In order to maximize the success of a landing page you must have a clear methodology and process in place. Invesp’s conversion framework provides a blueprint to the construction of your landing page. The conversion framework has allowed us to see an average of 14.56% and 238% increases in conversion rates for our clients in 2007 alone.

I read a lot of ebooks. Most aren’t good, some are ok, and a small few are extremely useful. One book in the last category is Invesp’s new Landing Page Optimization guide. The book will help you improve conversions on your site, specifically on your landing pages and shows you that double digit conversions are not only possible, but how to achieve them.

The book is organized in four chapters.

1. An Introduction to landing pages and conversions
2. Setting the Stage for landing page optimization
3. Conversion Optimization Principles
4. Developing the Best Landing Page

While I don’t consider myself an expert on either conversions or landing pages I do consider myself well versed in both and still there was a lot of new information for me to absorb.

The early parts of the book make the case for why conversion rates are important. Khalid and the team offer a wealth of statistics to show how much money you stand to gain by implementing some simple steps to improved conversions. They also provide data to show how much money you might be leaving on the table by ignoring conversion best practices.

The beginning chapters will also explain exactly what a conversion is and how to calculate your success or lack of success. I particularly enjoyed the sections that look at various analytics metrics, showing you why it’s important not to draw conclusions based on any single metric, but rather to look at them in combination to gain a better picture of how well your site is performing.

Conversion and Landing Page Optimization

The meat of the book is in the third chapter which discusses conversion optimization and shares the 8 principles of The Conversion Framework ™ which Invesp uses to increase conversion rates for their clients.

1. Target Market/Persona Development
2. Trust and Confidence
3. Engagement
4. Buying Stages
5. FUDs
6. Incentives
7. Test
8. Iterative Process

Each of the 8 principles is explained in detail and case studies are used throughout to show you how each leads to more sales and greater lead generation. The chapter will help you keep your design and copy focused on the goal of conversion, help you engage your readers to keep them on your site and bring them back, and show you how to lead your visitors down the conversion funnel to turn them into paying customers.

The last chapter puts everything together and teaches you how to incorporate the conversion principles into your landing pages. I would have liked to have seen more before and after screen shots, perhaps a walk-through of a turning a poorly converting landing page into a better on, but even without these images the information is clear and you should have no problem directly applying it to your site.

There is one place where I think the book misses the mark. The book comes across to me more about conversion optimization in general with a specific focus on landing pages than a book only about landing page optimization. That’s actually a good thing since you can apply the information beyond your landing pages and across every page on your site.

The book will set you back $95, but when you consider that even one or two tips within can bring you a return many times that price, it’s well worth the investment.

Anyone following the advice inside should be able to increase conversions on their site, quite possibly into double digit rates. Given how much money that could mean for your business I’d highly recommend reading Landing Page Optimization.

A campaign is only as successful as the landing page created for it. Optimizing your landing page will allow you to reap the benefits of every campaign you run. And although every element throughout an online marketing effort is important; the landing page is where you have the opportunity to convert the prospect into a customer.

Why do we believe that in all matters the odd numbers are more powerful?
–Pliny the Elder, Natural History

I came across an interesting post yesterday by Dan Tudor about how using odd numbers is more profitable than using even numbers. After a little digging there seems to be a “rule of odds” in composition, which may serve as a general theory to the rule of three I mentioned in the past.

Copywriter Gymi Slezinger proposed a theory that

Even numbers have balance and closure. They don’t need you. Odd numbers have something hanging. There is urgency in them.”

When crafting a story you introduce conflict and then present a resolution to that conflict. A typical story will even propel you through to the end with a series of smaller conflicts and resolutions within the overall major conflict/resolution. The next time you read a thriller notice that many chapters will come to resolution prior to the last page of the chapter and then start another mini conflict to get you to turn the page.

Odd numbers carry the conflict and tension. Even numbers resolve the conflict. Odd numbers become more exciting and compelling as a result of the tension they inherently create.

The “rule of odds” in composition suggests that an odd number of subjects is more aesthetically pleasing and more interesting than an even number of objects. There is something to the asymmetry of odd numbers that people prefer to the symmetry of even numbers.

