• Gillian Muessig

Speakers:

• Heather Lloyd-Martin, President of North American Division of SuccessWorks
• Matt Tuens, Founder & CEO of AcuVox

The first speaker of the session was Heather-Loyd Martin, who started out by asking some vital questions, such as why do we actually build content, why are we supposed to focus on content and should we inhouse or outsource?

Content is the most important part of SEO and it’s simply not enough to throw up articles on the website. The text and its quality has a direct effect on search positions and conversions. Quality content is even more important for the process of link building, for no good brand will ever link to useless content.

The case of AmsterdamEscape.com can teach us a thing or two. The company was even banned from Google earlier but then it showed tremendous improvement by hiring a new SEO team and churning out some great content. The company now ranks well for many different key phrases. The case of BusinessWeek further establishes the importance of content without doubt.

One has to understand that copywriting is all about connecting with the customers. The language should be keeping them, their needs and their demands in mind. Many companies have erred by simply writing some 250 words and stuffing keywords within the same.

Keyword research tools offer us a massive opportunity to find topics and keyword phrases to write on. Make it a point to use these keywords in headlines, sub-headlines as well as in hyperlinks. You can employ site search to create new pages for unrepresented search terms. Content of certain pages can be based on seasonal trends.

One cannot forget that good content would cost some money and getting it could be the most expensive part of SEO campaign. For in house content creation, you would have to impart a substantial amount of training. Never settle for low quality content and make sure you get a content worth your money.

Think about what you are looking for- sales related or informational copy. If you have no writing staff, no time, no editorial calendar, then you’d rather outsource.

The second speaker of the session was Matt Tuens, who showcased how the content side of online industry has evolved over the last ten years. He explained how the perspective towards content has changed substantially over the years. The objective now is to build a helpful website that generates traffic and get maximum returns on investment.

It’s important to understand that Content is original SEO. Getting quality content was the reason search engines were built.

It is wrong to believe that people don’t think before making their purchasing decisions. Success would come if you believe the exact opposite. Be willing to answer their each and every question. Remember, your content is not all about selling and promoting yourself. If your content language is outrightly marketing oriented then people are intelligent enough to figure out the intentions. Your content should provide solutions, give the readers what they want to know.

It is important that you understand your target audience better. Try to identify the segments in your demographic on the basis of different criteria, such as marital status, age, working or retired, etc. Then write for your particular segment. When you do so, have a clear picture of what your customer would want. Asking yourself some questions might help. Ask yourself the following

• Why will people be buying what you are selling?
• What exact needs of your customers is your product filling?
• Which are the main decision points for your campaign?
• What will help to inform them?
• What will make them move to action?

The deeper people go in research, the more they will look for someone whom they can trust. Try to identify what will help them come to your product. Carry out your keyword research after you have finished your demographic segmentation. To get quality content, it is important that you don’t just run after terms, but go for their meaning.

In your keyword research, the following suggestions might help:

• Keep your primary terms broad and strong.
• Add a term to each of the secondary, tertiary and long tail keywords. Ensure that you add content topics at each level.

Understand what type of content are you creating. Are they articles, blog posts, news articles, video ones or forums. Keep in mind the structure of your content. Some of these tips will help:

• Stacking like pages together and keeping them in the same directories
• Ensure a high degree of structural categorization
• Try to incorporate virtual categorization

Structure is quite important for your content to ensure maximum effectiveness for your content. An intelligent structure should have a general theming, theme sculpting, internal linking and PageRank sculpting.

Decide on your budget as per your resources. You can have a mid budget or less budget and work on them accordingly. The in-housing or outsourcing decision should also be taken keeping in mind the same.

One critical aspect is to measure the ROI and business organizations often falter since they have no clue as to how to manage the same. Some tips regarding the same

• Set standard goals in terms of sales, downloads or page views as per your business model.
• Note the indirect metrics, such as page views, time on site, time on page, repeat visits, etc
• Watch out for increase in your direct and indirect goals. Check indicative factors, such as the entry pages, most viewed pages.

