5 Conversion Rate Optimization Myths
It’s a never-ending struggle for conversion optimizers to combat the numerous challenges thrown at them. Be it the ever-changing audience behaviour or the sheer volume of data to comb through to find the pattern that matters — it’s a herculean task even with the best tools at your disposal. While there are a number of guides that talk about best practices, they do not stress enough about the CRO myths that plague the action course of even the more seasoned digital marketers.
Most online marketers share their personal experience on forums, communities, social media and write articles that are blindly adopted by all. In reality, each digital platform, business or even a blog site needs to have its own CRO tactics. The CRO myths debunked here might sound uncannily similar to the expert guidance available online!
Myth 1: “This works great for my competitor! Adapting it will provide results.”
This is perhaps the biggest of CRO myths and an alarming practice prevalent in the industry. The industry leader does not get there with just how his product looks; they have many constituent factors in play. There are examples of many good businesses having poorly optimized sites that still manage to rake up admirable revenue online. The value of the brand is in play here! If you follow the same trend for a budding brand, you are digging your own grave.
On the other hand, if a relatively new name creates a product that cracks the code, it is then worth giving it a look. But it could also be the uniqueness of the newbie product so jump in with caution. The prudent thing to do is to carry out the right analysis and testing before making a significant change.
Guessing is a huge gamble in Conversion Rate Optimization! Unless your changes are backed up by stats, you are riding on mere luck.
Myth 2: “People never scroll, long pages don’t work, and F-layout UI is the way to go.”
No, no and no! This myth plagues the web design industry from time immemorial. It implies that not only is your traffic not reading your content but also that they lack interest in what you have to offer. This CRO myth misleadingly hints that all users skim through the information on the page.
However, it is imperative that you keep the user interested and engaged within the first few lines of the page. Your content is supposed to lure people and make them continue reading.
Efficient use of CRO tools like scroll maps helps determine drop-off zones instead of vaguely trimming your content and constricting it within the holy “F-zone” of your site. Scroll maps not only help you understand user behaviour on your page and gauge their interest but also helps determine how long your page should be.
Myth 3: “Never change what works already.”
What works now need not be the best outcome that your site is capable of. Being cocooned in the shell for too long doesn’t do any good and slowly your product starts looking outdated. The site will cease to possess the pull required to bring in a new audience and will lose its charm with the existing loyalists.
Everyone loves a new update! Updates lead to website optimization and your product gets in sync with what is trending right now. Be on the look-out for new features and compare them with the existing page to get an insight on how the audience react to the new take.
Myth 4: “This small change is going to make a sea of difference to my conversion.”
Your conversion rate will not shoot up overnight with just one optimization. There is no one change, no matter how big or small that will change your game overnight. Nevertheless, the key to cracking the code is to keep experimenting and chipping away at the drop-off deficit that your product faces.
The smart way for maximum success in CRO is to test and implement changes one at a time — a bunch of positive outcomes chained together is bound to bring in the huge change that you anticipate. Use multiple tools in conjunction with each other to arrive at fresh results you otherwise would not have thought about.
Combine a scroll map experiment with a heatmap to identify where exactly on the page your audience lost interest. Conduct a funnel analysis and see which page causes maximum drop-offs, do a heatmap experiment on it, find out cold spots and add in more elements promoting the funnel to proceed further. These are one among the many blends you can synthesis with the right set of CRO tools.
Myth 5: “Any product can be optimized with paid CRO tools.”
No matter how good a CRO tool is, your product should complement the changes required and appeal to your target audience at the same time. If CRO marketing stats keep pointing to changes and none of the combination seems to work, it is probably back to the drawing board for your business team. Figure out if your product is on the right path and caters to the need of your users. Check if your support is doing a good job and find out if there is a value proposition.
CRO can only help you that much — A winning product choice in conjunction with a powerful conversion optimizer and a decent analytical approach will take your conversion ratio to new heights!
This blog was originally written for Zarget Blogs in the begining of 2017. Hope you didn’t let these influence your year in optimization. If yes, transcend above these at least in the last few months of this year. :)