The Ultimate Guide to Conversion Optimization: How to Increase Conversions, Attract New Customers, and Avoid Mistakes. Offer free bonuses. Why is this important for conversion optimization?

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We talked about design, about social proof. This article is a summary of the material on conversion optimization. CrazyEgg editors talk about their own methods of working on the site. You will learn where to get information about what impression your website makes on the reader, how to interpret it and use it in marketing.

For Facebook ad average coefficient conversion rate is 9.1%. For websites, this figure is lower by an average of 2.35%.

Each industry has its own data. For example, for the fitness industry, CRO exceeds 15%. You might be surprised to learn that B2B ads convert on average 10.63% of their audience.

There are two ways: invest hundreds of thousands in targeted advertising on social networks or use organic marketing to increase website conversions. I will give you methods that will help you bring your website conversion rate closer to the level of social networks.

What is conversion rate

This percentage the number of users who responded to your offer to their total number. Lead magnets, webinar registrations, sales - all of this can serve as a target action for conversion.

"Every piece of marketing is useless if it doesn't convert," entrepreneur Jeremy Smith tells Marketing Land.

Don't know your conversion rate? Then you have no data about which elements of the site, which aspects of promotion require revision and improvement. This means you will miss out on benefits for your business.

Let's say your website has a 1% conversion rate. You don't find out the reasons for this low level, don't split test or try to improve the situation. You will end up losing what you have.

If you want to increase this KPI to 3%, find out what the problem is, analyze the price of the product, supply and demand, calculate how much profit you will get from such a conversion.

How to Calculate Conversion Rate

Let's assume you have landing page, which encourages people to sign up for your newsletter. Out of 3,000 visitors, 150 will comply with your request. We divide this number by the total number of users, multiply by 100. We understand that the conversion is 5%.

You can also calculate conversion by the number of clicks to a domain address. If you're using Facebook targeting and aggressive SEO, compare the two conversion rates to see which works better.

Internet marketer Dave Chaffey, head of content marketing at Smart Insights, says, “There are differences in conversions across different lead generation platforms.” Since landing page is one of these platforms, compare your conversion rate with the latest statistics:

If you are launching a blog in the health and nutritional supplements niche, comparing your performance with the B2B SaaS market segment will not provide useful information.

How to optimize website conversion

To work on increasing conversions, you need to know what influences your target audience. Your potential clients already have their own expectations, needs, problems, so you need to make an offer they can’t refuse.

If a person does not take the target action when they first visit the site, this is normal. The visitor may not have money, or may not need your product right now. However, strong copy, attractive design, and a compelling call to action will stick in the minds of your audience. They may return later.

1. Use data for conversion optimization strategy

Use Google Analytics to collect site data. Research the data for metrics that will help you tell exactly which elements of a resource are converting.

A user behavior report will help you.

You will see which pages are more effective at retaining the user, and which pages people leave without reading half the material. Marketers need more “sticky” content that will keep people on the page. Keep the user on those pages from which he can go further to study your sales offer.

Analyze information about the operation of the site, find pages that do not cope with the task and optimize them:

• update the material;
• check the links;
• give up-to-date statistics;
• improve your CTA;
• change the design.

These are the basic steps for conversion optimization.

2. Optimize your sales funnel

The main conversion funnel consists of 4 stages:

• awareness of need;
• interest in the product;
• considering options;
• conversion.

According to this formula, choose something that shows the value of your brand, tells people about you, increases interest, makes them consider your product and make a decision.

Chris Howard, in his interview with Impact, said: "We check absolutely everything. Our personal ideas for improving the sales funnel, expert advice, third-party opinions."

Start with a working theory - your funnel. Then consider the advice and opinions of experts, conduct testing. Select the best option. The test requires more attention, more effort than just switching design options in the admin panel.

3. Determine whether the offer is relevant to the audience

Never limit yourself to one lead magnet. If you want more sales, consider the different needs of your audience.

Sometimes I offer information products on my blog. So, I found out that free webinars turned out to be the best remedy attracting an audience. Visitors liked it free content and the discount I promised.

Your readers may not have the opportunity to attend the webinar. You won't know the effectiveness unless you test several offerings. Lee Evans says: “It’s not the content that wins, it’s the optimization.”

Optimize other offers - sales pages or CTAs - and see what increases conversions.

4. Find out what works

I test absolutely everything: content length, posting frequency, cold calls, lead magnets used.

Use Crazy Egg and analyze all kinds of user activity maps - how they interact with your content. Heat maps, scroll maps, click maps will visually tell you what users click on, where they stop and spend more time.

Visit records will tell you how people behave on the page as a whole.

You can select individual traffic sources. If there are no interactions on the page, optimize it:

• change the content;
• improve design and formatting.

If you want to completely remove content, consider a 301 redirect. It takes the user to specified page, for example, home.

5. Improve your design

Design matters more than you think. Over the years of research, I have found that my audience prefers minimalism. On my site you will not find anything flashy - no bells or whistles.

This doesn't mean that minimalism works for all users. However, designers have done research and found that this is the preferred approach to website design.

Since 2012 Google of the Year surveys users and finds out which design they like best. The company asks respondents to choose one option that they like best.

Google has found that visitors judge the attractiveness of a design within the first 20 seconds of being on a website. And “visually complex” designs were consistently rated as “ugly” by people.

Simplify!

6. Try different lead generation form styles

Filling out forms eliminates most of the visitors. They don't want to waste time entering data into fields. Eliminate unnecessary fields, replace them bulleted lists, add autocomplete. Of course, all changes need to be tested.

Look at user visit records for the forms page. Try making a long landing page so that the user scrolls through it. Will there be clicks after a person sees the form?

At Quicksprout we use quite a few simple form. She is responsible not only for collecting leads, but also for their segmentation.

For example, if you are selling a high-value product or service, you will need to categorize your leads based on the budget they can afford. However, if segmentation is not needed, do not collect unnecessary data. Test different colors, shapes, sizes, CTAs.

7. Use different calls to action

There is no perfect call to action that suits every type of business. Sometimes an authoritative statement has an effect. A good example there will be a form from the example with Quicksprout. It says, "Increase my traffic."

Another option is to ask the user a question. Then the CTA text will begin with the answer: “Yes...”.

Do you want to double your website traffic?

Yes I want to.

Test not only the text, but the location of the call on the page. Even if the calls lead to the same page or form, use different texts, shapes and colors.

8. Run split testing of all accumulated information

Use user session data to run tests. Create two versions of the same landing page. Let them differ in one element - for example, a call.

Choose the option that brings you more conversions. But don't stop there. I run more than 10 tests on one element before I settle on one option. And six months later I repeat the process again.

CRO – conversion rate optimization – or in Russian “conversion optimization”, is an area of ​​digital marketing – various activities on the website aimed at increasing conversion.

