Tips, tricks and take aways from Conversion Jam #5

When Conversion Jam #5, the largest conversion optimization conference in Europe, took place in Stockholm on the 1th of September we were there to learn more about the latest trends! I have put together some tips, tricks and takeaways from the conference that I hope you will enjoy.

Conversion Jam #5

Conversion Jam is a conference arranged once per year by Swedish CRO Company Conversionista. The main theme is on-page conversion optimization, with a mixed focus between Tactics and Strategy, although, as ”tactics” presentations make for ”cooler” presentations there is usually an emphasis on A&B tests, which is still after all these years the ”coolest” things you can do on a website.

I thought the conference was generally very good and inspiring. The speakers invited were some of the top names in conversion optimization which was fun!

One main point which was indirectly pointed out throughout the day was something we at NetRelations already discussed at our Unconference-talks in Berlin – the need and importance of working cross-discipline in order to produce even better solutions for our clients. That is of course easier said than done, but conversion optimization (one of the biggest parts of the job for a web strategist) cannot be done without the help from experts within, UX , ID, PL, GU, SU and so on.

Below I have listed some key take aways from the conference with links to further reading, please have a look as I really think everyone can find something of interest below.

Tools (technical)

Hotjar (heatmaps, funnels, session replay, form analytics)

Hotjar is an easy tool to get started with, and is often very appreciated by clients as it provides simple diagrams that everyone can understand, such as heatmaps and even ”session replays” which are recordings of actual users.

Optimizely (A/B Testing & Personalization Platform)

Optimizely is an A&B-testing tool that we at NetRelations have used before. The tool allows you to create a variation of an existing page without creating a new page type in your CMS. Which is great if you have time or budget constraints.

Unbounce (landing pages)

Unbounce allows “marketers” to quickly create many campaign landing pages without having to develop new page types or functions in current CMS.

This service is great for temporary traffic driving campaigns such as display or adwords. Where the goal is not SEO but goals such as: email subscribers, leads.

Tactics (user)

5 second test

The 5 second test is a type of usability test used to assess the impact and clarity of a web page. You show a test subject a web page for 5 seconds, then hide it and ask them what the purpose of the page was. It’s an effective way to gauge the focus of your landing pages.

You can also have a look at the 5 second test here.

Pretend to be a customer

When looking at a clients website it is easy to get stuck looking at numbers in Google Analytics or analyzing pages by themselves without considering the context for the customer.

A good way to get a better picture of a clients digital presence is to pretend to be a customer by giving yourself a scenario. For example: “my tooth hurts”.

My tooth hurts > Google symptom > Read blog about tooth problems > Google dentist near me > Click Adword > Read about Dentist > Compare costs > Google dentist name > Click organic link > etc…

One quickly sees how many “digital touch points” an average user goes through no matter which service or product, all these digital touch points affect the users.

Ask existing customers to write headlines for you.

Sometimes it is hard to define or even know how to formulate copy for campaigns or landing pages that resonate with potential customers. One way is to ask existing customers to write a short descriptive text about why they purchased from you. This will quickly give insight into what the customers really think is your most important “unique selling point” (quite often companies assumptions about what their customers value the most are wrong.)

Hero shots

Hero shots are defined as "the best picture of a series, often chosen to represent the whole series."

For websites it is the main image on a given landing page and is extremely important from a conversion perspective as an image not only takes up a lot of “real estate” on the site but is also a very strong “sales tool” as you can say a lot with just one picture.

Some things to consider when choosing an image:

1. Credible: no random stock photos
2. Context: the image should place product or service within a user context
3. Value: the image should portray the value of the product (benefits)
4. Emotion: the image should envoke an emotion, emotion trumps logic when it comes to persuasion
5. Clarity: the image should be easy to understand

The hero-shot scorecard is a tool that can be used to grade images on a website.

Tips and tricks

Mobile e-commerce: conversion tricks (based on 150 user tests)

1. Navigation should be prominent (show product categories at once)
2. Filtering: even more important on mobile vs desktop
3. use popups for emails subs
4. use popups for presenting helpful content for product pages
5. breadcrumbs more important on mobile sites than desktop

How do we test the right stuff?

A simple model to find what "matters the most":

step 1: Technical analysis (is web analytics tools implemented correctly?)
step 2: Heuristic analysis - relevance, clarity, motivation, friction
step 3: Digital analytics: leaks, segments, clickstream, what actions correlate with higher conversions (ex filtering)

And lastly, Målstyrning is awesome!

The most important take-away from the seminar is something that we at NetRelations have been doing for years: Define your business goals (effektmål) through the method Målstyrning.

All the tools, techniques and strategies in the world will not help if your organization has not clearly defined their business goals for their digital presence.

Do you need help with optimizing your digital solutions?

Are you interested in learning more about how you can optimize your digital solutions? We are happy to help you! Contact our Sales Manager Filip Berglund and he will tell you more about what NetRelations can offer.

Jag som bloggat

Oskar Andersson, Digital strateg på NetRelations