7 Tips for Using ‘Power’ Polls For Listbuilding

[From my Target Marketing blog post http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/blog/list-building-20-using-power-polls-for-prospecting]

Most people know Web 2.0 is simply the evolution of the Internet into an environment of interactivity, reader participation and usability. Web 2.0 opens up the dialog between user and website or blog. This connection can help generate traffic and a viral buzz.

But from a search engine marketing (SEM) standpoint, the benefits are clear and measurable: More traffic and frequent interactivity (or posts) equal better organic (free) rankings in search engine results. Getting good organic rankings is a powerful way to find qualified prospective customers.

So what online tactic encourages Web 2.0 principles as well as helps with search engine results page rank, visibility and listing-building efforts? Targeted online prospecting polls, also known as "acquisition" or "lead generation" polls.

Based on the specificity of your poll question, online acquisition polls can help you: collect relevant names and email addresses; gauge general market (or subscriber) sentiment; and generate sales (via a redirect to a synergistic promotional page). Polls also allow for interactivity, where participants can sound off about a hot topic.
I've been including strategic acquisition polls in my online marketing strategy for nearly a decade now and have rarely been disappointed with the results. Some websites, like surveymonkey.com, allow members to set up free or low-cost surveys and polls. However, it may not allow you to include a name-collection component or a redirect to a promotional or "thank you" webpage, which is essential for a success.
If that's the case, either ask your Webmaster to build you a proprietary poll platform or use a poll script. You can find examples at hotscripts.com, ballot-box.net/faq.php, and micropoll.com.
Here are seven ways to help create a winning prospecting poll campaign:
1. Engage. Your poll question should engage the reader, encourage participation, pique interest and tie into a current event. And be sure to have a "comments" field where people can make additional remarks. Sample topics: politics, the economy, health, consumer breakthroughs, the stock market, foreign affairs.

2. Relevance. Your poll question should also be related to your product, free e-newsletter editorial, or free bonus report (which can be used as incentive). This will greatly improve your conversion rate. Let's say your free offer is a sign-up to a stock market e-newsletter and the upsell is a redirect landing page promotion to a paid gold investment newsletter for $39/yr. In that case, your poll question should be tied with the editorial copy and product, something like "Where is gold headed in 2013?" Investors who favor gold (your target audience), will respond to this question … and engage. You are gaining these qualified prospects as leads and perhaps buying customers.

3. Incentive. After people take your poll, tell them that to thank them for their participation, you're automatically signing them up for your quality, free e-newsletter or e-alerts … which they can opt out of at any time. To reduce the number of bogus email addresses you get, offer an extra incentive free "must-read" report, too. And assuming it's your policy not to sell or rent email names to third parties (and it should be, based on email best practices), indicate your privacy/anti-spam policy next to the sign-up button on your email sign up form. This will immediately reassure people that it's safe and worry-free to give you their email addresses.

4. Flag. Having your poll question somehow tie into your product makes the names you collect extremely qualified for future offers. Each name should be flagged by your database folks according to the answer they gave by topic category. You can create buckets for each product segment. Using our investing e-newsletter example, categories could be gold, oil, income, equities, etc. Segmenting the names into such categories will make it easier for you to send targeted offers later.

5. Results.  Use the poll feedback for new initiatives. In addition to collecting names, online polls will help you gauge general market opinion—and could help you come up with new products.

6. Bonding. Strengthen your new relationships. You need to reinforce the connection between the poll people just participated in and your e-newsletter. So make sure each name that comes in gets an immediate "thank you" for taking the poll. This could be via autoresponder or redirect "thank you" page. On your "thank you" page/email, can be a link for the downloadable, free e-report you promised. Consider sending a series of informational, warm and fuzzy editorial autoresponders to help new subscribers get to know who you are, what you do and how your e-newsletter will benefit them. This will help improve their lifetime customer value.

7. Results. Gratify participants with the results. Don't just leave poll participants hanging. Make sure you tell them the results will be published in your free e-newsletter or on your website (to encourage them to check it regularly), and then upload the results, as well as some of your best, most engaging comments. This is great editorial fodder, as well as helpful to increasing website readership and traffic.

Marketers have used polls internally (on their own company websites) for years. But now more than ever, with its cost effectiveness and efficiency, polls can be used to collect targeted leads and interact with prospects.

Polls aren't just for finding leads, either. They are also great for measuring market sentiment, doing competitor analysis and new product development; which, in turn, can help customer retention, customer service and sales.

