Conversion Optimization
Table of Contents
Advance Praise for
Conversion Optimization
Dedication
Special Upgrade Offer
Preface
How Should You Read This Book?
Who Should Read This Book?
Who Should Not Read This Book?
About the Examples in This Book
If You Like (or Don’t Like) This Book
How to Contact Us
Safari® Books Online
Acknowledgments
1. The Journey from Clicks to Sales
Converting Visitors to Buyers
Landing Pages
Fifteen Years of Change
You Must Market Your Site
Once Visitors Arrive, Convert
Conversion Rates
Calculating Conversion Rates
Conversion Rate Averages
What You Can Accomplish
Can You Really Achieve a Double-Digit Conversion Rate?
The Numbers Game
2. The Numbers Behind Your Website
Macro Conversions
Key Performance Indicators
Common KPIs for Ecommerce Websites
Common KPIs for Lead Generation Websites
Common KPIs for Content Websites
Common KPIs for Subscription Websites
Micro Conversions
Building Budgets for Ecommerce Sites with Conversion Rates
How Much Should the Company Spend per Click?
How Does the Campaign Conversion Rate Impact Profitability?
What Is the Minimum Conversion Rate for a Campaign to Not Lose Any Money?
Lifetime Value (LTV) of a Customer
Budgeting for Lead Generation Sites
Monetization Models and Conversion Rates
Bounce Rate
What Is Your Real Bounce Rate?
Exit Rate
Calculating Bounce and Exit Rates
Using Exit Rate to Determine Where to Start the Optimization Process
What Is an Acceptable Exit Rate for a Page?
Bounce and Exit Rates in Offline Sales
Time Spent on a Page/Site
Quality of Traffic (Visitors)
Traffic Sources
Social media sites
Traffic Medium
Keywords
Ad Copy
Is Your Data Statistically Significant?
Resources
3. Getting to Know Your Customers: Developing Personas
What Are Personas?
Benefits of Personas
Market Segmentation Versus Persona Development
A Case Against Personas
Back to the Basics: Creating Customer Profiles
Field and Usability Studies
Brief History of the Four Temperaments
The Four Temperaments and Personas
Logical Persona (Guardian)
Impulsive Persona (Artisan)
Caring Persona (Idealist)
Aggressive Persona (Rational)
Putting It All Together
Your Website from a Different Perspective
Personas and Copy
Adjusting Your Selling Process Through Personas
4. From Confidence to Trust
Value Proposition
Defining Your Value Proposition
Value Proposition Matrix
Continuity
How Do You Maintain Continuity in Online Advertising?
Typical Problems When Maintaining Continuity
Congruency
Social Proof
Membership/Professional Organizations or Affiliations
External Reputation
Design Aspects
Functionality and Usability
Site navigation
Placing elements in the right place
Other Design Factors
5. Understanding the Buying Stages
Deciphering the Buying Stages Online
Need Recognition
Information Search
Buying guides and wizards
Self-actualization
Need identification
Evaluation of Alternatives
Evaluation of alternatives: The search for a VoIP system
Searching for alternatives: Differentiate or die
Back to basics
You should be selling more than products
How can you stand out from the competition?
Focusing on product benefits
Purchase
Post-Purchase Evaluation
Complexity of the Product and the Buying Funnel
6. FUDs
The Buying Decision and FUDs
Getting “Personal” with FUDs
Fears
Site errors and 404 errors
Long forms with too many unnecessary fields
Security
Browser compatibility
Uncertainties
Bounce-around effect
Visitors’ inability to locate the call(s) to action
Widgets and tools
Doubts
Discount codes
7. Appealing with Incentives
What Are Incentives?
Incentives Versus Value Proposition
Positioning Incentives
Membership-Only Stores
Bundled Prices
Freebie Marketing
Using freebie marketing online to increase conversion
Buy One, Get One Free
Behavioral Incentives
Tracking Customer Behaviors
Abandoned Cart Incentives
How to Apply Incentives
Additional Tips for Using Incentives
8. Engagement
Measuring the Effectiveness of Engagement
Internal Metrics
External Metrics
Social Media
Blogs
Forums
Facebook
Twitter
Customer Reviews
Negative Reviews Are Important
Cross-Sells and Upsells
Upsells Versus Cross-Sells
Placing Cross-Sells and Upsells
Product page
Shopping cart page
Customer Feedback Tools
Informational Videos
Virtual Closets
Virtual Help
9. Testing: The Voice of Visitors
The Basics of Testing
A/B Tests
Multivariate Tests
What Type of Test Should You Conduct?
Creating a Successful Test
Test Hypotheses
Length of Time to Complete an Experiment
Forty-Nine Things You Can Test on Your Website
The Basic Website Elements
1. The header
2. The tagline
3. The search box
4. Site navigation
5. Hero images
6. Supporting images
7. Testimonials
8. Video spokesperson
9. Lead generation forms
10. Distraction test
FUD Tests
11. Privacy
12. Satisfaction guaranteed
13. Social proof
General Layout Tests
14. Above the fold
15. Below the fold
16. The visitor’s view of your page
17. The call to action
The Copy
18. Effective copy
The Headline
19. Pleasing versus painful headlines
20. Appealing headlines
21. Easy and timesaving headlines
22. Curiosity headlines
23. “Just the facts” headlines
The Lead Sentence
24. An engaging lead
Product Pages
25. Micro and macro conversions
26. Product page images
27. Product descriptions
28. Product reviews
29. Add-to-cart buttons
30. Cross-sells and upsells
31. Pricing
32. Product availability
33. When can I have it?
34. Bundled shipping costs
35. Navigation after clicking the add-to-cart button
The Cart Page and the Checkout Process
36. Shipping options and pricing
37. Assurance center
38. Cart page layout
39. Update and delete buttons on the cart page
40. Side navigation
41. Payment options
42. Cart page and multiple checkout paths
43. Presenting different payment options
44. Continue shopping button
45. Proceed to checkout button
46. Steps in the checkout process
47. Allowing visitors to check out as guests
48. The bounce-around effect
49. Usability testing
10. Be Iterative
When Conversion Optimization Succeeds
When Conversion Optimization Fails
Poor Resource Planning
Platform Limitations
Poor Expectations
The Guessing Game
Brute Force Testing
Follow-up Experiments
The Upward Spiral
Index
About the Authors
Colophon
Special Upgrade Offer
Copyright