Conversion Optimization Round-up – August 2021

Conversion Optimization Round-up – August 2021

Would you want to know if I told you there was a way to get more conversions, attract more customers, and put more money in your pocket? That’s what we thought you would say. Today, we will break down some amazing articles from some of the most reputable companies in the market, companies making the right moves, the moves that make waves.

We will share some tips for writing a good product description to get consumers to notice you. What mistakes are you still making on your landing page? We have that list for you. Next, we want you to check out the ultimate handbook on writing the perfect call-to-action from VWO; let’s start maximizing your website conversions. Furthermore, Guess the Test shares with us their experiment if you should use a padlock or not. And finally, Widerfunnel gives you six factors to increase your conversion rate. Yes, we agree this is quite the lineup. Let’s get those conversion rates up! That’s the goal, right?

Tips for Writing a Good Product Description for eCommerce Websites

https://www.invespcro.com/blog/good-product-description-for-ecommerce-websites/

Invesp has compiled tips for writing a good product description for your eCommerce websites. Knowing the amount of effort and time you put into your business, it must be frustrating when you do not see that effort translated into the conversions you want. There could be many reasons, but the one Invesp has noticed recently is your description to the consumers. Does the description you currently have entice them?

This article will also ask you some good questions to consider. Does your description include these essential details such as:

  • Price,
  • Shipping costs,
  • Product availability,
  • Product specifications (e.g., color, size)
  • Product features etc.

This article will also help you determine the right keywords to use by asking about keyword difficulty, search volume, and related terms. Knowing your audience is key to determining how to describe your eCommerce website in a description that grabs hold of your consumers.

According to Julia McCoy:

“The whole point of search is to help users find exactly what they’re looking for. If your product descriptions align with this goal, you’re going to please Google and rank well. “

This article is filled with useful tips such as enticing with storytelling, using both features and benefits and writing a scannable copy. These are just some of the tips to start implementing today. This article is not to miss.

Invespcro (https://www.invespcro.com/)

The Top Landing Page Mistakes You’re Still Making in 2021 (and How to Fix ‘Em)

https://unbounce.com/landing-pages/top-landing-page-mistakes-2021/

Do you feel you’re listening to all the advice, making necessary changes, and following what the pros are doing, yet still don’t have the conversions you want?  It could be possible you are making some critical mistakes. The latest article from Unbounce is here to lay out some of the top mistakes eCommerce websites are making and how to find the right balance for you and your company.

We won’t dive into them all here, but some of these critical mistakes include driving all your traffic to one generic landing page. Does this sound like you? Ever heard the saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket?” This is what you are doing when you only have one generic landing page. Not everyone is the same; you need to tailor different landing pages to appeal to different users. According to HubSpot research, companies with 31-40 landing pages get seven times as many leads as companies with only 1-5 different pages. We know that seems like a lot but remember, small steps in the right direction will eventually get you there.

Another huge mistake eCommerce businesses make is to try to close on cold audiences. You need to pre-heat the oven before you can stick the turkey in. One huge mistake Unbounce found was too many landing pages are designed as tools for closing the deal. The goal of your landing page when reaching out to new consumers should be to familiarize them with your brand. Don’t be the company that scares them away before they even get a chance to know you.

Here is an example from Industrial Strength Marketing. They offer you a chance to get to know them by offering you free knowledge in the form of an ebook. This is a great way to get your foot in the door and not have your new visitor run for the hills.

Unbounce (https://unbounce.com/)

The Ultimate Handbook on Writing the Perfect Call-To-Action

https://vwo.com/blog/the-ultimate-handbook-on-writing-the-perfect-call-to-action/

Too many marketing teams neglect the CTA’s (call-to-action) across their platforms. VWO shares that more than 70% of small business websites lack a CTA on their homepage, and of those companies that do, many don’t know how to formulate them properly. That’s what this handbook is all about—teaching you how to utilize CTAs to promote more conversions. That’s what it’s all about, right?

This article explains the different types of CTA’s and where to use them, as well as teaches you six ways to write a persuasive CTA. (For an in-depth explanation, see VWO’s article in full)

  1. Using action words in the copy is a must
  2. Stir up those emotions
  3. Creativity is key
  4. Take your audience to the land of promises
  5. Play with colours and choose the best size
  6. Appeal to their FOMO

Did you know colour is one of the biggest overlooked factors when designing your CTA’s? According to a study by Emma, 85% of people purchase a specific product or service based on colour.

VWO (https://www.vwo.com/)

Is it not time to stand out from the crowd and get more conversions?

Guess the Test – With or without the padlock icon?

https://guessthetest.com/test/with-or-without-the-padlock-icon/?referrer=A

Once again, Guess the Test is providing us with the results from their in-depth testing. This time, should you include the padlock icon or not?  Now, we don’t want to give away the results, but let’s just say your guess on the experiment’s outcome is probably right.

The padlock icon is an easily understood, relatable image we have come to trust. It’s confidence-boosting; it gives us a sense of security knowing we are in good hands. Giving your consumers reassurance is one of the easiest ways to make conversions.

GuessTheTest (https://guessthetest.com)

Take a look and see the results from another in-depth test from Guess the Test to see just why this icon is so important.

 

Use These Six Factors to Increase Your Conversion Rate – The LIFT™ Model

https://www.widerfunnel.com/blog/the-six-landing-page-conversion-rate-factors/

Using LIFT™, a Landing Page Influence Function for Tests is an optimization framework developed for WiderFunnel to analyze conversion pages and develop test hypotheses; you will be able to increase your conversion rate by simply following this article.

Widerfunnel (https://www.widerfunnel.com/)

These are the six factors to use to increase your conversions rates.

  1. Value Proposition
  2. Relevance
  3. Clarity
  4. Anxiety
  5. Distraction
  6. Urgency

Widerfunnel recently began working with Rudder.com, a free personal financial management service, and used the LIFT™ method to evaluate their homepage. This article goes into detail about the 18 factors identified as priorities for testing. Does your landing page have some of these same errors? If so, they explain how to fix them easily so you can start having a better conversion rate today.

This new LIFT™ model is proven to deliver results to everyone, don’t miss out.

This month we sure have given you lots to look over and consider. What small or large steps are you taking this month to get more conversions?

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



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Calculate Your eCommerce Conversion Rate Formula Included!

Calculate Your eCommerce Conversion Rate Formula Included!



 

 

Wondering how to calculate conversion rate for your eCommerce website?

Here is the basic conversion rate formula;

Your conversion rate is the number of conversions divided by the total number of visitors to your site. Then, multiplied by 100.

Conversion Rate Formula: Conversion rate = (conversion/total visitors) * 100

So, for example, let’s say your eCommerce site is getting 1,000 visitors in a month, and from that number, 50 total number of conversions (or sales). This means your conversion rate is 50 divided by 1,000 and then multiplied by 100. So, it’s 5%.

Generally speaking, the higher your average conversion rates – the better. Because you’re getting more bang for your buck per traffic.

Through a Conversion rate optimization audit, you could even bump up your conversion rates from 5% to 7% (as an example). This may not seem like a high increase, but you’d be getting on average 70 conversions instead of 50 per month from the same amount of traffic.

A higher conversion rate leads to exponential growth and can really increase your revenue for your eCommerce business or your general marketing funnel over time.

And the best part is you can launch a successful conversion rate optimization audit one time and reap the rewards of having higher conversion rates for years to come.

But we’re getting off track here.

If you’re wondering how to calculate your eCommerce conversion rate formula – it’s not as simple as just dividing your conversion rates by your visitors.

There are a few other conversion rate optimization audit concepts and strategies you need to know about so you know what you’re looking at within your data and how to boost your rate.

Conversion Rate Topics:

  • How to Track and Calculate Your eCommerce Conversion Rates
  • What Is a Good eCommerce Conversion Rate
  • 3 Essential Tips to Increase Your eCommerce Conversion Rates (From Proven Conversion rate optimization Principles)

So, let’s take a look at some other ways you can increase the conversion rate measures for your eCommerce store, optimize your eCommerce checkout process and other concepts you need to know about.

analysis, analytics, business

How to Track and Calculate Your eCommerce Conversion Rate

 

goal-types-analytics

Tracking your conversion rate allows you to measure the performance of your top web pages and apps.

For eCommerce, for example, it would be nice to know which of your pages are converting the most, where your visitors are going from your landing page, and what you can do to improve other product pages.

It goes without saying that knowing what works and what doesn’t is extremely important in any business. Ideally, it should be backed up by data and not guesswork or assuming a landing page converts just because it looks good.

You’ll also want to know what’s performing better when you make changes and what’s worse.

This is the basis of A/B testing.

Now, you know how to calculate the conversion rate – but how do you actually TRACK it or find that much-needed data?

Let’s take a look.

How to track your eCommerce conversion rate with Google Analytics

  1. Log into Analytics.
  2. Click the cog icon at the bottom left corner and go to your admin settings.
  3. On the right, click Goals, where you’ll configure a new goal to track.

 

-analytics-setup

4. For goal setup, you can use a custom one or follow a pre-made template.

 

analytics-template

5. Next, you’ll want to set up a goal description.

Give the goal a name and select the type of goal you want to track (examples above):

  • The Destination goal – Measures every visit to an URL on your page.
  • The Duration goal – How long visitors stay on your site per session.
  • The pages or screens per visit – How many pages a person visits before leaving your site. Another measure of engagement.
  • The Event goal – When a visitor performs a specific desired action that you set like watching a video, clicking a button, sharing a post, etc.

 

 analytic goal templates

Next, click continue and go to the third step, which is the conversion goal details. This is your desired action.

With this setup, you pick a URL that indicates success or conversion.

For example, when a visitor arrives at a “thank you page” on your website, this means they’ve submitted their email (converted through an opt-in form). So, you can write /thanks.html as the URL of the page to track conversions.

Finally, once you’ve set up your conversion goals, here’s where you can find the conversion rate for your eCommerce store in Analytics:

  1. Click Conversions>Goals>Overview.
  2. Here, you’ll see the conversion rate for your different goals.
  3. The page defaults to the average conversion of all goals. So, if you have more than one goal, you can choose to see that specific conversion rate, depending on the goal.

You can also see other important information in this section of Analytics, such as:

  • Goal URL – The URL where your visitors converted. E.g. email opt-in.
  • Reverse Goal Paths – The steps your visitors took before converting. E.g. to see which pages result in conversions the most.
  • Funnel Visualization – Data visualized if you did an initial funnel set up of your goal.

There are plenty of online eCommerce conversion rate calculator tools out there. But they calculate your rate based on the data you input from Analytics.

So, it’s always better to check your conversion rate through Analytics, as it’ll be more accurate too.

Depending on the platform or what you’re tracking though, most media buying channels will have their own conversion metrics and other info you can track on their respective sites.

Such as:

  • Google Ads and PPC.
  • Analytics.
  • Facebook ads.
  • Twitter ads.
  • Pinterest or Snapchat ads.
  • And many more.

Now that you know how to calculate and track the conversion rate for your eCommerce store, here’s what you can do with that info.

ecommerce, shopping, credit card

What Is a Good eCommerce Conversion Rate

As you might have guessed, a good eCommerce conversion rate varies from industry to industry. It also depends on a ton of varying things – like where the traffic is coming from, what you’re selling, your ads, etc.

With that said, the average conversion rate for eCommerce is around 1%-2%, according to Growcode, 2021.

Which sounds low, right?

But this is just the average. It’s interesting because computer software and video game eCommerce stores have an average conversion rate of a whopping 61% in the 90th percentile. While the mean is 19.5%

 

average ecommerce industry conversion rate statistics

Source: MarketingSherpa

So, either way, you should be aiming for more than the average 2%+ conversion rate, at the very least.

Which is more than possible.

How do you do that?

There are a number of ways to increase your eCommerce conversion rate.

Let’s take a look at a few eComm tips we’ve learned from experience.

store, online, ecommerce

3 Essential Tips to Increase Your eCommerce Conversion Rate (From Proven CRO Principles)

eCommerce conversion rate is simple on paper.

When a person visits your online store, they want to know what they’re getting into.

And it’s your job to remove any technological or other kinds of challenges between them and buying your products from you.

A lot of this comes down to knowing the right customers and doing a lot of CRO tests.

1. Make your eCommerce store understandable at a glance

According to UX-based research, most people stay on websites for under 10 seconds (realistically 4-5).

To gain several minutes of their attention, you must clearly communicate your value proposition in seconds.

At a glance, your website visitors need to know:

  • They’re in the right place.
  • That you’re selling the right products they’re looking for.

Your goal is to illustrate this with smart copywriting and web design. Though, of course, this will also depend on your customer’s buyer’s stage and where the traffic is coming from.

 

conversion rate optimization buyer stages

Source: HubSpot

If a customer is on the awareness stage, then you should be seeking to educate them – instead of bombarding them with eCommerce discounts or other FOMO and scarcity tactics.

They’re not interested in buying just yet.

2. Reduce friction and anxiety

To add to the above, online shopping comes with a lot of doubts, fears, and insecurities.

People trust bigger eCommerce brands from word-of-mouth and social proof in digital marketing efforts.

But do they know about your own brand? How can you get people to trust your brand if they know nothing about you?

A few ways, actually:

  • You can use third-party social proof conversions.
  • You can display essential customer support information and trust badges to show everything is safe and sound to purchase from your landing pages.
  • Optimize and test your Add to Cart button. Your shopping cart web page should be optimized for user experience and ease of access.

ecommerce, application, buy

3. Optimize the checkout process so it’s easy for customers to give you money

Or in other words – make it easy as possible for potential clients to part with their money.

Sounds obvious, right?

But you’d be surprised at the many eCommerce checkout processes that make the customer jump through hoops just to give the online store their money.

The checkout process can be the most stressful part of the online shopping experience. Your job is to make it as easy and smooth as possible for them.

After all, parting with your money isn’t necessarily easy or fun.

Look at things from their perspective. They’re ready to buy from you, only to find out they have to:

  1. Register on your site first.
  2. Fill out a long web form with all their contact info.
  3. Then they find out you don’t accept their preferred payment method.
  4. Shipping’s going to take weeks and total product costs extra.

Obviously, they’ll have clicked off at this point.

Just to show the severity of this problem – the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.80% (source).

Here are the top reasons for top checkout abandonments.

 

ecommerce reason for abandonment during checkout

Source: Baymard

Looking for more tips on how to increase your eCommerce conversion rate?

Check out our eCommerce conversion optimization case study which is also full of practical tips and step-by-steps.

After 3 months, we achieved a 100%+ increase in conversions for a health-based eCommerce company and share all the variations and live examples of what went behind that change in the article.

Conclusion

So, to recap:

  • How do you calculate the conversion rate formula

To calculate your conversion rate formula, divide the number of conversions by the total number of website visitors on your page. Then, multiply by 100.

That is to say, Conversion rate = (conversion/total visitors) * 100. For example, if 100 people visited your eCommerce store and 10 of them converted, your conversion rate would be 10%.

That is the simplest way to calculate conversion rate.

  • What is a typical campaign conversion rate for eCommerce?

The average conversion rate for eCommerce stores is around 1%-2%. For most online store industries, this rate falls between the 10th to 25th percentile. So, through a proper CRO audit, you should be aiming for a conversion rate of well over 2%.

  • How does Analytics calculate conversion rate?

According to Google, they calculate conversion rate by dividing the number of conversions by the number of total ad interactions that can be tracked to a conversion during the same time period. The goal conversion rate is calculated as the number of goal conversions divided by the number of sessions, times 100.

Ready to increase your own eCommerce conversion rate?

Why not claim our free CRO audit that can increase your conversions anywhere from 20-100+%?

Answer a few questions and we’ll send over the personalized audit by email!

See you soon!

 

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



Follow us on Youtube

5 Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies for 2023 and Beyond (With Examples)

5 Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies for 2023 and Beyond (With Examples)

If you’re researching a conversion rate optimization strategy, you might have noticed that it can be quite easy to get overwhelmed. Doing CRO on your own can be intimidating, especially if you’re starting from scratch.

