- but connecting and following through to find out the true roadblocks to a good client relationship and understanding why they did or did not buy from you)
Easy and Subjective Feedback - Using real, low-tech feedback from voluntary or solicited response to make improvements (this page was altered based on this technique to make it more understandable)