Conversion

Buzzword or compelling business requirement. Interesting talking to a European counterpart recently. In Australia we get the traffic to the site first, then use the data to improve the site to increase conversions, in Europe it appeared to be the opposite, fix the site then get the traffic so they convert.

Whichever way you do it, increasing the number of users that convert is often easier than you think just with some common sense and testing. Increasingly clients are wanting to talk about conversion rate optimisation and how they can improve whether it be sales, subscriptions, Likes or something else. Conversion can be different things to different people depending on your business model. Whatever your conversion requirements, start thinking about conversion rate optimisation to improve the ROI from your current website.

Conversion Rate Optimisation and Usability

Conversion Rate Optimisation or CRO does not equal customer experience or usability although the principles in certain areas are aligned. Making my website easier to use does not mean more people will convert. Making it easier to convert and giving compelling reasons to convert will. These objectives can be balanced and both must be considered.

CRO Activities

To start your CRO project think about the following general steps of activities. If the site is yours and small, you may just apply commonsense and test, if you are working in a larger corporate environment as we mostly do, information gathering, testing, prototyping all become more important to support recommendations, implementation and outcomes. Experience is also important. As they say, the problem with common sense is that it is not always that common.

The following process is common when undertaking a CRO engagement. Obviously there is a lot more detail under each area.

1. Confirmation of Business rules, objectives and requirements
2. If you have experience in CRO and have a poorly optimised site from a CRO perspective, then Quickwins are possible. Fixing some of the obvious stuff, based on experience can help in the short term, but be careful and remember to test….
3. Information gathering from feedback, heat tracking, eye tracking, analytics, customer complaints, sales people and more. More information in a future post on supporting CRO tools. Being clear on business objectives helps focus the information gathering in relevant areas.
4. Analysis of data gathered and relevance to conversion objectives and available products, offerings and deals etc. Beware of analysis paralysis.
5. Recommendations and specifications for content, processes and user paths
6. Implementation including A/ B testing (Always test everything)
7. Monitor, test and report

If you are going to do CRO, make sure you use a proven methodology and work through the steps rather than a haphazard approach, which can lead to incorrect conclusions.

Getting Results and Common Issues

What gets measured gets done. From the engagements I have been involved with, I have found the following are the general issues organisations have to change or deal with:

• Buy process or forms to be completed, which usually haven’t been looked at for years and are assumed to OK. Watch out that you don’t step on any toes here! Also, sites doing SEO are also usually heavily focussed on spiderable content pages not forms requiring input or forms under forms and this mentality often means these can be ignored.
• The Offer, keeping this simple and clear, outlining the benefits and cost in simple formats users are familiar with and can understand
• Not over engineering common elements. “Search” is “Search”, not “Quick Search” (Is there a more comprehensive search elsewhere?) or “Buy” is “Buy” not “Buy me now” (Is there a buy me later button as well?). Keep it simple stupid…
• Dealing with reasons people will not convert. Are my personal details safe? Are you a real site or will you steal my money? Can I see exactly what it is I am buying?
• Making minor changes, which really in most cases achieve minor results. Think about prioritising based on potential impact.
• Not using the most appropriate tools, mis reading or misunderstanding analysis or the output from the tools with respect to conclusions and recommended changes. Testing can mitigate this risk to an extent.
• Not testing and monitoring changes
• and many more….

Conclusion

If you haven’t considered conversion rate optimisation, you probably should. Start by ensuring you have your analytics package correctly configured to measure conversions, whatever they may be and looking at what your current conversion rates are by traffic type and any feedback you get on your site if available. Conversion rates will vary by type and industry, as well as traffic type, but in most cases can be improved.