There are three big things that you can do today to increase your conversion rate without spending a dime on ads or other tools.
Before we talk about those we need to understand how conversion rate optimization fits into the website conversion framework.
If you’re a frequent reader of the blog, you’ll know that we are now at the top of our pyramid.
If you are new here, welcome! Also, make sure you check out our past blogs so you can learn more about the website conversion framework and how to build a really solid foundation for your website.
Conversion Rate Optimization is at the top level not because it is more or less important than other aspects, but because you need a solid foundation first for CRO to really be effective.
So, we first need to go to the bottom of the diagram and make sure our website is doing what we need it to do. Once we have that solid foundation we can begin to look at things like CRO.
Let’s look at a few things you can do to quickly boost conversion on your website.
Speed is important because marketers have the highest turnover rate of any position in most companies. One reason is that marketing is often looked at as overhead; a necessary position but not one that drives money to the bottom line. So if you want to have a high impact, you need to show value right away.
Without further adieu, here are the first three steps I would take to boost website performance.
Admittedly this step doesn’t really involve changing anything, but it is crucial to gather important information about how your website is used.
Heat Mapping gives insight into how users interact with your website beyond the numbers that Google Analytics or HubSpot data give you. You can actually watch them.
Think of it as being able to watch someone in a retail store. You can see how they move through the store (website), what they interact with, and how they make decisions. With that information, patterns will start to emerge and you learn more about your customers and your website.
You need to start this as soon as possible to collect as much data as possible.
My two favorite tools for this are Lucky Orange and Hot Jar (hyperlink?). Both have free account options so you can try them at no cost and see if you like them. You can of course purchase upgraded versions to access more data, but it’s totally free to get started. We install Lucky Orange on our clients’ websites right away so we track and see how people are using them.
A heat map will show you a few different things:
This is generally the first thing I look at. So obviously the top of a page will be at 100% (or extremely close to) because everyone has to start at the top. But, the interesting thing to see with this tool is where people fall off.
You may notice that 50% of users stop scrolling before they even reach your primary call to action. This is extremely valuable information. No wonder people aren’t converting, they haven’t even seen the primary value proposition.
So what happens if all of a sudden that gets moved up above that scroll line? You're gonna see some kind of uptick in conversions or clicks or whatever that called action is that you want them to do.
This one is pretty simple, it allows you to follow a user's mouse as they move it along a page. While this may not sound useful at first, think about how you interact with a website. Oftentimes, people will move their mouse as they're reading. It may be subconscious, but it gives us a good idea of where people are spending the most time and/or effort on our website.
Think of it like a radar, where there is a lot of activity, there is probably a storm. This can mean either:
You’ll need to go in with an analytical eye to know why they are spending so much time in a certain spot, but you’ll at least know what’s capturing their attention.
You can even follow clicks to see who is clicking what, which areas are being highlighted, what CTA has the most clicks, and so on.
After you install a heat map you should let it sit for 2-4 weeks depending on your traffic. You’re going to want a large number of visitors to get better results.
Once you’ve collected enough data you can then take the results and determine what changes you think need to be made to optimize your website.
There’s a lot of drama around popups.
A lot of people don’t like them. I don’t love them but they can be useful when used tastefully. Let me explain.
I like the idea of popups in an exit-intent format because it's almost as if you are providing value to somebody on their way out.
To use a retail example again, it’s like an end cap or checkout display. It’s an opportunity to offer one more thing of value to your customers before they leave.
We've seen a lot of great results with doing things with checklists and templates, things that are very usable for your prospects and your customers. Remember, you're providing value to them with something that they could use in their job or their personal life, things that they can actually have and have access to. Nobody wants an ebook or guide here.
Exit-intent popups, try it. You will absolutely have more conversions.
Find your best-converting page and direct people there.
Look through your page performance and see what pages convert the best with a decent amount of traffic. We don’t want some page that has 100% conversion because only two people have visited it and one was a member of your team. Find a legitimate page with 50+, 100+ pageviews, whatever makes sense for your website as a good baseline.
Why do we want to do this?
Well if I know that this page converts really well, say 30%, 40%, maybe 50%, it would make sense that I should try and find more ways to get people to that page.
So then the question becomes, how can I get more people to visit this page? Because if that conversion rate holds true, if it really is 37% or 55% or whatever it might be, then I want to try and get as many people on that page as possible. Then you can have this machine where for every 100 people that come in, you get 40 people on the back end.
Now, you can even go through and optimize the machine. You can make that page even better so now instead of 40 leads, you’re generating 50 for every 100 people that come in.
Then once you know that your conversion rate is holding true, you can goal set. Say you need 200 new leads and your page has consistently been converting at 50%, you just need to find a way to drive 400 people to that page.
Now you have a purpose behind driving these visits to your page. This can lead to a great conversation with the leadership team.
Great, now we just need a way to drive more traffic to the page.
Generally speaking, a well-converting page will be a lead magnet or some type of special offer you have. Now, go through your Hubspot portal (or your CRM of choice) and make a list of all the contacts that have not yet done what that page is calling them to do.
Then, start a campaign to get people to sign up, fill out a form, or do whatever that page is intended for them to do.
These people have a need. They are in your portal for a reason. Offer the resources you have that may be able to solve their problems. Provide value.
In addition to this campaign, we might look at other ways to drive traffic to that page from within the website. We can add a strategic call to action to the home page or other pages of the website that get people to go to that page.
Like this one telling you to try our free website assessment tool.
You might even put a link to that page as a big button in the top navigation menu. Something like “try this checklist”, “use our free template” whatever you are offering of value.
These are all tests you can run.
I know some of you are scared to make changes to your website. What if the boss doesn’t like it? How are visitors going to perceive it?
My recommendation is to just try it. Give it two weeks. Maybe a month. If it doesn’t work you can always change it back to how it was before. But I don’t think you’ll want to.
You’ll know it’s working because you’ll be generating more leads and providing more value to your company.
The last thing you can do to drive traffic to your top page is to take advantage of any and all social channels you have. Do you have an audience on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, any channel you have is valuable and can be used to get people onto your page.
All these are free. And won’t take more than a few hours to do, tops.
The last thing I recommend is that you track these changes. Take note of what’s working and what should be kept. See what might need some adjustments. See how much improvement these three changes can make.
First, we are installing heat maps. Scroll maps, mouse tracking, and click maps so we can have a better understanding of how users are interacting with our website.
Second, install exit popups. Provide something of value to people who are exiting the page.
Lastly, drive traffic to your best-performing page. Find out what page on your website converts best and drive traffic there.
Start with those three things and you’ll improve the conversion rate of your website.