Can Speaking Avatars Help Your Website?

Now you're talking business
Whitepaper Nș 1.
June 2007
LEARN:
. Potential benefits of speaking characters
. Potential pitfalls of speaking characters
. A/B Test - Impact of speaking characters
. Mini case study - Goldfish software, LLC.
. Creating an avatar for your website
© Oddcast Inc. All rights reserved Toll Free: (877) 300-6030 Email: Sales@Sitepal.comNow you're talking business
Can Speaking Avatars Help Your Website?
Using an avatar* (an animated speaking character) to greet and guide visitors on your site has unique advan-tages and challenges. This article will introduce you to some proven benefits and pitfalls of using speaking characters to increase personalization, conversion, site traffic and time spent on a site. The information pro-vided in this article became available through feedback from thousands of actual small businesses that have been using SitePal, a popular avatar web tool.*An avatar is simply a virtual representation of a user on the Internet and can be as simple as an animated picture. Oddcast avatars, including SitePal, are the latest evolution of avatars, with virtual human-like movements, speech, and the ability to interact directly with web visitors.
1. Potential Benefits of Avatars
Placing an avatar on a landing page can greatly reduce the bounce rate by immediately grabbing visitors' at-tention. Beyond the instant emotional engagement, avatars can provide a marketing push by delivering a short sales pitch to the site visitor which highlights the key aspects of the site's offering - whether it's com-petitive pricing, robust customer service, or premium Client Results:Since using SitePal, Goldfishproduct quality. Speaking characters are a proven Software, LLC experienced:tool in motivating visitors to stay longer on a site . 33% increase in conversionsfrom browsers into buyersand guiding them towards a purchase decision or . 22% increase in repeat visitorsother action. . 53% increase in sales value per customerAnother beneficial use of avatars on a landing page is to help customers navigate a website. When there are numerous menus and links to click, site visitors can often feel frustrated, overwhelmed or lost. An avatar can direct people to the right section of a web-site, retrieving 10% or more of site visitors who might Mini Case Study - Goldfish Software, LLChave otherwise been lost - this benefit impacts bot-tom line sales. Goldfish Software, LLC, an online retail web-Avatars are also used to collect contact information site selling business software, implemented from potential customers before they leave a site, a SitePal virtual salesperson on its website in even if they don't make a purchase. With a built-in 2004 to provide customers with more consul-Lead Generation functionality, you can easily attach tative product information and also highlight an interactive contact form to your avatar. The char- its "Hot Deal" to customers. After using Site-acter can encourage site visitors to leave their contact Pal, the company saw a 33% increase in the information and receive an e-newsletter or a personal conversion rate and a 53% increase in aver-follow-up from a sales representative. This is often age sales dollars as a result of successful up-more effective than relying upon visitors to find and sell and volume sales. Golldfish Software has click on a separate contact page. been using SitePal avatars for 3 years now.
A simple yet powerful way to use speaking characters Please visit www.SitePal.com/casestudies for a is to reinforce the call to action button by giving spe- full case study.cific instructions on what to click. (e.g. "Click the red Register Now button to get started").
© Oddcast Inc. All rights reserved Toll Free: (877) 300-6030 Email: Sales@Sitepal.comNow you're talking business
A/B TEST - Impact of Speaking Characters
Dr. Ralph Wilson, CEO of www.webmarketingtoday.com, conducted an A/B test to analyze the influence of an avatar upon the average time visitors spent on his website. The results proved a speaking character had a remarkable im-pact, with a 33% increase in the average time spent and a 17% increase in page views per visitor.
Please visit http://www.wilsonweb.com/conversion/site-pal1.htm for a full report.
2. Potential Pitfalls of Deploying Avatars
Avatars may not improve traffic and... [download for more]