One of the first innerballoons does when we start with a client a short audit of the site conversion moments. We lay this out in a 1-page business model that we have stolen from Dave McClure’s Pirate Model (AAARR!) which you can find plenty of examples of by Googling Startonomics. I encourage all online business owners and managers to take a fresh look at your sites in this way. The steps are simple:
1) work out which types of users and partners your business works with (eg consumers, affiliates, business owners, …)
2) decide which conversion moments are important to measure for each user type. As a rule of thumb, look for acquisition, retention and conversion of each type.
3) estimate how conversions relate to each other and their value and cost to the business.
That last step is a way of linking everything into how a vertical makes money. Where it can get tricky (and where InnerBalloons can add a lot of value) is where
– you currently have no revenue generation approach
– you don’t measure any of these conversions yet
– you are absolutely convinced that one ‘golden conversion’ is the only thing to focus on
Often businesses, once they find a revenue generating user action, single handedly focus on this. And often, other conversions form a much simpler stepladder to get there. For instance, retained users can buy so much more frequently and so much more cost effectively than first time users that it is worth investing in user retention then converting these users. Similarly many users who have converted once will do so again many times so it’s more important to focus on this than on retention.
The 1-page business model is an innovative and agile way to look at the user experience lifecycle and the business value lifecycle side-by-side and to quicky iterate to profitable conclusions.
We see this in business after business – focusing on one conversion and ignoring the other user actions that are close by can be a big drain on precious resources. Your site has more conversion moments. Look at them all quickly then decide which has the greatest priority.