Obstacles to conversion

Conversion optimization is not about persuading your visitors to buy.  My father likes to say, "You can't make a content cow move."  If your visitors aren't ready to buy, you shouldn't try to force them to.

Assuming you have highly qualified visitors on your site, who are ready to buy, what are the main obstacles to conversion?

First, just because your visitors are ready to buy, doesn't mean they are going to buy from you.  In today's global economy, the choice of vendor is almost limitless.  The main obstacle you have to overcome is: convince your visitors you are the best option.

To solve this problem, most companies focus on themselves.  They offer a better product, with a faster delivery, at a lower price.  In an effort to stand out, they have chosen the same list of attributes as their competitors.  Margaret Mead said, "Always remember you are unique.  Just like everyone else."  This is exactly how your potential customers see you.

Conversion optimization focuses on the fact that these visitors are already on your website.  Why not help them make the decision to purchase from you?  

In most cases, people don't use direct logic to make a decision.  We use shortcuts so that we don't have to weigh all the "real" variables.

Short of becoming an expert in your line of work, it would be extremely hard for one of your visitors to compare the benefits of your solution with that of your competitors.  For example, try to explain the difference between a top of the line AA battery from Duracell and one from Energizer.  (I'm assuming that very few of you are battery experts. :)

Coming back to the fact that these visitors are already on your website, what are the shortcuts your visitors use to make the decision to purchase?

Trust and confidence.

Trust comes in many forms, but if your visitors don't trust you, they will look for another vendor.  They need to trust that you will give them what they need, when they need it.  They need to trust that you won't change the price at the last minute, or penalize them via an obscure part of your contract.  They need to trust that you won't mistreat their email, phone number, and credit card data.  In an exchange of value, trust is everything.

Confidence is what maintains the momentum of the sale.  Although confidence is related to trust, they are two different things.  One of the biggest mistakes e-commerce sites make is in assuming their visitors are confident in their purchase.  Being confident that you have chosen the right vendor, or even that you selected AA batteries and not AAA batteries.  Confidence is what lets customers finalize their purchase.

If your visitors trust you and you can make them confident in their purchase, your conversions will increase.  A high level of trust and confidence can even overcome a few inconveniences or possible red flags during the conversion process.

How do you build trust and confidence on your site?

CRO ≠ Persuading your visitors to buy

I read an article today about persuading your visitors to buy.

Not all of your website visitors want or need to buy anything [today].  Just like when you go fishing, not every catch is a keeper, not all of your visitors are qualified buyers ready to buy.

It is a common misconception that conversion optimization is about persuading (forcing) people to buy, especially if they weren't looking or ready to make a purchase.

It is true many of the psychological techniques used for CRO can be used toward a nefarious end.  BUT those conversions are not "optimal".  When customers find out they have been tricked into buying, they are not happy people. 

White hat CRO focuses on clear communication, letting your potential customers know they are in the right place and redirecting visitors who aren't quite ready.  

During the purchasing process, CRO doesn't force or trick people into finalizing their purchase.  Conversion optimization merely removes all of the obstacles in making the decision to complete the process.

Next time, we'll look at what some of those obstacles are.

The win-win negotiation

The win-win negotiation is killing your business.  The ultimate goal of a successful negotiation is one where both sides end up getting what they need and want, but that's how a negotiation ends, not how it starts.

So much has been said and published about negotiating for a win-win outcome over the years that it has affected the way many people start a negotiation.  It has resulted in a desire to start with a position that you think the other side will like.  You have already made [mental] concessions in hopes the negotiation will be smooth and easy.

Unfortunately it doesn't work this way.  It all too often results in a lopsided or lose-lose agreement.  

It's no surprise that this same mentality of, "we can both win!" has spilled over into marketing.  Most websites and marketing efforts aim to please.  On the surface, even conversion rate optimization is all about reducing the friction of a sale.

Winning is what propels us to do better and supplies us with the appropriate resources.  If you truly want to win, you need to shake things up and push back.  It is a little counter intuitive, but the harder you push at the negotiating table, the better the deal will be for both sides.

Your website needs to push back on your visitors as well.  There is a psychological phenomenon where the harder you work for something, the more you like and appreciate it.  

A successful conversion optimization project will increase friction at the beginning of the sales cycle and decrease friction at the end, during the purchasing process.  Just like in a negotiation, this creates a positive friction at the beginning to make sure both sides are getting what the want.  In conversion terms, this increases the quality of your conversions.  

Once both sides are happy with the deal, you don't want to get bogged down in paper work.  For conversion optimization, this means reducing the friction to buy, which results in more sales.

Your website is having a conversation with your visitors.  Your visitors are looking for something and your website is trying to convince them to choose you.  You may not be aware, but this is a negotiation. 

Is your website losing the negotiation?

Using Conversion Optimization to increase prices

Conversion optimization is generally about reducing the anxiety a website visitor might have about making a purchase or contacting you.  The entire process is geared toward reducing friction.  Just like water, most people follow the easy path, the path of least resistance.

There's only one problem with this.  Anyone who has ever done in-person sales, will tell you, if a buyer immediately pulls out a checkbook and closes the deal, you've left money on the table.  

Google recently experienced this issue when they sold their $35 Chromecast dongle with a $24 Netflix coupon.  Google sold so many dongles the first day, they had to cancel this deal.  They could have continued, but they would be hurting both their and Netflix's business.

You want the decision to purchase to be easy, but you don't want to hurt your business by selling.  There is such a thing as good resistance:  Purchasing friction that increase the quality of your sales.  