Only thorough planning, perspective and execution will ensure the fulfillment of your SEO objectives.

Comments

Economists are predicting a very slow retail holiday, especially with autumn already in a slump. Online retailers stand to weather the storm a bit better, turning to search marketing, site redesign and refinement, and other ecommerce technologies to squeeze every dollar from their limited budgets.

Surveys and predictions for this retail season abound.

• 43% of consumers will spend more time shopping around.
• 95% of online shoppers report that free shipping influences their purchases, preferring to shop at retailers that usually offer free shipping, and 78% report that expensive shipping prevents them from shopping online.
• Nielson reports 35% plan to spend less, 6% more, and 50% the same this year
• 31% of consumers will start holiday shopping before Halloween and 57% will start before Thanksgiving.
• 66% will use coupons and take their time shopping if it means more savings. and spend more time shopping around for bargains.
• 59% will spend less due to economic hardships such as higher food and gasoline prices.
• 26% of consumers plan to spend less, 11% expect to spend more, and 63% about the same
• 60% say they will change where they shop to get the best price.
• 53% will drop brand loyalties to save money.
• Online discounts and sales will influence 83% of web shoppers.
• 52% plan to buy fewer gifts this year.

I think this year will also show that shoppers are becoming “better” at searching so that long-tail, brand specific search campaigns may show gains. Features such as Google suggest may alter the profile of the amateur searcher helping to drive branded searches to more accurate product page landings. People who have set up paid search to match these long-tail searches will be well positioned to reap increases in click through rates and quality score.

On the analytics side, while people are jumping around from comparison engine to website to review page, it may be a challenge to attribute sales to specific ads or search campaigns.

I hope all of you buck the trend and have a great holiday season.

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That might sound odd, coming from me, the big Internet marketing advocate, but hear me out. Rather than those of us who “get” the Internet looking down on those anachronistic flesh-pressing sales people, why can’t we try to understand what they know and learn from it?

Good sales people know something that many of us forget. Most customers don’t get very excited about buying from some faceless monolith with a logo stamped on the 40th floor of its glass corporate tower. Sure, we all buy from such companies all the time—that’s how they can afford the heating bill on that tower—but we don’t feel good about it.

And, in fact, if we look at that big company as just a pile of stock, we can very easily be persuaded to buy from someone else. In other words, the lack of human contact and the lack of real relationships erode customer loyalty. It takes very little to break the bond when there are no people involved.

On the other hand, customers often stick out tough times in a relationship just because they know that their sales rep is doing everything she can to fix what’s wrong. They are not loyal to Monolith Inc., they are loyal to Sheila because “she has always taken care of us.”

So, when you explain how the low-cost Internet sales channel will raise profits, lower customer frustration, and cure halitosis, sales people are understandably skeptical, because they can remember vividly how many times they saved the big account in a situation that no computer could handle.

It doesn’t have to be a standoff between the pointy-headed geeks without a practical bone in their bodies and the behind-the-times Luddites that are just protecting their own jobs. If we think about this a bit, we can figure out how to move forward in a way where everyone wins.

Even the most dyed-in-the-wool Internet geek has to admit that human relationships matter a lot in business. And the crustiest sales guy would concede that a lot of customers sure do like using the Internet for things that he used to handle. So, why can’t we make the Internet a tool that the sales person uses to advance customer relationships, rather than something that is an alternative to the sales person?

Customers want to be able to look at product information with no sales person around, because they want the low-pressure of browsing anonymously. But why can’t they press a button that alerts their sales rep when they have a question?

Sales reps want to be able to provide information to customers about things they might be interested in. Why can’t your company’s Web site show sales reps the material available (new product announcements, industry news, etc.) and let the sales reps choose which items show up in the customer’s newsletter?

When a customer calls customer service, why can’t sales reps get that information on their dashboard for that customer? If the problem is unresolved a bit too long, why can’t the sales person get an e-mail alert or a text message?

