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Aim to convert the maybe’s, don’t worry about yes’es and no’s

A marketers tightest and most valued ally is their sales force.  Without communicating routinely with front-line sales representatives and agents, a marketer will never identify who their true prospect targets are.  Despite what some of us may think, we don’t need to optimize pages for the people that come to a site and convert regardless of content, nor the people that will never convert (ever).  The people we’re trying to ultimately reach are the few that might be interested, because if we can win them, we will be maximizing conversion.

Who are the “maybe” people?

You might be whispering to yourself, “I’m not sure,” and that’s okay.  If we assume we know for sure, we might miss a significant portion of our audience.  Not knowing for sure is a good thing, it keeps us on our toes, and keeps us wondering whether we can’t do more to improve content, not for the “yes” or “no” people, but for the myriad of “maybe” people across the board.

How do I get to know “maybe” people?

Almost everyone has front-line workers; heck, small business marketers may be included in that category too!  Getting to know your “maybe” people is as easy as talking to your own customers, agents, PR people, or critics.  See if you can collect a list containing:

• the most common questions on the front line
• brainstorming addressing open-ended questions no one can answer
• notes from competitor sites highlighting similarities and differences
• key metrics such as pageviews, time on page, time until purchase, conversion rate, geography, and time of day
• customer demographics (this one can be tough)

Once you get a handle on what might be keeping “maybe” people from converting on your site, do everything in your power to address a bottlenecks and create conversion catalysts.

How do I know if I’m converting “maybe” people?

This is a common question that doesn’t necessarily have a right or wrong answer.  It comes down to what you’d like your visitors to do while on your site.  There are several targets you, as a webmaster or marketer, may want to consider:

• Informational sites typically measure overall improvement in bounce rate, time on page, visitor registration, white paper downloads, newsletter subscribers, RSS readers, etc.
• E-commerce sites will obviously focus on order volume, conversion rate, and revenue, but other metrics might also include return on ad spend (ROAS), average revenue per order (ARPO), cart additions, days before purchase, inquiry volume (calls, e-mails, faxes, etc), and up-sell percentage.
• Affiliate site owners will look almost exclusively at only two important metrics: referrer rate (inbound visitors versus referred visitors), and conversion rate (referred visitors to purchasers).

In conclusion, if your plan is to please everyone you’re doomed to fail.  The ultimate aim is not to convert 100% of visitors, it’s to convert 100% of “maybe” visitors.  Visitors that are bound to convert regardless of your content don’t need to be “won over”.  In the same respect, visitors that are never going to convert aren’t worth your time to woo.  Target the “maybe” visitors, win them over, and see your conversion rate skyrocket.

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