Of course there is the usual “sales funnel” online and off in which the bulk of contacts with prospective customers and clients are fleeting and trivial. Some people from the initial great bulk are motivated enough to examine some aspect of your business more carefully, a smaller number of which … buy from or sign up with your business.

Each stage in the narrowing funnel can be tracked to see where the process needs changing or tweaking, where the bottlenecks lie, what needs greater resources and what can be cut. And the numbers need to be monitored because the market is always in flux, not only seasonally.

Fortunately, a lot of tracking can now be done relatively inexpensively. Knowing what to track has often been fairly simple until social media and more interactive marketing methods added controversy about what sort of social interactions and social media sites constitute priorities to business bottom lines.

If basic principles of human relationships have not changed–like being respectful–nonetheless, applications to specific businesses and contexts may require testing which can be aided by tracking.

A short list of relevant resources follows. Some are free or have free versions, others are for a fee.

Google Analytics – Google still holds the lions share of searches … except that now Facebook queries rival Google in shear volume. Google’s free Analytics software is still very valuable, with free tutorials for set up and use, and increasing numbers of options and features. Google Analytics can even be added to Facebook fan pages.
Yahoo Site Explorer
Hypertracker – fee basis
Mixpanel – fee basis, more expensive than Hypertracker, but has stripped-down free version
Kontagent – Provides analytics for Facebook games and applications. Facebook is the largest social media phenomenon (China excepted) at present. Stripped down free version available
Radian6 – comprehensive tracking of social media conversations
Social Mention – “Like Google Alerts but for social media” Do real time searches for social media topics in blogs, videos, etc. Some analysis per search (free)
Trackur – monitor what’s being said about your brand in social media (fee structure)
Crazyegg – heatmaps and monitoring what people are doing on your pages, where they click (fee structure)
Clicktale – who comes to the page and how long they stay on each page (three month stripped down free version available)

Any other suggestions?

In split testing, web page versions “A” and “B” are compared for “conversions” — views, clicks, sign-ups, and/or purchases. If “A” beats “B,” a third version “C” is tested against “A” and so on.

But what should one test? One can perform a lot of tests that have little or no significance to the bottom line.

Perry Belcher has tested (and researched) … up the wazoo. And found out the web page variables that matter.

Here is a sample of some of his most effective ideas for increasing conversions on landing pages.

1) Place testimonials on right hand side of your order form.

2) Use a headline color of red (Hex={CC,00,00}). Don’t ask. It works.

3) Use a headline font of 20 point Tahoma and adding quotation marks.

4) Use the non-serif style Arial font, 12 point ONLINE. Studies consistently show this to be the most readable online. (Offline, use a serif style like Times New Roman for greater readability.)

5) Place your opt-in box in the upper right hand corner, above the “fold” on your web page. Make the form like (but not identical to) the Yahoo! email sign in area.

6) Make your sales copy 560 to 600 pixels in width. This makes for faster reading and an increase in scrolling down the page. Those who scroll are much more likely to convert than those who do not.

7) Buy a niche-relevant, keyword loaded URL and capitalize the first letters of words.

8 ) Include action words in the URL: “buynow,” “getridof.”

9) Include bullet summary points of benefits immediately before the order form.

10) Place testimonials to the right hand side of the order form.

Of course, not all the ideas are unique to Perry Belcher, but each one that is implemented makes a difference, and implementing many makes a big difference if there is a market for your product or service.

See Total Access Club for the whole list and much more.