Jim Sterne Serves Conversion Cocktails…

Stirred, shaken, chilled or chased? Where are your customers?

Sorry I’ve been holding back on you…but Jim Sterne was in Ottawa last week and he presented a great session to about 120 very enthusiastic web-starved professionals. Despite being Silicon Valley North, we sure don’t get our fair share of thought leaders in the e-space. But that’s another story.

Anyhow, Jim did a very engaging presentation and perhaps my most favourite slide related to his analogy of the customer life cycle. His analogy served up images of martinis, margaritas, red wine and shooters! And I drank them right up! But more importantly these cocktails really painted a clear picture of the roadblocks and bottlenecks customers encounter. And let’s face it, when a customer faces a roadblock or bottleneck, you do too. “You” being the e-commerce marketing manager responsible for generating conversion.

Now let’s consider these drinks a little closer….too bad we didn’t have some cheese and crackers to go with it, but oh well. Work with me for a minute.

What are the ways sites invest in acquisition? SEM, SEO, email, direct mail, online video, banner ads, print ads etc. Even though more and more dollars get thrown into this bucket, the returns are going down. Competition is fierce. Hmm, what should we do? Gee I have an idea! What about re-directing some money into the next phase of the customer life cycle - the persuasion piece I mean?

What about persuasion? Well this is the bridge to conversion, yet I don’t see a ton of investment landing in this bucket. Sure, web site usability is a big piece of this. Easy navigation helps too. Paying attention to analytics, especially the the drop-off points makes for good boardroom discussions. OK so we all know the good and the bad of our web sites, but what are we doing about it? This is where web personalization can lend a hand. And where e-marketers need to think differently. Start thinking about the persuasion piece more seriously. It’s one thing driving traffic, but clicks aren’t going to get you promoted. Conversions will.

During yesterday’s 29-minute Sitebrand webinar titled ~ Love, Hope and Faith: Conversion Meets Customer Behavior ~ Darryl Praill and I added a little (how we can we say a lot in 29 minutes?) personalization chatter into the equation. How could we not? Personalization is such a huge piece of the persuasion push. To elaborate on the CableOrganizer.com example we referenced, you can read the full case study now.

Oh ya, at the bottom of these glasses, we’ve got conversion…and conversion can be whatever makes you happy:

• Purchases
• Downloads
• Sign-ups
• Etc.

And once you’re happy, don’t forget to get a re-fill!

Related Posts

• Optimization or Conversion?
• eMetrics Toronto - Sterne’s Keynote Recap
• New Year’s Resolution #4: User-Generate in ‘08

Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Personalization, Web Analytics, eCommerce