How did we know this? In two main ways:
- by looking in our traffic analysis at the key search phrases that brought visitors to the site; and
- from the content of questions submitted to “Ask the Lawyers”
We could see that many visitors were looking for information around sexual harassment, overtime exemptions, Internet e-mail monitoring and privacy issues, and wrongful termination. Employers wanted to know how to create policies and practices that would protect them against costly lawsuits, and employees wanted to enforce their rights.
So, we created a whole series of new products - instantly downloadable online guides and sample policies around these topics. They are available in Word, pdf, and html formats - at the buyer’s choice, and come with a full money back guarantee. The price point - currently $10 for the guides, is intended to encourage impulse purchases.
The latest of these products - a “Wrongful Termination Guide” is now achieving a nearly 5% conversion rate in sales. This is far higher than the average 1-2% that is typical of most e-commerce sites (and perhaps indicative of the current economic climate!) And, with real-time traffic analysis from WebSideStory, we are tweaking the language and length of our selling pages to see what’s most effective with each audience.
Our downloadable products are now generating a steady additional revenue stream, from a source that is very different from the traditional markets for this company.
So, lessons learned (and still being learned) from this exercise:
- Be open to new and different potential audiences for your online business;
- Study your traffic analysis - there are many valuable clues as to visitor needs that can be translated into new products and services; and
- Keep monitoring your visitor response and try new spins on your content.
© 2001 Philippa Gamse. All rights reserved.
Byline
Philippa Gamse, "CyberSpeakerSM", is an internationally recognized e-business strategist. Check out her free tipsheet for 23 great ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317 or mailto:pgamse@CyberSpeaker.com