Look at your business and ask yourself if you’ve created a walled garden Web site, where customers are forced to choose whether they are using the Internet or using a human being whenever they do something. Do your sales people disavow knowledge of how your Web site works or whether the information on it is accurate? Are they secretly happy when customers complain about your Web site? If your Web site is on autopilot and the sales reps are just watching the plane fly, you’re missing a huge opportunity.

Ask yourself what steps you can take to convince sales people that the Internet is one of their selling tools. And what can you do to persuade Internet marketers that the sales team is their secret weapon to cement relationships?

The Internet does not have to be dehumanizing. Just make sure that your human beings are working through the Internet instead of around it.

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Here’s a testimonial you may wish to consider: “Price optimization software is a confidence-builder, it sets the floor price and target price, and proves a deal’s value from the start. It’s a big win-it can take an entire business up a couple of margin points. Ease of use is excellent. Turn it on and it works.”

That’s Wyatt Aasen, director of planning and analysis for industrial coatings manufacturer PPG, talking about the value price optimization software brought to his company.

And here’s another tidbit: “Through 2010, price optimization technology will have a more direct impact on increasing revenue or margins than any other CRM technology.” That’s from the 2008 Gartner MarketScope for Price Optimization and Management.

Statements like these are becoming more common in the B2B arena. Price optimization software is more powerful and easier to use than ever before, and it can have immediate and far-reaching benefits for its users. But if that’s so, why aren’t more companies taking advantage?

“In retail, travel/hospitality, etc., companies have long been aware of the ability to maximize profit,” Hills says. Room prices, flight tickets-goods that have value that expires after a certain point in time-were easier to handle with price optimization. “In other verticals, like manufacturing, the sense was always that negotiations made optimization too complex,” he says. “We cracked the code on optimizing negotiated prices.”

A few things had to fall into place before pricing software could truly take off-and even then, it was hard to spread the gospel. “We developed a solution, and six or eight initial customers saw considerable returns, but it took them a while to become reference customers,” says Eric Hills, vice president of marketing for Zilliant. “There’s a secret-sauce aspect. We do have a challenge getting customers to talk openly-price optimization is a real competitive advantage. But awareness is growing fast.” According to Hills, Zilliant now has as many as 50 companies with price optimization solutions in production.

Fortunately, the CRM industry and the analysts who watch it are beginning to devote more resources to price optimization. The Gartner MarketScope referenced above estimates the total worldwide revenue of the market for B2B pricing software at $150 million as of 2007, and it’s growing at 30 percent per year.

In fact, according to another report, Gartner considers price optimization and management the single most beneficial technology in the sales sector-the only one rated “transformational”-albeit one that won’t enter the mainstream for five to 10 years.

Gartner’s research includes early ratings of some of the larger contenders in the pricing space. “Early” is the operative word, though; Gartner’s five-column rating chart, which ranges from Strong Negative to Strong Positive, has no vendors mentioned at either end. PROS, Vendavo, and Zilliant were the only vendors rated Positive (one step from the top); Oracle-Siebel, Servigistics, and Vistaar Technologies rated Promising (the middle column).

“The potential for this market is significant, because defining and defending optimal prices is a fundamental imperative for enterprises responsible for producing returns for stakeholders,” the MarketScope states.

Traditional approaches-such as the management cabal tweaking its spreadsheets-aren’t getting the job done anymore, and the software capabilities are finally there for businesses in almost every industry.

Offerings in price optimization software, the report concludes, “have evolved sufficiently to appeal to a broader audience of enterprises that are considering IT measures and are seriously concerned with systematically improving pricing practices and strategies to increase margins and sales.”

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Omniture SiteSearch optimizes the ranking of site search results based on any visitor metric, such as most requested pages, best selling items and entry pages, to improve online business results. In addition, Omniture SiteSearch usage data can be automatically fed into SiteCatalyst to provide detailed reporting of site searches, including the most searched for terms and failed searches. This combination increases the overall site experience—resulting in greater conversion for businesses and relevancy for customers.

