Conversion rate is a term used in online marketing that refers to the percentage of visitors to a website who take action to become customers or subscribers.
The desired action could be anything from making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a contact form.
While a high conversion rate is the goal of any website owner, it is important to keep in mind that the rate will vary depending on the type of business and the quality of traffic.
For example, a website selling high-end products will typically have a lower conversion rate than a site offering free downloads, because the visitor’s perceived value is different.
However, both types of sites can be successful if they are able to generate enough traffic and convert enough visitors into customers or subscribers.
At its simplest, conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of increasing the percentage of visitors to a website who take the desired action.
This could be signing up for a newsletter, completing a purchase, or filling out a contact form. While there are many factors that can influence conversion rates, CRO focuses on improving the design and user experience of a site in order to encourage more people to take the desired action.
This could involve anything from redesigning the layout of a page to adding new call-to-action buttons. Ultimately, the goal of CRO is to increase the number of conversions without sacrificing the quality of leads.
By making small tweaks and testing their effectiveness, businesses can gradually improve their conversion rates and make their websites more successful
In today’s competitive online landscape, it is more important than ever to have a high-converting website.
With so many businesses vying for attention, it is vital to make sure that your site is designed in a way that encourages visitors to take the desired action.
After all, even a small increase in conversion rate can have a big impact on your bottom line. Conversion rate optimization is also important because it allows you to get more value out of your existing traffic.
Rather than relying on generating more traffic, CRO helps you make the most of the traffic you already have.
By optimizing your website for conversions, you can increase sales and leads without spending any additional money on marketing.
Some people say that conversion rate optimization is like give a lemon an extra squeeze.
Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this question.
A variety of factors, including the type of products or services you sell, the nature of your business, and the general level of online competition, can all affect your conversion rate.
In general, however, most businesses should aim for a conversion rate of 2-5%. While this may seem like a small number, it’s important to keep in mind that even a small increase in conversion rate can have a significant impact on your bottom line.
Today, when people say CRO they often refer to improving the profits of your business and not only the conversion rate.
CRO professionals try to optimize the Average order value (AOV) and Customer Lifetime Value(CLV) as well.
We’ll talk about important website metrics in the next chapter.
User experience is the overall feeling that a person has when using your website or app. Good UX is important because it helps keep visitors engaged with your site, and more likely to convert.
A conversion is the desired action that you want visitors to take on your website, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
Conversion rate is the percentage of people who take the desired action on your website (i.e., conversions), divided by the total number of people who visit the site.
Customer Lifetime Value is the average amount of money that a customer will spend on your products or services over the course of their relationship with your business.
Average order value is the average amount of money that customers spend when they make a purchase on your website.
How full is your customer shopping cart?
Micro conversions are small actions that visitors take on your website that may not lead to a sale, but is still indicative of interest in your product or service.
Examples of micro-conversions include subscribing to a newsletter, signing up for a free trial, or downloading a white paper.
Macro conversions are the main actions that you want visitors to take on your website, such as making a purchase or completing a sign-up form.
UTM parameters are tags that you can add to your website’s URLs in order to track the performance of your campaigns.
An advertising pixel is a piece of code that allows you to track the effectiveness of your online advertising campaigns.
Before you start optimizing you should first understand where you’re currently standing. This means that you need to answer some very important questions, such as:
The answers to all of these questions will be the basis for your optimization.
Your benchmarks.
In order to find the answers to these questions, you need to set up some tracking. The most important thing that you need to track is your conversions.
You need to know how many people are coming to your site and taking the desired action (such as making a purchase).
The tracking and analysis of all the questions above can be done mostly via Google analytics. Google Analytics is a free tool that allows you to track your website’s traffic and performance.
First Step: Set Up Google Analytics
If you don’t have Google Analytics set up on your site, now is the time to do it.
Setting up Google Analytics is beyond the scope of this article, but there are plenty of tutorials and guides that can help you.
Once you have Google Analytics set up, you’ll be able to track your website’s traffic and performance.
Second Step: Set Up Advertising Pixels
If you’re running any kind of online advertising, you need to set up advertising pixels. Advertising pixels are pieces of code that allow you to track the effectiveness of your online advertising campaigns. For example, if you’re running a Facebook ad campaign, you need to install the Facebook pixel on your website. This will allow you to track how many people are clicking on your ad and then taking action on your website.
