How long should my marketing funnel be?

Imagine I compare for my site visitors 3 products side by side and I find out for them which is the better product.

Should the target button/link (the one I want the visitor to click on) link then directly to an advertiser's shop or should I first link to an extra page on my site?

What I want to put on this extra page (after the visitor clicked the product's button) is:

• Where to buy - guiding the visitor regarding best price.
• Better buy - comparing different advertisers regarding reputation, experience, shipping/return policies, support quality, business quality (is it a BBB member...).

So what do you think - should I beam the visitor directly to the advertiser or take up 2 more minutes of her/his time to give her/him an even better shopping experience?

What will generate more sells?

Would love to know what you think,
J

P.S - I can't split testing yet as my site still gets no visits...

 

Hi, in my experience you should always send a visitor person to where they presume they are going to land. If the Product button inferes they will be sent to a product page then that's where you should send them.

Why not try a forth button that gives them the option of visiting one of these other pages first, which explains that it is a benifit and will enhance their shopping experience?

 

Hi Jiff,

many thanks for you comment.

I am a white-hat type of guy so I always try to stay as honest and true as possible (maybe this is the reason I didn't sell much until now?) - anyways, at the moment my button say's "more information"/"learn more" and if I redirect to the advertiser's page this is OK because some additional information is given at that site but I can also send the user to a further page of my site with further interesting information.

The thing is - if I add another button I might confuse the visitor. I want to give him/her only one option, which will be the best marketing strategy.

What do you think?
Thanks,
J.

 

Without actually seeing the page/button etc, it's a little hard to give you an exact response. If the button infers you are going to give the user more information about the product, which I'm guessing is correct, then this is what you should delivery. Whether it is on your site or the merchants.

However, making them click again to find out more information and inevitably make a purchase then you could be adding an unnecessary extra click to their journey, which could harm your conversion rates.

So if the information isn't really above and beyond that of the merchants page then I would send them directly there. Hope this helps.

 

Hi Jiff,

My thought is to divide the relevant information into two parts:
1. Which is the best product.
2. Which is the best seller - detailed information that compares possible sellers.

I can't put both on the same page because I believe this will be too much information on a single page.
I am sorry I can't show my page - I understand affiliates are very secretive about their landing pages... In general, you can imagine it as as table with three columns comparing different aspects of three different products - of the same group of items. Example: compare 3 high-level washing machines (of 3 different manufacturers). At the bottom of each column I have a "more information" button. Currently they link directly to the merchant's shop. So at the moment I give no information regarding the seller.

Thanks,
J.