CRO Archives - Directive Fri, 01 May 2026 21:24:21 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://directiveconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/favicon-32x32-1.webp CRO Archives - Directive 32 32 Best B2B Websites: 9 Beautiful Examples Built to Convert https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/blog-best-b2b-websites-examples/ Fri, 20 Feb 2026 20:30:00 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=50356 Your website isn’t a brand refresh project. It’s  a pipeline asset. In 2026, the best B2B websites are not the ones winning design awards.

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]]> The post Best B2B Websites: 9 Beautiful Examples Built to Convert appeared first on Directive.

]]> A Practical Guide to Making Your Website Mobile Friendly https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/a-practical-guide-to-making-your-website-mobile-friendly/ Wed, 18 Feb 2026 20:15:16 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=50432 If you’re trying to figure out how to make a website mobile friendly, you’re probably reacting to one of two

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]]> If you’re trying to figure out how to make a website mobile friendly, you’re probably reacting to one of two things: traffic is up but conversions aren’t, or rankings look fine on desktop but mysteriously underperform on mobile. That gap is rarely about “design.” It’s usually friction hiding in plain sight. A hero image that loads 1.5 seconds too slow. A form that feels slightly annoying to complete on a phone. A navigation menu that technically works but quietly increases drop-off.

In a mobile-first indexing world, Google evaluates the mobile version of your site, not the one that looks great in your board deck. And most B2B buyers are researching between meetings, in Slack threads, or while commuting. If your key pages are slow, cramped, or hard to tap, you’re paying for traffic that never had a fair shot at converting. This guide gives you a simple, testable workflow with clear pass or fail criteria so you can fix what actually impacts pipeline without turning it into a 3-month redesign.

Mobile friendliness isn’t a design initiative. It’s an efficiency discipline. If users can’t load, scan, and act quickly, performance erodes twice: once in discoverability, and again in conversion.

How to make a website mobile friendly

This is where teams either overreact or stall out. Someone says, “Our site isn’t mobile friendly,” and suddenly it turns into a redesign conversation. New templates. New navigation. Maybe even a rebrand. In reality, most mobile issues aren’t architectural. They’re friction issues. A few broken layouts. A slow hero section. A form that’s just annoying enough to abandon. Mobile optimization is rarely about starting over. It’s about systematically removing the small points of resistance that quietly kill conversion on the pages that actually drive pipeline. Here’s a workflow a small team can run in 1 to 2 weeks without turning it into a massive project.

1. Pick the pages that matter

Start with intent, not volume. Focus on the pages that create pipeline:

  • High-intent landing pages
  • Product or service pages
  • Pricing pages
  • Demo or contact pages
  • Top blog posts that assist evaluation

A low-traffic demo page can matter more than a high-traffic thought leadership post. Mobile optimization should protect conversion paths first.

2. Run a mobile reality check

Open each priority page on a real phone. Then open it in Chrome DevTools device mode.

Log anything that blocks reading, tapping, or completing the primary action:

  • Text too small
  • Horizontal scrolling
  • Buttons too close together
  • Forms that feel painful
  • Layout shifts while scrolling

Be blunt. If you have to pinch-zoom to read body copy, it is not mobile-friendly.

3. Fix responsiveness first

Start with layout and media before you touch anything else. This is where most of the obvious friction lives. Fixed-width containers that force horizontal scrolling. Feature grids that stubbornly stay in 3 columns on a phone. Images or embedded widgets that overflow their containers and break the flow of the page. You’re not trying to get fancy here. You’re making sure content actually reflows the way a human thumb expects it to. Our breakdown of what is responsive design covers the mechanics, but the real benchmark is whether your layout works on a real phone. The real test is simple: does the page stack cleanly, read comfortably, and guide someone toward the next action without feeling cramped or unstable?

4. Fix speed second

Performance should be tied to real user experience, not vanity Lighthouse scores. Core Web Vitals thresholds were defined using real-world data, as explained in Web.dev’s How the Core Web Vitals metrics thresholds were defined. That means the pass bars are grounded in user experience, not arbitrary targets.

We’ll break down those thresholds in detail below.

5. Fix UX third

After layout and speed, remove friction from navigation, forms, and tap targets. Make the primary action obvious and easy to reach with a thumb.

6. Validate mobile SEO fundamentals

Google’s Mobile site and mobile-first indexing best practices make it clear that mobile content is what gets crawled and evaluated. If your mobile version hides or strips critical content, that gap can show up in search performance.

Confirm content parity, crawlability, and consistent metadata and structured data across mobile and desktop experiences.

7. Re-test and monitor

Re-run Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights. Then monitor the Core Web Vitals report (Google Search Console Help) to see whether real-user data trends improve over time.

Pass or fail bar: If a user cannot load the page quickly, scroll without jank, read without zooming, and tap the primary CTA without mis-taps, the page is not mobile-friendly yet.

Mobile optimization is not a one-off design tweak. It is a workflow.

Start with mobile-first priorities (so you don’t overengineer)

Mobile projects get expensive when teams treat “mobile-friendly” like a blanket mandate instead of a prioritization decision. Suddenly every template feels urgent. The homepage gets redesigned. The careers page gets rebuilt. Meanwhile, the demo page that actually drives pipeline is still slow and awkward on a phone. That’s how overengineering happens. Mobile optimization should start with revenue gravity, not aesthetics or traffic volume.