Third Step: Set Up UTMs
UTM stands for “Urchin Tracking Module”. UTM parameters are tags that you can add to your website’s URLs in order to track the performance of your campaigns. For example, if you’re running a Google AdWords campaign, you can add UTMs to your ads’ destination URLs. This will allow you to track how many people are clicking on your ad and then taking action on your website.
Fourth Step: Collect Data
Once you have all of the above set up, you can start collecting data. This data will be the basis for your optimization. You need to collect enough data so that you can see patterns and trends. I recommend collecting at least 3 months’ worth of data.
Fifth Step: Analyze Your Data
Once you have collected enough data, it’s time to start analyzing it.
You should start comparing different metrics and different segments and see where you have most potential to optimize.
As an example, compare the conversion rates in mobile vs desktop. If you see that the conversion rate in mobile is significantly lower than in desktop, then you know that you have the potential to optimize for mobile visitors.
Sixth Step: Set Up Goals in Google Analytics
If you haven’t done so already, you should set up goals in Google Analytics. Goals allow you to track how well your website is performing in terms of conversions. There are different types of goals, the important ones are:
Destination goals: A goal is triggered when a user visits a specific page on your website (such as the “thank you” page after a purchase).
Event goals: A goal is triggered when a user takes a specific action on your website (such as clicking on a button).
Now that you’ve set up your Google analytics, dug into the data, and found some holes in your funnel you have a better understanding of the big picture which will help you in the next steps.
In the world of marketing and advertising, data is king.
By understanding how customers interact with your website or product, you can make informed decisions that will improve your bottom line. But not all data is created equal.
When it comes to conversion rate optimization (CRO), there are two main types of data: quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative data is defined by numbers and statistics.
It’s often used to track things like website traffic, sales figures, or click-through rates.
Qualitative data, on the other hand, is more subjective.
It can include things like customer feedback, surveys, or reviews.
While quantitative data is important for understanding overall trends, qualitative data can provide insights into why those trends are happening.
Both quantitative and qualitative data have their place in CRO.
By combining the two, you can get a well-rounded view of your customers and what they want.
We’ll cover these in the next chapters…
Asking your customers questions is a great way to get qualitative data. Surveys can be done through email, pop-ups, or even in person. They’re a quick and easy way to gather feedback from your customers.
The key to creating a good survey is to ask the right questions. You want to avoid biased questions that lead to biased answers.
Instead, try to ask as many open-ended questions that let the respondent give their own opinion.
Another tip, which is especially important if you ask open-ended questions is to keep your surveys short.
No one wants to spend more than a few minutes answering questions. If you can, limit your survey to 5-10 questions.
Usability testing is a type of user research that helps you understand how people interact with your website or product.
It involves giving users tasks to complete and then observing them as they do it.
Usability testing can be done in person or online. There are even some tools that let you do it remotely.
One of the benefits of usability testing is that it can help you find problems that you didn’t know existed.
By seeing how people actually use your website, you can identify areas for improvement that you wouldn’t have found otherwise.
When usability testing I highly suggest that you conduct the tests on different devices and make sure that the people you’re using for the tests are similar to your customer persona.
If you’re selling cosmetics to mature ladies don’t run a usability test with a tech-savvy developer.
Here are a few example tasks that you can run usability tests for:
You can also do a Five-second test which is a type of usability testing where you show someone a screenshot of your website for five seconds and then ask them questions about it.
It’s a quick way to test first impressions and determine what people remember about your design.
Customer interviews are one-on-one conversations with your customers. They’re a great way to get in-depth feedback about your product or website.
Customer interviews are usually done over the phone, but they can also be done in person or online.
When conducting a customer interview, it’s important to ask open-ended questions. This will let the respondent share their own thoughts and experiences.
You can ask them:
If you have a customer support team, they likely already have a wealth of qualitative data that you can use.
By analyzing your customer support tickets, you can understand the problems that people are having with your product.
Customer support tickets can be a great source of insight, but they can also be time-consuming to analyze.
If you don’t have the resources to do it yourself, you can always hire a company that specializes in customer support ticket analysis.
You should be looking for questions that come up often, for example :
etc.
I normally use the common questions and add them to our FAQ.
This is the dashboard from Zendesk, customer support software that allows handling support tickets easily.
Social media is a great way to listen to your customers. There are even some tools that can help you do it.
Watch the comments on your Facebook ads, Twitter mentions, and even blog posts.
