Great Myths of the Internet – Busted

Earlier this month, I attended a presentation at the Direct Marketing Club of New York featuring Amy Africa – outspoken and renowned Internet guru extraordinaire. Here are Amy’s no-no’s, in a nutshell:

1. A good shopping cart abandonment rate is 10% or less
Not so! The rate should be about 60%. The same applies to lead forms (52%) and subscriptions (67%). If you’re not seeing this volume, you’re not getting enough people to put stuff in the basket

So, have a buy now or inquiry button on every screen, plus pop-ups on entry and leaving. Live chat prevents abandonment

2. Email is free so mail everyone everything every time
It’s all about deliverability, so mail in small batches for better delivery. And mail your best groups separately

3. People know how to find stuff online
Navigation is key and accounts for 40-60% of a site’s success

4. Text search is a good thing
Not true. You lose 66% to unsuccessful text searches and these folks don’t come back

5. Your home page is the most important page on your site
Actually, less than 15% of visitors should enter via your home page. Your entry pages determine your success, and you should have 10-12 entry pages people come in on for all major category, product lines and products. Users should spend 30-50 seconds on the first page and an average of 5 minutes on a B2B site, 7 minutes on a B2C site

6. Your site should change weekly
Change your site based on traffic patterns not just for the sake of change. 40% – 60% of your traffic should be repeat visitors

7. Aesthetics matter the most
Actually, they matter the least. It’s all about functionality. Lots of yellow is not desirable online. Red buttons produce more inquiries and sales

8. Who needs organic search when there’s pay-per-click
Organic is converting 6-12 times better than pay-per-click.

9. Web 2.0 is a killer application
Not true – because you can’t monetize it

10. You need the latest technology to market on the web
Not necessarily! It’s all about mastering the basics

11. Offline is the main driver of online success
No! Offline businesses should have their own sites because offline shoppers behave differently

12. Statistical packages are 90% accurate
Far from it. Most are only 50-55% accurate, so look at trend data rather than stats