conversion optimization cro practices

04/10/2023Conversion Optimization Practices by Harekrishna Patel

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Conversion Optimization (CRO)

Best Practices & Actionable Items


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Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the art and science of persuading your site visitors to take actions that benefit you, by making a purchase, offering a donation, or committing to some positive future action.

What is conversion rate optimization (CRO)?

Art Science

Graphics Consumer psychology

Visual appeal Experiments & testing


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With the conversion optimization practice, you can increase your orders, leads or signups within the same advertising spends.

Why CRO is important?

Pay-per-click monthly spend: $1,000

Same Pay-per-click monthly spend: $1,000

Number of visitors (i.e., click-through): 350

Same Number of visitors (i.e., click-through): 350

Conversion rate: 2% Conversion rate: 10%

Number of leads obtained (350 * 2%): 7 leads

Number of leads obtained (350 * 10%): 35 leads

Average cost per lead ($1,000/7): $142.85 per lead

Average cost per lead ($1,000/35): $28.57 per lead


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An increase in sales, revenues, and profits

The generation of more leads for your sales team

Boosting “opt-ins” to build your email list

Reduction of customer acquisition costs

More page views for advertising

Engagement of more users

A permanent improvement to conversion rates

CRO helps you to meet the following business goals:


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A. Applying persuasive techniquesB. Applying principles of usability, design and testing

How to increase conversion rates


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1. Show your customers if they don’t buy today, they will lose.

Only 10 tickets remain. Offer valid upto 31th Dec.

2. Decide what is correct by observing what other people think is correct.

1,500+ customers are using our product already. 500+ satisfied clients across the world. People who shopped this product also looked at…

Top 10 persuasive techniques commonly used


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3. Offer a small gift and ask a favor to do something. Ask for a name, company name, title, email and phone

number against download a free whitepaper.

4. If a free gift provided, make sure they know the value of the gift.

“Download a Free EBook Worth of $49.00” instead of “Download a Free EBook” only.

5. Personalized - make them feel special. Request for a custom quote or custom plan.

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6. Ask for a very small step. This will start things for bigger steps later.

Enter your Name & Email. Later ask for company name, title or problems.

7. Similarities make for better likes and better persuasion. Similar products you may like.

8. Perceptual contrasts – make this thing seem like something else.

Showing an image of money when you are offering money saving related services.

Continue…


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9. Ask a question to take the action. Is your computer safe from hackers? Take a Free Trial Now.

10. Because. Give reasons for action. Subscribe for a newsletter to increase the sales.

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1. Understand the visitors Understanding the visitors you are targeting on a landing

page.

Selection of keywords: e.g. drive traffic from organic results, Pay per Click.

Publisher networks: e.g. banner or text advertising on news sites, magazines, blogs, forums.

Applying principles of usability, design and testing


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Value proposition is single most important element in increase the conversions. Value proposition associates with your brand and target customers.

Focus on specific customer segment, consider who are not going to serve & tradeoff your services and products.

2. Value proposition


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Answers to questions to create value proposition

If I am your prospect, why I should buy from you rather than any one of your competitors?

Who is the potential customer you want to attract to your site?

Why would your customers choose your product or service?

Why would your customers choose your company over your competitors?

What are the top five objections that stop customers from buying the type of product or service you offer?

Continue…


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Few techniques for getting value proposition

Focus on your “Only” factor

Provide clear evidential

Differentiate you in the competition

Offer top 5 reasons to buy your services/products or company over your competitors

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Make sure that customers arrive at the exact information they expect. Your promotions lead visitors to relevant landing pages, and not the home page of your website.

For example, If customer is looking for “car insurance policy”, land them

on this particular page and discuss the information around “car insurance policy”.

3. Give visitors what they are looking for


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Communicate and engage the customers with same message throughout the buying process.

For example, If a user clicks on a PPC ad: “10% off for 6 months signup”,

they expect to see the same headline on the landing page.

4. Consistent message


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Keep the page simple. The focus of your page needs to be completely on getting visitors to perform the desired action. Using too much technology will distract them, and your message may be lost.

Lot of images, multiple color usage, and multiple banners is the some examples of creating distractions.

5. Remove distractions


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The less time users must spend on your conversion activity, the less time they have to change their mind.

If goal is fill the online forms, Fewer the fields. Have the input curser jump to the next filed Only request the information that is necessary for

purposes.

6. Don’t ask too much of your visitors


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It is always risky to enter into an online transaction with someone you do not know.

People may fear giving you money or their personal information because they do not know you.

Trust is established through credibility.

7. Build the trust & credibility


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For example, Accurate information on the site e.g. supports the industry and what

customer is knowing, latest information on the site.

Professional design e.g. clean design, distraction free, fast page download time.

Show real life business things e.g. trade activities, people photos & profiles, events.

Clients, testimonials, case studies.

Highlight expertise.

Positive media coverage, industry certifications, awards, memberships and standards compliances.

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Do not make the mistake of offering several products on a single landing page to take advantage of multiple products or services. Focus only one thing at a time on landing page.

