200-Proof Marketing

I recently got the first question in my Ask Chad section from Aaron Smith and decided to write about it here.

You can view the question by looking at the “Ask Chad” page.

The question was based on the fact that stats for most Niche sites show that 90% or more of the visitors who land at the websites leave immediately (or Bounce).

The question goes on to ask whether it would be better to try to convert more of the visitors who stay or to try to get more people to stay.

First I need to say that the web stat that shows 90% of visitors leaving immediately is not accurate.

I use Google Analytics for these kind of stats and there’s a good chance that Aaron uses it also. Or at least another Web Stats service that suffers from the same problem.

I didn’t realize this stat was incorrect until recently. To understand why it’s incorrect you need to understand how Google Analytics and other Web Stats work. We’ll focus on Google Analytics for simplicity.

Basically, every time a visitor lands at a web page of yours, their browser runs some JavaScript code in the webpage. This JavaScript code sends some basic information to Google.

But… The information is only sent when the webpage is loaded.

What that means is that a visitor could land on your website and stay for 2 days before clicking back or for only 2 seconds and it would look the same on your stats.

The only way it’s not counted as a “Bounce” is if the visitor loads another webpage on your website.

This also effects the “Length of Visit” stat because the visitors browser won’t tell Google how long they stayed unless the visitor loads another webpage.

What’s worse is that visitors with JavaScript disabled won’t show up at all on your stats!

The reason we see high Bounce rates on Niche Websites is because they consist mainly of a salesletter.

There are no other pages for the visitor to load so the actual length of visit is never sent unless they order.

Ideally Google Analytics (and the others) would make it so the stats are sent when the visitor leaves a webpage and not when they arrive. But technically thats a difficult thing to do.

In the past it would have been done with a hidden exit popup window but those are consistently blocked and thus worthless.

Despite all that technical stuff about stats, the question is still valid…

Convert more or get more to stay?

Here’s an example to clarify things:

100 people visit the site

20 don’t leave immediately

2 buy the product

Which of those would be easiest to increase and which would increase sales the most?

Let’s break them down more:

100 people visit the site = Traffic
20 don’t leave immediately = Interested Visitors
2 buy the product = Conversion Rate

Double any one of those and you will double your sales.

Theoretically if you double the amount of Interested Visitors you will also double your conversion rate.

So is it easier to make more people read your copy or to make more of the people who read your copy buy?

My guess (no tests to confirm this) would be that it would be easier to focus on getting more people to stay and read your copy.

Here are some basic suggestion for how you can do that:

1. Target your visitors better, this can be done any number of ways but by focusing on attracting people that are looking for what you offer you will get more “Interested Visitors.”
2. Work on the “Attention” and “Interest” parts of your Copy. Better headline, Audio, Video, etc
3. Make your sales letter look like a helpful article until after you’ve got their interest then move on through the AIDA (AIDCA for me) process.

Those are general tips you can use but the BIGGEST idea this question gave me was something I’ve talked about alot recently…

Delivering Comfort and Value before asking for a sale!

The solution I would test:

Since the problem is getting visitors interested enough to stay and read your copy, I would give them some great advice right from the start to capture their interest and trust (Comfort).

Let’s say our website is selling an ebook about How to Grow Prize Winning Roses…

My Headline would be one of the best tips in the book.

For example: “Adding Peanuts in Your Soil Will Result in Healthier More Vibrantly Colored Roses”

(Please note: I know nothing about roses so this is no doubt untrue - I just happen to be eating peanuts right now)

Obviously this would be an “Advertorial” or sales letter disguised as a helpful article.

I would go on to give some more good information after the headline and then either…

1. Offer a bribe of more good information to get an email address
2. Go straight to selling the product
3. Get them to click a link (”If you want more great information like this”) to the next page (Your Sales Letter), thus capturing true Bounce stats.

I’m actually working on a brand new model for Web Sales Letters that is a little similar to this. It’s a complete fake niche website you can use as an example for your sites. I estimate that it will be done in the next month or so.

I still need to convert one of my Niche Sites to this new “Model” and do an A/B Test to confirm it’s effectiveness before releasing it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 11:20 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing, Testing & Tracking, Copywriting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.