Revenue Systems Engineer
Internet Real Estate Development
How to Vet Consultants
Dec 7th
NOTE: this video blog post was made in my website development days. The principles apply to any consultant you’re considering hiring.
The barrier to entry in the web development and internet marketing space is low <in any space it’s low>, which makes vetting website and Internet consultants very difficult <with any consultant it’s difficult>. Watch this quick video to learn how to vet website development and Internet marketing consultants <the principles apply to any consultant>.
How to Vet Website Development & Internet Marketing Consultants from Scott Smeester on Vimeo.
What do you think? What have you learned?
Why Your Website May Not Be Viewable In China
Nov 29th
Our website is a brochure website that is meant to be viewable in China. This vid-log is what I learned and how I overcame the challenges I had of deploying and viewing a site meant to be seen in China. Hope it helps somebody 
Increase Trust on Website to Increase Sales
Sep 8th
Today commences a project to overhaul long time client Planet Urine’s website with updated look and feel and new technology. The website is about 8 years old and built with old Cold Fusion (moving to ASP.net). It’s complicated because with such a long history, hundreds of pages have been indexed with search engines and/or have been bookmarked and we do not want to lose that “internet real estate” so I will have to methodically inventory all pages and properly redirect. Initial tests on new look and feel of recent landing pages we’ve been testing (http://www.planeturine.com/2010/Ask-a-Pet-Behaviorist.aspx) has shown increase of conversion rates of 400% or more.
Case Study: Combining a Landing Page and Lead Capture Form
Sep 1st
How much can the conversion rate and word of mouth marketing be increased with a more streamlined road to value?
The previous landing page didn't do much to tell the visitor what they could get.
I did not like the previous lead capture process for my website for Hire Sales Stars, and I didn’t think they were very effective either, mainly because it didn’t have much of a purpose, nor did it provide a way for visitors to reach something of value. It did a fine job of telling the visitor what the site was about, and even gave some great benefits of why this site/company is great, but not much else. I did these pages to get something up in the way of a conversion form, so I did not expect much.
The landing page had a short video of me encouraging the visitor to click the “Get Started for Free” button to move to the next page – the lead capture page. The whole video bothered me; I suspected it turned people off because I’m somewhat higher than the camera and I’ve been told my body language is too bold – an overall intimidating stance.
The previous landing page funneled to a lead capture page
The lead capture page had a nice quote on it, as well as a form that asks only for your first name and email, but that’s it. Nowhere in the process did it say what somebody would get – i.e. why they would want to fill it out, what value they would get, etc.
Granted, the site does not get a whole lot of traffic right now (10 to 15 clicks per day), which is why I also wanted to improve the funnel – to provide much more value - so that perhaps it could get more viral traffic (word of mouth). So I decided to make a free tutorial video available that really would help the a visitor who has problems that this site could help.
Revised lead capture/landing page.
Now, the new landing page and lead capture page has been combined into one page and is now the current home page.
No video and only one simple step. Will it work? I have no idea! What do you think? Do you think that the revised page makes more sense? Do you see what you get?
The Tale of Two Landing Pages
Jun 3rd
Same offer. Same company.
400% increase in conversion rate.
While working with one of our clients, Planet Urine, we have been experimenting with new landing pages and have exceeded expectations with some of the endeavors. Below are BEFORE and AFTER screenshots from a landing page they use to encourage dialogue from a prospective buyer (always good). The original landing page (BEFORE) yielded a 5.2% click to lead conversion rate, while the remodeled (AFTER) page has a 21.9% click to lead conversion rate. What is your opinion? Why is the AFTER page is doing so much better?
BEFORE
Landing Page Before
AFTER
Landing Page After
Any ideas that you have would be incredibly useful as to why some practices work better than others. Looking forward to your comments to help us continue to refine our services and products.