Start with intent, not traffic. A demo page that drives 40 qualified requests per month is far more important than a blog post that drives 5,000 casual visits. Protect the pages that sit closest to conversion first. That’s where friction costs you the most.

Before you go any further, align internally on what you mean by responsive versus mobile-specific builds. If there’s confusion there, ground the team in what is responsive design so everyone is using the same language. Resizing a layout is not the same as prioritizing mobile behavior. Clarity here prevents debates later.

Then assign a clear conversion path to each priority page:

  • Product page → Demo request
  • Blog post → Related product page
  • Pricing page → Contact sales
  • Careers page → Job application

Finally, define what “mobile-friendly” actually means for your team using the pass or fail checklist later in this article. Agreement upfront keeps this from turning into a redesign project disguised as optimization.

 

Build responsive layouts that don’t break on phones

Here’s something most teams don’t notice until it shows up in performance data: a site can be technically responsive and still feel frustrating on mobile. It resizes. It stacks. Nothing technically “breaks.” And yet conversions lag because spacing feels cramped, hierarchy gets muddy, and the most important action ends up buried below something that looked impressive on desktop. Responsive is table stakes. The real question is whether your layout supports decision-making when someone is scanning between meetings or mid-scroll on a commute. If you need a reset on the fundamentals, start with website design best practices, then pressure-test those principles on a phone.

Confirm the viewport is set correctly

Use a standard viewport meta tag. Without it, your layout renders as a tiny desktop version on a phone.

Testing tip: If your site appears zoomed out in DevTools device mode, your viewport configuration or CSS layout is likely the issue.

Replace fixed widths with fluid layout patterns

Audit for fixed pixel widths on containers, tables, images, and embedded widgets. These often cause horizontal scrolling.

Use flexbox or grid with percentage-based widths and sensible max-widths. Let content collapse into a single column on smaller screens. Use responsive units like rem or clamp where it improves readability.

Avoid dogma. Test.

Make images and embeds responsive (without tanking speed)

Prevent overflow on images and iframes. Ensure media scales within its container.

Do not ship a 2500px hero image to a 390px screen if you can avoid it. Resize and compress appropriately. You can follow the principles in website design best practices without turning this into a full design initiative.

Improve mobile speed with Core Web Vitals targets

Core Web Vitals measure the kind of friction that quietly kills mobile performance. They aren’t arbitrary benchmarks. As explained in Web.dev’s How the Core Web Vitals metrics thresholds were defined, the thresholds are based on real user performance data. That’s why they matter for both discoverability and conversion. Instead of optimizing for a perfect score, focus on removing the slowest blockers on the pages that drive pipeline. Here’s the pass bar and what typically breaks it on mobile.

Metric Good threshold (pass) What usually breaks it on mobile Fastest fixes to try first Where to measure

 
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) ≤ 2.5s Unoptimized hero image/media, heavy JS delaying render, slow server response Compress/resize hero media, reduce render-blocking scripts, improve caching/CDN, simplify above-the-fold PageSpeed Insights + Search Console Core Web Vitals (field data)
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) ≤ 200ms Long main-thread tasks (JS), heavy third-party tags, complex UI scripts Defer non-critical JS, reduce third-party scripts, break up long tasks, ship less JS on mobile Search Console Core Web Vitals; confirm in Lighthouse for debugging
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) ≤ 0.1 Images/ads without dimensions, late-loading fonts, UI elements inserting above content Set width/height (or aspect-ratio) on media slots, reserve space for banners, stabilize fonts Search Console Core Web Vitals + Lighthouse layout shift debugging

Sources: Core Web Vitals thresholds

Make navigation, typography, and forms thumb-friendly

This is where mobile performance and CRO actually meet. You are reducing friction, reducing cognitive load, and making the next step obvious.

Navigation should be short and clear. Avoid tiny dropdown targets that require pixel-perfect taps. Sticky headers can help, but only if they do not crowd the viewport or push the CTA into a cramped corner.

Tap targets are an easy win. Material Design’s Touch Target (48×48px Guidance) recommends a minimum 48×48px size, including padding beyond the visible icon or button. If you have ever watched someone mis-tap a hamburger menu 3 times in a row, you already know why this matters.

Typography should be readable at arm’s length on a real phone. If users need to pinch-zoom to read body copy, that is not “a preference.” That is friction.

Forms deserve ruthless simplification. Shorten fields, use the right input types (email, tel, number), show inline validation, and keep the primary button visible without excessive scrolling.

These tweaks usually translate into higher form completion and less quiet drop-off on high-intent pages, especially for B2B buyers squeezing in research between meetings. If you’re noticing mobile-specific conversion dips and want more practical ways to address them, this guide on how to optimize mobile conversion rate walks through additional levers you can pull.