Maximizing and Monetizing Your Mobile Marketing Efforts

A recent study by Google showed that 72% of consumers surveyed said want mobile-friendly site. And if you’re site isn’t one of them you may be losing leads and sales.

The fact that we’re a nation that is on-the-go and pretty much living on our smart phones or tablets means that you’re website should be adapted to these mediums to help monetize your business.

It also means that thinking about mobile marketing and how to incorporate various forms of that into your marketing strategy should be high on your list for 2013.

Mobile Friendly Must Haves

There are certain ‘must haves’ that consumers noted they are looking for in a mobile friendly website.
Such features include:

1.  Being fast.  This means having a site that loads in around 5 seconds or less.
2.  Being user friendly. Having large buttons, easy search capabilities, limited scrolling or pinching are key, based on consumer feedback.  Something to consider is having responsive templates that adjust accordingly based on the users device, albeit template, desktop or mobile phone. It’s also important to have quick access to company information such as easy-to-find business directions, contact numbers, product and purchasing information.  Even better, consider adding a ‘click to call’ access button to contact a customer service rep to take an order via the phone as well as an option for users to visit a non-mobile site.
3.  Being social.  To continue bonding and viral marketing, don’t forget links to your business’s social media profile page.
If you’re a smaller business that may not have the staff or resources to include these features into your website, there are some free and trial mobile conversion websites worth checking out, these include: http://www.ginwiz.com, http://www.dudamobile.com/ , http://www.mobilizetoday.com.

The App Attack

If you’re pondering if your business ‘app worthy’ or how you can leverage apps for additional sales or leads, here’s some food for thought…
Paid apps could be a great way to add ancillary revenues to your business and free apps could be used for collecting important data (leads) which can be used for cross-selling. Some businesses even obtain revenues through ads that are built in the app from sponsorship partners.
Whichever business model you choice, you still have to decide what you’re app will feature.  Typically, content is king.  For instance if you’re a financial publisher, you may consider having an app that has stocks alerts and ideas, technical analysis, commentary and actionable data that your end user (investors ) would find beneficial. Know your audience and decide what kind of content is ‘app worthy’.

Then of course you need to market and distribute your app for increased visibility. You can promote your app though affiliate and joint venture emails, press releases, content marketing, online classifieds, and guerilla marketing in related forums and message boards. You can also include your app in various marketplaces including Play/Apps Store (Droid and iPhone), Blackberry Appworld, Apple Apps Store/iTunes, and Amazon Appstore for Android.

Of course, fees and commissions vary, but some are more cost-effective than you think. Here’s a great article with more information. I also found a free service worth checking out called Freeappalert.com as an alternate distribution channel for your app.

QR Codes

You’ve seen ‘em, those little square bar codes on just about everything these days.  But not everyone is using them properly and not ever business needs them.  QR codes, used the right way, can be a great way to take offline marketing leads online. For instance, consider putting these little guys on your business cards, collateral material, fulfillment kits, promotional flyers, press kits, brochures and other printed materials. Why?  It’s a way for a consumer to ‘scan’ the barcode and be redirected to your sign up/‘squeeze page’ or promotional webpage to provide further information, and more importantly, collect valuable data on them so you can follow up accordingly.

SMS Texting

Recent studies show that 97% of text messages are read within minutes of receiving them. SMS text message marketing allows you to communicate directly to your target market by sending a simple, quick text message. This permission-based program is perfect because your recipients have opted-in to receive your messages. If you choose SMS texting for either bonding (editorial) or marketing (promotions), in addition to your standard anti-spam and privacy policy verbiage, make sure on your sign up form it’s clearly stated that subscribers who elect to be contacted this way they will receive important messages and special offers from the publisher and select third-party partners as well as may be subject to text messaging fees from the phone carrier. This article shows a good example of a text message disclaimer.

In my experience, this medium has been most effective with premium type services where members rely on critical real-time alerts from the publisher that are pure editorial. The marketing aspect is ancillary.

So if you’re looking to be a leader in your industry and not a laggard, it pays to conduct some ‘due diligence’ on your website and think about which mobile marketing strategies may be right for your biz and audience.  With our social and communications landscape always changing, staying abreast of the latest tools, trends and is imperative for businesses to survive and thrive.

Monetize Your Great Content In 2013!