I’ve come across the rules of odds and threes time and again when studying both design and writing, but until today I hadn’t come across the idea that human-generated random numbers are usually odd.

When you ask a person to pick a random number, they’ll usually choose an odd number that doesn’t end in 5. As a side-effect, many human-generated random numbers are prime.

Oddly enough when I think of all the times someone has asked me to pick a random number I usually do choose an odd number. There’s probably a good party trick in there someplace where you predict what number someone “randomly” chooses.

Using The Rule Of Odds

The Psychology of Pricing mentions that “studies show that odd numbers are more commonly associated with lower prices than even numbers.” Make sure your prices end in an odd number. $9.99 instead of $9.98.

An obvious place to use odds is in lists. List 3 benefits instead of 4, 9 instead of 10. You may have noticed recently that the top 7 lists are now the new linkbait list number as opposed to top 10 lists. 10 resolves. 7 builds tension and excitement.

Group your tables in odd numbers of columns and/or rows and follow the rule of thirds when composing images for your site.

Divide your posts into an odd number of sections with an odd number of headings. Divide your pages into an odd number of groupings. Use three levels of membership instead of two or four. Let your sales run for seven days instead of two weeks.

Whatever you are doing keep asymmetry and odd numbers in the back of your mind. Those uneven numbers may just lead to more readers, conversions, and profits.

Uneven numbers are the gods’ delight.
–Virgil, The Eclogues

One popular method is to make a dollar in profit from each of a million people. Or a penny from a hundred million. This is the China strategy. It almost never works.

The China strategy is akin to competing on price, which is generally a bad idea for all but the largest of organization. Wal-Mart can compete on price. You and I can’t. Someone can always price things lower and in truth people don’t buy based on price. They buy based on their perception of the value something offers.

Seth’s point, though is more about the difficulty in reaching so many people. The internet does expand how far we can spread our message, but most businesses know how difficult it can be to turn someone into a customer. It’s usually far easier to convince someone who’s bought once to buy again than it is to convince someone new to buy the first time.

Far easier to make a thousand dollars from each of a thousand people, or even $10,000 from a hundred organizations. You can focus on a small hive of people, a group that talks to itself. You can push through a smaller dip and reach a level of recommendation and dominance that makes incremental sales far easier.

Many people buy cars, fewer buy sports cars, and far fewer buy Ferrari’s. Now I have no idea the profit margins for the auto industry, but I’m going to play a hunch and say the sale of a Ferrari results in more profit than the sale of Volkswagen. Even at its lower price a Volkswagen will only appeal to so many people and only sell to so many people. More than the Ferrari given the prices, but still there will only be so many people Volkswagen can convince to buy no matter what they do.

More people means a more diverse group which means more marketing messages you need to deliver to make all your sales. Let’s take Seth’s idea further for illustration and consider making $1,000,000 from one person. That person isn’t me, but there are people who can afford to spend that much. If you only had to make one sale it would be easy. Find the person you’re going to sell to and tailor your message specifically for him. Whoever that person is there’s something he wants and some way to reach him. One person, one tailored message, one sale, instant millionaire.

Now consider making $500,000 from each of two people. You’re still targeting the same economic class of people, but now you have to craft two messages. There’s likely some overlap between the two messages, but it’s probably close to twice the work to convince that second person to buy. Neither is buying any quicker because the price is lower. If you can afford to spend half a million you can afford the whole million.

Back to the case of selling many people for $1 profit each. How many different marketing messages do you need? Less than a million certainly, but a lot more than one. People have different personality types and need to be persuaded in different ways before they buy. Some people won’t buy a Volkswagen until they know it costs less. Some won’t buy one until they know it gets better gas mileage. Some need to know that an influential person bought one. More people means more marketing messages that you need to create.

How hard was it to make your last sale? How much work went into making that one sale? How much work goes into making 1000 sales? A million sales?

You can find someone to buy at most any price point. As long as they perceive value in your product or service at that price point you can make a sale. It’s really not any easier to sell something for $100 than it is to sell something for $1000 or $10,000. The steps in making the sale are still the same.