Omniture SiteSearch, an advanced solution with more than eight years of development, was acquired through the recent Visual Sciences acquisition. Omniture is continuing to develop and integrate SiteSearch with Omniture products. The product is used today by Fortune 500 companies and many of the leading brands in retail, media, automotive, technology, entertainment, financial services, government, healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications and travel. Omniture has a patent application pending related to analytics-driven site search.

“National Geographic reflects the world through our magazines, television programs, books, videos, maps, interactive media and merchandise, and as customers shop our online store for these items, it’s important that they find the right products quickly and easily,” said Alexander Chororos, director of the National Geographic Society online store. “By integrating data from SiteCatalyst that produces more meaningful search results in SiteSearch, we can present our customers with improved shopping search results that are fine-tuned over time based on real site usage data.”

Half of National Geographic’s most popular search terms are broad, one word queries resulting in hundreds of products with similar relevancy. With Omniture SiteSearch, National Geographic can better understand and present shoppers with the most popular and highest converting products on the first search results page.

According to a worldwide study of retail executives, improving online shopping tools, such as site search, was cited by 34 percent as a leading method for increasing online sales (”Playing Well With Others: eCommerce’s Evolving Role in the Customer Experience,” Retail Systems Research, August 2008). Gartner forecasts spending on enterprise search software will grow 11 percent annually from $989 million in 2008 to $1.475 Billion in 2012 (Gartner Dataquest Insight: Technology and Vendor Consolidation Will Drive the Enterprise Search Market Through 2012, published in February 2008).

“Integrating analytics and site search technology gives Web sites a powerful tool for driving visitor conversion”,” said Rebecca Wetteman, vice president at Nucleus Research, a leading provider of investigative information technology research and advisory services. “With so many customers using search to find products and services on a site, companies must be able to control the promotion of their top performing content in a data-driven manner. Omniture SiteSearch gives marketers this control, with the ability to dynamically tune search results using data from SiteCatalyst’s broad array of performance measurement metrics.”

“Analytics-driven site search is more effective for online businesses because it achieves targeted results based on real data,” said Aseem Chandra, senior vice president of product marketing at Omniture. “Commerce sites can set rules to automatically adjust search results based on shopper trends and seasonality of items, media sites can offer article popularity sorting into the presentation of their search results, and corporate sites can offer better self-service and support by promoting the most frequently sought after support content. Omniture continues to give customers marketing advantages that lead to increased conversion with Web analytics as a foundation.”

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Ask these questions to yourself, your boss, your direct reports, your head of sales, and any other stakeholders in your demand generation process.

Lead Generation

• Are you happy with the number of leads in your pipeline? Is your sales team?
• How many more qualified sales leads could you generate if you had the ability to nurture relationships with qualified prospects and automatically identify when someone is ready to engage with sales?
• Do you get a lot of leads that seem good but are not yet in an active buying cycles? What do you do with them today?
• How many more sales-ready leads could you create if you had the ability to develop relevant and personalized relationships with early-stage prospects before passing them to sales?

Lead Follow-Up

• Does sales follow-up on all your marketing leads today?
• Do your leads ever get dropped on the floor? Are you confident that every lead gets appropriate and timely follow-up?
• How much more effective would your lead generation be if you could ensure no lead got dropped and everyone got appropriate and timely follow-up?
• How much more effective would your marketing programs be if sales followed up on twice as many leads as they do today?

Marketing Efficiency

• How long does it take you to design and create a new campaign? How many people do you need to get involved?
• Do you ever feel like you have too much to get done in a day? Do you ever feel like you get stuck in the weeks managing all the detail of your demand generation campaigns?
• If you could design and create every aspect of a new campaign in just a few hours, how much could you improve your marketing results?
• How much time could you save if you had a software tool that helped to automate the boring, manual aspects of campaigns? How much could you improve ROI if you could spend more time focusing on the strategic and creative aspects of campaigns?

Demonstrating Marketing ROI

• Do you wish you could better understand and demonstrate how all your marketing activities impact pipeline and revenue?
• How much could you improve the ROI of your marketing programs if you understood how each program is influencing pipeline and revenue, and could adjust budgets accordingly?

