Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a relatively new discipline that focuses on the manipulation, bending, tweaking and testing of landing pages to find the optimal mix of design, messaging and offer to increase conversion rates.
In 2010 CRO will become a mainstream activity and will infiltrate the workflow of marketers everywhere (enabled by a new wave of marketing products like Unbounce, and a growing number of optimization specialists).
(Our favourite posts about Conversion Rate Optimization)
What if you could read the minds of your visitors? Why they didn’t convert, what confused them in your campaign message?
Landing page optimization is an exercise undertaken based on a desire to make your pages convert better. The changes you make are typically based on either a new idea, or the result of an expert critique. Rarely is it in direct response to customer input.
Seems like a great opportunity is being missed here…
The simplest way to find out why your page isn’t converting is to just come right out and ask.
There are a couple of cool products out there that let you do this, either via a survey or live chat.
Unbounce is on a search to uncover the top 100 posts about the subjects of conversion:
We’ll be compiling them into a greatest hits compendium with some analysis and organization based on content.
So, if you have written a great post, or know about a post you think is worthy, add it to the list in the comments.
Go…
I want to try something different for this post by making it more of an informal online brainstorm. I’ll pose a topic and a few primary questions, then open it up to comments.
The more people that interact with their opinions, the better the post will become and I’ll re-incorporate them into the post as we go.
Social media is no longer the next big thing, it’s just simply an interaction medium that proliferates all aspects of online life. As such, it will naturally begin to infiltrate the discipline of internet marketing. How this happens is yet to be determined. There seem to be a few toes being dipped in the water, but it’s a little early to get a clear picture of where it’s headed and what’s been successful thus far.
And so, I have some questions:
Today we have another new guest post on the Unbounce blog! The topic surrounds a huge market potential that lies in engaging the large online Hispanic community – by offering landing pages correctly translated into marketing Spanish. The author is Angelica Maria, President of Marketing Translation at Traducción4you.com.
I have been working with optimizing landing pages for a while and have discovered through my work that many people have forgotten to think about the Hispanic demographic. As a Spanish-American myself, when I view a landing page or even a website, the first think I look for is the Spanish option. I know I am not the only one that does this.
Today’s guest post is a conversion optimization case study by Kevin Kaiser from Surety Bonds. In my last post I referenced their lead capture form as a good example of how to keep your CTA above the fold on a lead gen landing page. Kevin discusses how he optimized a primary conversion goal – to have more customers complete a lead capture form to receive a quote.
Over to you Kevin.
Many people approach their web marketing strategy mainly as getting people to their site. They take for granted that once a visitor gets there, the visitor will do exactly what they want them to do.
Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. A complete web marketer realizes that you need to tell people what to do when they get to your site. Â The rest of this post will explain some of the things I performed on SuretyBonds.com to help increase conversions by 27%.
All tips are appreciated. Here's 544 ways to make you landing pages convert more effectively.
Optimizing your landing pages or website to perform better is a no-brainer, but if you’re short on time or resources then it helps to have a bag full of tricks to kick things off.
The collection of links below brings together over 500 tips on conversion rate optimization and landing page improvement.
Naturally, there will be some repetition of the core principles, but it’s a good idea to read the perspective of several experts when forming your own opinion.
Click me, squeeze me! Go on, I dare you.
Inspired by a conversion tip from our friends at Wider Funnel, where they suggest that BOB – the Big Orange Button – is an overtly clickable button color, I thought I’d talk a bit about what the web is doing to help improve marketing’s most important element – the Call To Action (CTA).
Buttons on the web have always been a bit lame, forcing designers to find creative ways to improve the customers’ level of click desire.
Well listen up, cos it’s all about to change. Sorta. Kinda. Perhaps in a little while.
Or right away if you use the Safari web browser (sadly I don’t – I’m still a Firefox lover).
Don't make your customers cry by promising and not delivering.
Message match is the ability for your destination or “landing” page to match the content and messaging of the upstream ad you arrive from. Good message match is the foundation of conversion optimization and helps to ensure a smooth experience for your customers.
Aaaaaaaand here’s an example of how to get it horribly wrong…
While checking my email the other day I spotted a sponsored ad at the top of my Gmail inbox.
Uncovering the ever-elusive magic bullet.
I have been optimizing websites from a business/sales perspective for about 8 years, and about a month ago, I finally made that “Magic Bullet” change most people look for when optimizing their sites. Its rare to change a word and double your conversion rate.
I’ve done it on landing pages, emails, and micro-sites, as well as for site “micro conversions” (improving one piece of a larger process, such as a form) but to increase end conversions on a complex eCommerce site with a single word change, without spending a dime or increasing targeted (paid) traffic, this was rare and worth sharing.
Download our free white papers and reports for some bedtime conversion optimization reading.
Read our opinionated guide to landing page conversion.
Using Twitter to enhance, promote and measure your landing page campaigns.
A collection of articles about landing page fundamentals.
