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How to Set Up and Run a Referral Program for Your WooCommerce Store
18 Jan

A good referral program can help your business to grow rapidly, and there is a WooCommerce plugin that makes it easy. That means you can focus on your business rather than the technology behind the referral program — and isn’t that what a good plugin should do?

Some businesses don’t set up a referral program because they fear that it will be too difficult, both for them and for their customers. The WooCommerce Referral program for your store makes it easy. In fact, it can be done in three simple steps.

Setting Up Your WooCommerce Program

The first thing you’ll want to do is sign up for a referral software program that creates personalized links for you, such as ReferralCandy. Next, you’ll want to decide on the reward structure. Oola Tea has a program that offers dual rewards like Uber’s program. The referrer and the referral both receive $10 off their next order. This provides motivation for current customers to share their link with their friends and family.

Setting up the program can be very simple. There are three main steps:

  1. Sign up for ReferralCandy
  2. Install the ReferralCandy for WooCommerce plugin in WordPress
  3. Setup your rewards, emails, pages and widgets

Promote Your Referral Program

Once you have it set up and the rewards structure figured out, you’ll want to ensure that your customers know about it. You can create a blog post about the rewards that you are offering and share it on social media. Facebook ads, Facebook posts, Twitter tweets and LinkedIn posts are all great ways to get the word out about your referral program.

Make sure you email your list and let your customers know what rewards they can earn and how they can refer their friends.

But most of all, make it exciting! Your customers really want to understand what the benefits of getting involved with you are. Referral programs that properly incentivize customers with desirable rewards reinforce customer loyalty and increase your customer base. The success of your referral program (and growth of your company’s bottom line) will hinge on your ability to share it with the people who can best take advantage of it.

Monitor The Referral Program

Referral software makes tracking referrals and rewards a breeze, meaning you can easily determine whether or not the program is working. You can easily adjust the rewards and test out different ones. And don’t worry if some aren’t working. It’s completely normal that some rewards don’t perform well and need to be changed up.

This is not set and forget, however. Keep your program fresh by looking for new ways to continually reward your customers. Adjust the program with the seasons. Do you have new products that are available in the spring? Can you offer a holiday incentive? Making it current and rewarding your customers as they share their links with friends will strengthen your relationship with your customers.

Create online events, like contests and VIP events, that your customers can engage with through social media. One common contest idea that online brands use is to encourage people to take pictures with their products and enter the photos to win. Visual promote social sharing and brand identity — and increase brand exposure.

Customers begin to feel special and a little more loyal to your brand. And potential customers trust what they hear from other customers more than what they hear from the brand itself. Everybody wins!

The key elements of successful rewards programs are:

  • personalized links
  • dual rewards
  • multiple incentives
  • contests

Incorporating these elements can take your business’ referral program to the next level. And there are some brands that have done a GREAT job using referral programs to climb to the top.

Here are some of the best and a look at what they’ve done so well.

Uber – Dual Referral Rewards

The infamous ride-sharing app builds referral marketing into their business. It assigns each customer a personalized referral code as soon as the app is activated. As customers share the code with their friends, both parties receive a free ride.

The secret to their success is offering dual rewards. Referring customers know their friends will receive something of value — a free ride — and they’ll get one too! This increases the likelihood of a referral happening in the first place.

Uber has a referral program for their drivers as well. Drivers whose friends sign up to become Uber drivers using their own car can earn a referral reward of $500.

The dual referral rewards program has enabled uber to expand to more than 60 countries and over 400 cities since it started in 2012. That is a lot of growth in a few short years.

Person using Uber on their mobile phone

Image source: Flickr

Dropbox – Multiple Incentives

Dropbox logoDropbox is an online file transfer service. It launched a referral rewards program for its customers with product-based perks rather than monetary incentives. Dropbox rewards its customers with an extra 500 MB of free storage space to the customer who makes the referral and the new user.

The referral program was so successful it resulted in a 60% increase in membership in 2010 as Dropbox users sent a whopping 2.8 million direct referral invites. This initial referral program was so successful, it not only put them on the map, but it continues to run it to this day. Dropbox customers preferred product-based discounts, perks, and upgrades rather than simple cash incentives. Providing your customers with multiple types of incentives can strengthen their loyalty.

