There is a myriad of conversion opportunities that most websites and apps don’t fully exploit. Opportunities that are right there, on your pages, but you haven’t recognized them yet.
This article will help you find some areas of your app or website that can dramatically increase conversions… with a little help from you. So read through and watch your idea clock start ticking with a ton of new things you’d want to try out in the earliest break.
1. Watch Out For Missed CTA Opportunities
So what is your CTA? “Add to cart”? “Buy now”?
Well that’s not all that there is to CTAs. The truth is, every page on your website is there for a reason. However, most websites don’t actively seek to fulfill the purpose of each page. Maybe you are answering a question or giving away valuable information for free. Whatever you are doing, if there’s a page that’s getting sound traffic, it deserves to have a relevant CTA of its own.
So carefully observe your analytics to see what pages of your website are getting the most traffic.
Do you have a particularly popular blog post that continues to draw visitors? Don’t simply count on the visitors to further explore your website after reading the blog post. Nudge them into action with a tailored call to action.
Is the blog post about choosing the best travel gear for snowy adventures? Do not forget to add an enticing, prominent CTA on that blog post saying something like ‘Find the perfect snow gear for you’. You could use some help from Neil Patel’s guide to creating the best CTAs right here.
The idea is to maximize conversions by leveraging the pages on your website that are actually getting traffic, instead of hoping that users will tumble over to the pages with CTAs all on their own.
2. Always Have Exclusive Landing Pages for Campaigns
If you launched a new campaign asking users to sign up for a limited time free trial of your new product, would you send the traffic to your website homepage and expect them to search for the offer, or would you send them to a special landing page created just for that offer?
Your website homepage is designed to draw organic search traffic and get it moving into the funnel. A campaign landing page is created to specially provide your visitors one-click access to your new marketing campaign.
If a visitor saw your advertisement offering a discount or a free trial, he expects to see further details when he clicks the ad. Seeing your homepage at this point will b a massive turn-off. Also, Google rewards PPC campaigns that are custom created to minimize cost-per-click. So bonus points there!
3. Users Clicking the Unclickable? Watch Out.
If you are a marketer keen on understanding user behavior, you are probably obsessed with heatmaps. I know I am. Heatmaps can sometimes reveal some truly striking details or anomalies in user behavior, if you know what to look for.
If there are certain areas on your pages that are being touched way too often, but they are actually unclickable elements that don’t do anything, you have an opportunity hiding in here. Clearly, there is something your users are expecting when they click there, and also clearly, they are getting nothing.
By figuring out what the users may be expecting, you can uncover gaps in the user experience and try to provide just what they want. Maybe they want to save the search for viewing later. Maybe they want to share the product image but can’t. Carefully analyze what it is that your users are looking for but not finding. Giving them just what they want is sure to increase the probability of them buying.
In fact, you could use unrequited clicks as an opportunity to pop an overlay and ask the user something like ‘Sorry, what were you looking for here?’ or ‘What did you think would happen by clicking here?’
Have a few easy to answer, large sized options here and you have a quick, targeted feedback mechanism that will help you give the users just what they want.
4. Use Targeted Overlays
I’m sure you have a few overlays on your website, but you could give them more power, and use them as a potent conversion tool.
So what are overlays? Some would confuse them for popups, but really, they are quite different. Popups are a user experience kryptonite. All users hate them. Essentially, popups are spammy things that open in a new window. They are hated by Google and auto-blocked by most browsers.
Overlays, on the other hand, appear on your existing window, offering you information about a new feature or promotion. They allow you to do something like enter your email address and sign up – or answer a question – without interrupting your experience.
In behavioral usage though, the term ‘overlays’ is often used interchangeably with ‘popups’.
There’s a fine line between a wisely done overlay that invokes action and a creepy ad that interrupts experience. When used creatively and intuitively, overlays can be a fantastic way to boost conversion. Here are a few examples:
Call attention to overlooked features
After studying a few heatmaps and user sessions, if you feel that some features of your app or website aren’t getting enough traffic, you can use popup overlays to call attention to those features. A simple overlay saying “Did you know we now have a new xyz feature? Learn more” could do the trick.
Improve conversions on video
The CTAs you have at the end of a video are great. The only problem is that most people don’t wait around that long, and exit the video before the CTA appears. As an alternative, you can set up your videos such that an overlay with the CTA can appear whenever the user pauses the video or tries to exit it. It will need some coding, but could significantly boost video conversions.
Customize user experience for different users
This could be a little more work but if your audience consists of varied user groups, you can design a few different UX flows for different user segments.
Say you have an educational app. Your users are school students as well as working professionals pursuing advanced degrees. So when a user starts using your app or website, you can begin with an overlay asking a simple question like “Are you…?” with options like “High School Student” and “Working Professional”. This way, you can provide a unique UX flow to each, so they receive a highly tailored experience and need to navigate only relevant content.
5. Stuck On A 404 Error? There’s an Opportunity There
404 errors are not your fault. But you could still be on the receiving end of the user’s frustration… unless, you can turn it around.
Instead of losing your customer due to a 404 error, you can get creative with your 404 pages and not only keep the user but also delight them and increase your chances of conversion. The idea is to give the users somewhere to go from there. Most 404 pages are an arid wasteland with no way out. You could make yours a crossroad, with all roads leading to a potential conversion.
First of all, use clever copy to mitigate the users’ frustration and put them at ease. You could take a few tips from these delightful ones here and these funny ones here. Next, you need to give them options of what to do next.
You could:
- Help them return to a relevant page
- Offer suggested pages based on their browsing history
- Present your latest products or a tailored collection
Make the best of this opportunity, and you could be well on your way to a conversion.
Wrapping Up
Increasing conversions doesn’t always need major campaigns or discounts and offers. There are plenty of optimization opportunities that are often overlooked, that if utilized, can make a sea of difference. Using the ideas above, you could make sure no part of your UX goes unnoticed or leaves its conversion potential untapped. Pick your favorite, try it out and share your experiences with us.
Your Turn
If you have any favorite optimization tricks not mentioned above, please share them with your fellow readers. Thanks!
You may also want to read: How To Combine SEO and UX to Improve Your Website
How Website Design Influences UX of eCommerce Stores
The State of User Experience (UX)
He is a tech enthusiast who loves exploring all things new.
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