The Conversion Rate Optimization has quickly become an imperative feature of every online marketer’s sales strategy. While Search Engine Optimization has dominated the field of digital marketing for more than a decade, an Econsultancy study from 2014 confirmed that 59% of businesses and e-commerce websites consider CRO a vital part of their current internet marketing efforts.
What is Conversion Rate Optimization?
Whether you are selling goods or offering professional services via the Internet, your marketing efforts are heavily concentrated on your website, landing page, or email design. The entire process behind a visitor taking action on your website and your landing page can be measured precisely. Once measured, it can be improved as well. Simplified, this method of applying analytical results to design and structure of your pages to increase the percentage of visitors converting to customers is called conversion rate optimization. [+]← click to expand
Whether it’s a purchase, submit form, sign up for a new account and so on, the path your prospect takes from entering your website to completing the desired action is monitored by precise tools, allowing you to optimize your “weak spots.” Conversion Rate Optimization is not based on guesses and hunches, nor is it a matter of an individual’s sense of aesthetic approach. It is a data-driven procedure which relies heavily on analytics and users’ feedback, with a sole purpose of providing a better user experience and improving performance. Getting the most out of the traffic that your website gains is the number one priority of CRO.
During the past decade, a great majority of businesses invested in SEO to drive traffic to their websites. But even the perfect SEO of your web page cannot guarantee that those visitors will make a purchase or answer your call to action. Leading a profitable business online is maybe not as hard as it seems to be, but SEO and CRO are indeed the two aspects that will require your devotion and continuous investments.
The Basics of Conversion Rate Optimization
At this very moment, you are probably already employing a few SEO strategies and you are most likely investing in SMM as well. All of that paid traffic is bound to convert some of your visitors into customers, but knowing they are searching for once they reach your landing page is the key of conversion. CRO is concentrated on user feedback and figuring out what your consumers are looking for on your page. Ultimately, it is a form of science behind the redesign of pages.[+]
For example – when a regular visitor reaches your landing page through search or social media, he or she is already interested in the product. The factors which are certainly influencing your buyers are discounts, testimonials, images of your employees etc. If a visitor reaches your page, loves the price and starts thinking about buying your product or service, he will scroll down and look for additional info. At that point, if he cannot find what he is looking for he will simply navigate away from your online retail. The great thing about CRO is that you will know when did that customer decide to leave your website and concentrate solely on redesigning that one port in particular, instead of investing countless hours and funds into pointless redesign measures. So CRO is cost effective, helps with maintaining attention of your visitors, and helps you focus your target audience.
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4 Key Terms You Need to Know
Although often referred to as a part of the CRO, user experience is a completely separate entity and it shouldn’t be mixed with standard CRO techniques.[+]
Call to Action is the message that you are sending to your visitors in the hope that they will follow it through and performed the desired action. Whether it is a link to your subscription form, a sign-up button or a buy now title, there is always a way to optimize your CTA so that it delivers more conversions.
Conversion Funnel symbolizes the path that your visitors travel to become your loyal consumers. Every step of the way, your email, your website, your landing page – through CRO you can measure and evaluate each and single one of these steps and tweak your funnel to ensure that your conversions are running smooth.
Multivariate testing is a complex form of simple split tests. This method is based on testing multiple versions of your website or a landing page, and tracking progress through those pages individually. Not only that, but you can also gain insight on which elements and colors perform the best.
A/B testing or split testing, is the simple form of multivariate testing and the very starting point of your CRO investigation. By splitting your landing page to two versions and testing both of them individually by sending them out at the same time to the equal number of visitors, you can gain insight on which of those two provides better results, and then focus on optimizing that particular page for further conversions.
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How to Set Up your Sales Funnel
Chances are you already have a sales funnel defined. If you are selling a product or offering your services online – you are already performing this operation, you just need the correct term and definition to understand how you can optimize it and maximize your conversions.[+]
While the introductory paragraph for this section may seem comprehensible, the actual process of measuring data and optimizing your funnel is far more difficult undertaking that you would’ve thought. The very first thing that you will have to do is to get yourself familiar with Google Analytics. You have to define your goal and measure all data to ensure that your ROI, so don’t forget to add the value of your goal. Here is a short tutorial on how to create goals in Google Analytics.
