In 2023, we’re all familiar with the standard “best practices” of CRO: always use social proof, always reduce form fields, never use image sliders, and so on.
As someone who believes that best practices are merely common practices, I’m always looking to test the tried and true to see how, well, true it really is.
First up? Social proof.
Quick! How many CRO “best practices” can you name off of the top of your head? I’m willing to bet the number is quite high.
Best practices are merely common practices. That’s why in this post we’re putting another “tried and true” concept to the test, just like we did with social proof.
Persuading completely rational people to make a rational decision or take a rational action would be easy. Unfortunately, you’re stuck dealing with irrational thinking, fueled by cognitive biases and emotions.
So, how do you persuade effectively when people are so heavily influenced by subjective (and contextual) factors?
You have a landing page and plenty of traffic, but no one is clicking the submit button on your lead generation form. What gives?
If you’re like most people, your first instinct is to remove form fields to reduce friction. Sounds simple and, well, pretty obvious, right? If you want more people to complete your form, ask less of them. A best practice was born.
Can you remember the last time your parents scolded you for swearing?
Throughout childhood, we’re conditioned to believe that swearing is inappropriate and crass. You could offend someone, it makes you seem uneducated, it’s unprofessional in the workplace… the list of reasons we’ve been told not to swear goes on and on.
But how bad is swearing, really? Is there a chance that it could be beneficial in business and optimization? As with most things people have told you that you absolutely should not do, there’s a chance you should be testing it.
Day in and day out, you’re surrounded by copy. You’re watching TV commercials, you’re seeing PPC ads in your search results, you’re visiting SaaS pricing pages, you’re shopping online for a new office printer… the list is endless.
It’s easy to look around and think, “Yeah, I could have written that.”
Whether you’re just getting started with copywriting or you’ve already written a few dozen landing pages, it’s important to know that copywriting mistakes are not few and far between.
To avoid making them yourself, it’s important to be aware of the most common (and costly) copywriting mistakes plaguing sites.
You know that persuasion is a powerful weapon. Perhaps you’ve even read our 18 Cognitive Biases You Can Use for Conversion Optimization and realized that you are definitely not dealing with rational visitors. And anyone doing conversion optimization should know Cialdini’s 6 principles of persuasion.
However, there is so much more to persuasion than what can be boiled down to a handful of core principles. There are many other, lesser known persuasion techniques that you can use to increase your conversion rate.
If you’re not aware of them and how they impact your visitors, you’re leaving money on the table.
Let’s say you just started using a new SaaS product. Who do you think would be able to explain the product to you more clearly: an engineer, a marketer or a customer service representative? You’d think the person who helped bring the product to life (the engineer), right?
His definition, however, would likely be more detailed and complex, thus, more difficult for you, a first-time user, to understand.
As it turns out, marketers struggle with clarity, too. And it’s hurting your conversions in surprising ways.
Conversion optimizers are in the business of attention management, just like magicians.
It’s your job, as an optimizer, to direct attention and focus your visitors on the next step. Yet, so few of us do this effectively. Landing pages are full of distractions, calls to action are cluttered, etc.
What’s a good conversion rate? A conversion rate that’s better than the one you currently have.
Whatever your current conversion rate is, today’s top conversion rate optimization experts have banded together to help you double it… in just 23 days.