You can use other graphic elements, besides the main image, to help convey your message. If your site offers technical information, perhaps a chart or graph can get your point across easily. These supporting images should not overpower the other elements on the page or distract visitors from the path to conversion. With supporting images, you should test:

  • Different variations of the images

  • Different locations for the images

Testimonials are a great asset to help you “seal the deal.” Caring and competitive personalities are impacted by the number of people praising your company for exceptional service, great customer care, or wonderful products. It’s in our nature to be impacted by words of praise, especially when they come from well-known people. Celebrity testimonials about the acne treatment cream Proactiv have created buzz and excitement, but most importantly, have increased conversions for the product. If a well-known authority has praised your product or service, make sure you flaunt it. For other testimonials or reviews, include a picture of the reviewer, his full name, and possibly his state of residence for authenticity purposes. User testimonials should speak of the benefits of your services and be relevant to your target audience. Visitors will regard testimonials that lack identification with a bit of skepticism. Therefore, it is vital that testimonials are genuine, descriptive, brief, and convincing. With testimonials, you should test the following:

  • Placing the testimonials on different pages of the site (home page, landing pages, checkout process)

  • Different locations for the testimonial on a particular page

  • Different designs for the testimonial (different layouts)

  • Information provided in the testimonial (name of person, location, company)

More websites are now displaying a video spokesperson when visitors land on the site. This spokesperson introduces the website and its services to visitors. Our testing of this feature showed different results for different clients. The majority of our clients did not see any significant improvement as a result of using this feature. In contrast, in a study conducted by Coremetrics and cited on the MarketingVOX blog, experts found “a 35% increase in sales conversions.” The videos kept the visitors engaged so much that they spent an average of “2.5 minutes on a particular product.” If you plan to introduce this feature, you should test the following three variations:

  • Landing page with no video

  • Landing page with video playing immediately when the visitor lands on the page

  • Landing page with video available to the visitor, but not playing immediately

Lead generation websites rely on online forms to capture visitor information. Asking visitors to fill out these forms with information that could be captured later will lower your conversion rate. These forms should be as quick and as easy as possible for visitors to fill out. The less time users must spend on your conversion activity, the less time they have to change their mind. Also, never put a “clear form” button next to a “submit” button. You should focus on capturing only the information that is absolutely essential. Test the following with lead generation forms:

  • Have the input cursor jump to the next field in the form on its own.

  • Pre-populate some of the form fields if possible.

  • Reduce the number of fields that need to be filled out (use one field for the visitor’s name instead of one each for first and last names).

  • Do not ask for a user’s city and state if she already entered her zip code.

  • Don’t ask for fax numbers, as they are generally obsolete for public facing promotions.