By understanding what people are saying about you online, you can get a better sense of what they think about your product.
Session recordings let you see what people are doing on your website.
They can be a great way to understand how people interact with your sales funnel.
I like viewing sessions, especially when I think there’s a technical glitch on the site.
If I see people dropping off at a certain step in the checkout, I can go in and check to see if there’s something wrong.
There are a few different tools that let you view session recordings.
The one you use will depend on the platform you’re using (such as WordPress or Shopify).
I like using Hotjar and Lucky orange.
Heatmaps show you where people are clicking on your website.
You can see if they clicked elements that are not clickable.
You can also see if they’re ignoring certain elements altogether.
You can see how low they scroll down to your pages.
This is important because the further down people scroll, the more interested they are in your content.
Now that you know some of the different ways to gather data, let’s talk about different tests you can run.
A/B testing also known as split testing, is a method of comparing two versions of a design to see which one performs better.
A/B testing is usually done with web pages, but it can also be used for email subject lines, app interfaces, and just about anything else.
To do an A/B test, you need to create two versions of a design. Version A is the control and version B is the variation.
You then send traffic to both versions and see which one performs better. The winning design is the one that converts more visitors into customers.
A redirect test is a type of experiment where you compare two versions of a page by redirecting traffic to each one.
To do a redirect test, you need to create two versions of a page. Version A is the control and version B is the variation.
You then send traffic to a URL that redirects them randomly to either version A or B.
The winning page is the one that converts more visitors into customers.
Redirect tests and split tests are both used to test how well a website or web page performs.
Redirect tests involve redirecting traffic from one page to another, while split tests involve sending traffic to two different versions of a page.
Both types of tests can be used to measure a variety of performance indicators, including pageviews, conversion rate, and bounce rate.
Split tests are generally considered to be more accurate than redirect tests, since they allow for more direct comparisons between the two pages being tested.
Redirect tests, on the other hand, can be subject to a number of confounding factors, such as changes in user behavior caused by the redirection itself.
An MVT test is a multi-variate testing method used to determine how different variables impact a user’s experience on a website or application.
By changing elements such as layout, design, content, and functionality, MVT tests can help identify which version of a page or feature is most effective at achieving a desired goal, such as conversion rates.
So for example, when doing an MVT test on a landing page, you might change the headline, the call-to-action button, and the image.
So you’re testing 3 different elements:
Headline A, Headline B and Headline C.
CTA A, CTA B and CTA C.
Image A, Image B and Image C.
The MVT is going to test which combination of these elements works best
MVT tests are typically used by larger businesses with more traffic, since they require a larger sample size to be effective.
Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Split tests are generally faster and easier to set up, but they can only test one variable at a time.
MVT tests are more complex and time-consuming to set up, but they can test multiple variables simultaneously.
Before creating the experiment you should decide which split test you should do.
To keep things simple I like creating a list of split test ideas and then scoring them by two metrics:
Potential impact (score of 1 to 10- 10 being the highest impact)
and ease of execution (score of 1 to 10- 10 means very easy to create).
Then I multiply the potential impact*Ease of execution and the split test idea with the highest score is prioritized.
For example, if changing the checkout page might have a huge impact but takes a lot of coding and resources it might not be the best idea.
The first step is to create a Hypothesis for your test.
A hypothesis is an educated guess as to what you think will happen when you make a change to your website.
For example, if you want to test whether adding a video to your homepage will increase conversions, your hypothesis might be something like “Adding a video to the homepage will increase conversions by 10%”.
it’s important to have a clear hypothesis.
Your hypothesis should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
If your hypothesis isn’t clear, you might not be able to properly measure the results of your experiment.
Once you have a hypothesis, you need to choose what metric you’re going to track.
This is usually something like conversion rate, but it could also be something like time on site or pages per visit.
Your metric should be closely related to your hypothesis – if your hypothesis is that adding a video will increase conversions, then tracking time on site might not be the best metric to use.
The next step is to create two versions of your page – the original (“control”) and the new (“variant”).
For our example, the control would be the homepage without a video, and the variant would be the homepage with a video.
Once you have your two versions, you need to set up your split test.
There are a few different ways to do this, but the most common is to use a tool like Google Optimize.
Setting up a split test with Google Optimize is relatively simple – you just need to add a piece of code to your page and then create your experiment in the Google Optimize interface.