Avoid common mobile SEO pitfalls (that sabotage discoverability)

Mobile SEO issues usually don’t announce themselves. Rankings just soften. Traffic dips slightly. Pages underperform without a clear technical error to point at. In a mobile-first indexing world, Google evaluates the mobile version of your site, not the desktop one you prefer to review. Their Mobile site and mobile-first indexing best practices (Google Search Central) makes it clear: what exists and functions on mobile is what gets crawled and evaluated. That means mobile quality directly shapes search performance.

Keep this practical:

  • Content mismatch: Do not hide or remove critical content on mobile that exists on desktop. If the mobile page is thin, the indexed version is thin.
  • Blocked resources: Do not block critical CSS, JS, or media needed to render the page. It makes it harder for crawlers and users to understand the experience.
  • Broken internal linking on mobile nav: If the mobile menu hides key pages or breaks, you can unintentionally reduce crawl paths and buyer discoverability.
  • Separate mobile URLs: If you still maintain an m-dot or separate mobile experience, canonical and alternate relationships must be correct, or indexing gets messy fast.
  • Over-aggressive lazy loading: Lazy-load responsibly, but do not defer primary content so long that it harms perceived load or fails to render in common scenarios.

After you ship the mobile fixes, this mobile seo audit checklist is the next step for validating the broader technical foundation.

Tooling: test, diagnose, ship fixes, and monitor

You don’t need an enterprise stack to fix mobile issues. You need a simple loop your team can run consistently. Test the pages that matter. Diagnose what’s actually slowing or breaking them. Ship focused fixes. Then monitor real user data to confirm the improvement shows up outside of lab tools. The power isn’t in the tools themselves. It’s in using them in the same order, every time.

Quick testing stack (free + common team tools)

  • Chrome DevTools (Device Mode): Find layout and tap-target issues fast, test orientations, catch horizontal scroll.
  • Lighthouse: Great for debugging and prioritizing (lab data), not for declaring victory alone.
  • Google PageSpeed Insights: Useful for seeing lab results and field data when available.
  • Google Search Console Core Web Vitals report: Monitor trends over time using real-user groupings (Good, Needs improvement, Poor)
  • Cross-device testing (optional): If you cannot access many physical devices, a device lab service can validate across iOS, Android, and browser combinations.

A simple triage method (so fixes get shipped)

When you log issues, score them:

  • Severity: Does it block the primary action (demo request, contact, signup)?
  • Reach: How many sessions touch this template or path?
  • Effort: Can it be fixed in CSS or content, or does it require engineering work?

Fix in this order: layout breakages → performance → UX polish → SEO edge cases.

Before-and-after examples (what “mobile friendly” looks like)

Mobile friendliness should be visible. You should be able to show the before state to a colleague and get an immediate, “Yeah, I hate that,” reaction. The best improvements aren’t subtle. They remove friction you can actually feel. Cluttered layouts become scannable. Tiny buttons become easy to tap. A heavy hero that used to stall the page suddenly loads without drama. If you can’t clearly see the difference between the before and after, you probably didn’t fix the thing that was slowing buyers down.

Here are quick pairs you can visualize on any stack:

  • Layout
    Before: Three-column feature grid stays three columns on a phone.
    After: Same content stacks into 1 column with consistent spacing and scannable headings.
  • Hero + LCP
    Before: Autoplay background video or oversized hero image as the largest element.
    After: Compressed, properly sized hero image with reserved dimensions and a clear CTA.
  • Navigation
    Before: Tiny top-nav links with hover-based dropdowns.
    After: Simplified menu with clear tap targets and a persistent path to “Request a demo.”
  • Forms
    Before: 10 to 12 fields with small labels and unclear errors.
    After: Fewer fields, larger inputs, inline validation, and a single obvious submit action.

If you want the broader buyer-led angle beyond mobile, these b2b website best practices connect UX decisions to how modern B2B teams evaluate vendors.

Checklist module: Mobile-Friendly Website Pass/Fail Checklist

This is where you get honest. Run this checklist on your top templates, home, product, solution, blog, demo or contact, and force a clear pass or fail decision. You’re not grading on effort. You’re looking for friction that would stop someone from converting. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s clarity. If a page fails on something that affects a conversion path, it needs attention.

Responsive layout (Pass/Fail)

Pass: No horizontal scrolling at common mobile widths, content stacks cleanly, media never overflows containers.
Fail: Any fixed-width element forces sideways scrolling or shrinks text into unreadable sizes.

Core Web Vitals targets (Pass/Fail)

Pass: LCP ≤ 2.5s, INP ≤ 200ms, CLS ≤ 0.1 on key templates (prioritize field data where available).
Fail: Any template trends “Poor” in Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report and is part of a conversion path.

Thumb-friendly UX (Pass/Fail)

Pass: Primary actions are easy to reach, tap, and understand, and touch targets meet 48×48px guidance (including padding) per Touch Target (Material Design; 48×48px guidance).
Fail: Users mis-tap navigation or CTAs, or interactive elements are cramped, tiny, or too close together.

Readable typography (Pass/Fail)

Pass: Body copy is readable on a real phone without pinch-zoom, and spacing supports scanning.
Fail: Text is consistently too small, too dense, or clipped by containers.