In the end it’s far easier to compete on value than it is on price. You can make the same amount of money with less sales. The internet makes it easier to get your message to more people. It doesn’t make it any easier to convince them to buy.

I’m sure you’ve seen those long, long pages with copy that goes on forever. Those pages you need to scroll through screen after screen of copy to even find the price of the item for sale and the form to fill out in order to buy it. Pages with half of the words highlighted in yellow and the more you see them the more they look like spam. Could it be though, that those pages with the long copy actually convert better than pages with shorter copy?

A study I found not to long ago, Long Copy vs. Short Copy Tested would indicate those endless pages do indeed convert better. You might notice the study is almost two years old, but about a week ago I found the authors of this study reiterating the claims of the test in a magazine, having found similar results in studies beyond this one. I’ve also noticed many very legitimate sites who’s copy seems to grow on pages directly selling a product. Take a look at the length of the page where Aaron Wall sells his SEO Book. If Aaron’s using long copy I’m confident it works.

I found this test particularly interesting given that conventional wisdom and the advice from every online copywriter I’ve ever read has always been to make text online short and sweet. People tend to read less online they all say, while skimming more so pages of long copy have generally been advised against.

The long vs short copy test does show a clear indication that longer copy outperforms it’s short brethren, though the testers do advise testing for yourself as all sites are different. Especially interesting was the result that shortening the checkout process actually decreased conversions. In this case though the page removed was a product page which I would think would be valuable in selling that product.

As the authors point out quality copy that is short will still convert better than long copy that is poor. This isn’t about just adding words to a page so it’s longer. You need to have a good reason for all those words, but long copy does give you the ability to answer more questions that a visitor might have and need an answer for in order to make a purchasing decision. And all that highlighting does allow visitors to skim the page, so in a sense you can have shorter copy within your long copy page for anyone who just wants the info quick.

One of the guidelines at the end of the study points out that in general higher priced products tend to require longer copy to convert. That makes sense as people will typically want more information before spending more money. You don’t need to convince me much that your $5 product will improve my life. Worst case I’m out $5. But your $1000 product better do a little more convincing and assure me it’s worth spending my hard earned dollars.

The study, along with the rest of the Marketing Experiments site, is worth checking out. It hasn’t convinced me to arbitrarily increase the length of my copy, but it will make me feel more confident about leaving the copy I write at whatever length it happens to be and not think it needs to be broken up over several pages because it’s too long. In then end I’ll still go with leaving pages at whatever length they need to be to get the information across.

A simple rule in writing suggests that things that are grouped in threes are more satisfying to the reader and are more effective than any other number of things at delivering a message. For whatever reason human beings tend to think of things in triplets. We remember things best in threes and scan visual elements better when grouped in three. By using and appropriately breaking the rule of three can we improve conversions on our websites?

Think for a second of all the occurrences of three around us. The three Musketeers, Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Third time is a charm, three strikes and your out, the holy trinity. Even stooges come in threes. Famous speeches and slogans make use of the rule of three. “Friends, Romans, and Countrymen,” “Stop, drop, and roll,” “Reading, writing, and arithmetic.”

Stories are often told in three acts with a beginning, middle, and end and are often presented in trilogies. A series of three can be used to create a progression where tension is created, built up and then released. Blues music is often follows this progression of three with call, followed by a response that is generally a repeat of the initial call and finally a punchline. The rhythm of three works well for us.

Improve Conversions With Threes

You can make use of threes to improve conversions by grouping visual elements in three and providing three options to choose from. Use lists of three benefits for your products and group those lists into threes. Use three in your writing as I’ve been doing throughout this post.

Try three calls to action on your page, a primary call, a secondary call, and a tertiary call. Since people will remember three points better than any other number, organize your articles or sales pitch around three main points to help ensure they all get remembered.

Do you have a page of product images organized into a table. Perhaps it would be best to use either three columns or three rows or maybe even both. Why not offer three levels of service at three different price points? Maybe your forms should ask for three pieces of information before having to submit. There are lots of ways you can experiment with groupings of three on your site and in your copy.