Dozens of top publishers, marketers, business owners, and entrepreneurs are already using  my SONAR Content Distribution ModelTM to earn amazing ROI from content they already have. You can, too--even if you've never done Internet marketing before! Content Is Cash shows you how to systematically integrate and synchronize today's best web marketing techniques to drive more traffic, visibility, buzz, leads, and sales for your business. It's not theory. It's a proven, cost-effective and real-world strategy allowing anyone with content to turn traffic into profits...and the results are quantifiable!

What makes the SONAR Content Distribution ModelTM different from other online marketing strategies?

SONAR focuses on maximizing original, high-quality, and 'UVA' (useful, valuable and actionable) content then targets the dissemination of the content on the Web by audience (via manual research and selection) in relevant, synergistic locations.

The SONAR 'system' is successful because it leverages organic/free online channels (no additional advertising or PPC fees), it's comprehensive (using content marketing, social marketing, online PR, and more!) - and most importantly - it's timeless.

In other words, when done correctly SONAR is not applicable to search engine updates, such as Farmer/Panda, and the most recent, Penguin -- all of which ultimately go after spammy websites as well as irrelevant, low-quality content and links.  SONAR works with the search engines, not against them.

With SONAR, content quality and relevance is key!

What's your content marketing strategy for 2013?

To learn more please visit http://www.amazon.com/Content-Cash-Leveraging-Increased-Biz-Tech/dp/0789741083/ or http://www.quepublishing.com/store/content-is-cash-leveraging-great-content-and-the-web-9780789741080.

Win A FREE Copy Of Former Amazon #1 Web Marketing book, Content Is Cash!

Are you looking to leverage your quality content to drive traffic and create visibility for your website?

You're in luck.  You can get be eligible to win a FREE hard copy of my bestselling book,Content is Cash: Leveraging Great Content and the Web for Increased Traffic, Sales, Leads and Buzz (Que Biz-Tech, Paperback, Aug. 2011) - a $25 value! -   and start turning your business around before 2012 ends!


From 3pm EST Friday Nov. 2 until 3pm EST Friday Nov. 9, if you "Like" my book's Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Content-Is-Cash/262572457102646, your name will be eligible for a drawing on Sat. Nov. 10,2012=.

All names will be randomly drawn. The winner will be notified on Sat. Nov. 10 via Facebook direct message. There is no obligation.

Make sure you spread to word.  Share the information with anyone who has a website and wants to get more exposure for that site -- marketers, entrepreneurs, business owners, solopreneurs,  freelancers, consultants, professionals and more!

For more information about Content Is Cash, visit http://www.amazon.com/Content-Cash-Leveraging-Increased-Biz-Tech/dp/0789741083/ or http://www.quepublishing.com/store/content-is-cash-leveraging-great-content-and-the-web-9780789741080

Good luck!

Link Prunning: Best Practice or 'Penguin' Consequence?

Since Google's latest update, Penguin, targets low quality, irrelevant, spammy websites and links (which we'll call 'bad links'), it's prudent to check your own website's back-links to ensure those who are linking to your are relevant and synergistic to your own site's content.

To do this you can use several free back-link checkers, such as http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/, http://www.backlinkwatch.com/, or
http://www.iwebtool.com/backlink_checker .  

Then, go down the list and see who's linking to you. This may be laborious, but well worth it. Especially if you noticed your traffic and SERP presence drop in the last few weeks, you may have speculated that Penguin is to blame.

Next, it's literally a manual process of visiting the 'bad link's' website and contacting them to remove the link going to your site. If there's several 'bad links',  it's best to create a form letter. According to searchenginewatch.com, the letter  should state that you are a website owner trying to recover from a Google penalty and would like the following links removed. Then, list the URLs where the links can be found, the URL on your site they point to, the anchor text ─ all the info needed to easily find the link you're requesting removed.

Sometimes, it's easy to find contact information of 'bad links', you simply visit the
site and can find email or similar information in the footer or 'Contact Us' area of the website.

Other times it's harder, and you may need to engage in some free tools to help determine a 'bad link's' website owner. According to searchenginewatch.com, such tools are:

-Domaintools.com: If you want to find out who owns the site your link is on, visit domain tools or type "whois.sc" in front of a URL.

-C-Class Checker: If you have a list of all the links you want to get rid of, you can run them through a bulk C-class checker to see how many of them are on the same C-class.

-SpyonWeb: If you only have 1 URL to work with, this tool lets you find out what other domains they are associated with. Just put in a website URL, IP address or even the Google analytics or AdSense code and you can find all of the websites that are connected to it.Keep a record of all efforts to contact 'bad links', as it will show Google you've been making a good effort to get rid of these irrelevant links.

