Comments on: Increasing software conversions Part 2: Ask a few questions

By: Find what’s blocking sales with under a day of work | Igniting Startups - nPost

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:38:11 +0000

[...] So how do you “do it right?” I wrote a nice, long article with specific tips, learned by experimenting in the field, that you can put to use in less than a day. Read it here on the Avangate blog. [...]

By: Find what’s blocking sales with under a day of work » Checkbox Blog - Checkbox Survey Solutions, Inc.

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:29:19 +0000

[...] 1. Add a short, optional form before your download/eBook/whitepaper so you can follow up. “But forms are a barrier to downloads,” I hear you cry. I know this argument, but if you don’t have feedback you can’t fix your product, and if a hundred people download in silence and don’t buy, it doesn’t matter that they downloaded. Besides, if you do it right, adding the form doesn’t necessarily mean fewer downloads. I didn’t used to believe that sentance I just wrote until we did it at Smart Bear. Sure enough, no impact in the number of downloads. None. So how do you “do it right?” I wrote a nice, long article with specific tips, learned by experimenting in the field, that you can put to use in less than a day. Read it here on the Avangate blog. [...]

By: Tips for increasing software conversions, parts 1 & 2 « Austin Entrepreneur Network

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:13:13 +0000

[...] Collecting Data from the Download — why collecting a tiny amount of data at the point of download is better than none (contrary to popular wisdom), how to make a form that isn’t a barrier to download, what hidden information to collect, and what you can do with that data. [...]

By: Convert more Software Trials to Purchases | Avangate Blog - Software Business Blog

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:07:11 +0000

[...] Increasing software conversions Part 2: Ask a few questions [...]

By: Jason Cohen

Jason Cohen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:46:10 +0000

@Oleg — You have a few facts incorrect. Understandably so, but let me fix it:

1. No, Google doesn’t give YOU in YOUR DATABASE next to your lead data what initial page the person came from. You can indeed get that information from within Google’s interface, but it’s only possible to see thing in aggregate, not associate a particular lead with a particular referer.

2. In my opinion you should COMBINE initial referrer (which is invisible and automatic) with a “How did you hear about us?” field which is manual. Use regular expressions and a little code to take those two inputs and convert into a normalized value that you can use for reporting.

3. It’s not street-based data, it’s just city/state/country.

4. It’s NOT displayed to the user. Use hidden form fields. No one gets scared.

5. From a security point of view, you can buy IP address -> location databases. People (who know anything about it, which is very few) already know that you probably log their IP address, therefore you could do this location inference on the backend anyway. I’m just suggesting a way to do a decent job for free.

By: Oleg

Oleg — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:12:10 +0000

When you fill “initial referral page” into a hidden field to track referral of the download – isn’t it what Google Analytics is already doing for you?
Pre-filling user street data based on her IP address is cool, but it would scare hell out of me if I saw my location pre-filled. I would run away from that site for good.

By: Michelle Greer

Michelle Greer — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:05:29 +0000

B is good. As a sales rep on the other end of the lead, I always liked having some information available. I just wanted information like industry, company size, name, URL and email address. It gave me context as to who I was talking to and made it easier for me to give them a positive sales experience.

By: Tips for increasing software conversions, parts 1 & 2 « Austin Entrepreneur Network

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:24:33 +0000

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:15:43 +0000

Thanks, Jason. I’m looking forward the rest of the series.

By: Jason Cohen

Jason Cohen — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:50:46 +0000

@Adam — it also might depend on the market. What works well for us (developer tools) might be completely wrong for something else. Which of course is why all you can do is try things and test for yourself! Thanks.