Interesting factoid: in 2008 than 87% of searches outside North America were NOT performed in a Google Search Engine… perhaps a week or so ago I read this Blog post on market share by country that you may find interesting:

http://www.chandlernguyen.com/2011/03/search-engine-market-share-by-country-mar-2011.html

It was updated in July, 2011 to this spreadsheet – not sure how it will translate formatting wise in this dialogue box but here goes:

Country Google Sites Yahoo! Sites Microsoft Sites Ask Baidu Naver Daum AOL Yandex

Argentina [1] 89.40% – - – - – - – -

Australia [2] 91.81% 2.38% 4.20% 0.30% – - – - -

Brazil [3] 89.00% – - – - – - – -

Canada [4] 80.96% 4.20% 8.60% 3.70% – - – - -

China [5] 19.60% – - – 75.50% – - – -

Colombia [6] 92.20% – - – - – - – -

Hong Kong [7] 58.02% 23.51% – - 6.08% – - – -

India [8] 88.40% – - – - – - – -

Japan [9] 38.00% 51.00% – - – - – - -

Latin America [10] 90.50% – - – - – - – -

Russia [11] – - – - – - – - 64.10%

Singapore [12] 86.51% 10.17% 1.74% – - – - – -

South Korea [13] 7.30% 4.10% – - – 61.90% 19.70% – -

UK [14] 91.65% 2.51% 2.88% 1.36% – - – - -

US [15] 65.50% 15.90% 14.10% 2.90% – - – 1.50% -

Question:
Hi! In trying to determine the right customer care strategy for an insurance company, I’m trying to determine what is important for the insured. How does your insurance company add value for you?

Answer:
Donna Rougeau • @Jacob – great points I agree with that and Geico has done a great marketing job all around… and seem much more success in the US than in the rest of North America for those tools – we just don’t seem to have much like that available here in Canada.

I am making an assumption Omran that you want to add value to the customer when they are visiting your site or receiving messaging from you so based on that assumption…

Having spent a good part of the last year with my nose in governance, compliance and regulatory requirements and changes for the financial sector it would seem that TRUST and Customer care go hand in had along side customer experience. That said perhaps open and easy access to information about HOW you are protecting your clients and their information and getting that information out there in an exciting way would add value… Being that your in Canada I know that there isn’t very much information like this readily available FROM your industry…

Known Packaging or service bundles based on need / charted with a version based on price – clearly stating strategies to get from one to the other over a timeline would be unique and add value to customers as well.

Most financial institutions in Canada anyway outsource the Insurance piece and do a good job of brick and mortar marketing and messaging in their physical locations – VanCity is an excellent example of this… I haven’t seen a Canadian company take that online yet – if your independent this won’t matter to you however if your affiliated with a financial institution you can look at some joint online marketing strategies including social marketing.

Email marketing is also something that I KNOW Canadian insurance companies are weak in performance around – Direct Marketing has been weak in recent years too … sometimes in an industry as difficult as Insurance perhaps revisiting what worked before and got shelved for some reason will lead you towards re-purposed success ideas/tools…

Now another area that is gaining a lot of momentum is corporate insurance – especially a search for solutions as enterprises work towards cloud strategies for storage and managed services… not sure if this is beyond the scope of your focus however there sure is a demand and not much awareness of anything available IF there is anything available.

Good luck to you Omran, its a tough position your in geographically for your market space. I am looking forward to following this conversation further and please share back what you test or learn with us all!

Question:
What is more important and where should you start: Increase Traffic or Increase Site Conversion?

Answer:
Donna Rougeau • Miryala,

You have some excellent responses here, my 20+ years selling online and consulting to businesses small and enterprise, plus the ability to measure results in testing on eCommerce sales offers some insights that you may find useful:

1) ALWAYS get your conversions clear before spending money on additional traffic ALWAYS!
2) You will need at least 1000 unique visitors to test a process or change and accurately evaluate your conversion rates… and you will that for every single change or tweak you make to a process.
3) Make only ONE change per test, and be prepared to test until you get the conversions that line up with the margins you will need to make for your required or desired revenue goals.
4) Always… keep your money in mind and in focus, know your margins so you can know your conversion needs.
5) Organic seo always – paid advertising without organic seo is financially foolish.
6) Conversions can come in many ways – opting into a list is a conversion ( what is that worth to you financially?) bookmarking a page, downloading something, posting a comment or questions etc… these are all conversions ( what are they OR can they be worth to you financially?

Conversions come in all shapes and forms and they ALL have a financial value attachable to them for every eCommerce venture small or large. Relationship sales are higher on average and create lifetime customers so you will have lifetime customer value to consider rather than simple single sale values…

Hopefully this inspires you to consider conversions and traffic a little bit more, a little bit differently and I am sure it will add to your bottom line.

Cheers!