Unlike SEO, which aims to increase traffic to a site, CRO tries to squeeze more conversions out of the traffic that is already coming to the site.

How to optimize conversion on a website?

The main method of conversion optimization is A/B testing. This method is widely used in all areas of digital marketing.

A/B testing for conversion optimization: showing different options individual pages site to determine which version of the page gives higher percentage conversions.

You can optimize conversions in different ways, depending on what exactly is a conversion on your site. If you collect requests for services from potential clients through a landing page, then you are testing different variants this landing page.

If you have an online store, and conversion is a purchase in it, then you can optimize how the product catalog is displayed, what the pages involved in placing an order look like: “cart”, “delivery selection”, “checkout”.

What tools are there for conversion optimization?

One of the simplest and most basic tools is Google Analytics. Actually, this is a tool more related to collecting site statistics, but it has an “Experiments” section.

It works like this: let's say you have a landing page that you want to A/B test. You create with your site resources (through the CMS, the “admin panel” of the site) another page, which is completely the same, but with some difference - for example, a different title or a different picture, or a different call to action, and so on. Then, using the "Experiments" section of Google Analytics, you mark these two pages (the original and its variant) as experiment pages, and insert small code to the original page. It's no more difficult than inserting Google code Analytics for the site. Analytics then starts replacing parts of the site's visitors with your original page and comparing which page converts more.

There are also more advanced tools. Interesting, for example, are the services VWO or Optimizely. These services are interesting because they allow you to organize A/B testing on a website by a person who is far from the skills of a programmer or web designer. These services themselves create a copy of your original page on their server and give you the opportunity to make a modification to it - create a testable version. All statistics are kept there.

All work is carried out in the admin panel of the service; you only install a small piece of code on the site once (similar to Google Analytics). You won't have to constantly insert new pieces of code there. Optimizely service is free for small volumes.

What can you test on your website to optimize conversions?

Everything can and should be tested:

• The essence of the offer (what the client will receive)
• Description of the offer (what words are written about what the client will receive)
• Call to action (for example, “download free guide” or “get free guide”)
• Button color and size
• Displaying products in the catalog
• Contents of the cart page

Why is this important for conversion optimization?

Very often our clients are surprised: “how is it possible, it can’t be that they changed the inscription on the button and got more clients!” If you also doubt this, the best way to make sure is to conduct A/B testing on your website. You will actually see some difference in almost any test.

Testing various website elements allows you to achieve significant results due to their “accumulation”. For example, on the text on the button you “won”, say 5%, on the color of the button - 3%, on the picture on the landing page - 7%, and on the title on the landing page another 5%. But in total, all these increases in conversion will give you an increase in customers and income of more than 20%. This is already significant!

Increasing your traffic can bring you more sales, but it's important to focus on converting your existing visitors into customers.

At every stage of the buyer's journey, there are opportunities to shorten, simplify and improve it. Through experimentation and analysis, you can tailor your site to bring people closer to making a purchase. This process is called conversion rate optimization - CRO.

CRO is a technique that allows you to increase the percentage of your traffic that makes purchases, or conversions.

There are also many smaller conversions that lead to a purchase. For example, a conversion for a home page might be to a product page. On a product page, a conversion could be a click on the “Add to Cart” button. Conversion depends on the purpose of a specific part of your site.

To optimize conversion rates (of any size), you need to constantly test every aspect of your site.

Is CRO right for you?

CRO is an essential tool for business owners, but it's not for everyone. To successfully optimize, you first need to attract enough traffic to your site.

Without a certain number of visitors, you won't be able to understand how people are using your online store. To figure out if it's right for you, you need to pay attention to some fundamental aspects.

Introduction to A/B testing

One of the main elements of CRO is A/B testing.

A/B testing is a comparison of two versions of the same page in order to determine the most effective one. Within it there are two different versions pages are simultaneously shown to two groups of visitors. The page with the highest score is declared the winner.

Before conducting A/B testing, you need to understand whether your site is attracting enough traffic to get statistically significant results.

To calculate how much traffic is needed for A/B testing, you need to enter the current conversion rate of the page you are interested in. If the traffic is less than what is needed for the test, first focus on attracting more users to the site.

Determining the conversion rate on a page

To determine your true conversion rate, first install Google Analytics on your website. Using this tool, you can determine conversion rates for a specific part of the site. But it can only be used to determine whether you have enough traffic for successful A/B testing.

The fastest way to determine conversion is for certain pages Allows you to report on login pages in Google Analytics (Behavior > Site Content > Login Pages).

Make sure that the time period you set is equal to the time of future testing, for example, 30 days. Then select the page you want to test from the list.

To determine the conversion rate for a specific page goal, you need to add an additional dimension to your report. Click the Advanced Option tab and select Behavior > Second Page. This report will show you which pages visitors go to and what percentage of first page visitors go to them.

For example, to determine how many people go from the home page to the product detail page, select the home page as the entry page, then enter the product detail pages in the Second Page column. The percentage in the “Sessions” column will be the conversion rate for this action.

How to Create a Conversion Rate Optimization Experiment

If your site attracts enough visitors to successfully conduct A/B testing, you can start experimenting.

To run A/B testing, you can use tools like Optimizely, Convert, Adobe Target or Google Content Experiments and set goals for your site in Google Analytics. Create a separate goal for each action you are going to test.

Pop-up messages are great for list building email addresses for mailing. According to data for 2014, 80% of subscribers to the site’s newsletter purchased at least one of the products offered in it within 6 months.

Information about the number of people who have already purchased this product creates an effect of urgency and is also a signal of social approval. Behavioral psychology researchers at the University of Kentucky have found that urgency causes people to act quickly and impulsively.

3. Add reviews

Have major publishers ever written about your site? Are industry influencers using your product? Add testimonials and reviews to the main page, this will help strengthen trust in the resource. 88% of consumers trust reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends and family.

Product Search

Once on home page, users should immediately be able to navigate to the product pages they are interested in and see products that may be of interest to them. 47% of website visitors look at product pages first. To make it easier to find what you're looking for, provide simple navigation, clear categories, add a search bar, and suggest similar products.

4. Use Smart Search

After conducting a CRO analysis, English retailer Topshop discovered that users were having difficulty using the search bar. At the same time, those visitors who used search made purchases 10 times more often than others. By improving the search bar design, Topshop was able to increase conversion rates by 5.8%.

If your online store has a lot of products, add smart search to your site. It suggests product options as soon as the user starts typing their query, taking into account alternative names goods and errors.

5. Organize categories effectively

Navigation around the site should be as clear and convenient as possible. Don't divide products into too many categories. It is better to highlight 4-6 large categories, within which there will be narrower subcategories. It's better to use the most popular categories first.

