User experience (UX) and conversion rate optimization (CRO) are two critical factors in the success of your business. These two terms are often associated with each other, and it's easy to see why.
A big part of improving how many people sign up to your email list, buy a product, or engage with your brand is how consumers perceive your website. If your site is sloppy and poorly designed, your CRO tactics will be next to worthless. Similarly, the best-looking and most accessible site in the world won't mean much if you're not actively paying attention to consumer behavior and selling based on their needs, struggles, and goals.
Luckily, there are plenty of ways you can optimize both of these crucial parts of your business strategy. Let's look at several things you need to keep in mind when trying to find a balance between UX and CRO. We will also look at several tips in each category and show you how one can easily affect the other. Our goal is to help you convert more leads while creating content and offers that resonate with your target audience.
1. Create compelling blog content.
The first topic we are going to talk about is blogging. Almost all e-commerce websites have a company blog that they use to promote new products, features and content to their users. Surveys have shown that consumers are still interested in reading onsite content. In fact, a surprising 77% of internet users today regularly read blog posts.
If you want to increase your conversions and keep users interested in your brand, you have to consistently publish top-notch content. This strategy will help you generate leads by boosting your organic traffic, address customer pain points, and create relatable content for your target audience.
UX plays a pivotal role in how people interact with your blog once they land on your website. Issues with key features like your search function could cost your business big if you don't correct them.
Don't forget to add category buttons to your blog so users can find exactly what they are looking for when they land on your website. Once you show people that you want to help them navigate your useful content, you can convince them to sign up for your email list.
2. Improve the structure and layout of your forms.
Now, let's talk about UX and one of the most essential parts of every website – forms. You probably use contact, payment, comment and feedback forms on your website. If users have trouble navigating these different forms, they will likely leave your site and not return.
You can impact how consumers engage with your forms by streamlining their design and layout. The best way to figure out which forms are underperforming is by looking at your analytics for each section.
Let's say you have pretty good conversion rates on everything except your email subscription form. With this knowledge in mind, you can make changes to your form to get more people to follow through.
There are plenty of small changes you can make that could yield significant results. Did you know that limiting the field count to three can boost your completion rate to 25%? This is drastically different from the 15% seen by business owners with six or more fields on their signup forms. Essentially, businesses that remove one field from their form can see 26% more conversions.
Tweaking your forms is a big part of enhancing UX and improving CRO. Don't neglect this part of your strategy if you want to see more people sign up and engage with your site.
3. Test everything (but not all at once).
Next, we will talk about the importance of testing different elements of your website and how this can impact CRO and UX. A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a popular CRO tactic for marketers to increase the number of people who interact with an email, form or offer.
A/B testing specifically entails changing one element of your campaign to see if you can change how many people click through, subscribe or buy a product. These changes come in a wide variety. Some business owners change their web copy, and others change colors, call-to-action buttons, and the position of their forms and advertisements. You can pick and choose what to test with each campaign.
However, don't forget that you should only test one element per campaign. The problem that many people run into is they change multiple factors and see a dramatic shift in their traffic or sales. Now the marketing team doesn't know which change caused the impact. The result is more testing and a process of elimination-style change that will cost you and your team extra time and money. You're better off testing one element at a time, and seeing what kind of changes can have positive CRO results for your brand.
4. Optimize for mobile.
The final topic we are going to discuss today is mobile marketing. Over 3.7 billion people worldwide have a smartphone, so demand for mobile-friendly design is on the rise. Back before the ubiquity of smart devices, mobile-friendly sites were once viewed as a bonus feature. In today's landscape, mobile-responsive websites are absolutely necessary for a positive UX.
We've all visited a website from our smartphone, and it was so fundamentally broken that we couldn't continue reading, sign up or complete our purchase. This seemingly small addition can drastically change your business for the better.
Users want to associate with sites optimized for mobile devices so they can freely engage with your site from their platform of choice. This is a great UX choice, and it will undoubtedly help improve your conversions, because you're opening up your website to people who would otherwise have to wait until they are sitting at a PC. In other words, you're not creating an accessible format for all of your users, which alienates a significant portion of your audience.
Experts predict that most retail sales will occur on mobile devices by 2021. Combine that estimate with the fact that more people are using their phones' voice assistants to browse websites and gather information, and it's clear that you need to implement a robust mobile UX if you want to see explosive CRO growth.
5. Bring it all together.
Now that we've looked at UX and CRO separately and found ways to tie them together, it's time to bring it together to form one big picture. Every business should focus on creating a fantastic experience for users on their site, but they also need to know how to generate more conversions. By focusing on both of these elements simultaneously, you'll be one step closer to success. While they may be different, plenty of threads weave through user experience and conversion rate optimization.
The keys to bringing it all together are to regularly review your website analytics and gather customer feedback. When you know what your customers want and have actionable data to justify your UX, you're one step closer to building an all-in-one experience for your visitors.