I couldn’t have said it any better than an article John Ellis wrote about in his blog today - and, believe me, I’ve tried. He cited an article written by Rose Sylvia on her excellent blog, PPCThink.

“Improving Your Conversion Rate is FAR More Important Than Driving More Traffic,” really encapsulates what I have proposed many times. I have made this mistake and have focused on traffic generation when, undoubtedly, I needed to focus on conversions. When I pulled my head out of the sand and did, in fact, begin to understand my conversion process - the company and the bottom line soared. Isn’t that why we’re all here anyway?

Companies who sell services, or even high-end products, must realize that they have a shopping cart, too. It’s a little different than, say Amazon, but it’s still a shopping cart. What is this thing you say?

It’s your lead generation form.

Let me guess - you just put your email address up on your site and are hoping that someone is going to click on it and - boom - there’s your lead. Not so fast my friend! It just doesn’t work that way. It goes back to my theory about the “Field of Dreams Syndrome” - just because it’s there, doesn’t mean they’re going to show up.

I received a great case study in my inbox this morning about this: Lead Generation: Is Your Sign-Up Process Costing You Leads and Conversions, or Maximizing Them? While this article doesn’t get into great detail about the specifics of B2B lead generation, it does do a great job of profiling subscriptions and how to improve effectiveness.

I’ve been preaching this concept for a long time and have helped many companies through this process. The case study above does a great job of walking you through this concept and why you have to pay attention to this even if you don’t have a traditional shopping cart.

Every website operator has to know and understand their success metrics (I’ll cover that topic in one of my next posts). But, how your site visitors funnel down to your contact form is integral to a successful B2B website.

Look, there are really only 3 things someone can do while they’re on a page on your website. I didn’t really think of it like this until I was having a conversation yesterday with a colleague. So, here’s the list:

1. Stay on the page.
2. Go to the next page.
3. Go to the previous page - aka hit the “back” button.

Now, the secret is completely understanding why each thing happens - there are probably several at each step. Plus, you need to be focused on those visitors that aren’t doing what you would like them to do. Things like staying on your page or moving forward to checkout and others.

I’m a big Dan Patrick Fan - I especially loved his ESPNRadio show. And, when he decided to call it quits back in August; I wondered what he would end up doing. So, on a whim, I typed in DanPatrick.com one day and….

Check out my latest PodCast for more….

On a side note, I’d love some feedback on the PodCasts - drop me a comment below - Thanks, cg

Here’s a screencast from the folks at Future Now talking about e-commerce page optimization. This is very interesting because they actually find a similar product on 3 different websites and compare and contrast the designs, calls to action and other on-page features.

Here’s an interesting case study about what you can learn from testing offers and calls to action.

Landing Page Conversion: Getting Significant Improvements Even When You Can’t Complete Your Tests

Basically, you need to look at more information than just the clicks when you’re evaluating your landing pages - or anything for that matter. There are some good tips there to give you some insight.