How to Boost Your Conversion Rates

Conversion Rates Report 2011 - Nothing's Changed

Econsultancy has just released its Conversion Rate Optimisation Report for 2011, and sadly the rates are still stuck around 2% to 3%. The same as they’ve been for the past decade and more.

So Econsultancy asks the question: “...why are conversion rates not better than they are?” and it suggests it’s “...because conversion rate optimization is complex.”

I disagree.

While conversion rate optimisation undoubtedly takes work and discipline, it’s not like we don’t know what to do.

Leading Conversion Rate Optimisation consultants such as Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg, Tim Ash, Steve Krug and others have been proclaiming the techniques and benefits of conversion rate optimisation since the 1990’s.

Yet marketers and businesses still do almost nothing about it.

Why? Read on...

55% of Shoppers Abandon Poor Performing Sites

Conversion Rate Optimisation Tip #9 - Make Sure Your Site Works

That is, make sure everything works on your website, for everyone, all the time in all circumstances

You will lose more than 50% of your sales and leads if you don't.

This has been said many times before, and the research over the past 10 years always backs it up.

This latest study on Online Retail Usability from Econsultancy really puts some stark numbers on what poorly working sites can cost you.

Among the findings:

Read more findings...

Slow Sites Will Kill Your Sales

Speed Up Your Site to Get More Business

There's one very simple reason why anyone in online business should have a fast loading site:

You'll lose lots of business if you don't.

Slow loading sites will cost you sales and leads.

Research has always proved that customers want fast loading sites and will do more business with sites that load quickly.

Even Google has started penalizing slow loading sites in their search results.

Recently I came across some even more compelling research that showed how much revenue the big boys lose for every fraction of a second their site's slow down.

Click here to find out more...

Why Food Pics Increase Your Conversion Rates

Conversion Rate Optimisation Tip # 7

Foodtography is the latest craze sweeping the internet. Millions of people are sharing photographs of their food, often for no other reason than they just feel like it.

According to stock photography site Crestock, there are dedicated blogs and websites springing up daily.

So what has all this got to do with increasing your conversion rate?

Simple, pictures of food are one of the quickest ways to boost your conversion rate or engagement rate, even if your site has nothing to do with food.

And if it’s sexy food, even better.

Why Sexy Food Works

Learn Why...

80% Conversion Rate!! I'd Like To See That

Seth Berman over at Post Click Marketing recently posted on how some large companies such as Mattel are getting an 80% conversion rate for some of their website properties.

Unfortunately he didn't say too much more, so I immediately chastised him for being such a tease and begged him to do an interview, share some slides or whitepaper with the companies in question.

He promised to do that, so stay tuned.

What Seth did add was that Mattel wasn't the only one getting such high conversion rates. He cited Mozilla and this page as another example.

This is the Firefox 4 download page See pics below.

My first reaction was: “Well, yeh, of course, that's what you'd expect from such a page.”

But after engaging my marketing and optimisation brain, I realised there was plenty we could all learn from Mozilla's page.

So here are my seven top tips of what you can learn from the Mozilla Firefox page:

read more...

Conversion Rate Optimisation Tip # 6 – Don’t Use CAPTCHA Codes

CAPTCHA codes are one of my pet online peeves. Those indecipherable words and symbols that you’re usually asked to read before you can register, leave a comment or otherwise engage with a website.

Recently I came across a piece of research that proved why I am so right to loathe these things.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/captchas-affect-on-conversion-rates

The report stated that these cryptic conundrums reduce conversion rates by over 3%.

So say your site is turning over $1 million per year, you could be losing $30,000 a year just by using CAPTCHA codes. Ouch!

Conversion Rate Optimisation Tip #5 - Don’t Use Reverse Type

Back in the eighties Formula One Grand Prix teams discovered that the easiest thing to read on a car travelling at 300kmh is black type on a white background.

They promptly redesigned the car’s livery so that where ever they needed to paste a sponsor’s message it was black on white.

This of course gave the sponsor a better return than if their message had been say black text on a red background, or even worse white text on a black background (otherwise known as reverse type).

Better Marketing with Google Analytics

How to Create a Custom Report for Unique Visitors From All Traffic Sources

Last week I posted how I made it on to Google Analytics TV asking about tracking Unique Visitors for All Traffic Sources.

The solution was to create a Custom Report, so here’s how to do it, but first...

Why Is This Important?

As marketers and business owners we normally want to know how many individual people came to our store and bought something. Plus we really want to know what made them come to the store in the first place.

This allows us to get a clear picture of how well our various marketing and advertising campaigns are working.

From there we can calculate the real conversion rate for each marketing channel and also the ROI.

Online Conversion Rate Calculator

Try our online Conversion Rate Calculator to see how much extra business you can gain just by using smarter marketing techniques.

Are you at 2% like almost everyone else, or closer to 40% like the very best?

Try it and see.

What is a Conversion Rate and Does it Really Matter?

While we should all be just a little obsessive about increasing our conversion rates, the problem is everybody measures them differently.

Your Conversion Rate is simply the business results your site achieved (EG: Sales, registrations, names gathered etc) divided by the number of visitors to your site.

But do you use Visits, Unique Visits or even something else as the basis of your conversion rate calculation?

Even the Experts Can't Agree

Kiss and Sell - Conversion Rate Optimization - Tip # 4

The simpler you can make your online processes the better.

