Marketers spend most of their waking moments obsessing over (and hopefully testing) what tactics will help improve conversion rates.
In our next free Web clinic this Wednesday – “263% Higher Conversion Rate: How reducing anxiety helped one company improve conversion rate three-fold” – Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director and CEO, MECLABS, will share some of our discoveries.
But first, we asked your peers how they have improved conversion rates. The answers ranged from the general to the specific, and a sample of answers can be found below …
Increasing the perceived value
I checked out your webinar description, and noticed Flint will be primarily focused on #2 – decreasing the cost, or friction, for the end-user. I’ll take a whack at #1 – increasing the perceived value.
As a side note, my experience is in the non-ecommerce B2B (direct or channel-based sales force, no website selling) area, and we discovered that the key to increasing *quality* conversions is to try offers that have the following characteristics.
The offer:
1) Must have high value to the prospect
2) Should only be available on the vendor’s website (scarcity)
3) Appeals more to a serious prospect than a casual prospect
4) Should appeal to prospects in the early or “research” phase of a project when the vendor’s value proposition has the most impact
5) Must be easy to act on for the prospect and “sales safe” for the vendor
Specific offers are going to depend on the organization and what it is selling, but focusing on these key areas and thinking beyond the typical “whitepaper, webinar or free trial” can bring up some interesting methods.
I’ll be presenting one of these methods that suits high-tech companies with expensive products and services at the upcoming MarketingSherpa B2B Summit roundtable in Orlando … hope to see some of you there!
– Dale Underwood, President, LeadLifter
An abandoned basket recovery strategy
A large number of the retailers I’m currently working are achieving a significant increase in monthly revenue through the implementation of an abandoned basket recovery strategy (as much as 12%+ in some instances).
There are a number of best practice elements that need to be in place in order to optimize a campaign effectively, for example:
- Full personalization
- Full basket contents
- Multi-cycle responses
- Dynamic messaging based on the items abandoned
- Dynamic subject lines, A/B testing
- Customizable response times
Obviously I’m biased because I work for the market leader in this space; however, my wider experience points to a cart recovery as the “low-hanging fruit” that the commerce space is starting to view as a “must-have” rather than a “nice to have.”
The added benefit is being able to report on key stages of the purchasing funnel to create a broader picture of customer activity and then look to influence/address areas of concern.
This can then be merged with additional data at product level, for example – Why do X% of prospective customers abandon a specific product and a specific stage? Is it a stock issue, a pricing one or something more?
This kind of insight can often get lost in broad brush analytics.
– Dominic Edmunds, Founder and President, SaleCycle
Split testing
You have to find out what is getting visitors to click on a specific link or buy a specific product or service. Basically, split testing working with two (or more) versions of your marketing piece (e.g., webpage, e-mail, etc.).
For example, when split testing in email marketing, set up the autoresponder to send an equal number of subscribers to each version of the landing page. Track which one is getting more visitors and potentially more clicks and hopefully sales.
For a website example, use different versions of a webpage in various ads; if one pulls far better than another, discard the weaker one. Then, split test again, testing other pages against the more successful one.
– R. Scott Frothingham, Coach, FastForward Income
Related Resources:
263% Higher Conversion Rate: How reducing anxiety helped one company improve conversion rate three-fold – Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm EDT
Marketing Research: Average conversion rates
Conversion Rate Optimization: Minor changes reduce cost per conversion 52.9%
Hi Dale,
I think you’re right when you say that thinking beyond the typical “whitepaper, webinar or free trial” can increase conversion rate. I think that as internet users have evolved and matured, they often times will see right through this tactic.
This day and age, people will often see a whitepaper and immediately think “a salesman calling me.” That’s why focusing your offer on high perceived value is more of a “timeless” strategy.