The Marketing of Shipping

November 20th, 2007

I was listening to and studying the notes from MarketingExperiments.com’s study on shipping and shipping charges for online retailers. Here is a quick review:

Three Shipping Tactics

Tactic 1 – Low Prices / High Shipping
-Risk losing repeat customers
Tactic 2 – Average Prices w/ Free Shipping
-Customers first evaluate on price, then check on shipping
-Offer a Rush Order Upgrade Where it Ships Out That Day, No Extra Cost But Added Benefit
Tactic 3 – Free Shipping as an Incentive

Four Guidelines

1) Do not set threshold price too high
2) Do not set threshold price lower than average order price
3) Make sure customers are 100% aware of free shipping offer
4) Use a clearance item are to help customer reach free shipping threshold

In Action

I wanted to see these principles in action so I did a quick Google search for free shipping offers and found a few that we’re interesting to think about with these principles in mind.

ETOYS.COM – Minimum order of $99 required for free shipping, with most items being priced from $10-$30 it would require multiple items to be purchased and it would be hard to hit $99 right on the nose. But, $99 doesn’t feel very far out of reach when thinking about toys so I would imagine it would be a good incentive.

BACKCOUNTRY.COM – I love backcountry.com and noticed on this visit the “free shipping on orders over $50″ link in the upper right hand corner. If you know this site, you will know that most products cost at least $100, but I think the products this $50 threshold are geared towards are the smaller things like nalgene bottles, t-shirts, and beanies where normally that would just be a one item purchase, but the free shipping offer may encourage customers to order two or three to get the free offer.

ABEBOOKS.COM – They offer free shipping on almost everything in their store! As I thought about this one my guess is its all about their competition. Books are books, no matter where you buy them from and it is fairly easy to head down to Border’s and snag something. Shipping is also very inexpensive for books, if you can give them the added convenience of shopping from home without having to pay for the shipping then the appeal of online book shopping would increase.

MEC Labs – Shipping Charges Tested

Making it Easier on “Joe Visitor”

November 13th, 2007

A fast loading page that is quick and easy to navigate works wonders when it comes to conversion rate and visitor engagement in the site. About a month ago we were in the preliminary stages of redesigning a website for the company spend about 10 hours a week with, Hawkeye Technology Inc,. They came up with the design but needed help writing sales copy, creating some images, and improving the overall layout and usability of the site. They sell two pieces of software, this is the landing page one. What are the first things you notice when you see this screen shot?

The five things I noticed were:

1) No Headline
2) 10 Options Down The Side
3) 8 Options Across the Top
4) Drab Colors
5) No Call to Action

So, I looked through the site and studied the content, looking for ways to simplify their page. The first thing I noticed was that they had a “pricing” and a “purchase” page, the prices were listed on the purchase page but you could place an order from the pricing page. Next, I found that three of the pages were really features of the program and could be easily included in the features page.

I realized that if “Joe Visitor” wanted to check out some features, read a few reviews, and download a demo or make a purchase he would have to click on as many as 10-12 links! In the end we were able to break it down to 6 total pages for each software.

1) Main Landing Page
2) Features
3) Reviews
4) Support
5) Demo
6) Order

Here is a screenshot of the new layout (which I will discuss in a bit when that is all finalized) with the new, condensed navigational links area.

Now, if Joe wants to see some features, read some reviews, and then download a demo it takes three clicks. Joe is happy, we are happy…life is good.

DESIGN PROJECT – Lori G Bird

November 7th, 2007

I was recently approached by Lori G Bird, a professional genealogist specializing in danish family history. Lori is a stay at home mom that was wanting to sell her genealogical skills as a service to add a small secondary income for her family. This is what we came up with.

The Design
I decided to keep it as simple as possible, we put all the info on one page, and simply had a “buy now” button at the bottom accompanied by a form on the following page that got all the information someone may need that came to the site. After testing we changed it to a simple form that asked them how she could help fill their needs; a sort of free consultation. Here is a screen shot of the final design:

The Plan
She had very little real competition for the search phrase “danish genealogy” which after some keyword research seemed to be the most popular keyword string. The site was optimized for “danish genealogy” and we purchased the domain name “danish-genealogy.com” to add in the efforts.

The Results
A month later, Lori is getting an average of 2 new clients a week at an Adwords cost of about $5-$6 a month. With little off-site SEO her site has a Google ranking of #20 for “danish-genealogy” (check it now). She has gained a total of 6 clients from a total visitor count of 121 giving the site a conversion rate of just over 5.0%. This could probably be improved but Lori is content with the$100-$200 a week she is making in her spare time. Visit www.danish-genealogy.com for more info.

MEC LABS – Continuity and Congruence

October 24th, 2007

MarketingExpriments.com had another one of their free teleseminar’s today on two subjects as a follow up from their “site flow disruption” episode. Continuity and Congruence are aspects that, the more I think about it, are missing from many of the pages I have designed. For the most part it exists because naturally our minds tend to organize things in a continuous line, but rarely have I stepped back and thought about how the rest of a page ties into the value proposition from my CUSTOMERS perspective.

I recently did a google search for “road bike derailleurs” and clicked on an Adwords ad with the title “Buy Top Bike Derailleurs.” The landing page showed helmets and headlamps; I clicked “back” and tried the next link. Why? Because the link said one thing and the landing page said another.

I later searched for a free web design course and found this site mikeoconnor.biz after clicking on an Adwords ad. Here is the screenshot:

MikeOConnor

The link that I clicked on said “free website income.” Instantly, this extreme example of lack of continuity and congruence illustrated the effects of not following these principles. So, I clicked on a link that said, “free website income – get a free website and make money full or part time” the header of the page I land on reads “sports and recreation,” the header of the first paragraph is simply the web address which has a very stock paragraph on making money, then a banner ad, and then three links to different ebooks about SEO and online marketing.

I am getting four completely different messages; get a free website, I like sports, leave my site via this banner ad, look at these ebooks on making money. How effective is this site? I hope that Mike is not paying a high CPC for his Google ads because I anyone that came to this site would get instantly lost and probably click “back” and try the next site.

DESIGN PROJECT – Backstrom Events

October 5th, 2007

Backstrom Events is based in Colorado Spring, CO and needed an update to their current “homemade” website as they looked to expand their services into Utah. Let’s first take a look at their old site.

Backstrom Events Before

As you can see, the page had a basic left-column layout with the logo in the top right, Denielle’s (the owner’s) picture in the top left and lots of white space and standard text. Backed by two talented designers and planners, they needed a look that matched their skill and image.

Working with Laurel Farrer, we created a design that we converted to HTML, tweaked to increase the usability of the site(we deleted two pages they were thinking of and combined them with other pages to simplify and streamline the visitors experience), and created a second site with a different header image to differentiate between the Utah and Colorado services offered and their prices. Heres what we came up with:

Backstrom Events After

They chose the color scheme and tag line and I guided them through to rest to make sure their site was usable, simple to navigate, and tried to quickly make the visitor aware of and excited about the services they offered. See the finished site at www.backstromevents.com.

The Marketing of Shipping

Making it Easier on “Joe Visitor”

DESIGN PROJECT – Lori G Bird

MEC LABS – Continuity and Congruence

DESIGN PROJECT – Backstrom Events

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