7 Steps to Conversion Gains, Part 2 of 2

In the second part of this two-part series extracted from a recent whitepaper on improving conversion rates, this week we offer a summary of the final three steps. The whitepaper, Best Practices for Conversion: The New Engagement Funnel in 7 Steps, comes from the online business optimization software provider Omniture.

(For part 1, and steps one through four, click here.)

5. Place effective calls to action. The right call to action can double clickthrough rates and subsequently double the overall conversion rate, the whitepaper notes. This applies to both ads and your Web site. Here are some of the whitepaper’s best practices to follow.

* Test the use of exclamation points in the copy.

* Don’t use a generic, “click here.” Be specific: If you want them to buy, say “buy now.” If they’re downloading a resource guide, say “download now.”

* Use 3-D attributes to make a button look like a button.

* Test bright colors, but use color sparingly to enhance call-to-action buttons without overwhelming the senses.

* Don’t rotate or animate key messages — users will miss them.

* Test varying words, images and links on the same page to provide diversity.

* If you’re not using buttons, underline or highlight links with color or arrows.

* Place a call to action within top navigation.

6. Enhance the shopping cart/lead capture process. Use multiple steps within the shopping cart or lead form process to account for abandonment. This allows for the capture of valuable contact information — names, phone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses — at different stages, which can be used later for remarketing efforts if abandonment occurs, the whitepaper says.

The whitepaper also offers the following best practices to follow with shopping carts:

* develop a perpetual shopping cart to allow users to see products and totals on every page;

* describe form fields, and use examples (e.g., business e-mail, business phone);

* don’t make users fill out two address forms if their credit card billing addresses are the same as their shipping addresses;

* use a “progress indicator” so users know where they are in the process;

* provide obvious “continue” or “submit” buttons to ease the user’s progress;

* provide reassuring messaging and creative in each step; if you’re asking for an e-mail address, let them know you adhere to a strict privacy policy of not selling their contact information; on the credit card screen, prominently display security certificates; also, test showing visual product or offer thumbnails throughout the steps;

* use “Thank You” or “Confirmation” pages for additional cross-sells, viral marketing or surveys; and

* test the placement of form fields collection on different steps:
step 1: e-mail (possibly password)
step 2: name and phone number (possible if telemarketing is used)
step 3: postal address
step 4: credit card.

7. Test, measure and refine. Test several different approaches to see which works best. Here are some of the whitepaper’s best practices.

* Isolate your testing variables to one variable tests if you don’t have multivariate testing processes or technologies.

* Apply the 80/20 / 20/80 rule in testing — test 20 percent of your incoming traffic while minimizing risk to the other 80 percent by using your “control” engagement funnels; of the 20 percent test segment, 80 percent should attempt to beat the control by improving on existing variables.

* Achieve testing statistical significance with at least a 95 percent confidence interval.

* Measure and log your results.

* Summarize monthly your learnings/results, and attribute success or failures based on results.

To read the entire whitepaper, go to http://www.omniture.com/downloads/06_datasheet_7Steps.pdf .