How Your Keyword Strategy is Failing You (And How to Fix It)

One day very soon, we’re all going to stop worrying about “keywords”.

And then we can all rejoice.

via GIPHY

But until that happens, whenever “SEO” comes up, the next phrase muttered usually involves “keywords” and “rankings”.

This unhealthy obsession with “keyword + rankings” (that was a search operator joke) has long been misleading.

Historically, keywords gave us a fairly reliable way to measure progress in the otherwise abstract and confusing world of SEO. (Not to mention, the very real danger of cheap SEO providers.)

The problem is that today, keyword rankings are basically useless. Which means the way we’ve traditionally optimized and measured for them is basically useless as well.

Here’s why.

Why Your 2005 Keyword Strategy Doesn’t Work in 2015

Rightfully (or wrongfully), keyword rankings have been SEO KPI #1 for over a decade.

And back in the day, this made sense.

Search engines were more-or-less one dimensional, which made SEO a very straightforward process. Everyone, no matter who you were or where in the world you were searching from, would largely see the same exact search engine result pages (SERPs) when looking for a specific keyword.

In this environment, keyword rankings (as a metric) were very simple, reliable, and (I can’t believe I’m going to say this when referencing Google) transparent.

On top of that, analytics programs freely passed keyword referral data back to webmasters. Meaning you could see exactly which terms people used to arrive at your site.

By matching keyword positions or rankings with the referral data you were seeing in analytics, you could easily see the $money keywords – or which ones were driving success (in terms of traffic and conversions).

Unfortunately, none of this is true anymore.

So good thing you scanned over the last ~165 words anyway. :)

Something About Personalization

Today, everyone’s search engine result pages (SERPs) are being personalized based on your:

1. Past browsing history
2. Physical location
3. Social media connections

Just to name a few. :/

That means the keyword rankings you’re seeing, instead of being static and universal like the good-ol-days, are completely personalized to you as an individual.

For example, look up a traditionally head (or super popular) keyphrase like, “Pizza” and you now get this:

Modern SERP’s pull from a variety of different sources (here you’ll see the huge prevalence and opportunity of local search emphasized), with traditional “organic” results pushed off a bit.

(This also means the role of “SEO” has evolved to include influential satellites like AdWords and Yelp. But that’s a topic for another day.)

The concept of keywords having one specific rank, and then benchmarking efforts against it, is today at best worthless, and at worst misleading.

But wait, there’s more!

Dude, Where’s My Keywords?

The second part of the keyword ranking equation was using referral data from your analytics to see how and where people are coming from.

With this info, then you could at least get an idea of (a) how people are looking for you and (b) how to use that information to do a better job of optimizing your site.

So even if keyword rankings are losing value, this referral data was extremely helpful in giving you clues to influential topics and keyphrases.

Now, SEO encompasses much more than just Google Search. Hoooooweeevverrr… Google Search is a virtual monopoly, meaning they can pretty much do whatever they’d like. Starting with, taking away almost all keyword referral data that gets passed to webmasters and site owners.

A few years ago, they moved to make all searches secure (except for ad clicks). Now in your analytics program, where you used to see the specific keywords sending you traffic under “organic”, you now see a [not provided] placeholder that accounts for the majority (~70-90%).

That means you can no longer see what keywords are sending you traffic from organic search….

… due to “privacy reasons”…

… but you can, however, pay them for it via AdWords.

How ironic. And convenient.

Keyphrases are still very important. Trouble is, we now have to infer or assume what keyphrases are popular and how to best optimize with huge gaps in verifiable data (and you know what they say about when you assume).

One of the easiest ways, is to simply alter our strategy a bit and focus on what we can control (our website) instead of what we can’t (keyword rankings).

The Simple Change to Update Your Strategy

If (a) keyword rankings are unreliable, and (b) keyword referral data is nonexistent, then… something needs to give.

Going forward, it’s easier to shift focus away from keywords (directly), to the performance of your landing and content pages instead (so you can indirectly assess topic performance).