6. Use 404 pages

7. Add Instagram feed with purchase option

Instagram – great tool to demonstrate products. Add a shoppable Instagram feed to your site to attract visitors with eye-catching photos.

It's also ideal for showcasing user-generated content. Research shows that millennials consider user-generated content when making purchasing decisions.

Product Pages

Each product page should serve the primary purpose of communicating its value to the visitor. Creating the perfect product page will require a lot of experimentation.

8. Use high quality images

High-quality product photos are one of the most important components of an effective page. More than 2/3 of consumers consider quality product images important part the purchase decision-making process is more important than descriptions and reviews. Add photos that show the product from different angles, use videos. Consumers are 85% more likely to make a purchase after watching a video.

9. Indicate real prices, delivery times and product availability

The worst thing you can do is deceive your customers. 28% of consumers will abandon a purchase if unexpected costs are included in the price of the order. Always be clear and transparent about prices, shipping costs, additional costs, delivery times, and product availability. If you offer value to customers, they will be willing to pay a little more or wait a little longer.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is one of the defining tactics of modern marketing, which distinguishes it from the marketing and advertising of past decades. In fact, the good thing about the CRO process is that it brings returns that are not available to marketers using traditional methods promotion.

If marketers use traditional means of influence (what today is usually called outbound marketing), product promotion campaigns, as a rule, last quite a long time, and you would be able to evaluate the result of your work (most often, the scale of coverage achieved) only after its completion, trying to intuit what changes should be made to the next campaign to improve its effectiveness. Thanks to CRO, this process becomes more predictable and scientific: you don’t have to rely on intuition alone, but you will have a large amount of data and an impressive arsenal of technical tools at your disposal.

What is CRO and what are its main advantages? Read below.

Chapter 1: What is conversion optimization?

Conversion is a situation when a potential client takes a target action (what you expect from him on the resource). This could be signing up for a newsletter, requesting access to a free demo of a product, purchasing a product, and many other actions, but the two most common actions that perhaps all inbound marketers focus on are signing up and making a purchase.

Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors from total number those who performed the target action and accepted the offer made to them. For example, if 100 people visit your landing page and 13 of them fill out the lead form there, your conversion rate will be 13%.

The ability to measure conversion rates in real time is one of the key functions inbound marketing, since it allows you to accurately determine ROI (return on investment, return on investment) and compare the effectiveness of different incentives.

What is conversion optimization?

The goal of CRO is to increase conversion rates by measuring the effectiveness of advertising, landing pages, etc., making changes to existing marketing campaigns and tracking the effect of the adjustments made, comparing the results.
This is an iterative process and repeats until you reach your acceptable (target) conversion rates or are at a point of diminishing returns.

Here are a few qualities that define a CRO:

• the goal is to maximize the value of the traffic you attract;
• success is measured by your specific goals and key performance indicators;
• the approach is analytically driven and highly structured.

The key point is that conversion optimization is based on data analysis, which is what makes it so effective.

You deal with concrete, hard facts, not the fickle opinions of people, and you get exact information about ROI. It's easier to make a decision if your conclusion is based on data analysis.

The role of a/b testing

Most often, conversion optimization is done using a tool such as split testing (a/b testing), the essence of which is to launch two versions of the same ad, landing page and any other content and observe which version converts better.

For example, let's say you have a landing page with a lead form that gives people a free eBook, and you want to test two different headlines.

You use a special software to conduct an A/B test that will display a page with the original headline to one half of the audience and a page with the new headline to the other.

By tracking the performance of each landing page, you can easily determine which option brings the most benefit and which one you can get rid of without regret.
Once you've made your choice, you can continue testing, either by contrasting the winning headline with a new option or by testing other elements. As you can imagine, this tool provides almost unlimited possibilities for improving the performance of any element on the page. Largest companies are known for conducting multi-tests rather than split tests (testing several options at once) non-stop, since even a small improvement leads to an increase in profits by millions of dollars.

Modern marketers are able to achieve great results much faster than their predecessors because CRO and testing provide them with all the necessary data for adoption. key decisions confidently and without hesitation.

What is conversion optimization not?

CRO cannot be based on guesswork, guesswork, intuition, or even trends. The foundation of optimization has always been and will be testing and continuous refinement of the optimization object.

This doesn't mean, however, that you can't test out any title option if you feel it suits you. It is important to remember that you cannot use a headline you like without first measuring its effectiveness.

The CRO also does not care about your opinion or the opinion of any board member. It only takes data and test results into account. As they say, optimization is the easiest way to eliminate conflicts caused by differences of opinion.

Also conversion optimization is not search engine optimization(SEO). The goal is to attract more organic traffic to your website from search engines, while the goal of CRO is to get the most out of the traffic you already have.

These processes must be carried out in parallel, but they have completely different strategies.

Finally, optimization is not carried out for the sake of simply increasing the so-called “vanity metrics”, that is, those indicators that, although they create the appearance of work and results, are not those indicators that directly affect your profit.

The goal of conversion optimization is to make your marketing more effective and efficient. Getting more leads won't do any good if those leads aren't qualified and don't become buyers.

In most cases, increasing your conversion rate will increase sales, but not always. Therefore, there is no need to occupy your head all the time, unsuccessfully trying to achieve 100% efficiency, and not see the whole picture as a whole.

Chapter 2: Welcome to Conversion Optimization

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is one of the most powerful weapons in every inbound marketer's arsenal. In fact, if you take a closer look at most well-known growth hacking cases, you will find that conversion optimization is often a fundamental strategy.

CRO can help you get the most out of the traffic you've already attracted by improving how well you convert that traffic into leads and customers. This works for businesses of all sizes and does not require huge amounts of resources.

Are there any pitfalls?

There aren't any, but before you dive into the world of optimization, you'll need to do some training and become familiar with a few key terms.

Metrics and terms you need to know

You know that a conversion is when a website visitor takes the action you want them to take (such as filling out a form on a landing page, purchasing a product, etc.), and the conversion rate is the percentage of users who complete target action, from the total number of people who visited the page over a certain period of time.

Now let's turn our attention to other indicators that are also directly related to conversion optimization.

Bounce rate

A situation where someone visits a page on your site and immediately clicks “back” to leave is called a bounce. Bounce rate is the percentage of total users who leave a page within seconds of landing on it.

This important metric, because a high bounce rate indicates that people aren't finding what they're looking for on the page, and you need to make some adjustments to it.

exit rate

Exit rate is similar in many ways to bounce rate, with the only difference being that it indicates the percentage of people who left your site after visiting a specific page.

In search of the information he needs, the user will not be lazy and will visit many pages of your site until he finds what he is looking for or a reason to leave the resource. A page with a high exit rate indicates that the page contains something that encourages people to leave the site.

Average time on site

Engagement levels need to be monitored, and average time on site shows how long on average people spend exploring a resource.

