In another epic article, Shane Barker shows how User Behavior Analytics can improve your business conversions. It is another in our “Great Articles You may have missed” series.
Like every other business, you want to improve your conversions. But the problem is you’re not sure how to get started, or where to start. This is only natural because there are so many elements that come into play in conversion optimization.
Most importantly, you need to understand your customers, and how they behave. This understanding can help you adjust your conversion rate optimization efforts. In this post, you’ll learn all about user behavior analytics, and how you can use them to improve your conversions.
User behavior analytics help you understand what your website visitors do, and how they behave on various channels and touch-points. By understanding user behavior, you can personalize messages and experiences for the right audience at the right time. This, in turn, will improve your conversions, and also boost many aspects of your performance.
User behavior analytics help you identify specific behavior patterns of your site visitors. They give you the ability to classify customers based on common characteristics. Then you can customize your promotion efforts based on this segmentation.
For example, user behavior analytics help you find shoppers who browse through similar items or categories. You can then personalize product recommendations based on this browsing behavior.
There are numerous elements involved in conversion rate optimization. If you try to optimize every single detail, it won’t be effective. Instead, you need to have a clearer understanding of how your customers behave. You can then come up with a conversion optimization strategy based on those insights.
Here are some of the ways in which you can use user behavior analytics to improve your conversions:
In email marketing, it’s important that you send relevant emails to your customers. One email may not be relevant to each and every person on your mailing list.
For example, sending an email offering 5% off on their first purchase may be relevant to new subscribers. But the same email won’t be relevant to someone who has been a loyal customer for years.
So you need to segment your email recipients based on their purchase and/or browsing behavior. And then send out personalized emails based on which segment they belong to. According to a MailChimp report, segmenting your emails can result in 14.31% higher open rates, and 100.95% more clicks. In other words, receiving an email that’s relevant to a customer could compel them to click through and eventually convert.
Otherwise, you can also analyze the behavior data of each visitor on your site. You can then use these insights to create personalized email campaigns. Look for metrics such as:
Amazon sends out marketing emails with product recommendations based on a customer’s past purchase behavior.
As stated earlier, something that’s relevant for one customer may not necessarily be relevant for another. That’s true for your best-selling products as well. But what if you were to recommend products that they are highly likely to be interested in?
Personalized product recommendations can be an excellent way to improve your conversions. You can analyze the browsing and purchase behavior of individual customers. Then you can compare this data against the performance data of different products. Based on this, you can recommend best-sellers in categories they’re most likely to be interested in. You can also recommend products that would go well with items that they recently purchased.
This personalized experience can improve your conversions because you’re guiding the purchase decisions of your customers. And according to Invesp, 59% of shoppers believe they can find more interesting products through personalized online stores. In addition to this, 56% are highly likely to make repeat purchases on sites that offer product recommendations.
A Barilliance case study highlighted the strength of personalized product recommendations. And how they helped outdoor retailers Millets and Blacks increased their conversions. They analyzed the preferences and intent of visitors to recommend relevant products. For example, if a shopper views a sleeping bag, they recommend relevant camping equipment known as the, “sleeping bundle.”
Instead of just recommending other sleeping bags, Millets recommended mats, airbeds, and foot pumps; which the shopper might be interested in. As a result of this campaign, Millets experienced a 332% increase in conversions, and Blacks increased their conversions by 277%.
Just imagine how confusing it would be if someone clicked on an ad for a special offer and landed on your homepage. They’d have to manually look for the offer again in order to find out how they can get it. While some may persevere, you might end up losing a lot of potential customers this way. But here’s where you can make use of user behavior analytics to prevent these losses and improve your conversions.
You can start tracking the referral traffic for your site visitors. Then create personalized landing pages based on this data. For example, if someone clicks on an ad promoting your latest collection, they should land on a page showcasing the collection. Or if they click on an ad promoting a certain product, they should land directly on the relevant product page.
