Conversion rate optimization for companies that put people in touch with each other (like classifieds sites, trading platforms, job sites, dating sites, social networks and communities)

Dr Karl Blanks, Chairman

How we became “conversion obsessed”

Google took notice

Our results Our clients

“There is a near-explosion, followed by a few short years of tremendous excite-ment, tremendous startup activity, tremendous publicity. Five years later comes a ‘shakeout’, which few survive.”

Peter Drucker, 1985

URL =

Ubiquity first, Revenue Later

Demand-side economies of scale

n = 2

n = 5

n = 12

2 connections

20 connections

132 connections

To your users…

…the value of your business ∝ n2

Buying-and-selling platforms (eBay, Voices.com, job sites, car sites)

Communications (e.g., Skype)

User-generated content (e.g., Wikipedia, Amazon, IMDb)

Social networks (e.g., Facebook, dating sites)

Ad networks (e.g., AdSense)

Software (users want compatibility)

Note: Perception and expectation are important “Single-player and multi-player modes”—Zach Klein

Demand-side economies of scale

Supply-side economies of scale

As sales increase, variable costs decrease due to bulk buying

Marketing

Product design

Operations

Fixed costs are divided among a larger number of users, so you can afford to spend more on…

Everything

Gaining a deep understanding of what makes buyers buy 1

2 Determining what makes some qualified visitors not buy

How do we get such amazing results?

O/CO Objection Counter-Objection

A more sophisticated approach.

…do… …think… …say

Tools we use to find out what visitors…

How we increased the conversion rate of Voices.com by over 400%

We studied Voices.com’s sales funnel to find the biggest opportunities for improvement.

We studied all of Voices.com’s sales literature and interviewed the company’s CEO to identify all of the company’s “persuasion assets.”

1

2

3

We analyzed 510 visitor surveys to understand the mindset of those who arrived to the site but didn’t ultimately subscribe.

We analyzed Voices.com’s competitors’ websites to understand the strategies and opportunities. 4

Once we understood the prospects’ main objections, and what could be done to overcome them, we created new test pages.

Our in-depth analysis of Voices.com

We achieved the 400% increase by doing eleven experiments, which

we carried out at five different stages of the conversion funnel.

Here are a few things that might apply to your business.

Finding and communicating proof

Adding proof to the homepage had a significant effect: Voices.com had some impressive “claims to fame” that could really influence prospective customers but that weren’t clearly communicated on the website.

The site had two distinct types of visitor: voice-over artists and companies looking for voice-over artists. There was a great benefit from immediately and clearly segmenting these types of visitor into separate conversion funnels.

Segmenting (by visitor type or by visitor intention)

Often, the biggest obstacle facing prospects is that they don’t understand what they are about to sign up for. Voices.com overcame this obstacle by adding clearly communicated demonstration videos.

Demonstration videos

Once we had increased the conversion rate of Voices.com’s sales funnel, we identified that there was a big opportunity for email marketing. We then designed a hugely successful email marketing campaign for increasing its lifetime customer value.

Hidden opportunities in the sales funnel

Don’t copy the pages —copy our process

Important things to remember…

§  URL: Ubiquity first, Revenue Later

§  Shakeout: “Few will survive”

§ Be aware of established strategies and phenomena

§ Economies of scale

§ Satisfy all visitor intentions

Great, no-fluff conversion resources:

http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/learning-zone/