Do you remember the dot-com bubble? In the early days of the information super-highway, VCs and entrepreneurs alike were more concerned about the number of page views than they were about revenue.

Back then, it was all about “eyeballs.”

But as the bubble burst entrepreneurs realized that eyeballs don’t pay the rent and they had to get back to business basics. You know, generate good ole fashioned revenue.

Now with the flurry of activity in social media, we’re seeing a similar situation – metrics such as “engagement” are measured and presented as a proxy for conversions & revenue. Is engagement the new ‘eyeballs’? Are we simply repeating the same mistakes?  How are you tracking conversions?

Check out our new infographic to follow the evolution of web analytics – from “hits” to “engagement” to Conversions.

Click the graphic for a larger view.

The Holiday season is one of the best revenue opportunities an online retailer will have all year. In fact, studies show that the majority of online purchases are made during the five weeks leading up to Christmas. That means you cannot afford to miss out on making the most of the holiday shopping season.

But, you can’t simply use your same-old marketing methods during November and December. You should tweak your message and marketing tactics if you want to make the most of the profit potential that will be coming your way.

Why? Well, as opposed to the rest of the year, there is a different psychological dynamic when it comes to holiday sales. From January through October, people are generally buying for themselves. Therefore, your sales material is designed to show what your product or service can do for them. In November and December, however, people are buying for others, so your marketing efforts need to focus on how your product or service will make other people happy.

That’s a crucial difference and if you don’t exploit it, you’ll miss out on a lot of sales opportunities. Let’s take a minute to discuss what you can do to increase your chances of capitalizing on the Holiday shopping season.

Home Page And Keywords

People search for products and services differently during the holiday season. They are looking for gifts − things that will make other people happy − and that creates a different mindset.

Your home page and the keywords you use need to reflect this shopping disposition. You can do this one of two ways: either alter your home page, or create a new landing page hosted on a different URL. It doesn’t matter which path you choose. What matters is that you have a holiday-specific page to greet potential shoppers.

Try to use keywords that reflect the holiday season, such as “gift” and “gifts,” as often as possible. Use “Christmas” as one of your keywords for SEO and paid search. Try to get as many holiday-specific keywords into the text as you can – without losing sight of your primary marketing message.

Tell Them What They Need to Know

Instead of describing how your product or service can help the website visitor, explain why your product or service would make a great gift. Many people have no idea what they want to buy for the people on their list, and are looking for people to tell them. That gives you a great opening for a powerful call to action –you can tell them that if they buy your product or service, they will be giving a great gift that will be appreciated.

Use Targeted Testimonials

If your company has been in business for a while, you probably have a long list of testimonials that you can use. Look through your available testimonials and find ones that talk about your product as a gift, or as something that was recommended to them by their friends.

The goal is to support the idea that this isn’t an item for the shopper, but rather a gift that people like to receive from friends and family. In other words, a testimonial that reads, “I was so happy when my brother told me about your product” will work better than “I was so happy when I found out about your product.”

Develop Holiday-Themed Graphics

Your home page should do something to reflect the spirit of the season. People want to feel comfortable that your product or service is the type of thing that people give and receive during this time of year. Putting holiday-themed graphics and images on your site makes it feel more welcoming, and will encourage people to spend more time on the page.

You can also incorporate pictures of people giving your product to other people. Remember, people buy products or services because of subtle psychological triggers, and they really do respond to positive images that reflect the season. Seeing a picture of someone being happy to receive your product as a gift can boost sales.

Create A New Autoresponder Campaign

Now is the time to capitalize on your email list. People who didn’t respond to your email marketing campaign during the year may very well respond to a targeted email marketing campaign during the Holiday season. You will want to develop a new autoresponder series to capitalize on this.

Your earlier campaigns probably were designed to motivate visitors to buy the product for themselves. Now, you want to create a campaign that lists exactly why they would want to buy your product or service for someone else. Talk to them about why their friends or family members would love your product or service as a gift.

In your messages, create a sense of urgency to motivate impulse purchases. Point out how many days there are until Christmas. Ask them if they have their Christmas shopping done. With each email, remind them that they are running out of time for the holidays.

As people feel more and more pressed to finish their Christmas shopping, they will become much more willing to buy from you just to have one more person crossed off of their list.

Leverage The Power Of Last Minute Shoppers

Lots of people put off Christmas shopping until the last minute. This isn’t good for them, but can be great for you if you can capitalize on it. In the last week before Christmas, shoppers are in a rush to “check everyone off of their list”.