Then reverse-engineer success based on topic – i.e. a broad set of long-tail keyphrases – instead of only one specific keyphrase. It’s messy, but practically easier (unless you’re interested in getting your PhD in SEO and analytics).

For example, one simple way is to take a look at your most popular content in Google Analytics from organic search:

Then cross-reference this information with some (remaining) query data in Google’s Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools):

And you can kinda get an idea of the long-tail keyphrases sending this page traffic (along with some position-related info – but let’s not over-emphasize this now, shall we?).

You can also use some paid tools, like Moz, to help track a certain number of keyphrases against specific landing pages:

In a way, this backwards process should actually benefit you by ensuring extra attention-to-detail when strategizing the information architecture of a site’s pages (and their respective keyphrases) in the first place.

The Holistic Future of Search Optimization

In today’s dynamic marketing landscape, SEO isn’t “SEO”.

Instead, SEO now takes a multi-faceted approach where you’re involving different disciplines (i.e. content, email, advertising, social), building a brand (i.e. investing in intangibles, not just conversions), and competing on multiple fronts (i.e. paid search positions, review & aggregation sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, beefing up your local listings, and more) – all at the same time.

Needless to say, this requires a lot of time, man (or woman – can’t accuse me of discrimination!) power, and sufficient investment.

The days of competing solely on (and overprioritizing) SEO are numbered.

But that’s not to say it’s any less important. In fact, search is only becoming more important and more influential in the buying process of customers.

Finding what you’re specifically looking for will always be priority #1 online. And that means search will be omnipresent and omnipotent because it’s so valuable (and profitable).

The trick will be to remain holistic and nimble as trends and platforms evolve.

About the Author: Brad Smith is the author of a BS-free SEO guide that shows you how to fix common mistakes while avoiding algorithm chasing. He’s a founding partner at Codeless Interactive, a digital marketing firm digital agency specializing in creating personalized customer experiences.

Don’t Get Tricked by Cyber Attackers

Don’t Get Tricked by Cyber Attackers

Halloween, a day known for tricks and mischief (and also lots of treats!), is just a few days away. I’ve been thinking about the tricks thieves are using to steal information from small businesses.

The consequences of a thief tricking you or one of your employees into granting access to data or entrance to your building are obviously more serious than harmless Halloween tricks. Information loss – whether due to an employee’s innocent mistake or a natural disaster – can take a devastating toll.

Neither thieves nor Mother Nature discriminate by company size, so small business owners must thoroughly audit their cyber and physical security vulnerabilities and take steps to minimize the risks.

Attackers do not discriminate

A number of companies have suffered massive data breaches in recent years. Cyber attackers covet such sensitive information as IP addresses, financial statements, and personal employee information, and they don’t care where they get it.

Half of more than 650 small business owners surveyed for a recent National Small Business Association (NSBA) report suffered a cyber-attack, with 61 percent of those attacks taking place in the last 12 months. According to the NSBA, the cost of cyber-attacks is on the rise. Last year, one breach cost small businesses an average of more than $20,000, a substantial increase from the 2013 average of $8,699.

The traditional approach to cyber security is to harden the network and lock down PCs, laptops, and mobile devices with antivirus software. That strategy is proving ineffective as cyber attackers grow more sophisticated.

Threats inside and out

There are two basic types of cyber attackers: external and internal. The external actor penetrates a network and steals data to sell on the black market or to the victim’s competitors. They try to take advantage of weaknesses in human nature rather than technology flaws.

For example, a phishing attack is typically an email message that includes official-looking logos and appears to be genuine. When the end user follows the email’s instructions, he or she is directed to reveal sensitive or private information.

The internal actor can either be a “rogue insider” – a.k.a. the disgruntled employee – or a well-meaning employee who doesn’t follow security best practices, such as installing software patches. Basic software solutions, like internet browsers, have their fair share of security vulnerabilities that malware writers can exploit without the need to interact directly with the user.