Forms and conversion path (Pass/Fail)

Pass: Forms are short, inputs are easy to use, errors are clear, and the submit action is prominent.
Fail: The form is hard to complete on mobile, validation is unclear, or the CTA is buried below distracting elements.

Mobile SEO hygiene (Pass/Fail)

Pass: Mobile content is equivalent to desktop for critical pages, resources needed to render content are crawlable, and navigation preserves internal linking.
Fail: Mobile pages hide primary content, block key resources, or break internal linking and navigation.

FAQ: Mobile-friendly websites

What does “mobile-friendly” mean?
It means your site is usable on a phone without friction: content fits the screen, loads quickly, stays stable while loading, and interactive elements are easy to tap.

Is a mobile-friendly site the same as responsive web design?
Responsive web design is the most common way to achieve mobile friendliness: 1 site that adapts layouts across screen sizes. If you want a definition without the fluff, start with what is responsive design.

Do Core Web Vitals matter for mobile?
They’re user experience metrics (LCP, INP, CLS) with published thresholds. Improving them often reduces friction that hurts conversion and search performance.

How long does it take to make a website mobile friendly?
For many sites, first-pass fixes to core templates can be done in days to a couple of weeks, depending on the CMS, codebase, and how many pages share the same components.

What’s the fastest way to test mobile friendliness?
Test key pages on a real phone, then use Chrome DevTools plus Lighthouse to diagnose issues. Monitor real-user trends in the Core Web Vitals report (Google Search Console Help).

Turn Mobile Optimization Into Revenue Impact

Making your site mobile-friendly is the starting point. It ensures your content loads, your layouts adjust, and your forms function. But baseline usability does not equal performance. The real opportunity is turning mobile traffic into qualified pipeline with a buyer-led experience that reflects how decisions are actually made today across search, AI-driven answers, peer validation, and content journeys. That is where Directive’s Customer Generation™ methodology, powered by DiscoverabilityOS™, changes the equation from design compliance to measurable growth.

Mobile optimization should not live in a silo with dev tickets and PageSpeed audits. It should connect directly to conversion paths, media efficiency, and revenue outcomes. We help teams diagnose the highest-friction mobile touchpoints across their most valuable pages, from layout instability and load delays to UX gaps and form abandonment. Then we translate those findings into a prioritized backlog based on impact versus effort, so your team ships improvements that move pipeline, not just performance scores.

From there, measurement becomes the control system. We validate improvements using a blend of lab diagnostics and real-user monitoring, tying experience changes to conversion efficiency and cost per opportunity. The goal is not a higher Lighthouse score. It is more qualified demand from the traffic you already paid to acquire.

If mobile performance is already on your roadmap, the next step is ensuring your creative and conversion strategy are aligned, which is where a performance creative approach can turn improved experience into measurable pipeline impact.

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]]> The Ultimate B2B Conversion Rate Optimization Guide https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/blog-b2b-conversion-rate-optimization-guide/ Thu, 18 Dec 2025 18:30:54 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=49843 For senior B2B marketers and RevOps leaders, conversion rate optimization is not about squeezing more clicks out of the same

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]]> For senior B2B marketers and RevOps leaders, conversion rate optimization is not about squeezing more clicks out of the same pages. It is about revenue efficiency. When acquisition costs rise and buying cycles get longer, the fastest way to grow pipeline is to convert more of the demand you already have.

This is where b2b conversion rate optimization becomes a strategic lever. Instead of chasing incremental traffic, CRO focuses on increasing demo requests, improving qualification rates, and lifting win rates from existing sessions. Done well, it compounds across the funnel, improving marketing sourced pipeline and downstream revenue without increasing spend.

B2B CRO looks very different from B2C optimization. You are dealing with longer sales cycles, multiple stakeholders, higher risk decisions, and more complex objections. A conversion is rarely a purchase. It is a signal of intent that must translate into a real sales opportunity.

This guide outlines a data backed approach to b2b conversion rate optimization that combines behavior analytics, UX research, and disciplined experimentation. The goal is not more form fills. The goal is more qualified pipeline and revenue.

Diagnose friction with behavior analytics linked to revenue impact

High performing CRO programs start with behavior, not opinions. Before you test copy or redesign pages, you need to understand where buyers get stuck and which friction points cost the most revenue.

The strongest CRO teams link page level behavior to pipeline outcomes. They track how demo requests become SQLs, how SQLs become opportunities, and how those opportunities convert into revenue. This connection allows teams to prioritize fixes based on revenue impact, not surface level metrics.

Both quantitative and qualitative data matter. Funnels and analytics show where users drop off. Session replays, heatmaps, and surveys explain why they drop off. Together, they reveal the barriers that matter most.

Instrument your funnel and quantify drop-off

The first step is building a clear, stage by stage funnel before running a single test. This funnel should include every meaningful action from first page view through CRM status changes.

A typical B2B funnel might look like this: landing page view, CTA click, form start, form submit, thank you page view, CRM lead created, SQL, opportunity, revenue. Each step has its own conversion rate, and each step can leak revenue.

Industry benchmarks help set expectations. According to First Page Sage’s 2025 Report, average B2B conversion rates by channel remain modest, with SEO around 2.6%, PPC around 1.5%, and email around 2.4%. These numbers reinforce why on site optimization matters so much.

