When looking to increase your online conversion rate there are a plethora of potential tools, techniques and tips at your disposal. For many, it is like navigating a minefield. Here are my 5 Conversion rate optimisation tips which can help you in any optimisation effort.

5 conversion rate optimization tips

1. Do ‘guerrilla research’

Conducting user research is integral to ensuring that your users are at the heart of your optimisation efforts. Often the costs involved in some types of user research (such as moderated user research and eye tracking) can put people off before they are even aware of the potential benefits. However, there are a range of ‘guerrilla’ style research techniques available that won’t eat up your annual budget in one go, for example:

• Google analytics might seem like an obvious one – and due to its extensive usage may not be considered a ‘guerrilla’ technique – but the fact is, it is a free tool that requires a little set up time and in no time at all, you have reams of data about how your website visitors behave on your site. A word of caution here however, if you are going to use this data to inform decisions it’s imperative to review your configuration to ensure you’re making decisions based on sound data.
• Free online survey tools are everywhere nowadays. Any one of these can provide you with the framework to gather insights from large sample sizes, with relatively little effort.

2. Speak to employees

One of the main benefits of conducting user research is to obtain insights from your actual website visitors. From there, your ideas for future tests and any potential website changes are based on their needs, as opposed to making internal decisions made on personal opinion. However, we’ve found that gathering insights from other employees within an organisation is often an extremely valuable process, adding an additional perspective to your research. The customer service team, call centre or sales staff have day-to-day dealings with your customers and are therefore well-prepped to provide insight into customers’ brand perception, influencers and issues. They are also likely to be better at articulating some of the issues that customers are having than the customers themselves.

Not only does it provide you with more data to use, this type of research is also relatively easy and low-cost, as there isn’t any need for formal recruitment or incentives.

by plantronicsgermany, Flickr

3. Always prioritise

Educated prioritisation of what to test is integral to the success of a/b testing. After conducting research, the list of test ideas is likely to be pretty extensive. That’s why it is crucial to conduct a prioritisation exercise to prevent getting overwhelmed. When prioritising test ideas, ultimately the tests that have the highest potential to have a positive effect on key metrics and KPIs are those you want to be focusing on. With this, consider the pages the test affects, the amount of traffic to that page and how likely the change has to have an effect on the conversion rate.

When prioritising, it’s also necessary to consider the effort involved in conducting each test. If the resource is scarce, then tests that can be configured within your testing tool may have to gravitate towards the top of the prioritisation list. This may mean having to focus on conducting smaller tests with less impact, but if this allows you to test and learn on a more ongoing and frequent basis, then it is by no means a bad thing.

4. Run sketching workshops

When conducting concept design, it is really important to keep an open mind in order to come up with the most creative and effective ideas. We use a number of methods and techniques to come up with initial wireframes, but the most effective are always those that involve stepping away from our desks and getting together with a pen and paper.

Although concept design isn’t necessarily something that can be – or should be – rushed, it can be effective to time-box the process. The added pressure has proven to squeeze out more innovative, different and fewer over-analysed ideas.

The end product of these workshops is unlikely to be aesthetically pleasing but the process is not about crafting a beautiful, detailed high-fidelity wireframe; it is about sketching down initial ideas and concepts for page layouts or functionality. Often the finalised mock-up will include elements of a number of different ideas from different team members.

5. Share your learnings

Whatever conversion optimisation techniques you’re undertaking, sharing what you’ve learnt with the wider business is important for building a culture of optimisation within your business. Whether it is the results of an a/b test or insights from a research activity, don’t let them gather dust within the optimisation team; shout about what you’ve learnt and encourage other areas of the business to benefit from it too. Creating a culture of optimisation is not easy and requires a strategic approach across a range of areas of the business, but ‘shouting’ about your progress is an integral starting point.

In forging a culture of optimisation, creating a ‘Learnings dashboard’ provides you with a digestible and engaging piece of content that not only shows off your impressive findings but more importantly can easily be shared with stakeholders and the wider business on a regular basis.

Keen to learn more?

We’re running a one day Optimisation training course in conjunction with Econsultancy on the 30th of April where you can learn how to use CRO to deliver digital growth within your business. This one day course shows you how to implement a robust conversion optimisation strategy and process which can deliver major uplifts in sales revenue and profitability, as well as changing the way you develop your brand, innovate your offering, and make website redesigns a thing of the past. This course will show you how to implement a data-driven approach of onsite testing and optimisation as well as arm you with the strategic knowledge to accelerate growth for forward-thinking businesses.

You can book your place here; Conversion Optimisation – How to Deliver Digital Growth