Once your experiment is set up, all that’s left to do is wait for enough people to visit your site and see the results.
It’s important to wait for a significant amount of data before making any conclusions – if you end the experiment too soon, you might not have enough information to make an educated decision.
Some people prefer pausing the split test before they have statistical significance and then analyzing the results. I prefer to let the experiment run its course and then make a decision.
Once you have enough data, it’s time to analyze the results and see if your hypothesis was correct.
If your variant performed better than your control, then you can implement the changes on your site.
If not, you can either try again with a different change or go back to the drawing board and come up with a new hypothesis.
We’ll talk about the common split testing mistakes in the next chapter
One of the most common CRO mistakes is not split testing at all.
If you’re not split testing, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to improve your website and increase conversions.
Split testing is the only way to know for sure whether a change you make to your website will actually have a positive impact on your bottom line.
If you’re not split testing, you’re essentially guessing – and that’s not a good way to run a business.
Another common mistake is not having enough traffic to run a split test.
Split tests need a significant amount of traffic to be effective, so if you don’t have enough visitors to your site, you’re not going to be able to get reliable results.
If you’re just starting out, it might be a good idea to wait until you have more traffic before you start split testing.
A related mistake is ending a split test too soon.
Split tests need to run for a significant amount of time to be effective, so if you end the test before you have enough data, you might not be able to make an educated decision about which version is better.
It’s important to wait for a significant amount of data before making any conclusions – if you end the experiment too soon, you might not have enough information to make an educated decision.
Another common mistake is not measuring the right metric.
When you’re running a split test, it’s important to track the metric that’s most closely related to your hypothesis – if your hypothesis is that adding a video will increase conversions, then tracking time on site might not be the best metric to use.
Instead, you should track conversion rate or something similar.
Make sure you’re measuring the right thing before you start your split test.
Another common mistake is not making changes based on the results of your split tests.
If you’re not going to make changes to your website based on the results of your experiments, then what’s the point of running them in the first place?
Split testing is useless if you’re not going to implement the changes that perform better.
Make sure you’re ready to make changes to your website before you start split testing.
Finally, another common mistake is not knowing when to stop split testing.
Split testing can be a never-ending process, and if you’re not careful, you can end up spending all your time split testing and never actually making any progress.
It’s important to know when to call it quits and move on to other things.
Split testing is a valuable tool, but it’s not the only thing you should be doing to improve your website.
Make sure you’re not making any of these common mistakes before you start split testing.
Conversion-focused design is the process of designing a website with the sole purpose of increasing conversions.
It’s a design philosophy that puts conversions above all else.
The goal of conversion-focused design is to create a website that is designed specifically for your target audience and that guide them through the sales process in a way that is natural and unobtrusive.
Conversion-focused design is about more than just designing a “pretty” website – it’s about designing a website that is effective at achieving your business goals.
Conversion-focused design is important because it helps you achieve your business goals.
If your goal is to increase sales, then conversion-focused design will help you achieve that goal.
Conversion-focused design is also important because it helps you create a better user experience.
A website that is designed for conversions is a website that is designed to be easy to use and navigate.
It’s a website that is designed to meet the needs of your target audience.
Conversion-focused design is the best way to ensure that your website is effective at achieving your business goals.
There are a few things you can do to make sure your website is designed for conversions:
The first step to conversion-focused design is to understand your target audience.You need to know who you are designing for and what their needs are.
Only then can you design a website that meets their needs and guides them through the sales process.
The second step is to keep your design simple.Your website should be easy to navigate and understand.
It should be free of distractions and clutter.
The goal is to make it as easy as possible for your users to find what they’re looking for and take the actions you want them to take.
The third step is to use persuasive elements in your design.Your website should be designed to persuade your users to take the actions you want them to take.
This can be accomplished through the use of things like testimonials, social proof, and trust symbols.
A progress bar is a visual element that shows users how far they’ve come in the sales process and how much farther they have to go.
Progress bars are helpful because they give users a sense of accomplishment and keep them motivated to complete the process.
Reduce the number of options and form fields on your website.
Your users should never feel overwhelmed by the number of choices they have to make.
And, you should always strive to reduce the amount of information you ask for in your forms.
The goal is to make it as easy as possible.
The phone number should be prominently displayed on your website so that users can easily find it and call you if they have any questions.
Your call to action should be clear and concise.
