Optimising your conversion rates is a key task for any online business. But as you may know, there are a huge number of ways to go about improving your conversion rates. However a large amount of the work behind Conversion Rate Optimisation is running tests and experiments to see what works best for your business and target audience, and what doesn’t.
But which tests or experiments should you try? How do you know where to begin?
Here are 5 ideas for easy conversion rate optimisation (CRO) experiments to try out:
Improve Site Loading Speed & Performance
One of the key experiments you can run – and one that is likely to yield results – is to improve your website performance. It has been found that a site with a loading speed of less than 2 seconds tends to have higher conversion rates than those that take longer to load.
Not only does this help your conversion rate, it also helps your SEO – meaning you are more likely to rank higher in search results. This in itself is a huge success as higher rankings usually translate into more visitors, so naturally more people to convert.
Some key ways to help improve your loading speed and site performance are:
- Install caching plugins
- Reduce page size
- Optimise product images
- Compress data
- Make sure your plugins are not affecting site performance
Additionally optimising your page for mobile users is also key to improving conversions. Users like a quick and seamless experience and are more likely to convert when a page is easy to use and navigate.
Slide in CTAs
According to Hubspot – a great experiment you can run is using slide in call-to-actions. As content marketing (such as blogs) is a great way to build your SEO and keep your target audience on your site, there has been a trend to include a static CTA at the end of your content.
However a question asked by the Hubspot team was: are users tuning these out?
By testing a more active call-to-action such as a slide-in or pop up CTA, you can improve your click-through rate, your conversion rate and the leads generated from your content.
That said, overusing this tactic can seem naggy and annoying to visitors. You need to be careful to ensure that your pop-up or slide-in CTA does not slide in or pop up at inconvenient points. Additionally, it is important to ensure that your slide in/pop-up CTA does not come up on every page for one user. This can be done through the use of cookies. Another tip is to make it easy to exit your pop-up/slide-in CTA – or the user may just exit your site entirely.
Use Psychological ‘Hacks’ Like the Scarcity Principle
Scarcity creates a sense of urgency which in turn motivates users to buy/sign up/convert. By limiting the amount of stock (or places in a webinar or whatever your good or service is) you create that sense that: if they don’t commit now, they are going to miss out.
This can be used effectively both in the eCommerce world and in actual physical shops. In fact, there is a well-known shop in South Africa that regularly plays an ad that says “If you want it, buy it, because tomorrow it will be gone”. This is the message you ultimately want to send to motivate buyers.
However, this one can be tricky. From our experience with e-commerce businesses, there are ways that your competitors and buyers can check this, and if it comes back that you have more stock than you say you do, you can lose the trust and naturally the conversion.
A second way to create a sense of urgency is to have a ‘countdown timer’ for the deal. There are a few great websites that use this tactic including onedayonly.co.za. As the website is so aptly named, deals are available for 24hours only, and when a deal runs out, it’s done.
That said, pricing on these ‘deals’ needs to be highly competitive.
Move your Call-To-Action
Everything in marketing tells you that your call-to-action should be featured above the fold of your website. Like a newspaper, conventional wisdom holds the most important things are ‘above the fold’ on a website or more aptly put above the section users need to scroll down to access.
Recently however there has been a move to experiment with moving your CTA to the bottom of the page (in addition to the pop-up or slide in CTA’s discussed earlier).
In fact, one website tested this and found that their conversion rate increased by around a whopping 300%!
This can be attributed to the idea that some users need to read through your content. This helps them establish a sense of trust and understanding of what exactly it is that you are offering.
Sometimes best practices are not suitable for all websites and businesses. So why not give it a try.
Make use of ‘Freebies’
This may seem counterintuitive. Why would you give something away for free when your goal is to convert users into paying customers?
Well – let’s pose a question – who doesn’t like getting free stuff?
By offering freebies and even discounts, you can often draw the user in and help them convert. This ties into the principle of reciprocity – people want to give back when you give them something.
Additionally – if you offer freebies it allows users the chance to assess what you actually offer and if it is truly what they are looking for. As all ecommerce store owners know, creating that first-time conversion is often the hardest part of the funnel. Trust needs to be earned – and this is an easy way to do that.
This can make the process of conversion a little longer. Often freebies are offered when you sign-up for an email list, or sometimes when you leave your cart for too long. And while there may be users you abuse this offering, you often then have access to their details for remarketing.
Needless to say, remarketing is a powerful tool when it comes to conversion rates. Most users do not commit to a purchase on the first visit to a site. But by getting their email and information, you can market to them in a direct and personal way.
Conclusion
These are just five ways that you can experiment with CRO. By trying one or a few of these options, whether it is through A/B Testing, Multivariate testing or any other method, you can assess what works best for your website and your target audience.
It is important to remember that some experiments will work for some businesses while others may not work. But the only true way to know is to experiment, test and assess the outcomes.
