Gillian Muesigg – CEO of SEOmoz is up now to talk about checkout process optimization.

[Editor note – I probably got more out of this session than any other at SMX Sydney 2010. Gillian is a dynamic speaker and her industry knowledge makes you question how your existing online sales procedures EVER worked before you heard her speak].

Landing pages. Don’t focus on what doesn’t work, focus on what DOES work. For example – if your child gets 4 A’s and a D on their report card. Don’t focus on the D, look at how they achieved the A’s.

Look at the big boy’s sites e.g. Amazon. They’re getting it right. Copy them.

Successful landing pages use Black or Red. Those are the colors we see first. We don’t read green, blue, or yellow. Humans see baby’s faces, then other faces, then other items. Use human images, people respond better.

Showed eBay page – focus is on price and time left in auction and buy it now. Images of the product! Make it clickable so you can see the product in detail. Buy It NOW works much better than Buy It.  Use Red with White because red with black can be seen as same color by those who are colorblind.

Clarity

– Bookstore or library
– What do you want me to do?
– When?
– Where?
– How often?

Send me to the checkout NOW says Gillian. I’m in a hurry. Dog needs walking, Kids are crying. I just wanna buy and get out. Help me do this.

Ask for the MINIMAL amount of information possible.

Gillian showed the SEOmoz landing page that scrolls FOREVER. They hate it, but it works. The long sales page CAN work. Company who developed this was Conversion Rate Experts.

Add a countdown to make it seem like a limited offer.

Separate your traffic.

Give people the ability to save their session in case they’re not quite ready to buy right now.

Email me if…. very powerful. Gives you rights to spam….er… CONTACT the customer later.

Use Game Dynamics – e.g. free shipping if you purchase more than one item.

30 day return policy is ok BUT 60 day return policy means 30% less returns!!

Get it Once – make it easy as possible for people. Get their info so when they return you have their data.

hiconversion.net – small data sets

Gillian mentioned Conversion Rate Experts (Stephen Pavlovich). [These are the guys who optimized the SEOmoz Pro landing page so successfully].

PERMIT people to visit your home page from your landing page, but don’t ENCOURAGE it.

Make the contact details easy to find. Make the HELP button easy to find.

Make people feel they are in control of the shipping and handling – reduces their risk and increases their trust.

* photo of Gillian from SMX Singapore courtesy of SearchMarketingGurus.com