If you find that Google's Panda & Penguin updates have affected your website and you believe there may have been an error of some sort, there is a form on Google you can fill out to pinpoint search terms that you believe you shouldn't be penalized for: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEVxdmdRWFJRTjRoLWZVTHZkaTBQbkE6MQ&ndplr=1   

Brand Building Basics: How to increase your biz's reach and visibility for pennies

When you’re launching a business it’s important to build your brand. But what does that really mean?

Your brand is your business – it should convey your USP – unique selling proposition.  It’s what makes your business unique, recognizable, and accepted in the marketplace.

And despite what many think, building a brand doesn’t take a lot of money.  If you’re a small business and have little to no budget, there are some creatively strategic ways to set yourself apart from the pack, establish your brand as well as increase visibility, bonding and sales.

Here’s some food for thought…

Name and Image. Make sure your name clearly reflects what you do. Especially with the Internet, business names are incorporated into your domain (or URL), so a name that is synergistic to what your business actually does and is keyword rich will help with search engine marketing. Your name should also be easy to understand not using obscure words, lay jargon or nomenclatures.  There’s nothing worse than a business name that is not search engine or user friendly.  If you chose to pick a ‘creatively challenging’ name, make sure from a search and human reader perspective, that your tag line, opening home page copy and meta data all reflect clearly what you do and your related keywords. Lastly, your name should have a long shelf life.

This just means it shouldn’t be tied to a specific point in time that will ‘date’ it or make it seem obsolete. 

Your image or logo should also clearly portray who you are in a symbol or graphic. It should be eye-catching and be on most every marketing you have – website, email auto signature, letterhead, PowerPoint slides, business cards, etc.

Branding tip!  When it comes to banner advertising, aside from your primary mission of the campaign, which may be for leads or sales, it’s a good idea to have your name and logo somewhere on the banner ad itself (perhaps lower right corner) for a secondary goal of branding. Your banner is going to be rotating on many websites and in networks getting perhaps hundreds of thousands of eyeballs … that exposure shouldn’t be wasted. 

Recognition. You want to place your name, logo, tag line and other information about your biz in front of your target audience.  This means placing content (editorial material) and promotional material in places where your audience congregates.

Branding tip!  Have a cost effective multi-channel marketing plan.  Do your research, surf the web and note the websites, forums, and other locations your target audience frequents. Then, depending on each location, when applicable, upload banner ads (with your logo), relevant content, video snippets, and articles that reflect your company in a snapshot.  For offline locations, again, go to specific locations where your ideal prospect would visit, then post hardcopy marketing pieces.  This is old school, grassroots marketing, but it works for local branding and even is good for business development with local businesses. The marketing could be in the form of posters, tri-folds, business cards, and hand outs.  Direct mail is another great venue that doesn’t have to be expensive. Your most expensive items will be your list rental costs and postage.  You can reduce list rental by refining your list to ‘selects’ based on zip code(s)  and your postage costs can be reduced if you pick something simple like a 6x9 postcard mailer.

Loyalty. Leverage social media. This may take a little time for word of mouth to spread, but if you talk to your audience, not at them, viral marketing start to happen. Encourage friends, followers and fans to forward to friends and share news.  Post exciting pictures. Engage with readers.  Incent and reward your audience with special ‘social marketing’ only offers.  Ask for comments and interact.  This may seem like a waste of time but engaging with your prospects, and building and cultivating the relationship creates bonding and brand loyalty. It basically turns strangers into friends, friends into customers, customers into multi-buyers, and multi-buyers into advocates.  And soon your advocates will be marketing your brand for you (for free!). 

Buzz. It’s important when building your brand to cast a wide net and increase market visibility and 

exposure.  Free press releases are a great way to complement your initiatives. You can create a schedule for continuity and presence, to have a free press release go out two times a month.  These releases should be newsworthy and have useful information.  They should also be keyword rich (which will help drive targeted traffic back to your website) and link back to the longer release on your website (i.e. Press Room). Some free press release services I like are PRlog.org and Free-press-release.com.  For breakthrough news or company milestones, you may want to compliment your free release with a paid release.  There are many online press release distribution companies that have cost-effective rates.  Some that I like are PRweb.com and PRbuzz.com. 

Branding tip!  Don’t’ forget to upload excerpts (headline/synopsis) of your release to social marketing and bookmarking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Stumble Upon, and more linking back to your ‘Press Room’ for added distribution and encourage website visits.

