• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, August 31, 2011

Marketers know paid-search ads on Google, Bing and Yahoo click through to landing pages, and many times those landing pages connect with Web sites. And sometimes, yes -- static and boring content. A recent study suggests consumers have become less impressed with Web sites. Sometimes static works. Other times, marketers may want an interactive Flash object that looks like a video on that landing page greeting visitors and demonstrating products or services to engage, grab and convert visitors into leads and sales.

KnowledgeVision calls that app the Talking Landing Page, but think of it more as a video without borders that simultaneously zooms in and out of several screens. The presentation runs alongside the talking presenter. While a talking head can put viewers to sleep, the ability to combine a presentation with an informative narrative just might do the trick.

Video content continues to grow in popularity, but company budgets may not keep up with the pace. This tool from KnowledgeVision integrates video with marketing automation and CRM platforms such as Salesforce, Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot and HubSpot. It's done through Web cameras and video presentations, explains KnowledgeVision CEO and Co-founder Michael Kolowich.

Kolowich said the ability to zoom back and forth between the talking head and presentation provides an engaging experience that takes marketers on average 25 minutes to create. Tests continue to return higher conversion and engagement rates with video and information graphics, he said.

Optimizing paid-search landing pages is important, but the Web sites found through paid-search ads also need care. It turns out that Web site satisfaction is falling, although e-commerce continues to rise. A report released Wednesday from iPerceptions points to data from the Census Bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce that estimates U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the second quarter of 2011 rose 3% to $47.5 billion, sequentially. The data shows that second-quarter 2011 e-commerce rose 17.6%, compared with the year-ago quarter.

Based on a scoring system, overall satisfaction for Web site visitors fell to 70 in Q2 2011 -- from 73 in Q2 2010, according to iPerceptions. The Retail/E-Commerce Industry Report for Q2 2011 study, released Wednesday, reveals that the share of visitors who came to compare product features and prices rose from 22% in the second quarter of 2010 to 29% in the second quarter of 2011. Only 22% -- down from 39% in 2010 -- came to gather initial information. The share of visitors who came to make a purchase declined from 22% to 16%, quarter-over-quarter; among them, 42% could not find the information. The share of visitors who came for support rose from 4% to 16%, sequentially.

Analysis also shows that Self Service, Discovery, Ease of Use, Relevancy and Trust had the greatest impact on visitor satisfaction. Self-service, which had the lowest rated Attribute at 6.41 out of 10 -- along with Discovery -- were the most critical attributes, suggesting that improvements in these areas will have the greatest impact on satisfaction.

The iPerceptions report analyzed real-time feedback from more than 170,000 people visiting nearly 370 retail and e-commerce sites to identify the most important issues and trends.