How intelligent are your Toll Free Numbers, Landing Pages and Promotional Codes?

Sending a toll free number (800, 866, 877 etc.), links to special landing pages, micros sites or promotion codes in the print material or email is a common practice. However before you send that promotion to your customers, make sure it can be tied back to campaign and the offer that you sent. Make sure your site, automated phone system and customer service reps. know what those special promo codes or toll free numbers mean. Do not waste your customer and your own time.

The point of that promotion is to grab customer’s attention and get share you their wallet. When a customer takes action on the offer that she just received, the customer expects that the web page/site or the human answering that call is intelligent enough to provide information on that offer and help her convert. I am however amazed how often this minor detail is totally missed due to lack of communication between marketing, sales and customer support.

I recently received a direct mail from Comcast “Free DVR for 1 tear and 1 year installation”. I called the 866 number listed on the mailer. To my disappointment, I was greeted with a standard recorded message that had nothing to do with the mailer I received. The system asked me some standard information to identify me but I did not hear an option that was even remotely related to what was mentioned on the letter.

So what was I suppose to do, which option should I have selected? I did nothing. The message repeated itself and then finally it (automated system) transferred me to a human representative.

Human representative made the same mistake as did the recorded message. She asked me how she can help me. I told her about the mailer I received and was calling about it. She goes "Great ! I can get that to you for free and there will be $14.99 charge for installation". I reminded her that my offer also said that I will get free installation. She asked me to be on hold for few minutes while she checked the offer I might have received.

She came back and gave me free installation because apparently the mailer I received had the code for free installation. I was not able to locate any code on my mailing but it seemed like there was some database she could go back check about my offer.
As a consumer, I was a little disappointed with this experience. I am enjoying my free DVR service though.

Even though this is an example of the toll free number, the same principal applies to web. If you do send out that special landing page or promo code make sure it provides the customers with relevant information and take them into easy conversion path. Do not waste their time. If you do provide a toll free number on that landing page, make sure you customer service/sales reps know the offer that those toll free numbers belong to. Customer is ready to be converted, don’t waste their time, just do it (convert them).

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Site: AnilBatra.com
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What Is Your Conversion Rate?

When most marketers and analyst talk about conversion rate they seem to quote around 2 to 3% as the average conversion rate. Bryan Eisenberg wrote a great article on this subject titled The Average Conversion Rate: Is It a Myth?

In this article he writes:
“The sites that should convert 2 to 3 percent of their traffic are the exception, not the rule. I've long stated that sites that convert less than 10 percent should be concerned. Consider this along with the rising cost of online traffic, and the concern becomes a nightmare. Too many online marketers are spending too much money and time throwing too much unqualified traffic at their sites, then tweaking their traffic quality trying to reach the 2 to 3 percent mythical conversion rate.
If more online marketers focused their efforts on studying visitor intent and site optimization, instead of just driving traffic, their average conversion rates would be much, much higher.”

To inspire you or to make you depressed (the choice is yours) here are some of the top conversion rates for e-commerce sites as reported by Marketingcharts.com.



Source: Marketing Charts (via Nielsen Online)
Note: To be considered, e-commerce sites must have had a minimum of 500K unique visitors during the month. Conversion-rate data is based on visitor conversion rates, not session conversion rates: i.e., No. of unique customers/No. of unique visitors.

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Looking to fill your Web Analytics or Online Marketing position?
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Conversation with Barry Parshall, VP of Product Strategy, WebTrends

Continuing my series of conversation with Webtrends executives at Engage conference here is my conversation with Barry Parshall, VP of Product Strategy at WebTrends




Also check out

• Conversation with Alex Yoder, CEO of Webtrends


• Conversation with Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, VP of Marketing Webtrends


• Conversation with Casey Carey, VP of Products, WebTrends

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Looking to fill your Web Analytics or Online Marketing position?
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Site: AnilBatra.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/anilbatra

WAA Board of Directors

I am very honored and excited to be elected to the Board of Web Analytics Association.

I would like to thank all of you who provided support and encouraged me during me run for the WAA board. If it were not for Seth Romanow I probably would not be a board member today. Seth encouraged me and convinced me that I should run for the board. Thank you Seth.

I would also like to thank all of you voted for me. I know it was a tough to decide who to vote for because we had so many great candidates.

I will be in San Jose for eMetrics starting Sunday May 3rd . If you are going to be there I would love to meet with you to discuss where WAA needs to focus in coming year. If you are not going to be there, you can always email me at batraonline@gmail.com and send me you phone number. I look forward to speaking with you.

Thank You
Anil Batra

Conversation with Casey Carey, VP of Products Webtrends

Continuing my series of conversation with Webtrends executives at Engage conference here is my conversation with Casey Carey, VP of Products at WebTrends



Also check out my

• Conversation with Alex Yoder, CEO of Webtrends


• Conversation with Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, VP of Marketing Webtrends

Conversation with Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, VP of Marketing WebTrends

Conversation with Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, VP of Marketing WebTrends
I did a series of interviews with Webtrends executives at WebTrends Enagage conference earlier this month.

Here is a message from Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, VP of Marketing WebTrends for all those who could not attend Webtrends Engage Conference.




Also check out my conversation with Alex Yoder, CEO of Webtrends.

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Looking to fill your Web Analytics or Online Marketing position?
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Site: AnilBatra.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/anilbatra

My Conversation with WebTrends CEO Alex Yoder at Engage Conference

I had an opportunity to sit down with Alex Yoder yesterday and this morning to discuss where WebTrends is heading, the future of web analytics and what do we need to do to make Web Analytics industry successful. (Both of us are running for the Web Analytics Association board and if you have not voted yet then please do vote for both of us. Yes you can vote for both of us. I am supporting his nomination.)

Below is the video of my conversation with him this morning, this conversation was focused around his main message in his keynote speech. This video is for all those who could not attend the conference. I have also interviewed several other executives from WebTrends, those videos will be available soon.



Have a question for Alex? Post it here or ask him on twitter at @yodera.

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I am running for the WAA Board of Directors position and will appreciate your support and vote. To learn why you should vote for me please view my details at WAA Site. If you have any questions please feel to email me at batraonline@gmail.com.
Site: AnilBatra.comTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/anilbatra