5 Tips for Optimizing Your Conversion Funnel (Part 1)

There’s no question about it. If you want to improve conversions and drive revenue, you need to be testing design elements across your digital channels and then targeting the most relevant content to your customers. But what are the best ways to go about it?

Webtrends has been working with global brands for 15 years on these very issues. Our customers have seen the transformations that take place as a result of testing and content targeting. Through our experience, we’ve identified 10 strategies for making sure your testing is successful, so you can see the biggest possible revenue lift. Here are the first five tips—we’ll publish five more in a follow-up blog.

1. Develop a rich collection of test ideas.
   Take an honest look at your site. Use analytics or heat maps to identify hot and cold spots.  Then take a look at competitors’ sites—which elements do you respond to? Now choose a page on your site to test, and rank all possible user actions by highest value. For instance, a Buy Now click will probably rank higher on your list than a Privacy Policy click.
2. Know your numbers.
   What conversion activity do you want to improve, and by how much? Pick one metric, such as click-through rate, and test against that baseline. Did you meet your goal? Test again.
3. Share the fun.
   Don’t work in a vacuum. Put a testing team together early on, gather ideas and share results. It’s how you get people to buy-in to the testing process.
4. Test, don’t guess
   In optimization, opinions are opinions only, not measurable facts. And everything is testable. So, test that red headline against the blue, and Twitter campaigns against those in Facebook. You’ll transform your company through the process.
5. Segment and target your customers
   Target content to your customers based on segments, such as returning users or mobile customers.  This will drive greater conversion from these customers.

Want all 10 tips right now? Download them here.