This Internet Marketing Tool Is INSANE!!!
HOLY COW!!... I just had one of the craziest internet marketing experiences I've had in a very long time...I just finished watching a couple of videos of what some of the visitors to one of my websites did while on my sales page. I'm talking about a full-blown video of how they scrolled, how the clicked, what they looked at, what they skipped, and where they spent most of their time on my web page!
It was as if there was a camera recording their screen and every move and action as they went through my website.
Talk about an incredible tool to analyze any webpage's effectiveness, right?
Funny thing is, I first heard about this analytics resource(clicktale.com) a couple of weeks ago when I was at a 2-day conference in Orlando about Google Analytics (hosted by ROI Revolution). But, I've been so busy since that event, I haven't had the chance to take a peek at clicktale.com. Until last night that is...
Once I saw what this incredible website analytics tool does and how it works (there's even a free version you can try), I immediately put it on one of my websites.
And, when I woke up this morning and logged into my ClickTale.com account, I was blown away!
I was actually watching videos of how prospects had gone through one of my webpages.
But, maybe you're wondering what value having videos like that would do for you and your Internet business.
Well, let me just tell you this...
Having, understanding, and using your website analytics to optimize your business (and, frankly, make ALL of your decisions about your web business) is CRUCIAL to your success online.
In fact, write this down and post it some place where you'll see it daily:
"I will never make decisions about my website or web business based on assumptions, opinions or guesses! I will make critical business-building decisions based on the numbers... the METRICS (analytics)!"
Now, for your overall analytics, I highly recommend Google Analytics. It's extremely comprehensive... well beyond what most internet marketers will ever need... and...it's FREE!
But, in addition, I would also recommend you begin using ClickTale.com. It not only shows you videos of what visitors are doing, but it also shows you heat maps of where visitors are clicking and where they're spending most of their time on your site.
Together, these 2 tools will provide you with some killer information about your webpages, copy, layout, navigation, etc.
For instance, now you can see if there's a certain type of testimonial visitors to your site are reading more than others. Once you know this, you can strive to get more testimonials similar to ones getting the most attention.
If you use more than one video on a webpage, you can see the order the videos are being watched, and even if one or more videos is being skipped altogether. This will tell you what order you should put the videos in on the webpage (in order of persuasive ability or priority) or if you should remove a video completely.
You can see if there are images on your webpage that people are trying to click on. If so, you may want to make those images clickable and have them open in another window with some critical copy.
If you use Google Adwords to drive traffic to your website you can see which keywords that are bringing you traffic (and costing you money in clicks) are actually leading to an opt-in and a sale. Maybe you have keywords right now that are getting clicked on like crazy (costing you money), but don't lead to an opt-in. Or, maybe they lead to an opt-in, but not a sale. In that case, why bother paying for the clicks and traffic. It's not productive. Yet, without examining our analytics we never know something like, continue to pay for that traffic, and continue to negatively impact our lead generation costs, customer acquisition costs, and profit margin.
And, certainly, you should be using your analytics to determine the true value of tests being performed on your website. For instance, let's say that you've done an A/B split-test on 2 separate landing pages to see which has a higher opt-in rate. And, let's suppose that page B produces a 30% opt-in rate, beating page A, which only had a 20% opt-in rate.
Well, without analytics, we only see a portion of the picture.
For the average marketer, they would immediately think to switch to page B. But, what if page B... the one with the higher opt-in rate... has a much lower "goal conversion" rate in terms of sales, than does page A. In other words, mayeb page by only leads to $1000 in sales, while page A... even with it's lower opt-in rate.... leads to $2000 in sales. Now which do you think you should be using?
Remember, if you have an ecommerce site, opt-ins are a means to an end. Not the end in and of themselves. So, what we're really after are more sales.
That's why we need analytics. That's also why I personally use Google Website Optimzer for all of our testing now. Because it works perfectly with Google Analytics, and it's free with your Google Adwords account (which is also free).
The point is, you absolutely, positively need to look at your analytics to make your decisions. And, by adding in a tool such as ClickTale.com, you can take your analytics and website analysis to a whole new level!
You can check out ClickTale by going to ClickTale.com.
(Note: I don't get paid anything for referring you to ClickTale.com. I'm not an affiliate, nor do I even know if they offer an affiliate program. Frankly, I wasn't even sure if I wanted to publically share this resource... that's how good I think it is. But, it was really just too good to keep to myself.) 
