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Imagine
that half the people who called your sales team hung up within 10 seconds.
And these weren't prospects who were being cold-called, either—but
interested people themselves calling your sales team.
Right,
heads would roll. At the very least, you'd want to know why so many people
were disengaging.
Well,
chances are it's happening to you right now, every day. Your sales team
isn't the problem; the real problem is your most visible and active company
representative—the Web site.
There's
an easy-to-measure but often overlooked number that can tell you a great
deal about the effectiveness of your Web site: the "short visit
rate," which is the percentage of visitors that leaves your site within
10 seconds.
The
percentage itself is not really important. Every Web site, every audience,
and every industry is different. Even the most sophisticated Web sites can
easily have 50% of visitors bail early.
What
is important is what you're doing to reduce this number. Why? Because there
is no cheaper way to repair the spout that feeds your pipeline. While it may
take months to test and correct your sales process, telemarketing, or direct
mail efforts, the Web allows rapid and cost-effective testing. You can
positively change your short visit rate in a few days, even a few hours.
The
Impact
If
visitors to your site don't stick around, they can't request more
information, take the demo, sign up for the newsletter, or do any of the
things the site was designed to make them do.
It
took considerable time and money to bring these visitors to your site—each
time one leaves, you're squandering your general marketing and advertising
efforts and dollars. Worse, those visitors leaving are likely seeking
information or a solution elsewhere on the Web. You're helping create demand
for your competition.
The
Cause
Short
visits are usually a combination of two things—the wrong people coming,
and your site's inability to engage the visitor. This is particularly true
when it comes to traffic from search engines. Because these visitors are
looking for something specific (and usually in a hurry), it's only logical
that they would quickly bail if the site doesn't satisfy their needs.
What
to Do About It
Luckily,
we're dealing with the Web, where the data is rich and the adjustments are
easy. The first step is to see where you are. Ask your webmaster to report
on the percentage of both all visitors and search visitors that are leaving
within 10 seconds. If they can't get this information for you, enlist some
help or get a simple Web traffic analysis tool, as this is basic data every
company should capture.
Once
you get these numbers, don't flip out. It's just a baseline, a starting
point from which to improve. Ask yourself, "What might be causing these
people to leave?"
Visit
your site in your prospect's shoes. Might it be the non-differentiating or
overly technical message? Maybe the site just doesn't look very
professional. Perhaps the majority of your prospects simply don't like the
color red. Most likely, it's the lack of any compelling reason to stay. If
you don't have something to grab visitors' attention and get them clicking
for more, you can continue to expect poor retention rates.
Look
at this problem from a traditional point of view. What if this were a
tradeshow booth? How could we get people to stay at the booth longer?
The
key here is to work together within sales and marketing (notice that we left
the IT department out) to brainstorm and come to a consensus about what you
suspect the biggest problem might be. Once you decide, have your webmaster
make the necessary changes and measure the difference.
If
you don't get a whole lot of visits, it may take a long time to come to a
conclusion. This is where doing a quick pay-per-click advertising campaign
can come in real handy, if for nothing else than to get some inexpensive
market research.
Nothing
to Lose Except Business
It's
easy to dismiss this entire problem; after all, you probably didn't know you
had a problem. And you can always add more sales reps and send out more
mailers.
But
the "problem" could actually be an opportunity in disguise—if
you take these first steps. You may be surprised how enthusiastic your Web
team and senior management are about wanting to improve in this area.
It
is fun, challenging, and, unlike many other aspects of business, an effort
that provides rapid and rich feedback. Hold contests! Give the person or
team that comes up with the most dramatic improvement the corner office! He
or she just made your company more efficient and profitable.
Short-visit
syndrome is something most executives don't like to mention, let alone talk
about. Fortunately, confronting the issue head on and doing things to remedy
it are far less painful than you think. And the results are well worth the
effort.
Todd Miechiels - a
B2B search marketing consultant consultant.
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