The simplest online “technology” of all
There are so many ways to optimize your website and your sales message, it makes your head spin.
There are all manner of split testing programs, like Google site optimizer. There are ultra-sophisticated methods that optimize dozens of elements at a time, like Taguchi.
There are market research systems like Glenn Livingston’s. Surveys via opt-in forms or dedicated web pages.
There are programs like CrazyEgg and ClickTale, that make heat maps of your pages and show what people are clicking on, or even what images their mouse is hovering over.
There are heat maps made from peoples’ eye movements.
There’s Google Analytics, telling you how long people stayed on each page and the most common paths through the site.
All of these are very fine.
But there is a simpler way to find out not only what people are doing right this moment on your website, but ALSO find out exactly what they are thinking while they do it.
If you master the art of it, it becomes almost psychic.
It is deceptively, deceptively simple.
It’s live chat.
Now…. live chat is sort of like, for example, remote control airplanes. In that, any six year old kid can buy a cheap one at Toys R Us and sort-of kind-of learn to fly it.
But that six year old kid has no clue what kind of powerful art form those airplanes become in the hands of capable practitioners. Turns out those airplanes are not a boy’s toy, but a man’s fascination.
With skill and practice, it’s truly amazing what can be accomplished.
So it is with live chat. Ari Galper, who is the most non-technical person you’ll ever meet, went through my Bobsled Run 4 years ago. When he started his site was selling $5000/month. 10 months later he was up to $100,000/month.
He didn’t do split testing. He didn’t do Taguchi. He didn’t do surveys. He didn’t do Site Optimizer or Analytics.
He just conversed with the people who visited his site. He figured out a way to get them to respond to his chat box when it appeared and discovered how to get the conversation to continue.
He found every hole in his sales funnel and plugged it.
You can do the same.
But like I said, it’s an art that’s much more subtle than people realize.
Just having a chat box on your website doesn’t cut it.
Also, there’s an additional advantage:
Low-cost employees can master this art as well. Stay at home moms who just want to make $15/hour without leaving the house can dramatically increase the sales on your website.
I’d like to invite you to explore Ari’s world by going to www.AriChatwise.com and watching the free videos.
Delight in the simplicity…. be impressed by the effectiveness…. consider what holes you can plug on your website with this simple, super-effective art form.
Perry Marshall
About the Author
Entrepreneur Magazine says: "Perry Marshall is the #1 author and world's most-quoted consultant on Google Advertising. He has helped over 100,000 advertisers save literally billions of dollars in Adwords stupidity tax."
He is referenced across the Internet and by The Washington Post, USA Today, and the Chicago Tribune.
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I think readers will also find more of these tools useful.
http://www.mequoda.com/articles/website-traffic/web-20-expo-notes-a-mostly-free-seo-toolbox/
2. http://www.mequoda.com/articles/usability-testing/5-heat-map-tracking-tools-to-watch-what-your-visitors-do/
Just thought I share with you all.
Nice piece