There are many strategies, best practices, and marketing steps you need to keep in mind. To put it shortly – if you want to quickly increase your conversions, you need to focus on the bottom of your sales funnel.

There, you’ll find a ton of potential customers who are on the verge of buying from you. But they just need the final push that tells them “it’s ok” and that they can trust you.

This is the low-hanging fruit of conversion rate optimization and the place where you can find quick wins.

But in today’s world, technology is constantly evolving and changing the way people interact with businesses, CRO should be seen as an essential part of your digital marketing strategy.

This article will look at some of the strategies that will be essential to success in CRO for 2023 and beyond.

What is a Conversion Rate?

Conversion rate is a measure that helps business owners understand the percentage of people who visit their website or online store and complete an intended goal such as buying a product, signing up for a newsletter or taking some other action.

Conversion rates are an important metric for measuring the success of digital marketing campaigns and website optimization efforts.

In order to increase conversion rate, business owners need to have a comprehensive understanding of their target audience and their behaviors.

To achieve this, they must use conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategies that create an effective user experience and guide visitors through the customer journey towards taking action.

CRO strategies for 2023 and beyond should focus on creating a seamless customer journey, providing personalized experiences, optimizing mobile experiences, leveraging AI technology, and delivering better content.

Ideal Conversion Rate

There is no single answer to this question as conversion rate can vary significantly depending on the industry and your customer base. Generally, a good conversion rate will be higher than 3%, although some industries may have much higher or lower conversion rate.

It’s important to keep track of your website’s performance over time by monitoring key metrics within the conversion funnel such as page views, average time spent on a page, and bounce rate to get an understanding of your conversion marketing strategy.

Measuring Your conversion rate optimization

Calculating your website’s conversion rate is fairly straightforward. All you need to do is take the number of site visitors who completed a desired action (such as buying a product or signing up for a newsletter) and divide it by the total number of site visitors to your website. The result is your conversion rate, which will typically be expressed as a percentage.

For example, if you had 100 visitors to your website and 10 of them completed the desired action, your conversion rate would be 10%.

This is also what we’ll be focusing on today. In this action-packed and practical article on conversion optimization strategies and examples:

5 ways to boost your conversion rate:

  • Using Scarcity to Improve Conversion Rates On Cold Traffic

  • Multi-step Forms to Decrease Bounce Rate and Boost Engagement

  • Developing Trust And Educating Your Leads Through Social Proof

  • Trust Badges And Other Authoritative Signals to Reduce Friction and Boost Conversions Rate

  • All-Inclusive CRO Audits That Cover Your Whole Site.

To improve this rate over time, you can use the strategies outlined above such as optimizing for mobile, personalizing content and leveraging social proof. Over time, these efforts will help you to increase the conversion rate of your website and maximize the ROI of your digital marketing campaigns.

Ultimately, having a high conversion rate is key to driving revenue for any business. By utilizing the strategies outlined above, you can optimize your website performance in 2023 and beyond and ensure that you are building a successful online presence.

Ready?

Let’s dive right in.

1. Using Scarcity to Improve your Conversion Rate On Cold Traffic

email cro

Source: AppSumo 

Scarcity is a proven marketing tactic that also can drastically boost conversions rate.

You see it everywhere:

  • In eCommerce with countdown timers telling you there’s only one stock left on the page.

  • Marketing consulting experts telling you they only have time for 1 more client.

  • Auction sites alerting you to bid now before someone else does so.

It’s a proven conversion rate optimization strategy that can be best explained as “a product becomes more attractive when their perceived availability is limited.”

Using scarcity is like a quick nudge to potential customers who are on the fence about buying from you.

They have a limited attention span (as do most people browsing the internet) and they need a reason to care.

Show them a tempting offer with a time limit next to it and you’ll get their attention real quick.

There are a few different ways you can implement scarcity as part of your conversion rate optimization strategy.

A lot of it comes down to the right mix of words (copywriting) and/or web elements (widgets, plug-ins, custom code, etc.).

Let’s take a look at some examples of scarcity in Conversion rate optimization (CRO).

Words for time scarcity:

  • Deal ends today.

  • Only 12 hours left.

  • Price goes up in 1 day.

  • Offer expires today.

Words for stock scarcity:

  • First 50 people get a free coaching call.

  • Nearly sold out. 

  • Limited edition. 

  • Only available to members. 

  • Get them while they last.

Words that imply exclusivity:

  • Members only.

  • Login required.

  • Class full.

  • Membership now closed.

  • Exclusive offers inside.

  • Get it before everybody else.

  • Rush my order (for Prime members only)

  • And more.

Some eCommerce stores go as far as using fake timers and countdowns to inspire urgency and get people to buy faster. 

Now, the ethics of fake scarcity is a topic for a different time.

But that just goes to show how effective scarcity is when it comes to conversion rate optimization.

Need more live examples and different ways you can use scarcity to boost your conversion rate?

Check out our full list of biggest brands using scarcity marketing and how you can implement this strategy in your own site. 

2. Multi-step Forms to Decrease Bounce Rate and Boost Engagement

cro-webform

Source: Convertica 

Want to increase the conversion rate on your Shopify website and start converting more qualified leads?

Consider using multi-step forms to make your site visitors stay longer on your website and keep them engaged

With high-quality and well-designed web forms, your potential paying customers learn more about you, develop trust, and be more likely to continue to your final CTA.

There’s a lot that goes behind boosting your conversion rate. But to very generally break it down, you need to:

  1. Keep your first-time website visitors.

    Let them stay on your page and convince them it’s relevant to them through your design and copywriting.

  2. Educate them.

    Educate your visitors with your offer and target their pain points (copywriting, your offer, your positioning, etc.).

  3. Qualify your leads.

    Not everyone who lands on your landing page will be a relevant lead. Being able to qualify qualified leads will save you a lot of time in the long run (copywriting, your offer/pitch, and ideally, a multi-step form).

Multi-step forms are ideal for boosting your conversion rate and qualifying your leads.

How do these forms work?

The best way to learn is through an example.

Check out the form on the Convertica homepage to learn the steps it goes through. It’s interactive and designed to keep leads on the site longer.

The questions it asks include:

  1. How is your website monetized?

  2. How many monthly unique visitors do you have?

  3. What’s the link to your website?

  4. Where should we send your FREE audit? (contact information).

Here’s why this works so well for CRO:

  • Engaging design elements that lets the prospect know how many steps are left.

  • Branded design that fits with the rest of the site well.

  • Specific questions and asks for the right information (ends with opt-in info).

Thankfully, there are many form builder tools out there you can use to create a lead-generation specific web form.

And if you’re looking for general web page optimization best practices, be sure to check out our full guide to multi-step forms for more info and the step-by-steps.

3. Developing Trust And Educating Your Leads Through Social Proof

social-proof-conversion

Source: Intercom

Trust is one of the most powerful tools in your conversion rate optimization arsenal.

Building trust is hard nowadays because your leads probably have a thousand other tabs open and don’t have a huge attention span to begin with.

You need to educate them quickly as to why you’re trustworthy to do business with and why your offer is relevant

Some other ways you can leverage trust include:

  • Being present on review sites (Capterra, Trustpilot, G2, etc.).

  • Strong web presence and social media.

  • Strong branding and marketing on your website (e.g. strong “about us” page that shows you’re an actual person).

  • Social proof – quotes and testimonials from past clients or paying customers.

Zendesk is great at building trust and using social proof that’s digestible at a glance.

zendesk social proof landing page

There’s a lot you can learn from their marketing too. Including how to leverage your lead generation strategy, content strategy, PR marketing, pricing, SEO, and more.

4. Trust Badges And Other Authoritative Signals to Reduce Friction and Boost Site’s Conversion Rate

trust badge examples statistics

Source: Baymard

This ties in directly with the above.

Another great way to increase your trust is through trust badges, online certifications, social proof, and more.

For example, in an eCommerce conversion rate A/B test, Goinflow found that including the McAfee seal on an electronic website boosted the conversion rate. In a test of over 3 days, their revenue was measured as following:

  • No badge: $112,286

  • Norton Secured: $112,538

  • McAfee Secure: $126,769

The McAfee badge returned the highest life rate of 15.7% with a 97% confidence score.

The best part is that adding the McAfee badge to your website is a very quick and easy process, free for your first 500 visitors/month

That’s an easy way to suddenly jump your conversion rate.

Looking for other easy conversion rate increasing strategies? 

Look into your target audience and what they consider a business to be trust-worthy.

Or check out our full guide to trust badges for more info on this conversion strategy partners.

 5. All-Inclusive CRO Audits That Cover Your Whole Site

cro data based on device

Source: NeilPatel

Okay, this might sound obvious but…

If you’re looking for an all-inclusive website analysis of your average conversion rate and other website elements – a CRO audit is the best way to go about this.

Essentially, a CRO audit is research and data-based assessment of the state of your website. 

It’s like looking at your website with a magnifying glass to identify each link and element of your website to find bottlenecks that stop people from converting.

What’s included in a CRO audit?

Depends on a lot of things. But our process usually includes:

  • Setting goals and hypotheses.

  • Identifying which pages to optimize.

  • Doing a thorough customer analysis (who, what, where, and when of your site visitors. Heatmaps, Google Analytics, etc.).

  • Website analysis: Evaluating your landing page layout, design, and copywriting.

  • Collecting data from analysis and A/B tests.

  • Applying changes, checklist, and implementing the conversion rate optimization plan accordingly.

Obviously, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to CRO audits. Everything depends on the specific website, goals, and data.

Once all the audit checks are applied, you should come out of the CRO audit converting more traffic into leads.

Think of it as a one-time investment.

Once you make the changes, your website will be in better condition and start getting more leads per existing traffic.

Across industries, the average landing page conversion rate is around 2.35% (source). After a strong CRO audit, you could be getting 5.31% or higher (which is the top 25% of landing pages – not too unrealistic).

Not bad, right?

Benefits of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Good conversion rates will vary depending on the industry and type of business, but typically a conversion rate of 2-3% is considered good. To calculate your website’s conversion rate, divide the total number of conversions by the total number of visitors.

The benefits of CRO are vast and can help businesses and sales team achieve their online goals faster. Not only will your website be more attractive to visitors, but it will also have better search engine optimization rankings and higher conversion rates. In addition, CRO can help you increase customer loyalty, target potential customers more effectively and ultimately maximize revenue.

By effectively utilizing CRO strategies, businesses can create a better customer experience and optimize their website performance. Ultimately, this will lead to increased conversion rates and higher ROI on digital marketing efforts.

Where to Maximize Your CRO Strategy?

Once you have identified the key conversion marketing tactics that are appropriate for your business, you can begin to identify which areas of your website should be targeted with these tactics.

Homepage

The homepage is often the first page a visitor will see and therefore it is important to optimize this page to increase conversions. Make sure that your content, visuals and calls-to-action are all tailored towards the target audience.

Landing Pages

Landing pages should be optimized for specific goals of each sales team such as downloading a whitepaper or signing up for a newsletter. Be sure to include relevant visuals, content and CTAs on the page in order to maximize and increase conversions.

Product Pages

Product pages should be optimized with images, videos, customer reviews, descriptions and more. These elements can help shoppers get the information they need in order to make an informed purchase decision.

Checkout Pages

The checkout page should be optimized with simple navigation and a one-click purchase option. Additionally, it’s important to include trust signals such as customer reviews and secure payment logos.

Pricing Page

The pricing page should be optimized to make sure that customers can easily find the information they need to make a purchase decision. Additionally, having different pricing options can help capture more sales and increase conversion rates.

Blog

Blog posts can be optimized to increase conversions by including relevant calls to action at the end of each post. Additionally, leveraging content upgrades can help capture all your incoming leads and drive more conversions.

Conversion Marketing: From Site Visitors to Paying Customers

Conversion marketing is all about understanding the needs of potential customers and leveraging tactics to turn them into paying customers. Implementing a CRO audit can help your business optimize its website, improve customer experience and boost conversions. So, don’t wait any longer – start optimizing today!

Remember, conversion rate optimization is an ongoing process and there’s always room for improvement. It’s important to monitor your website analytics regularly and make small changes as needed in order to maximize the potential of your website. With the right strategy in place, you can drive more revenue and grow your business.

The key is to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in CRO and be sure to keep testing different tactics. With patience, practice and a customer-focused approach, you will see an increase in conversions and ROI on your digital marketing efforts.

Final Thoughts

So, to recap, let’s go over some of the top conversion rate optimization questions:

  • What is CRO strategy?

A conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategy is the science and art of increasing the percentage of your website visitors who take desired action. Be it buying a product, signing up for your services, opting into your newsletter, or submitting a form. Conversion marketing aims to transform more of your website visitor traffic into real business results and get you more leads from the same traffic.

  • What are the best practices for optimizing your conversion path?

There are a lot of best practices and strategies you can follow to optimize your conversion path and website. To start with, you can use the proven strategies we’ve covered above:

  1. Using scarcity to improve conversion rates on cold traffic.

  2. Multi-step forms to decrease the bounce rate and boost engagement.

  3. Developing trust and educating your leads through social proof.

  4. Trust badges and other authoritative signals to reduce friction and boost conversion rate.

  5. All-inclusive CRO audits that cover your whole site.

  • What is the conversion rate optimization formula?

To calculate your conversion rate, divide the number of conversions you’re getting in a specific time frame by the total number of people who visited your site or landing page. Then, multiply it by 100%. For example, if your site had 10,000 visitors and 1,000 conversions in the last 30 days, your conversion rate is 10%!

Now, are you ready to boost your conversion rate and start getting more leads per traffic?

Claim your free website audit today to see how we can help your business increase the conversion process. We’ve increased website conversions anywhere from 20-100%+ across different niches from affiliates, eCommerce, SaaS, local businesses, and more.

FAQs

How do I track my conversion rate?

To track your website’s conversion rate, you need to use analytics tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar. These tools will provide you with data about the number of visitors who have visited your site, as well as the number of conversions (or desired actions) taken by those visitors.

What is an example of conversion in marketing?

Conversion in marketing is when a website visitor takes a desired action such as signing up for an email list, downloading a guide/ebook, or buying a product.

What is the Purpose of Conversion Marketing Tactics?

The purpose of conversion marketing tactics is to increase the percentage of website visitors who take the desired action. This can be anything from buying a product or service, signing up for a newsletter, or submitting a form. By optimizing your website and leveraging effective CRO strategies, you can get more leads per traffic and maximize your conversions.

 

 

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



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Conversion Optimization Round-up – July 2021

Conversion Optimization Round-up – July 2021

Who doesn’t want more conversions? However, where does one start with the ever-changing methods and resources available? Let us help you out with some top picks of the latest articles in Conversion Rate Optimization.

This Round-Up will explore how to calculate conversion rates and their application across different channels and customer journeys. You’ll also learn how to attract customers and keep them coming back. Next, we will explore what critical mistakes to avoid when doing your A/B testing. Then we bring you along for an experiment on what works better, the link or the button? And finally, we dive into conversion intelligence and let you in on some important insights.

Conversion Rate Formulas to Accurately Calculate Growth

https://cxl.com/blog/conversion-rate-formula/

Take a deep dive into how to calculate your growth. What’s working for you, and what needs to be revamped and revisited. 

Conversion rate formula is key to understanding your marketing insights. It’s the best method to find out what your next steps should be.

The method for calculating conversion rates varies depending on a lot of criteria. CXL details a few of the best formulas to use to see where you stand. However, using the basics, you can calculate the conversion rate with the following formula:

Number of Conversions / Number of Visitors * 100 = Conversion Rate

In addition, you need to keep in mind the item you are selling. A 5% conversion rate on large ticket items is comparable to a %15 conversion rate on smaller ticketed items. Remember, context matters here.

You are also going to learn how to calculate and collect accurate data:

  • How many clicks are we generating?
  • What’s the click-through rate?
  • What’s our CPC?
  • What’s our CPA?

