Love Your Thoughts A Virtual Smart Agents

by Zachary R. Skinner

Posted: 16 years ago 13 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I was toying with the idea of installing of a virtual smart agent on a few of my info product sales pages.

Before I shell out the cash for one of these guys, I love to know what everyone's thoughts are on these things.

They seem like they would be much less effective on IM products than on other info products. Or maybe it's the other way around.

I know personally that they don't have much of an effect on me, but I'm a bit of an oddball so I don't know if I count.

BTW-Here's the product I'm talking about:

Virtual Smart Agent

#agents #love #smart #thoughts #virtual #virtual smart agent

clanspring 16 years ago

Personally, they never have an effect on me. That's cuz I already know it isn't a real person. However, I will add one caveat - having gone ahead and clicked on a few of the VSAs, I've learned they often will offer a discount. So sometimes, it is worth it, even if you know it isn't a real person.

That's just my own personal feedback, not intended to sway you one way or the other.

Good luck!
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Monetize 16 years ago

I find them annoying and usually keep my speakers
turned off so as not to hear any music or audio but
I'd encourage you to give it a try, the masses may
enjoy it
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- Sirius Lin 16 years ago
  
  I love the occasional discount you get from these VAs, but as far as handling customer questions goes, most of them fail to make the mark. You get some of the weirdest replies from VAs to simple test questions like "what type of payment is accepted?"
  
  ~ Sirius
  
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  Frank Bruno 16 years ago
  
  Personally, they annoy the hell out of me...
  
  But you raise a good point in some markets they may be very effective. I've never actually used them, frankly I don't like them.
  
  I think maybe at first they were really effective, but I think there overused quite a bit and now has a less of an effect on people visiting websites.
  
  Frank Bruno
  
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  Suthan M 16 years ago
  
  I have a quick review done many months ago on VSA ..
  Even though many here dont like it, i personally like it as it do what it is supposed to do, increase sales, and increase your optins.. even though the methods might seeem unappreciated by some, especiallu IMers.
  
  Use it outside of the IM niche, and you will be good.
  
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  OnlineMasterMind 16 years ago
  
  They work...like GANGBUSTERS.
  
  Some of the top converting products I promote use them and it's actual pretty crazy how effective they are in terms of converting lost sales into sales. I don't have any numbers in front of me but off hand... I'd say anywhere from 30-45% of sales for one product come from this.
  
  I'm gonna be launching some niche sites in the near future and I'm definitely going to implement this (with a email capture pop-up upon arrival)
  
  P.S. The effectiveness of this still hinges on the copy. If the sales page is good, then this will pull in *more* sales. But if it's bad then this is not going to *create* sales.
  
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lassitermarketing 15 years ago

They ROCK. I just installed one (real estate niche) and it's averaging 40% conversion. That means I'm SELLING to 40% of the people that were leaving my page without buying. Wow.

The key is to program the keywords well and monitor any unanswered questions so you can always add new keywords/questions.

I have to say this is the best thing for my marketing in a long time.
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Susan Lassiter-Lyons
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Paul Hancox 15 years ago

Man, one of these days someone's going to come up with the radical idea of using... REAL PEOPLE in these things.

Obviously that person would need to be trained up to be knowledgeable about the product, and good at closing the sale, but I bet such a person would be even more effective than something automated.
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MeTellYou 15 years ago

hate them.

I much prefer a popup. maybe even with an optin
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Steve Iser 15 years ago

VSA. Best product I bought this year. Made me TONS.

VSA is a big deal to my sites. More you program it, better the CTR & Sales are.

Exit Pops can only do so much.
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- JazzOscar 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by lassitermarketing
  
  They ROCK.
  -----
  
  Originally Posted by Steve Iser
  
  VSA. Best product I bought this year. Made me TONS.
  -----
  
  Maybe you're both right from a marketers point of view.
  
  I, when in customer mode, think they're extremely annoying.
  
  I've already gotten used to click through them without reading the messages.
  
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  Oscar Toft
  
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Scott_Thomas 15 years ago

Question: If the Virtual Smart Agent is such a powerful conversion tool, how come there isn't one on the sales page for it? Or did I miss something? I visited the sales page and then jumped to another page and no VSA greeting!

I personally just close/cancel the VSA without even looking at the message. If the purpose is to offer a discount or a bonus, I prefer peelAway Ads. They are not obtrusive and don't require you to click or view anything if you don't want to. Dave Guindon promotes both Virtual Smart Agent and PeelAway Ads.

My 2 cents.
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Amy Bass 15 years ago

I have a video of myself talking on my sales page. How is this supposed to be better? Don't people want to see the REAL you instead?
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