Similarly, if someone clicks on a coupon code on a particular website, you could display a relevant pop-up to greet them. For instance, maybe you promoted a 15% discount through an influential blogger. Visitors coming from that blog should see a personalized pop-up displaying the blog name and the amount of discount. This makes it easier for the visitor to fulfill the purpose of their visit, which in turn can help you increase conversions.
Target displays the following banner offering 10% off on baby items using a certain discount code. The banner is displayed on a page selling car seats for babies and kids, which means there’s a huge chance it’s going to reach the right target audience.
If you click on the link in the banner, you get redirected to a page selling the baby items for which the discount is applicable. So people who wish to get the discount won’t have to manually search for items that are eligible for the discount. This makes shopping easier for customers, and can easily result in more sales.
Why do people leave your website without converting? Sure, it’s perfectly normal for visitors to leave when they’ve reached end-of-content pages, or completed their purchase. But what about exits that occur on pages that are not end-of-content pages?
For example, maybe people are leaving your website after reading about your services. Or maybe they’re leaving in the middle of the checkout process, without completing the signup form.
User behavior analytics help you determine which pages on your site have the highest exit rates without being the final piece of content. And you can use this data to select pages that require testing and optimizing for conversions.
For example, if your signup page has an extremely high exit rate maybe you should make changes to the page and test them out. Try reducing the number of form fields, and see how that impacts the exit rate.
This is an important step to improve your conversions because a high exit rate often translates into a low conversion rate. You want people to smoothly transition from one page to the next, and eventually convert into paying customers. And a high exit rate means that’s not happening.
If people are exiting a certain page more often than usual, it means you need to start testing that page and optimizing it for higher conversions.
Nabler conducted a case study in which they found that their client was experiencing a drastically high exit rate on their “Speakers” category page. The exit rate on this page was 75%, so they needed to bring it down to increase conversions.
The team analyzed and made changes to various elements on the page such as the call-to-action (CTA) and layout. They then ran tests on those changes to see how they impacted the exit rate and conversion rate.
Image Source: Nabler
Nabler changed the layout from a grid view to a list view to increase the page usability. The team also changed the CTA buttons to show various offers such as free shipping and 5% rewards back. They also gave shoppers an option to check for shipping info and availability to provide clarity and transparency.
Overall, the team conducted seven tests, and successfully brought down their exit rate to 37%. In addition to this, the conversion rate for this category page increased by 34%.
How you treat your new site visitors and your existing customers shouldn’t be the same. A new visitor is just going through your site to get familiar with your brand. They will take some time to size you up, and determine whether or not you’re a good fit. A return visitor, on the other hand, is most likely there to make another purchase.
You should immediately engage your new visitors and encourage them to make their first purchase. And user behavior analytics can help you make the distinction between new and returning visitors.
When you’re getting a lot of new visitors to your site, you need to try to include them in your marketing list immediately. You can do this with the help of overlays that encourage visitors to subscribe to your mailing list. In exchange, you can provide them with an offer, such as a discount on their first purchase.
But not every new visitor will necessarily be relevant to your business. So you can further use user behavior analytics to determine whom to display those overlays to. Try analyzing the time they spent on your site, how many pages they visit, their intention to exit, etc.
Nice Laundry, for example, displays the following offer when first-time visitors click on a link to their product page.
In the case of return visitors, you can use overlays to welcome them back, and encourage another purchase. If they have any item abandoned in their cart, you can remind them about it in the overlay. Or you can give them updates about new items similar to what they’ve viewed before.
You now have some idea what to do to improve your conversion rate using user behavior analytics. Before you get started applying these tips, you’ll also need to consider what tools you can use for user behavior analytics.
Google Analytics is a great place to start as it provides a wide variety of data you can use. Here are some additional tools you can use for user behavior analytics:
Now you know how to improve your conversions using user behavior analytics. Notice that the focus is always on the customer. You need to strive towards improving user experience, and simplifying the purchase process for them so they can eventually turn into paying customers.
If you have any doubts about the tips mentioned above, let me know in the comments below. I’ll be happy to clarify them for you. You can also get in touch with me if you need my help to better understand your customers and improve your sales.
