A pretty website with lots of fun animations doesn't actually do much for your business if you haven't thought about your conversion rate optimization strategies.

“But, Chris!” you might say, “it's all about the brand. And, don't 75% of website visitors make a decision on whether or not they're going to purchase from you based on looks alone?!?!”

I've heard that before, too. Although I haven't figured out where that stat comes from. AND, maybe it's a little telling that everyone I've heard it from is a web designer.

I'm not saying looks aren't important. Heck, I myself am a web designer. I love good web design.

But, I've learned from experience that it's not the only thing you need to consider if you're going to have a website that actually helps your business grow.

My Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies Horror Story

My journey to focusing on conversion rate optimization strategies for websites started with my own personal web design failure.

Some people have success stories. I have failure stories…go figure.

One of my first big projects as a web designer was for a company called Bug Jammer. They make products that attract mosquitoes.

You might be thinking, “who the heck would buy that!?!”

Well, they found that when you attract mosquitoes to one specific thing they leave other things alone. So, a lot of farms and zoos would purchase these bug jammers put them in locations away from their animals in hopes that those pesky little insects would leave their horses alone.

Their website was bad. Like really bad. And, they asked me to come in and help.

The site wasn't even responsive. So, it was firmly stuck in the early 2,000's before people started looking at websites on their phones.

So, I came in and did what I thought was a fantastic job. We made the site responsive. We focused on imagery. We dialed back the emphasis on that horrid green.

I was super happy with the result. The client was super happy with the result.

The pages adjusted on different devices. It was wayyyyy more aesthetically pleasing than the old version. There was just one problem.

After we launched sales plummeted.

They lost 1,000's of dollars in revenue every day while that awesome looking website was up.

So, what happened. We took the new website down and we replaced it with the old.

Lessons in Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

This was the catalyst for me. The thing that caused me to start to rethink how I was building websites. It was no longer just about “making it look better.” There was a much more wholistic approach.

I learned that better design, updated technology, expensive solutions is not a guarantee for better conversion.

There's another really great case study on website conversion rate optimization strategies from the athletic clothing company Finish Line.

Not so much anymore, but back a few decades ago they were a big deal. They were in all the malls AND their online store was doing great as well.

The problem was like my BugJammer friends their site was starting to get outdated. It wasn't responsive and in need of a pretty hefty facelift.

So, they got to work. And, they ended up spending $85 million to do a complete revamp. The result looked something like this:

But, something happened when they launched the new site. You probably guessed it. Sales dropped significantly. In fact, the loss was about a $3 million decrease over the most important online and in-store shopping of the year, Black Friday.

There's lots of lessons to be gleaned from here but I think the most important is if you haven't seriously developed some conversion rate optimization strategies it doesn't matter how much money you pump into a website.

What are Conversion Optimization Strategies?

Let's get some definitions out of the way. What are conversion rate optimization strategies?

Your conversion rate is the amount of times someone takes an action you're hoping they take on your website divided by the unique visits to that web page.

So, if you're really hoping someone will buy your brand new, custom Mandalorian mug that says, “this is the way” with a neat little picture of Baby Yoda, then you'd take the amount of times someone purchases a mug and divide that by the amount of unique visits to that product page.

So, let's say you have 100 unique visits to that product page and out of the 100 visits 3 people purchase a mug.

That would give you a 30% conversion rate which is actually not bad at all.

Conversion rates don't necessarily have to be tied to a sale. They could be the number of times someone signs up for a newsletter or fills out a contact form.

We just want to see someone do something that we hope they do and generally that something needs to involve an action that isn't the run of the mill website browsing.

So, page views or bounce rate doesn't really count.

Strategies to Increase Sales

From there you've got a couple of options to increase your revenue based on your website alone. You kid:

1. Increase the amount of unique visits to that product page by way of organic or paid traffic
2. Improve that pages conversion rate

That improvement to the conversion rate is what we call conversion rate optimization. And, often times that's the best way to improve sales.

Sometimes even half of a percentage of improvement on a website can result in huge financial gains for a company.

The good news is there are TONS of things you can do to improve your overall conversion rate. So, you've got plenty of options when it comes to conversion rate optimization strategies. Let's talk about a few those options.

Specifically, let's talk about 9 of those options.

1. Tweak Don't Redesign

Before you decide to go and redo everything on your website, first think about what small improvements you could make to improve things.

I'm the Designer Community Growth Manager here at Showit. That means I hang around design folks a lot.

And, hey if you want to hang out with us we'd love to have you join. All you need is a Showit subscription. Once you've got one of those reach out to our support team and they'll send you an invite link to our community.

We have bi-weekly office hours and monthly AMA with other design experts. Plus, some free courses that you can only get in the community.

More often than not when a designer starts to think about making improvements to their website they think about a complete overhaul.

We're going to change the colors, the fonts, the layout, new brand photography…the whole deal.

BUT, it's actually a better idea to take what's already there and figure out what small changes you can make that might turn into big improvements with your conversion.

