It’s no secret, web usability is a necessity in order to ensure your business makes the sales you need online. Your website is a 24x7x365 sales machine and it needs to look and function it’s best at all times. Last month I worked on a redesign which was literally only a redesign focused on optimizing user experience. Sure, we’ve done a few new marketing initiatives and spent several thousand more dollars for the client to broaden their reach (which is going to be very promising) but it definitely wasn’t the core of the new 2010 marketing program.
For the time being I’ve decided to not name the business but that doesn’t stop me from sharing the bottom line–numbers. What I’m talking about is a momentous 39% increase in goal conversions. The business went from 72 sales through its website in June 2010 to 100 sales in July 2010 (after I implemented the new redesign). This small business is involved in the travel & tourism industry so those mere 28 sales equates to roughly a new $4,000-5,000+ revenue stream per month. Granted the industry suffers from seasonality, no one is going to complain about more sales in this economy. In addition, the new revenue stream figure only reflects the traceable sales for the one goal that was set in Google Analytics. The analytics goal does not account for increased phone orders, or sales made through third parties such as brokers and agents.
Earlier in the year we set an internal goal for the business which was to make sure we hit the same gross sales from last year. That won’t be the case this year because we’re going to blow that number out of the water. I’m very proud to be involved with a project that’s making real strides in a down economy.
So what’s the takeaway from this? Selecting a internet marketing company or “web designer” is not just about who can make things look the nicest. You need to work with a company who can deliver both form and function in order to make real sales.
There’s a reason why a website costs $15,000 through one company and only $1,200 through another. In this example, a $15,000 investment can easily be recouped in a few months leaving the rest of the year (as well as subsequent years) as pure profit. How’s that for an investment?
UPDATE 08/09/10: Did some more tweaking the website and achieved yet another 12-15% increase in conversions (100 goals to now 112-115/month). Constant testing, adjusting, and measuring is the key.
P.S. I forgot to mention that during the process of the redesign, I actually removed some content pages of the website that probably weren’t needed (still working on adding new content). To further emphasize the ROI of a good web design, I can share that the website’s page views actually decreased yet conversions increased.
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