Subject: 30 Quick Conversion Tips Every Marketer Needs to Know - Quick Sprout
From: Quick Sprout <neil@neilpatel.com>
To: colbydenver@gmail.com
CC:
Quick Sprout
///////////////////////////////////////////
30 Quick Conversion Tips Every Marketer Needs to Know
Posted: 03 Jun 2013 08:00 AM PDT
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Quicksprout/~3/1kKaNf9mI9U/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email
You have thousands of visitors coming to your site, but no conversions. So
what do you do?
Should you change up your marketing campaigns… maybe redo your targeting?
Or even worse, pause your SEO and content marketing efforts?
Probably not. Before you modify your marketing campaigns you should spend
some time optimizing your site for conversions.
But before you go off and start running a few A/B tests, here are 30 quick
tips for you to follow:
30 quick conversion tips
Never start an A/B test without running an A/A test – don't assume youre
A/B testing software is accurate. Run an A/A test to ensure the accuracy of
the software solution you are using.
Don't take words for granted – one word can drastically decrease or
increase your conversions. Words like "free" or "trial" can increase or
decrease your conversion rate.
Data, not opinions, should influence tests – never run tests based on what
you want. Run test based off of what your visitors say they like or
dislike. Opinions typically lead to failing tests, which means you will
lose money.
Patience is a virtue – even if your testing software shows statistically
significance don't stop a test unless you have at least 100 conversions on
the winning variation. When tests are under 100 conversions, the results
can drastically change.
Color has meaning – don't take color for granted as different colors mean
different things. Just look how one simple color affected click through
rates by 21%.
Some people don't read – text works great for some sites, while video may
work better for others. You'll have to figure out which one your audience
prefers. But before you go off and create a video, you'll have to first
create a script.
Some people love reading – short copy doesn't always convert better.
Lengthy pages that sell can potentially boost your conversion rate.
Don't take your reputation for granted – some people are worried about
entering their credit card online, especially with brand new sites that
they aren't familiar with. Consider testing trust elements such as the
TRUSTe badge or the BBB seal.
Macro conversions are better than micro conversions – it doesn't matter if
you increase click through from one step to another. All that matters is if
more people buy from you. Focus on the big picture when testing instead of
trying to maximize how many people move onto the next step.
Social proof isn't always the best proof – you would think that social
proof helps boost conversion rates, but it doesnt always work that way.
Don't assume what works for one company will work for you – just because
someone like 37 Signals reveals how one change boosted their conversion
rate by 200% it doesn't mean that change will work for you.
Conversion optimization doesn't stop with the front end – from upsells to
down sells, to even cancellations, you can use conversion optimization to
increase your average sell price and decrease churn. You just have to get
creative.
The best increases come from drastic changes – after a while small tweaks
won't do much for your conversion rate. Drastic changes are what will move
your bottom line. Don't be afraid to get a bit creative and try something
radically different.
Higher conversion rates doesn't mean more money – some times having a
decrease in conversion rate can make you more money. If you increase the
price of your product by double, but your conversion rate goes down by 20%
you still make more money by roughly 60%. Optimize for revenue and not
conversions.
Mondays aren't Tuesdays – your Monday visitors may not be the same as your
Tuesday or even Saturday visitors. Run your tests for at least 7 days as
visitor behavior can change over time.
It's all about results – not just with your tests, but visitors want to see
results too. Test adding case studies and testimonials as they can help
validate your company to visitors.
Don't worry about bounce rates – when I used to consulting on A/B testing
companies would focus on decreasing bounce rates, but sometimes they
increased. It doesn't matter what happens to your bounce rates as long as
your conversion rates go up. Ignore vanity metrics like bounce rates that
may not affect your revenue.
The best experience is a custom experience – when running A/B tests make
sure you run separate tests for your mobile and desktop visitors. The
experience on a mobile device shouldn't be the same as on a laptop.
Less isn't always better – creating the best user experience doesn't always
boost conversion rates. Adding more steps and making visitors jump through
hoops can potentially boost your conversion rate. We boosted our conversion
rate by 10% on Crazy Egg by adding an extra step.
Don't make people think – don't assume your users know what they are doing
or what they want. Test giving people buttons to click instead of open
ended form fields. The Obama Administration boosted conversion rates by 5%
through this one simple tactic.
Customize your user experience – the best call to action buttons aren't
generic ones like "free trial" or "buy now" they are the ones related to
your product or service.
Images are powerful – a picture is worth a 1000 conversions. Not only was
Highrise able to boost conversion rate by including images of people, but
they found that certain images convert better. Using a picture of someone
who is too good looking or a male versus a female may affect conversion
rates.
Navigation bars affect conversion rates – it's not always wise to give
people navigational menu options. Removing them can potentially increase
your sales.
Multivariate tests are bad luck – I've run dozens of multivariate tests and
every time you add up the increases of each variation, the total increase
never adds up to being the same as what the multivariate test shows. For
this reason I prefer running A/B tests over multivariate tests.
Clarity trumps persuasion – answering basic questions like where am I, or
what does this site do typically works better than persuasive content that
sells. In an ideal world you should be using both, but make sure you don't
trick people into converting as that causes cancellations and chargebacks.
Focus, focus, focus – each page should have one goal in mind. Pages with 1
strong message typically convert better than pages that try to accomplish
multiple things. For this reason it's worth creating landing pages.
Testing shouldn't stop with your site – you should use A/B testing
principles with everything you do on the web. From testing your ad design
and copy to testing which profile image on Twitter gains you more
followers, everything can be tested.
There is money in ugliness – just because a website it ugly, it doesn't
mean it doesn't convert well. You can learn a lot from ugly websites…
especially the ones that make billions of dollars.
A/B testing doesn't hurt SEO – a lot of people are afraid of running A/B
tests because they are worried what it will do to their rankings. As long
as you follow Google's guidelines you will be fine.
Minimize friction – don't make users do things that they don't need to do.
For example, dont collect unnecessary form fields or ask people to verify
their credit card address when processing companies don't require it. Test
a version of your site with very little friction.
Conclusion
No matter where you traffic is coming from, there is a way to make it
convert. So instead of just focusing on building traffic, spend a portion
of your time convert it.
If you are continually running A/B tests, good for you! That's the only way
you are going to be able to maximize how many window shoppers you convert
into customers.
So what other quick conversion tips can you share?
--
You are subscribed to email updates from "Quick Sprout."
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now:
http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=IoX7nEaU7m7qGG-Xa4creWP7LWY
Email delivery powered by Google.
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610
No comments:
Post a Comment