And, listen, I know that doesn't sound nearly as fun as doing a full-on redesign. But, you'll never really know what conversion rate optimization strategies are working if you don't first start to tweak and test the design that's already there.

A/B Testing

How do you test out the conversion rate of small changes on your website? You do that through A/B testing tools, my friend.

A/B testing is having two different versions of a website that gets served up to different visitors. So, 50% of visitors will get version A and 50% will get version B.

Then you see what happens. Do visitors that get version A end up making a purchase more often than visitors that get version B?

What's the bounce rate for visitors on version B in comparison to visitors on version A.

All of that data can be HUGELY helpful in developing a successful conversion rate optimization strategy.

Now, when I say versions I mean 1 change to 1 thing on the site. So, having a different header in 1 section or changing the placement of a form from the left side of the hero canvas to the right side.

If you test more than 1 thing it's called a multivariate test and it's really tough to pinpoint what actually made a difference.

When you keep it to just changing one thing you can start to get a really good picture as to what's moving the needle or not. And, that can help you make better decisions in other areas of your website.

A/B Testing Caveats

A few things to keep in mind as you AB test.

FIRST: Running a test longer than 2 weeks gives you what's called dirty data. Dirty data isn't super reliable and can taint the true winner of the test.

Why 2 weeks? Well, think about it. You will likely have repeat visitors to your website. So, the longer you keep the test up there the more those same people will see the different versions of the site.

The test results become more about individual psychology than the likely better choice.

So, try to keep your test less than 2 weeks. If that's not possible then try to see if you can calculate results solely based on new users.

SECOND: You need either a lot of traffic or a huge difference in results to be super confident in the test. There's this thing called “statistical significance” in the AB testing world. And, thankfully, there are a lot of A/B testing statistical significance calculators out there.

Statistical significance lets you know whether the results of the test are trustworthy or could just be a fluke.

So, let's say you're running a test and the result is version A is 10% more likely to give you the results that you're hoping for.

You need to have 3,000 page visits per week If you want to be 95% sure that A is actually the better choice. But, that's just for an AB test that gives you a 10% bump.

The lower the percentage the longer it takes!

So, what do you do if there's no way you're gonna get more traffic to your site within 2 weeks and the changes in result aren't big enough for you to be super confident in the results?

You just take your best guess and go with that. Some of this stuff will become more intuitive the more you do it.

So, don't let a lack of statistical significance stop you from taking action.

A/B Testing Tools

My favorite tool is a site called VWO. They've got a free starter plan that will work for a lot of scenarios.

In VWO you pick a web page that you want to test and then in their editor you make the change that your hoping will improve your conversion rate. From there you tell it the outcome your looking for and it tells you the winner out of the two different versions of the web page.

So cool! You don't have to do any of the math yourself. It just tells you which version one and by how much.

Guidelines for Tweaking Websites

There are a few guidelines I have when it comes to tweaking websites. Let's talk about those.

FIRST: you always want to be testing something. There should never be a time when you're not trying to tweak some aspect of your website.

Again, these don't have to be big sweeping changes. It can be a simple change to the language of a button. Just test and see what happens.

Often times I find that when someone gets a website of the ground they feel like they're job is done. And, I get it. Building a website can be a pretty big task.

But, you shouldn't treat it like a finish line. Instead look at it as the start of a long race.

Tweak, test and tweak again.

SECOND: You need to get comfortable with analytics tools like Google Analytics. Google Analytics can be intimidating, for sure.

But, learning just a little bit about how to navigate and look up things can go a long way. It's okay if you don't know everything there is to know about Google Analytics. Figure out what's important to you and then lean into that. Even if it's just page views.

THIRD: Don't just test things willy-nilly. Have a game plan for how you're testing AND make a guess about the outcome of those test.

You need to use what I call the conversion rate optimization strategy scientific method.

1. Make a hypothesis about a change on your website like “If the wording of the header was slightly different the amount of sign-ups to our newsletter would increase by 5%.”
2. Then test that hypothesis through tools like VWO
3. Analyze the results to figure out if you can really trust them or even hypothesize about why there was or wasn't a change
4. Take an action based on the results
5. Test again

You keep doing that and eventually you'll have built a conversion rate optimization strategy that really takes your website to the next level.

2. Prioritize Your Messaging

Hear me out. I'm a designer. I love making beautiful things. I love making beautiful websites.

But, through my journey as a web designer I've learned one key thing that's important to develop any good conversion rate optimization strategy:

Good copy trumps bad design.

The reverse of that is also true:

Good design won't make up for bad copy.

You have to start with your messaging if you're going to have a solid conversion rate optimization strategy on your website. Starting with design is really putting the cart before the horse.

So, before you open your site on Showit, open a google doc.

HEY! If you want my messaging templates and even Chat GPT prompts to help you dial in your messaging as a conversion rate optimization strategies, I've got some freebie for you!

Sign-up and you'll get the images in this post as well as a Google doc template AND EVEN a free landing page that follows the principles I'm talking about here.