Once you have a clearly defined goal, it is time to build your funnel. Google Analytics will provide you with only ten options which represent the steps of your funnel, but ten is more than enough because we want to keep the process short and comprehensive as possible. Not only because measuring all that data and optimizing your funnel is a daunting task, but also because long funnels are simply contra productive. The steps you create will provide you with exact data and you will be able to gain insight on where your prospects decide to leave the funnel. This is very important because those steps are the ones which require your attention.
Usually, funnels are consisted of landing pages, sign up forms and trust elements. This is a simple landing page CRO design, but be aware that you can also build and test your funnels through email conversions. To optimize every element, we will have to dissect it and analyze it individually.
Building Your First Landing Page
A landing page is one of the essential parts of a sales funnel. The quality of it needs to be impeccable when it comes to design, but what is more important – it needs to be relevant.
When designing a landing page, your very focus should be on your CTA button. It has to be obvious and easy to find, some prospects are simply looking for a product and they don’t care about any other content – they’ve already made a decision and you should make their purchase as simple as it possibly could be.
User experience is important from the aspect of the purchase. Test your checking in process and make sure that it is comprehensible and easy to perform. A long, demanding process of purchase might throw some of your prospects off. Just be honest when answering this simple question: are your prospects encouraged to navigate clearly through the pages while visiting? How many clicks will get the purchase complete? Is your landing page mobile friendly? Keep your contact information, your prices and your payment method transparent. You need to emphasize that safety is your top priority and send a message to user that he can trust you.
Customer testimonials are the easiest way to build trust in your customers. Social proofs of your satisfied clients will always be the most compelling factor for your future clients. People simply love referrals and hate being the first one trusting any company. You need to present transparent evidence that your product is well tested and that you provide service worthy of referral.
With all of the features aforementioned, never forget your Search Engine Optimization. Always mind your meta description, your image format and size, titles, keywords, clear headlines etc.
Be aware that your landing page will continuously be a project that will require revision. You will definitely want to change your CTA button color, the position of key elements and possibly images to test your conversion rate. Be advised that stock photos should never be used when designing a landing page.
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How to Analyze Your Landing Page
Once you’ve built your first landing page, the time has come to test it.[+]
Headlines should be compelling and transparent in their purpose. Never forget your keywords, if you are dealing with CRO it is expected that you have at least basic knowledge of SEO since it is a preconditioning factor. Test different versions to determine to which one do your visitors respond better.
When writing a sales copy, always concentrate on the problem. Of course, there are certain words that people simply respond to and you should emphasize those, but your sales copy needs to offer a solution for a problem and not just promote your product.
Fonts are equally important. It is a well-known fact that Comic Sans font has never been persuasive or sold a single thing. Fonts impact conversions but bear in mind that your landing pages are no place for long posts and thorough explanations. If you are providing information – keep it precise and concise, make sure that your font is easily read and that its size is optimal as well. Your disclaimers and privacy policy should be at the bottom of your page in a tiny font, and your CTA button should have a clear title written on them in large fonts.
Images should always be impactful. We’ve already mentioned that you should never use stock photos, but the one that you need to use most definitely is your logo and your headline image. A compelling representation of your offer that will reassure prospects that your content is worth their time. Keep in mind that your images should always be in a small format so that they can be downloaded to your visitor’s devices fast. Preferably the file size shouldn’t be larger than 200Kb.
Colors are probably the most important part of every successful marketing venture. You are probably aware how compelling colors can be and that there is a well-proven theory behind the psychology of colors. Here is a definite guide that will help you comprehend how people react to certain colors.
The process of analysis is based on samples. As many variations that you can come up with – test them systematically. After you perform an A/B test, discard the underperforming version and build two versions out of the one that delivered more conversions. Be aware that you can never optimize your landing page so that is delivers 100% conversions, which means that your testing process will never be done – there is always some additional tweaks that can be applied.
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How to Build Sign Up Forms That Convert
Once your visitors reach this position, they are at the most important breaking point of your funnel. This doesn’t mean that you can disregard all the other aspects and concentrate solely on the sign-up form; naturally, every element should be in its place to direct visitors to this final step.[+]
Since this step is crucial for conversions, being that all conversions happen right here, you will have to devote extra attention to your sign up forms. Once again, be advised that your hunch is not a measure that should be considered at any time, still you will simply have no trouble in determining is your sign-up form effective or not just by the look of it.
The less information you ask for the better. If you are asking for phone numbers and credit cards, make sure that your company is transparently represented online as well. Understand the risk – the moment you ask for any piece of information that can be considered as too private – you are losing a customer. The smart way to go around this, if you really need those details, is to draw your visitors even further down the sales funnel and offer something in return. Basically, you shouldn’t ask for social security numbers or credit cards until your visitor definitely decides that he wants to do business with you.