In general, the higher the value of this indicator, the more interesting your content.

• The user is engaged and eager to receive more content;
• The user is engaged but can't find what they're looking for.

Usually high value This indicator is a marker of resource efficiency, unless the indicator correlates with low conversion. In this case, it becomes clear that the person is going to conversion in a roundabout way.

There are many other metrics that are also a must-read, but for now, that's all you need to worry about.

Now let's look at the key terms used in the CRO process.

Call to action (call-to-action, CTA)

A call to action is an element on a page that tells the user what action to take. Transformation in this context is the result of something done as directed CTA actions site visitor.

An example of a call to action is the “Download” button on the product demo page, “Place an order” on product page or any other button or link that prompts the user to take a specific action.

Sales funnel (conversions)

A conversion funnel is the user's route to conversion that you have designed.

An example of a funnel could be as follows: first, the visitor lands on the main page of the site, and then, by clicking on the CTA, goes to the product description page and from there to the pricing page, where he adds the product to the cart and immediately goes to the checkout page .

Most sites have several conversion funnels at once, with a different set of stages, which, however, lead to the same offer. As a rule, there are other funnels that lead the user to subscribe to the newsletter, etc.

A/B testing

Also known as split testing, an A/B test compares the performance of two versions of the same element on a page.

A/B testing is commonly used to optimize headlines, site structure, button colors, call-to-action text, and more.

Multivariate test

Conversion optimization is one of the most interesting topics for discussion in internet marketing. There are no practices in it that would work 100%. Case studies on increasing conversions are one of the most sought-after types of content among marketers. You can find a lot of materials on this topic on the Internet, but all of them, as a rule, do not cover the entire range of features of conversion optimization. It is basically impossible to do this, but we tried. This article is your personal ABC for increasing conversions.

Sections:

What is conversion optimization

Conversion optimization is a method of creating a positive experience for a website or landing page visitor, aimed at increasing the percentage of visitors converting into customers.

There are two ways to increase revenue in internet marketing:

1. Attract more traffic to get more sales
2. Work on improving your website to get more sales with the same traffic you have now

Conversion optimization is a necessary step on the second path.

What you need to know about conversion optimization:

• This is a structured and systematic approach to increasing the number of leads without increasing traffic.
• Conversion optimization is always supported by analytics
• In each individual case, conversion has its own characteristics - there is no single recipe for increasing it

Additionally, your conversion optimization approach should not be based on...:

• ... guesses and premonitions
• …opinions of senior employees
• …the desire to attract as many visitors as possible, regardless of their quality and involvement

The only true conversion optimization scenario looks like this: collecting data > putting forward a hypothesis > testing > analyzing the results > implementing changes > collecting data... and so on in a circle.

Data collection

Before any test, it is very important to collect data - quantitative and qualitative. Without this data, you are left alone with your guesses. Relying on your sixth sense is not the best best idea, if you don't want to waste time and money. It is better to spend a month collecting data so that testing is as objective as possible.

Quantitative data is a good foundation, but without qualitative data you cannot paint a complete picture. Conduct a survey about your product or service among current and potential customers. You will be able to find out why visitors buy from you and why not. Collecting data like this often leads to big breakthroughs.

How to collect data

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics provides detailed data on how people use your site, at what point in the conversion funnel they leave the site, and so on. To get started, go to Conversions – Goals – Funnel Visualization.

If your goals are not configured, you will first have to configure them, and then the visualization of the sequences. Goals show how many site visitors converted, and the funnel shows how many visitors moved from one stage of the conversion process to another.

1. Yandex.Metrica

You can collect data in Yandex.Metrica according to the same principle as in Google Analytics.

1. Audience surveys

Online surveys are the best way to find out what is stopping your potential customers on their way to final conversion. Ask visitors what exactly hinders them on the path to conversion, what annoys them, what they like, and so on. How likely are they to recommend your site to friends and why.

Remember not to ask too many questions. If possible, ask only open-ended questions that require a detailed answer.

Here are some ideas for questions:

• How would you recommend/describe [our product/service] to your friends?
• What other options did you consider before choosing [our product/service]?
• Why did you decide to choose [our product/service]?
• Was there anything that almost stopped you from signing up?
• What questions do you have about [our product/service]?
• What finally convinced you to sign up?
• What problems are you going to solve with [our product/service]?
• What made you realize you needed a product/service similar to [our product/service]?

1. Usability audit

Usability audit is probably the most effective method collect data for testing. Spare no resources for quality usability testing of your website. This way you can directly understand what prevents visitors from becoming clients. Maybe they don't understand the format in which to enter a phone number when placing an order. Or maybe they can’t find the “Add to Cart” button at all.

If you cannot afford an expensive usability audit, then you can always arrange everything yourself. Take a microphone, screen recording software (for example, Camtasia Studio) and ask your friends, colleagues, acquaintances or relatives to follow a certain scenario on your site or just look around it. At the end, you will receive invaluable data in the form of activity records and comments.

Types of testing

There are 4 types of testing (with the exception of A/A testing, which will be discussed later):

1. A/B testing

The classic option, used by most for a long time. One element is tested in two variations - 50% of the traffic goes to the first option, 50% to the second. Then it is revealed which option gave more conversions, i.e. is winning.

A/B testing. Version B won

1. A/B/N testing

Advanced A/B testing option. In this case, one element is also tested, but in three or more variations.

A/B/N testing with three options

1. Multivariate testing

This type is not so popular, but still has its supporters. Unlike A/B testing, multivariate testing involves experimenting with several page elements at once—two or more. For example, on the first version of the page there is green button The CTA and video are at the top, and the second one has a red button and a slider instead of a video.

Multivariate testing – testing several page elements at once

Multivariate testing has its advantages and one big disadvantage.

Pros:

• Ability to cover multiple elements for testing, i.e. testing is becoming more extensive
• For the same budget that you spend on A/B testing, with multivariate testing your chances of increasing conversion are greater, because several elements change at once

Minus: inability to determine which winning element influenced the conversion.

1. Testing with a time interval, or testing “before-and-after”

The most ineffective way. Two variations of one element are tested, but not simultaneously, but at different time intervals. Let's say 100% of the traffic goes to the first option for a week, and over the next week 100% of the traffic goes to the second option. By testing elements in this way, it is impossible to obtain any adequate results - user behavior at different times can differ significantly depending on many factors.

There is no guarantee that option A is the winning one.

The best option is still A/B testing. It is recommended to use it in most cases.

What else you need to know before testing

• Do A/A Testing First

Are you sure that the service you are using for A/B testing is working properly? There is one sure way to check this - conduct A/A testing. Take the initial version of the test object and test it... against itself. After a couple hundred conversions, look at the difference in results. If the difference is significant, i.e. such that would be decisive during A/B testing, then you should think about changing the service.

