I hope you were able to join us for yesterday's Web Clinic on optimizing eCommerce websites. It was a lively, actionable session and we were sifting through attendee comments all morning.

(NOTE: Subscribe to our free MarketingExperiments Journal and you'll be notified by email when our Web Clinic content is posted online.)

Our optimization experts -- Flint McGlaughlin, Jimmy Ellis and Aaron Rosenthal -- plowed through a series of research-tested concepts, best practices and pitfalls to avoid with eCommerce sites and landing pages. They also performed a rapid-fire review and critique of five eCommerce websites submitted by our Journal subscribers.

We'll break out some of those sites and the specific recommendations in future blog posts. And if those sites apply the ideas, perhaps we'll get some new success stories.

Meanwhile, one key takeaway was the idea that eCommerce site visitors fall into two main categories: Hunters and Browsers.

Hunters already know what they want, and are looking for a quick, safe transaction, while Browsers need more convincing and a different approach to prompt them to make a purchase.

To be most effective, an eCommerce site must address the motivations and thought processes of both audiences, and take them both into account when developing pages, site paths and conversion funnels. That's the foundation that should be in place before the real fun starts with page elements and design using weighted objectives.

Keeping those two audiences in mind, here are five questions that will help to frame optimization efforts for eCommerce site pages:

1. Which type of visitor -- Hunter or Browser -- is this page trying to serve? (Consider the channels and traffic sources.)
   
2. What are the weighted objectives of this page?
   
3. How does this page stop the visitor and connect with them?
   
4. Does this page instantly communicate my Business Value Proposition to visitors?
   
5. How does this page attract my visitor deeper into my product mix as it relates to the weighted objectives?

When a site or page has these fundamentals locked in, it's much easier to determine a baseline for success, test changes to increase conversions -- and measure the results. Try these questions with your own eCommerce page and let us know what you think.

Want to have your website or landing pages optimized by our experts? Just sign up for the MarketingExperiments Journal. You'll stay apprised of all our upcoming Web Clinics and have the chance to submit your site for a live optimization.

Did you catch our free Web Clinic on Wednesday? The topic was Measuring What Matters: How simplifying your metrics can increase Marketing ROI by up to 75% — and if you joined us, chances are you're already implementing new ideas and tools to improve your analytics.

If you couldn't make it, you can view the presentation here and download our free MarketingExperiments Essential Metrics Tool here (Excel file).

Metrics isn't the sexiest topic, yet it's one that most marketers have been grappling with for years and still don't have many concrete answers. In our live poll, 74% of the marketers characterized their experience level with Web analytics as moderate to novice.

There's a lot more to cover with metrics than our one-hour session allowed: Different tools, the type of website and levels of data, your depth of experience with analytics, to name just a few.

Many attendees told us the big takeaway was our blueprint for distilling several data points into just four key measurements — and using that to get beyond numbers and into your customers' mindset.

To paraphrase Dr. McGlaughlin, too often the focus with analytics is on us: the actions we're trying to force or entice, the conversion rates we want to see, the transactions and revenue we desperately need to achieve. Those are valid measures, but they obscure the intentions of our prospects and customers when they visit our sites.

The trick is taking all those raw numbers and using them to create a snapshot of what your site visitors are thinking, as well as what they're doing. That's what really helps us adapt our processes and content and improve ROI dramatically.

Several attendees requested another Clinic on this topic, so we'll likely revisit metrics with a new session in the months ahead. In the meantime, please enjoy the complete Clinic and try our Essential Metrics Tool with our compliments.

We'd appreciate any feedback you have on the metrics Cinic or Tool, and invite you to post any other metrics-related comments you'd like to share.

There’s a mountain of data available from your analysis tools (and you should be using more than one, by the way), but do you know where to find the real ROI gems?

Are you creating a solid foundation for measuring your marketing efforts before you race down the hall to the boss’s office?

To help you answer those questions, I’ve spent the last week trolling through test data and speaking with our analysts about our next free Web Clinic on Wednesday, Aug. 16: Measuring What Matters: How simplifying your metrics can increase Marketing ROI by up to 75%.

After doing the research for the Clinic, it appears MarketingExperiments and Cory Treffiletti, president and managing partner for Catalyst SF, are singing the same song: Click-through rates don’t impress savvy CEOs.

He even uses this analogy in his recent blog post, “Please Stop Asking About Click Rates!”