For example, You are selling utility software for small businesses like anti-

virus, online billing, project management etc. Focus one software at a time on landing page like online billing and discuss the problems and how your product solves it.

8. Stay focused


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Even minor changes and updates on the site, sometimes make the mistakes in code and functionalities not working properly.

Check forms, buttons, shipping calculator, taxes etc if working properly.

Website gets traffic from different sources, browsers and operating systems. Check your traffic sources and see what devices and operating systems deliver results that cannot ignore.

Check your website with all common browsers and all operating systems for compatibility issues.

9. Avoid technical difficulties


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You need to promise your clients that their privacy will be guarded. Make sure your privacy policy is clear and easy to understand, and be sure to direct your customers to this policy.

Place a link to your privacy policy, an icon that shows precautions have been taken or a simple statement such as “Your privacy is important to us”, in close proximity to calls to action.

10. Privacy


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Give your customers a warranty for products, or trial period for services. Encourage readers to convert because you will have minimized their risks.

For example, Give 30 days to try your product risk‐free, and if not

satisfied, they can get a full refund. Suggest free consultations for new clients to get a feel for

your services without spending any money.

11. Satisfaction guaranteed


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The fold is the point on a web page below which scrolling is required to view additional content. Especially when your “Call-to-Action” is in first fold, it may lose the attention of customer while scrolling the page.

If your page is in 2 folds, highlight “Call-to-Action” for every fold. Because you don’t know where the fold will fall and appeal the customers.

However, different browsers and screen resolutions place the fold at different point on your page.

12. Call-to-Action in first fold


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Using a quick tag line above your call to action, briefly indicating what action is expected, will help it stand out. Examples include “Buy Now”; “Email to a Friend”; or “Register Here” instead of “Submit”.

CTA should have for every screen, every fold.

About every 400 to 500 lines of vertical resolution.

CTA for the desired goal should be easily differentiated from other elements of a page.

13. Call to Action


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User scans the page not read the content. Users tend to look at a page starting from the top left and moving to the bottom right.

Do not allow items on the sidebars to take attention away from the focus. Don’t place the graphics or any action that doesn’t relate to the main goal of a page.

A quick glance at your landing page should be enough for someone to know what you offer. Use bold, colorful, and large text and images for the most important parts of your page.

14. Visitor’s view of the page


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Content should be easy to read.

Avoid jargons.

Customers should understand how you can help them quickly to solve their problems. E.g. showing them list of benefits in bullet format.

The page should be well organized, easy to scan and spread out.

15. Appropriate language


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Visitors should know what to do and the order in which to do it.

Page should be easy to navigate with clear links and buttons to keep users on conversion path.

Call-to-Action and links should be clearly visible and meaningful with quick glance around the page.

For example, From the landing page of “car insurance”, a text links says

“learn more about our car insurance packages”. Instead it should be like “Compare our car insurance plans that suitable your budget”.

16. Don’t lose your visitors


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Visitors may change their mind even they are ready to buy. Visitors want smoothly, quickly and secured anticipations.

Include as many options to contact you like phone number, email address, chat IDs or quick contact forms.

17. Conversion options


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Website get traffic from different sources like organic results, PPC ads, emails campaigning, banner advertising. The headline of the landing page should match as much as possible from the sources of the traffic.

Visitors attract and understand quickly about the page by reading the headlines.

Visitors make interest visit your page by looking at the ads. Headline should match the creative as much as possible. They need to know they have arrived at the correct page.

For example, You offer “save 20% now” of “purchasing online invoicing

software who signup for 6 months”. The headline of landing page should like “Save 20% now on 6 Months Signup”.

18. Consistency & headline


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Picture is worth of thousand words. Right image is the most important element of the landing page. When scanning a web page, visitors will most often look at the image first and along with the headline and overall design.

Image should relevant to the product or service.

Image should clear and easily pay the attention of visitor.

For ecommerce stores; offers larger image option, different view of the product.

19. Use the right image


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Short copy is usually better for giveaways or free offers, instant download, or free trial offer.

Long copy works better if you are selling something particularly big-ticket items. Visitors want to know as much as they can above something before they want to spend money buying your product or services.

20. Use short copy vs. long copy


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There are many elements you can test on any page. Following elements provides the highest impact on conversion rates:

Page layout (1 column versus 2 columns, right navigation page versus left navigation page)

Headlines Images List of the benefits Call to Action Testimonials Security icons Awards, membership & accreditations

What to test on pages


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There are 5 primarily 5 design elements:1. Size 2. Shape3. Color4. Position5. Motion

Continue…


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Unbounce.com: Landing page creation and testing. Visual Website Optimizer: AB / Multivariate testing. Crazyegg.com: Heatmap / click tracking analysis Clicktale: Real-time users recording how they browse your

site. Google Analytics: Traffic analysis

Tools


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Harekrishna PatelFounder & Principal ConsultantXtreme UX: Conversion Optimization CompanyMail: [email protected]

Thank you.

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