Conversion Rate Optimization Tools and Best Practices to do it yourself

Adriana IordanVP of Web Marketing@Avangate

1. Conversion Optimization Factors2. Research & Analysis3. Examples on how to gather insights4. Where to start?5. Experiments we’ve done on shopping carts6. Conclusions

Agenda

Drivers / Persuasion

1. Motivation - the reason a customer comes to your page.

2. Value Proposition - the one reason customers should buy from you over competitors

3. Incentive / Urgency – why act now

Inhibitors / Usability

4. Anxiety- customer’s reasons that are preventing them from continuing in the sales funnel.

5. Frictions / Distractions - things that get in the way of your offer

Conversion Optimization Factors*

* Based on the MarketingExperiments formula

How to find out about your prospects?

• Web Analytics Data Segmentation• Surveys – current customers, trial

users, users who uninstalled your software, visitors

• Face to face selling / Become your own customer

• User Testing / First impressions• Click Mapping Tools• Competitive analysis

Research and Analysis

UsabillaTest - example

Imagine you want to buy one piece of video conversion software to convert your holiday videos into an iPhone format and then send it to your friends. Used a sample of 50 participants engaged on Twitter / other social networks

Usabilla Test example

3 questions for 5 video conversion software product pages:

1. Click on the information that indicates that this software is what you are looking for.

2. Click on the elements you like on this page.

3. Please add a note saying what you think is missing from this page.

UserTesting.com example

Task Description 1. Asses if the software presented on this page fits your

needs. Tell us what convinced you or not. 2. Now that you have set up your mind for it, go through the

process of buying it. How easy or difficult was it? 3. If this weren’t a test, would you have made a purchase?

Why or why not?

ScenarioYou want to buy a software product for converting your holiday video to an iPhone format so you can then show it to your friends.

Lack of understanding what Free Download means – confusion: “Download is Free but a 70% discount is offered for purchase.”

Difficulty in understanding the licensing model: “are there renewal annual costs? What about upgrading?” One user understood that the Personal license was for non-profit organizations because of the text: „for non-profit purposes only”.

Difficulty in finding the “How to convert a video to iPhone” section (it was listed under the left menu)

What we’ve learned?

• 70 minutes of raw video from UserTesting (6 users)• Heatmaps + notes from testers for the client website + competitors - different

reactions for the same motivation (samples of 30 users per each variation)

Where to start?

1. Create a list of objections + issues 2. Find ways to overcome them / Prioritize3. Start testing / Review 4. Retest

Start where your money is:1. End of the conversion funnel: Cart &

Checkout pages; Product pages2. Pricing pages3. Tests on pages that affiliates use4. Navigation pages5. Entry pages for expensive traffic

Test first on your good performing pages

Store test

Concurrent call to actions, old design not outlining the trust elements

Source: http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/

Winner

After a series of A/B testing they increased their sales by 20%

They focused on:• Frictions / Distractions:

clear call to action buttons, fresh design

• Anxiety reduction elements: reassurances (explicit guarantee that people can download the software lifelong).

Better communication of their value proposition

Experiments we’ve done - Notes

1. Used our incorporated A/B testing platform2. Omniture SiteCatalyst / eCommerce tracking & GA3. Segmentations: language, countries, sources traffic:

direct/affiliates, flows4. Conclusions based only on statistical relevant data:• http://exp-platform.com/Documents/PowerCalc2.xlsx (we

use this calculator shared by Microsoft)

Shopping Carts

Facts about the shopping cart

Important factors we work - Inhibitors: (anxiety and distractions)• Consistency, clarity• Look and feel• Security information

Shopping carts are part of your website, not an external apendix (even though technically they work like this)

• Purchase flows (checkout split testing)

• Look & feel (removing distractions: navigation, clutter)

• Trust, security, confidence elements

• Localization • Extra revenue factors (cross

sells, backup cd, DIS, upsells, etc)

What to test?

Experiments we’ve done

40.4% to 47.7%, which translated into an 18% increase in sales in one month only.

Shopping cart example

15% increase in conversion rate, 10% revenue increase in 1 month.

Localization

• Kept only the elements that are related to French language

• Local payment methods, phone numbers outlined

• Localize your templates for at least top 3 countries

• Increase in sales by 15% in 1 month

Shopping cart example

Main focus on making the buying experience easy while also taking advantage of methods for increasing the average order value.

Results

Decrease in conversion rate, increase in revenue and profit

More testing

• 2 columns template: one page checkout

• Horizontal cross selling• Look & feel consistent

to their design• Security info next to the

Payment area

Increased sales by 15% in one month.

Upselling variations

Checkout template for an affiliate who wanted to test if they can increase the AOV by displaying as an overlay the upselling options. Revenue per click increased by 12%

Best TIP ever

No matter what, NEVER STOP TESTING

Think of it like this:

Every Test You Don’t Start Might Cost You Money

1. Find the desires / objections your visitors have and the ways to overcome them

2. Keep in mind the 5 factors when prioritizing the optimization projects

3. Use tools to see the WHY not only the WHAT4. Take a look at your best performing pages in your

sales funnel5. Develop a habit in testing everything, assume

nothing

Conclusions

Resources:

1. http://www.avangate.com/clients

2. http://whichtestwon.com

3. http://www.grokdotcom.com/

4. http://www.widerfunnel.com/blog

5. http://www.getelastic.com