Quality. Your brand isn’t worth anything if your product or service isn’t of high-quality.  Make sure you offer a good, solid product or service. Do your surveillance, see what’s going on in the market place with your competitors – with product, pricing, customer service, guarantees – and be a leader, not laggard. Unfortunately, good reviews don’t spread as fast as bad ones, so make sure to deal with displeased customers promptly and swiftly offer to do them right by a ‘comp’ or other gesture of goodwill. Do periodic, brief, customer surveys. These should be short (10 questions or less), easy (online) and have incentive for participation (i.e. freebie).  The data obtained from surveys are invaluable for customer service, product development and more.

Branding tip!  Encourage customers to share their success stories.  Solicit for customer testimonials and feedback. There’s nothing more powerful than a great testimonial and customer advocates touting your business. With your customers’ permission, you can republish these on your website and other marketing material.

Website.  Make sure your website is conducive for branding (amongst other business goals).  As mentioned above, have an area for customer testimonials. Also, have visual and contextual features that reinforce your brand. For example, on the top of your home page have your name, logo, slogan or tag line.  Include a personal welcome message to your visitors.  Even better, if you have a spokesperson, figure head or guru that is part of your  ‘brand’, include a picture of that person so visitors can connect a name with a face. If your brand is specific to a product, like a publication (book, newsletter, magazine), have a thumbnail image of that publication on your home page to make it more recognizable in the marketplace.

Branding tip!  Have a social media/bookmarking icon or ‘favicon’. Create a social bookmarking and website bookmarking icon so visitors can quickly, visually and easily identify your business in their list other bookmarked sites.  A favicon is similar as a bookmark icon, but a favicon also appears in the website browser window.   For example, if you go to MSN.com, you’ll see their favicon (multicolored butterfly) next to their URL address in the browser window.  Your icon should encapsulate your business and standout. Use color, font and symbols to your advantage.  For more information on creating a bookmarking icon, read this. 

Building a brand doesn’t happen overnight. You’ll need patience.  And there may be some trial and error along the way.  Depending on your niche, you may even be competing with others that have a strong foothold in the market.  But hopefully these tips will help give your brand a boost.

Boost Website Sales: 11 ‘Must Know’ eComm Tips

Once you’ve launched your website, optimized it and starting driving traffic is only half the battle.  Now you got to ensure your visitors covert, that is, buy something.

This is a challenge that most every website that sells a product faces. The following are some tried and true tactics, that over the years, I’ve seen make a difference.  Some may seem simplistic, but they DO most definitely impact your online conversion rate. 

Here are a few things you could do to boost online sales and gain loyal customers. These can be applied and refined for most any business, industry or niche:

1. Instill Shopper Confidence: Make Sure Your SSL Seal And Other Consumer-Trust Logos Are Prominent. SSL or secure socket layer is a sign that the site is encrypted...that the information consumers enter, such as personal and credit card information, is protected. Most eCommerce sites must file for an SSL certificate from vendors such as VeriSign, GoDaddy, eTrust, TRUSTe, and others. It's a good practice to display the vendors logo on your order page, as well as make sure in the browser window the "https" or image of a lock is present. This is a clear and comforting sign to consumers that they can order on line with confidence. Other logos that are in plain view and are anchors on each page of your website can also instill confidence with potential buyers, some may require membership or purchase, when applicable, and may include Better Business Bureau (“BBB”), PayPal Verified, Authorize.net Verified Merchant, and virus protection software (i.e. “McAfee Secure”). Also, if you accept credit cards and have a money back guarantee, there’s nothing more powerful than strong, eye-catching graphic image icons, such as “100% Money Back Guarantee” or “We Accept All Major Credit Cards” (than have images of Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover).

2. Encourage Online Sales vs. Other Response Mechanisms. Offer special "Internet Only Pricing" to customers. It could be a discount of 5-10% if they order online versus by phone, fax or mail. This reduces any potential overhead costs for staffing fees such as telesales or order entry personnel. These web only specials can be highlighted on your home page via a banner ad as well as on your product pages near qualified items.

3. Offer Free Shipping. Many eTailers already factor all or a portion of shipping into the retail price of an item as part of their COGS (cost of goods sold). If you are truly offering free shipping, already factored shipping into the product’s cost, or are simply having a limited time free shipping special– if you’re offering it, mention it – big and bold on your home page. Free shipping offers have a huge psychological affect on consumers when they’re comparing competitor’s products and websites. In addition to product quality and value, offering free shipping can make all the difference regarding the final purchase decision.