“In the business of referrals, trust is the most important reason a recommendation is made and, conversely, lack of trust the single greatest reason referrals don’t happen.” – John Jantsh, The Referral Engine


Evernote – Continually Reward the Referrer

Evernote Logo

Evernote is a note-taking software with a points-based referral program that rewards customers with points every time they make a referral. Points can then be redeemed for free access to the software’s premium features.

Evernote offers three different tiers for their app – Free, Premium and Business. Evernote Free has a limited amount of functions, but enough for the casual user. The brand realized that the more users continue to use their app, the more valuable it becomes to the user. This increases the likelihood that they will upgrade.

This freemium model allowed Evernote to gain their first million users in 446 days and then hit 11 million only two years later. Evernote relied on word of mouth marketing and an excellent product. They don’t spend money on user acquisition or SEO or SEM, according to Phil Libin, ex-CEO of Evernote.

Evernote uses their referral program to allow their users to experience Evernote Premium free while making referrals. This entices the users to upgrade if they like it, and it encourages more referrals. Users earn points when the referred user upgrades to premium features. This motivates them to encourage others to upgrade.

Tesla – Contests

Even the world’s most famous electric car company, Tesla, has integrated referral programs into its business. Tesla’s referral program has transformed over the years to reflect its increasing customer base. Initially, their referral program offered $1,000 to refer a friend. However, now they have switched to free charging of the vehicles for 6 months with new Model S, Model X and Model 3 orders. A reward of free charging encourages the customers to use the vehicles to maximize their reward. Increased usage will also promote customer loyalty.

Tesla uses referral contests in new territories when they want to get established quickly. They offer access to private events or a VIP experience. These incentives make the customers feel valued. They also tap into the customer’s competitive spirit.

For Tesla customers, the best rewards are those that money can’t buy. Tesla customers love private events and VIP treatment. Offer these referral rewards to ensure that your customer feels valued. This will build a community of dedicated consumers who go out and share their love of your product with others who will become loyal customers as well.

A Tesla Car, the Roadster

Google – Personalized Links

Google Apps for Work logo

Google became the giant behemoth search engine in part because of its referral program. It rewards business customers for each new user that signs up for Google Apps for Work. Upon joining the referral program, customers are provided with their own personalized referral link to share with their network.

For every new Google Apps for Work account, the advocate receive $15 which is deposited directly into their bank account.

Google’s program makes it simple and easy to refer friends through an automated process. The personalized links are easy to share with friends and family.

There. I bet setting up a referral program looks a lot less scary to you now, right? So have it! Your brand might not be a Tesla or a Google yet, but follow what some of the leaders have done, and you too can have a great referral program. Who knows. It may help you become the next business behemoth.

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7 E-Commerce Insight Tools Compared
23 Nov

Coke or Pepsi?

Google or Apple?

Kissmetrics or Mixpanel?

Okay, maybe you’re not as familiar with the last two, but you should be – especially if you run an e-commerce business.

See, the only way to make sure that your website is performing well is to track your analytics. You need to know how well your sales funnel is doing, whether people are buying certain products over others, and how many people are visiting your site on a regular basis.

All these metrics are important, so you need the best insight tools to provide you with that data. If you’re looking for the cream of the crop, however, there are three big insight tools that currently hold a lion’s share of the market: Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, and Mixpanel.

There are three big insight tools that currently hold a lion’s share of the market.

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If you’re looking to gather more marketing data for your site, consider this an honest-to-goodness overview of the biggest contenders. But just so we don’t play favorites, we’re also including four more insight tools you might not want to overlook.

Check out this quiz for more info: What Insight Tool Best Fits My Needs?
Click Here

Google Analytics vs. Kissmetrics vs. Mixpanel

Here’s a general breakdown of the three titans of analytics. In case you’re thinking that they all do the same thing, know that while they all will give you valuable insight into how your website functions, each has it’s own specialty that may benefit certain businesses more than others. Let’s take a look.

new-google-analytics-dashboard-example

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is probably the most well-known solution, and thanks to its popularity there are plenty of guides out there that can turn any greenhorn into an analytics expert. It’s also easily integrated with many different e-commerce platforms, including WooCommerce.

