Conversion testing has long been a buzzword among marketing agency’s, however so few are actually using modern, up to date techniques. So to ensure that you get the most from your conversion optimization efforts, here are the 5 rules for conversion testing in 2015.
1. Develop a strategy
Before you do any form of conversion optimization, you must first develop a very solid and theoretical plan. This ensures that you’ll effectively work your way through your sales funnel, and don’t waste time or effort on tests that aren’t needed.
From experience most eCommerce business owners should test and optimize the following pages:
Home Page – To increase engagement, lower bounce rate, and boost click through rates
Category Pages – To increase click through rates, and decrease time spent navigating
Product Pages – To persuade your clients to hit the purchase button, and to eliminate all resistance to making the purchase.
Check out / Cart Pages – To make the process as seem less as possible and prevent buyers remorse.
Thank You Page – To increase referral and social interaction
2. Focus on persuasion elements
Every one of your buyers is a human being, and as humans we have a set process that we must go through in order to be persuaded to take a specific action. We need to be sold on the benefits, have an emotional attachment on why we need those benefits, have all risk removed, and have a reason to act now.
Plus your buyers need to love your product, love your company, and trust you entirely.
So when testing persuasion elements they are things like your headline, guarantee, bullet point copy, warranty, ‘lifestyle’ images and colour scheme.
If you’re not sure where to start here is a useful conversion optimization checklist.
3. Ignore irrelevant issues
In the early days of optimization, a lot of industries and businesses spent a lot of effort on area’s that had little, if any, results.
Things like testing button colour are a complete waste of time and are likely to burn through your resources. On the flip side, testing the Call To Action text and positioning on your button is useful.
Its hard to know what classifies as an irrelevant issue, but as a guideline, if it doesn’t directly link to the human process of influence, then its not worth testing.
4. Implement A/B Testing
In the past when a business owner wanted to increase their sales they’d completely overhaul the entire site. This was called radical web design. It would scrap the whole thing and start again.
The trouble with this approach is that it throws the baby out with the bath water. It works on the assumption that every part of the previous website was wrong, where in fact it could have been as simple as a few sentences.
This is why if you want to improve your conversion rates, you need to split test one element at a time.
The way a split test works is it keeps a ‘control’ (which is the current version of the site), and allows you to create a ‘test’ (Where you modify 1 element). It then splits the traffic between the 2 pages, and tests to see which one converts better.
Then, once you have the data you’ll either make a permanent change to your site, or you’ll ensure not to change the element you tested because its proven to work well.
If you’re using a platform like Magento then I recommend getting your magento developers to implement the changes for you
5. Track and analyse data
Once you start implementing your conversion optimization strategy, you must, I repeat MUST keep data and records of everything. From the changes you made, through to its effect on conversions, bounce rate, social interaction, the lot.
The reason being, is that some times a test might lower conversions so we discount it and throw it aside. But what you mightn’t see is that it boosted social sharing by 50%. So with accurate data, you can then replicate and reverse engineer the test to find out what aspect helped boost your social, without effecting your sales.
As you can see, conversion rate optimization is fast becoming a very detailed science. Its much like trying to guess the code to a combination lock – All it takes is for you to get the right elements aligned and your business will never be the same again.
