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By Mike Phillips
Web surfers have countless options to get the information they
need. While one click of a mouse will bring them to your site,
another will take them somewhere else. As website owners, the
challenge is to find a way to engage visitors, keep them on your site
and get them to take a desired action. One way is by closing the
gap between a digital experience and human interaction. Rovion's
InPerson and Oddcast's SitePal are two powerful tools for every
website owner to increase conversions and interact with users.
InPerson
Len Ostroff, CEO of Rovion was looking for a way to take the Web out
of a two-dimensional space and really interact with the user. "The
Web was lacking personality and lacking the engagement factor," says
Ostroff. "Rovion really does create that third dimension."
Rovion's InPerson places real people on a website - walking
across the screen and talking to the site visitor about special promotions,
new features of the site, news or any message the website owner
wants to send. By clicking on the person, the site visitor sent to an area
of the website determined by the site owner for further details.
The goal of this interactive tool is to increase sales, conversions
and create a positive return on investment. Ostroff cites engagement
rates (interacting with the character) of 30-70 percent. And that is
typically defined as a user watching more than half the message or
clicking on the character.
Rovion features a full platform, including shooting footage, coding,
server usage and reporting. A site owner can choose from a selection
of models and characters, use their own clients (or themselves),
shoot footage on their own or request the help of Rovion. According
to Ostroff, about 80 percent of InPerson clients use their own clients
or themselves for the character.
Fees for InPerson are calculated on a campaign basis, typically 90
days. On the lower end of the scale, some options can cost about
$1,500 per campaign with others running several
thousand for extended campaigns and on a
year-to-year basis. Rovion has plans in the
very near future to launch an InPerson
product aimed at small- and medium-sized
businesses on a more cost-effective scale.
SitePal
SitePal is another option for website
owners, offering the same message
deliverability as InPerson but through
animated characters instead of real
people. A host of attributes are available
for a fully-customized and
unique character designed by the
website owner. Choices include age,
sex, hairstyles, skin tones, voice tones
and clothing, among others. Clients
can also call a toll-free number or
record their own voices with a microphone. Once a character is created,
SitePal provides HTML or Flash code for placement on your site.
Some interesting features of SitePal include lead generation, where
below the character are fields for email collection, phone numbers,
etc. and FAQ, where a site visitor clicks a question and the character
provides audio answers. SitePal's Gold Package offers Artificial
Intelligence. By providing information about your company or products,
your site visitors can ask questions and the character will answer,
creating an intuitive two-way communication. Reporting is also provided,
and SitePal claims to have a more robust reporting system in
the works.
Packages offered include Bronze ($9.95 per month), Silver
($19.95 per month) and Gold ($49.95 per month). The different
packages are determined by number of streams per month and
some of the features, such as the FAQ and Artificial
Intelligence. Free trials are available for the Bronze and Silver
packages.
Read full article at websitemagazine.com