With global ecommerce sales amounting to trillions of dollars, the future of ecommerce is bright. 

However, in order to achieve success, you need to develop strategies to enhance your customer experience and make the entire shopping experience as user-centric as possible.

This is where end-user optimization comes into the picture. In fact, end-user optimization plays a central role in the success of many online businesses.

In this article, we’ll discuss how end-user optimization affects ecommerce experiences and some of the most important end-user optimization strategies for ecommerce business success.

What is End User Optimization? The Role of End User Optimization in E-Commerce 

End-user optimization is the process that improves user experience on your website or application. It includes both design and content changes that improve usability and conversion rates.

The role of end-user optimization in ecommerce is twofold. 

The first goal is to enhance the overall user experience for your customers. The second is to increase sales, which will increase ROI for your business.

If you want to achieve end-user optimization, the first step is to analyze user behavior, understand its reasons, and determine user engagement metrics.

It starts with identifying the target audience, their preferences, and their behavior on your website. 

Once you identify what your customers want and what your site lacks, the next step is all about making changes to the website to improve the user experience.

Significance of end-user optimization in the ecommerce industry

End-user optimization (EUO) in the ecommerce industry directly impacts key performance metrics like: 

• Conversion Rates: Once you know what your customers want and what they find lacking on your site, you can use it to implement EUO strategies. This will help you see a  significant improvement in conversion rates. 
• Customer Satisfaction: The more you know about your customer’s preferences, the more you’ll be able to cater to their whims and fancies. This will lead to an increase in satisfied customers, which will translate into increased sales.
• Reducing Bounce Rates: By offering a more personalized and engaging experience, EUO helps reduce bounce rates.
• Customer Retention: End-user optimization also helps you foster customer loyalty, a crucial part of customer retention optimization. According to research by Infosys, 59% of consumers say that personalization significantly influences their shopping decisions, leading to repeat purchases.

How Does User Optimization Work? Strategies For Ecommerce Success 

1. Personalized Product Recommendations

Personalized product recommendations are a win-win for ecommerce sites. They help customers find the products they want, and they help you increase sales.

How do you go about it?

To offer personalized product recommendations to your clients, you’ll have first to collect data on user behavior. You should be privy to information like products viewed, items added to the cart, and purchase history.

You can do it using Google Analytics or optimization tools like FigPii that show you how and where exactly your users are clicking and scrolling on your site. 

Once you have this information, you can create personalized product recommendations by algorithms that use data on customers’ purchase history and browsing behavior to predict what they might be interested in buying next.

If your website uses personalized product recommendations, you can use them to:

• Retain existing customers: These customers already know what they like and are likely to buy more if you show them similar products.
• Win back lost customers: If someone has abandoned their shopping cart, personalized recommendations can help you reengage them with new products that will likely appeal to them.
• Increase average order value (AOV): Personalized recommendations can increase AOV by showing customers more options or higher-priced products in addition to lower-priced ones.
• Drive repeat purchases: You can show your existing customers related items based on their recent purchases, enticing them to return to buy from you. 

Amazon has used personalization for years, but it’s still one of the best examples. 

The company uses its massive amount of data about customers’ past purchases and browsing behavior to develop personalized recommendations for each shopper that appear on their home page and throughout their site. 

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If you click on these recommendations and make a purchase, Amazon’s system takes note. Whether you click or ignore these recommendations, they’ll use this information further to refine future recommendations. 

2. Responsive Design and Mobile Optimization

Wherever you turn, you’ll see people tapping away on their mobile phones. 

We live in an increasingly mobile-driven world. It’s no wonder that many online shoppers access ecommerce sites through their mobile devices. 

According to Statista, as of 2021, mobile ecommerce accounted for 72.9% of all retail e-commerce sales worldwide.

Here’s everything to keep in mind when optimizing your website for mobile devices: 

• Responsive Design: Responsive web design makes web pages render well on all types of devices and window or screen sizes. Your layout, images, content, and every other web page element should adapt to fit the user’s screen on different devices. 
• Mobile Optimization: Mobile optimization goes beyond just responsive design. It involves optimizing the site for mobile speed, performance, and usability. This includes faster loading times, streamlined navigation, and mobile-specific features.
• Contextual Consistency: Your mobile site should have the same brand elements and functionality as your desktop site. This helps visitors experience a seamless transition for users who switch between devices during their shopping journey.

3. A/B Testing and Iterative Improvements

A/B testing works because it allows you to test different ideas while giving you an idea of which changes actually improve your bottom line. 

It also helps you save time on ideas that won’t work and prevents you from getting stuck with an ineffective design or messaging that doesn’t resonate with customers.

You can apply A/B testing to various elements on your website, including headlines, images, call-to-action buttons, page layouts, and even the entire checkout process. This helps you fine-tune the website based on real user preferences.

After running A/B tests and adopting the winning version, don’t think your job ends here. Make sure to continue testing with further iterations to improve user experiences continually.

For example, Airbnb uses A/B testing to refine its search algorithm. They test different ways of ranking search results and then monitor user interactions to determine which algorithm generates more bookings and higher user satisfaction.

In addition, Airbnb uses its in-house experimentation platform Erf to enable A/B testing and metric consistency at scale.

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Beyond A/B testing, they also use an online ranking assessment approach called interleaving to evaluate the effectiveness of their search ranking algorithm. This experimentation framework helped Airbnb achieve a 50x sensitivity in developing its search ranking algorithm. 

4. User Feedback and Customer Support

Customer feedback is one of the most important factors in determining the success of an ecommerce business. 

It shows customers that you care about their opinions and experiences. At the same time, it helps you identify pain points and fix them before they become major problems.

You can collect customer feedback through:

• Surveys
• Feedback forms
• Product reviews
• Social media interactions. 

Analyzing this feedback helps you determine areas that require improvement.

TripAdvisor is an excellent example that heavily relies on user feedback.

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The traveling guidance platform is built around user-generated content. Travelers leave reviews, ratings, and feedback on hotels, restaurants, and activities, helping other travelers make informed decisions.

Additionally, excellent customer support ensures that users can access assistance when they encounter issues or have questions.

You can offer quick user support through live chat, email, phone, or social media channels. 

Remember, the faster and more helpful your customer support is, the happier your users will be.

5. Reliable Hosting

As an ecommerce business owner, you already know how important it is to provide a smooth and stress-free shopping experience for your customers. 

If your website is slow or difficult to use, customers will leave your site and purchase elsewhere.

That’s why it’s important to choose a reliable hosting service with high uptime and performance levels. This ensures the site is consistently available to users and it loads quickly without any delay.

In addition to uptime, ensure your hosting provider optimizes your website’s performance, including reducing page load times and minimizing latency.

It should also offer scalability, allowing your site to handle increased traffic during peak periods (think holiday shopping seasons).

6. Data Security

Data security is an essential part of any business, but it’s even more important for ecommerce sites. 

The widely-covered T-Mobile data breach that occurred last year, for instance, cost the company $350 million in 2022 – and that’s just in customer payouts.

Aside from the massive monetary loss, it also doesn’t bode well for a company’s reputation. It makes customers wary of buying from you again and forever puts doubt in their minds. 

To prevent data security threats, implement measures like firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and regular security audits.

Here are some more ways that you can improve your data security:

• Use HTTPS encryption
• Use strong passwords
• Limit access to sensitive information
• Ensure your site is PCI-compliant
• Provide two-factor authentication 
• Make sure your financial transactions are securely encrypted

7. Agile Development

Agile Development can significantly impact user optimization for ecommerce. This approach involves flexible and iterative development processes, allowing your website to adapt quickly to changing user needs and technology. 

Here’s how agile development works when it comes to : 

• Iterative development: Agile development breaks projects into smaller, manageable phases, making it easier to implement changes based on user feedback and changing requirements.
• Flexibility: Since agile development will help you respond quickly to emerging trends and customer feedback, it’s also great if seen from an adaptability perspective.
• Continuous improvement: With agile development, you can continually evaluate and improve your ecommerce platform, ensuring it remains up-to-date and aligned with user expectations.

For example, Spotify leverages agile development to stay innovative and adapt to user needs. 

Spotify continually updates its platform with new features and enhancements based on user feedback and changing industry trends. This iterative approach allows them to remain competitive and meet evolving user expectations.

8. Seamless Multi-Channel Experiences

Offering multi-channel experiences to your customers is a critical part of both end-user optimization as well as customer retention optimization. 

This strategy involves offering a consistent user experience across multiple online and offline channels, including websites, mobile apps, social media, email, and even retail stores. 

Shoppers are tech-savvy today and expect to be able to interact with a business across every channel they choose – from desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. They also want to shop when it’s convenient for them and expect their shopping process to be quick and easy.

And if you don’t deliver, your competitors will. 

Here are some tips to help you deliver a seamless multi-channel experience for end-user optimization:

• Create consistent branding across channels
• Unify data and ensure customer data and purchase history are accessible and synchronized across all channels for a personalized experience.
• Use responsive design for websites and apps to adapt to different screen sizes and devices.
• Make it easy for users to switch between channels without losing progress and information.
• Engage users and offer consistent customer support across all channels.
• Optimize all channels for speed and performance.
• Promote other channels within each channel, encouraging users to engage on multiple platforms.

When you think of a brand that exceeds when it comes to offering a seamless multi-channel experience, Starbucks immediately comes to mind. 

For example, Starbucks allows customers to order and pay for their drinks through the mobile app. With this integrated experience, the orders are ready for pickup when customers arrive at the store.

Then, you have Starbucks’ multichannel reward system. Their Rewards program spans both in-store and mobile app purchases. You’ll get access to benefits and discounts in your mobile app, regardless of the shopping medium. 

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This level of multi-channel experience ensures that your customers have a convenient and consistent shopping experience with your brand, eventually leading to long-term ecommerce success.  

Conclusion: Delivering Exceptional E-Commerce Experiences Through User Optimization

If you want to impress your customers, boost user engagement, and keep them returning for more, you’ll have to optimize your e-commerce site based on their preferences. And this is what end-user optimization focuses on. 

From personalization and responsive websites to analyzing user behavior and data security, you need to adopt a holistic approach for achieving end-user optimization.

While you’re at it, don’t neglect search engine optimization, either. This includes adding relevant keywords naturally to get a higher ranking on Google and Bing, among other search engines.

You can also take inspiration from brands like Amazon, PayPal, TripAdvisor, and Starbucks that use these strategies in their operations, leading to enhanced user satisfaction, increased conversions, and long-term growth.

All in all, your ecommerce success will depend on how user-centric your approach is and whether you’re responsive to changing user needs or not. 

The post How End User Optimization Drives Exceptional E-Commerce Experiences first appeared on Invesp.

Best Books On Conversion Rate Optimization are hard to come by in any bookstore. You need someone to give you a recommendation.

Fortunately, your search ends right here. In this blog post, we’ve curated a list of essential reads that delve into the art and science of boosting conversions.

The CRO books in this post can help you implement a winning CRO strategy and understand the principles, strategies, and psychology that drive effective conversion techniques.

These books on Conversion Rate Optimization offer firsthand insights and practical advice from CRO experts who share their industry experience. 

From web design and usability to A/B testing, landing page optimization, and the psychology of persuasion, these books cover a wide range of topics. Serious digital marketers should read at least one of these CRO books to understand web usability and how to convert visitors.

1. Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited by Steve Krug 

Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think” is a valuable resource for web designers, developers, anyone involved in creating or maintaining websites, or anyone with “UX” in their job title. 

As the name suggests, the book underscores the idea that a well-designed website doesn’t make its visitors “think too much” about how it works. Instead, it guides them effortlessly through their online journey. They should be able to complete their tasks and find what they’re looking for without any effort on their part. 

It’s evident from these excerpts from the book, 

“Clear, well-thought-out navigation is one of the best opportunities a site has to create a good impression.”

“If you can’t make something self-evident, you at least need to make it self-explanatory.”

Krug’s book revolves around the concept of usability, which is the ease with which users can navigate and interact with a website. The heart of the matter is that a well-designed website should be intuitive and require minimal cognitive effort from the user. 

Here are other key points that Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think touches upon:

• Simplicity and clarity: Web designers should keep things simple, both in terms of navigation and content. This includes clear and concise headings, easily understandable labels for links and buttons, and a straightforward site structure.
• User Testing: Krug is a votary of usability testing, which entails observing your visitors as they interact with your website in real time. By watching users and listening to their feedback, designers can identify issues and make improvements to enhance the user experience.
• Mobile and Responsive Design: While the book was originally published in 2000, its principles are still relevant today, especially in the context of responsive web design. With the proliferation of mobile devices, the need for user-friendly, easily navigable websites has only grown.

2. Conversion Optimization: The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers by Khalid Saleh and Ayat Shukairy

“Conversion Optimization: The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers” by Khalid Saleh and Ayat Shukairy is a comprehensive guide for Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). 

The book is based on the authors’ broad experience in helping businesses attract online customers and lays a solid CRO foundation. They discuss in detail the process of increasing the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on a website – without any hindrance of abundant data or bad navigation. 

The book also points out the importance of customer research and analysis. It discusses various methods for gathering data on user behavior to identify pain points and conversion barriers on your website.

As you read the book, you’ll realize all this information comes from the writers’ firsthand experience. They’re not just bystanders with no skin in the game; they are actually sharing what worked for them, so you know you can rely on this information. 

Conversion Optimization: The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers chapters

Here are other key CRO elements that this book covers: 

• Marketing principles: The book discusses marketing concepts like persuasion, trust, value proposition, and segmentation. It explains how these principles influence visitors’ behavior and decision-making.
• Analytics and testing: The book shows how to use data and testing software tools to measure and improve a site’s performance. It introduces web analytics, A/B testing, and multivariate testing to identify problems, test hypotheses, and optimize results.
• Landing Page Optimization: Landing pages are critical in the conversion process. The book provides insights into designing and optimizing landing pages to improve conversion rates. 
• Design and usability: The book covers the best practices for designing a user-friendly, attractive, and effective website. It discusses using layout, color, images, copy, and CTA to guide visitors through the conversion funnel.

3. You Should Test That! by Chris Goward 

“You Should Test That!” by Chris Goward is a practical and insightful book that analyzes customer data and A/B testing to optimize conversion rates. 

Chris Goward is also a CRO agency founder and shares his personal experience and insights for improving website performance and increasing conversions. 

One of the key USPs of this book is how Goward has included numerous case studies and real-world examples from his work with clients. These case studies give the reader a glimpse into how A/B testing and optimization strategies get the job done in different industries.

Here are other key elements covered in this book: 

• Why should you test? The book starts by emphasizing the significance of A/B testing in CRO. Goward makes a compelling case for why testing should be a central practice in any digital marketing strategy.
• A Systematic Approach: Chris Goward outlines a structured approach to testing and conversion optimization. He helps readers understand how to plan, execute, and analyze tests. The book further stresses the importance of a data-driven approach rather than relying solely on false assumptions.
• Hypothesis-Driven Testing: Goward emphasizes creating clear hypotheses before testing to ensure they align with specific goals. He also guides on how to formulate hypotheses, pick testing variables, and prioritize tests based on potential impact.

4. The Conversion Code by Chris Smith

“The Conversion Code” by Chris Smith focuses on the amalgamation of the trifecta of an online business – digital marketing, lead generation, and conversion optimization. 

Chris Smith is a well-known sales and marketing expert, and in this book, he provides a comprehensive guide on how to convert online prospects into customers. His main focus in the book is on attracting clients through clever ads rather than chasing leads. 

Aside from old, conventional methods, Smith also tests and explores the latest platforms like TikTok and Instagram and discusses how businesses can use them to their advantage. 

Here are other key takeaways from the book: 

• Strategic Marketing Optimization: The book guides you to improve your marketing results by testing and optimizing every website element and sales funnel.
• Lead Generation through Website: Smith talks about how to generate leads using your website without annoying visitors. 
• Landing Page Optimization: The book discusses all the key elements that a landing page should have for conversion rate optimization.
• Blogging for Lead Generation: From content optimization to guest blogging, the book has an entire chapter dedicated to teaching how you can use blogging to generate leads. 

5. Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results by Bryan Eisenberg and Jeffrey Eisenberg

This book serves as a guide for online marketers and CRO professionals. It helps them improve their conversion rates and profits by applying the principles and techniques of marketing optimization.

The authors take you from five phases of conversion rate optimization – right from the beginning (planning) to communication value to your clients. 

Here are some key points you’ll discover in the book

• Planning: How to define your business goals, identify your target audience, and create a persuasive value proposition.
• Structuring: How to design your website layout, navigation, and content to match your customers’ needs and expectations.
• Communicating: The book gives a complete breakdown of advanced wordsmithing and email strategy. You’ll also learn how to craft effective headlines, copy, and calls to action that resonate with your prospects and customers.
• Momentum: There’s an entire section dedicated to building trust, credibility, and urgency with your visitors and motivating them to take action.

This book has some limitations, though. For one, it’s slightly older than other books on this list, so some of the guidelines and tips may appear outdated. That said, it’s still a great one-time read for those looking to start with CRO and gain SEO and marketing inspiration. 

6. Making Websites Win by Dr. Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson

Making Websites Win by Dr. Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson shares their knowledge of optimizing websites for improved performance and conversion rates. 

The authors, co-founders of the digital agency Conversion Rate Experts, share their firsthand experience in the field of CRO.  

One of the best parts is how they share numerous case studies and real-world examples throughout the book. 

They also talk about websites that got it right and what they did in order to find success. Readers will also be able to uncover opportunities for their own website. 

Here are other key takeaways from the book:

• The book underscores customer-centric methods and how they helped double the sales of many websites.
• They also talk about how it’s important first to understand user behavior to create customer-centric websites. 
• The authors also share the tools and techniques they’ve used over the years to optimize websites and marketing elements. 
• They also talk about the importance of ongoing optimization. This includes consistent testing and iteration – to adapt to changing user behavior and market dynamics.

7. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini explores the psychology behind persuading people and how to apply these insights ethically in business and everyday settings. 

Just like most books on this list, this book also shares actionable insights on how to understand the human decision-making process. The examples in this book are practical and can be used to improve marketing campaigns and your website’s performance. 

Primarily, the book sheds light on six principles of influence that can help you with your CRO rate, including:

• The Principle of Reciprocity: People often feel inclined to act based on what they receive. 
• Commitment and Steadfastness: Once we make a choice or take a firm decision on something, we tend to stick with it in order to uphold and justify our decisions.
• Social Proof: People often take actions based on the actions of others around them. The more people they see taking a particular action, the more they perceive it as the correct course of action.
• Attraction and Affinity: People are more likely to be influenced by those they have a genuine liking for, and the feeling is mutual. If we find someone likable, the chances of being swayed by their opinions increase.
• The Authority Effect: We are more likely to say “yes” to those who possess expertise, experience, or authoritative knowledge in a given domain.
• The Scarcity Principle: The less available something is or the rarer it becomes, the more people desire it. Scarcity often triggers a sense of urgency and higher value perception.

Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions by Tim Ash

First published in 2008, this book serves as a comprehensive guide to creating effective and high-converting landing pages for websites. Tim Ash, along with co-authors Maura Ginty and Rich Page, shares practical strategies and techniques for optimizing landing pages. Their insights help increase conversions and enhance the overall performance of online marketing campaigns.

The book covers various topics related to landing page optimization, including the psychology of online buyers and the importance of understanding visitor behavior. It also explores techniques for conducting A/B and multivariate testing, along with methods for analyzing and interpreting test results.

It is widely regarded as a valuable resource for marketers, web designers, and product managers. Business owners looking to understand the experimentation culture find it beneficial for enhancing their website’s conversion rate.

Here are some key points from the book:

• Understand the different types of visitors and tailor landing pages to meet their specific needs and preferences.
• Implement effective design principles to create visually appealing and trustworthy landing pages.
• Emphasize clarity, simplicity, and a compelling call to action to guide visitors toward desired actions.
• Embrace A/B testing and multivariate testing techniques to compare different versions of landing pages.
• Test various elements such as headlines, images, colors, and layouts to identify what resonates best with the audience.
• Master the art of data analysis to interpret test results accurately.
• Use statistical methods to determine the significance of the test outcomes and make informed decisions based on data.

Unlocking the Secrets of Conversion Rate Optimization

These were our top picks for the best books on Conversion Rate Optimization.

Digital marketing and online businesses are constantly evolving. With it, you see the competition getting manifold, too, making it necessary for you to find a way to stay ahead of the competition. 

One of to do that is by seeking advice from industry experts with a stellar record in optimizing websites for improved performance and higher conversion rates.

Cultivate expertise in conversion rate optimization with Khalid Saleh and Ayat Shukairy’s book, exploring the science of CRO. Delve into systematic A/B testing and data-driven decision-making through ‘You Should Test That!’ by Chris Goward. Each book presents a unique perspective on crafting user-centric, persuasive, and high-converting websites.

Aside from serving as guides, these books also offer real-world case studies and principles that can be applied to various industries. 

Relatable Resources:

1. The Top 10 Marketing Books Of All Time (Updated 2023)
2. 13 Best Product Marketing Books in 2023
3. What Is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and Why Is It Important?
4. What Is AB Testing (Split Testing)?

The post Best Books On Conversion Rate Optimization first appeared on Invesp.

Picture a customer who discovered your business, made a purchase, and left satisfied with their experience. 

This customer represents a win, a step forward in your journey to business success. But your job doesn’t end here. 

There are two scenarios: either that customer turns into a loyal brand advocate, or they turn to your competitor. 

Retaining customers can be a bit like trying to hold onto a handful of sand. Without the right strategy in place, you’ll constantly be chasing new prospects and missing out on the incredible value loyal customers bring.

The effort, time, and resources you invest in customer acquisition can go down the drain if they don’t turn into returning buyers.

This is where Customer Retention Optimization becomes your lifeline.

With a customer retention strategy in place, your business can turn existing customers into loyal brand advocates. The result? A thriving business, a loyal customer base, and a strategy for long-term success.

Let’s see what it’s all about, how it works, and all the Customer Retention strategies you can use to keep hold of your customers. 

Understanding Customer Retention Optimization

Customer retention optimization is a strategic approach to help you improve the retention of existing customers by enhancing overall experience and customer satisfaction. 

If you want to stay ahead of the competition, you have to have a solid strategy in place to improve customer retention.

We talk a lot about acquiring and converting new customers through conversion rate optimization. 

But retaining customers is equally, if not more, important. 

Many studies over the years have revealed how retaining customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Some even discovered that acquiring a new customer can cost five to seven times more than retaining an existing one.

Aside from the low cost, customer retention optimization also leads to overall revenue growth, word of mouth, and referrals for your brand. 

Existing loyal customers are also more likely to refer your product or services to other people, helping you acquire more customers. They’re also more likely to purchase from you more earnestly since they’re already familiar with your products or services. 

But what are the factors that influence customer retention? How can you optimize the overall customer retention process to reduce customer churn and increase customer retention rates? 

Let’s discuss some of the best tips and tricks to help you with your customer retention optimization goals: 

Unlocking the Power of Customer Retention Optimization Strategies

Here are some of the best strategies to help you retain your current customers and build lasting relationships: 

Provide excellent customer service

Don’t forget that your customers’ options are abundant. If you’re selling something, dozens of other businesses are probably selling the same thing. 

One way to stand out and entice your customers is by providing excellent customer service. 

A 60% of business leaders vouch that high-quality customer service is the golden ticket to improving customer retention. That’s not just a number; it’s a game-changer. 

Let’s take Zappos, the online shoe and clothing brand, for example. 

These guys have cracked the code when it comes to extraordinary customer service. They don’t just talk the talk; they walk the walk:

• 24/7 Customer Support: Zappos offers round-the-clock customer support, allowing customers to reach them at any time. 
• No-Hassle Returns: Zappos has a famously liberal return policy, allowing customers to return items within a 365-day window, with free shipping both ways. This removes risk and stress for the customer.
• A Touch of Personal: After the advent of AI, it seems like you’re talking to robots left, right, and center. But when you talk to Zappos’ customer success team, you know right away you aren’t talking to robots. There’s a real person behind the screen – not just solving customers’ problems but also building connections. 

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The Result?

While Zappos goes all out when it comes to providing excellent customer service, it does come to fruition. 

According to a case study, 50% of Zappos’ customers come back for return purchases. That’s not a coincidence; it’s the result of customer service done right. 

Not just that, a staggering 75% of Zappos’ total revenues come from those repeat customers. 

In a nutshell, providing exceptional customer service is the surefire way to keep your customers coming back for more and turning them into your most loyal advocates for your brand. 

Create tiered customer loyalty programs

When it comes to introducing loyalty programs, businesses usually implement rewards programs to reward their loyal customers with points or miles that they can redeem for goods or services. 

This type of program has its benefits, but if you are trying to encourage brand advocacy, then you might want to consider creating a tiered customer loyalty program.

Tiered loyalty programs reward customers as they move up through different levels or tiers based on their loyalty and engagement with a brand. These programs encourage long-term customer commitment and spending while providing a sense of exclusivity and achievement.

For example, in the beginning, members may only receive basic offers from your organization. 

As they earn more points, they will be able to access better offers as well as additional exclusive perks, including free shipping or discounts.

Here’s how tiered loyalty programs often work in practice: 

• Multiple Tiers: These programs have several tiers – for example, Silver, Gold, Platinum, or similar designations. The rewards and benefits get better with each tier.
• Earn Points or Qualify: Customers can qualify for higher tiers by making purchases, referring friends, or any other pre-defined actions.
• Exclusive Rewards: As customers move up the tiers, they gain access to exclusive rewards. These rewards could be special discounts, free products, early access to sales, dedicated customer support, or even personalized experiences.

Aside from exclusivity, the gamified structure of the tiered loyalty programs also helps businesses engage customers through a gamified structure. The customers often find it exciting to reach the next tier or even maintain their current status, which also increases overall customer lifetime value.

Offer premium membership programs

Another great way to ensure your existing customers continue to purchase from you is by offering them a premium membership plan. 

A premium membership plan gives customers access to special benefits and discounts – including free shipping and VIP treatment. You can get customers to pay a recurring subscription for the extra perks. The fee could be billed monthly or annually.

However, to entice customers to pay this recurring fee, your perks have to be substantial and solve real problems for them. 

For one, members will gain access to exclusive benefits that are not available to regular customers. These benefits could be free shipping, early access to sales, personalized recommendations, dedicated customer support, or premium content.

Premium members often become part of an exclusive community. To elevate the sense of being a part of an exclusive community, you can also host members-only events, webinars, or forums to engage with your most dedicated customers.

Amazon Prime is a prime (pun intended) example of a successful premium membership program. 

Here’s how Amazon made its Prime membership program a success:

• Subscription Fee: Members pay an annual fee (or a monthly fee in some regions) to access Amazon’s Prime membership. This fee then gives them access to exclusive benefits.
• Exclusive Benefits: One of the biggest reasons Amazon Prime is such a success is how Amazon caters to its members by offering the perks they want, including free two-day shipping on eligible items, access to Amazon Prime Video and Prime Music, early access to deals during Amazon Prime Day, and more. All these benefits enhance the overall Amazon shopping and entertainment experience in one way or another.
• Engagement: Amazon Prime also offers exclusive content and early access to Amazon Originals on Prime Video. This keeps members engaged with the platform and encourages them to continue their subscriptions.

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The result? Nearly 62% of all US households had subscribed to Amazon Prime as of Q1 2019.

Premium membership programs offer a win-win situation for both brands and customers. 

You get to secure recurring revenue, higher customer retention rates, and a strong relationship with your customers – while customers enjoy exclusive benefits and a personalized experience. 

Run personalized post-purchase email campaigns 

Post-purchase email campaigns are vital for keeping customers engaged with your brand. This is especially true if you’re selling products or services that require ongoing use or support.

These campaigns involve sending tailored email messages to customers after they have made a purchase. They not only encourage you to purchase again, but they also help you build a deeper connection with customers and enhance their overall experience.

Here’s how personalized post-purchase email campaigns work: 

• Data Collection: The first step is collecting data on your customer’s purchase behavior, browsing history, and preferences. This information will help you tailor the email to align with each individual’s preferences.
• Customer Segmentation: Once you’re privy to customer behavior, segment your email list based on this data. For example, you can group customers by similar purchase history, product category, or the like. It’s also easier to craft email content for different groups rather than each individual. 
• Personalized Content: Craft tailored emails that reflect the specific customer’s journey. These emails can include order confirmations, product recommendations, post-purchase tips, and exclusive offers.
• Timing: Putting together a personalized email isn’t enough – you have to take the timing into account as well to maximize the impact. For example, you’ll want to consider sending an immediate order confirmation, a follow-up email after a few days, or a re-engagement email for customers who haven’t made a recent purchase.

For example, look at this post-purchase welcome message by Shopify: 

(Image Source)

Shopify not only welcomes new customers but also shares important links and resources to help them get started. This creates a positive and personalized first impression.

Here are some tips to help you personalize your post-purchase email campaigns:

• Send a confirmation email within 24 hours of purchase.
• Use a follow-up sequence to highlight special offers and promotions, but only if relevant for each individual customer (e.g., free shipping).
• Send a reminder after a month or so to encourage customers to review their purchase experience.
• Collect customer feedback. Don’t just send out generic surveys – ask specific questions that will make the customer think about their purchase, like “How did this product compare to other options?” This helps build trust between the customer and your brand by showing that you care about what they think.
• Send personalized messages with product updates, product recalls, and new product announcements.

Multi-channel engagement

Gone are the days when you could acquire your customers, send an occasional email, and call it a day. 

With your customers browsing the internet from multiple channels, you have to be there with them on each of those spots. You have to give them what they want, where they want it.

That’s what multi-channel engagement is all about. 

A multi-channel engagement strategy involves using multiple platforms to communicate with your customers to meet them where they are most active. This means providing them with a seamless experience across all touchpoints and channels, including email, social media, or SMS.

Statistics also reflect the importance the important of multi-channel engagement. 

As many as 57% of customers expect companies to reach out to them on every channel.

And when companies pay heed to this, it bears fruits as well. 

If you look at the numbers, companies that use multichannel marketing see an 89% retention rate on average.

How can you adopt a multi-channel approach to engage and retain your customers? Here are some tips: 

• Omnichannel Approach: Integrate omnichannel communication paths, including email, social media, SMS, phone calls, and in-app messaging, to create a seamless customer experience.
• Consistent Messaging: Regardless of the channel, make sure you’re consistently in touch with your customers. Don’t just forget them after a one-time purchase – keep them engaged with messaging that reflects your brand’s voice and values.
• Customer Preference: Allow customers to choose their preferred communication channel. Rather than trying every channel available, reach customers on their preferred medium.
• Integrated Data: Integrate customer data and interaction history across channels to make sure they receive personalized and context-aware communication.

Wrapping It Up: The Power of Customer Retention Optimization

This is it – these were some actionable customer retention strategies to help you exceed customer expectations and reduce customer churn rate.

With tens and hundreds of brands competing to catch the attention of the same customers, customer retention optimization is a vital part of your overall optimization strategy.

It involves a combination of personalized approaches, data-driven insights, and a commitment to delivering exceptional customer experiences. 

By understanding the significance of retaining customers, implementing tailored strategies, and paying attention to customer behavior, businesses can achieve long-term success and build lasting customer relationships. 

And that’s the essence of customer retention efforts. Not just keeping current customers or focusing on a stellar customer retention rate but also focusing on customer relationships and creating loyal brand advocates. 

The post What Is Customer Retention Optimization, And How Does It Work first appeared on Invesp.

The psychology of color is one of the most powerful instruments you can use in conversion optimization. You can use it to influence people’s emotions and feelings, create a stronger visual hierarchy, and even make your site more usable.

Color psychology has been used by marketers for years to influence customer behavior subtly. But you don’t need to be an expert in marketing to use color psychology in your designs.

In this article, we’ll talk about how to use the psychology of color effectively, whether you’re using it for branding purposes or just want to make your site more appealing.

The Psychology Of Color: How Harnessing the Power of Hues Drives Conversion Optimization

Color psychology is the study of how colors can influence human thoughts and feelings. It recognizes that colors have the power to evoke desired emotions in your target audience, create impressions, and influence actions.

Using color effectively in your marketing strategy is an important part of creating brand awareness. It communicates your message to consumers in a way that resonates with them on an emotional level.

The Impact of Color Psychology on Conversion Optimization:

Here’s an overview of how color psychology helps you bolster conversion optimization: 

• To grab attention of your target audience: Certain colors, especially high-contrast colors, help you catch users’ attention and guide them to key web elements like CTA buttons or product listings.

• To build trust and credibility: Trust-building colors like blue and green can help you establish credibility and reassure users, particularly on websites where trust is paramount, such as ecommerce or financial platforms.

• Creating a sense of urgency: Colors like red can help you create a sense of urgency, encouraging users to take immediate action. For example, you could use a red CTA button for a limited-time offer.

• Emotional resonance: Brands often use emotionally relevant colors to evoke desired emotions in their target customers. For example, you can use warm colors like red and orange can convey excitement, while cool colors like blue and green to inspire the feelings of calmness and trust.

• Branding and Recognition: Consistency in color choices across a brand’s identity, website, and marketing materials helps in building recognition and reinforcing the brand’s personality and values.

• Accessibility and Inclusivity: Considering color contrast and accessibility ensures that all users, including those with visual impairments, can access and interact with a website. This helps in creating a positive user experience for a wider audience.

Mastering The Psychology Of Color: Proven Strategies to Supercharge Your Conversion Rates

Now that we’re aware of what color psychology is and how it affects conversion rates, let’s explore some unique and tested tips. These strategies will help you leverage its power to crank up your conversion rates.

1. Understand Your Audience

As with anything, before using color psychology effectively, you have to know your target audience.

Different people respond differently to different colors. It’s important to know what kind of reaction you want from your audience before choosing the right shade for your visual content. 

And it’s not that simple. People from different cultures also respond to colors differently. Before you build your branding or campaigns, you’ll have first to understand your audience’s backgrounds and interests. 

Start by collecting audience demographic data, including age, gender, location, and interests. 

You can use tools like Google Analytics and social media insights to get this information.

Another way is to conduct psychographics analysis, which includes understanding their values, lifestyles, and attitudes. It also entails identifying what emotions, values, and beliefs drive their buying decisions.

For example, Starbucks uses color psychology to evoke feelings of calmness. They employ a palette of fresh, relaxing colors like green and white to create a sense of comfort, aligning with their brand’s mission of “to inspire and nurture the human spirit.”

(Source)

Here are some more ways to understand your audience and use relevant colors in your branding and marketing campaigns: 

• Color Preference Surveys: You can directly reach out to your audience using surveys and interviews to get insights into their color preferences. Ask them about their favorite colors and the emotions associated with those colors.

• Competitor Analysis: Study your competitors’ color choices and how they resonate with their target audience. But rather than simply replicating them, identify gaps in their color palette to differentiate your brand through color.

• Cross-Cultural Considerations: If your audience has a worldwide presence across different cultures, be mindful of color symbolism variations. Colors can have different meanings in different regions, so adapt your color choices accordingly.
  
  For example, after Disney experienced success with their purple signage and marketing material in the US, they used the palette for its Euro version. However, due to cultural associations in Catholic Europe, where purple symbolizes death and crucifixion. Disney eventually abandoned the purple scheme for its European market.
  
  

(Source)

• Data-Driven Decision-Making: Conduct A/B tests to identify for sure which colors are resonating more with your customers. 

2. Create a Cohesive Color Scheme

Now that you’ve recognized how different colors invoke different emotions for different types of audience, using color effectively can be tricky.

Creating a cohesive color scheme can be the difference between an engaging website and a confusing one. 

There are many different ways to approach color schemes and there are no hard-and-fast rules about which colors go well together. 

The easiest way to create a cohesive look is by choosing two or three colors and sticking with them throughout your site. This creates consistency and prevents your site from looking too busy or overwhelming.

At the same time, make sure you’re picking complementary colors. These colors are directly across from each other on the color wheel. 

You can use Canva’s Color Wheel to identify which color combination looks easy:

By pairing complementary colors you create contrast that really draws attention to specific elements on your page (like headlines). 

For example, the global shipping giant FedEx, uses a complementary color scheme of purple and orange to create a sense of balance and dynamism in their branding.

(Source)

You can start by picking your primary color first. 

Your primary color will represent your brand prominently. This color should be the one most closely associated with your brand.

Next, choose your secondary colors to complement the primary one and for accents and highlights.

For instance, Facebook uses blue as its primary color, symbolizing trust and reliability. Then they use complementing secondary shades of white and gray for a clean and professional appearance.

(Source)

While you’re working on creating a cohesive color scheme for your brand, don’t forget to make it as accessible as possible to accommodate users with visual impairments. 

The easier it is for folks to access your content and website, the more conversions you’re gonna rack up. So, make sure you’re using color contrast tools as well for readability.

Most importantly, maintain consistency in your color scheme across all platforms, including your website, mobile app, and marketing materials. 

Google, Facebook, Pinterest – you name it, all the big-name brands out there stick to the same colors over and over again to make sure you always recognize ’em.

3. Use High-Contrast CTAs

CTAs are, without a doubt, one of the biggest driving forces for conversion rates on your site. These nifty buttons are what compel them to take the final action, whether it’s subscribing to a newsletter or making a purchase. 

CTA buttons are clearly one of part of your website you can’t afford neglecting. 

One way to make them stand out is by using high-contrasting colors against the background, making them easily noticeable. This ensures that users don’t miss the action you want them to take.

At the same time, don’t overlook the emotional impact of colors when selecting your high-contrast CTA color. 

For instance, red can create a sense of urgency, while green may convey safety or action.

Pro Tip: Besides color, pay attention to the size and placement of your CTAs. Ensure they are appropriately sized, well-spaced, and strategically positioned to maximize visibility.