Consider a product page with 10,000 monthly visits. If 3% click through to a demo and 30% complete the form, the overall conversion rate is roughly 0.9%. Increasing click through to 4% or improving form completion to 40% materially increases pipeline without adding traffic.

The core formula still applies: Conversion Rate equals conversions divided by visitors, multiplied by 100. In practice, teams should break this into micro conversions at each step to understand cumulative impact.

Marketing analytics or RevOps typically owns this instrumentation, using tools like GA4, Mixpanel, or Amplitude and mapping events to CRM stages. Behavior analytics platforms like Contentsquare help visualize journeys and drop offs. For foundational definitions, align teams using the glossary for What is a conversion rate?.

A common pitfall is measuring only final form submissions. This hides upstream issues like ad to landing page mismatch, weak CTA visibility, or slow page load times.

Mine behavior analytics to spot bottlenecks fast

Once funnels are in place, focus your analysis on pages that drive high intent actions. Pricing pages, product pages, comparison pages, and primary landing pages typically have the highest business impact.

Prioritize analysis by traffic multiplied by impact. A small improvement on a high traffic, high intent page usually beats a large improvement on a low traffic asset.

Contentsquare’s CRO Guidance emphasizes identifying drivers, barriers, and hooks. Heatmaps might show that CTAs are rarely seen on mobile. Session replays may reveal users struggling with dense spec tables. On page surveys often surface objections like unclear pricing or missing integrations.

Useful benchmarks include scroll depth of at least 60% for pages with critical CTAs and time to first CTA impression within three to five seconds on mobile. UX researchers typically own this work, with PMMs validating messaging insights and developers fixing layout and performance issues.

After diagnosis, teams can reference Conversion Rate Optimization Tips to ensure basic usability issues are addressed before testing. A frequent pitfall is changing elements without a documented user problem. Every change should map to an observed barrier.

Add qualitative insight to explain the ‘why’

Quantitative data shows where users struggle. Qualitative research explains why.

Short interviews, intercept surveys, and sales call analysis reveal objections that suppress conversion. Common B2B blockers include security concerns, integration uncertainty, and unclear setup time.

Unbounce’s benchmark dataset spans tens of millions of conversions across thousands of landing pages. While median landing page conversion rates hover around 6.6% across industries, these figures should be treated as directional context rather than targets for high intent B2B flows.

For example, buyer feedback may show that prospects hesitate without SOC 2 proof. Adding trust badges and links to security documentation near the CTA creates a testable hypothesis.

Teams can track an objection coverage rate by dividing the number of top objections addressed on a page by the total number identified. PMM typically compiles objections from Sales calls, UX writers update copy, and Security or Legal provides certifications.

To ensure query intent matches page promises, align insights with aligning seo and conversion rate optimization. A major pitfall here is generic social proof. Industry matched logos and role specific outcomes convert better.

Apply b2b conversion rate optimization research to your top money pages

Not all pages deserve equal attention. High maturity CRO programs focus on landing pages, forms, and product or SaaS pages that directly influence pipeline.

Every change should map to a behavior barrier and a clear hypothesis. The goal is increasing qualified demos, not inflating raw conversion volume.

Landing pages — message match, offer fit, and proof

Effective landing pages align tightly with ad copy or search intent. Headlines and subheads should mirror the language buyers used to arrive on the page and clearly state outcomes.

Unbounce benchmarks suggest median landing page conversion rates around 6.6%, but high intent B2B pages often convert lower. The focus should be intent alignment, not chasing averages.

For a query like “SOC 2 monitoring for fintech,” the headline should reflect that phrase, include a clear outcome like faster audits, and feature fintech specific proof near the CTA.

Primary metrics include CTA conversion rate and secondary micro conversions like pricing views. PMM owns messaging, designers ensure hierarchy, and Demand Gen controls traffic quality.

Small copy changes can drive outsized impact. Directive documented how a simple A B test drove $112k in revenue in 30 days, reinforcing the leverage of focused experiments.

A common pitfall is overloading above the fold with features. Keep the CTA visible and defer details to expandable sections.

Forms — reduce friction and improve qualification

Forms should collect only what is required to route a productive sales conversation. Progressive profiling and enrichment can capture the rest later.

First Page Sage reports that many B2B page types convert in the low single digits. Improving form completion by 20 to 30% often yields meaningful pipeline gains.

For example, reducing fields from twelve to six, adding calendar booking, and routing enterprise leads directly to AEs can improve both speed and quality.

Key metrics include form start rate, completion rate, drop off by field, and downstream SQL rate. RevOps owns routing logic, SDR leaders manage follow up SLAs, and web teams ship UI updates.

For readers who need context, link to What is CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)? to frame forms within the broader system. A frequent mistake is forcing budget or timeline fields too early, which suppresses legitimate demand.

Product/SaaS pages — clarify value, reduce risk, support buyers

Product pages often influence decisions late in the journey. Buyers want clarity on outcomes, integrations, and risk mitigation.

First Page Sage cites average conversion rates of roughly 2.7 to 2.9% for product and service pages. Small lifts compound with traffic scale.

