Paul Sizemore

Paul Sizemore  //  

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Nov 21 / 8:31am

IA and the prospect to lead cycle

Navigation, Information Architecture (IA) and site maps helps users understand where they are on the site, and helps them quickly get to where they want to go. Users will not continue to use a site that is difficult to use. Because of this, navigation and IA is a core requirement to align with the online prospect to lead cycle.

It's very important that the navigational elements are consistent across the entire site. This allows users to have a visual indicator of where they are on the site, and determine where they want to go. It's of utmost importance that users know what the links are, and they are not confused with other elements of the site. Stay consistent. Often users end up minesweeping for links (moving the mouse to what they think is a link to ensure that it is a link). That scores up a deficient site in user's eyes. 

Users that arrive on site through searches have to have an easy way to understand the site IA and navigate around their destination to refine their information. The easiest way to alleviate this is to have  breadcrumb navigation. 

As far as the prospect to lead, it's important that the site's IA mirror the user's trigger events or personas. This will allow immediate identification of needed information, and you can define a site segmentation consistent with that trigger event. Once the user is on that path, you can pull the content pages that are applicable to that segmentation. Move that prospect to lead cycle up each time that user visits the site. 

For example, if the user goes to the third step of a prospect to lead cycle of 20 steps, the next time the user visits the home page, highlight the fourth step in the process. 

Remember, your site needs to be designed to help your prospects. The IA needs to be task-based in most cases. Help them find what they want to find, and you'll have returning visitors, and then leads. In most cases sites mirror a company's organizational structure, and not the hierarchy of prospect needs. 

Gather the requirements from your prospects, not your staff. 
Filed under  //  IA   Information Architecture   Internet Marketing  

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Oct 26 / 1:54pm

What has your site done for you lately? / Conversions

A lot of people in interactive believe traffic is king; not true, conversions are king. Every web site has a goal, or should have. Every site has a way to measure value. Conversions are the measure of value on a web site. The higher your conversions, the higher the value of your site. 

Sales or leads are evident as conversions, but what if you don't sell anything on your site? If your site is in place to build a brand, or communicate a message, then when a user lands on that page, they are a conversion. Your goal has been reached. 

Conversions are more clear cut in a sales or a lead generation site. Every conversion has steps the user follows to make it to the conversion point. This is often represented as a funnel, and it's great to look at a funnel report in your analytics package. Once set up, it can help you identify places in the sales cycle that users fail to make it to the next step. For example, if you have a large number of visitors delivered from organic search results, and those users are failing to convert, that might indicate a problem with the user's expectations based on the search terms. 

You can test several designs and funnels using A/B testing or multivariate testing. Your analytics package might be able to help you implement this, and it's best tracked in your analytics package. The concept is you test, for example, two versions of a page and then collect data on the one that leads to the most users doing what you want them to do. 
Filed under  //  Analytics   Internet Marketing   SEO  

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Oct 24 / 2:39pm

The internet will change everything / word of mouth

Remember all the claims of how the world would change with the dawn of the Internet? Remember the claims of the rise of the individual? One victim is traditional advertising and public relations. Word of mouth in on the way to reigning supreme. 

The old way was to buy your way in to markets or beg your way in through PR. Companies had faceless prospects, and company ego rules the marketing. Would Apple's 1984 commercial succeed today? We would collectively roll our eyes, and hit the fast forward on the DVR. The classic bait and switch doesn't work anymore. 

The back button is the 3rd most used web feature. 

As professionals we no longer have faceless buyers, we have an audience with unique personas. Buyers have the expectation that they find meaningful help in every step of the process. As professionals, we have to be useful. 

In turn, people will tell the story of your product or service. People are empowered by the Internet, and they will carry you with them. Social media is the new PR, but it has a new voice. The voice of the buyer. To be successful, speak in their language not the typical PRish rhetoric of the past. 
Filed under  //  Internet Marketing   Product Management   Social Media  

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