Interpreting the Results

Perhaps your current demand generation processes are just fine. If so, congratulations! If not, there is dramatic ROI to be gained from better lead management. According to Forrester Research, B2B marketers who make this shift are 2X more productive — plus companies with mature lead management processes are almost twice as likely as average to act on 75% or more marketing leads and are 230% more likely than average to follow-up within one day (Laura Ramos, B2B Marketers Lack Lead Management Maturity, October 2006).

Are you ready to take the next step?

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Now, on the one hand, you can absolutely work to market your product or service as something they really do need to solve a problem or achieve a goal. That’ll help sales. Because when money is tight people have to justify every cent they spend.

On the other hand, you can narrow your focus to those who are still buying. And someone always is, even when most people aren’t. You just have to find them and speak to them in a way that resonates with where they are at right now.

Or, on the third hand (3 hands, I know…I’m a bit odd that way. Alien baby and all that…), you could find ways to get people to fall in love with whatever you’re selling.

If you can arouse that deep down desire-that “I gotta have that” feeling-you don’t have to do any selling at all. Because once we fall in love with something (or someone), we can rationalize and justify just about any choice or behavior if it helps us get the object of our desire.

Case in point. I’ve been thinking about buying a new mountain bike. My bike is fine, but I bought it back when I first started riding and didn’t really know what I wanted or needed. It was a good deal on a great bike so I went for it.

Fast forward to 4.5 years later and I’m a much better rider. Now I’ve realized that it’s not the best bike for me and my riding style. So I’ve been saving up to buy a new one.

Then, a couple weekends ago, I went to Whistler for a weekend mountain biking camp (Big fun. I highly recommend it!). And I got to demo a bike for free as part of the camp.

This was both good, and bad. Because I fell head over heels in love with the bike. It fit perfectly. The weight was just right. It jumped solidly and climbed like a demon. And I rode like a Goddess on it!

Little did I know it’s because it’s an amazing, hand-built bike with all the best components-and about twice as expensive as what I’d been budgeting for.

So when I got home I started trying to find ways to get my hands on one without paying full retail. It being the end of the season, I thought maybe I could find a deal. Or buy one used off eBay.

Turns out the bike is sold out everywhere. And the manufacturer isn’t making any more because they have a new model coming out next year.

Now the bike was playing hard to get. My passion intensified.

Although I looked at other bikes, trying to find one with similar qualities, nothing else seemed near as perfect for me.

Then, the lovely ladies from my biking camp emailed me that their demo bikes were available for sale. Needless to say I responded right away.

They sent me the details, and the price tag made me spew my tea across my desk. But it didn’t stop me.

I started figuring out ways to afford it, and justifying the price (It was in Canadian dollars, and the US dollar is worth more right now, so that’s a savings. They threw in an extra set of tires. More savings. Etc. Etc.)

I was pretty sure I was going to buy it when the clincher arrived in my Inbox…

“Normally we don’t let the demos go until after our last camp in mid-September, but no one has this one reserved and my folks are coming down your way this Friday. So if you want they could bring it with them…”

Done. Sold.

The fact that I wouldn’t have to pay shipping AND I could have the bike in two days pushed me over the edge.

So I agreed to spend almost twice what I’d originally intended. And you know what? I’m thrilled! Ecstatic even!! Plus I’m feeling rather smug that I managed to find a bike that is no longer available anywhere (stores, reps, the manufacturer-all sold out).

I can’t wait to pick it up today and simply stare at it and run my hands along its beautiful, charcoal and white top tube. Not to mention show it off to all my friends like a hot date. And of course ride it this weekend.

This is the power of emotion. Love triumphs over all.

No matter what you’re selling, or what the economy is doing, if someone falls in love with your product or service they’ll find the money to buy it. And they’ll do so quite happily because they’ve convinced themselves life won’t be as good without it.

So how do you make love happen?

Well, you’ve got to give people a way to test the wares. In my case, it was demoing the bike that did the trick. If I’d simply seen the bike, and its price tag, I would’ve walked the other way. But I rode it all day and that was all it took.

That’s why you get to test drive new cars too.

