Deal Planet

This article is brought to you by the experts at CodeBaby.com. Please contact them if you’d like to add an animated talking character to you website.

When you have decided that you want to have a talking spokesperson on your website, the next logical step is to work with a website spokesperson service in order to get the job done. Working with the website spokesperson service, you will create a spokesperson for your website that will help guide any and all of your visitors through your site.

Though you would think that the process is hard it really is no harder than a few steps and all of the technical stuff that would be hard is handled for you by the website spokesperson service. Here is how the typical process of creating your spokesperson works:

• Brainstorm: The first step in creating your website spokesperson will be a brainstorming session with the service you decide to go with. Here you will discuss everything from the type of spokesperson you want to how many website pages they will be on and even what they need to say.

• Dialogue: The dialogue or script of the spokesperson is often written first by you the customer and then gone over by the website spokesperson service and changed here and there in order to improve the overall effectiveness.

• Attire: After you have seen and approved the script you will then work with the spokesperson service to determine what type of attire your spokesperson will wear. Be sure to stay with the theme of your website in this step.

• Filming: This is the part where the magic, or rather your spokesperson, is created. This step has the actor or actress that will be your spokesperson delivering your script in whatever manner you want them too.

• Editing: Once the actual filming is done then it is off to be edited. This is the point where the website spokesperson service will add sound effects, music, and other goodies that will enhance the spokesperson on your website.

• Implementation: Once you have seen the finished product and approve of it the last step is to implement the spokesperson into your website. This is done by the website spokesperson service and they will generally upload the virtual spokesperson to your website using a special program such as Flash.

Once complete you will have a walking, talking spokesperson for your website and enable your visitors to find what they are looking for both faster and with greater ease.

Depending on the service that you decide to go with the entire process from start to finish can take anywhere from seven days to two weeks. Obviously the more intricate your spokesperson will be, the longer it will take to fully implement. Other factors include how many pages your spokesperson will be on and how long you will have the spokesperson talking for.

While each website spokesperson service will vary, for the most part the process is the same. Some services will be more accommodating than others so you should be sure to sit down and get an evaluation with the website spokesperson service before you sign on the dotted line.

Jason Kay is a professional website developer and uses TalkingWebsite.net to create talking website spokesperson characters for his sites.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_Kay
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-Website-Spokesperson-Services-Work&id=4030862

This article is brought to you by CodeBaby.com – the home of the most advanced talking website characters.

One of the more popular applications that seems to keep popping up on websites everywhere is a talking animated character. These characters, also known as avatars, can be created at a number of different websites, some for free, and offer a unique way for your website visitors to be interactive with your website. But as popular as these avatars are getting, are they effective or are they just one big annoyance?

Really it all depends on who you talk to as some people will love the lovable little pop up characters that come around and others simply will not. It also depends on a variety of other factors such as:

- Speed of Download: Some people do not have a very fast internet connection. Therefore when they come across a website like yours that has animation it will load slowly. If the animation finally loads up properly the speech may begin to skip a bit and therefore your avatar will never get to do what you intended it to. In this instance the animation can be annoying.

- Speed of Your Site: This goes with the first point. If your website takes a long time to load on your end due to your avatar then the same problems may occur. This type of annoyance is one that will lead to a visitor exiting your website as fast as they made their way onto it. If you are going to use an animated avatar be sure that your web hosting company is providing you with enough speed to load your pages adequately.

- What the Avatar Does: If your avatar sings and dances and doesn’t really add to the website as a whole this had the tendency to come off as gimmicky and will thus be an annoyance. In order to be effective your avatar should help the visitors find what they are looking for. If your avatar is not interactive then be sure that whatever it says will be helpful and do not put it on a loop. No one wants to hear the same information over and over again. You can have the same avatar saying different things as different pages load up, but again go helpful, not hacky.

- How Your Avatar Looks: Be sure that the look of your avatar goes with the theme of your website. If you have a real estate website then you want to have a professional looking animation. Maybe a man or women dressed in business attire. On the other hand, if you have say a bunny talking all cutesy then your point will likely be lost on an annoyed visitor.

Once again it all comes down to a personal preference and no matter how good you think your avatar is, some people will simply not like an animated talking character on a website. However, you can always experiment with these animations and see what type of reaction you are getting. If you have a place to leave comments on your website, as you should, people will more than likely let you know either way what they think of your avatar. That is one sure way to find out if your talking website character is being effective or annoying.