This can work in your favor. Make it easy for them to choose you for their last minute shopping. If you sell a physical product, offer to throw in overnight shipping for free. It will cost you very little, but the increased sales will more than make up for it.

If you sell something that can be delivered or downloaded instantly online, capitalize on that. Stress that even if it’s December 24^th, they can have the product delivered electronically to the person they want to give it to. That will motivate a lot of last-minute sales. Electronic gift certificates are particularly powerful for exactly this reason.

We hope these tips help you grow sales during the Holiday season!

We get this question several times a month – “What should my conversion rate be?”. The answer is: “it depends!”  It should be no surprise that website conversion rates vary by segment, as they typically have different types of customers, value propositions and sales cycles.

To answer the question in a more useful way, we put together an infographic that illustrates conversion rates by segment including First Time vs Repeat Visitors, top-performing websites by conversion rate, and provides a closer look at conversion rates by marketing channel.

Keep it handy for future reference & share it with your friends!

Click the graphic for a larger view.

Scaling your business by growing the number of customers and subsequent revenue isn’t easy. It takes constant monitoring and analysis to understand what’s working and optimization to improve results. There are a number of variables that can impact customer growth, but knowing what to track and optimize allows you to hone in those metrics and areas that can have the greatest impact on your bottom line.

When optimizing your marketing campaigns, here are 5 key metrics you should be monitoring closely:

• Visitor to Paid Conversion Rate
  What percentage of people who click your ads convert to paying customers? We’ve provided several articles on landing page optimization and ways to improve conversion rates for your landing pages. Testing is something that you should do consistently, but also pay very close attention to the quality of customers that convert through various channels. Are there certain ad campaigns and channel combinations that lead to higher conversion rates and higher quality customers?

 

• Acquisition Cost
  How much are you paying to acquire each customer? Are you receiving a positive return within the month or will you have to wait months to see a positive return after a customer has purchased several products? If you have a subscription-based business model, how many months will it take to break-even? Or get a positive return? Set a baseline for your acquisition cost and if you’re just launching, it will likely be a best-guess as you do not have enough purchase history to calculate a lifetime-value, which will allow you to back into a target acquisition cost. A slightly different approach is taken if you’re selling single purchase products versus subscription-based. If you’re selling individual products you’ll want to target an acquisition cost that’s lower than the price of the product, however if you’re marketing a subscription-based product then you can absorb an acquisition cost that’s greater than one month’s rate and aim to turn a profit over time. I’d recommend aiming for less than twelve months.

 

• Time on Site
  How long do people actually stay on your landing pages once they get there? Do visitors convert quickly or leave the page soon after arriving? Think about ways to make your landing pages more engaging if visitors are leaving quickly. Perhaps they’re leaving because the ad that drove them to the landing page was misleading or didn’t clearly describe the products or services you offer. For the landing page, perhaps it doesn’t clearly state the benefits of your products or services, but simply states what you do. Be sure to include information on what you do but also be clear about the benefits to the customer. A potential customer always asks “what’s in it for me?” or “how does this help me?”.

 

• Revenue
  How much revenue are your conversions driving for your business? What is the revenue per conversion? If you have a subscription-based business model, what is your average rate per user? Is this rate improving month-over-month? Obviously revenue is the lifeblood of your business, but it’s important to not just look at revenue from a high-level, but also understand how each customer attributes to overall revenue. If you offer a subscription-based service with a number of pricing tiers, it’s important to understand the types of customers across the various tiers. Closely monitor marketing channels and the customers they are referring for each subscription plan. For example, are there channels that refer customers with higher subscription rates or customers with higher retention rates and lifetime value (LTV).

 

• Retention
  How loyal are your customers? Do they return to purchase again and again? If you have a subscription-based business model this is easier to track as there are clear “start” and “stop” dates when a user signs up and when they cancel.

Think about how can you improve your retention rate over time. Are there certain marketing channels that are sending lower quality customers who sign up and cancel before you can breakeven on your cost to acquire them? What programs can you put in place to help with retention? There are quite a few steps you can take to improve your retention rate. There are more obvious steps like improving customer support, but what about providing additional value for your customers? Many software-as-a-service companies provide value to their customers by giving them free tools, educating them, or create online communities that bring their customers together to answer questions and provide best practices. Think about how you can incorporate these strategies into your business to improve the retention rate for your product or service.

There are a number of metrics that are important to the success of your business and certainly isn’t limited to only five. Focusing on the metrics we’ve included above can help you optimize your marketing campaigns to make sure you’re converting quality customers, maximize revenue, and retain current and future customers.