A/A testing. The top diagram shows that the difference in conversion is small, which means that the A/B testing service can be used with confidence. In the diagram below there is a huge difference - something clearly went wrong

Seven times measure cut once. It is important to conduct A/A testing to avoid falling into the trap of inaccurate results in the future.

• Don't believe that certain techniques will work for sure.

Adding or removing just one word, such as “free,” from your CTA copy can make or break conversions.

• Rely only on data, not opinions

When choosing a testing object, you should be guided solely by the available data, and not by your own opinion or the guesses of your colleagues - never conduct testing based on your desires. Conduct tests based on what visitors say – what they like and what they don’t. Tests inspired by a sixth sense are usually doomed to fail, affecting the budget.

• Focus on macro conversions instead of micro conversions

Don’t be too quick to celebrate if you managed to increase the number of clicks on your CTA button or conversions to your landing page. The only thing that matters is how many people made purchases or requested a service. Focus on big-picture goals instead of keeping track of how many people have taken a couple of small steps that barely bring them closer to the final goal.

• Higher conversion does not guarantee more revenue

Let's say you doubled your prices. At the same time, your conversion rate dropped by 20%. Amazing fact the fact is that under such conditions you will still earn about 60% more than before.

Focus on profit, not conversion per se.

• Be patient

Even if for short term Once you start testing you are already seeing significant differences, don't stop. Wait until the winning option has at least 100 conversions. Until then, things may suddenly take a different turn.

In addition, testing must last at least a week. User behavior on Wednesday and Friday may differ significantly. One calendar week of testing will provide the most objective results.

• Forget about bounce rate

Bounce rate doesn't matter as long as conversions are going up. Just ignore the bounce rate - it doesn't directly affect your revenue.

• Run separate tests for desktop and mobile devices

Testing for mobile devices is bound to be different. Different in the same way that their users behave differently from desktop users.

Ideas and tips are collected in one place for one simple reason: no advice is guaranteed to increase conversions. All, absolutely All methods described here must be tested. Even obvious techniques like contrasting the color of the conversion button need to be tested in practice.

Do not try to use everything described here at the same time. Yes, this will turn your resource into a conversion monster. But you can call a website or landing page a monster in two cases:

1. It provides unprecedented conversion
2. It scares away all living things around

Do not overdo it so that the second case does not become a reality.

You are ready? Then go ahead.

I need ideas and advice for:

• Email Marketing
• Online store

I want to optimize:

• Text
• Design
• Call to action
• Pricing policy
• Conversion funnel

Offer free bonuses

The “product + bonus” scheme works better than the “two products in one set” scheme. Jerry Burger of Santa Clara University showed that people are more willing to buy a cupcake that comes with 2 free cookies than just a set of a cupcake and two cookies.

Good deal

Make more landing pages

A study from HubSpot showed that when you increase the number of landing pages to 10-15, conversions also increase by 55%. The graph below shows how the number of landing pages correlates with conversions for the B2B and B2C segments:

The ratio of the number of landing pages and the number of leads

More landing pages - more personal offers and targeted traffic from search engines. However, be careful: don’t take one offer and make a couple of dozen landing pages on it. Landing pages must be unique: different offers, different audience segments, and so on.

Use a contrasting color for your call to action button

There is a lot of debate on the Internet about what color the CTA button should be – red, green, blue, and so on. In fact, the only rule to follow is that the color should contrast with the background so that the button stands out clearly and attracts attention. The color itself needs to be tested.

The green button stands out well against the background

Additional tip: Try using a color that not only contrasts with the background, but has not been used for other elements on the page. This way, the button will not only stand out, but also not be perceived as just another generic element.

Get rid of sliders

Sliders with high-quality images are used for several reasons: they can be used to place multiple offers on the home page, they add an element of interactivity, and after all, they just look stylish. But what you need is not high style, but clients.

The truth is that sliders are natural conversion killers. There are several reasons for this:

• Human eyes react to movement

Even in ancient times, if a hunter noticed the slightest movement nearby, it could save his life. These days, a move like that can cost your conversion rate its life. At first glance, it may seem that there is no logic in this - the visitor notices the movement of the slider and pays attention to it. That's right, only he is distracted and does not see everything else that is on the page - calls to action, special offers, forms, content.

• Several changing offers prevent the visitor from focusing on one of them

Let's imagine the picture:

The user visits the site and pays attention to the slider. Starts reading: “Hurry! Only this fall in our collection...” Bang! The next slide appears.

The user will either get distracted by the next slide, which he also won’t have time to finish reading, or start scrolling back, becoming more and more irritated. On some sites, the slides switch so quickly that a little more, and even healthy man may suffer from an epileptic attack.

• Sliders fall under the effect of “banner blindness”

If the user is not distracted by the slider due to movement, then he may simply not notice it. Often, sliders are made quite large, resembling huge banners, which users ignore.

Instead of cluttering the page with sliders, use this space for something else - focus on one single great offer.

Use video

People can be lazy - they don’t read texts, they don’t want to think about the meaning of the message. Instead of text, invite users to watch a video - High Quality, describing your main offer. Place it in a visible place. Add a call to watch the video, and at the end, a call to take a conversion action.

However, you should be careful with this. It is important to avoid making a few simple mistakes:

• Never make an auto-playing video. It sounds creepy, but in 2015 there are still sites where videos play automatically.
• Don't make the video too long. Users often don't want to read long texts, but in the same way they don’t want to look commercial videos 5+ minutes long. If you can’t make a short video, it’s better to break it up into several episodes about two minutes long.
• Make sure you have mobile users There will be no problems with video playback.

An English marketer made two mistakes on his landing page: the video plays automatically, and it is too long. Who would watch a video like this if it lasts more than 6 minutes?

Make the title clear and understandable

The title should clearly explain your offer. For example, if you are trying to sign up users for a newsletter about betting on exchanges, then instead of “Do you like betting? Us too” try writing “Earn more on bets - get useful tips every day.”

A small checklist for writing a good headline:

• Focus on customer benefits, not features
• The headline should suggest that little effort is required from the client (remember that people are lazy)
• Make it realistic - add social proof(“13437 happy clients in 7 countries)
• Make your title more specific

Make the phone number large

Make sure you have a phone number in large font in your header. Then he will definitely not escape the attention of visitors, and will also assure them that at any time they have the opportunity to call and resolve any issues.

The phone number must be written in large font

Turn all CTA links into buttons

Buttons attract more attention and certainly won’t get lost in the text if used correctly. Convert all links with a call to action as anchor text into buttons. For example, replace the simple “Register” inscription with a beautiful and contrast button with the same call.

Use the magic word "free"

Even if it's obvious that the offer is free (for example, signing up for a newsletter), try adding this word to the call to action: “Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free!". In addition to reassuring users that they won’t have to spend money, the word itself attracts additional attention.

