Email marketing: what it is and how to implement it

 Conversion rate optimization is not a random job, but a systematic approach to improving the site. This checklist will become a cheat sheet for analyzing your own site and competitors' sites. As a result, you will receive clear instructions on what needs to be improved to increase the conversion rate.

11 Principles That Effectively Increase Conversion Rates

Go?

1. Judged by the cover

At the first visit, users do not know anything about your site and offer, the quality of the product and service. All they see is the "cover" of the site. The amateur or outdated design has a much more negative effect on user loyalty than you might think.

The Trust and mistrust of online health sites study found that:

• 94% of users will abandon websites if they don't like the design.

The design has a huge impact on users. Design determines the loyalty and quality of the user experience. High competition in the network raises the bar of design quality ever higher.

• ConversionXL recommendation: Never skimp on website design. This will play a cruel joke on your business.

2. Don't reinvent the wheel

By experimenting with design — menu icons, buttons, and the arrangement of familiar blocks (menus, contacts, CTA buttons), you are misleading users. Not finding the desired element in the usual place, the user experiences disappointment and despair. If the user does not intuitively understand the site, he will not deal with it but will go to competitors, to more logical and understandable sites.

In the minds of users, stereotypes of the structure and design of sites have developed - certain site templates in the industry. Users know what an online store, blog, or company website should look like. People are used to certain website templates. If you break stereotypes, you will create problems for users out of the blue.

Google has studied what sites users like. The results are amazing: users prefer simple sites with a familiar structure.

• ConversionXL Recommendation: Create an intuitively simple and familiar website design. Sites with unconventional structures repel people.

3. Highlight the main thing, do not focus on the insignificant

Visual hierarchy is the foundation of effective web design. This is the order in which the user perceives what he saw.

A simple test shows how it works. Arrange the circles in order of importance:

11 Principles That Effectively Increase Conversion Rates

Knowing absolutely nothing about each of them, most of you will quietly arrange them in order of decreasing size. This is how the visual hierarchy works.

Some elements on the site are more important than others (lead forms, CTA buttons, offered benefits). These elements deserve more user attention than others. If the site menu contains 10 items, answer the question: are all of them important? Which menu item should get the most clicks?

Hierarchy is not only implemented with larger/smaller elements. To attract attention, colors are also used, the location of the element on the site, and auxiliary elements (graphics, animation) that direct the user's attention to the necessary buttons.

4. Site for the user

Remember, websites are built for users first.

The study shows which factor users consider the most important on the site:

• 10% call beautiful design
• 9% name unique interactivity
• 76% of users say that the best site is the one that quickly helps them find what they want.

If your site greets users with the phrases “Our company is founded ...”, “Welcome to our site”, and “We offer ...”, then things are bad. Users don't care about your company or website, they only care about themselves and their own needs.

That is why the site should scream to users about the benefits. Remember, user-centric, not company-centric.

Of paramount importance is the content and usability - how easy it is for the user to find what he wants. The only possible way to determine the usability of a site is user testing when potential visitors themselves point out the moments that cause difficulties in using the site. The purpose of testing is simple - to observe how real users interact with the site. The test will show what needs to be improved. It is necessary to repeat testing after making changes to the site.

5. Relevance is the only way to make money online

The conversion will take place only when the targeted traffic finds a relevant solution on the site. Your task is to find sources of targeted traffic and optimize the offer of the site for the needs of a potential client. Only relevance leads to sales.

If you want to increase conversions, you must clearly know:

• who is the target audience of the site
• what the user expects from the product/service/website
• what factors influence the user's decision (price, quality, delivery, payment methods)
• what factors stop the user from buying

If you know:

• who your user is, you can easily determine how and where to find him (in blogs, forums, social networks, what sites he visits, what he is looking for in the search)
• how your users talk about a product/service/problem, then you will be able to use their own words and expressions, which will make the content more accessible, clearer, and more effective
• how users choose and compare products, you will understand how to structure and place content on the site
• what users want, then you will be able to correctly determine the benefits of your offer for the target consumer
• that users do not care at all, then you can remove unnecessary content that only takes up space and distracts users' attention
• how the user's life changes with your product, you will learn what end benefits to using for persuasion.

This list is endless, but the main idea is clear:

• ... you need to know the user inside and out. Like research, tests, observations, and surveys on the site and of the site.

6. Understanding the user's willingness to buy

Imagine that you land on a site that immediately urges you to buy a product/subscribe without giving any explanation. Most likely, you will not do this but will try to find arguments and facts that speak in favor of the site. Or leave the site altogether.

Users fall into three general groups:

• users who have a problem/need but don't realize it yet
• users comparing available solutions
• users who made the decision

It is almost impossible to sell something to the representatives of the first group, since initially, they need to be shown that the problem/need exists and significantly worsens/complicates their life.

The second group of users wants more evidence of why your solution is the best fit for their needs/problems. If you rush to sell them a solution, they will leave.