It should be easy for users to understand what you want them to do and why they should do it.
In today’s digital age, it’s easy to find reviews for just about any product or service online. However, not all reviews are created equal.
Reviews from websites like Trustpilot are generally considered to be more trustworthy than those from other sites for several reasons. First, Trustpilot reviews are verified, meaning that the reviewer has actually used the product or service in question.
Second, Trustpilot does not allow companies to delete negative reviews, ensuring that all feedback is honest and accurate.
Finally, Trustpilot’s review process is transparent, allowing anyone to see how a review is generated. As a result, Trustpilot reviews are typically seen as more reliable than those from other websites.
Customers are going to scan your page.
They don’t have time to read everything so you need to think about the most important things that you want them to know.
Here’s an example:
We have here two copies of the same text.
The first one has no design or formatting, but on the other side, we’ve used highlighting, bolding, underlining, different colors, and capital letters in order to highlight the benefits and the most important things that we want you to notice. You can see the difference between the same paragraphs.
Here’s an example from the Clickfunnels landing page:
As you can see, the desktop view seems fine, but in the mobile view, the word team jumped to the next line. So this is something that you need to keep in mind and fix.
And the third fix is how to use numbers. Just giving a vague number isn’t as good as using very specific numbers. So this is the first thing. Start using specific numbers.
And once the numbers are higher, you can start using the numbers.
We’ve tested this a few times and it’s pretty amazing to see the difference in conversion even with these small fixes.
You should almost never write long paragraphs of copy.
Write 3 – 5 sentences per paragraph before breaking the text up.
Use
bullet points,
numbered lists,
quotes
or
one-liners…
Nobody came to your product page to read, they came because they are thinking of buying your product.
An easy way to improve conversions is to eliminate image sliders.
Many people use sliders at the top of the page, which is incorrect.
The Top of the page should contain your strongest elements:
Persuasive copy, happy customer testimonials, etc.
You can use a slider, but I suggest doing so only further down the page.
One thing we like doing is adding different testimonials to the sliders. This works better than just showing boring images of the product like many store owners do.
People these days are almost paranoid about their information online.
Privacy is a hot topic these days.
You need to earn your customers’ trust.
Add sentences similar to these:
“Dear customer, we value your privacy”
“We will not share, sell or mismanage the information you provide”
“Your information is secured
The first step is to make sure your message is clear and concise.
Your landing page should have one single focus and that focus should be immediately apparent to the user.
Don’t try to cram too much information onto your landing page.
The goal is to make it easy for the user to understand what you want them to do and why they should do it.
Your headline is the most important element on your landing page.
It’s what will determine whether or not the user even bothers to read the rest of your copy.
That’s why it’s so important to test different headlines to see which ones are most effective at getting users to convert.
Your call to action should be benefit-oriented.
In other words, it should focus on what the user will get by taking the desired action.
For example, instead of saying “Buy Now,” you could say “Get Your Free Guide.”
Or, instead of saying “Sign Up,” you could say “Get the Latest Deals.”
Your landing page should be designed to establish your authority and trustworthiness.
Use social proof from influencers, celebrities, or specific professionals.
If you’re selling an anti-aging cream, use a testimonial by a dermatologist.
The language you use on your landing page should be simple and easy to understand.
Don’t use industry jargon or overly technical terms.
Remember, the goal is to make it easy for the user to understand what you want them to do and why they should do it.
Price anchoring is a psychological pricing technique that involves presenting the user with a high price first, followed by a lower price.
The goal is to make the lower price seem like a bargain in comparison to the higher price.
For example, if you’re selling a product for $100, you could anchor the price by saying “Normally $200, but today only $100.”
If you have a product that is your best seller, make sure to clearly mark it as such on your landing page.
This will help to build authority and trust with the user.
It will also increase the chances of conversion because users will be more likely to buy a product that has been proven to be popular.
The “fold” is the point on a web page where the user has to scroll down to see more content.
It’s important to feature important information “above the fold” so that users don’t have to scroll down to see it.
This is especially important on landing pages because you want to make it as easy as possible for users to see your offer and take action.
Some things that you may want to feature above the fold include your headline, images, videos, and call to action.
If you’re including a form on your landing page, make sure it’s short and simple.
The goal is to make it as easy as possible for users to fill out the form and submit it.
If your form is too long or complicated, users will likely be discouraged from filling it out and you’ll lose potential conversions.