Create a smart referral program

Unusual tip: If your site has a referral program, allow users to write their own notes to friends along with the invitation. Make sure you have access to these messages. This is a real treasure trove of useful data - you will know why a particular user bought from you, what words he uses to convince a friend to do the same. Each such note is a product of free copyright from your clients.

Be sure to include this clause in your privacy policy.

Change the prices of goods or services

Try raising your prices. Increasing prices plays a big role in conversion optimization. People may mistrust low prices, associating them with poor quality or service.

Segment your offer for different types of users

Let visitors associate themselves with a specific group by breaking your offer into several categories. Label these categories clearly. For example, you can take a hypothetical freelance exchange. In theory, there can be two types of registration:

1. Registration of one account in which you can be both an employer and a contractor
2. Two types of accounts – for employers and for performers

Use the second type so that users immediately associate themselves with a specific group. This technique is suitable for any business where there are several groups of clients - drivers and passengers, legal entities and individuals, and so on.

Freelance exchange with one account type for all users

Another exchange that immediately divides visitors into two groups

Show previews of items in your cart

Preview images of items in the cart are eye-catching and can increase the chance that a user will make a purchase. Visual contact with the desired product will only fuel interest in purchasing it.

The lack of a preview may result in the user returning to the product card to see the photo again. There are no guarantees that the scenario will further develop in your favor - the user may get distracted or simply change his mind.

Large and high quality images goods in the basket stimulate the desire to purchase them

Test posting times

The timing of publishing new content has a huge impact on conversions. Depending on your buyer persona as well as your content distribution channels, optimal time may vary for new publications.

Don’t forget to test the timing for posting on social networks and for email newsletters.

Experiment with your email subject line

The first thing people see when the next issue of someone’s newsletter arrives in their inbox is the subject line. Email marketers literally have an instant to hook a user and win their attention away from other emails.

Be sure to experiment with personalizing both the subject line and the content of the email. Personalization can either gain the user's trust or cause negativity, because... many perceive this technique as a clever trick.

Call to action vs conversion form

Test a call to action button that leads to a new page or triggers a popup against the actual conversion form. For example, you have a landing page aimed at increasing the number of registrations in the service. You can place a “Register” button or immediately place a registration form.

Example of a conversion form at the end of a landing page

HTML newsletter vs plain text

Emailing in HTML format allows you to create beautiful emails, but it doesn't necessarily mean they get more response. Text-only emails can also capture the attention of subscribers—they stand out among dozens of HTML sales emails.

For example, famous marketers Brian Dean and Neil Patel, as well as world-famous financial consultant Ramit Sethi use simple text in their mailings, but at the same time receive a huge response from the audience. There is nothing unnecessary in them that could distract subscribers.

1 – Brian Dean, 2 – Neil Patel, 3 – Ramit Sethi

Use upselling, downselling and cross-selling

What is the difference between these techniques and how to use them? Consider:

• Upselling

When upselling, you offer the client to buy a more expensive, improved version of a product or service. For example, if a visitor is already ready to buy a smartphone with 16 GB of internal memory, you can offer him the same model with 32 GB, or another with additional functions.

• Downselling

The opposite technique to upselling. If a visitor finds a product or service too expensive, you can offer a cheaper option. For example, a user is considering a smartphone model with 16 GB of memory, but at the last moment he realizes that he cannot afford it at the moment. In this case, the best option is to offer a cheaper smartphone with 8 GB. This is downselling.

• Cross selling

When a user is ready to buy product A, he is much more likely to buy product B. Cross-selling is an absolute win-win. This technique consists of the fact that in addition to one product, you also offer to buy accompanying ones that will be useful in using or maintaining the first one. Let's continue the previous example: the user decides to buy a smartphone with 8 GB of internal memory. In addition, offer to buy an 8 GB memory card or a case.

For an online store, you can install “Recommend”, “You may also like” or “Buy with this product” blocks in the cart and on product cards.

Ozon.ru knows a lot about cross-selling

The main thing is not to overdo it (this will be discussed later), and also to offer only those goods or services that will really be useful to the buyer as ancillary items.

“Confirm your password” and “Confirm your email” forms

Have you ever spent 10 minutes filling out a form only to see an annoying “You must agree to the Terms of Service” message. Or, after filling it out, realize that you entered your email address incorrectly? Common situation. Instead of forcing users to submit a form only to see an error message, implement validation on your site for required fields (password, email, etc.). For example, the fields “confirm your password” and “enter your email again”.

Example from the Skype registration page

One of the foreign cases showed that the use of such fields led to:

• Increase in the number of successfully completed forms by 22%
• Reduce the number of errors by 22%
• Reducing (!!!) the time required to fill out the form by 42%

Quite an impressive statistic. Although it can be annoying to be asked to enter your details again, be sure to test this technique - it makes it much easier for users to fill out the form correctly.

Free subscription versus trial period

Free subscription usually provides unlimited time for using the service, but the functionality is greatly reduced.

Trial period limited in duration (week, two weeks, month), but provides everything available functions service (or the cheapest premium subscription if the service provides several tariff plans).

main feature free subscription is that when registering, the user already has the idea in his head that your service is to some extent free. He can access it at any time, without thinking that the subscription will soon end. But there are two main problems:

• The user will begin to associate your product with everyone free tools which he uses on the Internet. You need to convince him that your service is worth the money.
• Providing demon paid subscription, you say: “Yes, it takes so little money to support our service that we are even ready to provide free plan" To which the user might think: “If the content costs them practically nothing, then why should I pay them?”
• Phil Libin, CEO Evernote once said, “The best way to get a million people paying for a service is to get a billion people using the service.” To some extent this is true. With a free subscription, you will definitely get a lot of registered users, but this does not mean that your profits will increase. Yes, you will have a huge loyal audience, but the costs of maintaining the service will also increase. If you do not convert the planned number of free subscribers into paid ones, then such explosive growth of your project can kill it.

Evernote provides a free subscription with limited features

The trial period also has its own characteristics. Unlike a free subscription, the user is given all the functionality, but at the same time he knows that your service is not free. Let's say you provide trial period for 14 days. The clock starts ticking from the moment the user signs up. During these two weeks you must convince him to become paid subscriber– send letters with guides and step by step instructions when using the service, remind him of the trial expiration dates. Guide the user by the hand through all the functionality.

The main advantage of the trial period is that after 14 days the user will get the impression that he has already purchased a paid subscription, and he will become attached to the service. Thus, the chances of converting it are very high.

Testing conducted at VWO showed that switching from a free subscription to a trial period increased the number of registered paid accounts by 268.14%. Here's how they compared user behavior between these two subscription options:

The trial period worked better for VWO

The free subscription has also given amazing results to many business giants - Dropbox, Spotify, Mailchimp, Evernote.