Jason Kay is a professional website developer and uses TalkingWebsite.net to create talking website characters for his sites.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_Kay
http://EzineArticles.com/?Talking-Website-Characters—Annoying-Or-Effective?&id=3811097

This article is brought to you by CodeBaby.com – the experts who know how to increase website conversion rates.

You’ve heard the latest craze of videos on the internet; it is something that is only going to get bigger.  Now what is really taking off at the moment is putting video on squeeze pages.  Marketers have been commenting that having videos on their website has increased their conversion rate tenfold.

So why has this been a success story?

The main reason is because people can see that it is a real person behind the website and not some computer generated human!  What they can see is a human being with all their quirks who isn’t perfect but with personality.  There is a face!

The next question is what are the guidelines?

o    Length – Your video should not be feature length.  You should do enough just to get the message across and nothing more.  Enough to give added value.  Besides if it is too long your visitors won’t be able to view it as the size will be too big especially people with slow dial up.  Also the viewer will lose interest if it is too long.

o    Automatic – There is a debate whether you should have your video play automatically or giving the option to the visitor.  Personally I think it is fine to play automatically but delay it a little so they don’t miss anything.

o    Smart – Be smart and I don’t mean suited and booted.  You should be smart casual and not look like you haven’t washed in a month.  Remember you are selling and representing your product or products.

Putting a video on your squeeze page is an excellent idea and is something you should consider.  It is another one of those simple skills to be learned just like knowing how to create your first website.

Get more information on this today and claim your FREE e-book on unbelievably simple website creation. Just click here http://www.creatingyourfirstwebsite.com

Brought to you the experts in website conversions: CodeBaby.com

In my last article entitled, Maximizing The True Value Of Your Traffic, you discovered the importance of generating positive responses from all your visitors.

The crux of this strategy resides in the concept known as website conversion, and how it can make you tons more p.rofits with much lesser work.

In essence, you can squeeze more value from the same traffic, simply by converting a higher percentage of visitors into paying customers… and the best way to do this is by increasing your conversion rate!

Now there’re really only two major factors affecting website conversion, they are 1. Website Mechanics, and 2. Power Copy.

Let’s look at each briefly:

1. Website Mechanics

This refers to the ‘mechanical’ aspects of your website.

For example, how fast it loads. Internet surfers are an impatient lot, and studies have found that if your site have not loaded within 8 seconds, you’ve lost them.

Another area of concern is how well you present your site to the visitor, does the design relate to the product? Consistency is an indisputable law of persuasion and you should harness it’s full potential on your site.

2. Power Copy

Entire encyclopedias have been written about copywriting and there’s only one reason why – it’s that important.

Web copywriting is not just an art. It’s a science, a paint-by-numbers formula that you can apply for massive profits online.

Copywriting, contrary to what many think, is more than words alone. It encompasses many factors that result in one simple objective – getting your visitors to take action!

It’s your entire offer and presentation COMBINED with the power of words, which makes the sale.

While increasing conversion rate can turn any money- losing site into a money-spitting one without more work or traffic…the real question is:

Are you doing it – or are you continuing to make these same mistakes over and over again?

This article brought to you CodeBaby.com – please contact them if you’re looking to increase website conversions.

If you’ve got an ecommerce website, and you want it to give you more leads, or want to sell more products, then you’ll want to improve the conversion rate.

Here’s what you can do.

1. By increasing the number of calls to action, and making them more visible to your website visitors. Do people know what you expect them to do? Tell them to add products to the basket, or sign up for your newsletter, don’t just assume that visitors will know what to do.

2. Make it easy to buy from your website, or to sign up to your newsletter, or to request a quote. You can’t expect your visitors to hunt for the information they want or the products you’re selling.

3. Do you upsell more expensive, or better products as customers are shopping? By showing similar products, or explaining that for a bit more money they could have a bigger or better item, you can increase the average order value, and so increase turnover.

4. By cross selling related and appropriate items, you can also increase your conversion rate. Do you offer connecting leads, DVD players, or games consoles with your TVs? Memory cards, bags, tripods and photo printers with your cameras? How will cross selling improve your website for your customers?