4. Leverage Emotionally Relevant Colors

Every color has an innate emotion attached to it.

For instance, when you think of red, you instinctively think of passion, romance, or urgency.  

When you think of blue, clear skies and sea comes to mind, which represents trust and calmness. 

Once you know your target audience, you can tap into their emotions by understanding the common emotional triggers associated with various colors.

There’s a reason the dating app Tinder uses the color red for its logo and interface elements. 

(Source)

Since the color red is associated with excitement and passion, it aligns perfectly with the app’s goal of facilitating connections and sparking romantic interest.

Here are some tips to help you leverage emotionally relevant colors: 

• Pay attention to color gradients: Picking a color isn’t enough, you have to take color gradients into consideration as well. For example, lighter shades may evoke feelings of purity or innocence, while darker shades can suggest luxury or sophistication.

• Create emotional journeys: Utilize a sequence of colors to guide users through emotional journeys on your website. For instance, use calming colors for introductory content and more vibrant ones for calls to action.

• Test and Optimize: Conduct A/B tests to evaluate how different color variations affect user engagement and conversion rates. Continuously refine your color choices based on data-driven insights.

5. Incorporate Trust-Building Colors

Trust is essential in convincing users to take desired actions, such as making a purchase or providing personal information. 

If your audience doesn’t even trust you, why would they part with their money for your products or services?

While there are various ways to inspire trust in your audience – including using trust badges and customer reviews – incorporating trust-building colors also play an important role. 

Trust is typically associated with cool, calm, and neutral shades like blue, green, and gray. These colors are also associated with qualities like reliability, stability, and professionalism.

(Source)

That’s why you’ll notice platforms like IBM, PayPal, and the like, predominantly using shades of blue on theirs websites.

These color palettes convey a sense of security and trustworthiness, both of which are crucial for financial transactions.

On the other hand, use green if you want to invoke emotions like safety and growth.

Green is associated with safety, growth, and harmony. It can be used to convey a sense of environmental responsibility or financial security.

For example, TD Bank, a North American bank, utilizes green in its branding to signify financial security and growth, which are important factors for a bank’s trustworthiness.

(Source)

Use these trust-building colors primarily in prominent website elements like headers, footers, navigation menus, and trust signals like security badges and testimonials.

And as usual, continuously test and analyze user responses to trust-building colors, and refine your color choices based on data-driven insights and user feedback. 

6. Use Color in Visual Hierarchy

Visual hierarchy is the order in which people look at your web page layout. 

It’s what makes it possible for website visitors to scan a web page without having to read every word individually or look at every picture. 

It’s also what allows them to identify what’s most important and what’s least important on a page – allowing them to find relevant information quickly. 

For example, you can use high-contrast colors to draw the eye to your most important headlines, CTAs, or any other critical information.

You can see how Netflix uses high-contrast red CTA buttons against a mostly black background to make the primary action stand out.

(Source)

Conclusion: Leveraging Color Psychology for Conversion Optimization!

Color psychology helps you tap into your target audiences’ subconscious emotions and, leading to improved user engagement and higher conversion rates. 

From understanding audience preferences to incorporating trust-building colors and guiding users through visual hierarchy, every aspect of color implementation plays an important role in the user experience.

Think about it – the Coca-Cola red, the PayPal blue, and the Netflix red “Watch Now” button are all-star examples of how colors can send a message without saying a word. They create trust, urgency, and an irresistible urge to take the intended action. 

So, put on your artist’s hat, grab your color wheel, and let’s keep the conversion party going!

The post The Psychology of Color in Conversion Optimization first appeared on Invesp.

VWO is a web-based, visual website analytics and optimization platform for testing and improving the performance of your website. 

It lets you create, customize, and manage A/B tests, multivariate tests, heatmaps, or surveys to increase conversions and revenue.

The biggest advantage of VWO is that it’s easy to use and has a user-friendly interface. 

However, after using this tool for a while, you may feel like it lacks certain features and options that would make your life easier. Or you could be dissatisfied with the pricing. There are multiple reasons to look for an alternative. 

That’s why we’ve decided to write this post and compare VWO with its main competitors so that you can find out what alternatives exist for VWO.

VWO Overview 

VWO is a cloud-based platform that provides tools for creating and running A/B tests. You can create a full plan for experimentation, engage users in the process, and build a complete roadmap in one place.

VWO AB Tests Insights, Source: VWO

The VWO visual editor allows you to edit texts, images, shapes, and backgrounds by just clicking on them. 

Visual Editor, Source: VWO

You can even edit their display order, inline style, HTML, resize, hide or remove. In addition, you can embed YouTube and Vimeo videos with a single click.

Key Features: 

• Web Experimentation – It includes A/B tests, multivariate tests, split tests, multi-device, and multipage tests.

• Visual Editor – VWO’s point-and-click editor lets you change texts, images, shapes, and backgrounds by simply clicking on them.

• Behavioral Analytics – VWO Insights help analyze visitor journeys, see where users drop off, and then see what they’re doing on your website that prevents them from converting. Connecting these insights to heatmaps and session recordings will help you understand why the conversion did not happen.

• Built-in AI copy generator – It helps you to create multiple versions of your website copy, so you can test which performs best.

AI Copy Generator, VWO

• On-site surveys – You can create triggers for your surveys, including Time spent on the page, Click an element, Time spent in session, Scroll depth, Exit intent, Pages in session, and Custom triggers.
  
  

On-page Surveys, VWO

The questions in your survey can be single-line text boxes, checkboxes, ratings, multi-line text boxes, dropdowns, or radio buttons. You can also include a Net Promoter Score question.

VWO Pros:

• No assistance is required, as VWO provides a point-and-click visual editor.
• Ready-to-use widgets make the test creation process faster.
• The AI copy generator creates different variations of your website copies faster. 
• AI-powered product recommendations help retain customers while growing conversions.

VWO Cons:

• No free forever version.
• It doesn’t let you store data forever. 

Pricing: 

Pricing is available only on request.

The Top VWO Competitors

Here is a list of our top VWO competitors based on their features, G2 score, and popularity. 

1. FigPii 

FigPii is a conversion optimization platform that lets you track user behavior and improve conversions through tools like AB Testing, Heatmaps, Session Recordings, and Polls.

FigPii

Polls and surveys, when combined with heatmaps and recordings data, can help you fully understand why something is not working or working better than others.

The best part is that all FigPii plans include unlimited heatmaps, AB tests, recordings, polls, and users.

Key Features: 

• AB Testing – FigPii offers AB testing tools for single-page and multipage experiments. You can create targeted tests for visitors coming from specific sources, such as new visitors, returning visitors, or traffic coming from a specific device.

Creating an AB test

• Heatmaps – It stores three types of heatmaps: clicks, movement, and scroll. The click map shows you which elements—including images, buttons, or headlines—are clicked on and which ones aren’t. The movement map shows you how visitors move across the page, so you can identify which areas they spend more time exploring and which ones they ignore. And finally, the scroll map shows you how far down users scroll on a page—you can use this to determine where certain elements should be placed for optimal visibility.

Creating heatmap

• Session Recordings –  FigPii session recordings can be targeted to specific types of devices & visitors. It also lets you share these screen recordings outside FigPii.

Creating Session Recordings

• On-site Polls & Surveys – FigPii lets you create polls for the entire website, a specific page, or a specific group of pages. You can target device types, including mobile, desktop, or all types. Types of polls include short text, long text, select box, rating, radio, and check box.

Polls & Surveys

• Revenue Tracking – Using FigPii, you can quickly view the ROI on your website. Access to such insights can help you make better decisions and determine where you should be focusing your efforts for maximum results. You can also see products and landing pages that are driving revenue to your business. 

• Real-time – If you want to monitor and analyze what users are actually doing on your site, FigPii is your go-to platform. FigPii offers a real-time view that allows you to peek into the actions that users are taking on your site right now. This feature is critical both for quickly detecting any issues on the site as well as personalizing the customer experience.  

Pros: 

• All plans start with a free trial for the first 14 days.
• It is easy to use.
• It doesn’t overwhelm you with tons of data.
• The session recording player has multiple speeds so that you can watch more or more important parts in less time.

Cons: 

• Polls targeting options are limited.
• Heatmaps and recordings are not available for all AB test versions.
• AB Testing parameters are limited.

Pricing:

FigPii pricing starts at $49.99/month for unlimited AB tests, heatmaps, recordings, polls, and even unlimited users.

VWO vs. FigPii

VWO offers more options for experiments, including server-side testing and multivariate testing. However, FigPii has a big positive side: it offers unlimited metrics on all of its plans.

2. Optimizely 

Optimizely lets you see how visitors interact with your website, which lets you improve the flow of your pages, elements, and website copy.

Welcome Analysis

Optimizely helps you run Web Experiments by offering A/B tests, multi-page tests, and multipage funnel testing. You can also use the uncovered data to convey messages and offer specifically tailored to your target audience.

Experiments

Key Features: 

• Visual Editor – You can add or change text, change the visibility of elements, order them, position them anywhere on the page, change their dimensions and styles, and preview your changes before publishing.

Visual Editor

• Personalized Targeting – Optimizely allows you to customize your audiences based on demographic information, location data and behavior. In addition, adaptive audiences automatically generate an audience from your personas.

• Extensive Reporting – Optimizely offers two types of reports: account-level reports and team-level reports. Account-level reporting collectively targets all teams in your account, while team-level reporting targets experiments by individual teams. You can also perform real-time data analysis with Big Data analysis.

Optimizely Reporting

Pros: 

• Easy to set up and use.
• Integrates with many tools and platforms to boost user experience.
• Gives you real-time reports.
• Offers both account-level and team-level reporting.

Cons: 

• Pricing is high for startups and small businesses.
• URL targeting doesn’t have bulk uploading options.

Pricing:

• Available on request.

VWO vs. Optimizely 

If you’re looking for advanced marketing automation tools, Optimizely might be the right solution for you. It has more targeting options than VWO, as well as individual Dashboards for each tool.

3. AB Tasty 

AB Tasty helps you increase engagement, revenue, and conversion rates. It offers client-side and full-stack experimentation, as well as personalization options like Audience Builder and AI-based Segmentation.

AB Tasty

Key Features: 

• Experiments – It includes Multipage, AB, Split, and Multivariate tests for your websites, apps, or particular features.
• Drag-and-drop editor – You can use the drag-and-drop editor to add new blocks, define events, and add widgets to your experiments.
• Personalization – AI-driven personalization capabilities make it possible to tailor campaigns based on page load or exit intent and send personalized messages.
• Feature Flags – Flagship by AB Tasty offers a variety of flag types, including Boolean, Number, String, Array, and Object types. You can see which user segment is affected by which flag.

Pros: 

• It offers unlimited tests.
• It also offers templates and a widgets library.
• You get access to advanced features, such as server and client-side testings, goal setting, and more.

Cons: 

• It doesn’t come with a free trial or a freemium version.
• It doesn’t offer heatmaps and recordings.

Pricing:

• Available on request

VWO vs. AB Tasty 

AB Tasty does not offer in-built heatmaps or session recordings, which many other tools do. However, AB Tasty does offer some advanced testing features. On the other hand, VWO offers user behavioral analysis and usability testing, which is a big plus for VWO here.

4. Google Optimize – Sunsetted

Google officially announced the discontinuation of Google Optimize, a widely used website optimization tool and experimentation platform. The service ended on September 30, 2023.

Google Optimize (formerly Google Website Optimizer) is a free, easy-to-use analytics and testing solution that helps you understand your visitors and optimize your website. It lets you test various website designs and customize user experiences.

Google Optimize Dashboard

Key Features: 

• Experiments – You can perform 6 types of experiments with Google Optimize: A/B testing, multivariate testing, split URL testing, server-side experiments, and additional simultaneous experiments that can be performed only with Optimize 360.

• Reporting – Google Optimize Reports give you insights into the experiment’s objective, status, session, and recommendations. It also provides an overview of experiment sessions, conversion rates, etc.

Google Optimize Reporting

• Testing – It includes AB Tests, Multivariate Tests, and Redirect Tests. You can also schedule your tests by setting a custom start and end dates. You can create 3 types of objectives for tests – System objectives, Google Analytics goals, and Custom objectives.
  
• WYSIWYG visual editor – Google Optimize’s WYSIWYG editor lets you edit test variants with the click of a button without having to write any code. You can change aspects of your variants, including links, images, text, HTML, and more.

Visual Editor

Pros: 

• It’s free to use.
• The interface is quite simple & easy to use.
• It integrates with Google Analytics to give you more in-depth reports.

Cons: 

• No segmentation capability.
• No customer support.
• Allows only 3 goals per experiment.

Pricing:

• It’s a free tool by Google. 

VWO vs. Google Optimize 

While it may not have advanced tools like VWO, Google Optimize is an excellent choice for small businesses and marketers due to its free nature and integration with many of Google’s products.

5. Crazy Egg 

Crazy Egg helps eCommerce platforms, lead generation businesses, education channels, and Shopify customers understand how their users interact with their websites through heat maps and scroll maps.

You also get access to features like screen recordings, A/B testing, error tracking, traffic analysis, and surveys for more detailed behavior analysis.  

Key Features: 

• A/B Testing – Crazy Egg’s A/B tests are easy to set up, don’t require any coding knowledge, and provide real-time results.

A/B Testing Panel

• Behavioral Analysis – Crazy Egg offers a suite of heatmaps and a session recording tool to track clicks, scrolls, eye tracking, frustration tracking, and mouse movement. It also provides five reports to help track these activities: Heatmap report, Scrollmap report, Confetti report, Overlay report, and List report.

Confetti Report

• Surveys – Crazy Egg offers unlimited surveys with no feedback storage limits and a customizable design. It comes with three survey templates: Multiple choice, Text (Short and Long), and Ratings (Numeric, starts, and emojis).

Creating Multiple Choice Survey

• Errors Tracking – By watching session replays, you can see errors as they occur. You’ll know details such as the visitor’s device and browser, as well as the type of error.

Pros: 

• Easy to use and fast.
• Offers a 30-day free trial with all plans.
• Offers unlimited A/B tests, surveys, and websites on all plans.

Cons: 

• Heatmaps and recordings storage is limited, you cannot store them as long as you want.
• The number of recordings allowed per month is limited.
• Limited integration options.

Pricing:

Starts at $29/month for unlimited surveys, A/B tests, websites, and 3 months of storage for recordings.

VWO vs. CrazyEgg 

CrazyEgg is cheaper than some other tools, which makes it a good choice for small to mid-level businesses. It has many features, but it lacks VWO’s testing capabilities. However, if you don’t need advanced testing, this can be the best option – and it also has a 30-day free trial, enough time to measure the impact on your website.

6. Convertize 

Convertize.io is a platform that provides advanced testing capabilities and combines the best parts of two types of A/B testing: Frequentist and Bayesian. They use this Hybrid Approach to make testing more reliable and easier.

It also includes features such as quick installation, a smart editor, autopilot, a library with 150 testing suggestions, dynamic text, lightning mode, hybrid statistics, a flight tracker, geolocation, smart notifications, a launch checklist, and chat support.

Creating page versions

Key Features: 

• Personalization with Dynamic Content – Its SmartPlugin feature offers dynamic headings for landing pages and adds dynamically adds visitors’ geolocation on your page to provide an improved personalization experience.

Dynamic Headline

• Smart Notification – This plugin lets you send real-time notifications to visitors to create a sense of urgency and increase upsell.

Smart notifications

Pros: 

• Offers advanced A/B testing features.
• 14-day free trial available for a monthly plan and a 2-month free trial on a yearly plan.
• Offers dynamic text support for tests.

Cons: 

• Doesn’t offer an in-built heatmap, screen recording, and survey tools.

Pricing:

• Starts at $49/month with 3 project limit and for up to 20,000 visitors per month.

VWO vs. Convertize 

Businesses looking to just perform A/B tests can definitely go for Convertize. However, if you are looking to find a one-stop solution for testing and behavioral analysis, tools like VWO and FigPii are more suitable.

7. ABtesting.ai 

ABtesting.ai is an artificial intelligence-powered software that recommends the right combinations of design, copy, and call-to-action for your landing pages. You just need to do some initial setup, and the software will take care of the rest.

Creating new experiment

Key Features: 

• Automation – With AI power, ABTesting chooses what to test to gain the best conversion rates.

• No risk of underperforming – ABTesting automatically chooses the highest-performing landing page version and displays it more often than the other versions.

• Segmentation – It learns which variations work best for each group of visitors and shows only those versions to each visitor.

Pros: 

• You can edit tests while they are running.
• It offers a forever-free version with limited features.
• All of its plans include Google Analytics integration.
• Easy to install and use.
• Gives you test ideas.
• Tests require no-to-minimal supervision.

Cons: 

• No in-built tool for heatmaps, session recordings, or feedback.
• Doesn’t offer a free trial.

Pricing:

Starts at $19/month with unlimited experiments.

VWO vs. ABtesting.ai 

In terms of automation, ABtesting.ai is a better option for businesses looking to streamline their A/B testing process. However, if you are looking for a more comprehensive solution that covers both testing and behavioral analysis, VWO might be a better choice.

8. Instapage 

Instapage is primarily a landing page creation tool that is easy to use, has seamless integrations, and allows you to run A/B tests on your pages.

It includes server-side experiments, A/B tests, and multivariate tests. With heatmap reports, you can also get to the bottom of behavioral analysis.

Experiments

Key Features: 

• Landing pages – Instapage helps you create landing pages with its 33 million stock photos and 5K+ typefaces. It offers 200+ templates, depending on the industry you choose. You can also run A/B testing across all of your pages and create mobile-friendly pages.

Creating a new landing page

• On-page collaboration – You can work with your team using Instapage’s visual on-page collaboration feature. 

• Integrations – Integrates with Email Marketing tools such as Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, Convertkit, Mailgun, Drip, and more. You can also scale your marketing automation with integrations like Hubspot, Marketo, Autopilot, and more.

Pros: 

• Easy to set up and use.
• High-speed performance.
• Can convert landing pages to templates.
• Provides many options for email marketing and automation integrations.

Cons: 

• You can’t transfer these pages to other systems.
• Page width and customization options are limited.

Pricing:

Starts at $149/month for unlimited domains and conversions.

VWO vs. Instapage 

Instapage offers everything that a good user experience platform offers, plus it has landing page creation functionality, too. However, if you only need it for its A/B testing feature, then it’s going to appear more costly than VWO and other tools on the list.  

Go A/B testing!

While VWO is a great A/B testing and behavior analysis tool, you have plenty of other options as well. 

If you’re looking for an all-in-one user testing and behavior analysis tool, you have options like FigPii, CrazyEgg, etc. If A/B testing is your sole purpose, then tools like ABtesting.ai and Convertize would be more suitable. 

In the end, the software you pick will depend on your budget and requirements. 

The post 8 Best VWO Competitors In 2023 first appeared on Invesp.

What if you could increase your revenue by 26% with a simple change in your website design? That’s what Invesp CRO did for their ecommerce client by testing different home page variations during the holiday season. 

