Marketers define conversion as mostly the point at which the recipient of a marketing message performs the desired action i.e. responds positively to your call-to-action. Conversion can take different forms. For example, getting someone to open an email is a conversion, having them click on a call-to-action button inside that email is yet another conversion. Going to the landing page and filling out a form to download an eBook is conversion. And ultimately, making a purchase i.e. buying your product or service online or subscribing to a paid plan is a conversion.
But marketers do not always do it the right way: they sometimes make conversion mistakes that kill their product’s growth for a certain time period at least. So, here are 12 mistakes that can hinder your marketing goals and can be really challenging to avoid.
Following HIPPO
HIPPO is the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion in your company. While it’s a good idea to consult with them before conducting a new marketing tactic, you should by no means blindly follow them. Pre-judgment might kill the best ideas. So, if you are the marketer, be him/her wisely: experiment with conversion optimization, compare variations and try to find something that works.
Relying on best practices only
Doing your research and seeing what industry experts have to say is important for sure. But relying on best practices only might not end up well for your company/startup. Keep in mind that the best practices are something really generic and it’s a good idea to follow them only if they fulfill the needs of your business model.
Failing to use A/B testing tools
You do not want your campaigns to be based on blind guesses, right? Then make sure to pick a good A/B testing tool and start rocking your marketing experiments. Usually, analytics, PPC management tools, and email marketing platforms come with built-in A/B testing feature. But you can also find something that works separately. Check out our article 15 Absolutely Awesome App Marketing Tools to use in 2018.
Failing to prioritize
This one is also one of the common conversion mistakes that some marketers make these days. Picking a specific A/B testing tool is one thing, prioritizing on which pages to use it on first is another. If you start with testing the unimportant things or the unimportant web pages instead of testing the strategically important landing pages, then you are going to fail… and fail big.
Getting the first result and making a judgment based on it
Jumping into judgments after only getting the first result is as disastrous as making pre-judgments. It’s understandable that you need to show at least some results within a short timeframe, but make sure you show results that are based on several tests, not one. Why? Because every next test might bring a lot of variations.
Failing to show quick results
Want another conversion mistake? Sure. It’s failing to show the results quickly. Always respect the deadlines since usually, marketers have tight deadlines and a lot of deliverables. As soon as you have conducted the tests, start reporting the results. At least the first few of them.
But note that you should be testing again and again because only statistically significant results can help develop the right marketing strategy and achieve the desired conversion rates. So, testing, reporting, improving, and testing again should be your usual loop.
Using a nearly invisible CTA button
That CTA button should be visible! And one of the most common conversion mistakes is putting it either somewhere at the bottom of the page or at the top of it: somewhere the user is sure to miss it. But, as a marketer, you acknowledge the importance of this button and you want the users to actually see it. Here is an example of a clear and prominent CTA button.
Picking a disastrous color for your CTA button
No, this is not something subjective since we are not talking about fine art. We are rather talking about your marketing efforts to avoid conversion mistakes. And using the wrong color for your CTA button can be such a mistake. You know why? Because people form a lot of associations with colors. For example, red is usually used to tell people to stop. So, if you are going to use red as a checkout button, maybe you need to give it another thought?
Over-complicating the checkout process (for e-commerce apps)
The worst nightmare of any e-commerce app user is to be asked to sign up at checkout. While it’s a logical step that we all understand should be taken, it should not be long, boring, and over-complicated.
If you ask them to fill in several fields, especially unnecessary ones, they might even drop off and not make any purchase at all. So, the best thing to do here is to give your users an option to sign up using their social media accounts or Gmail. And if they opt to sign up using another email, make sure you simplify the process by eliminating unnecessary or less important fields.
Failing to make it look and feel secure (for e-commerce apps)
In a lot of cases, shoppers avoid buying a product simply because they don’t trust the website or the app. This we call customer anxiety. It happens because they don’t feel protected or secure for their personal or billing information. So, as an e-commerce store marketer, you need build trust toward your product.
There are several ways to do it. A very popular method is displaying trust badges to ensure the security of the users’ data. Another thing you can do is to offer a list of the cards you accept for payment (always provide users with freedom of choice). And the one last thing here is that you can display customer ratings and feedback. This is the social proof part that you would not like to miss if you want people to buy from you.
Displaying poorly written or vague testimonials
While displaying customer reviews and ratings is a great idea, you need to pick the right ones. As said above, testimonials can help build trust since they demonstrate social proof. But the trick is to find testimonials that are well-written, detailed, descriptive enough, and grammatically correct.
Using a generic landing page
We all want to save time and money but saving it on landing pages is not the best thing to go for. People don’t usually visit a landing page to convert immediately. They rather come to explore and learn something new. Only after they get the information they are looking for, they might convert. So, if you land them on a generic page where they have to put their contact information to be contacted by a sales representative later on, then they might not want to see you again. Ever.
Instead, make their experience with your brand really cool, keep them excited through incredible design, engage them with a useful message, after all.
Failing to use marketing funnels
A funnel commonly referred to as a purchase funnel is a marketing model that illustrates the theoretical customer journey towards the purchase of a product or service. At Inapptics, we provide app makers with the opportunity to create funnels and to measure the completion rate of each of them.
Most importantly, anything can serve as a funnel goal: a click on a button, a screen view etc. In addition, while traditional funnels only show how many users reached the funnel goal, we also show what happened to those who dropped off at some point. This helps app makers improve the user experience and decrease the drop off rate.
The bottom line
While this is a general list of conversion mistakes to avoid when marketing your website or app, there may be more mistakes preventing you from selling your product better. Make sure you conduct A/B testing as well as you use marketing funnels to see what’s wrong and which aspects need improvements.
Do your research and ask for expert opinions but never blindly follow best practices since they might sometimes be too generic. Instead, trust your gut feeling and the numbers that you get from the tools you use.