Converting By Breaking The Rule Of Three

Before you become convinced that you should never do anything unless it comes in a group of three, keep in mind that rules were made to be broken. Case in point is this article from Media Post The Rule Of Three In Search. You’ll need to sign up for a free membership to read the full article, but here’s the summary. The article conducted a study of click through rates on sponsored ads at the three major search engines. Yahoo was leading both Google and MSN in click through on their ads and it was difficult to see why, until the rule of three was found to be playing a role.

Upon checking all three results pages at a 1024 x 768 screen resolution (the most common browser resolution in use today) it could easily be seen that both Google and MSN used the rule of three in presenting what could be seen above the fold. Three sponsored ads, three one box results, and three organic results. Yahoo by comparison weighted things to the sponsored ads by displaying four of them and only one organic result. It’s possible the organic results seemed less satisfying with only one visible and the sponsored results took more time to go through than the easy group of three keeping people focused on that area of the page longer.

The rule of three is everywhere around us and if you look for it you’ll be amazed at all the times something is presented or organized in threes. By using the rule of three throughout your website you can create a more satisfying experience for your visitors and quite possibly convert them from visitors to buyers. Still you don’t want to lock yourself into threes. Breaking the rule of three in appropriate places can lead to more sales and success as perhaps evidenced by the Yahoo sponsored search results. Rules were made to be broken and those that manage to break the rules in a way that works often have the most success. Perhaps they never break just one rule, but always opt to break three rules at once.

You’ve just launched your new site promoting your billiards business. You’ve optimized your pages for ‘billiards tables’ and ‘billiards balls’ and are very proud of your page explaining the rules for ‘pocket billiards’ since you see it as a great form of link bait. The only problem is all your customers play pool.

It might seem like something trivial. Most people know that the game of pool and the game of billiards are the same thing, but are you really sure. Even if they do know which word would they most likely use in a search. We all use industry jargon when talking about out business. It’s natural since we deal all day with other people in the industry and have come to use abbreviations and acronyms to help speed the conversation along. Your customers won’t always know that insider talk. If you want to convert more visitors into paying customers you need to speak their language not yours.

Think of it in another way. You’ve just flown into a foreign country for a long vacation. You decided to rent a car and are driving toward what you’ve heard is a charming cottage where you hope to stay. You’re not entirely sure where the cottage is and because you don’t speak or read the native language you drive right past the exit for the cottage even though the sign was clearly marked with it’s name. You wanted to stay there and the cottage had an extra room for you. Unfortunately you didn’t speak the same language so you end up 5 miles down the way in a cheap motel.

While it’s clearly an exaggerated example I hope the point is clear than not speaking the same language can lead to missed opportunities. The difference in the words you decide to use on your site may not be as extreme they can still lead to the same missed opportunities and the same failure to convert.

Increasing Conversions Before The Front Door

Using the language your customers speak starts before they even arrive at your site. Your choice in the keyphrases you optimize your pages for will play a large roll in who makes it to your site and even if anyone makes it to your site. I don’t search for carafes. I search for coffee pots. You sell ‘computer components,’ but your customers are looking for ‘computer parts.’ It’s important to realize your customers won’t always use the same terms to refer to your products as you will and if you want them to find you it’s their language you’d better be using.

It’s certainly true that some will use the same words you do, but many won’t. If I really am one of the few who’s unaware that pool and billiards are synonymous I’m not making it to your site even though you carry exactly what I’m looking for.

Often people get stuck trying to decide what keywords and keyphrases to choose for optimization of their pages and site. It seems so obvious how people will search for you. It’s obvious to you since you speak the language of your industry. It’s not so obvious to your customers. I refer to seo all the time on this site. But do potential clients know that stands for search engine optimization? Do they even know what search engine optimization is or do they just want to know how to get more traffic? Choosing to mention only one could cost many potential visitors and clients.

Speak Your Customer’s Language To Convince Them Why You’re Better

Would it matter to you if I told you that by using relative positioning and floating structural page elements I could create a more usable environment on your landing pages and increase your CTR. Maybe. Probably not for most. You might like to know that I can create web pages that are easy for your visitors to use and will more likely get them to contact you.