Effective examples include integration bars, security summaries, ROI snapshots, and role based tabs for Finance, IT, and Operations.

Metrics to track include click to demo rate, interaction with pricing tools, and engagement with proof assets. PMM defines narratives, Design and Dev build components, and Security provides compliance details.

Ensure standard usability fixes are covered by Conversion Rate Optimization Tips. A common pitfall is burying enterprise proof below the fold instead of placing it near the CTA.

Steps Playbook — 8-step B2B CRO program aligned to pipeline

  1. Define goals and guardrails: Choose one or two primary KPIs such as demo to SQL rate and set lead quality thresholds.
  2. Map the funnel and events: Configure analytics and CRM mapping for each micro conversion.
  3. Research: Combine funnels, cohorts, replays, surveys, and sales notes to identify barriers.
  4. Hypotheses: Write clear cause and effect statements with expected lift.
  5. Prioritize: Use ICE or PXL with revenue weighting.
  6. Experiment design: Define MDE, sample size, runtime, and risks.
  7. Ship and monitor: QA thoroughly and watch for data integrity issues.
  8. Analyze and iterate: Segment results, roll out winners, and queue follow ups.

QA and common pitfalls to avoid

Run a full QA checklist covering tracking, accessibility, mobile breakpoints, page speed, and validation. Avoid peeking or early stopping and document power assumptions.

VWO Guidance emphasizes segment analysis after tests conclude. CRO leads coordinate efforts, developers validate variants, and analysts verify statistics.

Design statistically valid tests that move revenue, not just clicks

Strong tests are grounded in observed barriers and tied to pipeline metrics. Teams must understand sample size, MDE, and runtime to avoid false positives.

Prioritize hypotheses with revenue weighting (ICE/PXL)

Not all lifts are equal. A 5% improvement on a pricing page may beat a 20% lift on a niche asset.

Estimated impact equals traffic multiplied by baseline conversion rate, expected lift, and average contract value. CRO leads partner with Finance and RevOps to quantify impact.

A common pitfall is chasing easy wins with little business value.

Design experiments with proper power and MDE

Underpowered tests waste time. Teams should document alpha, power, MDE, and runtime assumptions before launching.

For example, at a 2% baseline conversion rate with 100,000 monthly visits, detecting a 10% relative lift typically requires several weeks. Primary metrics should be defined alongside guardrails.

Post-test analysis and iteration

Every test produces insight. Segment results by device, channel, and persona to uncover patterns.

VWO recommends iterative testing and selective rollouts. CRO leads work with channel owners to adjust routing and variants. Avoid global rollouts without checking variance.

Operationalize CRO with cross-functional alignment to pipeline

CRO becomes durable when supported by governance, cadence, and shared documentation. Reporting must connect optimization work to pipeline outcomes.

Tie CRO to downstream KPIs that Sales cares about

Report beyond form fills. Track demo to SQL, SQL to opportunity, close rates, and deal size.

If a form simplification increases submissions but lowers SQL rate, adjust qualification to protect net pipeline. RevOps owns reporting, Sales reviews quality, and Marketing shares learnings in QBRs.

Build a repeatable experimentation operating system

Treat CRO like product work with roadmaps, sprints, and a shared learning archive.

Weekly triage and monthly reviews keep teams aligned. Track velocity, win rate, and cumulative lift over time. A lack of documentation leads to repeated tests and lost insights.

Tech stack to scale CRO (without overcomplication)

Start with analytics, behavior insights, testing, and landing page builders. Add personalization after consistent wins.

A typical stack includes GA4 for measurement, Contentsquare for behavior analytics, VWO or Unbounce for testing, and CRM and marketing automation for routing.

When teams need expert support, link to b2b conversion rate optimization services to scale execution responsibly. Tool sprawl is a common pitfall. Depth beats breadth.

 

B2B conversion rate optimization is a growth system, not a set of tactics. When behavior analytics, research, and experimentation align to pipeline metrics, CRO becomes one of the highest ROI investments a B2B organization can make.

If you want to scope analytics gaps, prioritize revenue opportunities, and build a 90 day experimentation roadmap, request a CRO audit with Directive. Our team specializes in b2b conversion rate optimization programs designed to turn existing demand into durable pipeline growth.

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]]> The Playbook for Improving Mobile Conversion Rates https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/blog-how-to-improve-mobile-conversion-rate/ Tue, 16 Dec 2025 13:00:39 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=49822 Mobile traffic has been the default buyer touchpoint for a while, yet a lot of B2B sites still behave like

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]]> Mobile traffic has been the default buyer touchpoint for a while, yet a lot of B2B sites still behave like desktop-first brochures that happen to resize. The result is predictable: paid and organic drive interest, then mobile users hit slow pages, jittery layouts, cramped calls to action, and forms that feel like work. Then many B2B leaders wonder why conversion rates are falling. This playbook shows you how to improve mobile conversion rate by tightening performance on Core Web Vitals, simplifying navigation, making CTAs thumb-friendly, and shortening forms, so more of that demand turns into qualified pipeline.