Messaging and Conversion Optimization Strategies

So, what does good messaging look like for a conversion optimization strategy?

You've probably heard it said that people are more likely to buy from folks they KNOW, LIKE and TRUST. And, that's true. But I think it goes a bit deeper.

I think people are more likely to buy from folks they know, like, trust AND make them feel something.

People hardly ever make decisions for rational reasons. This is a concept Dan Arielly talks about a lot in his book “Predictably Irrational.”

We don't consistently pick the best option when making decisions. We overpay for things. We underestimate the amount of time a project will take.

That makes us irrational beings. But, we do it consistently enough that certain patterns begin to emerge. That makes us “predictably irrational.”

Coffee and Conversion Rate Optimization

“That's not true for me!” You might say. But, think about the price of coffee now verses 30 years ago.

If you would have asked people in the 90's whether or not they would buy a $5 cup of coffee they would have laughed in your face.

But, these days, that's on the cheaper end of a Starbucks order! Why the change? Some of it for sure is inflation. But more so, our coffee shops started making us feel something.

Before the age of the boutique coffee shop, the coffee buying experience was pretty bad and nobody really cared about the quality of their morning joe.

Folgers was probably your go to brand if you made coffee at home. And, you honestly didn't even know where the beans came from. It didn't matter if your coffee was grown in the high-altitude region of Venezuela, shaded with potato sack curtains from the harsh equatorial sun.

If you were running late to work and had to buy a cup, you either had to go to a restaurant typically a Waffle House like diner OR you took your chances with the coffee pot left out at the gas station. Fingers crossed on that one.

Then all of the sudden these coffee shops started sprouting up that leaned into the atmosphere and ambience of the space. They talked about the craft of making a good cup of coffee and the people making your coffee acted like they liked you.

It's common place for us now but this was revolutionary back in the day. No one expected much from coffee up until this point.

But, all the sudden the coffee you drank said something about you as a person. There was an excitement when you walked in.

So, coffee went from being mere pennies to up to $10 a cup all because coffee shops and coffee distributors started making the coffee experience emotional.

Why Does Someone Buy a Hammer?

In your quest to build a good conversion rate optimization strategy around good messaging you need to figure out the underlying motivations of your users.

This goes back to the age old, “Why does someone buy a hammer?” question.

Not many people buy a hammer because they just love hammers. And, even if they did this illustration would still work.

People typically buy hammers because they need to put a hole in the wall. But, don't stop there. You could go deeper.

They buy a hammer to put a whole in the wall so they can hang pictures. But, don't stop there.

They buy a hammer to put a whole in the wall so they can hang pictures so they have visual reminders of the people they love. Because ultimately they want to feel like their life meant something to someone else.

Whew…we just got really really deep and it all started with a hammer.

Now, for sure you can get carried away with this. I don't think it would be a good idea for hammer manufacturers to say, “Buy our hammers to prove to yourself your life isn't worthless.”

But, it does mean that you have to appeal to peoples emotions. You have to make them feel something?

I love what marketer C.C. Chapman says, you have to “start with the soul and end with the sale.”

How to Target Motivations in Your Website Copy

There are a lot of theories on motivations. This has been a big topic in the behavioral sciences for quite some time.

So, there's a lot of different motivation models to choose from. And, honestly, I don't think it really matters which you pick. As long as you're being intentional and at least trying to appeal to people's hearts.

I've looked at a lot of the models and there's one that I've found is really simple BUT also really robust. That model is called the “McClelland's Human Motivation Theory.”

Yes the founder of this motivation theory does look like a the drunk/malnourished version of Colonel Sanders, BUT his ideas are pretty solid.

Using the Human Motivation Theory for Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

McClelland distills all human motivations into three buckets:

1. Achievement
2. Power
3. Affiliation

And, if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. I'm hard pressed to think of anything I'm trying to accomplish that aren't connected to one of these motivations.

• You want to build a thriving business? Achievement
• You want to get more time back in your day? Power
• You want to be a source of good in the world? Affiliation

It's all connected to one of those three. AND, each of your user will likely have a mix of motivations. So, addressing ALL THREE OF THOSE motivations in your messaging is a corner stone in all good conversion rate optimization strategies.

Motivations & Their Evil Twins

But, here's what I've found. Each of those motivations have a good side and a dark side. In psychology, they call it reward seeking vs. punishment avoiding.

So, let's say you're motivated to get healthy. You're gonna drop some LBs, sleep better and regularly exercise.

Reward seeking motivations would be things like feeling better or fitting into the clothes you wore in high school.

Punishment avoiding motivations would be things like feeling crappy all the time and being uncomfortable in your own clothes.

All good messaging conversion rate optimization strategies make room for both reward seeking AND punishment avoiding. But, I've found it's really important how often AND where you place each kind.

For instance, you don't just want non-stop punishment avoidant motivations. That starts to feel really heavy AND can signal to the user that someone's trying to manipulate them.

But, at the same time, you don't want to leave them out altogether.