“In the offline world, how many times have you seen someone hop into a taxi cab as a result of seeing an ad on the cab, and ask to be driven to the store featured in that ad? This is the functional equivalent of tracking click-through rates — and if you look at it in those terms, it sounds a little silly.”

Well put, Cory. We couldn’t agree more.

In this tough economy, experienced and inexperienced online marketers alike would do well to focus on data quality over quantity and get back to basics:

• How much is it costing you to acquire customers?
• How many of them are there?
• How much are they worth?
• What’s their lifetime value (LTV)?
• What’s the net result?

Our upcoming Clinic is designed to help you lock on to the ROI indicators and metrics that matter most – to you and your CEO. We hope you’ll join us for this free Webinar.

It’s true that developing a good Value Proposition is essential for successful online marketing, but having a good Value Proposition alone will not do much for you. A business can spend all of its time and resources on developing a perfectly simple, instantly credible, ten-word Value Proposition, then fail simply because it doesn’t know what to do with it once the business has it. This leads me to my final question about Value Propositions:

What do you do with a Value Proposition?

You communicate it!

Not a difficult answer. If you have a really strong Value Proposition, the next step is simply to let your ideal customers know about it. But that isn’t where the difficulty lies. I think the difficulty lies in knowing exactly HOW to communicate a good Value Proposition.

At MarketingExperiments one of the strongest elements we look for when optimizing Web pages is the clarity of the Value Proposition expressed on a specific page

Here are two proven ways to optimize communication of a Value Proposition on a Web page. We’ve seen both of these greatly increase conversion.

First, through Congruence

Your Value Proposition must be communicated with Congruence. Basically this means that all of the elements on your page must in some way communicate the Value Proposition: the header, the navigation, the body text, footer, and even stuff like buttons, color schemes, and images. All of these page elements must communicate the Value Proposition. For every element on the page you must ask, “How is this expressing or supporting the Value Proposition of this page?” If you did this only to a Web page the results would be good, but we have one other method to make it even better.

Second, through Continuity

Your Value Proposition must be communicated not only through every element on a landing page, but also through every step of a conversion process. Your Google AdWords ad, Landing Page, checkout process, and even your thank-you page must all communicate the Value Proposition. Many businesses seem to assume that once you get a customer past a certain point you can stop “selling.” But in a world where it takes only one slight movement of a finger for a customer to be gone forever, this is a false assumption. We have seen the significant impact following this methodology can have for a Web site.

Here are some specific research examples of how to communicate your Value Proposition.

This blog finishes my series on Value Propositions. I hope explaining how important Congruence and Continuity are in communicating Value Proposition as well as my other posts on this topic will be helpful to our readers. The research experience really helped answer my own questions. Thanks for your attention and trust. Good luck!

It seems value propositions are the most misunderstood aspects of Landing Page Optimization. Usually, when we here at MarketingExperiments ask a company to provide a value proposition for a webpage that we are trying to help them optimize, the responses are all over the place. Some companies will give us a couple bulleted points; others submit a couple paragraphs.

So which is it?

This led me to my third question in this blogging series on Value Propositions

Question 3: Exactly how long should a good value proposition be?

The answer: One short, to the point, sentence.
I think some people here would say 10 words or less, but the main point is just to keep value propositions short and clear.

Remember, a value proposition is not a mission statement or a historical account of your company. A value proposition states WHY your prospective costumer should buy from you instead of your competitors. So keep it short, specific, and simple and make sure you answer the right question.

Easy?

What if you are a company that has multiple products with multiple uniquely valuable aspects to them? How can a company with many reasons that a specific consumer should purchase from them state a value proposition in one short and specific sentence?

This seems to be the issue that a lot of companies face when forming value propositions. They have too much to say (albeit legitimately) about their company’s value, and instead of a short, clear, and instantly viable value proposition, you get an unending tiresome list of products and offers.

So where is the misunderstanding here?

Companies are not constrained to one value proposition.
For some reason, I had been under the impression (along with what seems to be many others) that a company needed to have only one value proposition. But this is not the case. Really, in Internet marketing, it seems less likely that you would need to have one value proposition for your entire company more than you would need multiple value propositions to suite multiple marketing campaigns.

A company with a good Internet marketing strategy should formulate specific value propositions for each of its landing pages. Factors like the specific offer of a page, the particular audience being targeted, or even in something like the season could be equated into a value proposition. If you think about it, one product could have multiple value propositions depending on the specific audience or the specific timing of the offer.

Doesn’t this change the way you look at value propositions?