The biggest plus for Google Analytics is its ability to measure traffic. If one of the focuses of your marketing strategy is to bring unique visitors to your page, this is a great tool for tracking that information. It’s also fairly easy to setup, and you can start pulling data right away.

Google Analytics can also measure funnels, which it calls “goals”. For the uninitiated, funnels measure things like the success of your sign-up flow (how many users land on your website, how many click to sign up, how many enter their email address, etc.).

When you set up funnels, you can view data going forward only, which means that you won’t be able to view data that happened before the funnel was set up.

Some have argued that Google Analytics’ funnels are less accurate than, say, Kissmetrics, but for businesses that want a general overview for their primary funnels, it’s not a deal breaker.

The one downside is that while it has the ability to track events, the setup process can be cumbersome unless you really know what you’re doing, and again, the data may not be as robust as you need it to be depending on your goals. It does have a feature to view real-time stats, but it won’t break down the stats any further than a general counter number on your dashboard.

Best for: Analyzing Traffic
Worst for: Tracking Events
Setup – Easy
Cost – Free and Premium – Premium provides higher data limits with more custom variables

WordPress has a WooCommerce/Google Analytics integration app that you can find here.

kissmetrics

 

Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics is another highly popular and comprehensive analytic solution. While Google Analytics can be used with any business, Kissmetrics really has an edge when it comes to e-commerce.

Funnel and event tracking are strong points for Kissmetrics, both of which can help you increase customer acquisition rates and improve customer retention. It also has an advantage when it comes to building intuitive reports. Kissmetrics is more funnel-focused, allowing you to edit and tweak funnels much easier than other tools.

Unlike Google Analytics, Kissmetrics funnels can retrieve historical data. For example, you can set up a sign-up funnel and then view how it’s been performing over previous months.

Kissmetrics also has a feature that many other insight tools like Mixpanel lack: The ability to show retention from a first time event to a repeat of that event.

Say, for example, that a customer clicks on a certain product page, but decides not to buy it in that moment. If they come back to your site and click on that page again, you’ll be able to track that event.

KISSmetrics lets you add a parameter in your URL (i.e. “http://yoursite.com/yourpage?kme=Track+This+Event”) and then automatically logs it without any additional Javascript code. This is very helpful to track clicks on links for example and is not currently support in Mixpanel.

The only downside is that it’s not necessarily for newbies. While someone who doesn’t know much about analytics or, say, JavaScript, can still navigate around Kissmetrics with relative ease, the more advanced functions – like event tracking – may come with a steeper learning curve.

Best for: Measuring Funnels
Worst for: Analyzing Traffic
Setup – Moderate
Cost – Multi-tiered pricing starting at $29/month

WooCommerce has step by step instructions for integrating with Kissmetrics here.

mixpanel

 

Mixpanel

Mixpanel is similar to Kissmetrics in many ways, but Mixpanel is a step up in terms of being developer-friendly. In other words, you will probably get the same if not more functionality out of Mixpanel than Kissmetrics, but you have to know what you’re doing.

A few upsides to Mixpanel that make it a good alternative to the above include real-time analytics and opportunities for things like running your own front-end analytics. This can be very practical for de-bugging and catching errors as they happen, especially for new, buggy products.

In addition to event tracking, Mixpanel also lets you to segment your retention reports by additional properties, giving you more detailed data should you need it.

The downside is that some developers claim that the process to measure funnels isn’t as good as Kissmetrics or other similar insight tools. Mixpanel does support chronological funnels similar to Google Analytics. However, Celso Pinto, Founder and CEO of SimpleTax, wrote an article about why Mixpanel is still a better option over Kissmetrics for some developers.

Best for: Tracking Events
Worst for: Measuring Funnels
Setup – Difficult
Cost – Free and Multi-tiered pricing starting at $99/month

WooCommerce has step by step instructions for integrating with Mixpanel here.