When you’re telling people the benefits of using your products or services make sure it’s meaningful to them. Don’t be misled into thinking that because it’s meaningful to you it will be to them as well. Your customers may not care about the ionization process used during manufacturing. They just want to know that what they buy will work and last a long time. They may not be interested in the programming language you used to write your latest software or the reasons why that language is optimal for the type of software. But they will want to know that the software is easy to use and will make them more productive. Speak to them about what concerns them, not about what concerns you.

How To Learn Your Customer’s Language

If you want to learn your customer’s language the easiest way is to listen to them. If your business lends itself to direct contact with your customers pay attention to the words they use when talking about your business. Spend more time in places where your customers are more likely to be. Read the magazines they would read and visit the websites they frequent.

One thing that can work well for those who make their way to your site is to add a search box so you can see what people are looking for once there. Look through your site statistics to see what search terms people are using to find you and use more of their words instead of yours. The key is to pay attention to the words your customers use to refer to your services and products.

Also remember speaking their language isn’t just about the specific words you and your customers use differently, but in communicating what’s important to them. Find out what’s important to your customers and then communicate to them that you can provide it. I spend quite a bit of time on webmaster forums. The people there speak the same language I do and we can talk about things that help us become better webmasters. But I learn what my clients want by participating in small business forums since the members there are less likely to talk shop, and more likely to talk about what they are looking for when hiring a web designer.

It’s ok to use industry language in your copy as long as you have customers who will also speak that language. Some certainly will and will want to see the insider jargon. But remember than many won’t use the same language you do when talking about your business. And if you want to convert those visitors into paying customers, it’s their language you need to speak not yours.

There’s a lot of common wisdom online, but can you always trust that wisdom? Apparently not when it comes to ‘click here’ buttons and the thought that they don’t convert well. Peter Da Vanzo wrote a short post on the v7n blog entitled Big Shiny Buttons: Click Here! in which he mentions how his own test results indicate those buttons generate higher conversions.

We’re left having to think about the reasons for the higher click throughs and one probable reason would be buttons make for a stronger and more direct call to action than a text link which can more easily get lost in the sea of links usually found on any given web page. Buttons when used sparingly will certainly stand out and call our attention to them. The more attention they get the more likely someone will click one and increase the conversion of that button on the page.

I think too that some of the wisdom against ‘click here’ buttons has more to do with the ‘click here’ part than the button itself. ‘Click here’ makes for horrible anchor text when it comes to seo since there aren’t going to be many people, if any, who are seriously searching for the words ‘click here’ when they visit a search engine.

It did get me thinking how Peter conducted his test and whether the increased conversions were due to moving the action call from a text link to a button and not so much because of the actual words used in each link. While I can offer no proof at the moment I would suspect that a ‘buy now’ button or a button with the words ‘make more money’ would outperform the ‘click here’ button and generate a higher click through. Varying the text in both buttons and simple text links does lend itself to more testing to learn in better detail what might be the factors when it comes to conversions.

It would be interesting to compare a button vs a text link using the same text and also compare buttons to buttons with different text. Perhaps we could find text links written that are so compelling they outperform some buttons. And there is likely a point where the text on any button becomes to much to make it an effective converter of traffic. Another possible test would be to compare button sizes to find if there is an optimal button size beyond which conversions decrease.

I’d also be curious to see the site where the test was conducted. How many buttons were there on the page? Did the buttons draw attention and conversions because they were the only ones on the page and naturally stood apart. I would think that you could only get away with so many ‘click here’ buttons before they all began to compete for your attention and conversions actually decreased. If 20 buttons all asked you to ‘click here’ which one would get the most clicks? Contrast is one of the basic principles of design and while one button contrasts greatly with a large amount of text, one button doesn’t contrast well when there are two dozen other buttons sitting next to it.

As Peter himself mentions in the comments to his own post that the type of visitor you have may also influence which link will have the higher conversion rate. That wisdom against ‘click here’ buttons did originate with webmasters and web designers and web marketers all of whom tend to have a lot of experience online. Speaking for myself I want to know where that button takes me rather than only be directed to click it. Less savvy web surfers may appreciate the extra direction. A high tech site might be better off with more detailed anchor text.