Once again, remember, you are answering the question WHY should your target costumer buy from you instead of your competitors.

So, with all that said, value propositions should still be expressed in one short, to-the-point sentence. Whether you are talking about a company or an offer on a landing page, keep the value proposition short and sweet.

I hope that helps. I appreciate all the value propositions sent to me via email. And I plan on responding to them all. As my delayed blog posting might suggest, I have busier than normal the past few weeks working on the upcoming Multivariable Testing Certification Course from MarketingExperiments, but I am still engaged in this topic. Two more questions remain unconquered.

I thank all those who have sent emails so far. All the questions have been very good, and I hope our feedback has been helpful for formulating better value propositions.

One really good question that has been asked so far is, “What do I do with a value proposition once I have one?” This is a very good question and I plan on adding it to my original list of questions to answer concerning value propositions. I hope this addition will help.

But for now, I will move on to my next question.

Question #2: What does not belong in a Value Proposition?

From what I have seen so far in email responses, the answer to Question #2 is probably the most important information marketers need to hear in order to get their value proposition down well. And I have learned that there are three mistakes common to most of the value propositions sent to us.

Three Common Errors of Value Propositions:

1) Product Explanations
2) Vague Language
3) Statements Needing Credibility

I will handle these errors one by one.

Value propositions should be more than product explanations. It is very common to receive a value proposition from a company that is only stating what that company is selling or doing. This in and of itself is not a value proposition. A true value proposition must not just tell me what you offer, but why your offer is the best choice for your ideal customer. Your value proposition should answer “Why?” rather than “What?” This really goes back to my last post, but unless you tell me why your ideal costumer should buy from you and not your competitors, you are not giving me a good value proposition.

Value propositions should be quantifiable and specific. When formulating a value proposition, you want to use specific and quantifiable language. Don’t just tell me that you have the biggest selection; quantify it: tell me exactly how many and the variety of clip art graphics you offer. Don’t just tell me your graphics are the best quality; give me the dimension and pixel ratio specifics that set your clipart apart from you competition. This serves two purposes. First, it shows more clearly your value over your competitors’. Second, quantifiable and specific statements are much more credible to your customers. This leads me to my next point.

Value propositions must be instantly credible. Here is an example of what I mean. To say your value proposition is “fast shipping” or “best customer service” is not something that actually differentiates you from competitors in the minds of your customers (even if it is true). The reason? Anyone can say it. Unfortunately, credibility is lost in statements like these. However, if you had a third party—an authority—say your company has the fastest shipping or best customer service, this would give you credibility and consequently set you apart from your competitors. Bottom-line here is to make sure your value propositions are credible or you will not truly be different from everyone else.

Note: Your value propositions must truly reflect who you are, not just who you wish to be. You will not be able to fix a product or offer with only words or third party ratings. This doesn’t work. “Your value proposition is not what you say. . . . It is who you are.”

So these are the three main errors marketers make when formulating value propositions. If you can avoid them you will be ahead of the game when it comes to formulating your value propositions, which will ultimately affect your marketing efforts for the better. I hope this helps. I will be standing by for any emails or comments you have concerning what I have said here. Good luck!

I have some bad news and good news.

The bad news is that you probably don’t have a good value proposition. I mean that in the nicest way. But really, the more I learn about value propositions, the more I realize how many companies don’t know how to formulate them. In 2006 (before I was at MarketingExperiments), MarketingExperiments conducted an experiment offering a $100,000 reward for the person or company who could express the best value proposition on a 5x7 index card. The vast majority of the submissions (over 400 in 4 weeks) could not even formulate a really strong value proposition. The details for the experiment can be found here.

The good news is that your competition probably doesn’t have a good one either. In that case once you develop a good value proposition you will gain an instant competitive advantage for you and your company.

Now, to answer my first question,

Question 1: What is it exactly that I am supposed to communicate in my value proposition? Is there a guideline or formula of some sort for this?

The main response I am getting to this question from the top dogs here at MarketingExperiments is simple: A value proposition should communicate the main reason someone should buy from you.

To get more specific, a Value proposition should answer three questions:

- Why is your product different?
- Why is your product better?
- Why are you the best choice?

To have a good value proposition, your offer must satisfy a customer need that none of your competitors is satisfying. Even if you are on par with your competitors in every way, you must have at least one thing that sets you apart and above everyone else. This one uniquely valuable quality of your offer is the heart of you value proposition. So value propositions basically answer this question: Why is your offer uniquely better for your customer?