WordPressIntegrations also has an infographic with comparisons between Google Analytics, Kissmetrics and Mixpanel with a breakdown of page authority, social metrics, and other metrics.

Other Insight Tools to Consider

Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about some other options available. Here are four great alternatives if you’re not really sure you want to buy into the three listed above.

RetentionGrid

RetentionGrid is frequently mentioned in the same space as Kissmetrics, and for good reason. It’s an app that provides similar data reports in easy to understand, color-coded graphs. It also provides suggestions to help with marketing strategies based on that data, which makes it a good solution for those who want some of the main features of Kissmetrics but don’t have a lot of experience as a developer. They also have the option of running abandoned cart campaigns (as well as other campaigns), which can come in handy for businesses that struggle with retention.

While they were originally created for BigCommerce, they also have an open API that is compatible with WooCommerce.

Best for: Measuring Funnels/Campaigns
Worst for: Tracking Events
Setup – Easy
Cost – Free to download

Clicky

Clicky is another real-time analytics tool similar to Mixpanel, only far more user-friendly. No matter how experienced you are, you’ll be able to navigate the dashboard with relative ease. It’s a great option for those who still want detailed analytics without the stress of complicated setup.

Best for: Analyzing Traffic
Worst for: Measuring Funnels
Setup – Easy
Cost – Free and Multi-tiered pricing starting at $9.99/month

Adobe Marketing Cloud

Adobe Marketing Cloud is another powerful analytical tool often used by large e-commerce stores. The only reason it’s not included in the top three is that it takes a significant amount of knowledge to setup and use properly. While it’s perhaps one of the best out there in terms of analytics, it’s also not for the faint of heart. Adobe Marketing Cloud consist of six solutions.

  • Adobe Analytics
  • Adobe Campaign
  • Adobe Experience Manager
  • Adobe Media Optimizer
  • Adobe Social
  • Adobe Target

You can run campaigns, track events, create content to targeted audiences, and much more, The only other downside is that it’s expensive, as each solution comes with its own individual pricing. So if you want all the benefits of the cloud, you’ll need to lay down some serious dough.

Best for: Analyzing Traffic
Worst for: Cost savings
Setup – Difficult
Cost – Single subscriptions start at $99/month

Crazy Egg

Like Google Analytics, Crazy Egg isn’t necessarily an analytics tool targeted to e-commerce, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a great option. It offers equally comprehensive and user-friendly graphs, including heat maps that can tell you which areas of your website to focus on (or alternatively, which are being ignored).

Best for: Tracking Events
Worst for: Measuring Funnels
Setup – Easy
Cost – Multi-tiered pricing starting at $9/month

Still not sure what to pick? Take our Insight Tool Quiz to help you decide.
Click Here

Final Thoughts

There are a couple things to keep in mind when selecting an analytics tool.

Make sure that you know how much data you actually need to collect. While having detailed funnel graphs and traffic reports can be good if you know what you’re doing, you may not need all that fancy information. Don’t pay extra for features you’re not going to use because you don’t need them (or you don’t know how to use them).

Finally, if you’ve committed to an analytic solution but you don’t know how to use all the features to their best ability, find someone who can either teach you how to use them (or read the data) or find someone whose job it is to put that data into practice.

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What’s a “Good” Conversion Rate and How Do You Get One?
29 Aug

A lot of people who are looking to give you advice about your WooCommerce site will talk to you about conversion rates.

They’ll tell you to improve them, obviously, because having high conversion rates are a good thing, so they say.

But what the heck is a high conversion rate, anyway?

The problem is that a conversion isn’t as easy to pin down as you might imagine. A conversion is any desired action taken by a user, which can include subscribing to your newsletter, submitting a contact form, purchasing a product, or could literally be any interaction that’s more than a visit to a static page, if you wanted.

But does that mean you’re looking for a 100% conversion rate for everyone coming to your site? How about 50%? 10%? 1%? Do certain types of conversions matter more than others? What if people are just submitting contact forms but you really want them to be purchasing your products? What if you have a 10% newsletter subscription rate but only a 3% cross-selling conversion rate? Are you still successfully converting?

