Conversion is a matter of customer-centricity and relationships

Recently I was asked by a new blog on conversion, interactive CRM and marketing automation, to write about conversion in interactive marketing.

The two meanings of conversion

Conversion obviously has two meanings. In e-mail marketing for instance, it is the process whereby people open an e-mail, click a link and then continue their journey on the landing page and beyond. Every step in such a process is 'conversion'. The same goes for others forms of interactive marketing.

The second meaning of conversion is the process from prospect and suspect to (loyal) customer. As we all know, something that is seldom accomplished in one single move.

However, when thinking about conversion in the first, more tactical, sense, it struck me how closely conversion, conversation, customer-centricity and thus the value we create for people are related to each other.

What determines whether an Internet user who discovers your site or blog remains there and visits several pages? What determines whether someone who clicks on a search engine ad also actually does what you expect him to on the landing page? What determines whether a subscriber of an e-mail clicks a link to a white paper, after which the subscriber also actually downloads it?

Or, in other words: what determines the conversion of online marketing?

A customer-focused and holistic approach

Whether we are talking about a “real” customer, a prospect or an accidental visitor: everyone who comes within your company’s online sphere of influence is in a certain sense already a customer. Everything you do must be oriented on these various “customers”. In practice, of course, you do this by working with potential scenarios, personas and so on. Moreover, you need to have a holistic approach. SEO experts have to collaborate with web analytics experts, social media marketers, e-mail marketers, SME experts, conversion specialists, brand marketers and really with everyone who within the company is busy with the customer.

Whoever today thinks within the narrow confines of his own discipline (SEO, e-mail, whatever), without having knowledge of other disciplines and thinking in a customer-focused manner will soon have no more added value to offer.

The best interactive marketers are those who expand their knowledge and acquire other skills in addition to their own professional area of expertise.

Only a customer-focused and holistic approach can ensure that all the elements of your online marketing mix are properly attuned to one another and guarantee an optimal conversion.

The perceived value

A second determining factor with regard to online conversion is obviously the perceived value for the internet user. You only click something if it satisfies your needs and expectations at that very moment. That is one of the reasons why personalisation, segmentation and the delivery of the right content at the right time is so important.

The perceived value is generally a matter of the content. Whoever engages in search engine advertising and tests different variants of the same ad knows what a difference a single word can make in the call to action. E-mail marketers know that they can achieve better results by testing different subject lines. Content is crucial in conversion.

Consistency

A third factor is consistency. An on-line marketing strategy is composed of several parts. It isn’t the case that the SEO expert does his thing in a corner while the e-mail marketer is doing something completely different, the developer creates a landing page on autopilot, the designer just cobbles together a banner while the brand marketer sends his own messages out into the world.

Everything in an on-line campaign and marketing strategy is carefully harmonised with everything else. Consistency increases not only the conversion but also the brand familiarity. However, the most important thing is that they offer people, both on-line and off, a feeling of trust and familiarity.

This consistency runs from a search engine ad or an e-mail through all of the succeeding steps, beginning with the content of the ad itself, through the landing page and all following web pages. Despite the limitations in terms of the number of characters, a text for a search engine ad ´flows´ from ´title´ to call-to-action. This is even more true for an e-mail, which typically contains more content.

"Every hyperlink is a contract"

End of last week conversion specialist Jeffrey Eisenberg wrote a post, in which he links conversion to the human and relational aspect where he sees conversion as giving "relevant answers to digital questions".

But I most of all like this quote from Jeffrey: "“every hyperlink is a contract”.

I would like to know what you think.

Jean-Paul De Clerck is a 360° interactive marketing consultant, founder of the Fusion Marketing Experience and owner of conversionation. You can connect with him via Twitter.