CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION
CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION
Most websites are built with the intention of converting visitors into customers, but just how can you do that? The old saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." Conversion optimization is figuring out how to make the horse thirsty.
Conversion optimization is a series of evaluations, testing, implementation, and testing. Everything from the color palette to the content and placement of the text on the screen, can be split-tested to see which version your visitors respond to better. There's no guessing to see which version of your design will get the most conversions – we test and get the data we need to make educated adjustments to the design until we can get you the best possible conversion rate.
For every $92 spent on acquiring customers, businesses only spend $1 converting them. With conversion rates typically hovering between one and three percent, this means about 97% of website visitors aren't interested in what is being offered, and don't react to the call-to-action.
The key to conversion optimization is to think like a visitor. What do they expect to see? Where do they expect to see it? When you put yourself in the shoes of a visitor, you’ll do far better at creating an experience that’s ideal for them to do what you want.
If you’ve got an existing website and you’re losing traffic, we’ll take a look at your analytics data to determine where your traffic drops off, and create an optimization strategy to avoid it in the future. If Google Analytics isn’t set up properly with your goals and funnel in place, we’ll work with you to get it correct, so that you can easily spot issues in the future. However, it’s important to consider that a certain percentage of your traffic will drop off at any transition point, so we’ll focus on pages and forms that have higher bounce and exit rates and go from there accordingly with a website audit.
SPLIT-TESTING
Split-testing, also known as A/B testing, or multivariate testing is a process where visitors are served one of multiple versions of the same website, with only a small change between the two. Split-testing is ideal for seeing which color scheme, logo, text placement, social media icon placement, layout, copy, or other elements of the design the visitors respond to the best. To keep data from getting convoluted and guessing which element caused one version to win out over the other, it’s best to test one element at a time. While this may mean taking more time in the long run, it takes the guesswork out of conversion optimization.
HEAT MAPS
Heat maps show you where users are spending the most time on a page. You can see where their attention goes to, where they are clicking, and what they are ignoring completely. This is particularly helpful in terms of making adjustments to the layout to draw user attention to where you want it to go, to get the result you want.
SURVEYS
We can help you see what people actually think of your website, using one of many survey platforms available. If you’ve got an email list, you can send the survey out to the list and see what they have to say. Any response is better than no response, and the feedback can be taken into account as adjustments are made.
USABILITY TESTS
These allow you to take advantage of live website users, to see how they browse the website and what actions they take. You can setup a task and ask the users to complete it, so you can see how complex the process is for them. Though the form of feedback varies depending on the tools used, you may see reports, video recordings, or audio recordings. These can help you find conversion barriers that are often overlooked with other methods.
RETARGETING
This is just a small sampling of what Sachs Marketing Group can do to improve your conversion rate.
- Improve your website copy. Add benefits, reassurance copy, add urgency to calls-to-action, and more.
- Add site search. If you have a product catalog, add an autocomplete feature. Make it easier for people to find what they're looking for. Amazon offers a fine example of this feature:
- Add trust symbols. Trust symbols can be anything from security, to awards your business has won, client logos, and customer testimonials. Split-test to see the response, because like with anything else, they may have the opposite effect.
- Make it easy for users to share their purchase on social media. Amazon is a clear winner here, too, because whenever a customer purchases something, they're given the option to share the purchase across social media channels.
- Provide social proof. Customer testimonials, the number of social shares/followers/fans, number of downloads, or any other indication people trust your brand. This isn't a good thing to use when you're first starting out and numbers are low. If you're already using social proof, test removing it, or using a different form.
- Remove any unnecessary options on your website. Too much stuff, and people won't know what to to do. It's possible they'll either do the wrong thing, or become so overwhelmed, they won't do anything at all.
Conversion optimization can increase profit, build a stronger customer base, and can be used regardless of whether your end goal is a purchase, an email subscription, or some other action you want website visitors to take.
Spend less time wondering if your website design is going to resonate with your customers, and more time connecting with them. Get in touch today.
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