Wall Street Journal: Live Chat 1 of 3 Best Ways to Drive Online Sales
We’re thrilled to see one of the largest and most influential mainstream business publications report on After Click Marketing. While the reporter, Raymund Flandez doesn’t use that term, the article’s introduction is its very definition; “These days, the tech-savvy small business is using search engine optimization to steer customers to its home page. But once those online visitors land, how do you get them to buy?”
This simple question, we believe, is giving birth to a new discipline (or at least a new vocabulary) associated with what website owners can do to drive visitors into the sales cycle. After click marketing concerns itself with an engagement action we want the visitor to take. In fact, after click marketing is really about the optimization of those engagements. Today’s Wall Street Journal article clearly defines three such actions which ultimately drive conversions.
The three best ways to convert website traffic are:
Add a Click-to-Call Feature
Visitors input their phone number and the technology automatically connects the visitor with a website representative. This idea is particularly useful for businesses that can’t be tethered to a computer all the time.
Add Live Chat
Congratulations to ImprovementDirect (an online retailer of name brand faucets, among other items) for being featured by the Journal as a smart retailer who uses live chat to drive sales.
Offer a try-before-you-buy program
Allowing customers to try out a product before purchasing it is excellent advice. In fact, its advice we follow across our own product lines.