What are you doing – right now – to convert visitors on your website into leads and customers?
Conversion rate optimization is an infinite game, but sometimes you come across CRO tactics that almost seem too good to be true. Conversions are highly contextual, so there are no universal tricks that work every time.
That being said, here’s 5 CRO tactics that we suggest you give a try this year. If you’re new to conversions, read our Complete Guide to Conversion Rate and CRO next.
CRO tactics you should try this year
Use the conversion potential of your blog
The blog is a versatile weapon. Like content marketing in general, you can use blogs to educate, entertain and engage audiences. But that’s not all.
Blog posts also have built-in conversion potential.
To convert from your blog, you can use traditional means like text links, CTA banners and pop-ups. Sometimes these work, but most readers won’t even pay attention. They’re there to learn something, not to look at ads.
What if, instead, you made the conversion a natural part of the article?
We’ve identified that a well thought out question or personalized message can be powerful in nudging blog readers towards conversion. The basic way of doing this is to plant the activation at the very end of a blog post, because therein lies a tiny vacuum.
This vacuum is your conversion opportunity. The reader just finished a useful content piece, and the topic is fresh on their mind. Take advantage of the situation and continue chatting with the reader about what they just read. Start a conversation that naturally flows towards conversion.
A lot of the time, however, blog readers like you and me will just skim the article, never reaching the last dot. Not a problem.
You can activate readers already somewhere in the middle, by throwing them a relevant question about what they were reading in that exact moment. We do both by using the InpageBot, which can be embedded anywhere within the content.
My point is, that a blog post doesn’t have to be just a pit-stop after which the reader leaves.
Experiment with landing page length
Most CRO tactics focus on landing page optimization. There’s a lot you can experiment with, but it can be near impossible to attribute an experiment effect to a tiny thing, like the color of a button.
So, what I suggest is that you take a broader perspective, which will help you to hone in on your optimal landing page structure and content. Experiment with landing page length. For your next campaign, create two versions of your landing page: a long version and a short version.
Long version:
This can be the landing page that you would normally use. In all honesty, us marketers tend to explain rather too much than too little. Because, you know, the reader may be interested in X and Y and Z. And because our product/service is great due to these n+1 things.
Short version:
For this version, take your basic landing page and strip it down to the bare bones. Leave only vital information and a means to convert from the page. If nothing else, this version will remove distractions, which should direct more focus on the conversion.
A/B-test the two pages and follow up on the results. I can’t say which one will perform better in your case, and that doesn’t really even matter. The point is for you to identify landing page traits that give you better odds for converting the visitor.
One way to keep a landing page compact but still have all the relevant information on it is to use a chatbot. That way you can provide the info when requested, but it won’t take valuable screen real estate or distract visitors by default.
Stop using intrusive pop-ups
Embrace the conversion after conversion
Say what?
Let me explain this via a true story. You’ll see that the conversion after conversion is a real thing.
Here at Leadoo MT, we run marketing and sales webinars every month. At the end of last year, we were preparing another webinar and converting sign ups with an InpageBot as usual.
The webinar was about real-life chatbot use cases. We planned to show several live examples of high-performing chatbots to the guests. Even though this makes the potential of chatbots concrete, we knew that some attendees still wouldn’t grasp how a chatbot could help their business.
What if we took the time to show how their own bot could work? Here’s what we did.
In the webinar sign up bot, the registration was completed after the user had sent their name and email address. But why stop there? We added a follow-up question: Would you like to get a demo chatbot built for your website in 1h?
This question kept the conversation going after initial conversion. It offered a relevant and useful way to delve deeper. Many people said Yes, and we scheduled sessions after the webinar to build their custom demo bots. Those sessions turned into many a-ha moments and even some new customers.
This encouraged us to keep doing something similar.
Big things started happening with our subsequent webinar focused on buyer’s journeys. We used the same conversion after conversion -tactic (this time we offered a free buyer’s journey analysis).
The numbers blew our socks off.
626 webinar sign ups
66 buyer’s journey analyses booked
Essentially, we captured 66 SQLs with the webinar before it had even started. 10% of the people who had only planned to join a webinar were ready to commit on a deeper level.
On top of that, we were able to collect a number of additional Yesses from the webinar’s 332 attendees with polls asking if they wanted the analysis. Several analysis meetings resulted in a direct offer sent, and a good number of those is proceeding towards a deal.
Conversion after conversion. I told you it’s a thing.
Key takeaways - try these CRO tactics next
Improving your conversion rate requires curiosity and testing. What worked last year, or for your previous campaign, won’t bring results every time and always.
I hope this article inspires you to try out new CRO tactics. These are my suggestions:
- Your blog has lots of built-in conversion potential – don’t miss out on it
- Experiment with landing page length to find out what information visitors need in order to convert
- Prioritize user experience – lose the intrusive pop-ups and distractions
- Don’t settle for the initial conversion – sometimes there’s much more to be had
As you go about trying different CRO tactics, remember to follow up on the results. This article covers the basics of conversion KPIs – you should find it useful.