Test these two types of subscriptions and, depending on the specifics of your business, one of them could provide a significant increase in conversions.

Use an unusual call to action

Standard calls to action may not always work for you. Try using an unusual call. For example:

• Go!
• I'm in
• Agreed!

Example from the hosting provider's website

Identify the most popular products and most trusted manufacturers

Add some social proof by highlighting your most popular products and manufacturers. People tend to buy what others have already chosen and tried.

They became hits for a reason

Replace stock photos with photos of real people

Many stock photos, although they look beautiful, have long become boring to everyone. It's better to post a photo of yourself or ask your colleagues to pose a little. Make your site more personal so that users feel like they are dealing with ordinary people.

-Young people, what are you doing here? -Yes, we draw various business stuff in the air

Remember that your website should be an effective tool for achieving your goals, not a stock photo gallery.

Replace the word “buy” with a more detailed description on your call to action button

Try writing a call to action that is focused on the user's benefit. For example, “book my place” or “send me a T-shirt” instead of the obligatory “buy”.

If you sell software, then along with aggressive text you can use “activate trial period” - the likelihood that people will click on such a button is, in theory, much higher.

Call to action on the Microsoft Office website

Hide the number of email subscribers

Social proof is a proven method that works 100% of the time. Or not? Remember one of the main rules of conversion optimization - you need to test everything, you can’t be sure of anything. Derek Halpern, founder of Social Triggers, conducted testing that showed that a call to subscribe to an email list without specifying the number of subscribers increased conversion by 102.2%. Why? Perhaps because people want small subscriber bases so they can be addressed personally. When visitors see that signing up will join an army of 15,000 people, they think they'll be bombarded with faceless sales emails.

Subscription form without indicating the number of subscribers on our website

Show progress indicator

Use a progress bar when registering, filling out forms, and other actions that require multiple steps. It's kind of " bread crumbs" It sounds quite simple, but indicators like these motivate people to get to the end.

Example from GoDaddy website

Play on the fear of loss

Fear of loss is a very strong motive. “Stop losing customers” is much more persuasive than “Increase your conversion rate.” People are much more afraid of losing what they already have than they are of wanting to acquire something new.

Engage users immediately, even if they are not yet ready to make a purchase

If your website visitors have only two options - to buy or not to buy, then you are losing potential customers who need more time to make a decision. Get them to interact with your site immediately, even if they're not ready to buy or sign up for a newsletter right now. Offer them a trial, watching a video, or downloading a file.

However, first determine whether the formula is more engaged users = more sales right for your business. There is a very fine line between involvement and distraction.

Place your most profitable products on the first screen

The most popular and expensive products and services should be positioned so that they can be seen immediately when the page loads without the need to scroll. For the product card, do not forget to also place the following 8 elements on the first screen:

1. Product Name
2. Photos from high resolution
3. Navigation panel; bread crumbs
4. Price and Special offers
5. Rating and reviews
6. "Add to cart" button
7. Product description
8. Availability or absence of goods

The product card contains all 8 elements

Get rid of weak social proof

It has already been said above that social proof does not always work for you. These three types of social proof can hurt your conversion rates:

1.Lack of reviews or extremely unconvincing reviews

What does the complete lack of reviews about a product mean? That no one cares about him. Because he didn't deserve it.

On the other hand, even if you have reviews, they should clearly state the advantages of the product and tell how it was useful to the author, what problems he was able to solve. Inconclusive reviews often consist of just a couple of phrases: “Great!”, “Great e-book,” “Very happy with the purchase.”

If one similar review is among many detailed and convincing ones, then it’s okay, but if all the reviews are written in the style of “aptar zhzhot”, then this can harm your conversion

2. Irrelevant reviews

Buyers want to see reviews from people like themselves. For B2B good review This is a review written...

• ...someone who is similar to your potential clients
• …where your potential clients see themselves in 4-5 years
• ...by someone from a company similar to your potential clients' companies
• ...someone from a company your prospects admire

Example of a relevant review from our website

A review left by someone who is too far from your industry, even if it is a very influential person, can turn people's backs on you. You don't need feedback from a president or TV personality you know personally. Do you need feedback from the person you are with? the target audience can associate himself.

3. Not enough shares and comments

Lack of reaction to your content is a reaction. Sharing does not require much effort - just a couple of clicks. But by showing a low share count on social media, you're telling visitors, “My content is so bad that people don't want to take a few seconds to share it. Why would you share it?”

Of course, this doesn't mean that your content is necessarily low quality– there are a lot of high-quality resources on the Internet that have never been heard of on social networks, but that’s not the point. The point is how people perceive this quality. When a visitor sees a low number of shares, there is a high chance that he will automatically recognize the content as low-quality.

How to get rid of such social proof? Here's a checklist:

• Remove counters next to social media buttons until your content gets enough shares
• Never put social buttons on pages that users won't share. For example, a landing page inviting you to subscribe to your newsletter, an “About Us” page, and so on.
• If you don't have any reviews, put the best tweets from your followers instead.
• Show the number of comments only when users scrolled to the bottom of the page

Add a sense of urgency to your call to action

It's not just about the familiar timer countdown. Phrases like “only 2 tickets left” or “place your order within the hour and we'll deliver your purchase today” can have a positive impact on conversion. Of course, you should only use them if they are true.

Another option is to show the number of users viewing a given offer and how long ago the last order was made. If the product or service is also available in limited quantities, then this combination may simply force visitors to immediately click the “buy” button.

Better hurry

Test calls to action from different people

Opinions vary on which person's call to action converts best. The only way out, as in all other cases, is to test. For example, for a call to register with a service, test the following options:

• Register my account
• Register your account
• Register your account
• Register
• Registration

Use guarantees

Guarantees make users feel more secure and inspire trust. Guarantees are a fairly broad concept. Let's look at several of their types:

1. Partnership guarantee

If you have established partnerships with well-known suppliers of goods or services, do not forget to unobtrusively mention this on your website. For example, this could be a guarantee of partnership with a well-known delivery service.

2.Guarantee of return of goods or money

Clearly outline your policy for returning goods to the store or refunding the user if they are not happy with the service. You can use phrases like “we'll refund your money anytime within the first 30 days if you don't like our service” or “hassle-free returns within the first month.”

3.Safety guarantee

Visitors should know that using your service, downloading files from your site, providing payment information and so on - safe. Add security guarantee seals from famous antiviruses and an SSL certificate seal.

One of the most recognizable seals on the Internet

4.Guarantee not to send spam

When subscribing to any newsletter, people want to receive useful content, not spam. Reassure them that you are not spamming in any way. For example, in your subscription form you can use phrases like “we will never send you spam, we promise!” or “we hate spam too.”

