Conversion optimisation
What happens after potential customers find your website?
It’s one thing to get your potential buyers to your website thanks to your SEO efforts.
It’s quite another thing to hold their attention, and keep them on your site until you can persuade them to identify themselves by handing over their email address.
Call-to-action buttons should go beyond being attractive and fitting the overall design of the website. After all, their main purpose is to get your visitors to do something, such as download an ebook, sign up for a free trial, subscribe to a newsletter, and so on.
You don’t have to put CTAs above the fold. Oli Gardner suggests placing them in the middle or bottom of the page to avoid being aggressive with visitors. Other suggestions include using action-packed words, like “try” or “download,” and the first-person speech to increase conversions.
Clarity of CTAs is also extremely important. Their message should explicitly convey what the visitor could expect to accomplish. If users fail to get what you mean, they’ll leave.
Learning from your users
Holding the attention of your potential buyers is more difficult now than it used to be, mainly because of the sheer amount of content available on the Internet for them to peruse.
This analysis must be balanced with white space so, your overall page is clean and inviting.
- You have to think about ‘banner blindness’, which can make Even Glaringly Obvious page elements seem to be invisible. (This will drive you nutzo!)
- And of course, for good user experience design, you also have to think about the use of images, icons, calls to action.
These studies justify why website designers insist on positioning the site’s most important elements above the fold, there is absolutely no reason to cram everything you deem necessary on just this part of the page. You don’t want the top half of your website looking chaotic, or the overall usability of the page undermined.
That said, the items you include above the fold must communicate a clear and well-defined value proposition, as opposed to cramming what you think is important down users’ throats by littering the area with too many elements. Give them one tidbit of information to digest one at a time, and if they think this information is worth researching more about, they will stay on your page to find out more.
After all, according to the Nielsen Norman Group, “users do scroll, but only if what’s above the fold is promising enough.”
Visual illustration
Harnessing the power of visual information is a primary ingredient in connecting with your audience. This is anchored to the fact that our brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than plain text.
Add short attention spans into the mix, and the “show, don’t tell” argument becomes all the more compelling. Provide users with visuals like images, graphs, infographics, screenshots and video clips instead of big blocks of text. These allow them to process your message more quickly and retain more valuable information.
One thing to keep in mind:
Although effective, adding visuals to your website comes with a caveat: they must support your value proposition and the audience’s perceived expectations. Otherwise, it may call into question your site’s integrity.
Testing
Experimenting with different website design options lets you gauge your site’s overall usability. This method, called A/B testing or split testing, allows you to gain insight into your visitors’ behavior, helping you pinpoint which design resonates best with them.
You can test any variable in the website, but there are some elements that could have the most impact when modified. These include landing page images, wording and placement of CTAs, headlines, and the amount of text on a page.
While A/B testing is generally an analytics tool that helps businesses maximize the conversion performance of a website, when used properly, it can positively impact user experience.
According to Graham Horner, CMO at Scott Dunn, using A/B testing made their data richer and helped them implement a data-driven philosophy that enabled them to provide personalized services to their customers and increase engagement.
Talk to Crockford Carlisle about your Website Design
No matter where you are in Australia, Crockford Carlisle’s Brisbane-based website design team are here to help. We welcome your call on 07 3891 3800.
And by the way, that’s another thing you’ll notice about the way we work. You won’t get an agency ‘sales pitch’. Right from the first “Say g’day” meeting, the conversation will be about your business and what you want to achieve.
We’ll explore ideas. Look at your competitors. And see what we can see to set you on the right path.
From there, if you feel comfortable with our approach, we’ll come back to you with a proposal to build the responsive, well-designed website you need that speaks to your buyers and convinces them to buy.
“Are you thinking what we’re thinking? Brilliant idea!”