Simple and inexpensive security precautions

I’m painting a pretty scary picture worthy of Halloween, but I also want to debunk the myth that cloud computing is inherently unsafe. Rest assured: any reputable cloud services or application provider takes the security of your data as seriously as you do.

Here are four key steps any small business can take immediately – and without a dedicated IT team or budget – to improve its security posture:

1. Don’t ignore software patches. Make sure your business software has the latest updates, security patches, and bug fixes installed. You can set your software to update automatically. A key benefit of cloud-based software is you’ve always got the latest version installed.

2. Install a small business software security solution that includes strong encryption capabilities. Work with a reputable vendor and integrator to find the best product for your needs.

3. Educate your employees. Your employees are your greatest business strength and your biggest security vulnerability. Provide them with regular training so they know not to click on links in suspicious emails, download files from unfamiliar senders, or send sensitive company or financial information on public wireless networks.

4. Implement a data backup and recovery system so you can restore data quickly and easily if you ever fall victim to an attack. Routinely save your data off-site on your own system or with a cloud backup service.

Implementing a backup and recovery system also protects you against damage or loss of physical infrastructure caused by a thief or natural disaster. The American Sustainable Business Council reports that 57 percent of small businesses have no disaster recovery plan. Creating a plan that will direct your efforts to get the business back up and running quickly should be as high on the priorities list as protecting against cyber-attacks.

These statistics and recommendations are meant to educate and guide your preparations, not frighten you. Protecting your information, systems, and employees doesn’t require a substantial investment in cyber security technologies, trained personnel, or expensive motion-sensing infrared cameras.

It does, however, require you to conduct a careful analysis of physical and cyber security vulnerabilities; address those vulnerabilities; and conduct regular audits and employee training sessions to ensure your company’s security position remains strong.

The post Don’t Get Tricked by Cyber Attackers appeared first on AllBusiness.com

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Triggered Email: The Killer Conversion App

Marketers have been using “spray and pray” tactics for decades. The email equivalents are often called “blasts.” The idea: purchase a large list, push your message to the masses and hope some buckshot hits the target.

This form of email marketing is outdated and ineffective. It can backfire. Sending spam can tarnish your reputation and sever more relationships than it builds.

Email marketing that delivers results today reaches the right person with the right message to solve their immediate problem.

You aim more carefully. When a specific event or behavior occurs, a marketing automation system pulls the trigger and fires off an email. Conveniently, the practice has come to be known as “triggered” email.

An Epsilon study from 2014 reveals triggered email messages average 74.9% higher open rates and 161.9% higher click-through rates than traditional bulk messages. (Image Source)

More automation… a more personal touch?

Marketing experts claim you can achieve new levels of personalization through automation. It sounds ironic. A robotic approach increases the personal touch?

The reason it’s true is you don’t simply automate the process. You use automation to understand buyer intent and engage with prospects based on their interests.

Your database is the engine room. The more data you put in it the more personalization you’re able to extract. Your objective is to perpetually update individual records with preferences, demographic, and behavioral information.

One approach is to ask for the information. You encourage prospects to update their records. Subsequent interactions employ prepopulated or progressive forms where users can update and add to the information you’ve collected.

Another approach is to gather behavioral data automatically. Your marketing automation platform will track who did what so you can respond accordingly with email.

Each touch point can become increasingly relevant to the individual’s journey to make your marketing dramatically more timely.

77% of online shoppers say they’re more likely to buy from a retailer when its
emails are personal. 82% of web shoppers say they’d likely buy more items from a retailer if its emails were more personally relevant.

Source: Listrak-sponsored Harris Interactive survey

Throughout the rest of this post, I’ll present a variety of ways to use triggered email programs and show you examples of each.

The idea is to nurture your leads

A very small percentage of first-time visitors to your website will make a purchase, but if you offer something of value, they may reward you with their email address. Essentially, you gain permission to market to them.

Of course, if you proceed to try to slay them with a hard sell, they’re likely to unsubscribe immediately. The better approach is to nurture the lead.