If you are looking at how to leverage and calculate your conversion rates to drive your optimization efforts, this is the article you need to read.

CXL (https://cxl.com/blog/conversion-rate-formula/)

Attracting the Customer’s Attention

 https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/brand-refresh-AB-tests-PPC-landing-pages-XR-immersive-experience

When the Marketing Sherpa puts together case studies, you pay attention. They know what they are talking about. If you cannot grab the customers’ attention, how amazing your product is doesn’t matter.

Find out what it takes to attract the ever-fleeting attention of your new and old customers. Remember, as we move forward, the most important element of an effective advertisement is its ability to capture attention.

Here three case studies are offered that will certainly help you generate more attention, which in turn generates more money in your pocket.

  •   Bumble Bee Seafoods attains its first profitable year in five years by rebranding.
  •   Roommate finder app increases conversion by 10% in the A/B test by adding value proposition information.
  •   Tennessee Titans reach 2.2 million people on Twitter using an XR immersive experience.

In addition, the Marketing Sherpa explains this fundamental ability in a fun, attention-grabbing way.

MarketingSherpa (https://www.marketingsherpa.com)

The Pitfalls of DIY A/B Testing

https://www.widerfunnel.com/blog/the-pitfalls-of-diy-a-b-testing/

WiderFunnel takes you in on an in-depth ride into the best practices when doing A/B testing. A/B testing results have helped inform many crucial business decisions. However, A/B tests are only as helpful as the accurate information and skill of the tester. Due to this, A/B testing can be frustrating and sometimes can even produce unreliable results.

Reading through this article will help break down what you must avoid. What you need to include and how to use this testing to improve traffic and sales. They help explain what you need to plan your optimization road map, avoid too many testing elements, and finally, how to avoid calculating using unbalanced traffic.

Furthermore, following these steps will help you filter through ideas that are not based on insights that lead to fruitless and repetitive testing, which is wasteful, risky, and less impactful.

GuessTheTest (https://guessthetest.com)

We get asked all the time, what converts better on your webpage and articles: The link or the button?

With this case study from Guess the Test you can see exactly how their button contributed to a 32.37% increase in logins.

Use this as an idea for your own test. Keep in mind to generate accurate numbers and execute this like a true experiment. Keep constants, record accurate data, and be prepared to change what isn’t working.

So, following these steps will put you in the right direction. And settle once and for all what’s better for your business? Link or button?

Conversion Intelligence—The New Era of Marketing

 https://unbounce.com/marketing-ai/conversion-intelligence-the-new-era-of-marketing/

Unbounce (https://unbounce.com)

We will be the first to agree with you, change is hard. It can sometimes feel overwhelming and frustrating. Unbounce is a leader in trying new marketing methods, and they are sharing some of their key finds. They recommend capitalizing on new trends and not missing out on the new way of streamlined marketing.

When a group of marketers was asked if they could have more of one thing, what would it be? 50% said more conversions. It’s no secret conversions lead to more sales, and more sales lead to more money in your pocket. That’s why we are all here, right?

In today’s world, we need to combine the increasingly used artificial intelligence with marketing intelligence. And combined, we get conversion intelligence that works best for you in today’s market. This world is moving fast. The advances to how we market are changing at rates never seen before. Covid has changed the way businesses operate. In addition, we learn what is involved in getting those customers through the door, so to speak, and keep them coming back. 

We hope this Round-Up helps you put into perspective exactly what needs to be done to help improve conversions and build a stronger, healthier business.

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



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Conversion Optimization Round-up – June 2021

Conversion Optimization Round-up – June 2021

Today we’ve got for you, a rich pool of helpful resources wherever you are on your CRO journey—beginner, intermediate or expert. 

First, we have an article from GuessTheTest that will surely give you a good idea for grabbing and sustaining your reader’s attention. Next, we have Google’s 2021 update and why delivering top-notch content is always crucial. 

Third, you can learn some valuable strategies from the 4 case studies we included. Then, we will give you more ways to love Google Optimize. Finally, we have a guide on Conversion Funnels, and why understanding them will help you lead consumers through the buying journey.

Result: Which AI-generated headline won?

https://guessthetest.com/test/which-ai-generated-headline-won/?referrer=A 

With thousands of things constantly grabbing people’s attention, how do you compete with human’s ever shortening attention span? This experiment by GuessTheTest is designed to capture and hook the reader’s attention. 

The goal was to ascertain which AI-created copy combination of the 5 versions would prompt users to click on the Call-To-Action (CTA) button leading to the LottieFiles tool. For your info, LottieFiles is a design and development tool that provides everything needed to create, edit, display, and share Lottie, an open-source animation file format.

The results reveal that high-converting headline copy needs to be crisp, clear, and easily scannable. In addition, a longer and more detailed copy is better at later stages in the funnel to support the user’s decision making.

Guess the Test (https://guessthetest.com/)

Google’s Page Experience Update 2021: Prioritize UX Optimization for Success

https://vwo.com/blog/googles-page-experience-update-2021-prioritize-ux-optimization-for-success/

VWO talks about Google’s update in prioritizing websites that serve an excellent page experience to their users over others. This paves the way for small brands to rank high and have higher conversions as long as they deliver relevant, helpful content and a delightful user experience. 

Another key point that VWO noted is to put a premium on listening to and understanding your customers, giving them what they are looking for. Then, of course, to constantly experiment, evolve, and explore.

Apart from that, there are other high-impact changes that you can explore, such as optimizing your content, speed, SEO, UX, and security. Remember that in determining page rankings, content will always be crucial. Make sure to top it up with alt text descriptions and SEO-optimized keywords. Don’t forget your website’s speed and reduce 4xx errors. With UX, let’s talk about well-designed and correctly positioned call-to-actions as well as ensuring your website is mobile-ready. Finally, ensure safe browsing. The user’s personal information should not be at risk.

VWO (https://vwo.com/

Lead Generation: 4 quick case studies about web forms, local keywords, referral campaigns, and virtual business cards

https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/lead-generation-case-studies-web-forms-local-keywords-referral-campaigns-virtual-business-cards

The first case study highlights that tweaking a single, important content section in a web form generated a 326% increase in leads. They also emphasized clarity, imminence, time to value, and value translation in influencing the results.

Marketing Sherpa (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/)

Case 2 talks about exploring numerous untapped, local-based keywords with extremely low competition. They also created hundreds of pages with relevant content using a bulk page generator. This resulted in an increase of 37% in email opt-ins and 10% on the front-end, and 28% on the back-end in affiliate commissions. 

Case 3 shows how a team devised a referral strategy called a ‘coffee campaign’ on LinkedIn to promote a product on its launch day. First, they tagged a few prominent people in the Managed Service Provider industry, telling them to tag an MSP buddy in the comments section of the launch post to get a $10 coffee voucher. Then, the team proactively DMed the coffee vouchers as soon as people got tagged. This enticed people to enjoy and participate in the online event.

Lastly, case 4 is about how a real estate company took inspiration from the ban of shaking hands and passing along a physical business card due to the pandemic. Instead, the team experimented with contactless, virtual business cards that generated 103,500 new leads. 

Invespro (https://www.invespcro.com/)

This article talks about (as the title suggests) the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of Google Optimize. Although not a perfect tool, you can start with conversion optimization without breaking the bank. If you are a small business owner, this is the tool for you. It is accessible, user-friendly, easy to set up, and offers many testing options. In addition, it will enable seamless integration with other Google tools and products. How convenient is that?

On the flip side, there’s a limitation to the number of simultaneous experiments you can initiate for the free version. If you need customer support, there is no option unless you upgrade to Optimize 360. 

Moving forward to the ugly side, it does not have an image upload feature, which requires you to use a third-party tool. Another thing is, there is also no segmentation for your A/B testing. You may also experience page flickering, which may cause trust issues for your visitors. Plus, no scroll maps and heatmaps for your in-depth analysis.

Your Step-by-Step Guide to A/B Testing with Google Optimize

https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/ab-testing-google-analytics/  

Crazy Egg https://www.crazyegg.com/

If you are new to A/B testing and want a more in-depth guide to Google Optimize, this article walks you through this free tool. It explains how A/B testing plays a crucial role in your conversions and sales generation. It also shows you more ways to love Google Optimize. It is user-friendly and an ideal tool for learning the basics and building the foundations of conducting A/B testing.

Why Your Marketing Strategy Needs a Conversion Funnel (and How It Works)

https://unbounce.com/campaign-strategy/conversion-funnel/

Unbounce (https://unbounce.com

Unbounce talks about Conversion Funnels and emphasizes that a “well-constructed conversion funnel attracts prospects, nurtures qualified leads, and then converts them into paying customers.”

You will be introduced to the top of the funnel (TOFU). This is where the blog post, articles, ads, and landing pages become handy. Each buyer starts at this spot, actively seeking solutions to their problem. You offer a solution to their problem by offering valuable content.

Next comes the middle of funnel (MOFU). This is the stage where both of you and your prospect get to know each other. They are gathering more information about the solutions you offer, and you also gather information to provide tailor-fit solutions. This is also where you “reinforce trust, nurture leads, and monitor purchase intent.” 

Finally, the bottom of funnel (BOFU). This is the part where you are more optimistic that your prospect may decide to purchase your product or services. Unbounce shares that this is when you need to apply “some sense of urgency” through your emails, offers, and ads.

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



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eCommerce Case Study – See How We Got a 42.38% Conversion Rate Increase

eCommerce Case Study – See How We Got a 42.38% Conversion Rate Increase

In our latest eCommerce case study, we’ll show you how we repositioned the reviews section on two sites for increased conversions.

The Websites:

The first website is a niche bedding store based in the USA. They sell premium bedding designed in the states. 

The second website is a jewellery store, specialising in beaded bracelets. They are based in the USA but ship their products worldwide. 

Test Details & Background:

We repositioned the reviews section on the product pages so that it appeared earlier on the page and was more readily visible to customers. Beforehand, the customer reviews were at the very bottom of the page. 

We placed the reviews before the recommended/suggested products, and by doing so we hoped to increase trust with shoppers. 

We tested the changes on mobile and desktop on both sites.

We ran the tests for 2 weeks to reach a 98% confidence level. 

Traffic allocation was set to 50/50.

Test Set-up:

The version with the review section higher up the page looked like this on Desktop:

Desktop mockups

Mobile:

Mobile mockup

We placed the reviews just under the product, just below the fold and above the product comparison and detailed description/features.

The Results:

The repositioned reviews section won on both sites, but only on mobile on one, and only on desktop on the other. 

The bedding store saw increases in conversions (order per visitor) on mobile only, with an overall 42.38% increase in orders.

We saw conversion increases in all the different steps of the funnel (users proceed to the cart page, users proceed to the checkout page, and users complete their purchase).

The revenue results (revenue per visitor) were consistent with our funnel results where we saw increases in all steps of the funnel on mobile.

For the jewellery store, interestingly they only saw increases in conversions (order per visitor) on desktop, with a 20.34% increase in completed orders. 

We also saw increased conversions in all steps of the funnel on desktop (users add to cart, users checkout, users are redirected to thank you page).

The revenue results (revenue per visitor) were consistent with our funnel results where we saw increases in all steps of the funnel on desktop.

By rolling out the winner only on desktop, the total impact would be a 2.9% increase in the rate of order completion and 2.2% increase in revenue per visitor.

Key Takeaways:

  • For this test to work for your website, you will need to have good reviews first.
  • A/B testing this change first is important, as we have shown, one saw increases on mobile and the other on desktop.
Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



Follow us on Youtube

Conversion Optimization Round-up – May 2021

Conversion Optimization Round-up – May 2021

This month we’re sharing some great new articles that will help you grow your online business and increase your conversion rates.

First off, we thought you should know about the most common conversion killers that are likely hurting your profits. Then, the importance of communicating your value proposition correctly.

Moving on to conducting experiments to achieve product evolution. You’ll also learn about powerful A/B testing solutions for your e-commerce store. Finally, implementing a bold guarantee to increase sales.

We hope you enjoy these helpful reads!

Conversion Killers: The Definitive Guide

https://conversion-rate-experts.com/conversion-killers/

This article series is brimming with great reads, resources, and examples to increase your website’s conversions. First, the series introduces you to the most common conversion killers and how to spot and overcome them.

One of the emphases in this guide is the importance of learning to write clearly. Using jargon and stuffing your content with hard-to-read sentences will only be a disservice to readers.

Conversion Rate Experts https://conversion-rate-experts.com/conversion-killers/

It’s a given that visitors won’t convert if they don’t understand and trust you or your products. Our job here is to ensure that we can deliver what our visitors desire, including the information they need.

As you read through the series, you’ll learn to organize your copy so that visitors can effortlessly see what they need. This includes fixing your headings by turning them into “teasers” or “spoilers”.

There are also helpful techniques to better deal with competition and outsmart your competitors in this ultra-competitive market.

Your 2021 Guide to Creating (and Optimizing) a Value Proposition

https://unbounce.com/copywriting/value-proposition/

Unbounce talks about value propositions and why they should clearly impart what your brand can offer and its overall value to your audiences. 

If you’re wondering how you can create your own value propositions, you can start by understanding the three main parts:

  1. Your solution to your customers’ problem
  2. The specific benefits you offer
  3. The strengths that set you apart from your competition

Unbounce https://unbounce.com/copywriting/value-proposition/

In addition, they further explain why and how these three elements can help your landing pages stand out. They provide samples of landing pages from specific industries like software as a service (SaaS), e-commerce, and professional services. Finally, Unbounce emphasizes that value propositions should “offer clear-cut benefits convincing the audience to choose you.”

How Experiments Guide Growth at Thumbtack

https://medium.com/thumbtack-engineering/how-experiments-guide-growth-at-thumbtack-31ef32b564f1

Alpesh Gaglani, Director of Engineering at Thumbtack, shared how they conduct experiments to guide product development and the complexity innate in running these experiments. Thumbtack is a local services marketplace where customers find and hire skilled professionals.

He mentioned how engagement can be increased by enabling customers to refine their search or filter keywords based on specific criteria. For example, a customer wants to hire a birthday party caterer specializing in preparing food with dietary restrictions or an appliance installer specializing in repairs or installation of a particular brand.

Through this, customers yield quick results and help customers find the right professionals who can do the job for them.

 

Medium https://medium.com/thumbtack-engineering/how-experiments-guide-growth-at-thumbtack-31ef32b564f1

Having a good experimentation structure paves the way to data-driven decisions and creating products or services appropriate to the market demand.

Finally, he also emphasized the importance of cultivating an amazing culture that rewards success and seeing failures as an avenue of learning. This allows them to super-charge their growth.

Powerful A/B Testing Solutions for Your eCommerce Store

https://vwo.com/blog/top-4-methods-for-finding-test-ideas-for-your-ecommerce-store/

 

VWO https://vwo.com/blog

VWO walks you through a better approach in A/B testing that will increase your chances of getting meaningful, positive results. In addition, this article points out Google Analytics’ role in telling you where to focus your efforts, thanks to its Funnel Visualization Report. 

Although it tells you which part of the funnel is the weakest link, it does not reveal why it is not working.

Hence, the need to employ tools like:

  1. Surveys and polls
  2. User testing
  3. Competitors and other big eCommerce stores
  4. Customer service logs

These methods can generate significant insights and valuable results that help improve metrics and develop solutions to the problem.

How to do Guarantees Right. And How we Grew a Business by 49% by Adding a Guarantee.

https://conversion-rate-experts.com/guarantees/

This article from the Conversion Rate Experts talks about when and why guarantees work.

A guarantee helps customers feel at ease as it reduces the risk for them if the company does not deliver what it claims.

Guarantee example

Conversion Rate Experts https://conversion-rate-experts.com/guarantees/

This is evident when they implemented a bold guarantee for Geeks2U— to augment the already-great service offered. Just by adding a guarantee on the page, the initial test generated 11% more orders, which increased to 21% when a more specific and prominent version was used. 

Then another experiment with a new variation using a single, powerful sentence, supported with a simple visual, resulted in 24% more conversions. These tests garnered them an overall improvement of 49% over the original “guarantee-less” page. 

