Conversion is the ultimate goal of a marketing campaign. For an online shop, a successful conversion is the closing of an order, for an advertising campaign, it's more likely to be collecting prospect details for following up.

Improving conversion is all about attention to detail. When I started in marketing, my manager had a favorite saying, "Open Bracket - Close Bracket," meaning everything you start must have a proper end, don't start advertising unless you are ready to handle the enquires it generates, it was good advice.

What to Avoid

An experience earlier today triggered me into writing this post.

In my inbox was an offer, a free stylish travel cup if I placed an order. Being interested I clicked for more details. Rather than find anything about the offer all I got was their standard ordering page, nothing about the cup or the offer. Needless to say, I closed the window and will continue using my budget supermarket cup. Potential order lost and marketing pounds wasted!

Lesson to Learn

Think continuity, a marketing campaign has various steps, each needs to seamlessly link together. If my click had taken me to a page with more information about the mug and how to get it, there is a good chance I would have placed an order there and then. The crucial lesson to learn to improve conversion is testing, testing the continuity of a campaign, make sure every link is in place and working before you go live.

Another Bad Example

I'm on the mailing list of a small hotel, one that I'd like to visit sometime. From time to time, I get an email with an offer but no pricing, on clicking it takes you to the offers page on their website, a good start, then it goes all wrong! On the offers page, there is a simple message, call this number for details of the current offers.

Lesson to Learn

If I click through, I want more information, I expect to find the full details of the offer including pricing.

Improving Conversion

Here are some quick do's and don'ts