Everything you need to know about Conversion Rate Optimization

💎 Why It Matters

You can get more sales without getting more traffic.

🔍 Problem

The average website conversion rate is 2-3%.\
You're losing customers with a below average conversion rate.

💡 Solution

Optimize your website to boost the percentage of people who convert.
A 1% to 2% conversion rate change is a 100% increase in sales.

🏁 Players

Conversion Rate Optimization Experiments

Waterfilters.net added site search and saw an 11% lift in conversions.
Ring added product bundles and saw a 13% boost in average order value.
CD Baby translated their blog into multiple languages and saw a 30% boost in traffic.
The Weather Channel decluttered their homepage and saw conversions go up 225%.
The Sims 3 adjusted their value proposition and boosted game registrations by 128%.
Protalus added a 1-click upsell to their insoles checkout page that boosted sales 21%.
Kiva added FAQs, social proof and statistics that led to an 11.5% increase in donations.
Thinkific built over 700 unique landing pages in 2 years with conversion rates as high as 50%.

Conversion Rate Optimization Tools

Unbounce - Build your landing pages with AI.
Zonka - Get live feedback from website visitors.
Proof - Show live social proof stats on your website.
Pricery.io - Optimize your pricing for international sales.
VWO - Optimize your landing page with their robust platform.
Funnelytics - Get a 30,000 ft view of your funnel performance.
ParityDeals - Offer customers a discount based on their location.

###🔮 Predictions

Brands will use interactive site experiences to boost conversions and adapt to rising customer acquisition costs.
- The New York Times uses the Wordle game to collect email addresses.
- Austin Belcak with Cultivated Culture uses a spin-to-win popup to capture email addresses.
- Yeezy Gap launched a virtual game experience on top of its online store for the Engineered by Balenciaga release.
Companies will use branded chatbots to build trust with site visitors.
- Optimizely has an Optibot to assist visitors.
- Dominos.com launched "Dom", a pizza ordering assistant.
- Gong uses "BrunoBot", a friendly bulldog chatbot, on their homepage.
More brands will invest in augmented reality to take products from websites into homes.
- Apple lets you see a MacBook in your workspace.
- The IKEA Place app lets you place true-to-scale furniture in your home.
- The Lowes app introduced a "measure your space" feature in their iOS app.
- Nike unveiled a "Nike Fit" feature in their app that will measure your feet before you purchase.

☁️ Opportunities

Use personal videos and GIFs on your landing pages to boost engagement.
- Tate Law uses an interactive video form on their homepage.
- Ryan Deiss uses a personal explainer video on his Scalable Collective landing page.
- Marie Ng uses screen recorded GIFs of her Llama Life productivity app in action.
- Miss Excel uses a special video trailer for promoting each of her courses.
- Brian Dean uses a subtle animation in an illustrated header for his SEO Training landing page.
- Katelyn Bourgoin uses pop culture GIFs throughout her Clarity Calls Cheat Sheets landing page.
- Circle uses a screenshot of their community software on their homepage with a GIF simulating HD live video.
Pick a form of social proof and feature it prominently next to your products.
- Secret Lab gaming chairs created an entire page dedicated to the awards they've won.
- Julian Cole features his Trust Pilot rating in the header of his course landing page.
- Russell Brunson uses video testimonials throughout his ClickFunnels home page.
- Corey Haines' Swipefiles.com contains testimonial cards and tweets promoting his newsletter.
- Justin Welsh mentions how his LinkedIn OS has helped 6,137 students rack up 1,237,000,000+ impressions.
Use descriptive and contextual call-to-action buttons.
- On Deck uses "Find Your Community."
- Carmax uses "Find Your Car" on its home page.
- Airbnb uses "Try Hosting" for its new hosts landing page.
- Curology uses "Unlock Your Free Offer" on its free trial page.
- Blue Apron uses "Get $110 Off Now" to promote its sign up offer.
Use tiered pricing to give buyers more options. Appeal to different budgets by offering multiple packages.
- Launch House offers 2 tiers for its membership with 1 requiring an application.
- Legit Check by Ch offers 3 tiers for its services based on the luxury items being authenticated.
- Dan Koe offers 3 tiers for his Modern Mastery HQ community: Apprentice, Master and Actualized.
- Arvid Kahl offers 2 tiers for his Find Your Following Twitter course. A $19 quick start or a $49 deep dive.

🏔️ Risks

Sample Size - Your data can be skewed without enough traffic. The more traffic you have, the sooner you'll have reliable results.
Lead Quality - Reducing fields and removing friction will get more leads. But lower quality leads.

🔑 Key Lessons

Check your page speed and make sure it loads in 3 seconds or less. Slow websites aren't just annoying, they prevent sales.
Make your headline clear and convincing. Up to 80% of visitors never make it past the fold.
Know which levers to pull. Optimize these variables on your landing pages.
- Images that draw interest.
- Headlines that hook the reader.
- Social Proof that builds authority.
- Page Speed that doesn't cause them to bounce.
- Calls-to-Action that feel natural and conversational.
- And a Value Proposition that solves a clear problem.

🔥 Hot Takes

Machine learning will be used to personalize each website visit. Landing page copy will change based on your interests.
There will be a surge in demand for "Conversion Rate Optimization Strategists." Outpacing roles like "Paid Ads Specialists."

😠 Haters

"I don't know where to start optimizing. I don't want to fix something that isn't broken."
Growth often requires risk. Your landing page might not be broken but it can always be better. Experimentation is the price we pay for improvements.

"Won't the law of diminishing returns come into play?"
Maybe. But the same applies to pay-per-click advertising. At least conversion rate optimization does not lead to marginal costs for diminishing returns.

"Conversion Rate Optimization tools are too expensive."
Google Analytics is free. Start somewhere. Knowing something is better than knowing nothing.

"Doesn't Conversion Rate Optimization require an understanding of almost everything? Copy, design, analytics, etc."
Start small. Change your copy. Add FAQs. Include testimonials. You don't have to boil the ocean or be a designer to improve your landing page.

🔗 Links

What's your favorite conversion optimization tip? - The tweet behind this report.
Google Optimize - A free tool to test landing page changes with no coding required.
Demand Curve Landing Page Teadowns - See the methods used by the highest-converting pages.

📁 Related Reports

Marketing Funnels - Design a full journey for your potential customers.
Lead Generation - Offer value and collect email addresses.
Growth Hacking - Use paid ads to grow your business with speed.
Drop Culture - Generate hype and then sell with scarcity.
Product-Led Growth - Launch a product that grows itself.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks to Krish, Vishal Srivastava, Emin Yagubov, Malik, Soma Mandal. We had a great time jamming on this report.\
Tyler researched and wrote this report. Dru researched and edited this report.

📈 What else?

Trends PRO #0094 --- Conversion Rate Optimization has more insights.

What you'll get:

18 Conversion Rate Optimization Experiments (125% More)
23 Conversion Rate Optimization Tools (229% More)
9 Predictions (200% More)
15 Opportunities (275% More)
7 Risks (250% More)
9 Key Lessons (200% More)
13 Links (333% More)

With Trends Pro you'll learn:

(📈 Pro) How to run A/B tests?
(📈 Pro) How to use SMS for lead generation?
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(📈 Pro) How to improve your page speed?
(📈 Pro) How to leverage user-generated content?
(📈 Pro) How to use FAQs to boost conversions?
(📈 Pro) How to add personalization?
(📈 Pro) How to avoid overwhelming site visitors?
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(📈 Pro) What kind of photos boost conversions?
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