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By Karl Staib

How to Use Google Analytics for a Better Website Experience

Jeff came to me with a problem that many people come to me for. The funny thing was, he wasn’t sure how I could help him.

Many of my clients aren’t sure how to solve their traffic issues. Many of them think they need to increase their advertising budget.

The reality is that adding more website traffic is not the first step.

Getting more traffic only works when your website works well.

It starts with this 5 step process:

  1. Attention
  2. Interest
  3. Desire
  4. Trust
  5. Action

AIDTA

I added the T for trust from an old advertising acronym AIDA from the 1950’s.

It was created to help simplify the process for advertising agencies. Of course once they were able to get people into stores it was up to the store to close the deal.

Same thing goes for your website.

If you are running a Facebook ad, creating sufficient enough desire the next step is to earn their trust as quickly as you can. It’s this Domino Effect that is so important. Each stage tips into the next, either building trust or quickly losing it.

If they go to your site and they are confused or distracted then you’ll lose them.

That’s why every step of the customer experience matters. If you give them a shimmer of a reason to leave they will.

The Importance of a Good Offer

That’s why the offer is so important. They get all the way to the end, they are about to check out and they stop.

Should they buy from you or maybe they should keep looking. Getting them to say “yes” is the hardest part of the whole process.

That moment when your customer says that the product or service that you have is more important than the money they have.

It’s a simple equation:

What you have is more valuable than them keeping their money and spending it someplace else.

The higher the price is the more they’ll hesitate. This is all relative to their income of course. A billion dollar company won’t balk at a $50,000 price tag vs a small company.

More Traffic vs Improving Website Flow

Jeff wanted more traffic for his site, so he could get more sign-ups for his Lego camps over the summer. The thing was a lot of his traffic wasn’t getting getting to the right place on his site.

So we made one significant adjustment.

This is a screenshot of his homepage. As you can see on the right is a super cute kid on the right next to the video, but this wasn’t helping their visitors take the action they they wanted them to take.

play-well-camp-map-increase-02-595

So we removed the cute kid and replaced it with a map on April 19th that shows all the states that they run camps in. This made the video bigger and more clickable. It’s also easy for them to get enticed by the video and find a camp near them. A type of layout that make for a better website experience.

play-well-camp-map-increase-03-595

When we made this chance we started directing the traffic to where Play-well wanted them to go. You can see the previous time period before we made the change. March 20th thru April 18th.

play-well-camp-map-increase-01-arrows-595

The main goal was to get them to find a camp near them. That’s exactly what happened.

We increased the traffic to this page by 110.06%. That’s huge!

Our main goal was to get more traffic to this page, so they could get more sign-ups for their camps. We more than double the traffic with that one change.

The bounce rate, which shows you whether they left without engaging with your site improved by 29.83%. The negative number is good here. You want your bounce rate to go down.

After we made the change we increased the traffic to their most important page by 6,984 visits over the same previous time span.

And as you can see the two main pages that feed their most important “course finder” page, the home page and the camps page didn’t increase in traffic. We just utilized the traffic that they were getting and funneled them to the right page on their site.

We effectively more than doubled the traffic to the right page.

Next Step

The next step is to increase traffic. Now that they are getting to the right page we’ll be able to better utilize the organic traffic as well as the paid traffic.

What do you think? Is there something on your site that you could remove or move to another location that will help you encourage them to take action on your site?

By Karl Staib

By Karl Staib

Website Review of Best Selling Author Pam Slim

Every website review teaches me something new.

I hope you get to learn as well.

Too  often we think experts have it all figured out. It’s so far from the truth. I’ve worked with some very talented and successful people and they struggle with their website as much as everyone else.

With every review most of the focus is on mistakes that I see. There are so many positives on her site and I do touch on this, but my main focus is how to improve the User Experience and increase conversions on her site.

I’m a huge fan of Pam Slim. I went to her Lift Off retreat a few years ago and she is super smart.

There are many things on her site that are probably there for a reason from branding to conversion. If I could look at her analytics and run A/B tests then I would probably offer a new ideas as well as adjust my current recommendations.

Now it’s time to dig in and learn from one of the best life coaches out there.

Breakdown of top of the home page:

Pam Website 1

Great quote, but I’m not sure what you do in 5 seconds.

How many people click on the social media buttons? I would love to see a heat map of her homepage and where people are clicking and where they aren’t.

Wonderful image that captures her personality.

Middle of home page:

Pam website 2

Love the Indispensable Community Tour! It shows that she lives what she preaches.

I also love the logos of companies she spoken at because it shows how popular and sought after she is in the tech community.

How often is”book Pam to speak” button clicked? This needs to stand out more and be accompanied with a testimonial.

3/4 Down on the Home Page

Pam Website 2

I like the high quality video here. They can see a sample of her speaking.

Good quote. Would like to see it pop more.

The email sign-up should probably be further up the page, so she can collect more emails. Blue buttons with a blue theme usually don’t convert well. Would like to test out conversion with a red button.

End of home page:

Pam Website 4

I like the book offer here. It is a good chance to get a sale and deepen the connection.

I would like to see the email sign-up box at the top of the page or very close to the top.

How often are the social media buttons clicked at the bottom? Would be good to A/B test to remove them.

Breakdown of About page:

Pam Website 5

We know what Pam looks like from the home page. Use this important space to capture people’s attention.

If she would bring the text up she could capture people’s attention with 1-2 short paragraphs and then a photo.

