How Can I Improve the Conversion Rate of My Internet Marketing Campaign?

The success of an Internet marketing campaign can be measured by its conversion rate. Depending on your site and your type of business, your conversion rate may be based on convincing readers to become subscribers, encouraging people to buy something, or enticing prospective customers from another site with an ad. The best way to convert users is to provide them with all the information they need to make an informed decision.

Online marketing is direct response marketing, so you need to encourage the customer to act. And action is determined by letting customers know what and why they should click. They need a compelling differentiated benefit.

Compelling because it sparks them to act.

Differentiated because your offer is different from what they can get elsewhere.

Benefit because they have to get value out of it.

You may try to lure customers to your site with a discount on your service. You advertise the discount in an email newsletter. A potential customer is exposed to the email link and is attracted to the discount that you're offering. When potential customers click on the link, they need to go to a specific page that will educate them about the discount and entice them to sign up for your service. If the link takes people to a page without the information they need -- or, even worse, your home page -- odds are you'll lose the customer. Home pages have the lowest conversion rate in terms of purchasing.

In addition, by sending people to a specific page to learn more about your offer, you can easily measure the conversion rate -- the percentage who sign up for your offer compared with the total visitors to that page. Keep in mind that it often takes people more than one visit to a site to convert them.