How can people get a taste of what you do?

Offer a test drive via a book…A free report…A free ticket to a presentation…A one-night stay if you come to look at a property…A weekend in the house someone is thinking about buying.

If you sell paintings, you could offer to bring a couple over to their home to see how they’d fit.

Seed the market by giving a few out as gifts to well-connected people. If they love it they’ll tell two friends, and ideally let them check it out.

Even if you can’t actually let someone try your products or services, you can certainly use your sales copy to help them imagine how good life would be once they have what you sell.

Imagine the ease…Or how nice it will be without X problem holding you back…Or how impressed your friends will be…Or how much happier their kids will be…Or how much less pain you’ll be in.

Whatever you sell, you want people to see themselves already owning it and how wonderful that would be. Once they picture themselves in the driver’s seat, if it’s a good fit for their wants, needs, desires or problems, love may start to bloom.

Have you ever fallen in love with something that was out of your budget but you found a way to buy it anyway?

Do you have a great way for people to test drive what you sell?

If so, I’d love to hear all about it, so please leave a comment below…

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In the newest survey, B-to-B marketers were asked which best described their pre and post organization functions.  Following is a summary of the results:

Marketing Communications
-  62% pre
- 47% post
Responsible for Strategy / Innovation
- 14% pre
- 24% post
Drive Sales to Existing Customers
- 14% pre
-  7% post
Direct New Business Development
- 10% pre
- 23% post

While it’s refreshing to see that B2B marketers might finally be recognized for making large contributions to business growth, I’m amazed that the role of B2B marketing in driving sales to existing customers was cut in half! Plus, this function in B2C marketing also took a 3% dive. It was equally surprising that neither ANA or BtoB mentioned this change while discussing the survey results.

Have marketers forgotten that retaining and driving sales to existing customers is critical to business success?  If you’re not driving sales to existing customers and giving them a reason to stay with you, your competition will certainly give them a reason to leave. Customer retention, which includes cross-selling and up-selling propels profits.  Most surveys, across all industries, prove that keeping one existing customer is 5-7 times more profitable than acquiring one new customer.

So, why did this survey show that the marketing role in driving sales to existing customers was cut in half?  Does that mean companies don’t place a marketing emphasis on this function?  If marketing isn’t driving sales to existing customers, who is?

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The recording is freely available online here. In the call Dan highlights how companies can increase perceived value and get their customers to spend more by creating a decoy offer, which is discussed in the first chapter of his Predictibly Irrational book.

The decoy marketing offer introduces false choices to make another choice look more appealing. We have a hard time valuing offers, but are relatively good at valuing relative deals. The example Dan uses to discuss the decoy is the pricing of The Economist.

Lets say the pricing is

Given the above virtually nobody will order print, but adding the false choice of print only will make many people buy the both option, whereas if the print option were priced lower or the print option were not there more people would be inclined to opt for online only instead of the web +print combination.

Non-commodity based value is largely a game of perception. You can build perceived value by

Everything around us is a collage of overlapping value systems competing for attention and resources. What backs the value of the U.S. Dollar? Why has it fallen 20% in the last couple years? Housing prices went up for a long time, and then they stopped. Last year Indymac bank was a top 10 mortgage lender and now they are bankrupt.

Many investors shorted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In response to deteriorating business conditions the U.S. federal government offered to allow the companies to borrow directly from the Federal Reserve and increase their borrowing limits. That help stabilize their stock prices a bit.

What really scared investors away from shorting the stocks further? A proposal from the White House to Congress would give the U.S. Treasury authority to buy the stocks to provide needed liquidity. Imagine betting on a company failing when your government says that they are interested in buying stock in the company if the company gets in a pinch. That is the sort of news that can send a stock price up 40% before the market opens.

Why would the government care about the stock prices if they have little to do with the functionality of the businesses? It all comes down to perception. A healthy stock price gives the perception that all is well and helps keep the housing market as fluid as possible, whereas low stock prices erode confidence and evoke a sense of fear, which adds a lot of risk to an already unstable housing market. Perception becomes reality.

