Hearts and Minds share pro tips on the art and science of conversion rate optimisation.

Conversion rate optimisation is the practice to increase the effectiveness of a site to deliver desired user behaviours. These behaviours deliver the business objectives known as ‘conversions’ such as; sales, downloads, sign ups or lead generation.

Conversion rate optimisation requires the placement of the right; content, design features and touchpoints, in the right place of a customer’s journey, to improve conversion. One of the biggest blockers to conversion optimisation is the lack of intuitive user experience design, which can generate friction. Friction occurs when too much energy is needed to realise a goal, such as confusing calls to action, or cluttered web design.

There are many approaches and tools to improve conversion optimisation from Google Analytics to A/B testing. Below finds our pick of conversion rate optimisation tools.

Google Analytics goals.

Google Analytics is a great place to start. It is important to set up your conversion goals in Google Analytics to track them on a regular basis.

Heat mapping and videoing

Heat mapping and videoing tools, such as Hotjar, often richer insights than Google Analytics. These tools can show the detail of user onsite behaviour to determine the ‘makes and breaks’ of the user experience for a desired user conversion.

Think out loud exercises

Usability studies have users ‘think out loud’ while they navigate a site, to dig even deeper into the why behind the ‘makes and breaks’ of user experience. By analysing the user experience of a conversion goal in a ‘think out loud’ session, you can capture the why behind each interaction. As little as four ‘think out loud’ sessions, can capture up to 80% of the site’s design flaws.

A/B testing

A/B testing is a great way to test the impact of different offers, designs, messages, and content options on your online conversion. Typically, such testing operates with two landing page designs served to the same audience, with half getting landing page A and half getting landing page B. A/B preference testing allows a business to test the marketing and content, not simply the UX.

There are some common principles which underpin good conversion rate optimisation, which can be built into your buyer’s journey from the outset. Here is our guide to the top 7 conversion design principles, which will give your conversions an immediate boost:

  1. Use lots of images and videos
  2. Let the pictures do the talking where possible.
  3. Keep the text succinct, using short sentence
  4. Reduce distraction, make conversion the single-minded goal
  5. Create a sense of urgency
  6. Keep the lead form simple
  7. Reduce the effort required to take the target action

 

For more information on how your business can improve sales through improve conversions contact louise.kelly@heartsandminds.solutions

 

Louise Kelly
Hearts and Minds