This is where I like to use Donald Miller's Story Brand model.

The Story Brand Model in Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

Donald Miller's Story Brand model encourages it's users to outline there website like someone would right a story.

Every story has an intro, a conflict and a solution. So, your website should have a really clear intro, a really clear problem the user is facing and a really clear solution that they can act on.

How does this help us with conversion rate optimization strategies? If you can use this model to keep people interested, it keeps them on your website for a longer amount of time.

AND, the longer they're on your website, the more likely they are to be convinced to sign-up or buy.

We can use this model to help us know how to lay out each section of our site and whether or not we're using a reward seeking type motivation or a punishment avoiding motivation.

So, I'd typically start out with a reward seeking then go to a punishment avoiding then back to reward seeking so on and so forth all the way down the page.

Analyzing Each Motivation in Relation to Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

Let's take some time and look at each motivation bucket and see how that relates to good messaging optimization strategies.

The Achievement Motivation

The achievement motivation is for the go-getters. It's for the people that love the challenge simply because they enjoy looking back on an accomplishment and saying, “I did that!”

I can relate to this one. I love doing really challenging things. There's something about the struggle of trying to figure things out that makes it all worth it.

And, if you want to capitalize on good messaging conversion rate optimization strategies, you're gonna want to highlight this motivation on your website.

Some reward seeking achievement motivations would be things like:

• Reaching your full potential
• Accomplishing your dreams
• Having a sense of pride about who you are and what you do
• Capitalizing on opportunities

Some punishment avoiding achievement motivations would be things like:

• The fear of failure
• Having nothing to show for your efforts
• Feeling a sense of shame
• Missing out on opportunities

Now, when you read that list of punishment avoiding motivations you're probably thinking I'm being super manipulative. And, listen, I'm not telling you to really lean into stuff that make people feel insecure just to get a sale.

But, all good messaging conversion rate optimization strategies address the things that people are ALREADY feeling. In a lot of ways, doing so will put words to things that people are already thinking they just don't know how to express.

So, no, don't go ham on punishment avoiding motivations. But, don't leave them out altogether, either.

The Power Motivation

The next motivation that's included in all good conversion rate optimization strategies for messaging is the power motivation.

I feel like the power motivation gets a bad wrap. A lot of people roll their eyes when I mention it. But, the power motivation doesn't have to mean your desire to control or manipulate other people.

Instead think about how people want to have power over their own destiny. Or the power to not be limited in their choices.

Every person that has thought, “I wish I could be my own boss,” understands this motivation as I'm sure you can, too. Even if you haven't thought that.

Some things that you could mention in regards to the power motivation are:

• Being able to control your own schedule
• Being in the drivers seat
• Being able to stick to your commitments
• Taking life by the horns

Some punishment avoiding motivations in the power bucket are:

• Having something or someone else tell you what you have to do
• Not being able to stick to a diet
• Feeling like life is boring
• Getting passed up or passed by

The power motivation addresses all of those things and is an essential part of good conversion rate optimization strategies for your website's messaging.

The Affiliation Motivation

The final thing to focus to round out all good conversion rate optimization strategies for your messaging is the affiliation motivation.

The affiliation motivation is deeply solidified in the human psyche. Over time, people realized you were more likely to survive if you stayed in a pack. But, I think our desire to have close and meaningful relationships is for much more than survival.

We find more meaning when we know were connected to other people. So, you've got to include the affiliation motivation if you want to develop solid conversion rate optimization strategies for yourself of your clients.

What can you speak to in regards to the affiliation motivation?

On the reward seeking side you've got:

• Feeling connected to the people around you
• Feeling loved and loving others
• Making an impact
• Leaving a legacy
• Making memories

On the punishment avoiding side of things you've got:

• Feeling lonely
• Feeling left out
• Feeling unloved
• Feeling disconnected
• Harboring regrets

How to Use Human Motivations in Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

Okay, so you've got all the knowledge of what your users motivations are. Now what do you do with that?

First, make sure that you're addressing ALL THREE motivations. The idea behind McLelland's theory is that individuals will typically be more motivated by one of the three buckets.

BUT, you never know who's visiting your website. And, truthfully, I think people are more complex than that. We're likely motivated by all three. It just depends on the day and time.

So, let's take an example. Say you're motivated to make more money. Which most people are, right?

You can find all three motivation buckets in that single motivation. You want to make more money SO THAT:

1. You feel like you've built a life you're proud of (Achievement)
2. You can buy the things you want when you want (Power)
3. You can leave an inheritance for your kids kids (Affiliation)

User Headers as a Way to Drive Motivations

Once you've spent some time figuring out the different motivations behind someone's reason to sign-up, buy or do whatever it is you're hoping they'll do, it's time to sprinkle some headers into your website to drive those motivations home.

There's this idea when it comes to conversion rate optimization strategies in regards to messaging. It's called the “micro-yes.”

A “micro-yes” is when a user reads something and inside can say, “me too!” In other words, they personally identify with a statement that you've made.