I like using a comparison table to do this.
Videos are a great way to engage users and keep them on your landing page longer.
If you can, include a video that showcases your product or service in action.
Users are more likely to convert if they have a better understanding of what it is you’re offering.
A video is a great way to do this.
Images and graphics are another great way to engage users and keep them on your landing page.
Make sure to use high-quality images that are relevant to your offer.
And, if possible, use images that are unique and not commonly used by other businesses in your industry.
This will help you to stand out from the competition.
There’s a saying that goes: “Your claims should never be weaker than your proof”.
Make sure to show the capabilities of your product.
Most businesses offer a 30 days money-back guarantee but we believe you should offer longer.
This builds trust with the user, and they will be more likely to convert.
An exit-intent popup is a technique used in online stores.
It’s the last try to convince your visitors not to leave your site.
With an exit-intent popup, a visitor’s mouse movements are tracked.
Once the cursor moves outside the upper page boundary, a popup window appears.
In mobile, the popup normally shows once the user starts scrolling upwards. Or after X amounts of seconds on a page.
Some people say that exit intent popups are annoying but the user is about to leave your site anyway. You might as well give it a try.
I was able to increase the conversion rates on one of my product pages by almost 2% using an exit-intent popup.
Store owners normally show a popup with a coupon code and a request from the customer to leave his email
But an exit intent can be much more powerful.
Here are some things you should test:
Method #1 – Show a Testimonial
Why not try to convert your customer again using testimony from a happy customer?
Method #2 – Don’t ask for their mail if you’re not going to use it.
Give them a coupon code immediately when taking their email.
Method #3 – Give Visitors a Few Choices
Ask your customer why he didn’t buy and give him 3 options and solutions:
Price is too high?
Give them a coupon code.
Not sure how to order?
Ask them to leave their numbers and you’ll call them back or show them a How to order video.
I don’t think this product is for me?
Show them some happy customers.
Method #4 – Offer a gift
Instead of giving a discount, offer your customers a free gift if they complete a purchase.
Selling a serum?
Add a sample of another cosmetics product.
Selling a posture corrector?
Add an ebook about healthy lifestyle and maintaining correct posture.
Method #5 – Add Urgency and Scarcity
It’s human nature to procrastinate.
Show a countdown timer stating the end of the sale or a low stocks bar.
Method #6 – Suggest Related Products
The product that they’re looking at might not be the right fit, but a similar product from your store might be exactly what they need.
Method #7 – Give a Yes/No Choice
Ask your customer a question using two choices: a “right” choice and a “wrong” choice.
Let’s say you’re selling indestructible shoes:
“Wait, don’t you need these shoes?”
– 1st button “Yes, I need them”
– 2nd button “No, I prefer risking my feet when I’m working and traveling”
Method #8 – Use a GIF
Use a GIF that shows exactly how the will product help your customer and solve his problem.
Method #9 – Incite Curiosity
This consists of a few steps:
Step 1:
Create a blog post that speaks about the benefits related to your product. It can be an article or a case study.
Step 2: Create an interesting headline in your popup.
“Would you like to see how the indestructible shoes saved James’ feet?”
Step 3: Place a button in the popup that sends your customer to that article
Step 4: Place links in the article directing back to your product page
Method #10 – Hide Popups from Existing Subscribers
If someone has already taken the action you wanted them to take, don’t show that exit intent popup to them again!
Show a different popup and a different offer to those visitors.
Now, let’s talk about the Exit-intent Survey.
An Exit-Intent Survey is a Pop-up we show to customers who don’t purchase whenever they are about to leave the product page.
In the pop-up we make sure to add a few possible answers to the question:
“What is your concern regarding this product?”
or
“Not sure about buying the X (product name), can you please tell us why?”
Answers should be related to the specific product.
Possible answers can be:
1. Price is too high
2. Not sure about sizing
3. Shipping is too long,
etc..
Now that you know their concerns,
Here comes the best part…
Based on their answers you can:
1) Send them an email addressing their concern.
For Example:
Send an email to all customers who said that they aren’t sure about the sizing that states you’re offering free size exchange and tell them exactly how to measure themselves and choose sizing.
2) Send all of these customers a coupon code
3) Now that you know what creates frictions in the buying process you should add new elements to your product page and split test to see if it makes a difference.
Example :
If many customers complained about the price, maybe add a discount. It might boost your conversion rates and increase profitability.