The third group is users who are ready to buy. They only need to show the right button or link, but not too aggressively.

7. Most users don't buy on their first visit.

What is your site's conversion rate? 3%, 5%? Even if the conversion rate reaches 10%, it means that 90% of users do not buy anything.

They land on your site (perhaps even from paid advertising), buy nothing, and leave. And now what? Have you lost a user? Not certainly in that way.

In most cases, the best way to increase sales/conversions is to avoid sales. Remember the stages of readiness to buy? Instead of imposing a purchase, try to involve the user in the site, or better, get his contacts (subscription on social networks, email) so that you have a channel of communication with him.

• An invariable rule: the more complex / more expensive the offer, the more time it takes for the user to make a purchase decision.

If you're selling an expensive item, it's unlikely that a user will make a purchase on their first visit. That is why it is important to get a contact to give the user more evidence in the future, confirm competence and professionalism, please the user, and gain his trust.

8. Clarity: what is it and why is it needed?

People don't buy what they don't understand. Moreover, people fear and avoid what they do not understand.

Give the user a clear, logical, simple text, then the conversion will take place.

What does the company do? Avoid pathetic expressions, abstruse terms, and complex speech turns. You need precision and clarity.

If the user needs to make an effort or a dictionary to understand the text on the site, then the conversion will not take place.

ConversionXL recommendation: Read the text aloud, imagining that you are telling this to a friend. Would you use such terms and phrases? If not, then they have no place on the site. Rewrite the text in simple, accessible language. Do not create unnecessary obstacles on the site on the user's path to purchase.

GetGoodRank: the time when users judged the competence and professionalism of a company by the complexity and pathos of the text is long gone. Speak more simply, and everyone will understand you.

9. Reduce conversion friction

Every time you ask a user to do something, there is conversion friction—the user's natural resistance to obey. It is impossible to eliminate absolutely all conversion frictions, but it is quite possible to reduce their number.

Conversion friction is all the doubts, hesitations, and thoughts about other solutions that arise at the moment when the user has to part with his money.

Is it worth buying your money? Won't break? Can the site be trusted? Will it work? What if it doesn't fit?

The only possible way to turn a doubting user into a confident buyer is to give full information so that he can convince himself and dispel doubts.

Factors that increase user doubts:

• Long/overcomplicated process of getting what you want - it's application forms with an endless number of fields to fill out - and isn't it a lot of information required to sell me a ballpoint pen?
• A site with the worst usability is a site where users can't figure out how to buy a product or call a company.
• Complete anonymity - a site without names, real photos, addresses, and phone numbers. If the user has the impression that you are hiding something, then the conversion will not take place.
• Terrible, unprofessional design -  perceived by users as a frivolous attitude to business, reduces trust.
• Baseless evidence is all your loud statements and statements about the usefulness of the product, not confirmed in any way.
• Lack of information - 50% of purchases are frustrated due to lack of information on the site. If the user does not receive information about the product, he will likely go to look for it from competitors and buy the product there.
• FUDs - fears, uncertainties, doubts - fears, doubts, uncertainty. Every buyer is visited by fears and doubts in the form of questions outlined above before buying. To remove all objections, the site must clearly justify what will happen in each case (free replacement or return of goods, warranty, service, and service centers in each city ...)

There are many ways to reduce conversion friction, but the best way is to make the buying process easier.

Only ask for the information you really need (in most cases, your name and email address/mobile phone number will suffice). Offer evidence, research results, customer testimonials, and expert opinions. Make sure that the site answers all the questions that arise in the user's head before buying.

10. Urgent

Urgency is a powerful pre-purchase motivator. Urgency can be implemented in three ways:

• quantity limit - only three units in stock
• time limit - the offer is valid until March 3
• situational restriction - hurry up to buy the best gift by March 8

The problem is that marketers abuse urgency by trying to add it to everything. In addition to the fact that this is simply not possible, users will feel attempt to manipulate and force them to buy here and now, and leave.

11. Distractions

There is a simple rule for creating an advertising layout - it is ready when nothing else can be removed.

The more choices you offer users, the more difficult it is for them to choose something. The more options there are, the more likely the user is not to select anything.

If the site offers thousands of products, then you must provide the user with an excellent filter system to easily find the right product and make the right choice.

Distractions are all elements of the site that do not contribute to the purchase. ConversionXL teaches:

• …the closer a user is to purchasing, the fewer elements should remain on the page. As soon as the user gets to the payment page, he should not see anything that can distract him from making the payment.

Instead of conclusions:

site analysis proposed analysis of the site covers only the main factors influencing the user's decision about further interaction with the site.

GetGoodRank is a simple tool for analyzing a site by real users for all the parameters that affect the conversion and ranking of a site. As a result, you get step-by-step instructions on what exactly to change so that the site is more in line with the user's goals and search engine standards.