7-Letter Word That Should Determine Everything
Can you answer these 4 'savvy' Internet marketing questions...
1. Why do many savvy Internet marketers use lots of links in their email promotions?
2. Why do many savvy Internet marketers continually change their opt-in page?
3. How do savvy Internet marketers continually improve their results, ROI, website conversions, etc.?
4. What one thing do most savvy Internet marketers base ALL of their marketing decisions on?
The answer lies in one little 7-letter word.
And, it's a part of Internet marketing that most successful marketers take seriously while a majority of novices rarely even consider it.
Personally, I believe it's the one thing that truly separates the really successful marketers from the ones that never quite "figure it out".
So, what am I talking about?
Well, before I give you the answer, let me just give you a little word of warning:
As I'm writing this blog post, I'm sitting on the balcony of our suite up in Orlando over-looking acres and acres of undeveloped woods. It's a rarity in Florida, especially South Florida and the West Palm area, where I live. So I'm really soaking in the view.
I'm here for a little mini-vacation with my family; yesterday spent at a really interesting little "theme park" called the Holy Land Experience. No rides or anything, but a bunch of really neat presentations, archaeological artifacts, and some amazing replicas of areas in Israel.
Below are some pics:
This is a miniaturized display of Israel back in biblical times. You actually can't even see the whole display in this picture. It was that big!
This is supposedly a 1/3 model of the old temple that used to be in Jerusalem.
This was supposed to be what the tomb looked like that Jesus came out of in the Bible. Later, we actually went inside it. Pretty wild!
Here's my dad getting ready to go toe-to-toe with one of the actors there playing a Roman soldier. Dude was pretty intimidating.
Who's this yutz?! Yikes! I look like a Roman soldier from a Mel Brooks movie.
Anyway, what does my trip to the Holy Land Experience have to do with this blog post and the answer to the 4 questions above?
Not much really, other than just that my post and answer to those questions will be somewhat brief and to the point, so I can get back to the fam and my breakfast biscuit.
So, here goes:
The answer to each of the 4 questions above is...
TESTING!
In other words, savvy marketers understand and recognize that their opinion is worth very little when it comes to their on-going marketing.
The beauty of marketing... specifically direct-response... is that it's mathematical.
It's numbers-driven.
So, everything you do can and should be quantified.
And, ANY and EVERY change you make to ANYTHING you do should be tracked and measured.
This is how you continually improve your marketing.
Measure your results. Test something new against it. Measure those results. Compare the two. Continue with the one that got the better results. Then, start the process over with a new test. And so on, and so on, and so on.
For instance, how do you know if 3 links in your email promotions will get you better results than just having 2 links? You won't unless you test.
How will you know if the 21% opt-in rate you're getting right now on your opt-in page is the best you can do? Maybe with a headline change or graphic change or color change or formatting change you can increase that number to 31% - having a massive impact on your sales.
How will know if the current price you're charging for your product is the optimal price-point? You won't unless you test new prices. For all you know, increasing your price-point by 20% could actually increase your sales. How do you know unless you test?
Once you really grasp this idea of testing and tracking, you should realize that the only thing stopping you from continually improving your marketing and web results is just regularly testing new versions of what you're doing right now. That's it. Period.
And, until you no longer want to improve your marketing, results, business, etc., you should never stop testing. It's the on-going testing of your website elements (i.e. headline, offer, testimonials, guarantee, price, images, captions, etc.) that will allow you to continually get better and better and better.
If you're not testing regularly right now, here's what I would advise you to do:
Using Google Website Optimizer (free with an Adwords account) I would begin doing an A/B split test of your landing page and sales page every month.
Try a different headline on the opt-in page and a different price-point on the sales page.
At the end of the month, using the simple reporting feature in Google's Website Optimizer, analyze which version did better - the original opt-in or the new version, the original sales letter or the new version - then, going forward, make the winner the control that you test against.
Again, this process of on-going testing and tracking to continually find the best performing elements of your marketing and website is what will allow you take a site barely converting and turn it into a machine. Seriously. And, as I previously mentioned, EVERYTHING you do with your marketing should be driven and determined by the data and results you get from tests, not by opinion or feeling.
Which headline do you use? The one proven most effective by your testing and tracking.
Which price-point do you go with? The one proven most effective by your testing and tracking.
How many links do you use in your email promotions? The amount proven most effective by your testing and tracking.
Get the point?
The money is in the testing and tracking.
Talk to you soon.