Unconventional Opportunities For Conversion Rate Optimization

In my last article, I talked about three low hanging opportunities for conversion rate optimization. The easiest elements on your site to help increase conversion rate are headline, social proof and call-to-action buttons.

There are, however, numerous other ignored opportunities that marketers seldom look at with an eye to increase overall sales and conversions.

In this article, I am going to talk about five of those ignored opportunities that you can exploit to see a boost in conversion rate.

404 Error Pages

Error pages are perhaps the most neglected aspect of a website. Microsoft estimated that 2-10% of total site traffic arrives on an error page. This is a significant number and interestingly, many marketers ignore this traffic. There are some excellent guides on the Internet to help you make most of the 404 traffic, but here are some general tips:

• Provide search functionality so that users can easily find out what they were looking for
• Display a list of top visited pages on your website
• Display your contact information or offer live chat on 404 error pages

Conversion Optimization On Flash Elements

Many websites have Flash elements. These may be banners, buttons, videos or other interactive elements. However, these elements rarely get A/B tested because it is not very straightforward to setup a test on Flash. Just like other HTML elements on the page, testing Flash is crucial if you are serious about increasing conversion rate.

Consider following scenarios where the opportunity for conversion optimization is usually ignored:

• For Flash based video players, do you measure which ‘Play’ buttons work best and how long the visitor watches a video?
• For Flash based banners, do you measure which parts visitors usually click on and which they ignore?
• Do you track clicks on flash based buttons or test call to action text?

Thank You Pages

It’s usually considered that once the user has made a conversion (such as a purchase or a signup) the job of a marketer is over. But if user was motivated to do one conversion, surely he can do more as well.

In fact, thank you pages are one of the best opportunities on your website to upsell and cross sell. Unfortunately, most e-commerce sites thank you pages are bland. At best, they would simply provide an order summary and their contact details.

My recommendation is to optimize thank you pages even further with the following tips:

• Consider providing a discount for their next purchases. Many “offline” businesses (notably pizza joints) could give you discount coupons on your purchase that can be redeemed on next purchase. Your thank you page surely can perform a similar (or even better) job.
• If you are selling product, consider selling some services associated with it. Or, consider selling add-ons like faster delivery or better packaging as an option on Thank You page.
• At the very least, offer a newsletter subscription option on your Thank You pages so your customers can keep up with product updates and other announcements.

Support Pages

Not many marketers consider support section of their website as an opportunity to increase conversions. Instead, support pages are seen as purely informational channels designed to help solve customers’ problems.

It is true that solving customer problems is indeed support section’s primary functionality. However, a satisfied customer on a relevant support page provides a great opportunity to upsell and cross sell.

Most of the conversion optimization tips relevant to Thank You pages can be applied to support pages as well (in both cases the visitor is usually a customer):

• Announce your new and upcoming products
• Entice customers with freebies to signup for your newsletter

While not directly relevant to increasing conversions, you should also measure the performance of your knowledgebase in terms of how successful they are in terms of answering your customers’ problems. Every email or phone call your knowledgebase prevents is a significant cost savings for you.

Business Cards

Yes, this one is as unconventional as it can get! Every employee in your organization has business cards that are usually freely exchange in a professional context. Even though business cards are widely distributed, it is seldom seen as a medium for conversion rate optimization.

Again, like support pages, it is true that primary functionality of business cards is informational. However, back of a business card provides with a blank canvas where you can put your message to improve conversions.

Consider following ideas to improve conversions from a business card:

• Provide a discount coupon printed on a card which can be redeemed on your website
• Treat back of a business card as a landing page. Put customer logos and perhaps some case studies as well. Of course, given the limited space you will have to be creative
• Promise a freebie if they signup for your newsletter on your website (don’t forget to mention the number of subscribers. It serves as social proof!)

Summing It All

There are numerous other places that you can optimize for conversions. It all boils down to being creative and A/B testing relentlessly all of the touch-points you have with your customers and prospects.

Photo from kenteegarden. Used under Creative Commons license.