Email lead nurture programs give you opportunities to remain on your prospects’ radar and potentially convert them to customers. The approach tends to work best when you’re gentle. In most cases, you’ll aim to educate prospects by making offers and/or delivering useful content to help increase interest.

With lead nurturing, you have a variety of options for personalization and/or segmentation. A basic approach might simply include sending a pre-scripted series of emails.

I recently put a new autoresponder series in place. New subscribers get a simple 6-part introduction to some of the most important elements of digital marketing. They’re invited to download free resources for deeper dives and learn a little more about my content marketing consulting and copywriting services.

A more data-driven approach might prescribe a set of emails based on the prospect’s behavior. For example, a visitor who watched a video might be sent a piece of content that makes for a practical sequel.

It’s conceivable a prospect spent a large amount of time in a specific section of your site indicating interest in a product line. Your nurturing sequence might deliver a special offer for the product or some form of “Did you know…?”

There’s nothing real fancy about this example, but note how Chris (the sender) is wise to my behavior on his company’s blog. His data shows him I’ve checked out a specific post, so he responded with a few offers: give Vero a try or watch a 25-minute demo.

Lead nurturing of the “help get started” variety can be an effective tactic. The marketer’s hypothesis: when prospects understand how easy it is to use the service, they are likely to try it.

Abandonment follow-up email

When you nearly make a sale on an ecommerce site it can unfold into a successful outcome. The scenario in play here: a known contact clicks into a form, places a product in the cart, or nearly completes some desired action. In other words, the prospect stopped short of buying.

Thanks to marketing automation and integration with tracking systems, you can respond via email. The message will be based on actions your prospect did or didn’t take.

Messages triggered by cart or form abandonment may work to strengthen engagement and inspire the recipient to make another move. Email in situations such as cart abandonment should employ a friendly tone and offer helpful assistance.

For example, if someone abandons a white paper sign-up, you might send a message offering related pieces of content or offer similar content in different formats (e.g., a video or slideshow).

Note: (1) the fun tone and its attempt to be emotional, (2) the reminder that shipping is free and (3) the proactive call to action or “suggestive close.”

This abandonment email suggests some urgency and includes an additional discount. Photos of the nearly purchased items attempt to create abandoner’s remorse.

Adidas cleverly toys with the customer’s competitive spirit: he hates to lose. Clearly, they’d like Andrew (the recipient) to come back or call. See, he also has the option to order by phone 24/7. Smart.

Welcome program email

New subscribers are more likely to open your emails. Sending personalized welcome emails creates a connection with first-timers, and hopefully, goodwill. Handled adeptly, welcome emails help establish a relationship and build trust.

Your emails might educate recipients about your value proposition, ask them to tell you more about themselves, and provide resources and helpful information personalized to address their interests.

Depending on the business, many savvy marketers are even moving beyond welcome messages to activation or onboarding programs that guide the prospect or new customer going forward.

Say you offer a free product trial. Inevitably, some prospects will sign up but not start their trial. In this scenario, you might set up an email to trigger after “X” days. Its messages could be, “We noticed you haven’t done (desired action) yet,” and then:

• Here are the reasons you should try this out
• Here is a great resource to make it easy to get started
• Here’s a link if you want someone to call and assist you

When a new customer opts-in at RealAge, a welcome email introduces him or her to their services. This email reminds the recipient he hasn’t completed the RealAge test and then offers a library of resources.

Made delivers a welcome gift and tries its hand at a form of “cause” marketing by writing, “We’re thrilled you’ve joined our fight for great furniture design at affordable prices.”

Reviews and testimonials email

Asking for reviews is a nurturing tactic—and then some. When it works, you can collect content, which may prove valuable in marketing programs outside of email. Of course, this type of “ask” could have a psychological appeal too, demonstrating to customers you care about their opinions (and perhaps you’re confident they’ll like your products).

As you collect positive reviews, you might include them in your content to help drive conversions. Also, with help from your marketing automation platform, you can use dynamic content to populate emails with testimonials in line with the prospect’s interest.