4. Take Advantage of Customer Feedback. Have an area on your website or indicate next to select items "Customer Favorite" or "Hot Item".  Also, have some glowing customer testimonials or reviews next to the product itself for potential prospects to see. Sites like Amazon, BabiesRUs and others are pros at this strategy as well as using ratings and ‘Likes’ to convey a product’s popularity.  Consumers like to feel good about the item they are about to purchase as well as see that it’s popularity with the masses. Seeing a great testimonial and knowing that others purchased the product provides validation and a feeling of comfort to a consumer. In addition to helping the conversion rate, this tactic also helps reduce buyer's remorse and product returns.

5. Free Advertising in Google Shopping (formerly Google Product Search, and before that, Froogle). http://www.google.com/shopping is a free product information platform from Google where you can post a single item or submit a data feed. Your products will appear in Google Product search and may also appear in Google.com search results, depending on keywords used. This is simple and easy and increase your product’s visibility and market share.

6. Optimized Product and Catalog Pages. Sounds obvious, but many folks overlook their catalog and product pages. After doing some keyword research on actual search behavior for your product, refine your meta description, meta keywords and title tag of your product pages. This will help consumers find your product in the organic listing of search engine results.

7. Leverage ‘Special Coupon’ Home Page Banners. This is a best practice with online fashion retailers who typically have a banner ad or interstitial ad on their home page stating something like, "Summer Blow Out Sale, Use Coupon Code 1234". But this concept can be applied to virtually any industry. This is another great way to offer a special discount for your online customers that makes them feel good about the purchase. You can also encourage viral activity by having "forward to friend" or “share” creates viral marketing. Make sure to have some great intro copy mentioning how customers should "pass on the great savings to friends, family, and colleagues."

8. Spread Payments Out. For higher ticket items, consider setting up extended payment plans that allow customers to pay for an item over a few payments. HSN.com and QVC.com have mastered this. If an item is let's say, $200, you might want to offer a flex pay option of "6 easy payments of $33.33" that is conveniently auto-billed to their credit card. Just be diligent when calculating your payment prices as well as creating your return/refund policy for these items. The general rule is that your actual production costs/hard costs should be covered in the first 1-3 payments.

9. Great Product Images.  Having real, high quality photos of your product is imperative.  Make sure to give the consumer the ability to zoom in or see the product from multiple angles. If it’s an info product, such as a report or book, have an accurate representation of the product and not a misleading one. If it’s a kit with many components, make sure all items are fanned out so the consumer can see everything they’re getting, which helps with the perceived value.

These next two have mixed reviews. Over the last 10+ years, I’ve personally had success with these, but I’ve seen other articles on the Web to the contrary.  Like any tactic, how you implement it is critical. Also, anything you implement should be looked at as a test.  Try it for yourself and see if it’s helpful for your particular consumer…

10. Rescue and Abandon Efforts. When a customer is in your shopping cart and decides somewhere in the process to exit out, what do you do to save this sale? This is known as an ‘abandon’ or ‘cart abandonment’. A popular technique known as a ‘rescue’ is an attempt to engage with the customer and hopefully save the sale. But this should be done with finesse and not come off as harassing or spammy to the consumer.  Typically, a small pop up or message will appear in a new window. This message can vary based on your operational capabilities – some sites offer a ‘live’ online customer service agent to ‘chat’ with, others may divert the consumer to call the customer service 800#. Sometimes it’s just a message making sure the consumer really wants to exit out (and it wasn’t an accident), giving them a ‘last chance’ to purchase the item. Either way, the essence of this message should be helpful and offering assistance.  There should also be a clear and easy way to close or “X” out of this message and it should certainly not open up any new windows. 

11. Interstitals.  An interstitial is a popup or full page ad that appears before (overlays) your actual webpage. Typically, it appears once for each unique visitor (although it can be programmed for each visit, versus unique visit) and it should be easy to close. These are best used for a new, hot item or product special. It should have short, compelling copy and an attractive offer, and eye-catching visual. This is a great way to steer focus to a specific product or offer on your website.  When done correctly, I’ve seen interstitials increase conversion rates by about 50%.

It’s all about being strategically creative and taking the consumer’s point of view into account regarding eComm strategies. Remember to keep testing methods that help improve sales and drive prospects to your storefront. 

Make note of when you implement new tactics and then after a month of being live, compare sales results year-over-year to see if your efforts had made an improvement. I'm confident that you will see a positive difference in your online conversion rates.