No matter what you think of Peter’s test of how you interpret the possible causes or reasons for it’s results, it’s certainly interesting to see some common wisdom proving not to be so wise after all. Given how important conversions are to running a successful website I’d like to see more tests conducted and more results across a larger variety of sites, visitors, and link text.

It may seem strange for a blog that often advises how you can get more traffic to tell you to stop focusing on it, but that’s exactly what this post will do. Am I crazy you ask? Well maybe, but not for this post. The goal is not to bring as many people as you can to your sites The goal is to have as many people as you can buy something from your site or at least get in touch so you can convince them to buy something from you. There are better ways to do that than the get more traffic to your site.

Everyday I come across posts on forums by people begging or pleading for others to tell them how to increase their web traffic. The pleas usually come from a site owner who’s not making money from their site and assumes the problem is due to a lack of traffic. Often the sites in question are getting some traffic and enough to be able to make the money the site owner wants. When you go to the site though it becomes clear that the problem isn’t from a lack of traffic, but rather a poorly developed site. Often these sites are lacking in both design and content and it’s wonder someone expects to make money from it.

If your site lacks quality and you’re unable to convert the visitors you are currently getting then spending time getting more people to your site doesn’t make a lot of sense. If none of the first thousand visitors bought anything why would you think the situation will be any different with the next thousand.

Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg, the conversion gurus at grokdotcom, make the analogy that a website is like a leaky bucket. You fill the bucket with water and it starts to come out all of the holes. The water is your traffic and the holes are the opportunities people have all the time to click away from your site. If your bucket has holes does it make more sense to keep filling it with more water? Not until you first fill those holes.

Similarly with your website why keep trying to attract more and more traffic when you should first be working to make sure you have a site that’s performing well. Until you make the site improvements that will get people to buy any new traffic will leave your site much the same way it has in the past.

Let’s consider some simple numbers. Say you typically attract a thousand people to your site each month and from that thousand people you make 20 sales for a 2% conversion rate. If you want to make another 20 sales each month you need to bring another thousand people to your site. And not just next month, but each and every month after that. However if you make some improvements to your site and double the conversion rate to 4% you’ll make those extra 20 sales with the same thousand visitors you’re already getting. And you’ll be getting those extra 20 sales every month even if your traffic stays the same.

Once your site is converting then you can focus your efforts more on bringing in more traffic. Doesn’t it make more sense to bring traffic to a site that turns visitors into buyers over a site that just turns them away.

In truth you can and should be doing both at the same time. But to focus on traffic without also working to improve conversions is a waste of time. You can make money from your website without having the kind of traffic you would ever brag about. Yes more traffic is good and we all want more, but a lack of it isn’t necessarily the cause of a lack of revenue. More often the problem is an under performing site. Improve your site before worrying about how many visitors you get and how to get more. More traffic isn’t better unless your site can convert that traffic.

When it comes to generating more sales on your site it’s all about conversions. Traffic is great, but unless your converting that traffic it might as well have never found your site in the first place. I’ve talked previously about using calls to action to increase conversions. Another way you can increase conversions on your site is to leave a good scent trail for your visitors.

What Is A Scent Trail?

The idea behind scent trails comes from research done at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center which found that humans beings look for information on the web in the same way that that animals use scent in food gathering.

According to Chi’s research, people almost always start out with a search engine, then engage in what he calls “hub-and-spoke” surfing: They begin at the center, and they follow a trail based on its information scent.

If the scent is sufficiently strong, the surfer will continue to go on that trail. But if the trail is weak, they go back to the hub. “People repeat this process until they’re satisfied,” Chi said.

By laying down a good scent trail for your visitors and can lead them to the products they want and increase the chances you’ll convert them into paying customers. Not laying down that scent will send them back to where they started and onto another trail at another site.

