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How_to_Use_Scripts
| How to Use Scripts
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/
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