Convert Web Traffic to Customers

There are a number of ways that web businesses can increase their conversion rate of website visitors to customers.

Web analytic programs can tell you where the visitors go and when they leave. High rates of drop off on a shopping cart page can alert you to problems. You can test different web designs or "paths" you would like visitors to take to see which configurations are most friendly to converting customers. Points of "friction" where people jump off the path and leave before becoming a buyer can be identified and hopefully eliminated.

But on a more fundamental level, one should focus on content and lead generation.

Educational webinars are outstanding lead generators because - like a white paper - people willingly exchange their contact information for access to the content.

Webinars offer a visual and audio experience that is more engaging than a white paper, and the content gives people a reason to linger on the website. Unlike a white paper, at the end of a webcast the viewer is put back on the site – perhaps on a shopping cart page with a call to action.

Every business has a story to tell. Webinars are the perfect platform to educate visitors to your site about the business issues your customers face, why a customer needs a product or service like yours, the consequences of not addressing the needs met by a product or service like yours, and why your product or service is better than other competing solutions.

If you do not provide your potential customers with factual, objective information about your value proposition and are simply relying on them to understand the relevant business drivers on their own, you are certainly not converting as high a percentage as you could be.

All this information may already be on the website, but 60% of communication is non-verbal and people do not like to read.

Mobile Video is Here

According to Infonetics Research, only a few million people subscribe to mobile video service but that number will grow to 58.6 million people by 2010.

Sales of video phones are projected to increase from $58 billion last year to $125 billion by 2010.

Jeff Heynen, analyst at Infonetics, said:

Despite some concerns around the business plan and subscriber take rates,
major service providers continue to move forward with their mobile video network
rollouts. In addition, governments are very quickly lining up behind various
mobile video technologies to help facilitate deployments, with the EU's
endorsement of DVB-H and the Chinese government's sponsorship of CMMB being the two most visible efforts

If these projections are correct, video on the third screen will be ubiquitous by the end of this decade.

Lead Generation

ATT acquired Ingenio, a pay per call technology that allows advertisers to track responses to specific ads by providing unique phone numbers.

Ingenio was founded in 1999 and has raised a total of $109 million in venture capital money, according to the article in Digital Media Wire.

This technology will be a nice additional to ATT's mobile advertising service. It also illustrates how important it is to be able to track who is watching ads and taking action - a need that webcasting meets.

Webcasting is an unsurpassed lead generation tool.

Sports Networks Join the Fray

ESPN and TNT have acquired the rights to stream live NBA games, reports Last100.

Earlier this year, the NFL struck a deal with DirectTV - even though it is limited to DirectTV customers.

MLB.TV has been streaming for some time.

The content is compelling and the audience is attractive. That is a successful formula for profitable internet broadcasting.