If your prices are too low, conversion optimization can be used to test and succeed with higher price points.  You don't do this by just picking 3 random prices and seeing which one sells the most.  No.  You need to choose your price based on your business.  Come up with the right price that will help your business succeed and scale.  

Many companies are scared to increase prices because they know it will invariably mean less business.  When raising prices, you can use conversion optimization to maintain or increase your flow of business.  You can test different ways to reduce the added anxiety from higher prices.

Coupons, liberal return policies, testimonials, case studies, and social proof are just a few examples of ways to reduce anxiety and increase confidence.  Conversion optimization will help you discover the best way to give your visitors more confidence in their purchase.

If your pricing is too low, too much business can actually sink you.  Using conversion optimization to increase both sales and price will let your business continue to grow long into the future.

Weeding out bad conversions

Everyone gets bad conversions.  Customers who are hard to deal with, complain about your product, or demand a refund.  These customers end up costing you more money than they're worth.

Wouldn't it be great if you could weed out those visitors before they ever became customers?

Not only can you, but you should.  These customers could be drowning your business.

The key to being able to weed out bad conversions is the same as increasing your good conversions.  The same way you create a profiles of your ideal customers, you need to create a profile of the person you are trying to weed out.

Ultimately, the goal isn't to try to piss this person off and give them a hard stop (like putting a cookie on their computer that redirects them to Google every time they try to come to your website.)  You want to politely let them know they are in the wrong place and would be better served somewhere else.  

Progressive does an amazing job of this.  

Insurance companies make more money when they never have to pay out a policy.  So naturally, the best drivers are more profitable.  Progressive doesn't want to be competitive for bad drivers.  In fact, they would rather you choose one of their competitors.

By very clearly stating when they don't have the best price, they are politely saying, "You're in the wrong place.  Please leave."

This little comparison tool actually serves 2 purposes.  It weeds out bad conversions AND it's a marketing tool.  They can advertise that they care more about getting you the best deal than they do winning your business while only attracting their ideal customers.

Conversion optimization isn't just for increasing the number of conversions you get, it's also about increasing the quality of those conversions.

How can you weed out bad conversions?

Best way to double your business

It is a common goal for sales teams to want to double their sales.  They constantly look for ways to talk to twice as many people, or close twice as many calls.

For business owners and team leads, this is a worthy endeavor.  If successful, the company would double in size.  But, sadly for most companies, sales teams are rarely successful at doubling their sales.

Marketers always try to reach and attract twice as many people.  But advertising to twice as many people generally means spending twice as much.

The single best way I've seen to double the size of a business is conversion optimization.  

If you need more leads, you can tune your traffic sources to send better qualified visitors, and test changes to your site that get more of those visitors to become customers.

If your leads don't end up buying, you can test changing your site so that they know your sales process up front, before they contact you.  

If your leads are hard to sell, you can test segmenting your visitors to soften or weed out leads with a specific profile.

Most companies who have never worked on conversion optimization have a conversion rate of less than 2%.  Doubling that number so 3 or 4% of your visitors purchase or become leads is relatively easy.  

Even if you already have a great conversion rate of 10%.  That means only 1 in 10 visitors ever purchases from you.  Convincing 1 more person that they have found the right place is all about how you present your product.

Conversion optimization gives you a framework to generate new ways of presenting your product and test them to see what works best.

Could conversion optimization double your business?

Content Marketing Planning

One of the biggest mistakes you can make with your content is to not have a plan.  If you produce content of any sort: blogs, white papers, ebooks, or even just the pages of your website, you need a plan.

Your plan doesn't have to be a super complicated Excel spreadsheet or PowerPoint flow chart.  It just has to answer a few simple questions.

1. What is the purpose of your content?
2. What method(s) will you use to achieve your goals?
3. How will you measure success?

Purpose:

The purpose of your content is the most important.  Are you trying to get more business? or are you just writing for fun?  Where do you see yourself in 5 years and what role did your content play along the way?  

Most companies say something like, "The purpose is to establish ourselves as the experts."  That's great, but why do you need to be an expert?  Is it to get more business? get a book deal? or something else?  9 times out of 10, it's to get more business. 

Method:

There is more than one way to skin a cat... that's sort of a gruesome way to think about your options.  But what if we think about catching a [stray] cat (instead of skinning one). 

• You can set out food and water and feed it until you have gained enough trust that it will let you pick it up.
• You can set out a humane trap that will trap it in a nice carrier for you.

The first one is how most content marketing campaigns are designed.  You essentially create a content channel that appeals to your target audience.  This gives you a personal stream of "potential" clients that you can advertise to.  Assuming you provide useful information and advertise appropriately, you will gain enough trust to pick up some new clients.  It is important to realize that this is not a quick process.

The second method is focused around increasing conversions.  Rather than blogging about everything related to your industry, you focus in on the key parts where you are the best.  This leads readers to not only see you as a trustworthy source of information, but also as the best solution.  This method draws a line in the sand to separate those who might be interested in buying and those who just came for the free cookies.  

I understand the urge to blog about everything, and everyone is different, but I tend to advise companies to create public content that focuses on conversions.  If you still feel the need to publish your vast industry knowledge, you can do so as a newsletter or private blog that is only available to your clients and inner circle. 

Success:

That last thing you need to know up front is, how will you know if you are succeeding or just wasting time?  Depending on your purpose and the method you use, your measure of success will be different.  Ultimately, most content is aimed at increasing sales.  If you can't attribute a growth in your bottom line to your content strategy, chances are you missed something important.

Does your content marketing produce results?