In addition, they also pointed out the use of positive terms to deliver a positive promise like “We guarantee that you’ll love our service.” Instead of “If you dislike our service….” 

If you are curious about crafting a guarantee, a 9-step checklist for implementing a bold yet safe guarantee is also discussed in the article.

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



Follow us on Youtube

Conversion Optimization Round-up – April 2021

Conversion Optimization Round-up – April 2021

In this month’s Round-Up we’ve got articles from VWO, Marketing Sherpa and Conversion Rate Experts covering eCommerce optimization, 3 quick Case Studies, one long-form FinTech Case Study and the Unbounce 2021 Conversion Benchmark Report. 

We hope you enjoy these as much as we did!

8 Tips for Optimizing Your eCommerce Homepage for Success

https://vwo.com/blog/8-tips-for-optimizing-your-ecommerce-homepage/

New from the VWO blog, we’ve got 8 ways you can optimize your homepage for success. When someone visits your site, you’ve only got a few seconds to show them at a glance, who you are, why they should buy from you, what you sell and how to find products. 

  1. Make sure you have optimized your homepage for search engines, as well as for users. Ensure your metadata and images are correctly optimized. And for users, having all the information they need above the fold.
  2. Include (and test) primary call to actions. 
  3. Optimize for mobile. 
  4. Build trust by displaying contact information.
  5. Provide a personalized shopping experience.
  6. Feature (and test) your best products.
  7. Display site security.
  8. Highlight sales above the fold.

VWO https://vwo.com/blog/8-tips-for-optimizing-your-ecommerce-homepage/

Purchase Intent: 3 quick case studies show how marketers increased opt-ins, leads, and ROAS by tapping into customer motivation

https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/purchase-intent-case-studies-marketing-opt-ins-leads-ROAS-customer-motivation

This month Marketing Sherpa brings us 3 new quick case studies.

The first is a home improvement website which increased their opt-in conversions by 50%. They used Hotjar to visualize user interaction, in conjunction with Google Analytics to identify their best performing channels. They learned that there were 2 particular demographics that were engaging with the site, first time home buyers under the age of 30 and senior citizens above 65. 

With this information they were able to customize their funnels for the 2 demographics, tailoring the message for each, and subsequently improving the click-through rate from an ad landing page where they offered a lead magnet from 3% to 11%. Opt-in email conversions for the lead magnet increased by 50%.

The second case study shows how by focusing on purchase intent, a wine store increased their return on ad spend 24% above their goal. 

And lastly, an autobahn indoor speedway 10x’s their leads by leveraging an AI powered chat bot. 

Marketing Sherpa https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/purchase-intent-case-studies-marketing-opt-ins-leads-ROAS-customer-motivation

Read through the 3 case studies in full here.

Conversion for mobile: how we helped grow a FinTech company by 470%

https://conversion-rate-experts.com/gohenry-case-study/

From Conversion Rate Experts we have a case study on how they improved conversions by 470% by adopting a mobile led approach. 

They go in depth into what aspects of mobile optimization they targeted and tested, beginning with the approach that mobile visitors are not just desktop visitors on a different device. By looking into visitor data, they determined that mobile visitors had very different intentions, likes and dislikes than their desktop counterparts.

They then tested a long form landing page, which increased sign ups 78% above the original. With this format, they had the chance to address all the objections people might have around a financial product for children. They were also able to visually get their message across and increase trust by highlighting their collaboration with Visa.

Conversion Rate Experts https://conversion-rate-experts.com/gohenry-case-study/

They also optimized Facebook ads for mobile, tested a new pricing page, homepage, and post sale page for mobile, all with generous increases in conversions. 

Read through the whole case study here.

“What’s a Good Conversion Rate for My Landing Page?” [Conversion Benchmark Report 2021]

https://unbounce.com/conversion-rate-optimization/what-is-a-good-conversion-rate-2021/

Unbounce brings us their all new Conversion Benchmark Report for 2021, which analyzes more than 33 million conversions across 44 thousand Unbounce-built landing pages.

They’ve been broken down into 16 key industries, and subcategories. You can use these benchmarks to help you determine how you’re performing against the rest of your industry, get actionable insights on changes you can make today, get data supported best practices, and help you build a culture of continuous improvement within your organization.

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



Follow us on Youtube

42.32% Increase for a Lead Generation Website in the Healthcare Niche

42.32% Increase for a Lead Generation Website in the Healthcare Niche

The Website:

Our latest case study features a lead generation site in the assisted living niche.

It connects family caregivers with suitable care homes or carers and provides resources for those looking into various care options.

 

What We Tested And Why:

For this particular test, on mobile and desktop, we added call-to-action buttons at the end of each section of content on the property pages.

This is so users would have easy access after reading their section of interest.

For desktop only, we also added a call-to-action button on the sticky bar (in-page navigation).

We used heatmaps and click maps to find the sections where users interacted most.

 

Based on these observations, the team hypothesized the following:

  • Users read through each section of the property pages.
  • On desktop, they primarily use the in-page navigation bar to browse these sections.
  • There were not enough existing call-to-action buttons and they were not easily visible.

The Results:

For the combined desktop and mobile results, there was a 162.65% increase in clicked call-to-actions and a 42.32% increase in form submissions.

Our key takeaways were that to arrive at the best placement for call-to-actions, you must understand user behavior and interaction with the page.

Also, call-to-action buttons must be placed where users’ focus is so that they can easily take action as soon as they’re ready to. This is especially important on longer pages and on mobile.

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



Follow us on Youtube

Conversion Optimization Round-up – March 2021

Conversion Optimization Round-up – March 2021

Today we’ve got for you all the latest articles in the CRO world. Beginning with ways virtual reality can optimize eCommerce business conversions. Moving onto formulas you can use to write great landing page headlines. Then we’ve got some expert advice on developing a hypothesis for marketing experimentation. Topping it off with 4 quick CRO case studies. 

Lets get stuck in..

4 Ways Virtual Reality Can Optimize eCommerce Business Conversions

https://vwo.com/blog/4-ways-virtual-reality-can-optimize-ecommerce-business-conversions

New on the VWO blog is an article on how virtual reality can assist in ecommerce businesses. The fast evolving technology is now being used in the healthcare and real estate industries to name a couple. 

The first step is to test whether VR (virtual reality) or AR (augmented reality) would actually work for your eCommerce business. Start by collecting data from your target audience, using surveys or polls, on what their concerns are about the ecommerce purchasing journey, and how they feel about VR/AR. You can also use analytics tools to gain insights into whether VR/AR would improve the user experience.

Once you’ve determined that VR/AR could be beneficial for your business, the article takes you through 4 ways in which it can be utilized:

  1. Testing
  2. Optimize your conversions with customer service
  3. Optimize your conversions with user experience
  4. Optimize your conversions with marketing

VWO https://vwo.com/blog/4-ways-virtual-reality-can-optimize-ecommerce-business-conversions

Check out some examples of great VR marketing campaigns on the blog.

7 Formulas for Landing Page Headlines that Practically Write Themselves (With Examples)

https://unbounce.com/landing-page-examples/formulas-for-landing-page-headlines-with-examples/

From Unbounce we have a guide on how to create effective landing page headlines. 

While there is no single right way to write a headline, there are fortunately some tried and tested formulas you can use.

First they cover the basics on what makes a good headline. 

Unbounce https://unbounce.com/landing-page-examples/formulas-for-landing-page-headlines-with-examples/

Then moving onto the 7 landing page headline formulas:

  1. The How-To Headline
  2. The Agitator
  3. The Value Prop (AKA the Promise)
  4. The Superlative
  5. The Call to Action
  6. The Special Offer
  7. The Playful Headline

To read through these formulas in depth, check out the article here.

Expert Advice on Developing a Hypothesis for Marketing Experimentation 

https://www.invespcro.com/blog/expert-advice-on-developing-a-hypothesis-for-marketing-experimentation/

This month on the Invesp blog, they share their process for crafting a marketing hypothesis, as well as tips from experts in the field.

They begin with a section covering what a hypothesis is and the format in which it must be stated. 

Next, moving onto prioritizing your issues to determine which will impact your bottom line the most. This is where hypotheses come into play. For each problem, you must create a hypothesis for it. It’s important to know that a hypothesis can be tested in many different ways as seen in the diagram below.

Invespro https://www.invespcro.com/blog/expert-advice-on-developing-a-hypothesis-for-marketing-experimentation/

Considering there are multiple ways to test a single hypothesis, one failure doesn’t necessarily mean the hypothesis is wrong. It just means the way you have implemented it could be wrong. 

Even if you do disprove a hypothesis, you will still gain valuable insights, which you can use to formulate further tests or hypotheses. 

Following on from this is the expert round-up. Check it out here

Conversion Rate Optimization: 4 quick CRO case studies to help you increase revenue, mobile conversion, and site searches

https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/conversion-rate-optimization-4-CRO-case-studies-increase-revenue-mobile-conversion-site-searches#

Marketing Sherpa brings us 4 new case studies this month:

  1. Beginning with an insurance company that increased their conversions from 3.1% to 8% by better understanding the customers desires. 
  2. An online marketplace that nearly doubled their searches by changing their homepage subheader. 
  3. Third is an outdoor website which tripled their revenue by improving their site speed.
  4. Lastly, a lead generation company that increased their mobile conversions by 18% by putting themselves in their visitors shoes.
CRO Round-up – February 2021

CRO Round-up – February 2021

We’ve got some great articles to share with you this month. Up first is a guide to landing page optimization tactics for different sources of traffic. 

We’ve also got an A/B testing How-To for those new to conversion rate optimization. As well as a post on how to write a solid A/B testing hypothesis. 

We also dive into some consumer psychology with perceptual sets, and how to use them in marketing. And lastly, we cover retargeting and how this can be used as a powerful CRO tool.

Landing Page Optimization Tactics for Different Sources of Traffic

 https://www.invespcro.com/blog/landing-page-optimization-tactics-for-different-sources-of-traffic/

How are you currently optimizing your landing pages? Are you taking a different approach depending on where the visitor came from, for example social media, organic traffic, or a guest post? InvespCRO delves into the main intention of the visitor in the traffic sources below:

Social media:

  • Consistency is key. The colour, typography and visual design of the landing page, should match the social media ad. 
  • Landing pages should be optimized for mobile.
  • Each element on the page should notify the visitor they’ve landed at the right place, and that the offer they wanted is only a CTA click away.

Invespcro https://www.invespcro.com/blog/landing-page-optimization-tactics-for-different-sources-of-traffic/

Podcast:

  • Appearing on a podcast can be a great source of traffic. Make sure you aren’t just sending people to your homepage though. 
  • If you want to have high conversion rates from that traffic, make a customized landing page.
  • It should address the main topics covered in your podcast episode, so that it has the same “feel”.

Email Signature:

  • Sending people to your homepage is not necessarily bad here, but consider using it as an opportunity to add a more personal, bottom of the funnel touch. 

Thank You Landing Pages:

  • Your thank you page, that visitors see after filling out a form can be utilized as an opportunity to upsell.
  • Give your leads the opportunity to educate themselves and continue browsing after they convert.

Visitors Who Have Just Signed Up:

  • An effective post sign-up page should make full use of the momentum that the visitor has at that very moment.
  • Use a post sign up page or pop up to drive even more opt-ins to create a snowball effect.

How To Do A/B Testing

https://www.convertize.com/how-to-do-ab-testing/

New from Convertize is a no fuss guide to getting started with A/B testing. 

Where do I start?

  • First you need to define what your goal is
  • You’ll also need enough traffic to run reliable tests
  • User research
  • Hypothesis
  • Testing tool

Choosing the most suitable testing tool:

  • For growing businesses Convertize is recommended. 
  • For agencies VWO is the best choice. 
  • For app developers, Optimizely is the go to.

5 steps to A/B testing:

  1. Funnel analysis
  2. Creating and prioritising your hypotheses
  3. Designing your experiment
  4. Running your experiment
  5. Interpreting your result

The 3 most common mistakes: 

 

  1. Not prioritising the right things. Make a priority table to ensure you are testing the things with the most potential and importance.
2. Testing too many things at once. Ideally you should only be testing one thing at a time so that you know what change has resulted in an increase/decrease.

3. Stopping tests too early. Statistical significance must be reached to ensure the results are reliable. 

Check out the article here for more detailed descriptions.

 

How to Write a Solid A/B Test Hypothesis

https://blog.optimizely.com/2015/01/29/why-an-experiment-without-a-hypothesis-is-dead-on-arrival/

Running an experiment without a hypothesis is like heading on a road trip with no destination in mind. You will end up somewhere, but you might not gain what you wanted from the experience. 

“If you can’t state your reason for running a test, then you probably need to examine why and what you are testing.”

Brian Schmitt, Conversion Optimization Consultant, CROmetrics

A hypothesis states what is being changed, what you expect the outcome to be, and why. Then your test will either prove or disprove this. 

The 3 components of a hypothesis are: “If ____, then ____, because ____.”

  • The variable
  • The result
  • The rationale
What are the outcomes of a strong hypothesis? Whether you prove or disprove your hypothesis doesn’t necessarily matter, as either way, you will gain some knowledge from the result. Which you can use to inform your next hypothesis.

Not all hypotheses are created equal. Make sure you’re testing high impact optimizations, rather than testing for the sake of it. 

Read the full article here.

How Understanding Perceptual Sets Can Make You A Better Marketer

https://cxl.com/blog/perceptual-sets/

Why do CTA’s that look “ugly” sometimes perform better than ones that look “pretty”? Understanding perceptual sets and how they affect our behaviour can give you insights into marketing & CRO strategy.

What feeling, sensation or need does your brand provoke? The context in which your customers or clients engage with you, can unconsciously affect their behaviour. For example, if someone is shopping on your site and sees a coupon code, but they don’t have one, they are more likely to get FOMO about missing out on an offer, and abandon cart. 

Another example is if you have trigger words, such as spam present (to reassure them they won’t be spammed) could actually have the opposite effect, of making them think twice about signing up. 

The Ebbinghaus Illusion and Product Value Perception:

It can be a challenge to portray a product’s actual size in an online store. However, representing the size accurately can make or break people’s purchasing decisions, and be a huge boost to conversions. 

Take the example below:

The orange circle on the right looks bigger, but in fact, they are actually the same size. The Ebbinghaus Illusion is when things surrounded by smaller things look bigger. This also applies to e.g. how big serving sizes look when placed on a smaller plate, vs a larger plate.

If you’re selling furniture, or household items such as speakers, it pays to include a photo of how it actually looks in a real setting. Overstock is a great example of a brand that does this. 

Perception of product value:

It has been repeatedly proven that the size of a product image influences the amount people will pay for it. We naturally equate more size, with more value. 

The reverse was true for experience focused goods though. And that goes to show that these things should always be tested. 

In conclusion, humans tend to believe that they are rational, but in fact, are anything but. While understanding human behavior and psychology is a lifelong pursuit, it pays to learn the many ways in which we don’t act or behave as we should, so you can use them to your advantage.

Retargeting: An Incredibly Powerful CRO Tool

https://vwo.com/blog/retargeting-an-incredibly-powerful-cro-tool/

What is retargeting and how is it different from remarketing?

Once a visitor has browsed your site, abandoned cart, or purchased something, they are tagged with a retargeting cookie in their browser. This allows you to show relevant ads based on their activity once they leave. You can also combine retargeting, with A/B testing, for better performance and increased conversions. 

While retargeting focuses on roping prospective customers into your sales funnel predominantly through advertisements (banner and social media ads), remarketing strategies remind users to re-engage through emails or push notifications.

Retargeting isn’t “creepy”.

Studies have shown that more people actually react positively to retargeting ads, than negatively. A case study suggested that using retargeted advertisements is a very effective way to win back lost customers. 

A company called Postano, created a range of banner ads to target marketing directors in different industries. They then optimized these banner ads for maximum effectiveness. All visitors got cookied and were retargeted for 60 days. At the conclusion of their 60 day campaign, they saw a 364% increase in clickthrough conversions and a 278% increase in conversion rate (measured by requested product demos.)

