|
Below, you'll find extensive information on leading
cheap website traffic articles and products to help you on your way
to success.
Defining Both Top- And Bottom-line Growth For Your Web Business
Defining Both Top- And Bottom-line Growth For Your Web Business
By Kevin Gold, Mon Jan 2nd
On Wall Street, financial investors speak of CEOs improvingtheir companies' "top line" by increasing sales volume or their"bottom line" by reducing their expenses to expand the marginsfrom their current sales volume. For Internet companies a similar "top line - bottom line"approach should be taken by business owners determining where todirect their improvement efforts. Defining Top-Line versus Bottom-Line
An Internet business improves their "top line" by increasing thenumber of unique visitors to their website or their "bottomline" by increasing their "visitor-to-sale" or "visitor-to-lead"conversion rates. Let me illustrate. After an online business establishes their performance metrics,it is able to predict with confidence the expected results fromtheir visitor traffic. For example, a business' performancemetrics may show that for every 1,000 visitors received, 15sales are completed - a sales conversion rate of 1.5%. With this understanding, the business can increase its "topline" growth by driving more visitors to its website. Forexample, if the business invests money in traffic generationefforts to increase their visitor traffic from 1,000 to 10,000,150 sales will be achieved from the 1.5% sales conversion rate -a ten times growth rate. Top-Line Improvements Focuses on Traffic Generation What are "traffic generation efforts"? In brief, traffic generation efforts are ways a businessattracts visitors to their website. They may include onlineefforts such as search engine optimization, pay-per-click searchengines, affiliate marketing, email campaigns, and media oroffline ones like direct mail, television, radio, and publicrelations. On the other hand, the business may decide to spend their moneyon improving their "bottom line" by concentrating efforts onwebsite conversion strategies. For example, if the above business invests money in websiteconversion strategies to increase their sales conversion ratefrom 1.5% to 2%, then for the same 1,000 visitors, sales willincrease from 15 to 20 - a 25% increase. Bottom-Line Increases Focus on Website Conversion Strategies So what are website conversion strategies? Website conversion strategies are website design changes thatconnect with your visitor's wants and persuades them to takeaction to achieve your goals as well as theirs. There areendless strategies to increase your bottom line although somehave greater significance than others. Depending on your type of online business, different strategiesmay achieve greater results for your website and offer greaterrelevancy for your visitors. If you manage a consumer or business product website thanwebsite conversion strategies that focus on reducing shoppingcart abandonment may provide the greatest conversionimprovement. While a service business' lead generation websitewill find improvement from website conversion strategies focusedon "contact us" form completion. Implement These Website Conversion Strategies There are website conversion strategies that will improveconversion rates for all online businesses regardless of theirindividual objectives. These strategies include improvementsto... *Website's sales copy including writing headlines and sub-headswith stronger visitor appeal, defining stronger calls-to-action,using more visitor-relevant and benefit-oriented words andpositioning popular visitor keywords in prominent areas connectwith visitors and persuade action. *Graphics and layout design to
generate visual relevancy andmessage consistency for your visitors. *Guarantees, returns, shipping, privacy, customer support andsecurity policies you present to gain confidence and trust fromyour visitors. *Navigational structures to make it easier and more convenientfor your visitors to locate the products and services theydesire to purchase. *Buying or contact options to increase the ways in which avisitor can purchase or receive contact from you includingalternatives to a shopping cart or online form like phone, mail,fax, online chat, and email. How to Decide Between Top-Line or Bottom-Line Improvements Your decision to pursue "top-line" or "bottom-line" improvementsshould be evaluated by (1) the objectives you plan to achieve,(2) the amount of money you have to spend, (3) the time-lineestablished to meet your goals, (4) the amount of visitortraffic your website currently receives and (5) the conversionrate your website currently achieves for your calls-to-action. Establishing a plan before you make any decisions is critical.As the old joke goes, "I'm making progress climbing the ladderof success--I just don't know if it's leaning against the rightwall." The plan should include measurable goals based on yourcurrent performance metrics. Knowing your budget is essential in the selection process. Why,because certain conversion enhancement strategies can beimplemented for a small investment of your time and effort.While traffic generation efforts may require greater investmentsof time, effort or both. Figuring your budget enables you toalso forecast the potential return you may receive fromimproving your top-line versus your bottom-line. Obviously theareas that provide the biggest bang for your buck are the onesto start one first. Understanding your time-line is also essential since manyconversion enhancement strategies will offer quick improvementto your conversion rates while traffic generation efforts likesearch engine optimization have long lag times before deliveringample visitor traffic. Identifying your current visitor traffic volume and conversionrates, especially for new Internet businesses, is also veryimportant when determining top-line or bottom-line improvement.If you currently have low visitor traffic then you will havedifficulty in determining if a conversion enhancement strategyhad a real effect on improving your conversion rates. For example, if your website receives 100 visitors a month itwill take you at least a month or two before any real measurablechanges occur to your conversion rates. In this case, you wouldbe better off focusing on top-line (traffic generation efforts)first and then returning to bottom-line improvements forincreasing your conversion rates. Likewise, if your website currently has strong visitor traffic,like 15,000 visitors per month yet your current conversion rateproduces only 5 sales then obviously you need to improve yourbottom-line and focus on conversion enhancement strategies. Take time to review your "top line" versus "bottom line"opportunities and to decide which one offers you the best returnfor your dollars spent. If you concentrate on improving one ofthe two areas over the next month you can be confident thatmeasurable sales growth is achievable for your Internetbusiness. About the author:Kevin Gold is CEO of Enhanced Concepts, specializing in turningwebsite visitors into leads or sales, co-editor ofWebSalesability.com and published writer. Get a free report, "12Sure-fire Ways to Increase Your Website Sales" and an exclusive5-day website conversion email course by visitingwww.enhancedconcepts.com.
|
