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Globally, there has been a massive shift towards online interactions in all industries. This, in turn, has impacted user behavior and activity, so companies have had to change their strategy to respond to the increased traffic and meet the new demands of users.
The cause of this shift, the pandemic, has also given many companies the time and space to launch major rebrands and redesign their digital strategy.
Changes are not always for the better, however, as many such revisions tend to have a negative impact on website conversion rates.
Factors to consider when doing a digital refresh
At my company, we encourage brands to try redesigns first instead of doing a major overhaul of the website. A robust testing program will help meet the site’s goals and improve performance.
New customers, new behavior
The pandemic has created new website users who need a personalized experience to ensure they become loyal customers.
Qualitative research can help you identify unique behaviors among these new users and drive testing concepts and personalization opportunities. This can shed light on concepts that companies may not have considered (e.g. a webpage element that looks clickable and frustrates users who can’t find it).
A heat map applied to your website can expose a variety of previously unrealized user behaviors and reduce unnecessary friction that discourages engagement and conversion rates.
COVID fatigue
In all fairness, most of the people are “over” COVID. You are dying to return to a sense of normalcy. This attitude is reflected in what we’ve seen messaging on websites.
We saw a sharp drop in conversion performance in tests that highlight COVID-19 messages. It’s time to remove it – or minimize it to lessen its impact.
Constant profits for conversion
While new trends are interesting and informative, it’s important not to neglect the evergreen tactics that produce consistent results.
build up trust
Placing trust signals on key pages on a brand’s website is one of the most consistent ways to improve conversion.
These signals can be social proof, customer reviews, or brand partnerships, depending on the type of business.
It’s a classic piece of branded housekeeping.
delete messages
Clear headings with a consistent message can make a big difference in signup form conversion rates.
For example, if in a call-to-action (CTA) “Register for a free trial” and the sign-up form says “Fill out this form to hear from our sales representative,” the language inconsistency reduces the likelihood that the user will take the next step . Changing the CTA to “Fill out this form to start your free trial today” can help.
Simple, minimal, action-based CTAs with a clear value proposition take users to the next step.
A good example of this is the Salesforce website: it uses action-based verbs and benefit props so users know exactly what action they’re taking and what they’re gaining at each stage of the journey.
Set expectations
Setting expectations throughout the funnel helps customers feel confident about starting the process. For example, if users know how long it takes to fill out a form – z see you later.
Another useful tactic for conversions is to use progress bars and indicators of remaining responses. This type of transparency creates a clear path that gives users more autonomy, which benefits trust.
The same method can be used on high traffic blogs by adding a “read time” indicator to the blog posts. Many improved engagement metrics can result from this simple action.
How to do a website conversion rate optimization
At my company, we use website conversion rate testing, email marketing, and paid media. For companies considering investing in testing, you can create a program without a large investment. Test tools with low monthly costs that still have robust statistical algorithms are available.
Test everything, but start with smaller options. Some companies want really big initiatives, such as a virtual shopping advisor, to test without data to show potential success. Implementing similar widgets on websites tends to be distracting and can affect conversion.
Instead, look for ways to minimize the up-front costs of creating a test and allow for development time so that insights can be gained quickly. Big changes won’t necessarily pay off, and a large upfront investment can have negative effects rather than positive effects.
Before making an upfront investment, use the painted doors approach coupled with qualitative research to determine what users really want. The painted door approach involves either setting up a manual workaround and testing a very limited group of customers, or showing that something exists on a website before developing that functionality to measure interest. Do this with a small percentage of your audience so that manual labor support is easy and users aren’t discouraged by the lack of functionality.
An improvement in the conversion can result from very simple tests, e.g. B. changing a single color or switching from a checkbox to a toggle. This is the best place to start your conversion rate optimization program.
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As a final insight, you can run as many tests as you can to have an impact on your business.
UX best practices are low hanging fruits for testing. It’s hard to predict which test ideas will be most effective and which messaging will be most intuitive for users. So test everything and involve the entire organization. Take as many ideas as you can and execute them all so you can understand the potential impact of each test.
That doesn’t have to mean having an inconsistent brand. Many Fortune 500 companies are constantly evaluating their user experience and making incremental changes to their websites. But the changes are subtle and don’t detract from the overall brand experience.
The pandemic has resulted in even more brand interactions taking place online, so optimizing conversion is more important than ever. Several industries have seen a shift towards digitization, more users visiting their websites and different user behavior.
It is common for companies to test their marketing messages before investigating their website’s UX. But as the biggest companies have recognized, website conversion testing can be very insightful for marketing messaging and other business areas.
More resources on website conversion testing
Five website conversion principles that will increase your lead volume
How to create high-turnover descriptions for your product pages
How readability and word choice affect ecommerce landing page conversion rates