Reviews aren’t always easy to get, so don’t be boring with your request. Inject personality into the email. You might also attempt to be helpful with links to: customer service information, how-tos, FAQs and so forth.

A smart play from The Body Shop: while soliciting reviews, they (1) provide an incentive for doing so and (2) showcase reviews from other customers.

Special occasion email

Special occasions are ideal triggers for sending email. Of course, you can look at special occasions two ways.

The first and most obvious are your customers’ special occasions: birthdays, anniversaries, holidays or important milestones in their lives. Second, the occasion being celebrated could be your own—an anniversary for your company or for the customer’s use of your products and services.

Of course, you need to put notices such as these into proper perspective. The one-year anniversary of a customer running your software may not be perceived as special. Your challenge is to make it special.

Be creative. Commemorate the occasion in a special way with a gift or offer that is perceived to be worthy of celebration.

Have fun with emails such as these taking care to make the extra touch points complement your nurturing and retention efforts.

At the six-month mark, ModCloth tells its customers they’re loved more than ever, marks the quasi-event with a coupon offer and encourages them to share the savings with friends via Facebook and Twitter.

Known for going “extra miles” in creative ways, Virgin Atlantic not only recognizes your birthday, it offers to help you “take the revelry to new heights.” I don’t know where you land by clicking the “Let’s Have a Look” button, but I’m guessing it’s high above an exotic destination.

You may have to ask for a date

In some cases, the nature of the business may make it simple for you collect birthdays and other special occasions. In others, you may have to ask for it. Consider trying:

• A progressive form approach
• A special request in welcome or nurture emails
• A survey

When asking for a birthdate or any type of personal information, explain to the subscriber they’ll be rewarded for complying.

Re-ordering email

Do you have a large product line or offer a multitude of optional services? Will customers need to replenish supplies at regular intervals or order per season?

If so, automating email appropriately can inspire additional sales, thereby increasing lifetime customer value. Consider some of the following ideas:

• Delivering new product updates to business clients (e.g. software)
• Seasonal product order reminders (e.g. calendars)
• Updates for items that were out of supply (e.g. clothing)
• Refill orders (e.g. foods, ink cartridges)

Sending seasonal messages enables you to maintain a more continuous dialogue with customers without creating additional work for sales people. It also provides a convenient opportunity to thank patrons for their business.

Low on toner? Here, we’re not talking about laser printers, but a product from Annemarie Gianni. They claim if the toner spray has become a part of your everyday aromatherapy routine, your supply may need replenishment.

This re-order email from Prevagen is sent 10 days before the item purchased is scheduled to run out. If the order is not placed, they send a reminder email 10 days later.

Smart ideas for more effective reminders

• Build replenishment emails around a standard purchase cycle
• Go a step further in personalization by calculating your customer’s average re-order timeframe
• A simple reminder may be effective for loyal customers
• Consider discounts if the customer does not re-order
• Includes details of what they purchased previously, a product image, reviews, and a URL for re-ordering
• If your product itself isn’t consumable, there may be parts or accessories that are
• Send your frequent buyers incentives to refer friends
• Deliver content to help readers understand the benefits of continuing to use your products
• Offer related products
• Personalize the messages creatively and in useful ways

Transactional email

Ecommerce or otherwise, you gathered an email address based on a transaction—even if customers merely traded their email for a document.

Savvy email marketers follow-up on transactions of every sort, be they order status receipts, service request updates, shipping notices or confirmations.

Understand, the timing of the delivery is critical. Your customer should never have to wait. The good news is your marketing automation platform enables you to trigger the emails immediately.

Don’t settle simply for a branded transaction message. Share some love in the form of content that delivers value, such as:

• Product usage tips
• Answers to frequently asked questions
• Delivery tracking information
• Links to community forums
• Invitations to connect via social networks
• Requests for feedback

Of course, you should focus on the transaction first, but you can also use the emails to cross-sell and upsell products and services. Set up your application to populate the emails with information specifically related to the buyer’s purchase and/or preferences.