The goal is to get as many “micro-yeses” as you can. That way they'll be much more likely to give you a big macro-yes when it comes to purchasing your product or signing up with you.

Having headers that speak to those internal motivations a user might have gives you a better chance to get those “micro-yeses” through out your website.

Do that enough and in the right way and you'll be on your way to solid conversion rate optimization strategies.

Value Propositions and Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

Okay, you don't just want to pull on people's heart strings in your copy. There are no well rounded conversion rate optimization strategies with messaging that only mention internal motivations.

You also have to talk about who you are, what you do and what you offer. That in a real dumb downed way is what's known as your value proposition. And, if you want to increase your chances on someone buying from you then you've got to make sure you do a good job of explaining those things.

At it's core, a value proposition answers 3 questions:

• Who are you and what do you offer?
• Why should someone buy this over ANYTHING else?
• Why should someone buy this over something just like it?

Let's talk about each of those questions for a bit and how to let them influence conversion rate optimization strategies.

FIRST QUESTION: Who Are You and What Do You Offer?

I've seen a lot of websites do a great job of having great visual aesthetics. They've got cool animations. Heart wrenching messaging.

But, when I'm done looking at the site I still think, “What the heck do they do?”

When I was first hired at Showit, I started trying to figure out how to truly convey the value of Showit to people.

Over and over again I heard from marketers that would encourage me to focus on “benefits over features.”

So, what are the real world benefits of using your product verses all the little gadgets that come along with the product.

So, for us it was all about creative freedom, ease of use and feeling like you had a friend to help you along the way.

So, I tried really diving into those things on our messaging. I talked more about just how much you'd love your website after you built it on Showit rather than the gallery components in the builder or the fact that you could create parallax sections on your website.

Benefits OVER features.

But, here's the thing. Some people do that and don't talk about features AT ALL.

All good conversion rate optimization strategies have to have a really clear way to communicate, “this is who we are and this is what we do.”

And, typically it needs to be as simple as that. It shouldn't take up an entire page BUT it should definitely take up SOME of a page.

Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies I Learned from a Tony Robbins Webinar

I once attended a webinar with Tonny Robbins and Dean Graziosi. It was inspiring they talked about all the ways my life was going to change. Then came time for the big offer.

All I had to do was sign up to get those big changes myself. The problem was I had no clue what I was signing up for.

Was it a class? A community? A course?

What would I be getting from it? Lessons? On what, exactly?

They'd done a great job of really firing me up without tell me what I was signing up for.

They literally came on the next day and said, “Sorry, we didn't do a good job of telling you what you are getting.”

So, yeah for sure, fire people up. But, also, just let them know what you're giving them.

SECOND QUESTION: Why You Vs. Anything Else?

Okay. You answered who you are and what you do. Now to stay in line with value proposition based conversion rate optimization strategies you've also got to answer the question, “Why you vs. anything else?”

We're not talking about “why you vs. your competitors?” We're asking, “Why you vs. signing up for another online streaming service?” Or that extra pastry from Starbucks. Or any of the million other things someone could purchase besides saying yes to you.

This is what's known as opportunity cost.

Opportunity Cost and Conversion Rate Optimization

Opportunity cost answer the question, “what other opportunities do I have to say no to in order to say yes to this one?”

This is where you really dig in to show people how much better it would make their life. You don't have to go down some big list of other options and individually prove yourself, your product or service.

But, you do need to make a compelling enough appeal that it's not tough for them to connect the dots.

This is where you can get into the details on who you serve best. AKA it's all about your target audience.

For instance, if you sell products for teachers, you need to speak to their specific problems. Even getting so granular as to what grades they teach and how your products are made for them.

Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies and Ideal Customer Avatar

The main people and businesses I see struggle in this area of conversion optimization strategies are folks that have a hard time picking a specific audience they're trying to appeal to.

A lot of marketers call this your “Ideal Customer Avatar.” Your Ideal Customer Avatar is creating a persona and describing the likes, dislikes, their fears, their hopes, their dreams, the shows they watch, the products they're loyal too.

It gets really, REALLY granular.

This isn't just a messaging issue. This can determine what types of things you're offering altogether. So, if you skip this step at the beginning, you'll have a lot of work to do on the backend.

But, no matter what, if you don't settle it, conversion rate optimization strategies won't help you a ton. So, think of this as a first order of business.

THIRD QUESTION: Why You vs. Your Competitors?

Okay, now we know what you do, who you are and why someone should pick you rather than opting for the flight upgrade on their next trip.

The next step in value proposition based conversion optimization strategies is answering the question, “Why should someone by from your rather than your competitor?”

This is where most businesses start with their marketing messaging. So, it's probably something that isn't to difficult for you to answer.

Where I see most conversion rate optimization strategies fail in this area is they don't lean in enough to what makes them unique.

You're looking for what some people call your “onlineness,” your “secret sauce.”

In some ways, this is highly dependent on the product you're trying to sell. But, I think more so it has to do with the people behind the product or service.

