1. PROSPECT
2. RAPPORT
3. QUALIFY
4. PRESENT
5. CLOSE

It’s also worth noting that these steps are not necessarily sequential as feedback should be taken from each to influence the others whilst moving towards the final objective which is the close. I also refer to this in the online arena as persuasive architecture as that is exactly what you are doing you are designing, building and structuring your website to PERSUADE a visitor to complete an action.

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Anybody with a business website will have objectives and goals. Ultimately you will want your visitors to either purchase, subscribe, register, refer, particpate, recall your brand, be loyal or something along those lines. You’ve got their attention as they’re already at your site but now you have to create the interest and desire to convert them into whatever you want them to be i.e. a customer or a sales lead for example.

Conversion is a complex, multi-faceted process whereby the design, content and structure of your website persuade prospects to take the action you want them to take. Your conversion rate is a measure of your ability to persuade your prospects to take that action. It is a measure of both your website’s effectiveness and the satisfaction of your customers.

Marketing plays an important role in attracting people to your website but it is important to remember that this is not sales, it may create the desire and pave the way to the sale but marketing alone will not close the sale for you. I’ve witnessed too many people see the solution to not achieving their goals as to simply spend more on their marketing and it is a complete waste of time and money. Instead they need to be addressing the conversion rate of the traffic they already get and improving on the sales process. So whilst it is important that your marketing and sales are in harmony it is also improtant to address them separately and not to confuse them as the same thing…

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A client approached me recently and asked me to get to the bottom of why they weren’t converting more of the visitors to their site into either enquiries or orders.

They have a healthy amount of visitors to the site but have a really low conversion rate. Infact they were only converting 0.63% of visitors into enquiries and only 0.07% into orders. In certain instances this might be considered acceptable say for example in blanket marketing or cold calling but not I thought when the analytics show that most vistors to the site were finding it organically through the search engines i.e. people were searching for my clients service but there was still a really low uptake. I thought initiallly that maybe there was a problem with the SEO keywords chosen, so I looked more closely at the bounce rate and the time spent on the site and in actual fact the bounce rate was low and the average time spent on the site was comfortably over 4 minutes which I thought quite acceptable.

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We’ve just finsihed adding the new range of Swimwear and Underwear to the B*boy website and we hope it’s just in time for the Summer!

William Baker has again collaborated with Stevie Stewart of Bodymap, with cutting edge pattern making and stunning bright colourways. The signature Graffiti style waistband features artist Trademark’s edgy graphics, while the signature Arrow Flash Contour Brief (£26.00) now comes in stylish contrasting colours such as white/ pink flash and black/ white flash. The new collection also features the practical yet sexy, Muscle Back Hoodie (£39.00).

BUY ONLINE NOW AT www.bboyunderwear.com

B*Boy Underwear and Swimwear also available now in Selfridges & Co., London, Prowler Stores, London, Birmingham and Brighton and the Male Sanctuary, Glasgow and Circa75, Sydney.

Over the recent Valentine’s Day period the Hatch team combined both our creative and technical expertise to deliver an email marketing campaign for Kuati.

The objective of this campaign was to create an increase in web traffic & sales; as well as maintaining a close relationship with their existing customers – all of which were achieved successfully.

Hatch achieved a 36% open rate and a 45% click through rate for the February 2008 email broadcast.

With the February 2008 broadcast coupled with the ‘Valentine’s Day Funny Stories’ competition launched on facebook, Hatch not only helped increase awareness of Kuati.com, but also their client database by 104%

So although our Marketing Director spent Valentine’s Day all alone; he still at least had something to smile about.

Valentine’s Day has come and gone. For some of us, love would have been in the air! While for others a time to despair.

To help numb the pain, or relive the occasion our friends over at Kuati have launched a competition on facebook called “Valentine’s Day Funny Stories“.

This competition is open to anybody who has so much as blown a kiss on Valentine’s Day past or present.

To enter all you have to do is join the group “Valentine’s Day Funny Stories” and simply tell us your best, worst or funniest experience on Valentine’s Day.

A panel of judges will select 2 winners (male & female) they will receive a luxurious gift courtesy of kuati.

Also!

Invite your friends to take part in this competition and if they win, you will win a luxury gift prize just for referring them.

So the more friends you invite the more chance you have of winning.

All entries must be in before 25th February 2008 and the winner will be announced in this group and contacted via facebook private message on 3rd March 2008.

Good Luck!!!