This is just one example of how brands can use experimentation to optimize their marketing and innovation efforts. 

In this article, we will explore real-world cases of successful tests that have boosted conversions, engagement, and customer satisfaction for various businesses. You will learn how to apply the principles and best practices of experimentation to your brand and achieve similar results.

Real-World Examples of Successful Tests (and Optimization Tips by CRO Experts)

Here are some examples of successful tests and optimization tips from experts:

1. Holiday A/B Testing by Invesp 

The holiday season is a crucial period for brands, where competition intensifies, and capturing consumer attention becomes even more challenging.

In 2021, holiday retail sales hit a whopping $889.30 billion in the US alone. 

IN 2022, this number increased by 5.3%, and holiday retail sales reached $936.3 billion. 

These numbers are especially shocking if you consider the relatively recent outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. 

This also shows that the holiday season will always be a special time for people to splurge and treat themselves and their loved ones. 

Seeing the impact of holidays on ecommerce and the retail market, let’s delve into an intriguing case involving Invesp CRO and their holiday testing for an ecommerce client. 

Goal:

During the holiday season, Invesp CRO aimed to optimize the website design for their ecommerce client to improve their sales.

Results:

Through iterative testing and experimentation, Invesp CRO achieved significant improvements in the purchase rate, demonstrating the effectiveness of their approach.

Here’s how they went out about it: 

Their client’s original website design had multiple offers, showcasing a 25% discount and free shipping for orders exceeding $99 across various categories. 

This made the website cluttered and made for an overwhelming user experience. 

Our A/B testing team recognized the need for optimization and introduced several variations to the website design. 

Variation 1:

In Variation 1, they simplified the page by removing excessive numbers and relocating the discount offers and free shipping details to the bottom of the header image. Additionally, they strategically added a “hottest deals” section immediately after the hero section, capturing visitors’ attention with enticing offers.

The results of Variation 1 were promising – showing a significant 6.4% increase in the purchase rate. This positive outcome reinforced the importance of streamlining the user interface and providing a clear and concise value proposition to holiday shoppers rather than a cluttered mess of discounts and offers. 

Variation 2:

Building upon this success, Invesp CRO created another variation. 

In Variation 2, they made the “up to 70% off” discount offer more prominent. 

By highlighting this compelling deal, they achieved an impressive 26.4% surge in the purchase rate. This outcome showcased the immense impact of strategically showcasing an exciting offer during the holiday season when consumers actively seek the best deals.

Variation 3:

Continuing their iterative approach, Invesp CRO introduced Variation 3, which involved removing the “hottest deals” section. 

Surprisingly, this adjustment still yielded a 14.4% increase in the purchase rate. 

This demonstrated the importance of finding the right balance between providing enticing offers and avoiding overwhelming visitors with too much information.

Through these variations, Invesp CRO successfully optimized the website design for their ecommerce client during the holiday season. 

To quote Invesp’s team, 

“If you add too many holiday offers, it can be overwhelming for customers. Why not create different variations of your site and combine one or two offers to see which variations drive the most conversions?”

2. Landing Page Testing by Admix Global

Dmytro Sokhach, founder of Admix Global and an experienced SEO professional, shares an example of a successful test that significantly impacted his landing page conversion rates.

Experiment Goal:

Dmytro and his CRO team focused on adding a human touch to the landing page to increase trust and ultimately boost conversions.

Experiment Description:

Initially, Admix Global’s landing page was relatively standard, looking like any other digital agency website, with stock photos and a lack of personal touch. 

Dmytro and his team hypothesized that injecting authenticity and humanizing the page could establish visitor trust, leading to higher conversion rates.

To execute the experiment, they implemented the following changes:

• Replaced stock images with real-life pictures of their team members.
• Included video testimonials to showcase genuine feedback from clients.
• Posted actual job vacancies, adding credibility to the authenticity of the company.

These modifications aimed to create a sense of trustworthiness and human connection.

Experiment Results:

Through an A/B test, Dmytro and his team compared the performance of the modified landing page against the previous template. 

The results were remarkable – a significant increase in conversion rates:

The conversion rate rose from 6.99% to 12.08%, representing a substantial growth of 73 percent. 

The experiment proved their hypothesis right – adding a human touch had a significant impact on trust and, in turn, conversions.

Reflecting on the factors that contributed to their success, Dmytro emphasizes two key elements. 

Firstly, their fundamental approach went beyond mere aesthetics. They delved into consumer psychology, recognizing that potential customers value trust and authenticity. By using these principles as the foundation for their changes, they were able to connect with their audience on a deeper level.

Secondly, being data-driven played a crucial role. By setting up a proper A/B test and meticulously analyzing the numbers, they could objectively evaluate the results. This allowed them to make informed decisions based on concrete data, ensuring the experiment’s success.

Based on his experience, Dmytro suggests, 

“My advice to fellow CRO experts is to begin with fundamental, underlying hypotheses instead of randomly testing aesthetic elements. The principle that being genuine can drive trust and conversions paid off significantly.”

3. Improving Conversion Rates with Streamlined Navigation: A Real-World Experiment

Daniel Chabert, the CEO & Founder of PurpleFire, shares an insightful example of an experiment that helped him increase conversion rates for an ecommerce platform specializing in specialty toys.

Identifying the Challenge:

In 2016, one of their ecommerce clients faced a persistent challenge – low conversion rates. 

Upon analyzing the site, Daniel and his team discovered that the unconventional navigation was creating friction for users. To tackle this issue, they conducted an A/B test, comparing the original site design to a new design with a streamlined menu.

Experiment Design:

Daniel’s team redesigned the site to simplify the user experience by improving navigation. 

The team strategically increased the visibility of popular categories and guided users toward specific product selections. By reducing friction and enhancing the ease of navigation, they sought to impact conversion rates positively.

Results:

The A/B test yielded compelling results. 

With its streamlined menu and improved user experience, the new design increased conversion rates by 18%. 

This outcome validated the hypothesis that simplifying navigation can directly and positively impact the platform’s conversion rates.

Key Factors for Success:

According to Daniel, several key factors contributed to the success of this experiment:

• Accurate identification of the root cause: The team identified that the site’s poor navigation was the primary obstacle to better user experience and conversions. This insight informed their approach and led to effective solutions.
• Well-defined testing goals: They established clear objectives, creating a frictionless experience and improving conversion rates through simplified navigation. This allowed the team to measure the success accurately.

• Precise tracking of metrics: The team tracked conversions of the control and variation groups, ensuring that other factors remained constant. This rigorous approach provided reliable results and strengthened their confidence in the findings.

4. Optimizing Meta Descriptions

Maria Harutyunyan, the co-founder of Loopex Digital, shares an example of a successful experiment she led, focusing on optimizing meta descriptions for a client’s website.

Enhancing Click-Through Rates with Personalized Meta Descriptions

Maria and her team had a hypothesis that customizing meta descriptions for each page of their client’s website could lead to improved click-through rates (CTR) from search engine results pages (SERPs). 

They selected a few pages to test this hypothesis and crafted more engaging language while incorporating targeted keywords into their meta descriptions.

Results: A Significant 25% Increase in CTR

After closely monitoring the results for a few weeks, the team found that the personalized meta descriptions had a remarkable impact. 

The pages with customized descriptions resulted in a 25% increase in CTR compared to those with standard meta descriptions. 

Encouraged by this success, Maria and her team revamped the meta descriptions for all of their client’s websites, leading to SEO improvements across the board.

Key Factors for Success:

According to Maria, this experiment’s success was primarily due to:

• Well-Defined Hypothesis: The experiment started with a clear hypothesis – personalizing meta descriptions could enhance CTR from SERPs. This helped the CRO team focus their efforts and guided their approach.

• A/B Testing Approach: To accurately measure the impact of the changes, the team implemented an A/B testing approach. They used a controlled group (pages with standard meta descriptions) and a test group (pages with personalized meta descriptions) for comparison.
• Quantifiable Metrics: The team relied on clear, objective metrics – in this case, CTR – to gauge the experiment’s success. The use of quantifiable data provided actionable insights and validated their approach.

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Based on the positive results, the team optimized all of their client’s website meta descriptions, leading to tangible SEO improvements.

5. Reducing Churn Rate Through Experimentation 

Matthew Ramirez, CEO and Founder of Paraphrase Tool and Forbes 30 Under 30 alumni shares a real-world experiment that aimed to reduce the churn rate in his company. 

Identifying the Problem: Churn Rate

Despite his company’s overall revenue growth and customer satisfaction success, Matthew’s team faced a recurring challenge with customer churn. Many customers were leaving the company after their free trial period ended, posing a threat to long-term customer retention.

Exploring the Problem: Experimentation for Insights

Matthew and his team initiated a series of experiments to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying causes behind customer churn. They sought to uncover valuable insights to inform effective strategies for reducing churn.

Implementing a Solution: Proactive Customer Engagement

Their analysis revealed a clear pattern: people were leaving when their free trial period ended. The customer support team had been trying to get customers to upgrade and stay, but the people leaving had not been contacted. 

Recognizing this critical period as a pivotal opportunity, they designed an experiment focused on proactive customer engagement and started contacting customers as soon as their free trial ended. 

Results: Successful Churn Reduction

The implementation of their proactive customer engagement strategy yielded positive results. 

Their churn rate was reduced by 15%, and the customer support team was able to reach customers and provide them with a reason to stay with the company. 

Stressing the importance of conducting experiments that generate actionable insights, Matthew suggests, 

“While experimentation can be beneficial, organizations must ensure that their experiments will give actionable insights. This involves setting clear goals and hypotheses, gathering sufficient data for analysis, and testing multiple variations. Experiments that lack adequate data or variation will not offer valuable insights.

Actionable experimentation involves conducting experiments that provide insights that can be used to improve your current strategy or process. This is more beneficial than just collecting data to analyze. It’s crucial to conduct experiments accurately and obtain meaningful data to better understand your customers and enhance your strategy or process.” 

Best Practices for Effective Experimentation

Based on the above examples, here’s a quick overview of the best practices for effective experimentation. These best practices are tried and tested by successful entrepreneurs and industry experts. 

• Define Clear Objectives: Clearly establish the goals and objectives of your experiments. Remember to identify specific insights or improvements you aim to achieve.

• Develop Hypotheses: Formulate data-driven hypotheses based on observations, customer behavior, or industry trends. A well-defined hypothesis will provide a clear direction for your experiments.

• Gather Sufficient Data: Your data should be reliable and comprehensive to support your experiments. Sufficient data allows for accurate analysis and meaningful insights. It also helps you avoid making assumptions or relying solely on personal opinions.

• Test Multiple Variations: Explore different variations or strategies to test against a control group. Testing multiple variations helps identify the most effective approaches and optimizes outcomes.

• Utilize Controlled Testing: Implement A/B testing or other controlled testing methods to accurately measure your experiments’ impact. This approach allows for a clear comparison between different versions or strategies.

• Track and Analyze Key Metrics: Determine the key metrics that align with your experimentation goals. Regularly track and analyze these metrics to assess the success and impact of your experiments.

• Iterate and Refine: Use the insights gained from your experiments to iterate and refine your strategies, processes, or products. Embrace a cycle of continuous improvement based on the outcomes of your experimentation efforts.

The Final Verdict: Unleashing the Power of Experimentation!

Experimentation is a powerful tool for driving innovation and achieving remarkable results. These experimentation examples highlight the importance of clear objectives, well-defined hypotheses, data-driven decision-making, and a culture of continuous improvement.

As we conclude our exploration of experimentation in action, it’s also essential to remember that the key to success lies not only in conducting experiments but also in embracing a mindset of continuous learning and adaptation. 

By embracing experimentation as a fundamental part of their operations, organizations can foster a culture of innovation, stay agile, and make informed decisions that propel them toward long-term success.

The post Brands Experimentation in Action: Real-World Examples of Successful A/B Tests first appeared on Invesp.

There’s one thing that’s important to every C-suite/decision-maker across industry and niches.

More conversions (increased sales, sign-ups, event attendees, etc.)

To get more conversions, some folks believe you need to spend more on customer acquisition.

This works until you realize you’re spending a lot of your marketing budget on acquisition and nothing else.

Enter in conversion rate optimization.

With CRO, you don’t need to drive more traffic to your site to get more conversions, but put things in place that ensure you’re converting more of your existing traffic.

In this article, I’ll highlight 30 of the most important conversion rate statistics ranging from average conversion rates across niches, benchmarks, etc.

Let’s get started.

General Conversion Rates

1. The average conversion rate for websites is 2.35%

Conversion rates vary across industries, but taking the average across several niches, the number sits at 2.35%. This means if your website is converting at the 2-3% mark, you’re doing okay (on a broad scale)

2. Top websites have a conversion rate of 11% or more

Converting at 2 – 3% is fair if you’re just starting out, if you want to play in the big leagues, the top 10% of websites convert at 11% and above. 

This means you need to roll out a CRO strategy and implementation plan to achieve that.

3. Food & Beverage is the industry with the highest conversion rate at 7.9%.

Conversion rates differ by industry, and the food/beverage industry takes the cake here (pun intended)

4. The highest B2B average conversion rate by industry is professional services (4.6%)

In B2B, the professional services industry have the highest conversion rates at 4.6%.

5. The B2B industry with the highest form rate conversion is industrial at 2.8%

Online forms are a big part of any website (to collect leads, to get sign ups, etc) The industrial niche has the highest conversion rate.

Effect Of Factors On Conversion Rate

6. Slow loading pages reduce conversions by 7%

If you thought site speed only mattered for SEO, think again. Just a 1-second delay in your site loading time can hurt your conversions by up to 7%.

7. Companies spend just $1 on conversion rate optimization for every $92 spent on customer acquisition

This shocking statistic highlights just how huge the gap is between the amount we spend on getting traffic and the amount we spend turning that traffic into customers. Many businesses are spending too much on traffic and not enough on conversions. Double your conversion rate, and you can afford to half your traffic. 

8.Increasing your number of landing pages from 10 to 15 increases leads by 55%

Making landing pages for each of your campaigns is good practice. Businesses that do this, convert more of their traffic to leads.

9. If you want to build a good conversion rate for your Google Ads campaigns, go for a conversion rate higher than 5.31%. For perspective, the top 25% of companies advertising with Google Ads maintain a conversion rate of 11.45%.

10. When you include a video on your landing page, it can increase your conversion rates by up to 80%.

11. ¼ of companies cite rapid improvements in technology as their greatest barrier to improving conversion rates.

While increasing their website conversion rates, most organizations struggle to adopt novel technologies, while 20% had problems in understanding online behavior at scale, and 20% in understanding points of improvement.

12.  CTAs used as anchor text in blogs improve conversion rates by up to 121 percent more than banner ads.

A decade ago, banner ads proliferated the internet. They were so ubiquitous that most people just tend to tune them out because they got used to seeing so many of them online. This is a phenomenon called “banner blindness” and is one perfect reason why your CTAs are much better integrated into anchor text.

13. Sales/Qualified Leads is the most popular sales conversion rate calculation.

The majority of marketers (about 35%) divide the number of sales to qualified leads as the best way to calculate their lead conversion rate. Other popular methods include dividing the number of sales into the total number of leads (32%), contacted leads (11%), and opportunities (10%), sales conversion rate statistics further reveal.

14. Only 39.6% of firms have a documented CRO strategy.

39.3% do follow a process but have yet to structure and document it, and one in five marketers reported not following a CRO process at all. As a research-oriented and data-driven approach, CRO works the best when its stages are structured rather than handled reactively and positioned within the larger marketing efforts efficiently.

Conversion Rate By Channels

15. Organic search leads as the channel with the highest conversion rate at 16% followed by Amazon at 10-15%

Depending on your type of business, you now know where to focus your  marketing efforts for the best ROI.

Testing and Optimization

16. 46.9% of optimizers run one or two tests a month.

Running up to a couple of tests per month is the most common test velocity among professionals, and about 9% of optimizers run more than 20 tests a month. Running client-side tests are the most popular at 55%, while 17% run server-side tests and 27% do both, conversion rate optimization stats reveal. A/B tests are the most popular types, used by almost all optimizers surveyed. A little over one-third also tests more than one variation.

17.  Less than 0.11% of the total websites online are using CRO tools or running tests.

According to Builtwith, a tool that tracks the software that websites are using, they can only find 1,110,585 sites using CRO testing tools at this time.

18. The United States is the country with the most number of sites running A/B tests (520,415 websites)

19. Google Optimize is the platform leading with the most usage distribution on the internet (578, 779 websites)

Industry-Specific Conversion Rates

20. The retail Industry has a conversion rate of 1.70%, an average cart abandonment rate of 76.39% and mobile is the most used device at 63.7%.

21. The electronics and home appliances Industry has a conversion rate of 2.41%, an expected average revenue per user of $111.60 and desktop is the most used device at 61.2%.

22. The home decor Industry has a conversion rate of 1.04%, and an average cart abandonment rate of 80.01%  and mobile is the most used device at 55.2%.

23.  The personal care products Industry has a conversion rate of 3.17%, and an average cart abandonment rate of 74.93%  and mobile is the most used device at 62.1%.

24.  The home decor Industry has a conversion rate of 1.11%, and 61% of consumers are open to buying cars online post-pandemic and mobile is the most used device at 50.9%.

Landing Page Optimization – CRO Statistics

25. The average landing page conversion rate across industries is 2.35%.

26. Landing pages with a single call-to-action (CTA) can increase conversions by 371%.

27. Using videos on landing pages can increase conversions by 86%.

28. Including testimonials or reviews on landing pages can increase conversions by 34%.

29. Landing pages with a clear value proposition have a 34% higher conversion rate.

30. Mobile-optimized landing pages can improve conversion rates by 27%.

31. Landing pages with a load time of fewer than 3 seconds have a 32% higher conversion rate.

32. A/B testing of landing pages can lead to a 30% improvement in conversion rates.

33. Using social proof, such as displaying the number of customers or subscribers, can increase conversions by 12.5%.

34. Personalized landing pages for different audience segments can increase conversions by 202%.

Mobile Optimization

35. “There are over one billion tablet users worldwide.              

36. 55.4% of internet users use mobile phones to buy online.              

37. 50% of smartphone users are more likely to use a mobile site when browsing or shopping because they don’t want to download a mobile app.    

38. 74% of small businesses are planning to build a mobile app in the next few years.             

39. 88.5% of web designers think that slow loading is a top reason why visitors leave a website.”

40. Another 73.1% think that non-responsive web design is a top reason for visitors bouncing from a website.

The post  40 Most Important Conversion Rate Statistics for 2024 first appeared on Invesp.

Although Quora existed for few years now, recently I started using it more regularly. Perhaps opening Invesp’s office in Istanbul, Turkey was a major factor there.

And yes, I am a big fan!

Spending my time between our US and Istanbul offices is an amazing adventure. At the same time, it comes with its own set of challenges. That is where Quora comes in handy. I usually ask questions trying to understand more about Turkish culture, economy, business practices and yes, even good restaurants to eat at.

