Feature by Guest Writer,Brian Massey, a.k.a. the Conversion Scientist, makes a serious living writing and speaking about Conversion techniques – techniques that he has proven time and time again. You can follow Brian on Twitter.
I would like to introduce you to a word that may not have been widely used in marketing and communication curricula, but it is the most important event in any direct response marketing you will do. “Conversion” is the moment when someone decides to become a lead or a sale in your campaign.
You will have been taught a great deal about how to get people’s attention, primarily by interrupting them. You will have been steeped in the importance of message, brand, and emotion. You will have learned the importance of creative in the communication process. You will have been shown the importance of identifying your market segments by demographic, geographic and psychographic data.
In the world of branding and image-building, these skills are largely sufficient. However, when you are asking “suspects” to call, register, or buy from you, conversion is the critical piece of the puzzle.
Conversion is important because it is a measurable event. Branding and awareness marketing must be measured by surveying the marketplace. Did they see the ad? Did they remember it? Would it entice them to buy?
Conversions can be counted: calls made, leads generated and sales completed.
What does it mean to be able to measure your marketing results? It means that you can continue to do the things that work, and stop spending on those that do not. You can effectively test your creative, zeroing in on the ads and messages that generate positive business results. Once you have identified a winner, you then continue testing, trying to beat your star performer, called the Control.
The result is marketing that gets continuously better, meaning it gets cheaper and cheaper to generate new leads and sales.
The Peculiar Math of Conversion
Focus on conversion and let the math work in your favor.
If you spend $1000 to generate 1000 impressions through an ad or email, your cost per impression is $1. Let’s assume that 1% of those impressions buy as a result. You have a 1% conversion rate. That means 10 new leads or 10 new customers.
Your Acquisition Cost is the $1000 spent divided by 10 conversion, or $10.
If you want to double your results, you can spend $2000 and generation 2000 impressions. It would be assumed that you would generate 20 new customers with your 1% conversion rate.
However, if you want to double your results without increasing your budget, how would you do that? If you increased your conversion rate to 2%, your $1000 ad campaign would now generate 20 customers, the same number that $2000 would have generated before.
Your acquisition cost drops to $5 per customer, meaning you are benefiting for half the cost.
Increasing Conversion Rates
In the online world, where almost all prospect actions can be measured, you will find that Web sites do a terrible job of converting visitors to leads or sales. Learn the ways of conversion, and you will be invaluable to companies in almost any industry.
I had the opportunity, one bright sunny day, to ask my 7 questions of graphic artist/designer/brand marketer Jason Sugawa, partner in Clutch Creative, one of my favorite design shops in town.
Catch up with Jason on Twitter, by following him here
Feature by Guest Writer, Olga Kazakova, a young, dazzling Marketer in Austin’s scene, hailing from Market Research at T3, and currently working for the ever-powerful eCommerce solution Volusion. You can follow Olga on Twitter.
In today’s business world, being nimble is a job requirement. One of the best talents you can bring to your organization is the ability to apply past learnings to current projects. Some projects may require the upfront ‘discovery’ process, but when strict timelines and budgets make it impossible to squeeze in a focus group or online panel, you can look to a few research tools where experts have already done the heavy lifting. The key to delivering powerful takeaways is building out a comprehensive toolkit. Below are a few of my favorite, go-to tools when I have to take a strategic stand, sometimes within the hour.
Mintel: A fantastic selection of research reports, categorized by industry. I discovered this tool in my last year at UT, and kicked myself for not finding it sooner. If you’re a college student, it’s likely that your school provides access to this resource for free. Be sure to use it.
Social mention: Aggregator of all things social. Unlike some of the paid social media tools (Nielsen BuzzMetrics, Radian 6 and Cymfony), this one is free. While it doesn’t provide the level of analysis that some programs require, it gives you a snapshot of what’s being discussed along with quick sentiment, reach and user metrics. Another fun social tracking tool is Addict-o-matic.
Surveygizmo: Look to surveygizmo for surveys made easy. This tool offers sophisticated reports in minutes – making you look like a market research star.
Trendwatching.com: Free, fun reports delivered to your inbox every month. See what the rest of the world is up to by reading the trend briefings.
PSFK.com: Add a little pizzazz to your insights. This is a truly inspiring resource with subjects ranging from advertising, culture, design and technology.
Slideshare.net & Scribd.com: Pick a topic you’re interested in and start browsing. One offers presentations; the other houses original content that can aide your research process.
Quantcast: Pull site stats and make informed decisions. You will find rich audience profiles here, including user demographics and lifestyles.
Del.iciou.us: see who’s bookmarking what and what they have to say.
Board Tracker: a forum search engine to track conversations and topics.
There are endless research tools out there for you to pick from. Build your own toolkit and be prepared to hunt for research. Which tools have you discovered lately?
Now, young Jedi, you might be asking: How do I find a mentor?
My personal suggestions: Look and listen. Seek them out. Amazing marketers are hiding in the cubes and offices in the building next door. But they are hard to get to. Easier are those people that are out and about in the community. Go to local events, and strike up a conversation. Poke through LinkedIN, and read their blogs.
Ask Yourself: Who do you admire and why? Who do you identify with? Who do you want to be like?
Email them. Don’t hold back. Do send them a note – about anything. Trust me. They’ll appreciate it. It opens the door for more conversation.
Don’t Be Scared: Do invite them to lunch, coffee or happy hour. Seek them out at local marketing events. (And don’t go getting all creepy by stalking them. Just invite them into conversation.)
Know your objective. Which can be simple, to start. “I’m graduating in 2 years, and I wanted to get a better understanding of the Austin Business Landscape. What companies do you know of here?” or “I’m hoping you could review my paper on Building a Marketing plan. I’d love your real-world feedback.” Or “I’m curious. What is a day in your life like?”
Believe in yourself. Mentors often learn just as much from you as you learn from them.
Then here’s the scary part: ASK FOR IT. Ask them if they would be interested being your mentor. Tell then what projects you enjoyed in school, or why you are passionate about whatever it is you are passionate about. Tell them what you want to be when you grow up and why. Then, give it space and time to blossom.
P.S. At this time, I want to thank my one-time Marketing mentors: Suaad Sait and Josh Baer, and my numerous one-time interns and mentees including Stephanie Brown, Marlana Salmon, Cora Griffin, Mei Lee Ling, Scott Daughtry, Mike Fellers and Caroline Lim.