 

Once you pull people back into the sales funnel, it’s time to focus on conversions. Retargeting customers are likely to have high buyer intent. 

Crucial retargeting concepts for CRO.

  • Observing your visitor behaviour by using tools to discover what they are actually doing on your site. On-page surveys are also a powerful tool to understand their hesitations.
  • Derive insights on what to test on your high traffic landing pages using heatmaps.
  • Create a CRO roadmap for continuous improvement.
  • Retargeting in the B2B space:
  • Use industry-targeting
  • Be mobile first
  • Use email addresses for remarketing campaigns
  • Segment your visitors in the funnel

When done well, retargeting (or remarketing) enables marketers to build a holistic and sustainable CRO ecosystem that caters to lost visitors at every stage of the funnel. 

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



Follow us on Youtube

26.9% Increase for an eCommerce Business in the Homeware Niche.

26.9% Increase for an eCommerce Business in the Homeware Niche.

The Website:

This case study features an eCommerce business in the homeware niche.

This Shopify store features a small selection of high quality tableware.

It is a UK based site, but they ship all their products worldwide.

They work with a select few reliable sellers and ship directly from the manufacturers, to keep prices competitive.

What We Tested And Why:

For our first test for this client, we tested redirecting users to the Cart when they click the Add to Cart button on mobile and desktop. A relatively simple change but one that works well on the right type of site.

Our reasoning behind this change was that even though there was already a Buy Now button, most people are only purchasing one product per visit, so it would create less friction in the checkout process

That is an important thing to note. This test will only work well if, when you look over the data, the average items per order is one or near enough to one.

The Results:

We ran the test for 19 days, to reach 98% statistical significance

The results showed a 47.7% increase in conversion rates on mobile device users and a 71.4% increase in revenue per visitor on mobile device users.

There was no increase in conversions on desktop.

By rolling out the winner to a version of the website that only mobile users would view, the overall increase in conversions from this test was 26.9%.

This is a very simple test. It goes so show, when the right things are tested on the right areas of your website they can yield fanastic results.

 

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



Follow us on Youtube

CRO Round-up – January 2021

CRO Round-up – January 2021

Here’s the round-up for the best new CRO articles for January 2021.

First up, we’re starting with a review on the state of conversion optimization in 2020. Not technically from January, but we thought it a good starting point!

Next, we’ve got a guide on CRO analytics, with examples on how you can use analytics to help with your CRO campaigns, a landing page optimization guide, and lastly, a complete guide to A/B testing (and CRO tools) for 2021.

Then we also have some ideas on how to use Hello Bar to increase conversions, as well as some ways to use email marketing for improving your eCommerce store conversions.

The 2020 State of Conversion Optimization Report

https://cxl.com/blog/2020-conversion-optimization-report/

For this report, they surveyed 399 optimizers around the world to see what the biggest issues were in the industry.

The main impact of Covid on CRO last year was how the lockdowns affected web traffic. For example, any travel related websites would have had their demand reduced almost overnight, which makes it impossible to run tests on.

Optimizers were also asked what their favourite analytics tools were, with Google Analytics far outweighing all the others, and Hotjar coming out on top for mouse tracking & heat mapping. A surprise winner for the most used testing tool was Google Optimize. Since it came out in 2017, it has quickly become the most widely used tool, possibly because it’s free and allows almost anyone to enter the testing arena.

CRO Analytics: How Analytics Help You Ace Your CRO Game (With Examples)

https://vwo.com/blog/cro-analytics-ace-your-game-examples/

To make data based decisions for your CRO campaigns, it’s essential to have an understanding of the foundations of analytics, and how it can work together with your CRO tools. 

In this guide, they cover:

  • Tracking goals: Macro and micro conversions
  • How to leverage insights from Google Analytics reports for CRO, and what the different report types are
  • The five different reports that can help you achieve your desired conversion rates
  • How to set up GA reports in your CRO tool

With the insights gained from having your goals set up properly, and analyzing the different reports, you’ll be able to make informed decisions on what to test using the data itself.

Landing Page Optimization: A Comprehensive Guide

https://instapage.com/blog/landing-page-guide/

 

In this guide, Instapage provides an in-depth overview of their recommended process for landing page optimization. 

To summarize:

  1. Collect data
  2. Analyze and develop a hypothesis
  3. Determine metrics for success
  4. Eliminate confounding variables
  5. Set up your test and QA
  6. Let the test run
  7. Analyze the results
  8. Continue testing

They then provide some examples of elements that can be tested on a landing page:

  • Form fields
  • Media
  • Copy
  • Page length
  • Trust indicators
  • Arrangement of elements
  • Number of elements

Go check it out!

13 Creative Hello Bar Examples Proven To Boost Conversions

https://optinmonster.com/creative-hello-bar-examples/

Sharon Hurley Hall of Optinmonster brings us some great examples of how a Hello Bar can be used to increase conversions.

This banner bar is often used to:

  • Grow your mailing list
  • Get new leads
  • Drive more sales
  • Give discounts
  • Educate visitors

She’s broken down each example by explaining its main purpose, then gone on to show how to make it using Optinmonster. A very helpful resource for anyone looking to add one of these to their website. 

Which is the best time to send eCommerce emails to your customers?

https://www.humcommerce.com/blog/ecommerce-email-timing/

Email marketing has become an essential part of the sales strategy for eCommerce stores. This is because emails enable you to connect with your customers, win their trust, and continue communication. 

According to the Humcommerce team, email marketing will:

  • Drive conversions
  • Work better than social media
  • Save you money (compared to other advertising channels)
  • Reach a wider audience
  • Use automations for increased relevance and timeliness

This guide covers the metrics you need to use to monitor the performance of your email campaigns (click-through rate, click-to open rate & open rate), as well as the best day and time to send your emails. 

According to a study by Omnisend, Thursday is the best day to send emails, followed up by Tuesday. As always, it’s essential to test what works best for you and your goals.

What is A/B Testing? The Complete Guide (2021)

https://www.convertize.com/ab-testing/

This comprehensive guide by Convertize covers all things A/B Testing for newbies. 

Starting with what exactly is A/B testing and how does it work? What is the difference between A/B testing and multivariate testing? 

They go on to provide examples of successful A/B tests in the digital marketing world, and suggestions of tests to try, including titles and subtitles, website notifications, images and web forms. 

Check out their explainer video here:

You can also check out Convertize’s list of 34 CRO tools every digital marketer needs in 2021 here.

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



Follow us on Youtube

eCommerce Shopping Cart UX Design Tips

eCommerce Shopping Cart UX Design Tips

Every year, 4 trillion dollars are lost in eCommerce sales due to cart abandonment.

That’s a punch to the gut for eCommerce businesses. Buyers who’ve clicked the add-to-cart button are usually ready to buy. They’ve looked at a product. Loved it. Decided they want it.

And yet, for some reason or another, they balk at the shopping cart. They abandon it and never proceed to check out and pay.

What does this mean for you? It means that hidden opportunities are hiding on your cart page. Optimize them and you’ll see conversion increases very quickly.

So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Let’s take out that sting caused by all the lost revenue from a low-converting shopping cart page. Let’s look at eCommerce shopping cart UX designs that optimize user experience.

I’ll walk you through:

 

What is the purpose of an online shopping cart page?

The shopping cart page is for customers to see all the products they’ve added to their cart in your online store. It includes an itemized product list and its cost and is the customers’ last stop before they check out and pay.

Think of the cart page as that moment just before you go to the cashier. If you have a shopping list, this is the time you give it a final check to make sure you’ve got everything you wanted to buy. You don’t have a credit card in hand yet. But you know that if all goes as planned, your next stop is at the cashier to pay.

As you can see, shopping cart pages are a pivotal part of conversion optimization. If the shopping cart design or the cart page is not optimized for conversions, a customer –who’s very close to giving you his money, I may add– will leave out of sheer frustration.

So how should you optimize the shopping cart page for conversions?

There are many things you can do. But for now, we’ll talk about some important shopping cart UX best practices to get you started.

What should be in an eCommerce shopping cart page for optimal user experience?

experience, feedback, survey

Based on the hundreds of tests we’ve done at Convertica, there are some elements that a shopping cart page must include. We think of these as required elements for a smooth user experience.

These elements are:

  • the option to
    • add, decrease or delete an item
  • an itemized list of products ordered. This list should include
    • the color, size, and quantity
    • a clear thumbnail image of the exact item they ordered
    • a product title linked to the product page
    • the cost of each item and the overall total cost
  • a CTA button to checkout and/or to continue shopping
  • trust signals
  • shipping details and other added costs
  • the estimated delivery time

Here are some elements which are of lesser importance but worth testing:

  • The ability to move the item to a wishlist or a save-for-later button
  • Customer testimonials
  • Upsell or down-sell options
  • an option to mail the items to themselves
  • the ability to calculate shipping fees (especially when you deliver internationally)

eCommerce Shopping Cart Page Design Optimization

(with examples of the best shopping cart UX Designs)

1. Give clear feedback when a buyer clicks the add to cart button

Imagine a person who’s never shopped online before. He clicks the add to cart button on the product page and nothing happens. I bet he’d be asking questions like:

  • Did I buy that?
  • Where did it go?
  • Did I click that button hard enough?”
  • Is it already in the cart?

See. We need feedback when shopping online. So when customers purchase an item to the cart, he’ll need to know that he’s done the right thing. That his orders are already stored in the cart. This reduces any anxiety he may have. It also builds on his confidence and trust in your system and your business —which is exactly what you want when he already has the intention to buy.

So the first thing to shopping cart page optimization is to give clear feedback when a buyer clicks the add to cart button. Show him that he has made something happen when he clicked the button.

There are many ways you can do this. You can

  • show an overlay or popover with info that the item has been added to the cart
  • and change the cart icon. Most sites do this by adding the number of items bought. Big Bonus points if the number is in a different color. And even better if the subtotal of the items is also included.

Here are some examples of how some eCommerce sites with great user experience do this.

Let’s start with one that Amazon has recently been experimenting with. Here’s what it looks like. A small popup shows on the side of the page with images of the most recent items added to the cart. It includes crisp thumbnail images that are linked to the product details page, too.

 

Another way you can give feedback is to alter the button’s design indicating that the product has been added. Best Buy does this by changing the button’s color and text as the item is being added to cart.

 

Lastly, the shopping cart icon should also change. Most eCommerce stores do this by adding the number of items added to cart. Toys R Us takes this a notch better by adding the cost of the items, too.

 

2. Make shipping info and other added costs clear

Online shoppers have a big issue with paid shipping. It’s at the top of the list why people abandon their carts. If you charge for shipping, you have a big psychological hurdle to overcome. As this Reddit user finds out in his eCommerce experiment, customers would rather pay more for a product than pay for shipping.

Because shipping cost affects buyer behavior a lot, address it at the cart page. Free shipping is ideal but if you must charge for it, then make it clear how much it’s going to cost them. Ideally, if there’s a big difference in shipping for different destinations, allow buyers to calculate shipping within the page.

When designing the shopping cart page for UX, here are some things to take note of:

  • If you offer free shipping, then make it clear on that page
  • Offer the option to calculate shipping fees on the page
  • If you only offer free shipping when the total purchase cost is at a specific amount, then make that clear too. Put something like, “You’re $20 dollars away from qualifying for free shipping
  • If there’s a shipping fee for each item, show the overall total

Check out how Walmart does this. Notice the message, “Want free delivery? Add $15 more”. They’re hitting two birds with one stone here. They’re overcoming the problem that people have with shipping fees and they’re also increasing average order value.

 

3. Allow customers to have control of the cart

Imagine you’re doing your weekly shopping at a grocery store. But there’s a catch. Once you’ve added things to your mini cart, you’re not allowed to take anything out of it. How frustrating would that be?

But that’s what you do when you don’t give customers any control of the shopping cart page designs. It disrupts their shopping experience and escalates their frustration level.

So yeah. This is the time when buyers should be given a lot of control in online stores. Here are shopping cart page UX designs to make this possible. Allow customers to:

  • add, get rid or decrease the quantity of the number of items ordered
  • change the color or size
  • add items to a wishlist, save for later, or email the list of items to themselves.
  • see a full page with all the items included.
  • go back to the product pages of each item ordered. Do this by linking the image or the item name
  • have a clear visual image of what they’ve added to cart

Crutchfield does this well. Buyers can easily remove, save or add an additional item to the cart. Notice how it even has a shipping/delivery estimator on the page.

 

 

4. Make the call to action buttons clear

The cart page’s purpose is to get the shopper to “move along” and pay. You lead him from one step to the next with a clear call to action button.

If the buyer is already happy with what he sees on the cart page, then it should also be easy for him to take the next step —which is towards the all-important page where money passes hands— the checkout page.

Make this button to checkout very clear. So clear that there’s no doubt in the buyer’s mind what to do next. We have an article just for CTA buttons, so I won’t tell you more about that here. But the important thing to bear in mind with buttons is that they have to stand out from the rest of the items on the page. You can do this by making it bigger or using a color that’s different from the rest of the colors on the page.

It’s worth testing the shopping cart button UX design. It might just increase your conversion rate. Even Amazon, which has used the same button for years, has just recently started testing a rounded button. If they regularly test, shouldn’t we all?

 

source

 

Talking of testing, here are a couple of tests you can do in your CRO campaigns which we often find positively affect conversion rates:

  1. Apart from the Checkout button, also add buttons that take the shopper to “Continue Shopping”, or to the last page they looked at.
  2. Try a sticky “Proceed to Checkout” button that’s always visible to the buyer. We see this increase conversions especially for buyers using mobile devices.

5. Show different payment methods

Not everyone wants to pay by credit card. This is especially true in some countries where buyers prefer using offsite payment processors. With insight on the types of buyers you have, ensure that you make it clear on the cart page the different payment methods available.

Show logos that your buyers are familiar with. Here are some of the ways that different eCommerce stores do this.

Build.com shows 3 different ways to pay on their cart page.

 

6. Make the best use of trust signals

Buyers have to trust you first before they’ll give you their money. If you’re not a household name —which is the reality for most eCommerce website— encourage customers that you’re a trustworthy and credible business.

Stats show that 60 to 80% of buyers in many eCommerce websites are first-time visitors. This means most visitors who visit your site don’t know anything about you. So you have to prove yourself to them. You do this with trust badges and signals. Here’s our complete guide on using social proof if you want to know more about trust signals.

But for now, just know that adding trust signals is one of the easiest and cheapest things you can do to increase conversions.

Have a look at the top reasons why buyers do not have confidence in eCommerce.

 

source

 

That’s a lot of fear that you can very quickly get rid of by simply adding trust signals.

Here are a couple of cart pages of two sites. Study them for some shopping cart UX design inspirations. And how they use trust signals on the page.

Build.com shows the star rating for the product.

 

 

John Lewis adds not one but three trust signals on its page:

  1. The Norton secure logo
  2. Logos of credit card companies and other payment gateways
  3. The text: BESTSELLER: 33 bought in the last 24 hours (social proof)

 

You now know the best practices for cart page UX designs.

But if you must remember only one thing, it’s this.

The cart page’s job is to make it easy for your customers to see the items they’ve added to cart. The keyword is easy.

Make it so easy for them that they don’t have to do a lot of thinking. Make it so easy that their journey from clicking the add to cart button all the way to checkout is smooth and not burdened with pauses of uncertainty, overwhelm, or difficulty.

Do this and you’ll have buyers who trust you and find pleasure in shopping with you. And before you know it, more people who land on your cart page will have no problem clicking the checkout button.

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

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eCommerce Checkout UX That Boosts Sales and Conversions ( 4 CRO Tests You Can Copy)

eCommerce Checkout UX That Boosts Sales and Conversions ( 4 CRO Tests You Can Copy)

Want some quick wins for your eCommerce store’s CRO campaigns?

Make changes to the checkout UX and you’ll see results quicker than changing any other part of your store.