First, take a breath, because that’s a lot of questions and you must be winded. Second, we’re here to help you sort it all out, so let’s dive in…

Don’t miss: 9 Ways to Improve Your WooCommerce Conversions
Click Here

Measuring Conversion Rates

To answer one of the above questions: yes, the types of conversions matter. At least, they’ll matter to you. If you want your visitors to be purchasing products but all they do is sign up for your newsletter, you won’t be happy – even if you have 100% of your visitors signing up.

Ultimately, you want people to be converting in the areas that actually benefit you, but you won’t really know what those areas are until you start tracking your site as a whole.

So, the first thing you’ll want to do is look to see what actions (conversions) are currently taking place on your site, and then determine what actions you want to take place on your site and make changes to connect the two together.

woocommerce-report-category-sales

The good news is that WooCommerce already comes with reports that help you calculate interactions on your site, and if you want some additional firepower you can also use Google Analytics to refine that data further.

You’ll want to look for total number of unique visitors (called “Users” in Google Analytics) as well as the number of actions taken in a specific area – like overall sales in the month of July, or the number of new subscribers to your newsletter.

Then, divide and multiply: Conversions / Users * 100 = Conversion Rate

For example, if you had 125 new orders in July, and 8,000 unique site visitors for that month, your total conversion rate for sales would be roughly 1.5%.

You can do this for each of the subsequent areas of action around your site, and that should give you a sense of your total current conversions. You can also automate this process using a free WooCommerce plugin called Enhanced Ecommerce Google Analytics for WooCommerce.

Shopping-Funnel-report

But Is That Number Good or Bad?

Now, you might be thinking that a little over 1% sounds like a terrible conversion rate, but it’s actually in the standard ballpark (though a little on the low end depending on the area).

Most industry leaders consider 2-3% to be the average conversion rate for online stores, meaning that 20-30 people out of every 1,000 visitors should take an action. You might also find reports saying that 5% is more accurate for eCommerce stores, while 1% is still an acceptable rate.

20-30 people out of every 1,000 visitors should take an action.

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Either way, a “good” conversion rate doesn’t have to be in the double digits to be effective, but your goal should still be to work toward a conversion rate that’s higher than your current rate. Even a 1% lift from 2% to 3% can mean 50% more revenue for the same amount of traffic.

Of course, the 2-3% is just an average for your overall conversion rates, but in terms of what makes a good rate for specific commerce-related areas of your site, here’s what you’re looking for:

  • Product Conversion Rates: above 5%.
  • Cart Abandonment Rates: below 70%
  • Checkout Abandonment Rates: below 75%
  • Mobile Conversion Rates: half of your overall rate

Ideally, if you can get higher than 2-3%, that’s awesome and definitely possible. 5% is a solid benchmark, and we’ve seen sites as high as 20-25%. Of course, those are champions, so don’t fret if you aren’t there!

Get Conversions Where You Want Them

Once you’ve gathered all of your data and you can see where your conversion rates are strong and where they may be faltering, you’ll probably be wondering how to boost those rates a little bit higher.

While it’s true that there are many different variables that affect conversions – such as sign design, loading speed, product demand, and more – there are also things you can do to improve those rates in each area.

Watch Your Bounce and Exit Rates for Clues

Beyond watching the conversion rates above, you also want to measure similar data like bounce rates and exit rates as well as average session duration.

Your bounce rate is the percentage of people who leave after viewing a single page, which is usually because they’re not finding what they want on your site. You can reduce your bounce rate (and improve conversions) by:

  • Including product tags for better searchability
  • Highlighting products on different landing pages
  • Making categories readily available on your homepage
  • Creating more categories for easier searching
  • Making sure your site is loading quickly
  • Avoiding a hard sell

Your exit rate is the percentage of people who leave after viewing your site without taking an action, and your analytics reports will let you know the last page they were on before they left. If you have a high exit rate for a certain page, that’s a red flag, but in general you can also do the following to minimize your exit rate:

  • Include a strong CTA on every landing page
  • Include visual cues and symbols to direct people to take action
  • Use clear navigation to help them find what they’re looking for

The average session duration gives you a general idea of how long people are browsing your site. A high bounce rate with a low average session duration means that your pages aren’t grabbing the right sort of attention.