To really get a grasp on this, I felt as though I needed some examples of what could make a product uniquely superior to a competitor’s. I asked around and here are two examples I received:

Example #1
Your product or service has a quantifiable and independently verifiable superiority in a key decision element such as customer service, product quality, free shipping, or speed of delivery.

- You have the highest rated customer service by a recognized 3rd party authority.
- You are offering a warranty that no one else offers.

Example #2
You have exclusive ownership or rights to an important product characteristic or component.

- You have a patent on an exclusive and uniquely effective approach to optimizing Website landing pages.

Finally, as far as I know, MarketingExperiments has not yet unveiled any formulas for making clear and strong value propositions. But they do have really good resources on the topic in the MarketingExperiments Compendium, the MarketingExperiments journal archives, and its certification courses. They have many key points to follow when formulating and evaluating value propositions, some of which I will write about later.

I hope this helps. So far I feel as though I am getting a better grasp on what makes a good value proposition. I will continue answering the questions I originally posed. Feel free to submit any other questions you have about value propositions. Also, if you have a value proposition you would like me to get someone to look at and comment on here, feel free to send that to austin.m@marketingexperiments.com. I will see what I can do.

The last couple weeks here at MarketingExperiments we have held Web clinics in which our top analysts evaluated landing pages submitted to us from our journal subscribers. If you participated, you might have noticed that with every Website submission we asked for a two sentence statement of the Value Proposition for the business and of the product offered on the landing page. Simple, right? Well

According to our best analysts, there were hardly any true Value Propositions—maybe one or two out of all of the Web sites submitted. This didn’t seem right to me, especially when considering that all of a company’s marketing efforts should be an expression of its Value Proposition. Why were all these companies unable to put together a good Value Proposition?

It was at this point that I began to wonder, What is a good Value Proposition anyway? Truthfully, when I began to think about it, I myself needed some questions answered about formulating a good Value Proposition. I have heard it talked about over and over, but when it comes down to it, I don’t think I could actually make a good, solid Value Proposition. So, in the MarketingExperiment’s research spirit, I am setting out to find out exactly: What is a good Value Proposition? So far there are four questions I want to find answers to:

Question #1: What is it exactly that I am supposed to communicate in my Value Proposition? Is there a guideline or a formula of some sort for this?

Question #2: What does not belong in a Value Proposition?

Question #3: How long should a good Value Proposition be? And why?

Question #4: Can I see some examples of good Value Propositions?

So, these are my questions. In the next few days I will be scouring the ranks here at MarketingExperiments to see if anyone has the answers to these questions. I will try to keep you posted on my discoveries, and if you’d like me to ask something else about Value Propositions let me know. One good thing about being an apprentice at MarketingExperiments is the access I have to all of the great minds here. So let me know your questions and I will do my best to get them answered.

By Jimmy Ellis
Director of Optimization Research,
Marketing Experiments

1. Build a new headline for a high traffic landing page.
2. Build a new ad in a high volume PPC campaign ad group.
3. Take one larger keyword group in a PPC campaign and split it into multiple, more specific ad groups
4. Sign up for Google Analytics (it’s free). If you already have it, take a look at your top exit points and figure out why customers are leaving on those pages. (http://analytics.google.com)
5. Add a new testimonial to a high volume landing page. If you don’t have any, send a personal email to some of your repeat customers and ask them about their purchasing experience or about the product/service they purchased.
6. Build a new button for your site (a call to action such as “buy now,” “buy,” “add to cart,” ). In many of our tests, “add to cart” out- performs “buy now” and similar buttons.
7. Add an incentive to subscribe to your email list (discount, special report, gift, etc). If you already have one, test a new incentive to try and improve your results.
8. Run a website speed test on your site (maybe your home page). You can do it free right here: (http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/). Take a look at the results and try to reduce the size of your site by cleaning up your html, your css, or optimizing your images for optimal load times.
9. Drop or increase your prices. If you have never price tested, then you have never maximized the revenue of your current sales. Pick a high volume product or service, mark it up or down 10%, and watch those numbers. We prefer a/b split tests but if you don’t have a way to do it, a sequential test will usually give you enough information to tell if it’s having an impact on your revenue.
10. Place an order on your own site. When is the last time you did that? I can almost guarantee you won’t love it. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask yourself, “How could that have been easier?“ Then have your designer test changes based on your input.
Posted by Jimmy Ellis on April 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2)