5. Ensure that you have keyword rich content, so that the search engines know what your web pages are about. Remember that the search engines rank each page, rather than a website as a whole. Do you use emotional text and explain how your products solve problems, rather than just describe what the product does. Talk about the benefits as well as the features.

6. It’s been proven that having and About Us and Contact Us page can help to inspire confidence, and increase trust, which will help to reassure people that it is safe to buy from your website, and that their personal information and payment details are safe.

7. Publishing your delivery charges and expected delivery times will also help to turn visitors into customers.

8. Offering different payment options will make it easier for customers to buy, and so they are more likely to buy from you.

9. Your Analytics can show you lots about the behaviour of your visitors. Do you know what percentage of your visitors abandon their shopping cart, and where? Do you know which are the most popular products and pages? What can you do with this information?

10. What about personalising your visitors’ shopping experience? Will allowing them to store things in a basket, or add products to their wish list, or send items to friends make a difference? Is your site suitable for people who want to buy using different methods, such as via games consoles, or mobile phones? What else can you do to help your visitors become customers?

Now you know more about how you can increase conversions and revenue, what will you do to improve your website?

Want to find out more about improving the performance and functionality of your website? Discover many SEO Tips and browse the SEO Glossary and see how you can make your website more visible to the search engines, at SouthportSEO.co.uk today.

This article brought to you by CodeBaby.com – please contact them if you’re looking to increase website conversions.

Introduction

Increasing conversion rates is a top priority for many B2B marketing and sales teams today. While some B2B marketing campaigns achieve conversion rates of 50% or higher, many are in the 1.5%-3% range. Even though CSOs worldwide identified investments in optimized lead generation programs as a number-one priority, only about half of all B2B marketers currently utilize programs.

Converting a prospect to a customer and a customer to an advocate relies on solid data and continuous communication with customers. By driving more traffic to highly effective web pages, marketers can achieve higher conversion rates that ultimately lead to higher sales and profits.

Knowing that improved conversion rates are key to an email marketing or promotions campaign, many questions remain. How can B2B marketers increase conversion rates without a substantial investment in costly software and IT involvement? What are the characteristics of a successful campaign? What are the steps involved?

This white paper will identify four steps required to double the conversion rates of B2B companies of all industries and sizes.

Step One: Deliver Relevant Content and Targeted Messaging

Email is the marketing channel of choice for B2B marketers today. In a recent survey, 72% of marketers indicated that they use email as the primary means of communicating with their target markets.iii There is also a resurgence in the popularity of email marketing. Although its returns have diminished somewhat in the past couple of years, email marketing still outperforms other direct marketing channels such as print catalogsiv and paid ads.v A Forrester Research survey in 2008 revealed that 95% of marketers use email marketing, with another 4% planning to do so by the end of 2008vi.

To deliver an email marketing campaign’s desired results and increase conversion rates, marketers must deliver content that is relevant to and personalized for their targets. Customized content provides deeper insights about a company, service, or promotional campaign to prospects and customers. In essence, marketers need to start the “right” conversation with the “right” targets. But how do companies go about achieving this? To double conversion rates, successful marketers drive their targets to effective and action-oriented landing pages. These are distinct, stand-alone URLs created specifically for a target market for a specific promotion or email marketing campaign. Landing pages offer detailed information on a particular topic, product, promotion, or event.

When linking these personalized landing pages to targets, however, it is vital that marketers retain consistent branding and messaging. In the interest of delivering highly personalized information to key prospects and customers, a company’s identity often gets lost. Marketers need to deliver consistent messages that speak to the company’s brand and value propositions at all times, or conversion rates will drop and ROI will plummet.

After starting the “right” conversation with the “right” prospects and customers with optimized landing pages, the next step for B2B marketers is to continue that conversation, using many of the same basic principles.

Step Two: Drive an Always-On, One-on-One Dialog

In Step One, B2B marketers become connected with their targets. The goal in Step Two is to stay connected. When marketers stay connected and engaged with their targets, this leads to increased customer response rate, interaction, and advocacy. How can this be accomplished? To continue to deliver personalized communication, effective marketers solicit information such as identity, demographics, and profile details from their targets. This allows marketers to create and deliver continuous information that is customized and personalized to this target, or drive the most relevant content. It allows marketers to “keep the conversation going.”