Why? Because this is the bottom of the funnel. The place where customers have high motivation to buy. And when you make small changes to the page, it can mean big gains or losses. That’s why at Convertica when we start a new optimization campaign, the checkout UX and flow is one of the first things we work on.

So what is a good checkout conversion rate? The average rate is 24.4%. But if you’re looking for a benchmark for your store, you should also look at the average checkout conversion rate for each industry. For example, the cart to checkout rate in the fashion industry is 30.9%, but in the finance sector, it’s only 19.6%. (source)

Now that you have a benchmark, the next question is: how should you optimize your checkout page? Which elements should you change to increase conversions?

My high-level answer is this: Go back to the basics on optimizing user experience. That is, make the process as easy for customers as possible. Pave a smooth road for them right up to the moment they click Pay.

This is, however, easier said than done. That’s why today, we’re going to look at case studies that you can refer to next time you try to improve the UX/UI of your store’s checkout page.

eCommerce checkout UX best practices: 4 case studies you can learn from

Think of your customer at checkout as that buyer in a hurry in a brick-and-mortar store.

He’s got a couple of items in his hands. Exact cash at the ready. And he’s itching to dash out of the store as quickly as possible.

He has no time to fuss. He just wants to pay and get it all over with. That’s usually easy to do offline.

But how can you recreate this experience online? You can’t just get his money. Before you can do that, there are many things you require from him first: his name, billing & delivery addresses, credit card number —among other things.

So the question is: how can you simplify the process so that the buyer can quickly finish the transaction?

It’s not easy. But you can study the experiences of others to glean insights into what you can do to smoothen the checkout process.

Here’s what four eCommerce store owners did to optimize theirs which led to large increases in profit for their businesses.

  1. Changed the error message of declined credit cards and recouped 30% of abandonments
  2. Reduced friction at checkout and halved abandonment rate
  3. Added guest checkouts for an extra 300 million dollars
  4. Optimized checkout flow & increased conversions by 11%

Buckle up. Let’s get into the details of each of these optimization tests.

I. Baymard changed the error message of declined credit cards and decreased cart abandonment rate

Imagine this. You’re ready to pay. You add in your credit card number. And it gets declined.

There could be a whole host of reasons why. But what do you do? If you really want the item, you might try another card. But if you’re that buyer in a hurry, you’ll quickly get frustrated. Decide you don’t want the item anyway. And abandon the cart.

In this first case study, Baymard Institute salvaged 30% of the customers whose cards got declined by changing the error instructions. That’s right. Simply changing the error message inspired more people to complete the checkout process.

Here’s the thing. Declined credit cards is one of those annoying things that will plague you as an eCommerce store owner. Why? You have no control over it. The card isn’t declined just because the buyer put in the wrong number. The bank provider declined it. And they don’t tell you why. So as an eCommerce store owner, you can’t even tell the buyer why the credit card was declined in the first place.

But this Baymard Institute study shows us that you’ve got a way to appease your frustrated buyer. All you have to do is optimize the error message by telling the buyer they have another payment option.

By adding the simple sentence: “Tip: You may try another credit card or pay with paypal“, Baymard recouped 30% of sales at this stage of the checkout process.

Takeaway: Look at the message you currently use for declined credit cards in your eCommerce stores. Do you explicitly say that there is another way to pay? Also, if you don’t offer an alternative payment yet, you should consider it. This won’t only decrease cart abandonment but it will also protect your store should any problem occur with your primary payment provider.

II. Asos reduced friction at checkout and halved abandonment rate

Friction is the buyer’s psychological resistance to any given element on your website. It’s inevitable online. Your job is to reduce it as much as possible.

And nowhere is this job more needed than at checkout. That’s what Asos found out in an optimization campaign where they optimized their checkout pages by reducing different friction points. Here are some of the changes they made:

  • They enclosed the checkout process. They got rid of any distractions at checkout. They made sure that the buyer only had one thing in mind at this point. That is to finish the process and pay.
  • They showed security symbols. This boosts trust and credibility.
  • They added a progress indicator. This signals to the buyer where they are in the process and how many more steps they have to complete.
  • They provided two ways to add a billing address –manual and automatic postcode lookup. This is because they’ve found that often there are addresses that automatic lookup can’t properly find.
  • They allowed buyers to click back without losing security messages or important information. This helps in decreasing user frustration.

Takeaway: Friction is a big conversion killer. Look at your checkout page and see which elements may be stopping customers from completing the checkout process. Then implement the UX/UI changes needed to reduce friction. This is a process that needs continuous testing but as you do it, you’ll find that you understand your buyers more and with that comes an increase in conversion rates, too. Here’s our blog post on how to increase cart abandonment rate if you want to know more about how to reduce friction points in your checkout pages.

III. Jared Spool changed the checkout form of an eCommerce store he was testing for an extra 300 million dollars in revenue within a year 

This sounds like one of those clickbait headlines. But that’s exactly what happened in one of Jared Spool’s campaigns for a major eCommerce store.

What change did he make?

It was a simple change in the checkout form. The form was one that buyers filled out before they could pay. You know the one I’m talking about. The one where you’re asked to either login or register before paying. Turns out buyers have a big problem with this.

Here’s what Jared Spool says about this:

“The problem wasn’t as much about the form’s layout as it was where the form lived. Users would encounter it after they filled their shopping cart with products they wanted to purchase and pressed the Checkout button. It came before they could actually enter the information to pay for the product.”

Here’s the problem. While store owners may think that buyers don’t mind this simple and easy task, it’s actually a big friction point. See. Buyers don’t want a relationship with you. They just want to pay.

Remember what I said about the buyer in a hurry? That’s exactly what’s at play here. And asking them to login or register before they’ve even entered their payment information was stopping many of them from checking out altogether.

So what did the UX designers do? Here’s what Spool says:

“They took away the Register button. In its place, they put a Continue button with a simple message: “You do not need to create an account to make purchases on our site. Simply click Continue to proceed to checkout. To make your future purchases even faster, you can create an account during checkout.”

That simple change in the checkout flow and messaging increased the number of buyers by 45%. And for the big eCommerce store he was working with, this resulted in an extra $300,000,000 that first year.

Takeaway: Conversion rate optimization doesn’t have to be so complicated. Even small changes in your checkout process can mean big gains in your revenue. Investigate the checkout flow in your eCommerce store. Look at every single element. And figure out what things you can change that will make the buyer’s experience easier and smoother.

IV. Graph Digital optimized checkout flow and increased conversions by 11%

Optimizing the checkout page is what a lot of UX designers start when starting a CRO campaign. But another cause of friction is the checkout flow. How does your customer move from adding products to cart to completing the whole process?

For many stores, this is often a long process with lots of steps to go through. And with many forms to fill in. The more work a customer has to do, the more likely he’s not going to convert. That can only lead to low conversions.

That’s why when Graph Digital optimized Graham & Brown’s checkout pages, this was one of the elements they looked at. That’s because their initial observations amplified some glaring friction points. These were:

  1. The checkout screen was a primary barrier to paying.
  2. The checkout pages had a poor layout that was not user-friendly
  3. The form input did not validate anything until after the buyer clicked submit

Knowing these three things, they proceeded to make some changes. Their goal was to make checkout as streamlined as possible.

First, they reduced the checkout process to only one page. They cleaned up the design, used inline form validation and eliminated any element that wasn’t important. They also made it easy for buyers to move between steps. And to edit information without going through a lot of hoops.

Doing all these changes made the customer journey much easier. Remember what I said about the buyer in a hurry? That’s exactly what they did. They looked at their process and made changes to it so that the hurried buyer can swiftly go from one step to the next without any hassles. Or unnecessary work.

And by thinking about the customer, they increased checkout conversions by 11%.

Takeaway: Give your checkout page a closer look. Go through it as if you were a customer. Is there anything that slows you down or stops you from completing the process? If there’s even one element that’s making the buying experience less than optimal, then get rid of it. Or change it. Remember, customers here are so close to buying. Get out of the way and just let them buy.

V. Recap

You can’t convert all the people who add products to their cart. Some of them may have had no intention of buying in the first place. But there are cases when people who have the intent to buy, leave and abandon the cart because the checkout process is making them work too hard. These are the buyers you want to reach and keep in your ecosystem.

The good news is that there’s something you can do about it. Examine these case studies and compare them with the checkout UX in your eCommerce store. Then test them and see how that affects conversion rates.

All these tests may take time but once you find something that works, you know you’ve hit the jackpot. And whatever conversion gains you make will continue to benefit your business for many years to come.

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

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eCommerce Homepage Best Practices: UX/UI Tips

eCommerce Homepage Best Practices: UX/UI Tips

The homepage for eCommerce stores is not the easiest one to build for conversions.

Why? Because many of the visitors who get to it are at different stages of the customer journey. This makes it difficult to show each one of them exactly what they came to your site for.

So how do you design an eCommerce homepage with UX in mind? Like a lot of things in site optimization, it requires knowing your customers. First, know their reasons for visiting your site. Next design the page so that they know — in a few seconds of arriving — that they’re on the right website. Then quickly direct them to a page that is more in-line with their purchasing intentions.

That’s the short of it.

But we both know it’s not as easy as that, is it?

That’s what I’m writing about today. I’ll show you the best practices for eCommerce homepage UX and the things we always do in our optimization projects at Convertica. We’ll talk all about:

The Purpose of an eCommerce Homepage

An online store’s homepage has three main goals:

  1. Take customers to another page that best fits their journey in the sales funnel.
  2. Establish store credibility.
  3. Solidify brand message.

So why do you need to know these three goals? Because they dictate the design and content of your homepage.

Here’s what I mean.

Take the customer to a more appropriate page

Let’s say you’re a store in a big shopping mall. How do you tell shoppers what things you sell? You use your shop’s glass window display to attract their attention. If you’re selling only men’s shoes, that’s an easy display to make.

But what if you sell an assortment of things? How do you choose what to display in the limited area that you have?

This is the same question an eCommerce homepage designer has to answer. And you find the answer by delving into the site analytics to know the intention of the visitors who land on the page. Where do they come from? What do most of them end up buying? What’s the demographic? All this information will help you decide what to display and show on the homepage.

Establish credibility

Website visitors need to trust you first before they buy from you. They want assurance that your site is fully legit.

So whenever a new visitor enters your site, he will always have questions like these:

  • Does this site look trustworthy?
  • What do other customers say about the store and its products?
  • Is there a way to know this site is credible?

Sure you want to have these trust signals visible throughout your site. But it’s even more important on the homepage where many of your visitors will land.

Solidify brand message

Website visitors need to believe that your business is worth their time. That you’ve got what they’re looking for. Or that your values as a brand correspond with theirs.

The homepage is a great place to show this.

eCommerce Homepage UX/UI Design Best Practices

Before you make any of these changes, study your site’s analytics first. This will give you the necessary data to find out the intent of most of the visitors to your homepage. Then you can design it to fit their needs.

Assuming you’ve already done this, let’s look at how you can design each part of the homepage to optimize user experience.

It’s easy to assume that all you have to do with the header is fill it with the logo and site navigation buttons. But the reality is that you need to consider buyer behavior when designing for UX.

What does this imply? If you run a store with little inventory, designing the navigation may be straightforward. But it’s different when you sell hundreds of different items with dozens of categories. You’ll need to be able to lead visitors to the right page without overwhelming them.

The thing is web visitors don’t have the patience to spend a lot of time figuring things out. And when they feel confused or they can’t figure out how to get around your site, they’re likely to bounce off the page.

There are a lot of different things to consider with the UX/UI navigation designs. It has to include links that cover the breadth and width of your store without overwhelming the visitor. It’s so complicated that we’ve got another article just for this. Check it out if you want to know how to design the navigation for conversions.

Apart from the navigation and logo, there are other things you can add to the homepage header, too. You can add the:

  • Contact phone number and/or email
  • Value proposition boosters like
    • free shipping
    • 24/7 support
    • money-back guarantee
  • Brand boosters that align with your customer’s values like
    • being eco-friendly
    • supporting charities your customers care about

Lastly, the header is the best place to put a search bar. About 30% of website visitors will use the search bar to find what they’re looking for. So make it easy for them to do this by adding it to the site’s header. It’s not by coincidence that many of the big eCommerce stores have search bars on their headers.

Designing the homepage content for UX

Like other web pages, think of messaging hierarchy and the F-shaped scanning pattern when designing the homepage.

This means the most important, most searched, or more profitable for the store goes at the top and minor information goes at the lower part of the page.

The hero header

The hero header stays above the fold and is the first thing the visitor sees. It’s got a big job. So it’s the best place to put your company’s value proposition. You can also add a link or two that guides the majority of visitors to the page that best fits their needs.

Here are some examples.

TenTree hero image with their value proposition and links to their mens and womens section

Partake foods does this with their value proposition.

The key thing is to limit the choices. People easily go on analysis-paralysis especially on sites that they’re not that familiar with. So guide their visit by giving them only a few links to choose from. Studies show that just 2-3 choices are ideal for the hero header. This may change with bigger sites with a much bigger inventory, but it’s still important to limit the choices.

Here are some examples of bigger sites homepage hero image:

 

 

For many eCommerce sites, the hero image is not static.

Seasons change. There’s always a new offer or product. Much like a shop’s glass window, changing the display encourages new visitors to explore your site again and directs them quickly to what they may be looking for at a specific time.

You can change the hero header when:

  • There’s a holiday coming
  • There’s a product you want to push
  • You’re having a sale

Here’s a sample of Sainsbury’s changing theirs for Halloween

And here’s Apple pushing a new product with their hero image

Content below the hero header

Look at your analytics and figure out the buyer awareness level of most of the visitors on your homepage.

This decides how you arrange the content from the top to the bottom of the page. So for example, if you’re a new store and you get a lot of cold visitors to the homepage, consider starting early with trust signals to show customers that you’re the real deal. You can add logos of publications you’ve been featured in or 5-star reviews and testimonials.

Here’s the thing. When a new visitor lands on your page, there are often questions running through their minds:

  • Does this store have what I want?
  • Does this store look credible enough for me to keep exploring it?
  • Does this store interest me?

As he lands on your homepage, everything on it should answer these questions. This way you eliminate any anxieties she may have and you encourage her to go deeper into the site.

Here are some ideas on what you can include on this part of the page:

  • Bestselling categories not featured in the hero area
  • Bigger images for new season products
  • Products you want to push (and your visitors are interested in)
  • Helpful content (if that’s the type of eCommerce site you’re known for)
  • Social media (especially Instagram photos of people using your products)
  • Social proof
  • Contact/customer support link

What should a homepage footer contain? This is your last chance to get the visitor’s attention. Not a lot of your visitors will get here. But the ones who do are usually looking for something that the body of the page does not show them.

If all the information at the top of the page does not serve this visitor, then what other things could he be looking for?

This is the question you ask yourself so you can decide what to put in the footer.

Here are some possible reasons:

  1. Maybe the person is a journalist who wants to get in touch with you.
  2. Maybe the person wants to know if you sell other products which you have not featured at the top of the page
  3. Maybe the person wants to see if he can follow and check you out on social media.

With these three reasons in mind, you can then design the footer. You can

  • Add a link to your user-friendly site map
  • Add links to your social media accounts
  • Include links to your company information like the about us page, shipping info, your location, return policy, etc.

Hortology - ecommerce footer UX

Designing the page for a repeat customer

To increase customer lifetime value for eCommerce stores, show a personalized version of the homepage to a repeat customer.

You’re not only showing that you “know” and “recognize” her but even more importantly, you’re making it very easy for her to make a purchase. And when things are easy to do online, people are more likely to do them.

Recap

Now you have some eCommerce homepage UX guidelines to help you build your store’s homepage with user experience in mind.

The most important thing to remember is that there are three main things your homepage should do:

  • Send a visitor as quickly as possible to a more appropriate page
  • Limit choices so as not to overwhelm the visitor
  • Convince the visitor — in a few short seconds — that you run a trustworthy and credible store

If your homepage does all these three things, then many of your visitors will not bounce and will be happy to explore the other pages on your site.

