In the previous installments of this series, we considered testing methodology, identifying the must-have user experience, and optimizing your conversion funnel. I discussed how to use analytics to unlock pinch points and areas of opportunity for performance improvements. And finally I explained how to go beyond data to identifying true visitor intent through surveys.
In this fourth and final installment, I'm going to cover ways to implement those insights in the conversion rate optimization process while avoiding the all-too-common trap of getting bogged down by minutiae.
Conversion Rate Optimization Based on Insights
Now that you have insights from your data and surveys, you can build and execute an informed conversion rate optimization program—one designed to address the most important and promising areas of improvement. Gone are the days of testing button color for the sake of testing. You now have intentional targets that have a real opportunity to improve your business. Here's how to act on them.
1. Prioritize the biggest pain points
You can't optimize everything at once. Your first job is to prioritize the areas of opportunity based on the data and insights you've gathered. You're the ER doctor, and you need to triage the patient.
Force-rank each possible optimization and determine which ones have the highest likelihood of moving the needle for your business. You can build your ranking based on the likelihood of the optimization to improve whichever metric you care most about— revenue, user acquisition, you name it.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What metrics are the most important to me?
- What are the most important conversions to influence those metrics?
- Which pages mean the most to the success of those conversion funnels?
- Which flows are most critical to improving the metrics that matter to me?
2. Eliminate drop-off points
Tackle the pages in your funnel that have the most drop-off. Armed with analytics and insights, you should have some hypotheses about what could improve those metrics. Review those pages and ask yourself whether the messaging, content and promise of the page align with the intent of the user who visited that page.
If the needs don't align, you can address the page elements so they better address visitor intent. Alternatively, if your visitor's needs don't align with your product offering, you may need to optimize your inbound traffic source as opposed to the promise on the Web page.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What are the core value propositions that resonate with your users?
- Are they clearly communicated on your site?
- What have my visitors told or shown me that can be used to better communicate my product's value?
- What do I know about my visitors' intent that I can use to improve the performance of this page or flow?
3. Eliminate excess steps
The must-have experience is the thing that customers fall in love with and come to know your product by. It's the thing they can't live without, and the thing your product does better than anything else they use. You want to get as many users to that experience as possible.
Review your funnel and look for unnecessary steps that can be removed. Are there pages that can come out, fields that aren't vital to the signup process, and steps that add friction? The faster you get users into the must-have experience, the fewer the places where your funnel can leak.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Can you remove friction from the onboarding process?
- What steps can you remove from the user conversion flow?
- What is the bare minimum information a user needs to provide to start using your experience?
- What would happen if I flipped my funnel on its head and eliminated every step leading up to the must-have experience?
Avoiding the A/B Testing Trap
Some of these tests will be hard. Changing the user onboarding flow is not always easy. Redesigning interior pages to have stronger calls to action takes time. Getting optimization efforts prioritized in the engineering queue can require gumption and horse trading. But in my experience, the harder changes are the ones that will move the needle for your business.
You can do the easy, busy work of testing button colors and being frustrated with little return, or you can do the hard work of pushing through the optimization tests that have big potential upside. Instead of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, spend your time getting in place the tests that matter.
Too many people get caught in the swirl of micro optimizations, sapping energy the organization needs to embark on tests that can be truly game-changing. Stay focused on potential big wins.
Making Conversion Rate Optimization Work for You
Optimization can often be a letdown for marketers and organizations. When focused on the wrong elements, testing can lead to nowhere. But when you align your efforts with an approach that focuses on holistic conversion rate optimization, you give yourself a much better chance for success.
By focusing your effort on the potential big wins, you ensure that your testing and optimization efforts have the best chance at moving the needle. And by continually testing, iterating and measuring, you can improve the user experience, speeding them to the must-have experience they love and earning real wins for your organization through conversion optimization done right.
Articles in this series
Article 1: How to Build an Effective Conversion Rate Optimization Plan
Article 2: How to Uncover Confusion in Your Conversion Funnel
Article 3: How to Drive Conversion Rate by Understanding Visitor Intent
