Conversion Rate Optimization: Getting to know your Prospect

Redesigning a website in order to increase the number sales, signups or inquiries is often on the mind of most digital marketers around the world; we can spend months looking to improve a website’s rankings in the search engine results pages, but to what end? Surely the ultimate reason we strive to drive traffic to a website is commonly to increase the number of conversions the site receives, whether that translates to revenue or leads (again, such as mailing list sign-ups, inquiries or account registrations). How to do Conversion Rate Optimization is the biggest question.

When it comes to conversion rate optimization, there are often many little tips and tricks thrown around in the industry; “red buttons are better than blue buttons” and “ensure your ‘call to action’ is ‘above the fold’” are prime examples of the sort of lingo filled tips and principles people have begun to apply in the field. The fact is however, simple ‘quick fixes’ are simply not as effective as conducting the process of conversion rate optimization properly, and can often yield little or no improvements if there are more fundamental problems in the content and layout of your page.

Where do I start?

Your first intention should always be getting a better understanding of your customer; the sooner you learn exactly what makes them tick, the sooner you learn to predict their behavior.

For example, let’s imagine you run 3 PPC ads for a company that supplies arthritis treatment; each has the same basic message but all are worded differently.  One states they are the ‘leading arthritis treatment center in the North West’ another details that they have ‘over 15 years-experience’ and finally the third advertises ‘symptoms and treatments for arthritis’.

Let’s say of the three PPC ads, the third (‘symptoms and treatments for arthritis’) outperforms the others significantly; this would suggest the prospect in this particular industry is far more interested in the ‘symptoms and treatments’ value proposition, giving us a new focus and idea for our on-site content and how to engage the prospect.

In the same vein, testing and trialling headlines, product descriptions and sales pitches can all give us the same valuable information; don’t just look at the effect each different variable has on your conversion rate, ask yourself ‘why?’. Once you begin to understand why your prospects are more drawn to a particular value proposition, your next few steps should become clear; ensuring your landing page’s content either states or supports the value proposition.

Remember: By understanding why changing the wording or pitching of your value proposition worked on the customer, you can redesign your respective landing pages to both state and support it, to further improve your click- through or conversion rate.

Daniel Travis – Brown is a digital marketing consultant and loves to share his tips and learning on behalf of Web Vitality SEO Manchester; for more great tips and studies follow Dan on Twitter @DanTravisBrown