As AI becomes more, more prevalent in our culture THE ONLY WAY you can help people justify saying yes to you vs. some AI generated alternative is with your story.

Your Story in Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

It's like my friend Jen from Tonic Site Shop says, “A.I. can't steal your story.”

More than ever, people aren't just wanting to buy the best products. They're wanting to buy the best products from the best people.

If you're trying to grow sales you need to be focused on growing your audience at the same time. And, the best way to grow your audience is by leaning into what makes you YOU.

So, don't hold back. Don't try to hide your weirdness. Talk about the journey of creating the product you're trying to sell or launching the business you launched.

That more than anything will help you stand out over and above your competition AND it's a great component of all good conversion rate optimization strategies.

Other Value Proposition Based Conversion Optimization Strategies

Okay, those are the key things behind a strong value proposition. BUT, there are some other really important conversion based optimization strategies that would fall in the realm of value props.

Those things mainly have to do with your credibility AND what I call “the mirror.” Which sounds spooky but is really a pretty simple concept. Let's talk about both of those elements.

Credibility in Conversion Optimization Strategies

One of the things people are asking themselves when they consider buying from you is, “Can I trust this person or business?”

The way you help people answer that question with an unreserved, “yes,” is by giving them social proof.

What is social proof?

It's little cues and signals that let people know other folks stand behind the product or service. That could come in the form of testimonies, product reviews or even an “as seen on” section from well known people that have worked with you or bought your product.

If you're just getting started any kind of social proof will do. But, as time goes on you're looking for a few things that will really make the social proof have a big impact.

Namely, that's if the social proof is:

• Specific (Address a fear or concern)
• Results-Driven (“I bought this and it made me X more dollars every month”)
• Less-Polished (Production value is great unless it's a testimony. Then it feels fake)
• Video (Video testimonies carry so much more weight than other forms)

Specific

You want testimonies or reviews that speak a specific issue. So, if a lot of pre-customers are worried about it not working the way they need the product to work, a good testimony would say something like,

“I was worried it wasn't going to work the way I needed it to BUT it did and then some!”

If you've ever been on a client call and handled objections THESE are the types of things you want to try and find testimonies for.

It will help calm people's concerns if other people had the same concerns but had good outcomes.

Results Focused

A review always carries more authority any time you can get it with a specific result attached to it.

So, if you've got a course that's supposed to help make people more money get a review that says, “I signed up for this course and in a month made $2,000 more from my business.”

People are more likely to trust really specific pieces of information. The more vague the review or testimony the tougher it is for someone to believe you.

Think about that review verses, “This course definitely helped me make more money.”

How much? How long did it take?

Get specific for better results.

Less-Polished

People are WAY more skeptical today than they were even 5 years ago. It's so easy to pay for reviews or even make completely fraudulent ones altogether.

So, if you want to stand out and be believable keep your testimonies from being polished. Keep the grammar errors in there. Don't change out a word and put little brackets around it.

Let it be what it is.

Better yet, allow people to leave reviews that you are unable to touch.

Video

Finally, video is a much better medium for testimonies than plain text. It's easier to connect with the testimonial giver AND it's more believable.

Just make sure there are captions because as we've learned from that anywhere from 53% – 78% of users leave sound off on all videos.

So, add captions and let it autoplay on loop if you want a better chance of someone actually consuming the testimony.

“The Mirror” in Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

My Friend Davey Jones who runs BDOW! once said that the main question people have when they visit a website is “Can you do something like that for someone like me?”

That's a big question people have every time they're deciding to buy or sign up. How do we help them feel good about the answer to that question?

It starts with a solid Ideal Customer Avatar like I mentioned previously BUT it also means that people need to see themselves in the imagery on the website.

So, do you have a good reputation of all kinds of people all your site? Will someone load it up in a browser look at the other people who are being highlighted and say, “Oh this isn't for me.”

There are some things that are sold that really only have a specific type of person in mind. But, even then there's a lot of diversity in the most targeted of audience.

So, make sure you're not leaving folks out accidentally.

3. Adding Incentives

Alright, we've got our messaging down NOW we need add some incentives to our conversion rate optimization strategies.

Incentives help users answer the question, “Why should I buy or sign-up now verses a month from now?”

The main thing we're trying to get from them here is a firm YES or a firm NO. A maybe does us no good.

You're going to have people that your product is a good fit for. You're gonna have people that your product ISN'T a good fit for.

If people leave your website without knowing who they are in that matrix then you've not done your job. AND one way that you can motivate people to cross the line is by giving them incentives.

What are incentives? They're things like:

• Deals
• Bonuses
• Countdowns

Deals in Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

We're all probably painfully aware of how people use deals in conversion optimization strategies. Heck Black Friday is becoming more of a national holiday in the US than some actual national holidays are.

The reason we're all familiar with these types of conversion rate optimization strategies is because they're so effective.

So, figure out a way to offer a deal to your clients or purchasers. Give them a discount if they bundle. Offer a percentage off at certain times of the year. Your conversion rate will thank you.