The website has also a healthy section on conversion optimization where those who are looking for advice post their questions. As I went through that section, I noticed that some of the questions were repeated again and again.

So, in this blog post I will take the 8 most common  questions on conversion optimization I see in Quora and answer them.

1. What Is the Best Strategy for Increasing My Website Conversion Rate?

You see this question asked in many different forms. Those who run an e-commerce website ask about getting more orders. Those who run lead generation website ask about ways to increase the number of leads from their website.

The problem is that many of the answers focus on tactics. Rarely do you find a thread that goes into strategy. That is fine, if you are looking for quick fixes. However, it comes with a problem.

Conversion optimization tactics may or may not work for your website.

There is a place for tactics but without a well through out strategy, you are most likely wasting your time.

Each web page in your website represents an opportunity. If you are working with an unlimited budget, unlimited resources and unlimited time, then you have all the time to test every little detail on your website.

If you are like the rest of us, then you want to start fixing these pages that present the most impact on your bottom line.

How do you find the pages with the highest potential? 

To increase your website conversion rates, you should use analytics to understand how visitors are flowing from one area of your website to the next.

In order for you to get to the big “Yes” – a macro conversion – the visitor must go through a series of smaller “Yeses”, or micro conversions. Before visitors place an order with your website, fill out a contact form, or subscribe to your service, they go through a series of steps and follow different paths.

Our task as marketers is to identify all the possible funnels which visitors go through and to determine which of the funnels are working well and which funnels are leaking visitors so that we can focus on them.

The next question to think about is what changes should you make on a particular web page?

I will tell you what you should NOT do first. You do not randomly change things because best practices tell you to do so. Persuading visitors to convert requires us to anticipate the information they need and to present that information to visitors when they need it.

So, how do you identify conversion problems on a webpage?

At Invesp we use the Conversion Framework to determine the factors that impact  visitor behavior on a web page. These factors are grouped into two main categories:

1. Website-centric factors
2. Visitor-centric factors

Website centric factors are the factors that relate to your website and the signals it sends to your visitors. The main categories under website-centric factors are:

1. Trust factors: Remember that if a visitor does not trust you, he will not interact with you.
2. FUDs: How do you identify and minimize the fears, uncertainty, and doubts that stop website visitors from doing business with you?
3. Incentives: How do you incentivize a visitor to interact with you immediately?
4. Engagement: How do you engage visitors so you move from a one-time interaction to a long term relationship?

Visitor-centric factors are the factors that relate to your website visitors, the nature of their purchase and where they are in the buying funnel. You have less control over these factors, however, you must account and prepare for them.

The main categories under visitor centric-factors are:

1. The visitor persona: How do you address the different types of visitors’ temperaments?
2. How do you design your website to address each of the different visitor buying stage?
3. The third factor is the complexity of the sale. Selling an item that costs $10 is a lot different than selling an item that costs $2,000

We typically evaluate every page (or class of pages) on your website using the Conversion Framework with the goal of determining possible conversion problems on that page.

A conversion rate optimization specialist can identify 50 to 150 problems on a single webpage.

You then prioritize these problems and focus on the top 3 to 5 problems by creating new designs to fix them.

But you do not stop there. You conduct A/B or multivariate testing by splitting your current website visitors between your original design and the new designs and watch which of these design generates more conversions.

Quora question: What’s the best ways to increase your conversion rate honestly?

2. Tools to Perform a Conversion Optimization Audit of My Site?

As of now, there are no tools that help you conduct a conversion optimization audit of a website. There are, however, tools that help you understand how visitors behave on your website which, in turn, will help you in the process of conducting a CRO audit for your website.

Some might think that I am splitting hairs. But a tool that is designed to conduct an audit will be designed in a completely different way compared to a tool that tracks how visitors behave on the website.

Having said that, here is a list of tool categories which we think every website owner should have installed on their website:

Analytics: Needless to say that analytics is a must have for every website. Any self-respecting analytics tool will help you track the performance of different pages on your website (how many visitors they are getting, what is the bounce and exit rates, etc). The main dominant player in this field is Google Analytics. And while GA is free (there is an enterprise option), you are giving your data to Google.

Suggested analytics tools:

• Google Analytics
• Omniture
• Clicky
• Kissmetrics
• Piwik

Heatmap: Heatmap software record the clicks visitors make on any page of your website. They also provide a scroll map which shows how much visitors scroll when they view different pages of the website.

Suggested heatmap tools:

• Crazyegg
• Hotjar

Video recording: Similar to heatmap software, the tools in this category record the interaction between website visitors and the different pages on the website.

Suggested video recording tools:

• Inpsectlet

Website survey: the tools in this category ask website visitors to answer a small set of questions with the goal of gaining insights from these visitors on what is working and what is not in your website design.

Website survey tools:

• Hotjar
• Q4

A/B testing tools: these tools allow you to conduct A/B and/or multivariate testing on your website so you can determine which design generates more results for you. We have written a lengthy article on selecting the best A/B testing tool for your website. You can find it here.

A/B testing tools include:

• Google analytics content experiments
• Omniture
• Optimizely
• VWO

Quora question: Which tools do you use for conversion rate optimization?

3. Does the CRO Pay Per Performance Model Work?

Short answer:

We have not seen it work in the long run and we have been doing conversion optimization for over 11 years.

Long answer:

The idea of a pay per performance tests sounds good at the surface. The client will only pay for increases in conversion rate which shifts the burden and the risk of the project to the CRO firm. For the CRO firms there are two main reasons this model is appealing. First, if the project is successful, then the reward for success will be higher than charging a fixed fee. Second, this model works well for companies that are just starting out.

Here is the problem with this model. The success of any conversion optimization project depends on many factors. But the main two factors are:

1. How many tests do you deploy in a given time period and,
2. How sophisticated are these tests?

Most CRO firms end up relying on the client’s development team to implement the test. And here the problem lays in. The CRO firm is responsible and will be rewarded for the success of the project, but it will have to rely on the client to implement the tests.

In order for the CRO firm to deploy more tests, the firm must have access to the client’s website and should be able to make changes to it. The need for the backend of the website and its database becomes more prevalent, as the tests get more sophisticated.

But most clients, if not all, will not give unlimited access to the CRO firm because that assumes two things:

1. The CRO firm has good handle on the technology used by the client and,
2. The CRO firm has the technical knowledge to be trusted with making change on the website.

For any medium to large website both conditions are typically a no go.

So, most CRO firms end up relying on the client’s development team to implement the test.

And here the problem lays in. The CRO firm is responsible and will be rewarded for the success of the project, but it will have to rely on the client to implement the tests.

Some might say that the client is incentivized to see the project succeed and is motivated to implement tests faster. In our experience, that might have been the case but as the project progresses, development teams get busy and CRO work is pushed further behind and is given less priority.

As a result, these projects have an inherited conflict of interest built into them.

We believe that in order for a project to succeed, everyone must have skin in the game. For the client that will include paying a fee.

Now, there are instances where we agreed to lower our fees in return for an additional fee which the client pays, if we meet certain performance criteria.

Quora question: Which conversion optimization companies work on pay per performance model?

4. Running Multiple Overlapping A/B/n tests Simultaneously on One Page?

As you talk to different companies, you will hear differing opinions on this matter. It has been in our practice that multiple A/B tests on larger websites where 100% of the traffic is included in an A/B test can and will cause data pollution.

While we recommend running multiple tests at the same time, we also highly advice that:

1. The tests are not run concurrently, or
2. If tests are run concurrently, each test runs in a separate swim lane.

If tests run in separate swim lanes, traffic from one test does intersect traffic from the other test. This rarely happens on large complex websites where visitors jump from one swim lane to the next.

Good examples of concurrent tests include: running separate tests on desktop and mobile websites, running concurrent tests targeted for different countries, and running concurrent tests targeted for different sources and media of the traffic.

Quora question: Conversion optimization: Running multiple tests simultaneously on one page?

5. What Does “Confidence Level” Mean in Conversion optimization Lingo?

Statisticians have been debating confidence level for over 90 years.

Confidence level refers to the frequency which an observed interval contains a parameter (a test result). So, if confidence levels are constructed across many separate data analyses of different experiments, the proportion of such intervals that contain the true value of the test result will match the given confidence level.

The term confidence level is one of the least understood, yet most used terms in conversion optimization.

Confidence level does help in persuading people to test, but you need to understand how it works and affects your data.

Regina Nuzzo reports:

According to one widely used calculation, a P value of 0.01 corresponds to a false-alarm probability of at least 11%, depending on the underlying probability that there is a true effect; a P value of 0.05 raises that chance to at least 29%. So Moty’s finding had a greater than one in ten chance of being a false alarm. Likewise, the probability of replicating his original result was not 99%, as most would assume, but something closer to 73% — or only 50%, if he wanted another very significant result. In other words, his inability to replicate the result was about as surprising as if he had called heads on a coin toss and it had come up tails.

In calculating financial risks, the banking sector is sometimes required to see a 99% confidence level. The FDA also requires a 99% confidence level in some cases of drug testing.

Our goal is not to confuse you.

So, what does confidence level mean?

We recommend you think of the confidence level (p-value) as the probability of having a result as opposed to the potential frequency of that result.

So, what confidence level should you choose?

We recommend a 95% confidence level, but if an experiment runs for multiple business cycles and it repeatedly shows higher than 85% confidence level, you should definitely consider it.

Quora question: What does “confidence” mean in conversion optimization lingo?

6.  How Do I Decrease the Bounce Rate of My E-Commerce Website?

Let’s start by defining what a bounce rate is. Bounce rate is the percentage of your visitors who land on a web page from an external traffic source and leave the website without visiting a second page.

So, if a web page gets 100 visitors from an external traffic source (google organic traffic for example) and of those 100 visitors, 35 visitors decide to leave the website without ever visiting a second page on the website, then the bounce rate for the page is: 35/100 = 35%.

A common mistake we see with different websites is considering bounce rate for the website as a KPI (key performance indicator). For most websites, it is not.

A KPI should have a direct business impact. Bounce rate and exit rate are important metrics to track on your website. They rarely have an impact on a firm bottom line.

The conversion rate for a website or the average order value, on the other hand, are business KPIs. They impact your bottom line.

All these things make me doubt the general understanding of this question. An e-commerce website should focus on increasing its conversion rates, visits per value or average order value. Optimizing for bounce or exit rates is like chasing a ghost and will have no direct impact on the bottom line.

7. What Do I Need to See During My A/B Testing to Be Sure That One Variation Is the Winner?

There are three different criteria which must be met before you can call a winner for an A/B test.

1. You need a  statistically significant winner. Statistical significance will provide you with an indication on how solid your test is. The higher the confidence level for the challenger, the less likely it is that the challenger is a false positive. For most tests, a confidence level of 95% is acceptable. There are however instances where the challenger reportedly remains at 80% confidence level or a bit higher. In these cases, you can still call the test with the challenger being a winner, knowing full well that there is a segment of the visitors which will likely convert better with the control (original design).
2. Both the control (original design) and the winning challenger (variation) must have recorded a minimum number of conversions: the goal from this criterion is to ensure that your challenger is NOT a false positive and that testing data stabilized. The minimum number of conversions will vary from one website to the next and will depend on the number of conversions your website gets per month. With smaller websites, we usually ask for a minimum of 100 conversions per design. For larger websites, the minimum can be as large as 3,000 conversions.
3. The test should have run for at least one week. Website visitors shop differently on different days of the week. At a minimum, you want the control to run against the challengers for at least one day in the week. If you want to be more cautious, you can increase the minimum time required to two weeks.

FOR MOST TESTS, CONFIDENCE LEVEL OF 95% IS ACCEPTABLE

CLICK TO TWEET

Another thing we recommend in cases where the test includes many challengers against the control is to run the winner of the test against the control in a head to head test. This new test will help ensure that your winning challenger actually beats the original.

Quora question: What do I need to see during my A/B testing to be sure that one variation is the winner?

8. What’s a Typical Conversion Rate for Online Retailers?

In the early 2000’s, Shop.org reported the average e-commerce website converted 3% of its traffic into customers. FireClick Index data from 2015 show that an average e-commerce conversion rate  is close to 7.2% globally.

Conversion data for fashion and apparel, from Fireclick index:

Conversion data for catalog websites, from Fireclick index:

Conversion data for specialty websites, from Fireclick index:

Conversion data for outdoors and sports websites, from Fireclick index:

Conversion data for software websites, from Fireclick index:

AVERAGE E-COMMERCE CONVERSION RATE IS ALMOST 7.2% GLOBALLY

CLICK TO TWEET

Back in 2010, outdoor and sporting stores converted less than 0.5% of the traffic they receive. In 2015 these stores were converting 4.8% of their visitors into customers. This is close to 900% increase in conversion rates. 

The purpose of this data is to help you compare your site to the average conversion rates of your industry. But you shouldn’t necessarily feel better, if you are within your industry average because most online conversion rates are scant compared to brick-and-mortar rates.

Quora question:What’s a typical conversion rate for online retailers?

The post 8 QUESTIONS ABOUT INCREASING YOUR WEBSITE CONVERSION RATES FROM QUORA first appeared on Invesp.

Disclaimer: This section is a TL;DR of the main article and it’s for you if you’re not interested in reading the whole article. On the other hand, if you want to read the full blog, just scroll down and you’ll see the introduction.

• Finding the right pricing strategy and price points for your SaaS (Software as a Service) company is no mean feat. As a matter of fact, quite a few companies and especially startups struggle with defining a successful pricing strategy.
• There are three overarching marketing challenges that marketing teams at SaaS companies must solve to drive revenue; Driving as many qualified potential customers as possible to their website, Converting these potential customers into first-time subscribers, and Retaining existing subscribers.
• Pricing seems to be an easy task at first glance. But having the right pricing is one of the biggest challenges for SaaS businesses: if the price is too high, you will scare your customers away, and, if it is too low, you will lose money and that certainly affects your business performance.
• Setting the right price for your SaaS requires understanding the value you provide your customers and understanding how your competition set their price.

How To Use Qualitative And Quantitative Data To Collect Customer Insight

• Qualitative data allows you to see distinct groups within your target audience, it also allows you to see if your target audience finds your product/service attainable, etc.
• Quantitative research also provides you with information on the least and most popular functions of your SaaS, how often your product is used etc.
• There are several questions you should ask, answering these questions will help you develop your pricing strategy.
• Conduct surveys, and use analytics, they let you understand your customer’s motivations.
• We recommend starting with qualitative research and then complementing the qualitative research with quantitative findings. (see the main article for the general structure of questions to use in qualitative research depending on the stage of the prospect in your sales funnel).
• Overlapping your qualitative data with quantitative research, you’ll need demographic data on the age, location, gender, etc of your prospects.

How To Quantify Your Website Personas.

• A buyer persona is a detailed description of someone who represents your target audience
• You cannot sell anything without knowing your customers. However, to create an optimized pricing strategy, you need to quantify these personas with strong data
• To quantify your website personas, start looking for patterns in data collected and link these general patterns to your visitors’ persona.
• You have a ton of questions to ask in this stage like what factors does my CAC depend on, and how does the purchase process work for each buyer persona?
• Answering these questions (and the others in the main article) is critical to the setting of your pricing strategy and your business.

How To Define Your Saas Key Metric Value

• Value metric is the thing that your customers value the most about your business. Value metric is the foundation of your pricing model.
• After studying your audience, define the value metrics that you will use for your price tier creation. The value metrics you use depend on the nature of your business (the storage space, the number of emails sent, the number of page views and the number of users, etc.).

How To Create SaaS Pricing Tier

• Define the minimum amount a customer must pay to cover costs
• Define the maximum amount a customer is willing to pay for your service.
• Assess competitive pricing
• Map out your pricing tiers
• Align your value metric with pricing tiers based on buyer personas.

How To Design Your Pricing Page

• Define the elements of your pricing page.
• How you design your pricing page is up to you. But you should remember that users should be able to grasp your value proposition and pricing in 5 seconds.
• You should not baffle your potential customers with too much information on your pricing plans at the same time and you should not leave any space for guessing from their side.
• The Majority of the SaaS companies do not use custom pricing. However, by having custom plans you make sure that you do not potentially lose enterprise clients. Enterprise clients come with the benefit of larger revenue and lending more credibility to your business.

How To Optimize Your SaaS Page Design Using Charm Pricing

• Nowadays you rarely see prices ending on 0, most of them are “charmed” and end with 9,7 or 5 creating an impression that the price is smaller than it is
• William Poundstone, in his book Priceless claimed that charm pricing increase sales by 24% on average.
• Eric Anderson and Duncan Simester found out in their research that items tagged $39 sell better than cheaper items tagged $34

Here’s A Longer And More Detailed Version Of The Article.

Finding the right pricing strategy and price points for your SaaS (Software as a Service) company is no mean feat. As a matter of fact, quite a few companies and especially startups struggle with defining a successful pricing strategy.

In recent years, the use of SaaS grew year-to-year at a rate of 24.4%, and by 2019 it is predicted to account to around 20% of all software spending. No wonder the implementation of SaaS is gradually growing. It is easy to update, easy to debug and less expensive in comparison to traditional software services, especially for small and medium enterprises.

SaaS companies can make a profit from subscriptions, so there are three overarching marketing challenges that marketing teams at SaaS companies must solve:

1. Driving as many qualified potential customers as possible to their website.
2. Converting these potential customers into first-time subscribers.
3. Retaining existing subscribers.

Each of these problems can be broken down into many points, but this article will focus on how price optimization could help your SaaS product to convert more customers on the website.

Pricing seems to be an easy task at first glance. But having the right pricing is one of the biggest challenges for SaaS businesses: if the price is too high, you will scare your customers away, and, if it is too low, you will lose money and it will be your own fault.

Setting the right pricing for a SaaS product requires two things:

1. Understanding of the value you provide to your customers. Remember that your customers pay for real or perceived value you provide to them. Customers do not care what sales models you implement, what your costs are, all they care about is what is in it (in your product) for them.
2. Understanding how your competitors set their prices. Your company doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it is for sure surrounded by tens direct and indirect competitors. So, unfortunately, you cannot move forward with creating your pricing strategy without exhaustive competitive analysis of your competitors and understanding what they are doing and why.

Let’s see how you can blend these two things together into a compelling SaaS pricing model and beat up your competitors using these five steps.

1. Use qualitative and quantitative data to collect customer insights

There are several important questions you should answer during this step:

1. Why does your software matters to customers?
2. How and why do they value your software?
3. What pain points of your customers does it solve?
4. What features do they find most useful?
5. What motivates them to start using your software?
6. What are the hurdles that stop websites visitors from converting?

Answering these questions will help you determine how to position and price your service.

To pinpoint what motivates your customers to sign up for your service, how they use it, and what keeps them engaged, you should first collect and evaluate qualitative and quantitative data:

• Conduct surveys, customer interviews; use customer feedback as a qualitative data.
• Use analytics and demographic data as a quantitative data.

We would advise you to start with qualitative research (conducting surveys and interviews with the customers) and then complement the qualitative findings with quantitative research such as using analytics and demographics data to see how customers use your product, what features they like the most, and to what key value metrics you should give more importance.

