August 29, 2006

Staying Ahead Of the Competition with OddCast

Small business owners face many challenges keeping their business up and running. In the online environment, these challenges seem to multiply exponentially. With so much "noise" on the Web and so many choices company owners are continually askingÖ"What can I do to differentiate myself from the competition, how do I increase customer retention and most importantly what can be done to drive conversion rates?"

Small business owners are finding it hard to answers these questions and many of the technologies available are often too pricey or too difficult to implement. However, as the Internet and web-based technology continues to mature newer solutions are being offered that meet both price and implementation requirements.

I'm happy to share with you information about SitePal , a product from OddCast, a new supporter of Smallbiztechnology.com and how their solution can work for you

Windy City TV, Inc. (www.windycitytv.com), an Internet television company, was struggling with ways to achieve additional interactivity, differentiate their offering from other online broadcasting networks, increase traffic and drive additional ad revenue. While Goldfish Software (www.goldfishsoftware.com), a premium online seller of business software was looking for a way to provide visitors with a unique shopping experience that exceeded customer expectations.

Both companies decided to use online talking avatars to accomplish their business goals. Talking avatars or virtual salespeople as many call them have been around since the days of Annanova, Miss Boo and the ever-popular Max Headroom. A "new generation" of avatars however has gained widespread popularity and offer complete customization and the ability to add audio using text-to-speech or recorded voice. The results that these characters produce (coupled with the cost-effectiveness and ease-of-use) can be pivotal for small business owners.

Both Windy City and Goldfish chose to use a product called SitePal to help solve their core business challenges. Now, when visitors visit Windycitytv.com they are greeted by an entertaining host instead of a static webpage. In fact, within the first month of adding their customized talking avatar, traffic increased from 15,000 to 45,000. The company has also been able to close 7 out of 10 callers inquiring about promotional or design services, as opposed to 3 out of 10 before, resulting in additional revenue of $6000- $9000 per month.

Goldfish Software uses their character for sales conversion and almost immediately after launching their virtual salesperson the company experienced a 53% increase in sales in the "Hot Deals" section of the site. Sales per transaction have increased as well with 37% of customers converting from single-user product sales to higher value multi-user product sales. Most importantly, there has been an increase in conversion from browsers to buyers at a rate of 33% and a 22% increase in repeat visits since the launch of the SitePal character.

Small business owners need results and with little time and often smaller budgets ease of use and immediate ROI is of the utmost importance. Talking avatars have been proven to get results by increasing business and driving conversion rates.

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