Last month we started looking at the wonderful world of CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation). Getting this right is essential for maximising visitor value and ROI.
After all, your client’s revenue is traffic volume multiplied by conversion rate. You can work with linkbuidling and other practises to boost traffic but it makes sense to optimise conversion at the same time.
Today we’ll examine how to check web pages ensure they’re optimised for conversion.
To begin, let’s look at the concept of value proposition
All commerce is about exchange. Your visitor has visited your site as he thinks you can offer him something of value in return for his time and money. That something is you value proposition.
To be effective, your value proposition needs relevance and clarity.
Relevance
You may be offering the most wonderful deal in the world but if it’s not what your prospect wants, it’s irrelevant. If he’s a vegetarian and you’re offering huge steaks for a dollar each, you’re unlikely to make a sale.
The fact about relevance is that you can’t please everyone and you shouldn’t try. Getting a clear picture of your prospect (a persona) is the key first step to optimising conversion.
Clarity
Are you making it abundantly clear what you’re offering and in return for what? Web visitors are naturally suspicious especially if they haven’t dealt with you before.
Your site needs to be structured so that it leaves no doubt in the prospect’s mind as to what he’s going to get and how to get it. Your content, images, menus and other navigation must work together to produce a first class user experience. It has to persuade, reassure and make it easy for the prospect to take action.
Make it clear to your designers that there should be no distractions on the page. Designers tend to be focused on making websites that are aesthetically pleasing, but this needs to take a back seat to usability.
Action Plan
Here are some questions you can ask to get you thinking about the best approach to CRO for your clients’ sites.
Whom am I targeting?
What problem are they desperate to solve?
What’s the best way to capture their attention?
What message can I craft that will resonate with them?
How specifically can my product help them?
How can I develop a call to action that will spur them to take the desired action?
Thinking about these questions can help you formulate effective CRO’d pages for new sites. You can also go over existing sites (especially those with high bounce rates and other signs of poor conversion) and look for ways to improve things. Check for relevance and clarity at the same time and you should be well on your way to helping your client’s bottom line.
