You are wrong! A very important factor when you start getting serious about conversion rate optimisation for your website is understand what you did wrong to make them leave. The harsh reality is that 96% of your visitors are saying no to you every day.
Let me set the scene (I love setting scenes):
You were hesitant to go down that path. Let’s face it you tried it before and it didn’t work. Some of your friends had the same experience and others had amazing stories to share about how well it worked for them.
You bit the bullet and started updating your information. Before you knew it, you had what looked like a good start point and pressed submit. It was scary and you did hesitate going back and forth analysis the information you added making sure it represents you the right way. Nobody likes a creep or a show off and you were none of those right?
So now you had to wait for their approval. So you waited. ‘What’s to approve’ you thought it’s just little old you.
An email arrived not long later giving you a nice little rush as it stated in the subject line ‘your approved.
Bursting with excitement but trying to keep a cool, calm exterior you slowly but clumsily tried to log on and see them. ‘Could I find the one?’ you thought. Before dismissing it with negative thoughts and the harsh reality you probably just wasted a whole bunch of money.
Then something magical happened… Just like that they appeared, like a small ants on a world map making its way across countries with no borders no passport just freedom to move as it pleased.
You watched one in particular; you could tell this one was different. She moved from one page to another. Your heart fluttered every time she changed page, then you noticed she moved into another part of your pride and joy. You see her sitting on the checkout page. She just stood there ready, willing and able but with no more interaction. Your heart stops. Your blood starts rushing to your brain. “Is she looking for her credit card” you babble out loud as you stand up and maximise the browser window on Google Analytics REAL-TIME.
Then, just as quick as she appeared she disappeared off your screen. You are hoping, wishing and praying that the next page she appears on is your thank you page. But it doesn’t happen. She is gone and may never ever to return.
Now this happens over and over and over with others… your beautifully crafted Ad words campaign is bringing them to the party but your just not converting.
Capturing the voice of your customers is a lot harder online. There are a few tools that help you understand what they are doing and how they are acting and reacting to certain parts of your websites.
You need to find out quick smart why people are not converting. When I say find out. I mean with evidence not take a guess. You need to work out what part of your page is under performing and why.
What you may think works on your site may suck for 96% of other people…
This is very straight forward. You need to look at your site as an outsider. Not a business owner but as a customer. What would sh*t you as a customer online shopping on someone else’s website would probably sh*t the visitor to your website that didn’t convert.
The first step is to use the right tools in order to identify what your visitors are doing.
1) Google Analytics – No Sh@t i hear you say…
Google Analytics (GA) should be one of the first things you enable on your site even before your site is ready for production. I won’t go into the benefits right now of having GA in the testing to live phases of your website launch but one thing you will notice really quickly is its power.
You can start following the funnel process using GA very early in the journey of your visitors. This will help identify places they may drop off.
What are Google analytics Funnels?
Google Analytics Funnels allow you to follow your target audience through at every stage of the conversion process to find out where potential customers are dropping out; to find out at which point in the conversion process these potential customers decide to not continue with the conversion.
How do I setup Google analytics Funnels?
To set-up a conversion funnel, if you have never done this before, follow the quick tip guide below and begin to reap the benefits of tightening up your optimization analysis possibilities within just a few hours.
When you are in the profile in which you would like to set up a Google analytics Funnel, click on the button marked “admin” to begin.
Select the “goals” tab from the drop-down menu.
Select the option to open a blank goal and select “+goal” (add goal)
At this point you will need to select “URL Destination,” input the backslash icon and follow that with the text that signifies the page Internet users will arrive to once they have completely gone through your entire conversion process.
Walk your way through the site’s checkout or conversion completion process and make a note of every single URL along the way. our site’s conversion process might include any or all of the following…
- a cart page
- a shipping selection page
- a review of the shipping selection page
- an advertisement page
- a thank you page confirming the order has been successful
- maybe even a special offer page at the very end to encourage even further conversions
You should set up a funnel for every single URL – every single page – to determine when in the conversion funnel process your potential customers are leaving the site and why.
Notice along the way at what step people are dropping off and then you found a BOTTLE NECK or a ROAD BLOCK to conversions. This is the important stage. You need to go back and investigate why the page is just not working for your clients.
Is it to cluttered, not enough information or calls to action to move the visitor to possible next step? Do you need to add some trust symbols and testimonials for example. You could be asking for to much information too early in the conversion process.
Going CRAZY with Crazyegg.com
Above I mentioned that GA funnels are super important to find out where the visitors drop out. Now with crazyegg.com we can work out why they are dropping out using heatmaps and scroll maps to assist us understanding how our customers use the site and where they are clicking exactly. No guess work involved.
With heat mapping it’s important to remember that these are your visitors showing you what they are doing and how they are interacting with your site. You can see every click they make and what they are clicking a lot of and if they are actually missing the call to action. I have seen millions of examples of a heat map screaming out at a client asking them to make a whole sentence clickable instead of just using the CLICK HERE to purchase. Really powerful stuff don’t you agree?
Ever wondered how far visitors scrolled on your page? Then crazyegg will help you there too. A scroll map shows exactly what HOT points or most of the attention has been taken up by your visitors and will show how some areas below the fold are failing your site. Specially if you have calls-to-action in the non visited zones.
Another must have tool… LuckyOrange.com Stalking with VIDEO.
I bumped into lucky orange on one of these internet marketing daily deal sites. It wasn’t without its problems but firing through some super suggestions to the owner and developer the platform really really started working well for our clients and our sites. It’s a NO brainer for $10 a month and works like a charm.
This software records 100 last visitors to your site and the actions they have taken. So its basically a REAL visual of the Funnel from Google Analytics. It is awesome to watch to understand and appreciate how visitors are using your site to transact or not.
Luckyorange also provides heat maps and live chat which is great considering how affordable it is but I must warn you that the insights from both crazyegg and luckyorange are interesting and helpful so use both if you can afford it.
Conclusion to this love story…
You can’t make everyone love you or buy from you… you can’t by love (depending who you ask) but you can buy super honest information to make you more desirable online.
Remember that your site has to serve… Most visitors are focused on what’s in it for me. So make sure your conversion rate optimisation practices and methodologies are based around this.
I would love to hear your feedback how you have made significant improvements just by changing small elements of your website.