Bonuses in Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

Bonuses are another helpful tool to increase your conversion rate. Think of it like adding a little honey to the offer. You're just sweetening the deal.

This is especially great for folks that feel like if they offer any kind of deal it will cheapen the offer.

There was a product I was really wanting to buy a year ago. And, it was a bit on the pricey side. I asked my wife about it and her thought was to wait until Black Friday when all the deals happen.

I knew this product was fairly new to market and they likely wouldn't discount it, but would probably opt to add some bonuses into the purchase.

AND, that's exactly what they did. So, I got 3 other things along with my order because they didn't want to cheapen their offer with a discount.

Countdowns in Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

Countdowns are another really strong incentive in conversion rate optimization strategies.

You could use them for the expiration of a deal or bonus OR like a lot of people do you could use it to signify when a cart closes.

I've seen a lot of course creators use them to let users know when their doors will be closing on access to their course or community or whatever.

They work great and are the epitome of FOMO.

A Word of Caution on Incentives

Just a brief word of caution about incentives in conversion rate optimization.

You've got to be careful not to over incentivize your users. This will do either one of two things:

1. Make them immune to any deals or bonuses you've got
2. Teach them to wait to buy

People aren't dumb. They'll begin to notice when you start teetering toward manipulation with your incentive practices. So, be strategic and intentional.

Don't discount to heavily unless you're wanting to get rid of some stock. When I see something that's been reduced by 75% I think, “It was probably never worth that much.”

Or I question what's really going on. Is it a fire sale?

Think of incentives like the salt you put on your food. Too much makes it uneatable. But, just enough makes the flavors of the food come out even more.

4. Removing Friction

Moving right along on our conversion rate optimization strategies, we now focus on usability.

The main thing we're trying to determine here is how hard it is for someone to do what we are wanting them to do. This is what MEC Labs calls friction.

When they check out does everything work right? Are there too many fields for them to fill out? Are there too many steps in the process?

With cart abandonment being around 70%, these are questions you REALLY have to ask.

The more friction there is the less likely they are to say yes, sign up or purchase.

There isn't really a rule of thumb when it comes to this element of conversion rate optimization strategies. Whether or not someone is willing to deal with the friction of purchasing depends a lot on the person, how motivated they are and the perceived value of the thing they're trying to buy.

Think about the friction of buying a house. It's so incredibly painful BUT it's worth it because of what you get when it's all said and done.

Then think about the friction of buying a coffee at Starbucks. You don't even have to leave your car. Two completely different products with two completely different levels of friction.

Your job is to figure out how much friction people are willing to deal with in order to convert.

Once you've found that out, you make sure that the experience on your website matches the friction people are willing to put up with.

How do you do that? Let's talk about it.

Dog-Fooding in Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

There's a term in UX Design called dog-fooding. It basically means you're trying out and/or using your products yourself.

So, you act like a customer who is purchasing from you for the first time. You take the first steps they would whether it's filling out a form or adding an item to a cart.

Then you keep going until you've done the final step.

Take note of what you experienced on the journey. Did the forms work right? Was it tough to know when I didn't fill out a field correctly? Did I feel like I needed to refresh my window when I hit submit because it was taking too long?

Those are all questions you should be asking as you're using your own website AND ones that will help you pinpoint friction issues.

User Testing in Conversion Rate Optimization

Nothing will help you realize the problems on your website quite like having someone else use it right in front of you. That's right, I'm talking about user testing and of all the conversion rate optimization strategies, this one's super helpful.

User testing in it's most basic form is sitting down with someone and watching them while they perform certain tasks on your website.

All the while you try not to help and have them talk outloud about what they're thinking and doing.

It can be excruciating seeing someone struggle to find a button on a page when you know exactly where it is. BUT, the fact that they struggle means it's not as obvious as you think it is.

When you're the one building the website or even the owner of the website, you start to get used to little things here and there that would be impossible for someone to figure out if they'd never been to the site before.

That curse of knowledge makes it pretty tough for you to be objective about your website. And, after all, blindspots are called blindspots because you don't see them!

User testing reveals all of that stuff.

So, sit down with a friend or random person at a coffee shop. Have them sign up for your newsletter or buy a product on your shop.

Notice the things they do and where they struggle and use that as a way to reduce friction.

5. Addressing Anxieties

The next piece of our conversion rate optimization strategies is addressing anxieties.

So, many websites I've seen highlight the positive. They talk about how great your life will be after you decide to purchase their product.

But, very few address the anxieties feel about signing up or saying yes. As a result the elephant in the room goes unaddressed. And, when that happens, users tend to think the answers to those questions are way worse than they actually are.

So, rather than avoiding the question, SPEAK TO IT!

A funny thing happens when you do that. People start figuring out solutions to the things they might not be in love with about your product or service.

My Personal Story of Addressing a Client Anxiety

I'll give you an example.

I was on a call with a potential client. They need a multi-language website. I gave them my pitch about who I am and what I do.