5.Guarantee not to disclose information

Guarantee your site visitors that you will not disclose their personal information - full name, contact information, and so on. Few people will read a privacy policy that spells it all out in legal language, but one single sentence with a guarantee, located in a conversion form, can have a positive effect on people.

6.Best price guarantee

Potential buyers are always looking for the most profitable proposition. Let them know that you have the best price for the product or service. You can promise a discount if the user finds a lower price for the same offer. However, you should be careful with this - you risk losing those who go looking for a lower price and never return.

Agreed!

Use autocomplete fields in forms

A huge number of fields in forms can often lead to dire consequences for conversion. But what if you can’t do without these fields? Set up form autofill or automatic suggestions. For example, these could be tips when filling out the “city” field, or automatic filling this field when entering a postal code.

This way, users will have to type less, which can significantly reduce the rate of incomplete forms, especially when it comes to mobile users.

Allow users to make purchases without registration

Mandatory registration has many advantages - you receive all the necessary data about the user, which you can use for further marketing purposes. However, this is also one of the surefire ways to make users leave your site. By providing the opportunity to make a purchase without registering, you lose some important information, but gain a huge number of potential customers who do not want to register for one reason or another: they do not want to share their personal information, create another-disposable-account, or they are just lazy.

You can buy on Ebay without registering using the “Buy Now” button

Set up an online chat

Using online chat, users can contact you directly with any questions. If done correctly, you can personally guide visitors through the conversion funnel.

Place basic information on the left side of the screen

Research has shown that people follow a certain pattern when browsing websites. Using eye-tracking technologies, it was found that this pattern resembles the letter F located on the left side of the screen.

People browse pages in a pattern that resembles the letter F

Try to place there a list of the most popular products/services, a call to action, your unique selling proposition and other important blocks.

Errors

In conversion optimization, although there are no methods that work 100%, there are some techniques that will almost certainly ruin conversions. Here is a list of the most common mistakes.

Captcha

Confirm that you are not a robot

Ok, one moment... What? I have to enter This?

Not only is the captcha sometimes just too lazy to enter, but sometimes it can be so illegible that even the most patient visitors will leave your site.

Not only robots, but also people have a hard time with captcha

A study conducted at Stanford University found that on average:

• It takes 9.8 seconds to solve a visual captcha
• It takes 28.4 seconds to solve an audio captcha
• Compared to visual captchas, 50% more users quit audio captchas without solving them
• Only in 71% of cases will three users agree with each other about deciphering a visual captcha
• Only in 31.2% of cases will three users agree on how to decipher an audio captcha

Is it time to say goodbye to captcha? More likely. To make your final decision, ask yourself just two questions:

• Is getting rid of spam really worth losing potential conversions?
• If you answered yes, have you made sure that the captcha on your site will be easy to solve for all users without exception?

Cross-selling that is too intrusive or irrelevant

Cross-selling as an effective tool for increasing conversion has already been discussed above. However, they should be handled with care. Some projects do not know the measures in cross-offers, which leads to the fact that the user either has the feeling of “selling” the goods, or the cart is overfilled with goods worth an astronomical amount.

Aggressive cross-selling offers appear before the user even goes to cart

Another situation is irrelevant cross-sentences. It's not like that terrible mistake, but it may still confuse or distract visitors. Not to mention, irrelevant items are less likely to end up in your cart.

Who needs a pancake maker these days if it doesn’t come with a soft toy and a memory card?

Additional charges

Visitors to online stores do not expect that during the payment process they will be surprised in the form of unexpected costs - fees, commissions, taxes, and so on. A study conducted by Statista.com staff showed that unexpected costs - first by popularity reason for not purchasing. 56% of respondents said they abandoned their carts after being presented with additional fees.

An uninitiated user will probably have many questions: “ICANN? What is this? Who is this? Why should I even pay them?”

If possible, eliminate all additional fees and charges or include them in the price of the product in advance. Reassure visitors that there are no additional fees unless they are included.

Promo codes

It would seem, how can promotional codes harm your conversion? Let's imagine the following situation:

1. The user places the item in the cart and proceeds to payment
2. At some point he sees the field “Enter a promo code to get a discount”
3. The user understands that he can get a better offer. You just need to find a promo code
4. He opens a new tab and starts looking for a promo code
5. The user gets distracted by something and does not return to the cart, or feels frustrated because he cannot find the code and goes looking similar product from competitors

Request "Yulmart" promo code" is ranked third in Google's automatic suggestions. Can you imagine how many users left in search of a promo code, but never returned?

Do you need a scenario like this? Hardly.

However, you shouldn’t completely abandon promo codes. There are at least two options to solve the problem:

1. Hide the form from those who do not have a promo code

The URL the user goes to must contain a parameter that assumes they have a promo code. In this case, the form is not visible to those who do not have the code. This could be a referral link, a link in an email, and so on.

Another option is that the URL should contain a parameter that already contains the promo code itself. The user does not have to manually enter the code, and there is no need for the form itself.

1. Camouflage the uniform

This technique is to make the shape less noticeable - install it in an inconspicuous place, hide it under the spoiler. Even if users without a promo code do a quick search for the form, they are unlikely to find it. On the contrary, users with the code will actively look for an opportunity to use it and will definitely find the form.

Errors in the text

No one is immune from mistakes. And, frankly speaking, it is impossible to write without errors. Even on authoritative sources, no, no, you will come across a barely noticeable typo. But if the typos are rude grammatical errors follow one after another, then users are unlikely to tolerate it, and then you can forget about increasing conversion.

Myths about conversion optimization

Some myths have already been described in the article: that there are techniques that work 100%, that specific color Call to action buttons or social proof help increase conversions and so on.

This section is intended to once again prove that everything needs to be tested. You cannot unconditionally trust the words of “experts” when using certain techniques and expecting a guaranteed result.

Here are a few common myths that have not been described before:

Three click rule

The three-click rule states that any page should be accessible in just three clicks, or users will simply leave the site. It is not true. Many foreign studies have long refuted this myth. What really matters is ease of navigation, quality of content and its presentation.

Guarantees always work for you

Guarantees have already been mentioned above, but sometimes they can seriously harm conversions. Sometimes users’ thoughts can go along the following scenario: “Of course, another site with a bunch of guarantees. They stuck on all sorts of badges. Yes, very convincing."

Use this technique with caution.

Conversion optimization means experimenting with buttons and manipulating user behavior

This is probably the most dangerous myth, leading to a complete misunderstanding of the very essence of this process. This may seem so to those who have either recently become interested in conversion optimization or are not familiar with it at all. Conversion optimization is primarily about improving your value proposition.

Conversion optimization is a complex but effective method of obtaining new customers.

Don’t think that conversion optimization is easy way. There are no magic techniques or established methods, but at the same time, this is not Pandora's box. Conversion optimization is not just a long process - it is constant. Analysis, construction of new hypotheses and their testing should be a cyclical process.