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



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Effective Bottom Funnel Marketing Tactics

Effective Bottom Funnel Marketing Tactics

Do you want to know a quick way to increase conversions?

Go and optimize the bottom of your sales funnel.

Why? Because potential customers who get to this stage are on the verge of buying. And yet, they can’t quite make the leap. Figure out what the resistance is and more of them will convert.

This is the low-hanging fruit of CRO. The place where we can find quick wins.

And today, I’m going to give you the lowdown on bottom of funnel marketing. So that you can shred to bits the resistance that’s stopping BoFu potential customers from buying.

Funnel Marketing Tactics:

That’s a lot to cover. So let’s start.

tiktok, social media, social

Who are the people in the lower part of the marketing funnel?

The lower funnel is the peak of all your marketing efforts.

People here know about you.

There are customer stories circulating.

They’ve had some form of interaction with your brand.

They may have read one or more of your blog posts, see your social media posts, or consumed one of your lead offers.

They’re very warm leads. Hot as a potato fresh out of the oven.

But there’s a catch. 

They’re also as hot as a potato in someone else’s marketing funnels — that of your competitors.

They’re on the verge of buying. But they’re not sure who to buy from or when to buy. They’re waiting for that perfect moment or the right company to give their money to.

They also want to make the right choice. They don’t want to be made to look like a fool and regret the decision. They’re looking for the assurance that they’re going to get the right product from the right company.

That’s your challenge. This means your marketing funnel tactics should address their common fears and solidify their belief in your brand.

accountant, counting, calculation

Bottom of funnel marketing tactics that work

Your goal for the bottom of funnel marketing is to convince BoFu leads of the credibility of your business and the quality of your products or services.

Think of it as the final tribal council in that reality show Survivor. You’ve got to prove you’re worthy of the prize.

 

How do you do this?

What bottom of funnel marketing tactics work to assure leads that it’s worth handing you their money?

Here’s what you do:

  • Build up their confidence in your product or service

  • Strengthen their trust in your company

  • Reduce their doubts and anxieties

Make the path to a “yes” as easy and as frictionless as possible and you’ll see conversions go up.

I know. I know. Easier said than done.

Your competition is also fighting for that coveted prize. That’s why you need a low funnel marketing strategy that is effective at nudging BoFu customers to choose you instead of one of your competitors.

digital marketing, seo, google

You do this by building marketing funnel content (BoFu) and offers that make a “yes” to your offer the obvious choice

Marketing funnel content is your chance to put your company on a pedestal. Sure. You still have to appeal to the emotional part of decision-making. But this time, you don’t have to be gun-shy about “bragging” about your products and the merits of your business.

Here are some of the types of content that do well in this stage of the marketing funnel:

1. Have different content for the common keywords people use in search

Customers use different keywords depending on where they are in the marketing funnel.

For the bottom of the funnel, people use words like:

  • discount

  • sales

  • coupon

  • buy

  • compare

  • reviews

  • testimonials

  • brand x vs. brand y

Write different landing pages for each of these keywords.

The more pages you have, the better. It makes your brand more visible in the search engines. The more customers see your site, the more top of mind you are when they finally make the buying decision.

books, library, room

2. Provide material that educates leads about your product

It’s not easy to buy products or services online. It’s not like being in a supermarket where customers have a visual and tactile experience to gauge if the product is what they really want.

So the burden is on you to recreate that experience for them. There are many ways you can do this online depending on what you’re selling.

Here are some things you can add to your marketing channels:

  1. Show a video walkthrough of the product

  2. Offer limited trial accounts

  3. Conduct webinars to show the most popular key features of the product

  4. Have Facebook or YouTube lives answering FAQ’s

Educating BoFu customers about the product and the brand accomplishes two things. First, it puts a face to the company. This increases trust which is highly valued at this critical stage of the funnel. Secondly, it reduces buyer anxiety and boosts confidence in your brand.

So how do you know what your buyers want to know?

One of the best places to look for common fears and doubts are your customer support tickets. Take the time to go through them and you’ll see a window to the hearts and minds of BoFu leads. Once you have this inside information, you’ll know exactly what type of content to build to address these concerns.

graph, diagram, growth

3. Have different case studies that cater to different segments of your market

Case studies are effective content for bottom of the funnel marketing. They give customers confidence in your product. Remember that they don’t want to look foolish. When there’s proof that what you sell has worked for someone else, it reassures them that fools they will not be when they hand you their money.

Here are two things to consider when producing case studies for your company

Have different content for every segment in your audience 

For example in Convertica, we have three different case studies: one for affiliate sites, another for lead generation companies and the third one for eCommerce stores.

There’s a reason for this. The more similar a case study is to the niche you’re targeting, the more persuasive the content is.

follow us, facebook, google plus

Make the bottom of funnel content digestible and easy to share.

More than one person may approve the purchase of your product. So make case studies easy to share between them. For example, you can have them in slide decks or you can provide easy comparison charts in a PDF file. The quicker the information is shared between many decision-makers, the easier it is for them to say “yes” to what you’re selling, too.

4. Make your bottom of funnel content stand out from the competition

Bottom of funnel marketing is not the time to be timid about selling.

This is not the time to be vanilla. At this stage, you’re being compared against others in your industry. You’ve got to stand out so prospective customers notice you.

How do you do this? Emphasize your unique selling position. Sell what makes you different and better than others. Elevate the value that you offer in their lives that the competition can not provide.

5. Make your bottom of funnel marketing double down on the persuasion tactics

 

While a lot of content at the top of the funnel focuses on educating the prospect about their problems, bottom of funnel marketing content is all about making the hard-sell.

Make your product or service so tantalizing that potential buyers can’t help but gravitate toward it. And one of the most effective ways to do this is by using persuasion techniques that give them a good reason to make the leap and buy.

Here are some that you can use. We’ve covered these before in the blog. So click the link if you want to know more

experience, feedback, survey

6. Don’t forget the user experience for your bottom of funnel marketing

Sometimes, you get so focused on providing persuasive content that you forget how important user experience is at this point.

By this, I mean making sure that your sales or product pages are designed in a way that makes it easy for website visitors to buy.

Just because a customer has decided to buy from you doesn’t mean he’ll definitely give you the money. It’s not too uncommon for a buyer with a credit card in hand ready to buy to abandon the cart because the page is too confusing, overwhelming or frustrating.

This is, after all, the internet. And a web page that doesn’t make it easy for customers to buy will often lose to the competitor who does it well.

review, opinion, feedback

Bottom of Funnel Marketing Metrics: How do you know it’s working?

You’ve got a lot of lower funnel marketing content already. How do you know if your content marketing is working?

I’d say if the conversion rate is going up month after month and your revenue reflects that, then you’re doing a great job. It’s also worth tracking the following funnel marketing metrics to discover what to improve in your marketing:

Are these bottom of the funnel metrics going up?

  • Total purchases & free trials

    Customers demonstrate their confidence in an eCommerce business by investing through total purchases. This dynamic metric helps measure the v performance and growth of a platform or website, providing insights into customer habits over time to benchmark against industry standards and competitors alike.

  • Earnings per lead

    Earnings per lead (EPL) is a powerful tool enabling businesses reliant on lead generation to unlock insights from their sales process. By effectively tracking and analyzing the return generated for each potential customer acquired, it’s possible to optimize marketing campaigns, plan budget allocation more accurately and make informed decisions based on data-driven evidence. This makes EPL especially beneficial in sectors such as B2B, consulting, or financial services.

  • Trial sign-ups or demo requests

    Requesting a trial or demo of a product, service, or software is an integral part in the purchase decision-making process for many industries. Tracking sign-ups allows businesses to measure customer interest and demand as well as gauge their marketing efforts. It can also identify valuable leads that have the potential to convert into paying customers down the line.

  • Return on investment

    ROI is an essential financial metric that allows investors to compare the efficiency of their investments, while also providing a measure for evaluating marketing campaigns and other business ventures. It works by taking into account both gains/losses from an investment expressed as a ratio or percentage relative to cost. For instance, if an ROI stands at 20%, it means each dollar invested generated back twenty cents in profit – making this invaluable data when deciding where best to put one’s capital!

dial icon, speedometer, metric

Are these bottom of the funnel metrics going down?

  • Cart abandonment

    Cart abandonment is a significant challenge for e-commerce businesses, having the potential to significantly impact their sales and revenue. The phenomenon occurs when customers add items to an online shopping cart but fail to complete the purchase – either due changed mind or unexpected costs during checkout being possible causes. Cart abandonment can be measured as the percentage of abandoned carts divided by total initiated checkouts. To combat this issue, retailers may consider offering discounts/incentives along with streamlining payment processes and displaying trust signals throughout their checkout process in order to increase customer conversions on-site.

  • Cost per lead

    Calculated by dividing the total cost of a marketing campaign or initiative by the number of leads it generates, Cost per Lead (CPL) is an invaluable metric for businesses that require lead generation to remain competitive. For example, if $1,000 were spent on one campaign and 100 leads yielded from it then CPL would be $10. Through diligent comparison between different campaigns’ CPLs companies are able to identify which tactics prove most effective in generating potential customers at minimal expense – allowing finite resources to be allocated with precision towards maximizing revenue growth opportunity.

conclusion, reason, final

Recap

You now have the information you need to optimize the bottom of the funnel.

As you can see, it’s an exciting part of the sales team pipeline. Customers are in the decision phase of the customer journey and are ready to convert. But it’s also a sensitive stage of the funnel. People have already narrowed down their choices to you and maybe a couple of your competitors. And it’s now up to you to do a better job than your competitors at convincing them.

You do it better than them, you get the sale. You don’t, you lose it. Simple as that.

But with the knowledge that you have now, you’re already one step ahead of the competition.

All you have to do is do the work.

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

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Track These 5 Conversion Funnel Metrics To Identify Areas for Growth

Track These 5 Conversion Funnel Metrics To Identify Areas for Growth

You’ve spent many hours building a sophisticated sales funnel.

Now it’s time to analyze the conversion funnel metrics to figure out if it’s working to meet your business goals. There’s only one problem. There are so many metrics you have to keep track of that you’re getting overwhelmed.

So how about we make it easy by focusing on only 5 conversion funnel metrics that directly impact your bottom-line?

Track the data these 5 metrics provide to find out where funnel leaks are and to decide what to focus on to meet your sales goals.

These 5 metrics are:

  1. Sales conversion
  2. Desktop vs. mobile conversions
  3. Sales velocity
  4. Visits by source
  5. Cost per acquisition

1. Sales Conversion Metric

Imagine meeting a friend who looks pale and disorientated. Your immediate thought is most likely that there’s something wrong.

That’s what it’s like when you look at the sales conversion metric. You see the numbers and you immediately get an idea of the state of things. It tells you how many of the leads that enter your funnel have turned into paying customers.

Here’s the formula to measure sales conversion:

sales conversion rate = (number of sales / total number of visitors ) * 100

Track the sales conversion metric every month instead of waiting until the end of the year. This way, you can immediately see any dips or rises in sales. Check its trajectory every month and you get an overall idea of your funnel’s health.

Apart from the overall sales conversion metric, also keep track of the conversion rate for each stage of the funnel. This means gathering data on how many of the leads turn into qualified leads and then into paying customers.

Doing this allows you to see where the possible bottlenecks are. This then gives you actionable insights to optimize your sales pipeline.

2. Desktop vs. Mobile Conversion

There’s a good reason why mobile conversion is not at the same level as that of desktop devices. User intent is different. Desktop users are more often in the buying state of mind than are mobile users.

But just because most mobile users aren’t ready to buy doesn’t mean you shouldn’t optimize your site for them. A good percentage of these users will convert if you lessen friction points and give them enough motivation to buy.

So here’s what you do.

Go to Google Analytics and compare the desktop vs. mobile conversion in your funnel. You’ll likely find that visitors on mobile devices do not convert as much as the visitors who visit your site through their desktop devices.

But here’s where this becomes useful to your business. Study the journey that your mobile users take from the top of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel. Where do most of them drop off?

When you have this data, you can then make educated guesses on possible reasons why mobile users are leaving without converting. This will help you identify the direction of your next optimization tests.

This was what we did when we worked on Matthew Woodward’s agency which led to mobile conversion increases as high as 48%.

mobile conversion rates

Are you excited yet? Great. Here’s a video on where to find the data for mobile conversions on Google analytics and what you need to look out for.

3. Sales Velocity

It’s easy to get confused by the word sales velocity. You’d think it’s going to show you the speed at which a lead turns into a sale. Yet sales velocity is expressed in terms of dollars. Not speed.

Let me explain.

Here’s the formula to calculate sales velocity:

Sales velocity = (number of opportunities * Average Deal Size ($)* Conversion Rate) / Sales Cycle Length

And here’s an example of that equation using real numbers.

Source

The sales velocity is $68/day. This doesn’t mean a lot by itself. But when you compare it to your sales goals, it will begin to make sense.

This is how Josh Bean from GetBase explains this:

According to the equation, your personal sales velocity is $68 per day. That means you have a sales velocity of $2,112 per month. If one of your sales goals is to close $8,000 worth of deals by the end of the quarter, you’re going to fall about $1,600 short at your current sales velocity.”

This means that you’ll need to make your sales velocity move quicker (or go higher if you’re looking at it in dollar numbers), to meet your sales goals.

Here’s how you do that. If you look at the formula again, there are 4 other metrics to identify first to find the velocity rate: number of opportunities, deal size, win rate and sales cycle length.

Mathematics tells us that if you change any one of these metrics on the other side of the equation, the answer also changes. So how do you increase the velocity rate so you’ll reach the quarterly sales goal? Just change at least one of these four metrics.

Andrew Nguyen says in Bizible, sales velocity is a useful metric because it captures trending information around time and money, two basic but fundamental measures of performance. Perhaps you can generate business faster by decreasing the sales cycle. Or maybe generate more business by maintaining a good win-rate and short sales cycle.

As you can see, sales velocity is vital to understanding the health of your conversion funnel right now. And more importantly, what immediate actions to take to reach your business goals.

4. Visits by Source

The quality of a site’s traffic affects its conversion rate. A website can have lots of visitors. But if most of them are not interested in what the site is selling, then you can’t expect them to convert.

This is why knowing your site’s traffic sources and how each traffic performs in your sales pipeline is another conversion funnel metric worth tracking.

Here’s Jesper Åström showing where you can find this on Google Analytics and how you can use this information for website optimization.

Here’s what I suggest you do.

Look at the data for each source of traffic and analyze how each of them converts. Then refine that data further by finding out at which stage of the funnel most of them drop off.

As you do this, you may find that visitors from different traffic sources have different conversion rates. Once you know this, you have some decisions to make such as:

  1. Should you spend more time optimizing your site for the source of traffic that already converts well?
  2. Is it worth optimizing your site for the visitors from an underperforming traffic source?
  3. If visitors from one traffic source drops off in specific pages on your site, why do you think this is? What can you improve so they keep moving down the funnel?

As you go through this analysis, also consider the nature of the people from specific traffic sources. For example, traffic from a search engine tends to convert better when your site has a page that addresses their search query well. On the other hand, social media traffic is more exploratory and may not convert as well as search traffic.

I guess what I’m saying is this: sometimes, it’s them, not you. 😉

5. Cost Per Acquisition

If you want to make sure you’re making more money than what you’re spending on customer acquisition, then keep track of the cost per acquisition (CPA) metric.

Here’s the formula to measure CPA:

CPA = total spend / total number of sales

This is easy to figure out when you know exactly the cost of a campaign like when using Google or Facebook ads.

However, the total spend on marketing channels like social media and SEO is not easy to track. There are ways you can do it, but it’s not 100% accurate. It’s still worth doing it though. The data can help you decide whether or not it’s worth your time investing in these traffic sources.

If you want to learn more about how to do this, here are a few resources that will set you on the right path:

Recap

Apart from these 5 metrics, there are many other conversion funnel metrics you can track. But these should give you enough data to see how effective your funnel is and what to focus on to improve conversions.