Some Tactical Notes:
We show the exit-intent popup for desktop users that are about to leave (hover above the back button) and to mobile users we show this popup based on an analysis of the average time spent in page of non-buyers.
*Keep in mind – Exit Intent Popups should be optimized differently for desktop and mobile
We use Klaviyo for this but any popup app or software can work.
I know it might sound complicated but it’s not.
Keep on testing and optimizing until you get the results you want.
The term microcopy refers to the words and lines on the interface of a website or an application that is used to guide the user’s actions.
It is the text that is left once you remove the standard web page copy, articles, blog posts, titles, subtitles, headings or ads.
More specifically, microcopy can refer to confirmation messages, form field labels, instructions, button text, errors, etc.
When it comes to eCommerce, microcopy can be used to “fill in the cracks” of the UX. Store owners can gain great benefits from this tool if they use it to appropriately communicate with the shoppers.
As a store owner, you can use these great details to clarify crucial topics that cannot be mentioned anywhere else.
Furthermore, microcopy can be used to indirectly transfer a message to the customers, promote a certain feature or simply make the shoppers feel more comfortable and safe.
The ultimate goal of an e-commerce microcopy and the purchase process in general is to make it as easy and as smooth as possible for your customers.
We have identified four general rules you should apply for writing an eCommerce microcopy:
· Providing the template for a phone number — e.g. “+27 11 456 9837”
· Providing the requirements for passwords — e.g. Password must be 8 characters long, contain one upper-case letter and a number
· Using microcopy to engage with customers and increase their trust — e.g. “After registration you will be directed to a secured PayPal checkout”
As explained above, microcopy can take various forms and usages.
As a store owner you can adjust the content to your specific needs and goals.
Yet the experts from EcomXFactor have determined several examples to which you need to dedicate special attention and ensure the usage of their full potential.
Payment Forms and Security Information
When it comes to online purchases, customers need to be assured of what will happen after clicking a certain button.
According to the famous saying “buttons are like closed doors”, this is why most shoppers fear that they will click something they shouldn’t have and ultimately purchase/pay unintentionally.
Additionally, many customers fear that their credit information can be stolen or misused in some way.
Both your obligation as a shop owner and ours at EcomXFactor is to ensure trustworthiness and security. You can achieve this by adding microcopy within and around the form fields (as in the picture with EcomXFactor) and even in the tooltips.
Furthermore, you can add several payment options from which the customers will be able to choose.
Apart from reassuring advice and messages, you can also use iconography (shields or locks) which are subconsciously associated with security.
Billing and Shipping Address Forms
As the second most important usage of microcopy, we recognize making your shoppers feel comfortable and guided during the purchase process. A lot of people are concerned about giving their real address, name or any personal information in general.
As an eCommerce shop owner, you can make this happen by clearly explaining the need for such verification.
As mentioned before, you will achieve this by the microcopy — why do you need this information, how you will use it, etc.
You can also add links to your privacy policy page to clear any further concerns.
Error Messages
Of course, the setup of your website provides a default response for an error.
But is this error message clear enough?
The customers usually get the same red word ‘error’ for any type of mistake which ultimately doesn’t lead anywhere or offer a solution.
Adding short messages, explanations or guidance can certainly improve your communication with shoppers and decrease the need for customer support.
Additional Shopping Cart Expenses
Usually, customers face additional costs such as delivery or taxes at the end of their purchase.
This can often be quite frustrating and can even result in canceling the whole order.
You can affect the response of your customers by providing a simple explanation of the additional charges or allowing them to choose from several options.
For instance, you can provide several delivery options, each being of different value.
Click Triggers
Click triggers are a great tool when it comes to motivating your customers to proceed with the procedure.
They are usually sales-driven and strategically placed around the ‘action button’ or around the website.
For instance, you can use microcopy to remind the purchasers of your one-month free trial, or 30-day money guarantee period.
Now that you have understood what a microcopy is, you can broaden your knowledge to CTAs as well.
I hope you enjoyed my guide to CRO.
Now I want to turn it over to you: Which of the tips from today’s guide are you going to try first?
Are you going to work on your landing pages? Or start A/B testing?
Let me know by leaving a quick comment below right now.
Yaron Been is an Ecommerce Entrepreneur, host of the EcomXFactor podcast and a Conversion Rate Optimization Expert.