Personalized URLs, or PURLs, offer an effective tool for staying connected to key prospects and customers. PURLs contain detailed, customer-driven information and communicate relevant messaging, which results in better marketing ROI. Communications populated by customer-driven data contain targeted messages and specific actions that marketers could only dream of 10 years ago. Today’s B2B marketers have the right tools to increase conversions. By knowing how to use these tools, the desired results can be achieved.

At this point there needs to be a reminder about branding. At this stage-as well as all stages-marketers must keep branding top-of-mind. Content that is both personalized and incorporates brand is a tricky balancing act. Customers demand a personalized experience today, but companies need to always communicate their brand to their key targets. When marketers employ these best practice marketing campaigns, they are able to influence the discussion about their brand. This can be achieved as long as marketers are able to optimize content easily, instantly, and continuously.

Step Three: Close the Loop on Campaign Conversions

One of the biggest mistakes B2B marketers can make when deploying an email marketing campaign is to send targets to their company’s home page. To increase conversions, marketers must instead create and deploy optimized landing pages. A landing page is a Web page designed specifically for a promotion or marketing campaign. These pages are designed to close the loop on marketing campaign-related activities; they are used to support marketing, brand, and customer communications and can contain brand messaging, data gathering, or both of these. Optimized landing pages, or pages created with personalized and relevant communication based on valuable data, will double customer conversion rates.

Optimized landing pages are the “missing link” for any promotional or email campaign. However, only half of marketers surveyed indicated that they optimize their landing pages to increase customer conversion rates.vii There are many ways to optimize a landing page. It can be as simple as using a customized headline or customized copy. However, when marketers are able to optimize their landing pages “on the fly,” this results in the highest possible customer conversion rates. This means having the functionality to quickly and easily incorporate personalized data. This functionality enables marketers to deliver personalized thankyou pages, personalized email confirmations, secure lead collection, and even storage for each and every client account. Deploying optimized landing pages will ultimately lead to increased sales and company growth.

Step Four: Access Instant and Actionable Analytics

The “right” conversation with key prospects and customers is continuous and never completely ends. In order to deploy email marketing campaigns that achieve higher conversion rates, B2B marketers need to be able to track clicks, conversion rates, cost per conversion, cost per click, and other pertinent marketing metrics throughout the entire campaign. Every marketer has different needs and should be able to utilize a reporting system that provides instant and actionable analytics tailored to their needs. Effective reporting systems contain the parameters required of each individual and provide access to appropriate information needed to assess each campaign and make any necessary adjustments.

Conclusion

As this white paper indicates, doubling conversion rates with effective email marketing tools is not only possible for B2B marketers but can be accomplished without expensive software or IT involvement. With optimized microsites, PURLs, and landing pages, marketers can provide continuous, personalized content to connect and engage with key prospects and customers while keeping brand top-of-mind.

Optimized lead generation programs lead to other benefits, as well. Continuous, relevant content builds customer relationships and loyalty, thereby converting customers to advocates. This in turn decreases customer churn and increases customer retention, which lead to substantial cost savings. As companies plan to invest more and more on email marketing in the next few years,viii it is imperative they turn to optimized lead generation programs to truly cash in on these investments. By crafting relevant messages to key prospects and customers and incorporating the proper analytics, B2B marketers will not only double their current conversion rates but cultivate loyal customer advocates for the long-term.

Resources

I CSO Insights

II Marketing Sherpa’s “Landing Page Handbook, 2nd Edition”

III Direct Magazine’s Annual Forecast Survey

IV October 23, 2007. Magill, Ken. “E-mail ROI Is Still a Stunner, but Diminishing: DMA.” Retrieved from http://directmag.com/disciplines/email/email_roi_diminishing/ on October 14, 2008.

V February 12, 2008. Marketing Sherpa. “Marketing Sherpa’s Fifth Annual Ad:Tech Survey: Top Web Advertisers Rate Best & Worst Online Tactics & Budget Plans.” Retrieved from https://www.marketingsherpa.com/barrier.html?ident=30337 on October 14, 2008.

VI September 9, 2008. Magill,

VII Marketing Sherpa’s “Landing Page Handbook, 2nd Edition”

VIII September 21, 2007. eMarketer. “Email Marketing: Getting Through to Customers.”

