The Fair Measures Corporation Web site, at http://www.FairMeasures.com
contains over 500 pages of free in-depth legal
information and analysis, provided for both employers
and employees. It includes a monthly e-newsletter,
and an “Ask the Lawyers” page where visitors can post
additional questions. The site attracts frequent
media attention, and has been featured in “HR
Magazine”.
A few years ago we completely restructured the site
to add content for the many employees who come there
looking for information. Previously, we'd been
concentrating on the traditional markets for Fair
Measures - human resource professionals and managers
who hire Fair Measures attorneys for workplace
training programs. But we realized that in doing so,
we were missing out on a very different audience for
their expertise - and one that really only exists in
the online context.
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
Omniture, 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.
© Philippa Gamse. All rights reserved.
Byline
Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is a Web strategy
consultant and professional speaker. How "Emotionally
Connected" is your site? Visit
http://www.CyberSpea
ker.com/ to find out. Philippa can be reached at
(831) 325-3307 or
pgamse@CyberSpeaker.com