The easier it is for your customers to interact with your site

the more money you’ll make,
the more leads you’ll get,
the more conversions you’ll get etc.

Just think of Google.

Late to the search engine game, it made searching so simple it eventually trumped all the long established players. (Some of you don’t even know who the players were before Google.)

Not only did Google become the premier search engine, it went on to become one of the dominant technology companies, even putting the wind up Microsoft.google

Simplicity is a very powerful marketing tool. Don’t under estimate it.

Remember the KISS principle – Keep it Simple Stupid.

Confessions of Conversion Rate Commando

There’s more to it than just conversion rate.

For the past 12 years I have been a conversion rate fanatic, evangelist and downright pain to some people over conversion rates.

While my obsession has not been without good reason, for a while now I’ve been thinking that conversion rate is perhaps not the ultimate measure of a site’s performance that I thought it was.

The Problem With Averages

The first problem with comparing yourself to global average conversion rates is that they are averages.

Without seeing the bell curve it’s hard to gain any context of where the low or high performers are.

What Italian Ice Cream Can Teach You About High Conversion Rates

Conversion Rate Optimization - Tip # 3

Uncle Benny was famous in Western Australia for introducing irresistible Italian ice cream to the locals.

In the early days he used to make his delicious concoctions at home before taking them down to the port city to sell on the street corner from a frozen tin.

According to Benny: “If at the end of the day, I had an empty tin and a pocketful of change, then I knew it was a good flavour. If the tin was still nearly full and my pockets empty then not so much. That was my market research.”

Conversion Rate Optimization - Tip # 2

Tell the truth, damn it!

 photo credit: Chester Zoo

Tiger Wood’s lame apology was universally panned for being phoney.

Hey, even us guys could tell he was just blowing smoke up our collective fairways.  Not to mention some of his die hard fans who felt queasy about the whole thing.

So, if nearly everybody could see through this heavily choreographed charade, what does that have to do with increasing your website conversion rate? 

Conversion Rate Optimization - Tip # 1

Make Your Images Bigger

Welcome to a new and ongoing series of tips on how to improve your online conversion rates.

Every week (roughly) I'll be giving you one technique that you can use straightaway to improve your online results.

Tip number one is to make your images bigger, your thumbnails, your normal images and even your expanded images.

Images of less than 100 pixels square are pretty much ignored according to recent research.

Size Matters

Conversion Rates - The Missing Improvement Secrets

Conversion rates can be 400% higher or more when running a marketing campaign. This means there is more to website conversion rate improvement than conventional conversion rate practices such as landing page optimisation, and tweaking website design factors.

Offline and offsite marketing factors such as better advertising, better offers, better products etc are equally as effective.

The fact that marketing/ advertising campaigns can increase conversion rates by four or even eight fold seems obvious in hindsight. It’s really just marketing 101: If you’re marketing is any good it should be driving more highly qualified customers to your website who are more likely to convert at a higher rate. (If that isn’t happening then review your marketing and your landing pages.)

But the effect of good marketing brings up a number of key points that aren’t usually part of the current conversion rate improvement conversation.

Online Marketers Pay Lip Service to Conversion Rate Optimization

photo credit: kimberlyfaye

More than 90 percent of all online marketers and businesses are leaving vast amounts of money and business on the table by ignoring conversion rate optimisation.

A recent survey by Alterian found that less than half of the marketers they surveyed use any sort of analytics.

Of those that do, many find it hard to interpret the data, and less than 10% regard analytics as a vital tool in improving their business results.

Alarming as the results are, they are not surprising. Optimising conversion rates and using analytics go hand in hand.

101 Tips to Improve Your Conversion Rates

photo credit: saguayo

I could have easily come up with a 1001 tips, but that might have been too much to digest in one sitting.

As I say on my main site, most online businesses are suffering from"The Death of a Thousand Cuts".

With conversion rates till stuck at around 2.0 percent, for the vast majority of online businesses, there is still plenty of work to do.

So, in no particular order here are are the first 101 tips to boost your online results:

How Validation Will Increase Your Conversions and Profits

To put it simply - validating your site (making it standards compliant) will increase your conversions, sales and profits.

It will also prevent you from getting sued.

If ever anyone ever tells you that your site's validation and compliance doesn't matter be afraid, very afraid. This is a warning bell that says they don't understand the requirements and responsibilities of business.

Do You Have a 30% Conversion Rate? Why Not?

The Popcorn Factory does. Or at 29.5% it's close enough. Recent figures from Nielsen Net Ratings continue to show that a handful of sites are way ahead of the rest of the ecommerce world in terms of conversion rates.
The Popcorn Factory - 29.50%
L.L. Bean - 23.60%
Abebooks - 20.60%
Amazon - 17.60%
Hollister Co - 17.60%
Lands End - 17.20%
Coldwater Creek - 17.10%
Gymboree - 16.00%

Some of these sites such as Land's End, LL Bean, QVC have consistently been among the leaders for a long time. What's interesting is that they were all leaders in the field of direct catalogue marketing long before they went online.

Obviously they know something about how to sell, and how to transfer that expertise to the online world. Yes Virginia, the old rules still apply.

What's more these results are now starting to get close to the bricks and mortar average of 50%, so it shows that great sales results can be achieved online

How Does The Popcorn Factory Do It?