Home Depot packs a lot of resources they believe to helpful in this thank you email including product suggestions, links to FAQs, a low price guarantee, a how-to community, and an invitation to download their mobile app.

Threadless treats an email for new subscribers as an opportunity to promote product, community stuff and “amazing newsletter only deals.”

The transaction here was merely a free trial. ProsperWorks is wise to recognize this and sent me a welcome email highlighting tools to help get me get going with their CRM solution.

Lifecycle email

Customers need different content at different times in the buying cycle. Consider segmenting campaigns relative to phases in the relationship with email based on the individual’s history with your company.

Messaging might change throughout a customer lifecycle.

• Interested prospects are sent welcome messages, educational content, or incentives to buy.
• Engaged prospects are sent invitations to events, targeted content based on website activity, price information, customer case studies.
• Lapsed or disengaged prospects are sent surveys, incentives to revisit website, promotions.

Dropbox encourages users to install Dropbox on more computers and also lists the benefits you get by doing so.

BuzzSprout sent this email aiming to drive inactive users into action by informing them about design updates.

It may be time to pull the trigger

Triggered email continues to make-up a low percentage of overall email volume.
But even at a relatively low volume, well-conceived programs can make a significant mark on sales generated from email marketing.

Triggered campaigns can run on autopilot and continue to generate revenue over long periods of time. While you’ll need to invest in the initial setup of each email, once automated, triggered emails generate new levels of ROI.

About the Author: Barry Feldman operates Feldman Creative and provides clients content marketing strategies that rock and creative that rolls. Barry has recently been named a Top 40 Digital Strategist by Online Marketing Institute and one of 25 Social Media Marketing Experts You Need to Know by LinkedIn. Visit Feldman Creative and his blog, The Point.

Not-So-Scary Ways to Cut Costs in Your Small Business

Whenever you hear someone say it’s time to cut costs in your business, you break out into a cold sweat. After all, you’re already operating on a miniscule budget. What is there left to cut?

Rather than fear the idea of cutting costs, use these realistic tips to ensure you’re not spending outside of your small business limits:

1. Look at Utilities

Whether you work from home or have retail or office space, utilities are a key expense. And while you don’t want to freeze out your customers by turning off the heat completely in the winter, there are subtle changes you can make that will reduce your bills.

Start with a schedule thermostat. Set the temperature to be ideal during the hours that customers or employees are in your business, then turn your air/heater way up or down (depending on the season) so that it’s energy saving at night.

Consider fans as an alternative to air conditioning, as well as space heaters instead of blasting the heat all day.

Some cities offer incentive programs for businesses that work to reduce their energy use, so see if there are ways to save with your utility company.

Beyond that, turn off all lights and devices at night, and unplug anything that’s not in use.

2. Negotiate Better Rates

If you buy regular inventory or office supplies, you might be able to haggle a better price with your vendor. Instead of buying one box of printer paper every month, see if you can save by buying in bulk from your office supplier. Ask for a discount if you pay your invoices early. A good vendor will want to keep you as a customer, so should be willing to negotiate.

If your vendor isn’t, shop around and see if there’s a better deal out there.

Also look for bundling opportunities. If, for example, you have business liability insurance as well as car and home insurance, see if you can get a discount for having your policies all with the same insurance company.

3. Look for Alternatives

Be honest: do you use your 20-line phone system as much as you should? That—or other unnecessary expenses—is a great place to cut back on spending. Most of your staff probably uses their cell phones to make calls anyway, so consider whether chunking the phone system is feasible. You can use Skype and Google Hangouts instead.

What’s the situation in the break room? Are you supplying gourmet coffee to your team, but it just sits in the pot getting wasted each day? Think about buying a pod system coffee maker so no coffee is wasted and people only use what they’ll drink.

And if those snacks you’re supplying aren’t getting eaten, cancel the order. People tend to bring their own food, so they probably won’t even miss them.

You’d be surprised how many places you can cut costs without negative effect. Just look at what you’re spending and pull back on anything that isn’t helping you grow your business.