Your headline should provide an explanation about what will happen after they file their details. For example, your headline can inform them that they will receive a confirmation email, or a free e-book, or whatever your lead magnet is.
Including a social proof doesn’t have to be a complex task. Just state how many subscribers you have this far or how many customers filed their information in the same sign-up form. As we’ve stated before – very few customers are willing to be the very first. Provide proof that people trust you to gain even more trust, it is as simple as that.
If you are interested in tweaking up your sign up submission form even more, here is a great tutorial that will teach you how to build a bulletproof, converting sing up. One thing that you should definitely exclude without any hesitation is the captcha filter. It might keep the spammers out of your list, but it will keep your conversions dropping as well.
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Building Consumers’ Trust with your Trust Elements
Every business benefits from trust elements. If you have a transparent proof of your previous deals and how beneficial they were for your customers – present it in a form of testimonials. Everything from your company’s logo to contract should contain a trust element[+] that will reassure your clients that you will do everything possible to provide them a great service.
If you are asking for any private information from your clients, ensure them that all information will be kept confidential. If you are using any encryption software make sure to underline which one and why it is beneficial for your clients. Third party validation is a very powerful converting feature.
As far as testimonials go, the most important thing is to keep them genuine. Present your finest example cases and provide a short description that will not just emphasize your services but also provide an evidence of a solution to some problems within your market. For example, if you are a CRO agency dealing with small businesses, the perfect testimonial would be to have a portrait photo of your satisfied customer, along with a statement “These guys increased my conversions for 430% within the first month.” Including their business and role in the company is equally important. Here is a great tutorial that will help you to design the perfect testimonials for your landing page.
Bear in mind that your trust elements are very important as conversion factors. However it is enough to simply present them without too much hype. Continuously stating that there will be no problem might just be contra productive.
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Analyzing Your Email Conversions
Your list of contacts is the best source that you can use as a testing sample. This step will provide you the perfect entry to your sales funnel and will initiate the process of conversion [+]with already confirmed prospects.
Your subject line is certainly a breaking point of your open rates. Some people will simply have their mailbox set up in a way that will prevent your email from accessing their inboxes and will filter yours straight to the spam folder, but the remaining opportunities will decide whether to open your message or not solely because of your subject line. So think about this initial part as if you were trying to find the perfect book title.
Your copy could be short, long or too long. While most people prefer to gain valuable information in concise sentences with a clear call to action, your regular customers will probably prefer a thorough explanation right there on the spot before they click on your CTA. Consult this article to find out which emails get the best click through rate. Of course, writing too long copies is a meaningless undertaking which you should avoid by all means.
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The Proper Use of A/B and Multivariate Testing
A/B tests and Multivariate tests are indivisible. While A/B tests [+] are used to divide the number of your visitors into two groups and define which elements (CTA buttons, general design, etc.) deliver more conversions, multivariate testing[+] is a more complex approach of this same system. In simple terms – you are testing significantly more options and defining each element with greater precision. Apart from being a more accurate technique, multivariate testing differs from split tests in required sample size as well. Naturally, for more precise measurement we need more elements that we can measure.
The most important thing that you should keep in mind is that you have to run these tests at the exact same time. If you send out different versions in different time intervals, your samples will reach a completely different settings as well. One last piece of advice is to keep all tests open for constant revision since, as we’ve stated multiple times before – you can never perfect your optimal number of conversions.
Advanced Optimization
At the very end, don’t forget the golden rule – you can never reach a 100% of conversions, no matter how well-optimized your funnel is. It is simply impossible. This means that there will always be room for advancement.[+]
Average download of your landing page should be lowered to a bare minimum. If you are uncertain how long it takes for a user to actually obtain all the pieces of information from your landing page, you can use some of the page speed tools from Google and check it. Resize your images, keep your elements simple and don’t pile them up continuously. Remember that simplicity and concise information provides conversion.
Average order value is a strategy that you can test and modify as much as you can. Discounts, promotions, rewards – those are all great strategies that may increase your conversions. Pricing strategy is inseparable from your conversion strategy, and if you are looking to find out more about it you can start here.
Advanced SEO is imperative. Follow up on the latest SEO trends and realize that your SEO strategy will continue to influence your traffic and your conversions in the year 2016 as well. Know that starting from this year when you are thinking about reaching out to your customers online – think mobile first.