Richard Rawson is the Online Marketing Director at OnDialog. OnDialog provides a uniquely powerful tool for marketers to maximize acquisition of leads, conversion or prospects and retain customers using on-demand landing pages, microsites and personalized URLs (PURLs).

With marketing budgets shifting heavily toward online advertising and ecommerce using focused techniques such as landing pages and microsites, OnDialog offers an ideal on-demand solution to address the most critical needs of online marketers as well as traditional ad agencies that need to make a fast and effective transition into online marketing.

The recent integration of OnDialog’s core product with the industry’s best multivariate testing technology now allows OnDialog landing pages to be optimized for maximum mass-market conversion to drive revenue based on statistically robust testing of up to one million unique variations of a single online ad or landing page.

OnDialog’s key customers are the largest online marketing affiliates, direct marketing agencies, and sports and entertainment marketing agencies.

Learn more about OnDialog at http://www.ondialog.com

This article brought to you by the customer experience experts at CodeBaby.com

How do you compete for customers? If you’re relying on products and prices, you’re missing the mark. You’d be much better off to focus on creating a powerful customer experience. It will result in customer loyalty-and, unlike products and prices, it’s something your competitors won’t copy.

When they were asked why a customer would chose their companies over their competitors, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, and Steve Case, cofounder of American Online, had almost identical responses: “Creating a customer experience that is superior to anything our competitors can create gives us a customer advantage.”

The drastic downturn in the economy, particularly in the United States, has made that advantage increasingly critical to a company’s survival. Creating a powerful customer experience means providing service that is so superior that your customers wouldn’t dream of doing business with anyone else. And it means doing so consistently, which will allow you do dominate the market. Customers want awesome service every day, every year. They don’t care that you had good service last June; they want good service today.

How do you create a powerful customer experience? Take these four steps:

1. Develop a service strategy. Integrate service into every facet of your business, from hiring to technology. At the core of a service strategy is the belief that no transaction is complete unless the service your customers receive is powerful enough to motivate them to do business with you again and again. Create a management team that is zealous about customer service. Reward employees who go above and beyond the call to provide great customer service; terminate those who do not. Send the message that service is at the top of your priority list.

2. Benchmark against the best. Identify five organizations that provide great customer service-and copy what they do. Amazon.com should be on that list. It is one of the most customer friendly companies in the world, thanks to a powerful blend of people and technology. Customers can place orders with Amazon.com 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the company acknowledges those orders within seconds. If you send an e-mail to Amazon.com and ask someone to call you, your phone will ring within a matter of seconds. The company also constantly reviews customer expectations through surveys and then does whatever is necessary to meet-or exceed-those expectations.

3. Make it easy for customers to do business with you. Eliminate policies and procedures that frustrate customers. Empower employees to do whatever is necessary to solve a customer’s problem-and to do so quickly. Whenever a problem is moved up the ladder, it increases the cost to the company, both in time and money, and increases the chance that you will lose that customer. When a frontline employee solves a customer’s problem, it creates magic that results in customer loyalty that will drive your business.

4. Hire with care. Hire people who have positive attitudes and good values. Hire people who like people and then teach them how to meet

5. Teach workers your service standards. That means training them in the art of customer service every four to six months. Focus that training on your frontline employees. They are the people who have the most contact with your customers and who can do you the most harm or the most good.

Too often, however, they are also the people who are the least trained, the least appreciated, and the least paid. Remember that how you treat your employees is how your employees will treat your customers.

Southwest Airlines is the most successful airline in the United States and yet it pays its employees a fraction of what other airlines pay. How, then, is it able to hire and retain the best people in the industry? It knows that its people, not its airplanes, are its most valuable assets, and it handles them with care. Southwest Airlines hires good people, trains them well, and treats them like royalty. Those employees, in turn, treat the airline’s customers like royalty, which creates a powerful customer experience.

The most successful companies in the world recognize that they can compete on many levels-price, products, and quality-but it is service that sets them apart and increases customer loyalty. If you make a powerful customer experience your top priority, you, too, will be successful.

John Tschohl
President of Service Quality Institute
http://www.customer-service.com
John@servicequality.com
952-884-3311

John is called a “Customer Service Guru” by USA Today, Time and Entrepeneur Magazine. He is a customer service strategist and the author of 5 best selling customer service books and over 30 customer service training programs.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Tschohl