Here are the five metrics again:

    1. Sales conversion
    2. Desktop vs. mobile conversions
    3. Sales velocity
    4. Visits by source
    5. Cost per acquisition
Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

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How to Reduce Form Abandonment the Right Way

How to Reduce Form Abandonment the Right Way

Web forms are money.

Few elements on your site are as close to a conversion as an online form is. When a customer completes a form, this usually means money isn’t far behind.

What do I mean?

When visitors sign-up for your newsletter, the know-like-trust journey starts. When they trust you, they’re more likely to buy from you.

How about lead generation forms? They give you warm leads. Warm leads eventually lead to a purchase.

Cart checkout forms? Also money in your pocket.

So I guess it’s safe for me to say that web forms are the lifeline of your business. When properly optimized, they can lead to high conversions and more revenue.

That’s why I’ve been talking about how to optimize web forms in the past month. This is your 80/20. It’s a low-hanging fruit that gives a big return.

I’ve written about :

But today, let’s talk about why visitors fill out a web form but leave without finishing it.

We’ll discuss

  • Form abandonment rates and common reasons why people drop off and
  • How to reduce form abandonment

Online Form Abandonment Rates And Why People Drop Off

According to WPforms, 67% of website visitors will abandon a form.

It’s a prevalent problem that websites regularly grapple with.

But why do people abandon forms?

The Manifest gives us this graph showing the top four reasons for form abandonment. These are:

  1. Security concerns
  2. Form lengths
  3. Advertisements or upselling; and
  4. Unnecessary questions

As you can see, these are all things you can fix. And if you follow our instructions for form design best practices and building multi-step forms, you’ll already be a step ahead of your competitors.

Why people abandon forms statistics

Something to bear in mind on form abandonment statistics

As always, whenever we talk about benchmarks and statistics in this blog, it comes with a caveat.

Don’t obsess about it.

What matters is that you have a strategy in place to continuously improve your website’s form abandonment rate.

Here are some tips on how to do this.

How to Reduce Form Abandonment

Before you follow the steps in this tutorial, optimize your online forms first.

You can do all the recommendations in this article. But if you have a form that does not follow basic form optimization practices, then you’re going to have a difficult time making these strategies work.

Agreed? Great. Let’s start.

1.  Improve the Copy

A Stanford University study shows that confusing copy makes customers wonder if you’re a fly-by-night business.

This means if you want your website visitors to take you seriously and to trust you, then you need web copy that is clear and easy to understand. This holds true for every page on your site from the homepage to the product pages. And even more so in your web forms where the visitor changes from being a passive reader into an engaged prospect.

You see, as a customer interacts with your form. It doesn’t only tell her what each form field requires. More importantly, it shows her the value she’s going to get from finishing the form.

And yet, copy is one of the last things that people think about, if at all, when designing forms.

Just look at the reasons why people abandon forms. Over 29% drop off because of security concerns. But you can easily take the edge off their fears with a few words of reassurance in your copy.

So put your copy to work and convince prospects that filling out the form is worth it and that it’s safe to do so.

Do this by:

  1. Making it clear what they’re signing up for.
  2. Lessening their security fears by demonstrating their private information is safe.
  3. Highlighting the value they’ll get from finishing the form.

2. Track the form

If you want to know why your visitors are leaving, you first have to look at their behavior and see which part of the form triggers them into leaving.

Luckily, there is a lot of form tracking software that can help you with this.

These types of software tell you at which part of the form people tend to leave. Do they leave at the point where you ask for their phone number? Do they fill out all the form fields but not click the CTA button?

Sure. Form tracking software isn’t going to tell you exactly why people leave. But the knowledge you glean should give you a clear idea of where to focus your form optimization efforts moving forwards. Could you make your copy clearer? Are you asking too much too soon? You can then use these insights to conduct a data-based CRO test.

3. A/B test the forms’ performance

There’s no easy way around this.

When you have data on the possible friction points in your online forms, then it’s time to A/B test it.

This is the only way to see if the changes you make lead to any difference in the form’s conversion rate.

Use one of these A/B testing tools or heat mapping software to implement this. You can also get in touch with our team to see how we can work together to improve conversion rates on your site.

4. Send retargeting emails or start a retargeting ad campaign

If you’re not using retargeting ads yet, then you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

Why? Over 26% of people who see a retargeting ad will click it and return to the site. So when you don’t use it to entice people back, you’re missing the opportunity to convert that warm customer.

Statistics retargeting

Retargeting requires a different tutorial, but here are some things to remember when retargeting visitors who abandoned a form

  1. Use both email retargeting and ad retargeting
  2. Personalization works the best. The more personalized the retargeting ad is the better it converts. For example, if you’re retargeting someone who abandoned a checkout form, then you can retarget using images of the items he intended to buy.
  3. study shows that retargeting emails sent within one hour converts at 20.3%. But if sent after 24+ hours, this drops down to 12.2%. So if you want to increase the chance of them returning to your site, send the first retargeting email/ad within the first hour of abandonment.
  4. To encourage conversions, sweeten the deal by adding additional incentives like a discount if they checkout in the next 2 hours, for example.

To do retargeting ads, you can use one of the following services

5. Save abandoned form data for when the customer comes back

Imagine you just abandoned a cart. Then after a day or two, you decide to go back to the site to finish your purchase.

You go to the cart and the items you previously added are still there. What’s more, the unfinished form still has all your information in it.

Doesn’t this make your life easier? And won’t you be more motivated to complete the purchase?

This is exactly what you want returning customers to experience.

Many plugins or apps can add this site capability. The software allows for a way to have the user’s computer remember the data. It means the data isn’t sent to your server but only saved on the visitor’s browser – which is what you need to comply with privacy laws.

Here is a list of software to get you started:

Recap:

Website visitors abandon online forms all the time.

The big question for you is why. The person already started the process. She already had the motivation. But then something made her stop in the middle of the process.

If you find out the possible reasons why then you can decrease form abandonment. Then you can get more people to take the action you want them to take on the page.

Once you know the potential reasons why customers drop off, change the form to encourage more conversions. And as always, test all the changes you make. Learn from it and use it to increase conversions.

——

This concludes our series on how to optimize web forms.

Now you’ve got everything you need to build forms that are optimized for conversions. Once again, here are the links to the articles:

 

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

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How to Build Multi-Step Forms to Increase Conversion Rates

How to Build Multi-Step Forms to Increase Conversion Rates

Are you unsure of what to test first to increase conversions?

Don’t be.

Start with a page that has the promise of big gains but only needs a few little tweaks.

This includes

  • Optimizing the value proposition of the landing page
  • Adding testimonials on product pages, or
  • Displaying trust signals at the point of purchase

But one of my favorite places to start is optimizing a web form. Doing this almost always leads to an increase in conversions.

There are many things you can change on web forms that affect how people perceive them. But here’s what I suggest you do. Convert your one-page forms into a multi step form.

And you’ll most likely see an uptick in visitors completing the form.

We’ve done this so many times we know it works. For example, when we did this to Empire Flippers’ valuation form, their leads increased by 51.6% in only a few weeks (read the case study here).

Do you want to know exactly how to do this?

Buckle your seatbelts.

Today we’re going to talk about how to build a multi-step form.

The Benefits of Multi-Step forms

You’ve read a lot of tactics, hacks and strategies to increase conversions.

But if there’s one overarching theme in all these best practices, it is this: Make your pages easy for every person who lands on that page.

 

Satisfied customer after filling new forms.

That is it.

Easy to Read

Make it easy for him to read the page. Make it easy for him to know what you offer. Make it easy for him to take the action you want him to take.

When something is easy to understand, people give it more attention. And when something is easy to do, people tend to agree more to do it.

That’s why multi-step forms are so effective. They make it easy for a person to understand and fill out the form. It minimizes the “hostility” attached to forms by making them pain-free.

So let’s have a look at what happens to your visitors’ psychology when you change one-page forms to multi-step forms.

It reduces friction

It’s about focus. Doing (or thinking of) too many things at the same time bears too much load on the brain. Our brain is a powerhouse. But it’s not too keen on spending too much of its resources at any given time. If there’s something less demanding, that’s where the brain likes to hang out.

And guess what? Filling out forms, especially during the form-filling process, is not easy for most people. Give a person a form with lots of details to fill out and the thought alone of doing it can be overwhelming. Too many questions, too much recall necessary, and the process itself can seem like too much work.

But when you split the questions into multiple pages, each page focusing on only one category, then the brain focuses on only one task at a time. It then gets the impression that it’s easy to finish the task. It may seem counterintuitive at first. Won’t many pages give the feeling that a lot of work is involved?

You’d think. But based on our tests, forcing a person to think of only one thing or category at a time, reduces friction and does wonders in getting him to finish the task.

Multi-step forms are mobile-friendly

A user holding his mobile phone.

Don’t you hate it when you’re on mobile and you get to a page with a long form that has a lot of fields to fill out, like your own multi-step form or a contact form? With that small device and the even smaller keyboard, the task can quickly get daunting.

But when you break the form into multiple steps, it becomes less overwhelming. And when you add in some multi-step UX principles as well, the task is easier, too.

Small asks lead to big gains for multi step forms

It’s easier for a person to agree to a small ask, particularly when it comes to form filling. By asking relevant questions, you can boost the conversation and make the task seem less overwhelming. A simple question can make sense, just like a small ask from a friend. This approach can lead to more leads and more visitors to your website. 😊

problem, solution, help

But here’s another situation.

What if a few days after the 1-hour babysitting, your friend asks you to look after the child again for a couple of hours? Then the next week the whole afternoon? When it plays out like this, you’ve had the chance to get used to the task. And also, you’ll start to think, “I’ve done a couple of hours before, a few more hours is not much of a chore. Besides, the child’s quite fun to be around!”

The same thing happens when you use multi step forms. Each page has a little ask, which is a small request for information or action. The little ask doesn’t cause too much anxiety to the brain. And each step slowly gets the person invested in the task. This can boost conversion and create an account by simply clicking the submit button or adding a credit card number. It’s not as much of a burden. And she becomes more likely to agree to it. That’s one of the reasons why multi-step forms have a higher completion rate and can boost conversion rates.

Best practices for building multi step forms

By now, I hope I’ve convinced you enough of the benefits of breaking one form into many pages. Now it’s time to do the work.

Let’s look at how you can design multiple step forms to maximize conversions.

1. Consider “gamifying” the multi step form

When I say gamifying, I mean eliminating as much as possible any use of the keyboard.

So if the visitor is on a desktop, he uses the mouse to click from a list of options. Or if he’s on mobile, he can just easily tap a button.

One great example is this.

 

lead generation form design

There’s no need to use the keyboard with the above example. Just choose the best answer and click.

Gamifying may also involve using elements of game design, such as rewards, progress tracking, and competition, to make the form more interactive and enjoyable.

2. Make as many pages as possible to lessen distraction

The main purpose of multi step forms is to have the user focus on one task at a time. It doesn’t necessarily mean asking only one question on each page. You can include a few questions as long as they belong to one category.

Here are some of the many multi-step form examples that are used across various industries and websites: E-commerce Checkout Forms, Job Application Forms, Event Registration Forms, Survey Forms, and Lead Generation Forms.

Let’s say you’re an eCommerce store and you’re designing a multi-step form for the checkout page.

The first page could ask only for important contact details like name and email. Then the next page might be for the delivery address. Then another page for payment details. Each of these pages might have a few different fields, but since they all belong in one category, it’s no burden to the brain.

3. Use a progress bar on your multi step form

progress bar in online form

Have you ever tried doing an online quiz and the questions just kept on coming? And there’s no way to know how many questions are left? There’s a point when you start to wonder if you’ll ever finish the form. When you don’t know how many more steps you need to do, your mind wanders off and starts thinking of other things.

I’ve wasted too much time on this already, maybe I should just stop now and ditch this, ” or

I’ve spent quite a lot of time on this, maybe I should just keep going. I’ve already wasted a lot of time on it anyway” or

“How many more questions do I have to answer? I’m getting bored of this.”

 

Users complaining about the take-too-long process.

You know what’s happening here? Your brain has left the task at hand and got lost in another task. That of worrying and wondering. And when your brain becomes too caught up in this, you will most like get frustrated and leave. This uncertainty fazes a lot of people and clicking the back button becomes the easier option.

But put a progress bar and all that mindless wandering disappears. You now know exactly how many steps there are left, so you can put your undivided attention into the form. A positive experience is crucial when it comes to form filling, a progress bar can help to make the process feel less time-consuming and increase the chances of user conversion. That’s the kind of attention you want while a customer is filling out a lead gen or a checkout form. A progress bar can also help to keep the user engaged and motivated to complete the form, which can lead to more leads and a higher conversion rate.

4. Follow all principles of the optimization of regular online forms

Just because you have a multi-step form doesn’t mean you ditch the best practices for building online forms.

web forms filling process

I’ve written about form optimization here. So if you haven’t read that yet, go there after you finish this one. At any rate, here are the important points you need to know.

  1. Ask only for the things you really need. Only ask questions that are necessary for the task at hand. This will make the form seem less overwhelming and easier to complete.
  2. Make use of white space. This creates a sense of visual hierarchy and draws attention to specific elements.
  3. Clearly state which is the required fields. Use plain language to avoid confusion.
  4. Make the CTA button stand out for website visitors.
  5. Spend time on the copy.
  6. Add social proof.
  7. Test the forms.

5. Provide validation and proper error message on your multi step forms

Prompt error on contact forms.

Provide real-time validation, and error messages and help the user to correct their mistake, this will make the user feel more in control of the process.

6. Add a summary form in the form-filling process

For the last page of a multi-step form, it’s good practice to add a summary of all the answers.

A summary form can help to make the multi-step filling process less daunting, by providing a clear overview of the information that has been entered and helping the user to identify any mistakes or missing information before submitting the form. This gives the visitor one last chance to make sure he filled out all the forms correctly.

Users and customers checking the happy checkbox.

Ideally, also make it easy to edit any part of the form during this last step.

Build you Multi Step Forms with WordPress Plugins

There is a lot of software that makes building a multi-step form easy even for non-techy people. I won’t show you all of them. However, I know that a lot of you use WordPress, so I’ll show you three plugins that can help you build multiple-step forms.

Here are multi steps form examples.

All of these plugins have free versions with limited functions. For a more advanced form, that looks better and includes important optimization elements like a progress bar, check out their paid versions.

1. Multi Step From by Mondula GmbH

With its drag-and-drop form builder, Mondula GmbH’s builder is the best free option on this list. I also like that it’s already compatible with Gutenberg. The forms look beautiful out of the box but you can also customer it with a little bit of CSS.

2. Contact Form 7 Multi-step form

Contact form 7 (cf7) has a free multi-step form plugin. And if you just want to test how multi-forms work, it’s a good place to start. However, it’s not the most user-friendly plugin, and building the form can take a lot of time. If you have a web form with a lot of form fields, then you’ll have to use the pro version.

3. Formidable Forms

Formidable makes it very easy to build multiple-page forms. If you have a complicated form, Formidable is a good choice. Apart from its intuitive drag-and-drop builder, it’s also full of features not just for a contact form but also for other forms your website might need like surveys, quizzes, or checkout forms. This costs more than the other two plugins above.

Takeaways

There are a lot of things you can test on your website to boost conversion rate optimization. But web form optimization, specifically lead capture forms, is one of the things I’ve seen that almost always gives quick and high returns.

By making it easier to fill out, making it user-friendly, and dividing long forms into multiple pages, you can increase the chances of qualified leads.

Test this on your site today. Pick one form that gets a lot of traffic. Grab a WordPress plugin and change the form into multiple pages.

Then sit back and watch the conversions go up.

Want to reread the article? Here are the quick links:

Author: Kurt Philip

Hi, I’m Kurt Philip, the founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy our findings.

We’ve worked with over 1000 businesses in the last 6 years.
Let’s jump on a quick call to see how we can help yours.

Book FREE CRO Call

Client Case Studies



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