The post Not-So-Scary Ways to Cut Costs in Your Small Business appeared first on AllBusiness.com

The post Not-So-Scary Ways to Cut Costs in Your Small Business appeared first on AllBusiness.com.

Using Kissmetrics to Find Out If LiveChat Is Affecting Conversions

Live chat. If you don’t already have it installed on your website, you’ve undoubtedly spent hours contemplating and debating with your colleagues. But does it actually work at increasing conversions? If you don’t have an analytics tool that provides this data, you’re left in the dark. Kissmetrics is here to help.

Kissmetrics includes an integration with LiveChat. This integration can give a lot of different details; such as if/when a person sees a pre-chat survey, if it is filled out, when a chat is started, etc. Today, we’ll focus on using Kissmetrics to tell if customers that use LiveChat have a higher likelihood of converting. Of course, you will have to be using LiveChat to get any data.

Does Chat Increase Conversions?

Each business is different. I’m not going to make a blanket statement like “chat doesn’t increase conversions”. What works for some companies may not work for others. Since you have Kissmetrics, you’ll know what works for your company. Here’s how:

Using the Kissmetrics Metrics Dashboard, create a new metric. Select the option Number of People Who Did Event.

Enter the name of your new metric and select the event you’ll be tracking. If you’re in SaaS, it may be something like sign up or demo requested. If you’re in eCommerce, it would be purchased or created account. Remember, we’re tracking conversions here, and you’re using LiveChat to see if it moves some needle. The needle you’re trying to move is the event you’re tracking.

For filter property, select Performed Chat. This will automatically be in your account once you connect LiveChat to Kissmetrics. Save your metric and you’ll get the data.

And you’ll get your data. True means they did chat, None means they did not. What you see below is just hypothetical data. Your results will vary.

If you see that there is little effect, don’t give up on LiveChat yet. Here are some ideas of what to test in LiveChat:

• Change your greetings – LiveChat allows automated greetings to popup before a visitor even types a word into the chat box. Do some automated greetings get better responses than others?
• Compare chat agents – You may have 5 people that handle LiveChat. Does any one of them convert visitors better? With this integration, you can see the number of conversions each agent has delivered.
• View the chat transcript – This one is a little more high-level and requires some manual work. But if you’re really curious, you can go back and view each transcript for the ones that converted and the ones that didn’t. The data is all within Kissmetrics. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

Use People Search to Find People Who Fit a Specified Criteria

You’ll want to find the people that have done the event you’re using in the Metric. This can be signed up, purchased, etc. Next, find the people that have the property Performed Chat and it should contain true. You can make the date range whatever you’d like.

With this, you’ll find the people that signed up (or purchased, created account, started trial, etc) and have chatted. Click Search and get your list of people.

Once you see the people, you can go back into LiveChat and see the chat transcripts. How did the agent manage to get the person to convert?

Compare these against the people that didn’t convert. To do that, just change the Have done event to Have not done event. This will show the people that have chatted but have not converted. You can then compare the transcripts of those that converted and didn’t. Compare the language and conversation and how they were addressed during the chat. You may be able to pick up some good nuggets on what triggers conversion and what doesn’t.

Recap

Here’s the takeaways:

• Using chat on websites is a debated topic. Does it have any effect on conversions? Each website is different, and you’ll need to test it to see what effect it has for you.
• Kissmetrics includes an integration with LiveChat.
• Using Kissmetrics, you can see what effect LiveChat has on conversions. You’ll be able to compare conversions for people that used LiveChat and those that didn’t.
• Go beyond just seeing if chat increased conversions. Look at chat transcripts, test different greetings, or see if one person on chat is better at converting users. You can also view chat transcripts to see if there are any trends in what questions people commonly ask.
• If you’re already using Kissmetrics and LiveChat, you can view the instructions for integrating the two.

Questions? Feedback? Want to say hi? Put it in the comments.

About the Author: Zach Bulygo (Twitter) is the Blog Manager for Kissmetrics.