Fix Performance First: Speed And Responsiveness Drive Mobile Wins

On mobile, mobile CRO starts with physics. If a page takes too long to load or hesitates when someone taps, you do not have a messaging problem, you have a UX problem. Faster pages cut bounce, increase form starts, and raise the odds that a buyer reaches the next step while they still care. The most useful move here is aligning marketing and engineering on a speed budget per template, then tracking Core Web Vitals at the 75th percentile on mobile so you are measuring what most real users actually experience. Think the better the experience, the less friction there is standing between them and the desired action you want them to take.

Core Web Vitals Targets For Mobile (INP, LCP, CLS)

Treat responsiveness as a conversion feature, not a “technical bonus”. Google’s Interaction to Next Paint (INP) became a Core Web Vital and replaced FID, which is a strong signal that interaction speed matters as much as load speed. Aim for the following:

  • INP at or below 200 ms at the 75th percentile on mobile
  • LCP at or below 2.5 seconds
  • CLS under 0.1

These targets give you a shared definition of “fast enough” for tap-heavy flows like pricing, product, and demo pages.

A quick way to make this feel real is to imagine a pricing page where INP drops from 350 ms to 170 ms. The offer did not change. The copy did not change. Yet the experience feels crisp. Taps feel instant, the next view arrives without hesitation, and buyers stop second-guessing whether the site is broken. That’s the point: performance changes create conversion lift by removing doubt.

How should you measure this? 

Mobile CVR = mobile conversions ÷ mobile sessions

When teams disagree about what counts as a conversion, testing becomes a political sport instead of an operating rhythm. This Conversion rate definition can help you align on measurement language so mobile reporting stays consistent across channels and stakeholders.

Common pitfall from B2B marketers: optimizing only lab scores. Lighthouse is helpful, yet your buyers are on real devices, on real networks, with real scripts running. Use PageSpeed Insights and CrUX field data to validate what is happening at p75 on mobile before you celebrate improving your webpage scores.

Cut Weight: Images, Scripts, And Fonts

Most mobile pages are heavy for boring reasons: oversized media, too much JavaScript, and font choices that cost more than they earn. Or the SEO and Content team wants to include X number of keywords to ensure they are ranking for a specific topic. However, long form content on mobile can really hurt your load times, INP and LCP scores. You can improve INP and LCP without redesigning the whole site if you reduce bytes and main-thread work first. Convert hero imagery to modern formats (AVIF or WebP), lazy-load below-the-fold images, and defer non-critical scripts that compete with CTA and form logic. Keep fonts practical: ship system fonts when it fits your brand, or subset a variable font so you are not forcing a mobile device to download the entire type family before anything feels stable. Then ensure heavy text blocks are broken up into smaller bite-sized segments that are easier for the user to digest.

As you tighten performance, keep visual hierarchy in mind. Faster pages reveal whether the layout actually guides the eye toward the right action. Website design best practices is a good reference point once the technical bottlenecks are under control, especially for spacing, scannability, and CTA clarity.

Monitor And Alert On Mobile Vitals

Let’s face it, mobile performance is fragile. One tag manager update, one new chat widget, one “quick” experiment script, and then boom…your INP climbs overnight. Sustained performance requires monitoring and guardrails: dashboards that separate mobile from desktop, thresholds that match Core Web Vitals, and alerts that trigger before revenue notices. Set Slack or email alerts when INP p75 drifts above 200 ms on your conversion-critical templates, then treat the fix like a hot issue, not a backlog item.

This is also where CRO starts to look like an operating system, not a project. Speed improvements matter only when they are tied to conversion outcomes and protected over time.

What is cro is a useful refresher for stakeholders who still view CRO as a set of isolated tests instead of a disciplined process tied to business results.

How To Improve Mobile Conversion Rate With Speed And Responsiveness

Speed shows up in the numbers, yet it also shows up in behavior you can see. When interaction is fast, people explore. When the UI hesitates, they retreat. Improving INP and stabilizing layout is how you turn “mobile traffic” into “mobile demand” without asking for extra budget.

Instant Feedback Patterns

Every tap needs a response. If someone hits “Request demo” and nothing happens for half a second, you have created doubt. Acknowledge taps immediately with loading states, disable buttons to prevent double submits, and prefetch the next view when you can. Optimistic UI is not only a product tactic, it is a mobile conversion tactic.

Optimize Interaction to Next Paint is a solid technical reference for diagnosing and fixing slow interactions.

Stabilize Layout For Critical Actions

Mobile buyers forgive a lot, but they do not forgive a button that moves while they are trying to click it. That is almost a 100% guarantee that the buyer will bounce. Layout shifts near CTAs and forms depress conversion because they make the site feel unreliable. CLS under 0.1 is the target, and the fixes are usually straightforward: reserve space for images, avoid injecting banners above primary CTAs after load, and design consent bars and promos with predictable heights so they do not shove the page around mid-scroll.

Speed Budget And Governance

A speed budget is how you keep performance from sliding backward. Set one per template, enforce it in CI, and treat exceptions as temporary with an owner and a removal date. For a demo page, your budget might be LCP at or below 2.5 seconds, INP at or below 200 ms, CLS under 0.1, and a strict cap on above-the-fold bytes.