BUT THEN, I said, “Listen, I'm familiar with the idea of building a multi-language website. I've read the Google documentation about it. I've even pointed people in the right direction that were doing it themselves. BUT, I've never personally built a multi-language website. I'm confident I can. But, you gotta know it's unfamiliar territory for me.”

Can you guess their response?

I'll give you a hint. They didn't hang up the phone instantly with a parting swear word for wasting their time.

They instantly responded and said, “No worries! I'm sure there are always things in the web world that require you to toe the line of things you're not familiar with.”

See what happened?

I addressed an issue head on while also communicating confidence in the product. The result was the client trusted me more and was more than fine with my limitations.

But, what do you do if you're not having a one on one conversation with the person you're hoping will buy from you, and you're unable to get feedback about what their anxieties even are? Great question. You've got a few options.

Discovering User Anxieties for Your Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

The best way to figure out the anxieties people have about your product or service is to ask them.

You'll discover SOOO much from surveying people who have JUST PURCHASED your product. How do you do that? Send them a survey.

I like to ask:

• What made you sign up/buy?
• Were you considering alternatives?
• What's one thing that nearly stopped you from saying yes?
• Was there anything on our website that you couldn't find answers for?

The answers to those questions are like GOLD for conversion rate optimization strategies.

Then you take their feedback and figure out how to address it in your websites copy.

But, what if you don't have a lot of customers or you're just getting started? In that case, you try to think about it from your own perspective. What anxieties would you have if you were purchasing the product?

Or, you could ask other people. Recruit a friend tell them about your business or idea and ask what objections they would have if they were the ones making the purchase decision.

One way or another, you've got to take a stab at addressing anxieties on your website. Your conversion rate optimization will thank you.

6. Improve Your Usability

The final step in our conversion rate optimization strategies is improving your UX.

UX stands for user experience and at its core it's all about empathy. It's you putting yourself in the shoes of people who are visiting your website and seeing the experience from their perspective.

The main things to consider when it comes to UX in conversion rate optimization strategies are

• Is the site skimmable?
• Have you tested it?
• Did you consider the user journey?

Is it Skimmable?

This is gonna be tough but no one is reading your website. Like no one.

At most they're scrolling through, reading the first few words of headlines and then MAYBE stopping at sections that seem interesting and looking a little bit more.

So, what do you do?

First, make your font size bigger. Anything below 16px on desktop or mobile is going to be tough to read.

After that, make sure you don't have huge paragraphs with tons of words in them. In other words, hit the return key every once in a while.

Better yet, instead of paragraphs use lists with bullet points and emphasize the words in paragraphs that are really important.

In other words, make your copy really easy to consume.

Have You Tested It?

Next, have you tested it?

We talked about this a little bit when we were trying to remove friction. But, truly sitting down with someone and watching them struggle through your website can be on of the best conversion rate optimization strategies out there.

I like to use Steve Krugs method which is really simple. I'd encourage you to grab his book, “Rocket Surgery Made Easy.”

The basic idea is you recruit 3 people once a week to sit down and look through your website. You record the them scrolling through and ask them to talk outloud so you can hear what they're thinking.

The first question you ask is “What do you think this website is for?”

You'd be amazed at the responses you get. I did this for a redesign of a website and the response I got was no where near the purpose of the site. So, I had to go back to the drawing board.

After that you give them a few tasks and watch what they do. Those tasks could be signing up for a lead magnet or purchasing a product.

You will really quickly learn the holes in your website and then be able to adjust things for better conversion rate.

Did You Consider the User Journey?

I've seen so many websites falter at this conversion rate optimization strategy.

I've seen ads that look one way that lead to landing pages that look completely different. I've seen websites where the checkout button was hard to find or the contact form was buried.

Every website should start at the ending and work backwards from there.

What do I mean by that? What is the one place you hope people end up on your website? Is it a contact form? A purchase confirmation? A thank you page?

You figure out the ideal place for people using your website to end up and then you go one step back. Then you go one step back until you finally come to the user's entrance point.

A few things on this:

ONE: The journey should feel cohesive. You don't want the entrance point which would be like an ad or a blog to feel completely different than the final destination.

TWO: You want the path to get to the end to be as straight of a line as possible. In other words, don't require them to jump through hoops to end up where you hope they'll go.

If you consider this one thing you'll be in a better place than 90% of the websites out there on the internet.

Wrapping Up On Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

Phew, this article got away from me. But, at this point, if you don't have quite a few tools in conversion rate optimization strategies for your website, I don't know what to tell you.

But, here's the last thing I'll leave you with.

Don't forget that all of this is an experiment. There is absolutely nothing that is set in stone regarding conversion rate optimization strategies. There are general rules of thumb that are good things to try.

But, at the end of the day, you just have to try things out and see what works.

But, guaranteed, if you don't even try or consider how to improve your conversion rate, it likely will never improve.

So, go out there and try one of these things out. Don't try to do everything at once. Pick one thing that you're going to try and go for it.

You might find that make simple changes on your website will result in really big payoffs.