Screenshot-2016-05-01-18.27.00

You can help maximize conversions by:

  • Simplifying your designs and including white space to draw attention to products, “add to cart” buttons and other CTAs
  • Remove unnecessary elements that might distract or confuse visitors
  • Use sharp images that grab the eye for both product pages and landing pages
  • Provide important information and explanation for confusing products/features of your site on the whole

By improving the overall experience of your storefront you’ll minimize your bounce and exit rates and improve conversions rates, too.

Look at Your Sales Funnel for Clues

Technically, all conversions aren’t created equal.

There’s a difference between what is considered a “micro-conversion” (e.g. a newsletter) that would happen at the top of your sales funnel, and a stronger conversion that happens near the bottom of the sales funnel, like a purchase.

If you’re noticing more newsletter subscribers but your actual sales figures haven’t improved, it could be an indicator that your tactics are being focused in the wrong place.

While a micro-conversion is still good because it leads your users further into the funnel, you want to make sure that your conversions are strong from top to bottom to maximize effectiveness.

Looking to improve your conversions? Here’s a list of 9 ways
Click Here

Final Thoughts

Be sure to watch your metrics on a daily or weekly basis, look for red flags on certain products or landing pages that might be causing low conversions, and make any necessary changes as needed.

Determine which specific actions you want your users to take and then create design elements that help them make that action, whether it’s subscribing to a service or newsletter or purchasing a product.

Oh, and don’t freak out if your rate seems low at first. Remember that 2-3% is normal, and you can always improve it over time.

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Unless you like living with regret, don’t hire outsourced, cheap SEO consultants
30 Aug

In fact, cheap SEO will cost you more in the long run. Yes, more. Read on.

Though some may challenge the importance of SEO, I can guarantee this: ensuring search engines can read your content in an organized matter is essential to rank well. If you publish the same article — one that’s search engine optimized, and one that is not — the optimized one will always rank better. If you don’t agree, try it for yourself.

Anyhow, I’m sure if you manage a website, you have likely received an annoying email, likely sent in the middle of the night, offering SEO with the promise of “1st Page on Google!!!” Like so:

SEO Spam Email

Btw, if you do receive these emails, do the sender a favour and hit the spam button immediately.

Now, a lot of wannabe CEOs or well-intentioned start-ups with minimal expertise (Which makes me ask, why are you managing your own website? Focus on your core business!) may jump at this offer. The idea of ranking well and getting a stream of leads “all for $100!!1” must sound amazing! I get it. Anywhere you can save on costs sounds alluring. The problem is, you get what you pay for. If you buy cheap SEO, cheap SEO is what you’ll receive. It’s kind of like dating the girl that everyone has dated, for minimal effort. Or, you know, you could put in some work and get the prom queen.

I want you to think of your website as an individual. Like you, it has a reputation. Your reputation is determined by your age, the neighbourhood you live in, who you associate with, and the quality of your words.

Now, imagine, you meet two people. Both of them want to bring you into their circle. One is the cheap SEO guy, the other is someone like me.

  1. The cheap SEO guy is going to introduce you to a whole bunch of crappy people. Quantity is the name of the game. These people are young, have met a lot of other people (usually scammers), and have malicious or completely irrelevant agendas. Furthermore, they’re not very smart, their words are cheap, they have no value, and people get frustrated when they meet them. Imagine you sell winter coats and you’re hanging out in the desert with a bunch of criminals. How on earth will you sell your coats there?
  2. Me? Well, I make sure you look good. You need to be well-organized, presentable, and prepared to demonstrate the value you offer. I’m not going to introduce you to many people at all: just a few. The difference is, they’ll be people worth paying attention to. People who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. It’s more like you sell winter coats, and I’m introducing you to a community of snowmobilers, or a retail store in Yellowknife.

What happens when you go with number 1? Well, it’s obvious. Your reputation suffers. Google sees you as a site that hangs out in a neighbourhood with other crappy sites. Do you want that? The problem with this is not so much the association, but the long-term effect on your integrity. You see, in an attempt to rank in the search engines, you end up hurting yourself in ways you couldn’t imagine. Integrity is often lost instantly, and it takes a long time to get it back. In the case of SEO, sometimes it means you have to change your identity completely.

