Getting high conversion rates is often an incremental process. You start with a sales letter that converts at just 0.2 percent; then through incremental adjustments, experimentation and testing you gradually inch that up to 1- 2 percent, or even as high as 8 percent as some industry leaders claim. Here are a few strategies you can use to increase your conversion rate.

Experiment with Multimedia

There are a few forms of multimedia that have a very good shot of increasing your conversion.

First is the sales video. In general, having a video play automatically when visitors land on your page will increase conversions, provided the video is a good one. It should explain the problem clearly and explain why your product is unique in being able to help your visitor. The video could be you talking to the camera, or it could be a graphical demonstration or even an animation.

Another kind of multimedia that works very well is having a “salesperson” walk onto the screen and explain the benefits of the product. This is done through Flash. Generally, you will need to hire an outside firm to read the sales script and create the Flash animation, which could cost anywhere from $400 to $1,000.

Build a Newsletter

If you aren’t already building a newsletter, you are missing out on perhaps the easiest way to increase your conversion rate. Selling over time is far, far more effective than selling just once. Build a newsletter, provide real value to cultivate customer loyalty, and sell your products repeatedly over time.

Split Testing

You will want to split test just about everything on your website on an ongoing basis. Most importantly, however, is split testing everything that is above the fold. Anything above the fold, including the headline, the pictures by the headline, the layout, the banner, etc., all need to be tested. Test both your email capture page and your sales page. In fact, testing your email capture page often will have a larger influence on your bottom line than your sales pages. Test as much as you can, with getting enough traffic to get statistically significant data as your only barrier.

Brand Building

One often overlooked method of increasing conversions is building your brand. People would rather buy a book from Amazon.com than any other source online, even if the price is cheaper because of Amazon.com’s brand. People know that when they buy from Amazon, they will be taken care of the same can’t be said of some other online bookstores.

This principle applies in all kinds markets. Names of great websites, products and teachers spread through the grapevine in an industry. If someone’s already heard about your product, your conversion rate will be much, much higher. Don’t just look at conversions in terms of statistics. Building your name in an industry by speaking at conferences, doing joint venture deals, and just constantly being a figure in the industry can go a long way towards increasing your conversions.

These are a few powerful strategies for increasing your conversions. With proper testing and experimentation, your conversions can and will rise. Many of the most lucrative websites on the Internet required extensive testing before they became what they are today.

Conversion pathing, or conversion architecture, refers to conversion-focused landing pages designed to convert incoming traffic to a specific landing page.

As marketers, we need to think beyond a world in which the click is the final measure of the success of a campaign, because it is not. There are a number of paths, or calls to action, which you as a marketer can provide to achieve your goals.

A click can mean anything, even something negative, for example, an unsubscribe. It can also mean something neutral, like them going into their account to update their email address. It can mean less than nothing, as in people who are happy clickers, who automatically click on a picture simply because that is what people tend to do on the internet.

Therefore, a click can’t possibly be construed as a measure of success in and of itself.

Ultimately, the measure of a marketing campaign’s success is what you as a company it is. If your objective is to find out who is clicking (segmentation),to increase the quality of converted leads (qualify your leads), or improve the efficiency of your ad buys (convert them in some way, such as by leading them to a purchasing decision), your needs go beyond the mere click in an email as a measurement of the campaign’s success.

Beyond the click is post-click email marketing, also known as conversion architecture. Once you have led them down the path, how many will go all the way to the end, and how many fall by the wayside? Again, you can learn just as much from no clicks, as clicks, about your customers needs, interests, and motivations.

There are also a couple of handy tools you can use that will help you see what people are actually doing and clicking on, on your ‘rapid conversion landing pages’ as we call them, or RCLPs.

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