Why your website is not generating the expected conversion rate

If you’re a business owner or marketer, you might have come across ‘CRO’ - conversion rate optimization. This is the process of boosting the percentage of website visitors completing a goal that you’ve set for them. Note that it varies depending on the sector you work in. It could be filling out a form, hitting ‘buy now’ or adding products to the cart. If you find that you’re struggling to convert users at any of these key points in their journey, there are a number of actions that can be taken most of which are associated with improving UX.

In the article below, we go through some of the issues that you might be experiencing and offer tips on how to remedy them. It’s worth trialling a number of different approaches to see which ones have the most impact on your conversion rate.

Reasons why your conversion rate is not where it should be

1. A poor first impression

As a great thinker once said, “You only have one chance to make a first impression, always be ready.”

If your target users come to your site and don’t get a good first impression, your conversion rate will automatically suffer. There are a number of reasons why, but they’re usually associated with users not understanding your offer, or they don’t understand what you would like them to do. Some homepages are so busy that users are easily overwhelmed, while others don’t offer enough information.

If you find that you’re getting a high bounce rate on your homepage, it’s time to do something about it and it’s worth digging deeper to find out why, and figuring out how you can boost conversion. Below are a few tools that might help:

• Usability hub - it describes itself as, ‘a remote user research platform that takes the guesswork out of design decisions by validating them with real users.’ You can validate product concepts with your target audience, and easily check whether your value proposition is clear to them.
• HotJar - it helps you understand how users are really experiencing your site, through the use of heat maps and videos. For example, you’ll easily be able to see whether a key call to action is caught in a part of the page where the eye doesn’t naturally travel.

2. A bad experience on mobile

Mobile usage has continued to grow over, and if you haven’t optimized your offer for mobile users, you’re definitely missing a trick when it comes to conversion. It goes without saying, that users will experience your product very differently on a smaller screen, and you’ll have to think about how the navigation, calls to action and general site text will be displayed on different types of mobile devices, as well as on desktop. You can use a number of different platforms to test what screens will look like on mobile.

Mobi Ready, is a free tool which enables developers and product owners to test website performance on mobiles.

3. Copy that isn’t written with your end user in mind

Persuasive copy is an essential element of conversion rate optimisation. We’ve recently written about UX writing, and you might be interested to read our blog post on 5 tips for creating engaging content.

If you want to delve deeper into the behaviours and attitudes of your target audience, you might want to do some qualitative research. One tool that might help with this is CrystalKnows.

CrystalKnows describes itself as an ‘on-demand personality insights platform for every prospect.’ It uses DISC (a behavioural framework) to help you evaluate your prospects based on their profile demographics.

Begin by selecting a couple of LinkedIn profiles which you know are your perfect target audience and run the software on their profiles. You’ll immediately get a deeper insight into their communication preferences and you’ll get a sense of what tone of voice and communication style would appeal to them.

4. Calls to action aren't clear enough

We’ve already mentioned that your calls to action need to be visible both on website and on mobile, but you must also make sure that they are clear in guiding users through what you would like them to do.

Consistency is key when it comes to conversion rate optimization - if you’re trying to complete given actions on different pages of your site, make sure that you use exactly the same wording every time.

But it’s not just about copy - it’s also about button colours and how your messaging fits with the general page design. It’s worth doing A/B testing on different colours and button sizes to see whether they make a difference. But, it's paramount that you ensure your sample size is large enough to have statistical significance.

5. You’re not testing enough

And speaking of testing - it’s really important for conversion rate optimization. If you have enough traffic coming to your site, make sure that you are constantly testing and analyzing the results of your tests carefully in order to make meaningful improvements.

To get started with testing we have to choose the right tool for it. Some tools to consider are Google Optimize and VWO. After the integration process, you’ll have to choose what kind of test you are going to run. There are three types of testing: A/B Testing, Multivariate Testing, and Split URL Testing. A/B testing is great for small change experiments, Multivariate testing is good for multiple section changes, and Split URL is the best for the big changes, such as page design. Once you find which kind of testing fits your goals all you have to do is to start testing.

Would you benefit from a UX Audit?

Sometimes, you’re so close to your product that you can’t see bottlenecks, or UX challenges and in these scenarios, a UX Audit conducted by an expert from outside your business, may really helop. If you’d like to find out more about the UX Audits that we conduct at 10Clouds, you can do so here.

Looking for an experienced team to bring your digital product to life?

Get in touch for a free consultation on hello@10Clouds.com. Our friendly team will get back to you within one working day!