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Scripts are small pieces of code you install on your website to do very specific
tasks, following a visitor's actions. The most common scripts for Webmasters are
Javascripts and CGI scripts. Though they can perform many other useful functions,
they are used best to gather information about the customer's shopping habits.
For example, you can have a script that will pop open when visitors first arrive
at your site inviting them to join your newsletter and receive a fr'ee course
on a related subject.
You can have a script come alive asking your customers why they didn't purchase
when visiting your sales landing page. It can make a fallback sales offer or
give them a fre'e item for telling you their main reason not buy.
Scripts can also be used to give you a more personal way of contacting your
customer by activating a sound file with your voice. You can show your customers
an up-front, human presence that will make them closer to you. They'll feel
they know you better going by the sound of your voice.
Care should be taken with scripting such as not to over do it. Most folks will
not come back to your site if they have to tango with 3 or 4 scripts just to
leave! Scripts shouldn't ever be used as "nag screens."
The speed and delivery action you set to the particular script you're using
will have a bearing on the response rate you harvest. For an entry script, it's
best if you let your visitor settle in and then g-e-n-t-l-y offer it to them.
The point is not to startle and irritate them!
The use of some scripts can also have a negative effect on your business, such
as the scripts that constantly reset the clock on a time sensitive offer. You
visit a particular website and are introduced to an offer telling you it's only
good for that day until midnight. Should you come back the next day, there it
is again! Perhaps it should be called an "auto-lie" script!
The drop-dead worst offender is the "countdown" script. It works
like this: When a visitor goes to the sales landing page and doesn't buy, the
script comes on and makes a fallback offer good only for the next 5 minutes
or whatever. It will then proceed to remind you every few seconds of the approaching
END of the countdown!
If at all possible your scripting should be cookie driven so that your returning
visitors don't have to deal with the same thing again. You can setup your script
to only activate once per visitor, using the identity of the cookie in the customer's
computer.
Good scripting applied in a strategic way can increase your sales and give
you more meaningful information about your customers, giving you an edge on
the competition. It should be used with restraint on key areas of your website
to enhance your relationship with your customers.
Scripting can be considered a specialty. Should you feel it's more than you
can handle, it's best to pay a seasoned Pro to do it for you. It's not all that
expensive and will pay for itself in no time.
Here are sources of scripting I use:
http://www.javascript.com/
http://www.scriptarchive.com/
About the Author:
Francisco Aloy is the author of "Yes, I Want to Start My Internet Business
Without Being SCAMMED!." He has an online business catering to the needs
of the Newbie Net Entrepreneur. Formore power packed info about website building
AND a Business Opportunity, look at our Kiosk section, here:
http://www.newbie-business-guide.com/website_building.html |