Plugins she could use:

I would use a pop-up to capture people’s emails. There are many times people don’t see the email sign-up area and they want updates. Pam may not want to use this plugin. Many people don’t like it because they think it takes away from the experience on the site.

The choice comes down what goals Pam has for her site and how she wants to reach them.

Your Turn

Now it’s time to go and look at your website. What did you learn that you could apply to your own site?

By Karl Staib

By Karl Staib

Improve Your Checkout Experience

Your living room, sitting on the couch, Sunday night, iPad in hand, and you are researching the perfect sound system to enhance the movie watching experience when you stumble across what looks like the perfect solution.

You dive in, but you can’t find many reviews. You go to another site and the site has a lot of reviews and you filter through them and make up your mind. Yes, this is exactly what you are looking for.

Boom!

You go though their sales process and it’s done. Purchased.

The first site didn’t have enough reviews and lost your sale.

68.01% of people abandon their cart for a myriad of reasons. They go to a third party site that doesn’t look anything like your site. Or maybe they stay on your site, but aren’t sure what to do next. Or they were hit with an unexpected cost (expensive shipping or tax).

Let’s say a potential customer got to your offer and they were excited to buy. They click the button but it’s a let down.

The reasons will differ for you, but as long as you can measure and refine your process, you can lower your cart’s abandonment rate.

A clunky user experience can kill your conversion rate. If they feel let down, they aren’t willing to finish the buying process. So let’s look at what you can do to help make each conversion a smooth and even a fun process for your customers.

We are going to analyze a very well thought out buying process from the brilliant team over at Fizzle. They help entrepreneurs stay sane in a stressful world. They helped me out when I felt overwhelmed and had trouble figuring out how to get my business to the next level without having a mental breakdown.

1. Make the first step easy

One of the hardest parts for any online business is to make the first step so easy that they can’t say no. You can make this possible at any price level.

You can offer payment plans or answer all their objections that they have as they look through your sales page.

In Fizzle’s case, they decided to make their online education and community site $1 for the first month. Their thought process is simple. Give it a try, fall in love, and keep growing your business with us. If we don’t wow you in the first month, you are only out one dollar.

01-Fizzle-buy-button

Think about what barriers that people have before they buy from you and see what you can do to make the first step so easy that they just can’t say no.

2. Make sure payment options are clear and easy

Many people just want an excuse not to pay you money. Not because they don’t see the value in your offer, but because it’s just hard to part with their money. They worked hard for that money, and if your purchase process isn’t designed well, they think that your product or service isn’t created well either. This congruency is how you earn their trust through their buying experience. We’ll talk a little more about this in #4.

02-checkout-Fizzle-2014-11-04-2

3. Show them that you are secure

This is the only step where Fizzle falls a bit flat. I would like to see why their buying process is secure. Most of the people that buy are very online savvy because of the products Fizzle is selling, but it would help to have an image that shows they keep their payment information safe.

03-Fizzle-secure

a. You will protect their information

What image or promise could you add to your checkout process that makes them feel safe when they hand over their payment information?

4. Understand the importance of a congruent experience

Now once they buy from you, what happens after? How do you deliver the product? The reason I’m including this as part of the check out experience is you’ve probably noticed that people who buy from you will buy from you again if they have a good check out experience that makes them feel welcome and comfortable.

03-Fizzle_Confirmation-2014-11-04

Fizzle excels in this area. Once you buy, you are taken to a really fun page that shows off their personality. It’s an animated gif that shows you how excited they are to have you as part of their community.

What can you do to roll out the welcome mat for your customers when they purchase?

5. Use this on-boarding process as a chance to deepen the connection

So now that they bought from you, it’s your job to make them feel special. This is where you will generate most of your referrals. If they feel like you exceeded their expectations, they will share your awesomeness with their friends.

Fizzle also excels at this. In an interview with Chase Reeves he told me he wanted the customer experience to feel like they were joining a family.

The first image is a quirky video that is a simple intro to the online training you are about to receive for your business. It helps welcome you and explain how you can get started. This is where so many companies also fall short.

04-fizzle-explain

How often have you spent a lot of money on a TV or another high priced item only to get a manual that is in black and white and more confusing than a calculus text book? They got your money and don’t see how important it is to create a set-up process that also delights you.

The next step on Fizzle is a video that explains where to begin and how to get started so you can get the most out of the community as possible.

05-Fizzle_guided-tour_2014-11-04-2

The last two images are emails that were sent out after I bought. You can see the simple instructions in the subject line. Then once you open the email, it’s a simple step by step process about what is most important for you to get started.

06-welcome-email-1

 

06-welcome-email-2

They hold your hand through the process and make you feel like you are a VIP. They create this effect for every person that buys from them. And the cool part is that it’s all automated.

Now go and look at what happens when people buy from you. How is your checkout experience? Does it delight or fall flat? How do you onboard them and make it so easy for them to get started using your product that they are excited and can’t wait to begin?

If you notice there is fun, clarity, and thought put behind each step that they go through.

If you need help with your UX (User Experience) just set-up a consultation with me or if you need help right away then call me at 512-669-5476. I usually am able to return your call within a few hours.

By Karl Staib

The Analytics Growth Guy

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Are you ready to let an expert dig into your analytics, copywriting, and design to uncover your conversion boosts? You can call me 512-669-5476 or contact me and we'll schedule a free consultation.

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