What happens when you go with number 2? It’s simple. You start to rank.

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Why does my business or website need a landing page? Why the hell should I use one?
30 Aug

Landing pages, capture pages, and squeeze pages all mean the same damn thing. Web marketing companies throw those terms around loosely and it confuses the crap out of their clients. For the sake of this article I’ll be calling it a landing page.

So, what’s a landing page? It’s a web page that works in conjunction with your website. Its only goal is to make a conversion: to get the user to perform an action. Landing pages need to follow a set of rules to be most effective.

  1. A landing page has no menu bar. Why? If you put your menu at the top of the page, then you give your users an ‘out.’ All you want them to do is fill out the form and hit ‘send.’
  2. A landing page also has no footer, with the exception of social sharing links.
  3. Your landing page header should have the same message as the link text that brought the user to the page. For example, if the link under my YouTube video says, ‘Download My Facebook Cover Image Template,’ your landing page header should say the same thing.
  4. The body text should be concise, describing what the user is filling out. The shorter, the better.
  5. Add a small image.
  6. Add 3-5 bullet points on the benefits the user gets from filling out the form.
  7. The title of the form should use powerful words that make the user excited about filling out the form. In the example above, ‘Download My Facebook Cover Image Template’ is hardly compelling copy!
  8. Create a call-to-action (CTA) button. For the above example, I would re-iterate ‘Download Now.’
  9. Create a thank-you page or redirect the user to a pertinent page on your site. For example, a specific blog post or your process page.
  10. Repetition is not a bad thing here. Just reword the action you want people to perform.

Here’s an example of this layout:

Saucal Landing Page

A good landing page follows the above rules to ensure that the message is congruent from the traffic source up until the thank-you page. In short, it will increase your leads and make you more money. In contrast, a bad landing page is when someone clicks on a link — say our ‘Download My Facebook Cover Image Template’ example — and gets a form that says, ‘Contact Sales.’ All this gets you is a disappointed user that will never return to your site again.

Saucal can help you make amazing landing pages. Clients that listen to us get up to 50 hot leads a month! Get started now!

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How do I make more money with my website, and what the f*%k is a conversion?
05 May

Simply put, a conversion is an action you want a visitor to your website to complete. Examples include: contact sales, book an appointment, sign up, buy now, and many more. It’s really an action you make a user perform to bring you more money. There are several ways to do this; however, many people go about converting visitors all wrong.

Increasing site traffic is useless if there’s nowhere for people to convert. Having a contact page as the only page that converts a visitor is backwards! So how do you do it?

It’s simple! Build a funnel. The overarching concept is as follows. I’ll elaborate on each of these steps in future posts.

  1. The top of your funnel is education. Get the right kind of traffic by becoming a thought leader in your field. This can be accomplished by blogging or creating an education center, and just showing your users that you know what you’re talking about.
  2. The middle of your funnel is talking about yourself. Show why you’re a better competitor. Do this by showing your awards and comparing your processes to others in the field.
  3. The bottom of your funnel is your hard sell. This is where you say, “Buy now.”

So, how do you create this funnel? I’ll show you!

First, look at your homepage. Before you scroll down, is there something that prompts your visitor to do something — without a bunch of distractions or clutter? In the business, it’s known as a call-to-action above the fold. More specifically, it shouldn’t prompt someone to buy right now, but direct people to learn more about you, your product, or your process.

Second, is your message clear? If there are, say, three messages above the fold — before you scroll down — then your message is muddied. So, if you have a big ol’ slider, get rid of it! If you can’t explain what you do in 15 words or less in big-ass text, then get a copywriter to fix it.

Here’s an example of a homepage that converts well. This client is gaining a tonne of traction online, and is busier then ever.

Highly Converting Home Page

Here’s a site that looks great, but has no funnel leading to conversion. Avoid this at all costs!

Bad Website Example

If you need more business, why don’t you meet one of our website experts and get help boosting your sales!

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