How To Lay Out A Scent Trail

It’s not very difficult to lay down a scent trail. The main idea is to ask yourself what someone would expect or want to see next. On every page of your site think about what potential customers would be interested in seeing while on that page and provide a clear link that will take them there. Make it obvious where they should go next and remember the rule of thumb “Don’t make me think.” By providing a place for them to go next you have created a trail for them to follow.

On that next page ask yourself what promises you have made to your visitor in sending them to that page. If you led people to believe that by clicking a link they’ll find a page about digital cameras you better make sure that page is about digital cameras. If not then you’ve lost the scent. You can start the trail with the keywords you use to optimize your page and the keywords you bid on in pay per click ads. Don’t send all of your visitors to your home page. Send them to the page that’s the most appropriate for the keywords. If someone clicks on a link in search engine results page promising digital cameras what do you think that person wants to see? Yep didgital cameras. So don’t take that person to your home page. Take them directly to a page about digital cameras.

If you can anticipate what your potential customers are looking for you can provide an obvious trail to lead them there. Anticipate what your visitors want and provide it for them and you’ll have left a scent trail they can follow. Don’t limit yourself to just one trail either. Different people are looking for different things. Lay down several trails and let your visitors follow the scent they find most enticing. You’ll increase your conversions and sales along the way.

Resources

The Sense of Scent
Map Scent Trails That Lead to Better Conversion
Does Your Website Stink?

When you developed your website did you create personas for the typical visitors that will be coming to your site? Personas can help you define in greater detail who your visitors are and how best to develop the site for them. They can help in decisions about how you’ll structure your site, give you ideas for new pages and sections, and help you discover the best language to use when writing your content. Personas will help make your site more usable and generally increase your conversion.

No one website can be all things to all people. It’s equally unlikely that all your visitors will be be exactly the same. Chances are a variety of different people with different personality types will visit your site each with their own unique ideas about what they are looking for and what they find usable in a website. While unique, many of these people will share similarities with one another. So how do you know what are the characteristics they share? By creating personas.

What Is A Persona

A persona is simply a fictional character you create to represent a group of visitors to your site. The persona becomes one character who you develop with some detail to help you understand a larger group of people who will come to your site. By creating several personas based on your target market you will get to know your potential customers better and have a better idea how to build a site they will find usable and be better able to convert them from visitors to customers

Developing A Persona

You start to develop a persona by given your persona a name. This name helps to make the persona seem more like a real person, with real values and issues. Once you have a name start writing a bio about your persona. How old is he or she? What do they do for a living? Married? Single? What interests do they have? Why might they be at your site? Continue to flesh out you persona until you have a good background story of who this person is.

Remember to include things like whether or not they are web savy and how they interact with websites and search engines. Since the ultimate goal here is to develop a better site for this person the more you can know about your persona’s web habits the better it will be. Write as much as you can until you feel you really understand your persona. The write another persona. Write several for each of the different types of people likely to visit your site.

Making Use Of Personas

Now that you’ve developed your personas you want to put them to use. You can provide search on your site for your persona who has a hard time with navigation. You can place links to deep pages on your home page for that persona who’s in a hurry. Or even better optimize those deep pages for the way your persona searches. Now that you know your personas in more detail it should be easier to know what they would most want on your site and how you can make your site more usable to that persona.

Provide non technical jargon for your persona who isn’t tech savvy, but create a more tech laden path to your products for your more tech savvy personas. Not all of your visitors are looking for the same thing or will take the same path to a given product page. For a good example take a look at the SEO Research Labs home page. Look at the how the page is clearly divided into four distinct boxes. Each of these boxes is for a different persona who will be looking for different things or simply needing to get to the same place in a different way.

The main idea behind developing personas is to make your visitors more real to you. The more you can get to know them the more you will be able to talk directly to them. It’s true that you might not get a visitor exactly like any of your personas, but each of your personas will be similar enough to a large group of people that by developing a site that connects with one of your personas you will be developing a site that will connect with many of your visitors. The more you can connect with them the better you’ll be able to lead them down the conversion path where they’ll become paying customers.

Resources

Whispered Advice to The Graduate: Personas
Making Personas More Powerful: Details to Drive Strategic and Tactical Design