Week 2 in the CXL Institute Mini degree — Conversion Rate Optimization
This is my second week in the CXL conversion rate optimization mini degree. The last week was really a time of immersing into wealth of knowledge and actionable steps to take.
Last week I completed the course on best practices. Here are some of the things I learnt from the best practices course.
Ecommerce Signups
The registration process of new users is often poorly handled by ECommerce stores. After letting users browse their website and add products to their carts, they display a new user registration form just before conversion.
Friction is created as a result. When the new user registration flows are not implemented correctly, the website may experience a lot of conversion losses.
The key takeaway from this lesson was to detach the new user registration from this workflow.
Incoming Phone leads and call tracking
In this course I learnt the importance of phone leads and why they must be trated equally with other concersion goals. I also learnt newly how to optimize landing page and PPC ads to get more call leads. In addition, if management is unwilling to invest in a call tracking service, there is a cool trick about tracking incoming calls roughly. Finally, the class reiterates the need to test everything and use data instead of someone’s opinion.
Principle of persuasive design
Persuading people has been with words, in this lesson I saw how I can persuade and even influence anyone without words.
This lesson talked about how important the user’s first impression of your website is. It takes both simplicity (having enough elements organized without friction) and prototypicality (not trying to innovate too much that people cannot understand its purpose) to create websites that impress their users from the start. Using the visual hierarchy, the lesson provided tips for making a good first impression.
Here’s a presentation Peep did for SearchLove London:
5 principles of persuasive design:
- Clarity above all
- Visual appeal
- Strong visual hierarchy
- Conserve attention at all costs
- One action per screen, when they’re ready
Homepages
In this lesson, we saw the two main goals of a homepage which is
- To give users information,
- to provide top-level navigation towards additional information further inside the site.
Because the homepage is the first page for the site, it is a good place to communicate the value proposition. The value composition should be
- What can I do here?
- Why should I do it?
- How’s this better/different from other offers?
The homepage there is to direct people itself to other valuable pages where conversion will be achieved. The value proposition therefore must be critically looked at. In doing this we must analyze the copy and the credibility of the offer.
Importance of visual design
We humans are visual; most of the things we process are with our eyes. Not only are we visual we are quick to judge. This why visual design cannot be overemphasized. In studies done it is said that people judge websites in 60 milliseconds determining whether they like the website or not. Many factors contribute to this first impression, including structure, colors, spacing, symmetry, the amount of text, and fonts.
I also learnt that simplicity is very vital. Simple design makes people know what is going on and helps users decide easily and quickly
visual hierarchy
To maximize the conversion rate of a page, it must put the most importance on conversion-sensitive elements (that have the most impact on the final conversion goal).
This prominence is reflected through size and color. In addition, I learned that no one color is the best but that visual hierarchy is about how the color of an important element plays with the colors of the elements nearby on the same web page.
Internal Search
Search is very vital especially in website with 20 or more products. It is said that people who know what they want don’t browse they use the search. Which means these are the people who are most likely to buy. Integrating search functionality helps them quickly get what they are looking for.
I also learnt that making the search box bigger could help users in using it. Search box should also be optimized for auto complete, to find stuff even if the queries have typos, to avoid the dreaded result not found. This can help improve the experience of users.
Intro to Copywriting
I have always heard that copywriting is a very important skill to have but as i take this course I not only see the importance but I see that it’s a skill i can also learn how to do following the right process.
Here are the six steps of effective copywriting process:
- Research: customer, product and competition.
- Outline and guideposts.
- Draft copy.
- Conversion boost.
- Revise, rearrange.
- Test.
Copy can make or break conversion. A great sales copy is to get people to do something in a website as they read the copy. In writing copy i must be addressing all possible FUDs (fear, uncertainties and doubts). I must ensure to use simple easy to understand languages to communicate.
In writing copy ,i also learnt something critical about pricing. I mustn’t assume that price would scare people away. I learnt that people always want to know how much things cost. If the price is not published having a get a quote form would do. But if the competition does publish their price, then they may get the client
Always make the price easily accessible, but if you are selling a complex or expensive product, communicate the value of the product before the price.
Value proposition
In writing copy, i also learnt what value proposition is and what it is not. The value proposition is the main factor that determines whether people will click the back button or read more about your product. You need to communicate your value proposition in the customer’s language. Ideally, the value proposition should add to the conversation already in progress within the customers mind.
A vital statement which stood out for me as i studied value proposition was this:
The key thing to remember is that you don’t need to be unique in the whole world, just in the customer’s mind.