Of course, you can start the other way around, with qualitative data. However, we recommend to start with qualitative research, organize your findings, for instance, using voice of the customer method, and then compare the results to qualitative findings. The reason is simple: why guess when you can ask your customers?

Here is a very general structure of the types of questions you should ask your website visitors, prospects and customers. Obviously, the questions you ask depend on the stage of sales funnel.

At the early stage of the sales funnel your goal is to understand:

1. Understand reasons visitors are visiting your website
2. Assess competitive space you operate in

Examples of the questions you could ask:

• What do our competitors do better than us?
• What brought you to our website today?
• How have you found us?
• Are you looking for anything specific? What is it?
• Are you considering several products now? What are they?
• Why are you looking a SaaS product X?
• What are the top 3 features you are looking for?

In early to mid-stage of the sales funnel your goal is to understand:

1. Rate visitors’ satisfaction with your website
2. Rate visitors’ satisfaction with a particular webpage
3. Uncover the appeals of your site / product offering

Examples of the questions you could ask:

• How happy are you with our pricing tiers? Which one do you love the most?
• How would you rate your website experience today? Have you faced any issues?
• What features of our product do you find most attractive to you and why?
• Does your company has a certain budget for the need our SaaS product covers?

In mid to late stage of the sales funnel your goal is to understand:

• Uncover missing content
• Uncover Issues with the website/page
• Understand reservations with using or purchasing product

Examples of the questions you could ask:

• Do you think some of the features of the product/service do not address your needs? Why?
• What additional features would you like to see in our products?
• Is there any reason why you would not subscribe to our software? Why?

In post-purchase phase your goal is to understand::

• Measure scale of satisfaction
• Solicit feedback

Examples of the questions you could ask:

• What is the greatest benefit you gained from our product/service?
• What advice would you give to improve our product/service?
• Do you think some of the features of the product/service do not address your needs? Why?
• What additional features would you like to see in our products?
• Why did you choose us over our competitors?
• Do you feel satisfied when you use our product/service?
• Does our software exceed your expectations? Could you give us a recent example about that?
• How long do you see yourself using our software?
• How likely are you to recommend our product to friends? Were you able to find the information you were looking for on our website?

You might wonder why should you ask questions that are not directly related to pricing. Actually, you should always look at the bigger picture and it is very important that you clearly understand all the reasons why people subscribe to your software.

Let’s have a look at a real-life example and see how understanding your customers and using this knowledge in pricing tiers can increase conversion.

Look at the original pricing table of a company offering a subscription to a database of essays, student papers, and book reviews.

Image source: Pulse

All best practices are there (we’ll review them a bit later in this article). What else could be done?

Knowing that the majority of the visitors are students, one could assume that the original price seems to be too high for them: $29 a month for a database subscription.

This assumption is proved to be right.

As soon as the price was presented in a different way, conversion rate skyrocketed by 193%. It turned out that the price per day was a better way to communicate the value to the target audience.

Image source: Pulse

After you collect qualitative data, you should have answers to these questions:

• Who have I built my product/service for?
• What distinct groups I can see within my target audience?
• What pain points my product/service solves for each customer groups? What value does my product provides for them? Why would they use my product/service?
• Do the customers find my products/services attainable?
• What are the price expectations each customer group voices?

Basically, why should you do extensive and exhaustive qualitative research?

If you are new to the market, your goal is to find out who is ready (and willing) to pay for your SaaS product. And if you are an already operating company, your first focus is to find distinctive groups of customers within your current audience and then have a look around and see who else might be interested in your product/service.

You might ask: “Why should I do it again? I already did something like this when I created buyer personas!”

Actually, this time your research should be focused mostly on the value (expected or unexpected) you provide to your customers. And, if you don’t have buyer personas yes, the information you gathered through research would help you to map them.

Now it is time to overlap your qualitative research results with quantitative data.

You will need some demographics data on your prospects and customers:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Company size (if applicable)
• Company revenues/ turnovers (if applicable)

Then you’ll need some data on how your existing clients use your product/service:

• What are the most and the least popular functions?
• What are the most and the least preferred types of data output?
• How often do you customers use your product/service?
• When do your customers stop using your product/service?
• What is your current/estimated customer lifetime value for each distinctive customer segment?
• What is current/estimated cost of user acquisition?

2. Quantify your website personas with data findings from qualitative and quantitative research

You cannot sell anything without knowing your customer. As a SaaS company, you, most likely have some buyer personas like ‘Startup Pete’, ‘Agency Andy’, and ‘Enterprise Sandy’.

However, to create an optimized pricing strategy, you need to quantify these personas with strong data. In the first step, we collected a lot of data on customer’s behavior. In this step, we do two things:

1. start looking for patterns in our collected data
2. link these general patterns to our visitors’ personas

You should ask yourself several things:

• What value proposition does each buyer persona care about the most?
• Are those buyer personas willing to pay prices that I set?
• Do I know the top used features for each persona?
• Do I know the least used features for each persona?
• What is the LTV (Customer LifeTime Value) for each persona?
• What is the CAC (Cost of Acquisition) for each persona?
• What factors does my CAC depend on?
• How does the purchase process work for each buyer persona?

Answering these questions is critical to the setting of your pricing strategy and your business.

What if you do not have answers to all these questions?

If you do not have the answers to all these questions right away, then start with creating estimates. That is better than ignoring the question altogether. Your next task will be to justify your estimates with the data you have obtained. After quantifying buyer personas, you should dig deeper in the problem areas your business could face.

The chart below, “Buyer Persona Problem Areas,” prepared by PriceIntelligently, gives further details about what kind of problem areas occur in SaaS Business and how to deal with them.

Image source: Price Intelligently

The problems that you, as a SaaS company, could face are probably included in the 4×4 matrix above.

For example, let’s say you are having problems with low acquisition volume. In this case,  if your value proposition is not clear or you are using misaligned channels that confuse potential customers or generates fear in them about what you are offering, then your pricing structure should be relevant to your value propositions as well as to your brand promise to avoid any confusion or unnecessary fear.

As another example, if you are struggling with low conversions, this is likely because you did not set price tiers through considering each buyer persona. In other words, you did not set price sensitive tiers that can meet significant numbers of customers. To overcome this situation, you should go through the price sensitivity studies so that you can plan something that addresses customer needs and wants.

Without quantified buyer personas you will set your revenue on fire

Price Intelegently

Look at this case study by Conversion Experts. Reminding the visitors of the service value, outlining service features once again and adding money back guarantee incentive lead to 57% increase in the number of leads for Earth Class Mail. In this example, you can see how you can improve the number of leads by simply working with the value and features and without changing the pricing itself.

As you can see the original page is straightforward; it goes straight to business having prices in the above the fold area. All explanations are under the prices.

Image source: Conversion Experts

In the challenger, Conversion Experts explained again the value proposition, then reminded about features you get with every plan, and added money back guarantee. It turned out that if you remind your website visitors about the value you bring them, they are more likely to convert.

Image source: Conversion Experts

3. Define your SaaS key value metric

After we have learned what is important for our customers and what makes them tick, we have to decide on metrics that we are going to use to define your prices. Here the concept of value metric comes in place.

Value metric is what and how you charge for your service and how and where your buyer perceives value from your service (price per user, per visit, transactions per second, money per click, e-mail subscription, bandwidth, timeliness/speed etc.). In simple words, value metric is the thing that your customers value the most about your business. Value metric is the foundation of your pricing model.

Image source: Chargebee

To put simply, the image above illustrates two different libraries; one of them charges $10 per book, the other library charges $20 per month. In this case, one of the libraries set their pricing mechanism on the number of books that they lend for unlimited time. The other library sets their pricing on rental period and an unlimited number of books that you can take during this period. In this case, the number of books and the rental period are the value metrics.

Let’s take a look at the pricing page from CrazyEgg to better understand the value metric and other components that affect pricing.

Image source: CrazyEgg

The value metrics CrazyEgg uses are visits per month, number of the active pages and reporting frequency. These are the key value metrics.

At the same time, there are a few other features that act as secondary price differentiators: advanced filtering, mobile heatmaps, priority email support and multiple user accounts.

CrazyEgg’s four different pricing tiers (Basic, Standard, Plus and Pro) are categorized for different business types/sizes. If you are a small startup or a small business, then the basic package offers 10,000 visits per month, 10 active pages, and a daily report. Plus and pro packages, on the other hand, are designed with more features, for larger businesses. These larger packages offer additional enterprise features such as advanced filtering, mobile heat maps, a higher number of visits per month, a higher number of active pages and more frequent reporting.

To sum up:

• After studying your audience, define the value metrics that you will use for your price tier creation. The value metrics you use depend on the nature of your business (the storage space, the number of emails sent, the number of page views and the number of users etc.).
• Think about secondary features that you could use for pricing.

4. Create SaaS pricing tiers

At this point, you are ready to create pricing structure. There are few steps that you have to take here:

1. Define the minimum amount a customer must pay to cover your costs.

While this might sound easy, there is a lot of involved here.

Let’s start with a simple question: what is the cost to run a single customer?

At this point, we are focused on the variable cost that comes with a new customer. Most likely these costs would be based on the value metrics you defined. At its lowest level, it might be your server and support cost.

2. Define the maximum amount a customer is willing to pay for your software

There are some considerations which customers keep in mind when they evaluate how they are willing to pay for a subscription.

Before subscribing:

1. The perceived value of the software before using it: before using the software, the potential customer will have to make an educated estimation of how much value your software brings.
2. The cost of moving to your software: while this does not apply in all circumstances, you should pay close attention to it. How much will it cost the new subscriber to move to your platform? For enterprise software, sometimes, there are conversion and data transfer costs. There are many times where the cost is more than the dollars a customer pays. Sometimes, the customer might lose data if they decide to move to a new platform.
3. The total cost of running your software: the potential customer will most likely incur additional costs of running your software. Although they are not paying those costs to you, they are a consideration when using your software. Take for example paying for an Oracle license. The cost goes beyond the software itself. The company must account for staff training, paying for new positions, maintenance costs, etc. How about a chat software such as Liveperson or Olark – there is the cost of having the person who will respond to customer inquiries.

Post subscription and use:

1. The actual value of the software: After having the software in operations, the customer is most likely able to identify the value your software brings.
2. The cost of maintaining the software: How much money, time and staff does your subscriber should put in to continue using your software?
3. The opportunity cost of switching to another solution: What would it cost for a subscriber to switch to another solution?

3. Assess competitive pricing

In most cases, it is difficult to compare pricing in a SaaS model. This is especially the case when companies use different value metrics.

At the same time, do not disregard your competitors because your potential customers are not going to ignore them.

There are two ways to go about setting prices. Cutting your prices compared to your competition. This seems simple enough. However, you need to make sure that you are providing the same value as your competitors.

We are not big advocates of reducing price subscriptions to capture customers. You should charge customers the highest amount possible at the same time providing them with the highest value.

Another approach is to increase your prices compared to your competitors. In addition to the additionally generated revenue, done correctly, this might help drive a higher perceived value from your software.

Have a look at this case study, Sever Density is a website monitoring software. They decided to test their hypothesis that increased prices will reduce the number of free signups and increase the total revenue.

The original page looked like this:

Image source: VWO

It has a pricing structure that offered discounts depending on the number of servers and websites. This pricing model was oriented to single server owners and didn’t cater well most of their customer base that had seven servers on average.

The company decided to test package pricing with the lowest package starting at $99 for 10 servers. there was a drop in prices, because in the old pricing model the price for 10 servers was $130; however, the new pricing model meant to increase the average order value.

Image source: VWO

Thus, they had 24% fewer conversions for free signups but they managed to attract the high-quality audience and increase the total revenue by 114%:

Image source: VWO

4. Map out your pricing tiers

At this point, you will need to sit down, put all the numbers together and start figuring out how are you going to accommodate them in your pricing tiers. We typically recommend starting with 3 or 4 pricing tiers. You can further optimize from there.

If you go for three pricing tiers, you could use the following scheme:

• one basic that includes around 40-50% of accounts
• one that includes next to 30-40%
• and then one that includes the last 10-20%.

For four pricing tiers, we would recommend this:

• a basic that includes around 40% of accounts
• next up including 30%
• then the next level up including 20%
• and then the last one including the top 10%.

A bit later in this article, we will line up some other best practices of pricing tier creation.

5. Align your value metric with pricing tiers based on buyer personas

At this point, we have collected the following data:

1. Customer data (qualitative and quantitative research)
2. Linked customer data with website personas
3. Defined value metrics
4. Defined pricing tiers

Our final step is to use the outputs of the four previous steps to see how our pricing tiers would work with our SaaS personas.

Let’s take a look at the pricing page from Salesforce:

Image source: FunnelEnvy

Salesforce offers 4 different pricing tiers with different features that fit specific target customer. In this case we have:  Group, Professional, Enterprise and Unlimited pricing tiers are set to meet the needs of the different types of customers.  With each pricing tier there are SF lists with detailed features so potential visitors can choose the plan that suites their needs best.

Now take a look at the Highrise ( a competitor of Salesforce) sales page:

Image source: Highrise

Highrise sets pricing tiers differently while Salesforce offers all of the products on per user basis, Highrise pricing tiers also include multiple user accounts (Up to 6 users, Up to 15 users, Up to 40 users). If you are a company with 40 users, then the cost of running Highrise is 99/month (less than $2.5 per user). Using SF for the same number of users will require a minimum investment of $1,000 and could possibly go up to $10,000/month.

For Highrise the number of users is set as the key value metric. However, companies choosing between the CRM solutions (SF vs. HighRise) might also consider the number of contracts as another value metric.

As you notice, HighRise limits the number of contacts for the different pricing tiers. So, while they provide a great number of seats per pricing level, they limit the different levels with the number of contacts available.

Salesforce approach to the pricing page is different from HgihRise. SF includes a lot of information and details under each pricing tier. HgihRise, on the other hand, is more precise avoiding potential customer confusion that can arise from more choices. Highrise’s pricing page is simple and it takes a few seconds to read all the information.

What conclusions can we make from these pages?

Salesforce is targeting enterprises with a higher number of users and it lists all pricing tier details which are meticulously addressing analytical personas, most likely mid-level management, that have to present arguments for or against certain CRM system to their management. At the same time, HighRise is more oriented on spontaneous personas and small business owners who don’t really want to go into details that much and take decisions based on the value metrics only.

Let’s have a look at another example, LivePerson; a developer of live chat feature that allows companies to talk with their website visitors in real time.

Image source: Process.st

LivePerson pricing page classified four tiers where the value metric is user. The company uses a freemium model where the first tier of the product is free. Each tier comes with different support levels: community support, 24/5 online chat support, and 24/7 online chat support. The support level is a good secondary differentiator.

The way LivePerson differentiate its pricing tiers is simple and logical; the more users on the product, the more it charges. So per user pricing is the primary differentiator. Features like unlimited chats, real-time sentiment analysis, real-time dashboards and mobile & web messaging are secondary differentiators. As you get more users on the LivePerson platform, the price per user increases. (if you buy “2 users” product you need to pay $17.5/user; if you buy “3 users” product you need to pay $21.66/user).

While I was writing this article, LivePerson was testing new pricing tiers:

Image source: LivePerson

They changed their pricing structure dramatically; instead of giving free service to 1 user they differentiated their pricing tiers: for small teams from 1 to 3 people. Still the value metric is the price per person. They set the price of “2 users” product and “3 users” product as almost the same: $47 per person for “2 users” product and $46.33 for “3 users” product.

As mentioned earlier in one of conducted case studies, they are testing package pricing as an attempt to increase the average order value (one user cannot use software for free anymore) and they also limited the free trial period.

Let’s examine Olark, a competitor of LivePerson to see a different pricing strategy:

Image source: Olark

Olark’s pricing tiers clearly define the number of users (referred to as “operators”) as their value metrics. The price per user decreases as the subscriber chooses longer term commitment (monthly vs annual billing).

For SaaS companies, securing an annual subscription provides greater value and more stable revenue. Notice how Olark highlights the value of the annual plan:

1. The plan is in the middle and hovers over the other two plans
2. Contrast CTA
3. Lower price: $15/user
4. 5 stars on top of the plane
5. “Save 12%” copy

Don’t forget that per user pricing may not be the best option in your line of business. You really should understand the value you provide to your users to define key value metrics that you will use for pricing.

5. Design Your Pricing Page

“Should we display our pricing or should we ask customers to contact us?”

We get this question few times every month. Some companies allow customers to sign up to try their service for free, but ask these customers to contact them when it is time for that customer to convert to a paying customer. The rationale is to hide their pricing from their competitors or let sales rep to come up with the correct pricing when the pricing structure is complicated.

Let me start by saying that trying to hide your pricing from your competitors is foolish. It is nearly impossible to do that nowadays. If your competitor wants to find out your pricing, in most cases, they can do it just by putting a bit of effort.

Image source: SlideShare

Back in June 2014 InsideSales.com, a sales acceleration platform which helps companies to optimize their revenue used to ask the potential customers to fill a contact form.

Image source: SlideShare

In December 2014, the company decided to publish its prices online. They used per user pricing as a value metric. In addition to that, their pricing tiers became simpler and contained a compelling explanation of the product. As of March 2015, the company reached $1.5 B Revenue.

Image source: SlideShare

In March 2016, one and a half year later, they cut the price of the lowest tier “Communicate” from $125 to $95 and kept the prices of other two pricing tiers the same.

So, InsideSales.com went through some changes in their pricing policy. First, they decided to make prices open, then they dropped the price of the lowest tier. Most likely, these alterations, especially making prices public, were caused by changing trends in the market.

There is some logic behind setting out prices clearly for a SaaS product:

• You qualify your leads by setting expectations clearly

Setting expectation early is always good for a SaaS Company. Leads can see how much your products cost them, whether the implementation of the products requires experience, what are the options available etc.

• You can test your pricing strategy

When information of prices is available for everyone visiting the website you can test price points, package configurations and use messaging which can increase conversion

• You can improve you SEO

If we consider that most of the buyers want to know the price at first hand then making pricing public will drive incremental inbound traffic because buyers like to compare prices between different companies.

Define the elements of your pricing page

How you design your pricing page is up to you. But you should remember that users should be able to grasp your value proposition and pricing in 5 seconds.

If you don’t know where to start, you can have a look at these stats.

Price Intelligently analyzed top 270 SaaS Companies in terms of their price policy.

The study shows the number of pricing tiers each company uses:

Image source: SlideShare

In total, 55% of the companies use 3 or 4 pricing tiers.

Image source: SlideShare

In each pricing tier, companies involve a different number of features depending on their strategy. This graph shows that 35% of them use 6-10 features per plan while 31% of them use 1-5 features. The remaining 25% of them use 11-21+ features per plan.

As you see most of the SaaS companies have 1-10 features per plan. Many features can be overwhelming for customers, while few features could cause questions and misunderstanding. You should not baffle your potential customers with too much information and at the same time, you should not leave any space for guessing from their side.

