The Yolk is a new digital agency that is the result of a merger between specialist agencies Sticky Panda (Digital strategy and online performance) and Blue Hat Technologies (Web and software development). My role in this new exciting venture will be as the Customer Engagement Director. I'm very excited about the new prospects and will update people on forthcoming news.

The Yolk is due to officially launch in January 2010 (straight after the New Year) so if anyone has any questions, please let me know. Alternatively, visit The Yolk's website to sign up to our newsletter or follow us on Twitter.

Related links:

• The Yolk
• The Yolk on Twitter

I'm not a fan of the phrase "Conversion Rate Optimisation" as I think to be successful online you need to look at the entire ACR model (Acquisition, conversion and retention). WIthout looking at all the areas of the customer lifecycle, it is very difficult to look at the bigger picture of success. With that in mind, we need to account for the way that the market is shifting towards hybrid engagement & commercial websites and look at a larger process; the ACER model.

Acquition - Getting users to your website
Conversion - Converting those users into customers
Engagement - Getting them to engage with your product, website or service
Retention - Customers revisit because of the successful experience from all of the above stages

The ACER model is important because engagement is a key factor for all online businesses. This engagement is what can make a real success of even a mediocre business offering by connecting with your customers.

Despite my small rant about the short-sightedness of the above phrase, I noticed a post on Econsultancy that I think sums up the basic steps to success to maximise conversion rates. Econsultnacy focuses on the Acquisition - Conversion part of the model and give some good rules of thumbs to improving your website. There are a few things that can take you to the next step, but there isn't much missed so if you follow these guidelines, you should see improvement to your site:

A is for Accessibility

B is for Brevity

C is for Customer Intent

D is for Differentiation

E is for Ease of Use

F is for Forms

G is for Good Service

H is for Help

I is for Incentives

J is for Jargon

K is for Key Information

L is for Labelling

M is for Merchandising

N is for No Good

O is for Options

P is for Persuasion

Q is for Quality

R is for Repetition

S is for Speed

T is for Trust

U is for User Generated Content

V is for Value Proposition

W is for Where Did They Come From?

X is for The X Factor

Y is for YES

Z is for ZZZZZZZ

 

See the full article to get a full description of the above examples.

Related links

• A-Z of conversion optimisation article
• A-Z of online persuasion (By cScape)
• See how you can improve your performance online

A recent study by Streamline.net (Hosting company) has suggested that small businesses are neglecting basic usability online.

"A further survey of 450 UK firms revealed that whilst half consider their website to look 'professional', 1 in 3 owners admit that they are guilty of 'neglecting' their sites."

Another interesting fact for small businesses is that 1 in 5 consumers take a web address from the side of a small company's vehicle whilst only 10% of small businesses currently display their URL on the side of any commercial vehicles.

Some top consumer facts to digest:

• 76% of consumers have now used the website of a small business
• 1 in 4 people state that small business websites are 'barely usable'
• 83% of online users found faults with the website of a small business

Some top small business website facts to digest:

• 54% were unfinished
• 52% contained broken links
• 50% contained out-of-date email addresses
• 31% are missing contact details

What is interesting from this report is that "The findings are in contrast to another survey of 450 small firms where 76% felt confident that the language on their website could in no way be perceived negatively, and 84% saw the images on their website as fit for purpose."

So a small shout-out to small businesses - make sure that usability and customer perception/corporate reputation is much higher on your list for your website. as you may be losing customers as you read this post! Never underestimate the power of a positive user experience as it can be the converting factor to your online success.

Related links:

• Read the full article on Usability News
• See how Sticky Panda can help you improve your online user experience
• Streamline hosting

I recently stumbled across a new measurement website for marketing called marketingcharts.com. They have some great topline stats* to keep up-to-date on industry trends and I came across the famous retail industry. Amazon.com has topped the retail charts for unique visitors by having over 50% extra visitors than number 2 Walmart.com. The top 10 statistics chart also includes high profile brands including Dell, HP and Sears:

*Stats taken from Compete.com

Related links:

• Marketing Charts - Online retail (Unique visitors)
• For more online performance, contact Sticky Panda
• Compete.com