Optimize Your Website

Studies have shown that e-commerce retailers have only 8 – 12 seconds to fully engage visitors and convert them to sales. The biggest challenge in e-commerce conversion lies in creating an effective landing page (usually the homepage of your website) that will entice visitors to click further into the site. The website templates that Traffic Safety Consultants, Inc., provides free of charge to affiliates employ successful marketing concepts, but we encourage you to customize your site to make it your own. And, of course, you're always welcome to develop your own site.

Here are five important marketing principles that should be present on your landing page:

1. Present a clear call-to-action message that is professional and makes sense.
2. Be specific about what you're offering. Don't simply provide a generic description of your products or services. Include customer reviews and satisfaction guarantees. Your marketing copy should answer the following questions:
• Why should a customer buy this product from you?
• What differentiates you from your competitors?
• How do your prices compare to your competitors'?
• Are you offering any discounts or promotions?
• What makes your product(s) the best?
• Who needs your product(s)?
• Where (geographically) is the product available?
3. Present your information with the utmost professionalism. Organize the page so that the eye is drawn to individual items and not to large chunks of text which might deter visitors from browsing further. Above all, avoid spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors; these are prime indicators of a scam in the e-commerce world!
4. Be consistent. Branding is important in building credibility. Make sure your logo is visible on every page, and use fonts, color schemes, and other design elements uniformly.
5. Make sure visitors do not need to scroll around your site to find the "register" and "login" links. The main message, promotions, news, and images that will prompt customers to click the links need to be complete, concise, and readily apparent. Users do not want to search for these things; if they don't find them immediately, they may abandon your site.

Presenting a meaningful and professional image from the first interaction will help you to convert the visitors to your site into customers. Use the tips above to optimize your message, build a relationship with visitors, and successfully connect them with the products and information that they need.

Florida Training Seminar Scheduled

Traffic Safety Consultants, Inc., (TSC) is pleased to announce that we will be conducting an affiliate training seminar in Florida on Friday, October 1. The meeting will run from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. (EDT), and will be held at our Winter Park office.

A TSC Master Trainer will be conducting training sessions on our classroom-based traffic safety education courses. We'll also touch on our Internet-based courses as well as the easy-to-use ASAP™ traffic school administration Web application. The seminar is intended for those affiliates who have not yet been introduced to TSC's programs, but we would welcome any affiliates who would like to join us for a quick "refresher course." It's a great forum in which to swap ideas with other traffic safety instructors!

If you're interested in attending and haven't yet made your reservation, please contact Donna via e-mail or by calling 800 . 252 . 9951. We look forward to seeing you there!

Study Illuminates Yellow-Light Running

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati, with funding from the Ohio Department of Transportation, used video cameras to monitor over 1,500 drivers at four "high-speed" intersections in suburban Ohio locations. They measured vehicle type, speed, a driver's distance from the intersection when the light turned yellow, and the decision to stop or not in what they referred to as the "dilemma zone."

They found that vehicles traveling in right-hand lanes tended to go through yellow lights, while those on the left did not. Truckers also tended to speed through yellows, as did drivers on streets with higher posted speed limits. Drivers on streets marked by 55-mph speed limits were more likely to run yellows than those in 50-mph zones.

The study found that drivers of SUVs, pickups, sedans, and vans tended to slow down at yellows more than drivers of heavy trucks. Researchers speculated that vehicle weight may be the explanation, as heavy trucks have more difficulty decelerating rapidly than smaller, lighter vehicles.

How long the light remains yellow also matters. (Yellow-light times vary, but typically last about three to five seconds. Traffic engineers base the time on the average speed of the vehicles passing through the intersection.) The longer the yellow, the more likely it is that drivers will not stop, according to the study. With a long yellow, stopping is more dangerous, because other drivers are likely to keep going through the yellow, and someone who opts to stop runs a greater risk of getting hit from behind.

Take care to remind students that yellow means caution. A yellow light warns that the signal is about to change to red. Drivers who have not entered the intersection should stop as if the light were red. Drivers who are already in the intersection should keep moving in order to clear it. Speeding up to "beat" a yellow light may lead to a collision and could be extremely dangerous!