Image source: SlideShare

When it comes to subscription models, the majority of the SaaS companies use only monthly pricing; however, very few of them use annual pricing only. We are big fans of providing users with the option of paying for an annual subscription at a discounted rate.

Here is an example of this:

Image source: Accion

The Majority of the SaaS companies do not use custom pricing. However, by having custom plans you make sure that you do not potentially lose enterprise clients. Enterprise clients come with the benefit of larger revenue and lending more credibility to your business.

Image source: SlideShare

As you can notice yourself: 46% of the companies use high profile clients or testimonials.

Image source: SlideShare

One out of four SaaS Companies include videos on their pricing page. Integration of a video could be a nice idea for further explaining the value of your product and convincing customers to purchase your service. It would be a good idea for A/B testing and to see if it will generate more sales.

Image source: SlideShare

Here our compilation of elements a good pricing page should have:

• Three or four pricing tiers: The majority of SaaS companies use 3-4 pricing tiers.
• Monthly pricing plans (70% of the companies) or monthly and annual pricing plans (18% of the companies)
• Up to ten features per package (66% of the companies): no matter how many features you decide to list, you should keep in mind the following:
  • The features you select to show should arise your customers’ curiosity about your product
  • The number or the quality of your features should not overwhelm the customers
• Around 400 words on the page: Although the word count varies depending on your product, it should be boiled down and the data should be compacted.

Optimize your SAAS page design

1. Use charm pricing

What would we do without Old good charm pricing? Nowadays you rarely see prices ending on 0, most of them are “charmed” and end with 9,7 or 5 creating an impression that the price is smaller than it is (who reads after the first digit anyway).

William Poundstone, in his book Priceless claimed that charm pricing increase sales by 24% on average. But which one is better: 9,7 or 5?

Eric  Anderson and Duncan  Simester found out in their research that items tagged $39 sell better than cheaper items tagged $34. They also found out that the only thing that can outperform prices ending with 9, is the price emphasizing the original price like on Xero, accounting software, pricing page:

If you look around, you will see that most of the SaaS businesses are actually using charm pricing:

2. Use “useless” pricing plan

Should your pricing plans be all perfectly logical? Not really, if you want to turn your bargain looking audience into value seekers.

Let’s look at Dan Ariely famous example; his amazing book “Predictably Irrational”. He came up with the following subscription offer from The Economist:

Image source: Conversion XL

Both, the print subscription and Print & web subscriptions cost the same, 125 dollars. Ariely conducted a study with his 100 MIT students. 16 of them chose option A and 84 option C. Nobody chose the middle option that seemed to be useless.

So, if nobody will choose the middle option, why have it? He removed it and gave the subscription offer to another 100 MIT students. This is the distribution of their decisions:

Image source: Conversion XL

Most participants chose the first option in the new experiment. So, the middle option played a significant role: it buffered people’s attention and forced them to make a choice. The “useless” middle option turned buyers from bargain hunters to value seekers.

Of course, the data sample was too small to draw any solid conclusions, but it is an interesting point to think about.

3. Highlight your best-converting plan

Use the prime real estate of the page for showing the best things you have. In our case, it is the highest-converting pricing plan.

Your goal is to direct the visitors’ attention using subtle clues: CTA color, position on the page, size, badges and color of the frame etc.

Look how Spotify draws attention to the premium plan by using contrast color of the frame, solid color for CTA, “recommended” copy and a list of benefits:

4. Tailor plan name and description

When designing a pricing page, your goal is to ease the selection process for your future customers. Using just names of the plans like “Business”, “Enterprise”, “Basic”, “Premium” and so forth, might be not enough because they are just words that don’t have anything behind them.

Instead, try to use more descriptive plan names that reflect their target audience like “Small Business”, “Agency”, etc.

It is also a good idea to describe the target audience of each plan in a brief and carefully crafted phrase like, for example, Kashflow did it:

5. Anchor your prices

The term “anchoring” describes the tendency of people to rely heavily on the first piece of information. In case of pricing, anchoring is selling cheaper items by putting more expensive items next to them. Imagine you see a $2,000 watch with $10,000 watch next to it. On this background, $2,000 watch doesn’t seem to be very expensive.

In the example below Salesforce places the most expensive pricing plan next to three other to highlight the value of other three plans. Moreover, there is always a chance that some customers will be ready to pay $240 per user per month.

6. Address customer’s fears, uncertainties, and doubts

In most of the cases, your customers want to be sure that they buy a product that works perfectly. When studying your pricing page, they may have some fears, uncertainties, and doubts (FUDs) and your task is to reassure them and remedy all the FUDs straight on the pricing page.

One of the ways to do it is to throw in some big names of your former clients: “If company X used it, maybe it would be good for my company too” For instance, this is what you can see on Dropbox Business pricing page as a social proof:

Another type of social proof that you can use on your pricing page is clients’ testimonials like GetResponse, an email service provider does it:

Then, some of your prospects might still have questions for you. Why not address them straight on the pricing page. Look how Hotjar, a heatmap, polling and video recording software did it. They have FAQs section straight under the pricing tiers:

7. Test

You never know what will actually work for your website visitors. That’s why it is good to test your pricing page just to make sure if it offers the best possible experience.

Look at the case study below. A simple change of CTA position on the page made it shine.

RJ Metrics, a data analytics and infrastructure company, had some reservations about its pricing page and the effectiveness of how the value is communicated to it

They used a number of people in client’s database as a value metric. The price didn’t depend on how many employees of the client were using the system, it depended on a number of customers the client had. They selected this model to avoid any reservations from client’s side concerning adding more users to the system.

Image source: Crazy Egg

While the page was doing a good job of communicating the pricing strategy, it wasn’t doing much to show the tailored pricing because at that time the company’s goal was to serve any client, even the smallest one.

After looking for some inspiration, they discovered the Mailchimp’s pricing page for high volume clients:

Image source: Crazy Egg

Mailchimp requests from the user to input the estimated number of monthly subscribers and then it gives out some options. Visitors were less likely to get overwhelmed with all pricing options that are not relevant to them.

So, to make their pricing look less rigid, RJMetrics changed its pricing page:

Image source: Crazy Egg

62.5% of the visitors engaged on input field whereas only 1.2% were interacting with the Sign Up button pm the old pricing page.

The Input field in the new design captured the attention of visitors while the Sign Up did not.

RJMetics decided to refine the test and revised the variation so eventually They:

1. Moved the Sign Up button above the fold.
2. Added a headline: “Priced to Scale with You”

The new headline on the page was a clever way of saying: “everything is under your control”

Image source: Crazy Egg

This challenger beat the original by 310%

Over to you

Optimizing SaaS pricing strategy is a hard nut to crack, but it is a must for SaaS success. For SaaS businesses, the main rule for pricing optimization is to understand your customers and transfer them into pricing tiers which allow them to use the features they need at a price they are ready to pay. However, optimizing the essence, one shouldn’t forget about appearances: the way you present your prices is as equally important as the prices you charge.

Editor note: This article was a collaboration of several team members. Special thanks goes to Fatih Boran, Maria Volkova, and Hajar Tarhnchi.

The post AN EXPERT GUIDE TO OPTIMIZE YOUR SAAS STRATEGY first appeared on Invesp.

If you want to build a multimillion-dollar online business, then you must understand how visitors view your website and how they interact with it.

Prior to making changes on your website and before starting any A/B or multivariate test, you need to conduct qualitative and quantitative researches. The data you collect from both types of research help you assess your site for potential problems, areas of weakness, as well as areas of strength.

Over the years, I heard companies claim that they conduct qualitative analysis to understand online visitor behavior. However, when you start digging deep into what these companies are really doing, you discover that they are merely paying lip service to qualitative research.

Why is that?

The fields of qualitative and quantitative research have been used extensively in social and psychological research for over a hundred years. While the literature is rich with books that explain how to use the research for conducting social studies and how to analyze the results, little has been produced in terms of using the research to increase website conversions.

When using qualitative and quantitative researches with the goal of increasing website conversion rates, you need a conversion-oriented approach to plan, conduct, and analyze your research. This approach assures you find valuable insights about your website visitors.

In this post, we will share with you the 3 steps we developed at Invesp, throughout the years, to get the best results from planning, conducting, and analyzing conversion-oriented qualitative research.

What is Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research is the process of observing, analyzing and explaining visitors’ interaction with a website.

With a focus on general user trends, qualitative research attempts to explain how visitors view a website, its offering, and its competitors.

To conduct qualitative research, you interact with website visitors, either virtually or physically, by asking them predesigned questions with the goal of uncovering potential problems on your website.

Among the different methods of conducting qualitative research, you can find focus groups and user testing. Focus groups involves small groups of participants, could be as small as four individuals, who interact with your website while you observe them and ask questions that relate to your offer. User testing involves users completing specific tasks on your website, while you observe them.

Qualitative research goes through three general steps:

• Planning the research: you determine the research goal, what questions to ask, what methods to use, how many people will participate.
• Conducting the research: you carry out your research and gather data.
• Analyzing the results: you analyze the collected data looking for patterns and actionable insights.

“Conducting the research,” step 2, is the easiest. However, the success of your research depends greatly on step 1, where you invest the time making sure that you are asking the right questions to the right people, and step 3, where you analyze the results.

Most companies think that qualitative research is limited to step 2. So, they do not invest the time in thinking through their questions, and they definitely do not invest the time in looking for meaningful insights from their research.

One of the earlier qualitative research projects we conducted was attempting to understand high checkout abandonment rate for a website which sold nursing uniforms. Abandonment rates for un-optimized checkout are usually anywhere from 45% to 80%. This particular client reported checkout abandonment rates close to 82%. Nothing in the checkout explained this above-average abandonment rate.

The team then conducted a usability test. Nurses were invited to place an order with the site while the optimization team observed and conducted exit interviews to gather information from participants.

Most participants completed the checkout process successfully and placed an order with the website without any problem. The test revealed nothing glaring in the website that would explain the high abandonment rates.

Exit interviews, however, revealed the real reason behind high abandonment rates. Participants acknowledged that the biggest problem causing them to abandon the site was their fear of paying too much for an item. Through our research, we discovered that nurses are price-conscious, so if they can buy the same item from other competing websites or bricks-and-mortar stores at a cheaper price, they will do so. So, price played a big role in deciding where to buy a uniform.

Our client was aware of nurses’ price sensitivity. The client offered a money back guarantee and a 100% price match guarantee. The problem was that most of the site visitors landed on category and product pages first, and the company’s price assurances were only displayed on the home page. Therefore, most visitors knew nothing about these assurances.

With both insights, about the visitors’ behavior on price and the problem of price assurances only displayed on the home page, the team added an “assurance center” on the left-hand navigation of the cart page reminding visitors of the 100% price match and the money back guarantee. The new version of the page resulted in a 30% reduction in shopping cart abandonment.

What is Quantitative Research?

Quantitative research is the process of analyzing analytics software data and numbers that relate to visitors’ behavior around the website.

With a focus on numerical specifics, in conducting quantitative research, you set up goals and funnels around the website to understand the different visitor navigation paths.

So, if you are in an e-commerce website, you setup several funnels in your preferred analytics program. These funnels should include (but are not limited to):

• Homepage to top level category pages;
• Top level category pages to mid-level category pages;
• Bottom level category pages to product pages;
• Product pages to cart page;
• Checkout process.

Let’s take the checkout process funnel. The goal of this funnel is to track how visitors navigate through the different steps of your checkout process. This funnel will also provide you with the checkout abandonment rate which shows the percentage of visitors who start the checkout process but never finish it.

If you are a lead generation website, you will also setup several funnels to track visitor navigation around your website. These funnels should include:

• Homepage to offer pages;
• Offer pages to contact form page;
• Offer page to supporting pages (for example from your services pages to your blog post pages).

The Difference Between Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Quantitative and qualitative research complement each other because they provide different results:

• While quantitative research uses general data on all the visitors of a website, qualitative research focuses on a very small set of website visitors.
• Quantitative research does not concentrate on the complexity of the human interaction with the website. Qualitative research, on the other hand, produces small, narrow-focused, but rich data.
• By its nature, quantitative research produces general patterns for visitor interaction with the website. Qualitative research tries to deduce patterns of visitors’ interaction with the website; however, it strives to explain the variance in collected data.
• Quantitative research is focused on the what. It analyzes data to determine visitors’ behavior on the website. Qualitative research focuses on the why. It tries to explain why people behave in a specific way.

There is a tendency to assume that qualitative research supports the findings of quantitative research. That is not the case. Each research stands on its own to explain the visitors’ behavior and the reasons for their behavior.

Both qualitative and quantitative research should produce valid findings that drive actionable marketing activities. We do not believe in conducting research for the sake of research. You want meaningful and actionable insights that you can implement on your website and in your marketing campaigns.

Should you start with quantitative or qualitative research?

Quantitative research tends to point out possible potential problems, and aids in the designing of our qualitative research questions and scenarios. Your quantitative data might tell you that you have a problem in product pages and that not enough people are clicking on the add to cart button, while your qualitative research will help you dig deeper and go beyond product pages trying to understand where the problem is initiated.

What Do You Need to Conduct Qualitative Research?

Conducting qualitative research requires a skillset that is quite different than the one required for quantitative research.

We noticed over the years that many analytics and online marketing professionals are good with numbers, but they lack the skills and the critical eye required to understand how visitors view a website and interact with it.

Quantitative research is your attempt at understanding “what” questions. Qualitative research is your attempt at understanding “why” questions.

To be successful in conducting qualitative research and analysis, you will have to train yourself on the following skills:

• Real interest in understanding why visitors behave in a certain way on a website;
• Ability to ask questions and critically analyze human behavior, so you never take things for granted;
• Analytical eye and ear, as well as ability to think quickly on your feet, listen to what people are saying, and as a result, question further.

As you go through the process of conducting your research, you will find yourself always asking questions and seeking answers to them.

You can find three types of questions in qualitative research:

1. Your research question(s): what you are trying to find out;
2. The question you ask participants to generate data (NB: only in qualitative research that collects data from participants);
3. The questions you ask of your data, in order to answer your research question(s).

Step 1: Planning Your Qualitative Research

Most companies jump into conducting qualitative research without any proper preparation. Thus, they create surveys, and interview customers or launch exit surveys, but they ask all the wrong questions.

And when you ask the wrong questions, you will collect the wrong data from participants. You cannot use the wrong data to draw reasonable and actionable insights.

As you plan your research around your website, Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, in the book Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide for Beginners, suggest asking the following questions:

• What do I want to know?
• Why do I want to know it?
• What assumptions am I making about research, and knowledge (what are my theoretical and methodological positions)?
• What type of data would best answer these questions?
• What type of data will I use to tell me what I want to know? (The answer to this and to the previous question is not always the same)
• How much data will I need?
• How will I collect my data?
• If my research involves participants: Who will I need to collect data from?
• How will I access and recruit those participants?
• How will I analyze my data in order to answer my questions?
• What particular ethical issues do I need to consider?
• Are there any pragmatic or practical factors that I need to take into account?

a.    Identify the Goal of the Research

Before you start thinking about the questions you want to ask participants, you should clearly identify the goal of the research.

Your research goal is vital and will impact all aspects of your research. You can identify your goal with one single question that the research tries to answer. When you determine the research question, you are able to classify the questions which you will ask in your research.

So, what are you trying to accomplish by conducting the research? Are you casting a wide net such as “why is my website not converting?” Or are you taking a very narrow approach, as “how effective is the search functionality of my website?”

It is our experience that focused research topics will drive more focused analysis and better results.

A good approach is to sit down with your team and think of four to eig
ht possible wide research topics or questions that you want to answer. You then take each of these topics and break them into smaller topics. That will drive more focus to your work.

For an e-commerce website, you can think of the following sample research goals:

1. How do you potential buyers go about locating and ordering an item that you carry?
2. What barriers do potential buyers see to placing an order with your website?
3. What factors influence potential buyers when buying an item which you carry?
4. What is the visitor experience using the search function of the website?
5. What is the visitor experience locating a product on our website using website search?
6. What is the visitor experience locating a product on our website using website navigation?
7. What is the impact of using price incentives on reducing visitors’ anxieties around the website?
8. What is the impact of using urgency incentives on reducing visitors’ anxieties around the website?
9. What is the impact of using scarcity incentives on reducing visitors’ anxieties around the website?
10. What information do the visitors need to see on the product page to be persuaded to buy?
11. What information do the visitors ignore on a product page and consider non-relevant?
12. What are the factors impacting visitors completing the checkout process?
13. What factors can enhance visitor engagement on product pages?

Again, all of these could make good goals for your research.

For a lead generation website, you can think of the following research questions:

1. How do potential buyers go about locating and choosing a vendor in your space?
2. What factors influence potential leads when locating a service that you offer?
3. What barriers do potential buyers see contacting your website?
4. What is the visitor experience locating a particular service you offer on your website?
5. What is the visitor experience as they land on your homepage vs. competitors’ homepages?
6. What is the impact of trust factors on reducing visitors’ anxieties around your website?
7. What is the impact of using research on enhancing visitor trust reducing anxieties?
8. What is the visitor experience in learning more about your company history?

These research goals are not comprehensive by no means.

However, these should give you a way to start thinking of potential goals for different research you should carry on your website. Notice how each research goal can drive actionable insights that can be implemented to enhance the visitor experience.

 b.    Select the Research Method

On top of guiding the actual questions you will ask participants, your research goal is fundamental in defining the method of research you will conduct.

You can use many different research methods, but there are four main ones we use in conducting qualitative research for online marketing:

• One-on-one (or in-depth) interviews: As the name suggests, you will conduct one-on-one interviews with existing or potential customers asking a pre-set list of questions and getting an in-depth knowledge about their personal experience. You, for instance, can ask people that call in to the call center of whether or not they would like to partake in that sort of activity.
• Focus groups: these are moderated group discussions where the moderator directs and leads the discussion.
• Usability studies: you ask participants to complete a list of tasks on your website (or a competitor website).
• Surveys: you ask participants to answer a set of questions to reveal their feelings around the research topic.

We will get into more details about each of these types and how to use them correctly.

So, which research method is right for your situation? This will depend on your research goal. One-on-one interviews are great in understanding how the participant feels about a particular product or service. They provide a deep insight into the participant views.

Focus groups allow for an open discussion among participants which provide a wide range of views on your market or website. Focus groups are an excellent tool to understand general issues which potential customer might have buying your offer.

Usability studies are best suited to observe the participants using a particular website functionality. They are not a good method if you are trying to understand general market trends and issues.

Finally, surveys allow participants to provide insights into both general market issues as well as specific website functions. However, due to the fact that participants answer questions either on a paper or virtually, getting an in-depth knowledge using surveys is difficult.

c.    Design Your Research Questions

The number of questions you should ask varies based on the setting and method. So, website exit surveys should not have more than 6 questions. Web usability studies can have multiple tasks and questions (up to 15). Focus groups and one-on-one interviews allow for more questions.

Anyway, each question you ask should relate to your research goal.

