Step by step process for Conversion Optimisation

This article is written as part of the CXL Institute scholarship and covers my third week of studying the Growth Marketing Minidegree.

In this third article about CXL Institute Growth Marketing Minidegree, I mentioned conversion optimization what it is and how to do it, when to do it, and how to determine if you have reached the peak of optimisation.

This week in the mini degree program I covered Conversion Research in detail by diving deeper into the 6 steps mentioned previously which were-

Heuristic Analysis,

Technical Analysis,

Digital Analytics,

Mouse Tracking & Form Analytics,

User Testing and

Qualitative surveys.

Heuristic Analysis

Heuristic analysis is an expert based analysis that uses experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Its results are not guaranteed to be optimal.

Heuristic analysis is the process of analyzing a site to identify usability issues that may negatively impact conversion rates. When conducting heuristic analysis, one needs to be careful not to jump to conclusions as everything must be backed up with data. Conducting an unstructured approach yields less value because you’re not sure what you’re looking for; “stuff that’s bad for conversions” is too generic. Heuristic Analysis is a technique for understanding how people use a website. It’s most often used to identify usability problems that might cause confusion or frustration, and to suggest solutions for fixing them.

When you analyze a site, the worst possible way to go about it is random. “I think this is bad” and “that needs to change” is not the optimal way. An unstructured approach yields less value as you’re not sure what you’re looking for, “stuff that’s bad for conversions” is way too generic

The 7 Levels of Conversion by Web Arts ( A Digital Marketing & Web Design Agency)

1. Relevance. Does my perception fit my expectations?

2. Trust. Can I trust this provider?

3. Orientation. Where should I click? What do I have to do?

4. Stimulance. Why should I do it right here and right now?

5. Security. Is it secure here? What if…?

6. Convenience. How complicated will it be?

7. Confirmation. Did I do the right thing?

The 7 Levels of Conversion is a process we use to understand how people engage with your website. It starts by understanding what their expectations are, and ends with a confirmation that they’ve completed the task you wanted them to do. This isn’t just about Web Design or Digital Marketing; it’s about meeting someone’s needs at every level, whether they’re customers, employees or investors.

Steps ConversionXL uses for heuristic analysis

When evaluating a site:

Assess each page for clarity — is it perfectly clear and understandable what’s being offered and how it works? This is not just about the value proposition — it applies to all pages (pricing, featured, product pages etc).

Understand context and evaluate page relevancy for visitors: does web page relate to what the visitor thought they were going to see? Do pre-click and post-click messages and visuals align?

Assess incentives to take action: Is it clear what people are getting for their money? Is there some sort of believable urgency? What kind of motivators are used? Is there enough product information? Is the sales copy persuasive?

Evaluate all the sources of friction on the key pages. This includes difficult and long processes, insufficient information, poor readability and UX, bad error validation, fears about privacy & security, any uncertainties and doubts, unanswered questions.

Pay attention to distracting elements on every high priority pages. Are there any blinking banners or automatic sliders stealing attention? Too much information unrelated to the main call to action? Any elements that are not directly contributing to visitors taking desired action?

Understand buying phases and see if visitors are rushed into too big of a commitment too soon. Are there paths in place for visitors in different stages (research, evaluation etc)?

Usability Evaluation

It’s about making websites easy to use, so people can browse them without giving it much thought. Usability is the black horse of boosting conversions. If your site is difficult to use or hard to understand (means it has usability problems), it will result in poor conversions.

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen defines usability by 5 quality components:

Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time tey encounter the design?

Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?

Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?

Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?

Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

A/B testing

A/B Testing is a process of using different variations to test the effectiveness of your marketing or new features. A company will want to see if they are getting more people to purchase their product with one variation than another, and then determine which version should be used for the next campaign.

A/B testing adds effectiveness to your decisions, make sure that you are making better and trustworthy decisions in your company. There is less weightage on expert opinion and more weightage on randomised control trials (AB testing).

When to use it?

• Research: Signals for impacts and flat lines to understand what needs to be done to optimize or lean deploy (if leaving out some elements has an impact or no impact on a website)
• Lean deployment: Looking for wins (not really optimize but step before you decide to optimize)
• Deployment: looking for no negative signals (New feature, updates etc, you want to deploy it as an experiment)

It’s all optimization and validation at the end of the day