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In it, he references a Future Now’s 2007 Retail Customer Experience Study that every business owner with a Website should be aware of.

The study states that a 2007 Forrester survey revealed, “only 26% of online consumers were simply satisfied with their shopping experience. This suggests a whopping 74% - three-quarters of online shoppers - weren’t even satisfied. And what of the remaining 26%? They weren’t delighted. They were merely “satisfied.” In other words, the shopping experience was, at best, adequate.”

Twice recently I was personally reminded of how bad some Website shopping experiences can really be-as well as what a stellar shopping experience is like. In the course of one day, I had shopping experience that ranged from frustrating, to great, to near perfection.

Let’s start with perfection…

First, I went looking for a place to send the rear shock on my mountain bike to be overhauled. Usually you send them back to the manufacturer, then wait 4-6 weeks to get it back.

I wasn’t happy about this ideaEspecially since I’d procrastinated on taking care of this over the winter and now biking season is here. The last thing I want to do is be bikeless but my shock is shot an leaking oil. So I went online to find the address for the manufacturer’s repair shop.

Only I couldn’t find it anywhere. Even though my shock is pretty popular, I had zero luck finding the manufacturer’s Website at all.

Thankfully, I found two Websites for independent repair shops that could overhaul my shock. And one (http://www.thebrokenbike.com) was, quite frankly, one of the best examples of a small business e-commerce Website I’ve ever seen!!

• Everything was well-organized and easy to read and navigate.

• His buy now buttons were big and obvious.

• He had his picture and the story of how he came to start this business that added tons of credibility.

• He included testimonials for even more credibility.

• And he had audio and video explaining the entire processFrom the best way to ship your bike part, to what he’s going to do to make it like new again.

On top of all that, he made a promise I couldn’t resist big and bold… Same day turnaround.

I was sold and sent my shock in yesterday. If he delivers as promised, I should be riding on my overhauled shock next week (woohoo!).

Now, because of my needing to rebuild my shock (and the fact that I’ve never been thrilled with how it, or my bike, ride), I’ve also been considering selling this bike and upgrading.

So I started surfing bicycle Websites in search of a new steed.

I’ve been mountain biking pretty avidly for about 5 years, but I’m not a total gearhead about it. I couldn’t tell you which front forks have more travel, or why I would want one disc brake over another. And I certainly don’t know the features and benefits of all the different bikes models and components by name.

As a result, the first Website I went to (http://www.santacruzmtb.com/home/) totally lost me. Rather than dividing out the bikes by style or ideal use, they just had a list of names and icons. So I had to click on each one to see whether or not it was a bike might be interested in (a huge PIA!).

Then, when I got there, I couldn’t easily find the info that was most important to me (namely, a simple statement of what type of riding the bike is designed for, and how much travel the shocks have).

Clearly they geared their site towards more gearhead riders. But they lost a sale by not communicating enough for the average, non-technical mountain biker to make a buying decision. And I don’t think they would lose the gearheads by offering more info.

Needless to say I left that site and went to another…

The Kona site was a whole different ball of wax. It immediately helped me locate the bikes that would be the best fit for me via an interactive questionnaire. In seconds I was looking at exactly what I wanted.

On top of that, the bike descriptions were really helpful in explaining what the bike was best suited for, as well as giving me the key feature info I needed. Now I’m seriously considering buying one of their bikes.

The only negative is that their banner picture is a bit too big. So when I first clicked on the site, and it opened in a half-size window, I couldn’t find the navigation. Other than that the site was easy and intuitive to use.

The bottom line is, if you’re focused on driving traffic to your site, that’s great. But it’s a waste of time and money if you’re site doesn’t do a good job at helping people find what they want and give them enough info to confidently make a purchase.

Jason’s article lists some terrific tips to help you make your Website visitor’s buying experience better than adequate.

For even more helpful info on how to turn your Website into a highly effective salesperson, check out my latest e-book The Small Business Website Bible.

Have you found a Website you either love or hate? Are there certain things you always look for, or that always drive you nuts, when you’re shopping online?

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