Let’s assume that you run an e-commerce website that sells cell phone accessories and that your research goal is to understand the visitor experience locating a product on our website using website search.

This type of goal lends itself to a usability study where you ask participants to locate an item on your website using the search function.

When conducting the usability study, you can either:

• ask participants to locate an IPhone 7 hard cover case using the website search function;
• ask participants to locate a specific model (model name) using the website search function;
• ask participants to locate cell phone hard cover case for their own phone using the website search function.

Each of these represent a valid research task and they will most likely produce different insights.

As the participant uses the search function, to complete your usability study, you will ask him:

• How easy was it to locate the search bar?
• How do you like the layout of the search results?
• Is there any information that is missing from our search results page?
• Can we enhance our search results page?
• Is there unnecessary information on the search results page?
• Do the search results displayed make sense?

You should carefully observe the participant as he completes the given task:

• Is the participant able to complete the task successfully?
• How fast is the participant able to complete the task? Was he able to complete on the first run or did it take him multiple tries?
• Did the user click on items which you did not expect him to click on?
• Did he use change the default sorting functionality?
• Did he have to click to 2^nd or more pages of the search results?
• Did any of the steps in locating and placing an order for the item seem confusing?

d.   Recruit Participants

Depending on the research method you choose to conduct, you have different options of finding and recruiting participants, but you should always pay close attention to finding the participants who fit your research criteria.

If your target market is black females aged 30 to 45 and you end up recruiting white males aged 20 to 30, your research will fail miserably.

Finding the right participants should not be too complicated. You need to do the following:

1. Start by identifying your ideal research participant;
2. Determine where ideal candidates usually hang out (physically or virtually);
3. Choose the proper way to reach out to them and ask them to join;
4. State very clearly to each participant the goal of the research;
5. We recommend having each participant sign a waiver form that allows you to completely own the result of their data.

Different research methods provide a different way to recruit participants:

 Usability studies: You can use one of the multiple websites that offer usability study services. Another option is to target website visitors and ask them to join your usability study. Finally, if you know a location (physical or virtual) where potential participants hang out, you might post an ad there asking for people to join.

Surveys: You can target your own email list asking those who joined it to answer the survey. Some surveys are better answered by people who converted on your website within the last 30 days. Other surveys are best answered by those who never converted.

One-on-one interviews & Focus groups: You can recruit participant for one-on-one interviews by either targeting your own website visitors or by identifying where ideal candidates hang out and reaching out to them there. A recent client of ours conducted 30 one-on-one physical interviews by targeting their website visitors and inviting them to join the research.

As you recruit participants for one-on-one interviews as well as focus groups, beware of data saturation. This happens when adding more participants does not provide any additional insights rather just emphasizes the same results.

Should I Offer Research Participants a Compensation?

There is a lot of debate around compensation for research participants. The fear is that some participants might not provide accurate insights if they receive compensation. While this might apply to social research, we have not seen this impacting our research findings in the last 10 years. Some of the forms of compensation you can think about:

• Offering participants a gift certificate they can use on your website (anywhere from $10 to $20);
• Offering participants a chance to win a gift certificate from a large retailer ($100 Amazon gift certificate). In this case, you draw a single winner from the pool of participants.

Sample Size and Diversity for Qualitative Research

In the book Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods, Michael Quinn Patton indicates that “there are no rules for sample size in qualitative inquiry”. However, Virginia Braun and
Victoria Clarke suggest in Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide for Beginners:

“Qualitative research tends to use smaller samples than quantitative research. Sometimes only a single participant or text is analyzed in depth”

For one-on-one interviews, we typically recommend a sample size of 30 participants. For focus groups, 4 to 6 groups could satisfy what you are looking for.

Keep in mind, that using 4 different focus groups (with 6 people in each) provide 4 data points. It does not provide 24 data points!

Another important criterion when selecting your participants is that you select a diverse group.

As cited by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, Margarete Sandelowski explains:

When qualitative researchers decide to seek out people because of their age or sex or race, it is because they consider them to be good sources of information that will advance them toward an analytic goal and not because they wish to generalize to other persons of similar age, sex, or race. That is, a demographic variable, such as sex, becomes an analytic variable; persons of one or the other sex are selected for a study because, by virtue of their sex, they can provide certain kinds of information.

Step 2: Conducting Your Research

Now that you have identified your research goals, the appropriate method, with the questions you want to ask, and have recruited participants, you are ready to carry out the actual research.

One-on-One Interviews

Conducting one-on-one interviews requires you to prepare a list of questions that you want to ask the participant. However, you should not follow the questions to the letter. This method of research allows you more freedom based on the responses of the interviewee. As you listen to the interviewee, you try to understand his feeling and rationale when he is interacting with your website or buying an item that you carry (either from you or a competitor).

You can conduct interviews either physically or virtually. However, to get the most out of these interviews, we recommend conducting them physically. If your circumstances force you to conduct interviews virtually, then we suggest you turn the camera on, so you can see the participants facial expressions.

Just like with any other type of qualitative research, you must invest time in preparing for the interview. Create a list of topics and questions that you plan on asking during the interview. Since you want to hear personal feeling from the interviewee, it is good to establish trust and rapport initially, so they can feel comfortable answering your questions.

We like to start our interviews by asking the participant to tell us a bit about him or herself. We can then move to asking the questions which are planned for the interview.

Make sure that you listen carefully to what the interviewee is telling you and pick up on any queues he or she gives you. Remember that the questions, which you prepared, are not set in stone.

At the end of the interview, we recommend asking a question such as: “Anything else you want to add?” or “anything you think we should think about which we have not discussed?”

Sample script for an e-commerce website that sells cell phone accessories can look like this:

You meet the interviewee and introduce yourself. You first explain what you are trying to accomplish with the interview. For example, you might say, “I am trying to understand how people shop for cell phone accessories and what factors they consider when buying one.”

• To start with, can you tell me more about yourself?
• Can you tell me how often do you buy a new cell phone?
• How do you decide on which cell phone do you buy?
• Typically, cell phone carriers offer accessories at the shop when you get a new phone, do you usually take them up on their offer? Why (if yes or no)?
• What places do you think about when you need to buy a phone accessory?
• Do you think that getting original cell phone accessory will impact its quality?
• Can you tell me about the last time you bought a cell phone accessory?
• Did you encounter any problems selecting your cell phone accessory?
• Do you buy any cell phone accessory for your family members?
• What advice do you give to anyone needing to buy a cell phone accessory?
• Is there anything else you would like to add?

These are sample questions. You can adapt the questions to meet your specific situation and website.

Final recommendations for one-on-one interviews:

• We recommend taking notes during the interviews as well as recording them (both video and audio).
• Since the interviewee is donating his or her time, try to accommodate a time and a place that works well for him.
• Avoid loud places where it is difficult to focus.

Focus Groups

Using group discussion is another way to learn more from your potential website visitors. Focus groups are excellent in getting a wide range of opinions and behaviors on a certain topic.

You may have seen or heard of this type of research conducted during political campaigns. Using it for marketing can produce significant results. In a survey on 261 companies, 47% of them cited that they had used focus groups; 81% of consumer goods companies in the respondents indicated that they used focus groups, followed by 61% of firms in the marketing research field;  79% of consumer goods companies indicated the use of one-on-one interviews while 91% of marketing research firms indicated that they used one-on-one interviews.

Similar to one-on-one interviews, you prepare a list of topics and questions that you will present to the focus group. Focus groups use a guided discussion with you playing the role of a moderator, asking questions and directing the conversation.

While you can conduct one-on-one interviews physical or virtually, focus groups must be conducted physically to get the best results out of them.

Focus groups should not include more than 6 to 8 participants. Anything more than that could easily allow the discussion to get out of hand, and the moderator to lose control.

One consideration when conducting a focus group is the mix of people who will participate. Let’s say you are trying to target three different market segments. Should you include people from each segment in one focus group or should you conduct one focus group per market segment?

There is no correct answer here and it will depend on your particular situation. Do you think that having three different groups will provide you with different information? If the answer is yes, then it is obvious that you should conduct three different ones. However, if the different focus groups will turn up the same information, then there is no need to conduct three of them.

Some of our clients discuss the statistical significance of focus groups. We do not think of them that way. We think they provide qualitative insights away from statistics. You can later validate your findings using quantitative research or split testing.

Do not to confuse focus groups with one-on-one interviews. Conducting three focus groups with 6 participants in each is not the same as conducting 18 one-on-one interviews. By their nature, focus groups do not provide in-depth personal knowledge about participants.

Usability Studies

When you observe users completing different tasks on your website, you can better understand how visitors interact with different website elements.

As the name suggests, usability studies provide great insights into users interacting with your website. They are not meant for understanding general market trends.

Several services available online allow you to quickly recruit participants and conduct user testing on your website. However, conducting a physical study produces better results.

We recommend starting your usability study by selecting the correct type of user you want to participate in the study.

You can choose to run a usability study on a wide topic, such as placing an order from your website, or on a narrower topic, such as using the website search function to locate an item.

Our recommendation is to conduct several narrow usability studies on your website to gauge how visitors are interacting with the site at different points throughout the process.

In addition, we recommend running the same usability study on your top three to five competitor’ websites.

If you run paid search campaigns, ask the users to simulate taking the action that will trigger both your ads as well as competitor ads to display and then to click on them and follow the conversion path of your website.

With the prominence of mobile devices, we highly recommend running the same test for both desktop and mobile websites.

Finally, make sure to ask participants questions about their general perception of your website after completing the usability study.

Case Study:

After beginning a project and having initial CRO discussions with a client in the homeware business, we conducted some qualitative research in order to show them some of the concerning trends we were seeing from the quantitative side.

We conducted a usability testing through a user testing website. We wanted users to take advantage of the savings on the website, and purchase an item from the clearance section: 100% of the visitors did not see the huge banner that took up about a quarter of the top of the homepage to go directly to the clearance section. All of them struggled to complete the task. This was alarming because the company had spent so much time and effort on creating the marketing materials and banners on the website.

Surveys

When you run a survey, you ask participants to answer a list of questions that relate to your research goal.

Surveys are excellent in providing large dataset which you can analyze to understand user perspective on your market, website, products or services.

When selecting participants for your survey, consider the following segments:

• Everyone who joined your email list: these are people who are interested in what you have to offer. The email list provides a mix of participants between those who might have converted and those who did not convert.
• Everyone who converted within a certain time period: converted users provide great insights into what works and what does not work on your website. For an e-commerce website, those who converted within the last couple of weeks provide the best data set (if there are enough of them).
• Everyone who never converted: non-converted users can help you understand what stopped them from converting and what additional elements you need to add or modify on your website.

For an e-commerce website, you should consider the following possible groups for your survey:

• Customers who placed a single order with your website
• Customers who placed 2 – 4 orders with your website
• Customers who placed more than 5 orders with your website
• Customers who placed orders with low average order value
• Customers who placed orders with high average order value
• Customers who specifically buy a certain category of products that you carry

How Many Questions Should I Use in My Survey?

When creating a survey, gather as much relevant data as possible. Lengthy surveys, while they seem attractive since you are “getting” more data, have a less chance of getting completed.

So, what is a good response rate for your surveys?

MarketingSherpa, posted the following response rates:

• For prospects, a respectable click-to-completion rate is between 1% and 5%
• For customers, the click-to-completion rate should be anywhere from 20% to 55%
• For a consumer marketer, open rates are typically above 15% and click-to-completions greater than 25%

Best Practices for Getting the Most of Your Online Surveys

1. Group your questions

As you prepare the list of questions you want to ask participants, group them in different themes. Each theme will present a list of questions that dig deep into the topic from a different perspective.

One theme might ask participants about the general market information. Another might ask participants about their shopping behavior. A third, might ask about their interaction with your website or service.

2. Keep It short

Don’t go overboard with the number of questions you ask participants to answer. Our recommendation is to not exceed 30 questions. We typically like to group these into 4-5 themes. As you design your survey, make sure to layout the survey on multiple pages. Each page covers one of the survey themes.

Also, make sure that the survey software you are using is collecting data as participants complete each step. So, even if a user fills out two pages of the survey, then that data is still stored and collected.

3. Only ask important questions

Many marketers go overboard with asking too many questions when creating surveys. As you add each question to your survey, make sure that it relates to the goal of the research you are conducting.

Evaluate each question in your survey with the, “so, what?”, question.

“So, what” if I know the participants does not think of pricing when buying this item?

“So, what” if I know that participants only shops for this item offline?

“So, what” if I know that participants do not know what makes an offer a good deal?

Notice how each of the questions above will give you actionable insights you can implement on your website.

4. Pay Close Attention to Email invites

With online surveys, you will use email to invite participants to answer your questions. Pay close attention to every little detail in your email invite.

1. Use a strong email headline

Your email headline is the first chance to convince visitors to open the email. Strong headlines focus on the benefits or results which the user will get from participating in the survey.

2. Personalize your email by using the participant’s first name.

Personalization of the survey increases the chances of getting more responses. This will of course depend on how much data you have on your participants. You can use the participant’s name in the subject of the email as well as the body of the survey.

3. Let the visitor know how long it will take to complete the survey.

Letting visitor know that it will take less than 3 or 5 minutes to complete the survey will also increase your chances of getting more clicks to the survey.

4. Use a strong and nicely designed call to action button.

Needless to say that your email should have a nicely designed CTA inviting email readers to click to the survey. We recommend having at least two CTAs in your email:

• One is a text call to action;
• The other, an image (button) call to action.

The reason you use a text call to action is that many online email services will block your images from downloading. So, if you use only an image CTA, readers of your email might not see the CTA.

Let’s take couple of examples of surveys:

Tempo timesheets sent me this survey after we decided to switch to another service.

The survey does few things right:

• It uses my first name.
• It uses a nicely designed CTA.
• It lets me know that it will take less than 3 minutes to complete.

Notice this survey from a sales training course:

While the email subject is good, notice the few problems in it:

• The images are not displaying in this email (due to me using Outlook).
• The body of the email uses paragraphs that are not well formatted.
• The CTA does not appear above the fold.

5. Incentivize participants

What will participants get from answering your survey? Using incentives with email surveys will increase its response rate. There are several ways to encourage participation in the survey:

• You can offer a small gift certificate or a discount code to everyone who completes the survey.
• You can offer a one lucky participant a large gift certificate.
• You can offer participants first access to the results of the survey.

6. Test Everything about Your Survey

Everything in your survey should be tested.

To start with, you should test your email invite. At a minimum, you should test:

• Different email subjects;
• The body of the email;
• The calls to action in the email;
• The delivery time of the email.

When it comes to the actual survey, at a minimum you should test:

• Survey designs;
• The number of questions you ask on the survey;
• The wording on different questions.

Step 3: Analyzing Research Results

Now that you have collected the data from your research, the next task is to start the analysis phase. The analysis phase has two main components to it:

• Transcribing data;
• Data-mining results.

Transcribing Your Data

If you conducted one-on-one interviews or focus groups, it is important that you transcribe all the data you collected.

Having transcripts of different interviews, you analyze them and look for different themes in them. While transcribing sounds looks like a straight forward task, there is a bit more involved.

Why?

Because not only do you have to capture the words which participants use but also attempt to capture their state of mind.

A participant might pause or might not be too certain when saying something. That will definitely impact how you understand that data. Capturing these emotions is the biggest challenge.

We recommend transcribing in two different stages:

1. Transcribing the audio recording: hiring a professional transcription service or a freelancer will do the job. We have been using the same freelance transcriber for years. Her job is to capture the data from our audio recording as close as possible. There are several companies that offer this service or you can use a website such as Upwork to find a reliable transcriber. At the end of this task, you should have an initial transcript.
2. Video is even better: If you can video record focus groups and one-on-one interviews, it will give you the 360 view you are looking for.
3. Transcribing the emotions and verbal queues: in this phase, you take the transcript produced in step 1 and listen to the recording again. Your goal is to add the emotions to the conversation. If you don’t have video, this will all be from memory. Look for instances such as:

• Laughing or coughing;
• Certainty;
• Uncertainty;
• Identify pauses;
• Non-verbal utterances;
• Emphasis of certain words.

You should use some sort of a coding system to identify any of the above emotions or verbal queues.

Data-Mining: Looking for Insights

Well-designed and professionally conducted research provides you with a wealth of data on your market trends, market segments, visitors’ impressions of your business, and users interaction with your website.

When you are analyzing the results of qualitative research, you are data-mining the results with two goals:

1. Identify data patterns;
2. Determining actionable insights.

Getting Intimate with Collected Data

The process of data mining starts by familiarizing yourself and your team with the collected data. This typically means listening to interviews and reading scripts with the team multiple times.

We typically ask our team members to do two read-outs of each transcript. The goal is to start internalizing the different opinions of participants.

After completing the two initial readings, you will do two more readings but this time you start underlining and putting your thoughts around what participants are saying.

There is no right or wrong answer here.

What one team member may underline or notice, no else on the team may pay heed too. The goal is to start putting initial thoughts. Each team member is capturing their personal views of the participants.

Coding the Transcripts

The next stage is to start coding different parts of the interviews. This is typically a group exercise where we read the transcripts aloud and start coding different sections of what the participants are saying.

Since we use the Conversion Framework for data analysis and determining conversion problems, we code what participants are saying to different elements of the conversion framework.

Let’s take the following example from a focus group where participants were discussing buying toner ink for their printers:

You can code either the whole transcript or you can code a portion of the transcript.

Defining Themes & Looking for Patterns

After finishing the coding process of the transcripts, the next stage is to look for different themes that appear in our data.

While there are different approaches to data analysis, we recommend using a thematic analysis for online marketing.

In this thematic analysis, we are looking for themes that appear in different datasets. Virginia Braun an Victoria Clarke, in “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology,” tells us that a theme:

“captures something important about the data in relation to the research question, and represents some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set”.

So, a theme combines different codes looking for consistent patterns in them.

One question we get with clients as we work on creating different themes from data is how many themes we should create. There is no correct answer to this question.

We have worked on projects in which we are able to identify 4 to 5 themes. We also worked on projects where we identified up to 8 different themes.

The only rule we have is let the data guide you.

Some themes tend to intersect with each other very closely. Think of general theme around trust factors on a website. At the same time, another theme might be anxiety producing factors on a website. It is natural that the lack of trust factor will increase visitor anxiety. So, how would you classify lack of trust factor? You can classify it under the trust theme and at the same time you can classify it as an anxiety theme.

Deep Analysis and Marketing Insights

This will be the final stage in your research. At this point, you have a lot of data that you have collected. You have results from your research methods, coded transcripts, themes and patterns.

The final step is to put all this data together and start looking for actionable marketing insights.

Some companies and consultants like to conduct research for the sake of research. That might be fine, if you have the luxury to do so. Most of the time that is not the case.

Our research should produce specific items that will impact on how we design a website or structure a campaign.

To deduce actionable marketing insights from the research, approach your findings with a deep analytical eye.

Again, let the data guide your findings.

While you might have preconceived notions on the research subject, the goal from the research is not to prove that you are correct. The goal from the research is to discover deep insights from your participants about the research subject.

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