Step-By-Step Playbook: A 4-Week Plan To Lift Mobile CVR Fast

A four-week sprint is enough to find meaningful lift without starting a redesign, as long as you focus on conversion-critical templates, ship changes that remove friction, and measure outcomes your team trusts.

Week 1: Baseline And Speed

Instrument mobile CVR alongside INP, LCP, and CLS on your pricing, product, and demo templates. Compress and convert hero media, defer non-critical JavaScript, add skeleton states for key transitions, and draft a speed budget for your demo flow. Pair PageSpeed Insights with field data so you are not optimizing for a lab environment you do not sell to.

Week 2: UX Simplification

Ship a sticky header or bottom sticky CTA bar where it supports the primary action without covering content. Collapse navigation so buyers can reach pricing, demo, and product pages in one to two taps. Reduce above-the-fold copy so the value and action are obvious within the first screen. If you want a few quick-win patterns that still hold up, the older but practical ideas in optimize your mobile conversion rate map well to modern UX, especially sticky menus and mobile-first form behaviors.

Week 3: Forms

On mobile, form fields are negotiations with attention span. Start with two to three required fields for high-intent actions, then enrich the rest after submit. If you absolutely need more, try to stick to 6 or less. Also, ensure you are using the right input types, enabling autofill, and making validation readable and immediate. If your buyer is ready to talk, offer a scheduler after the short form so they can book instantly without hunting through emails. The faster the response time the better; we recommend keeping this response time under 5 minutes.

Week 4: Test And Learn

A/B test CTA placement and wording, form length, and sticky bar versus no sticky. Roll out winners quickly, document what changed and why it worked, and add the learnings to a playbook that becomes your default for future launches. Mobile A/B testing is where teams often get sloppy, so keep guardrails like bounce rate, error rate, and Core Web Vitals by variant. Be careful to not roll something out on a gut instinct, testing is always the better route.

Pitfalls And QA Checks

Fast changes need rigorous QA. A broken form, a flicker from an experiment script, or a consent banner that shifts the layout can wipe out the gain you just created. Baymard’s research on checkout UX is ecommerce-focused, yet the underlying lesson travels well to B2B lead gen: small usability issues create abandonment, and targeted fixes can produce meaningful lift. Their 2024 benchmark also notes that many leading sites still perform “mediocre” or worse in checkout UX, and they estimate meaningful conversion upside from fixing solvable issues.

Checkout UX 2024: 11 Pitfalls and Best Practices is where Baymard publishes the 2024 benchmark and the 35% lift estimate.

QA on a few real devices and browsers, including at least one lower-end phone, and test on cellular. Verify inline validation, keyboard types, tap targets, and layout stability when chat widgets, promos, and cookie banners appear.

Make Mobile UX Effortless: Navigation, CTAs, And Adaptive Layouts

Mobile UX is one-handed. Primary actions must be reachable with the thumb, the path should feel obvious, and content should adapt to the viewport instead of shrinking into a dense wall of text. The best mobile conversion optimization changes are often boring: fewer choices, clearer hierarchy, and components that behave consistently across templates.

Thumb-Friendly CTAs (WCAG 2.2 Target Size)

Bigger targets convert because they reduce mistakes. WCAG 2.2’s target size guidance sets a minimum of 24×24 CSS pixels or sufficient spacing, and in practice most teams go larger for primary actions. For high-intent CTAs like “Request demo,” treat full-width buttons with generous height as the default, and space adjacent links so buyers are not mis-tapping the footer instead of your form.

Understanding SC 2.5.8: Target Size (Minimum) is the clearest source on the 24×24 CSS px minimum and spacing exceptions.

Simplified Mobile Navigation And Sticky Action Bars

Try to reduce the number of steps to your key actions and keep the primary CTA in reach. Sticky bottom bars work when they support the action and respect the safe-area on modern phones. The goal is not to plaster CTAs everywhere, it is to remove the moment where a buyer thinks, “Now what?”

Adaptive Layouts And Scannable Content

On mobile, clarity beats density. Break long paragraphs, front-load the value, and use progressive disclosure for detail that matters later. If you are looking for patterns that translate cleanly from checkout flows to lead-gen flows, the ideas in b2b e-commerce conversions are helpful for thinking about trust, friction, and decision support across different conversion types.

Short, Intelligent Forms: Fewer Fields, More Completions

Forms are where B2B sites quietly lose pipeline and are often low hanging fruit. Mobile makes that loss obvious. When a buyer is interested enough to raise their hand between meetings, every extra field is a reason to postpone the action until later, and later often never happens. Try to put yourself in the buyers shoes, test out your own form or have a friend do it and write down the feedback. Were there too many fields to feel out?

Progressive Profiling And Enrichment

Ask less up front and enrich after. For a mobile demo request, email and company may be enough to start. Firmographic enrichment and progressive profiling on the confirmation screen or in follow-up emails can capture role, use case, and timeline without forcing the buyer to type a novel into a phone keyboard.

Mobile-Friendly Inputs, Autofill, And Validation

Use the correct input types and input modes so the right keyboard appears. Turn on autofill attributes, allow paste, and show plain-language inline errors that do not reset the form. This improves completion rate and also supports interaction performance by reducing janky reflows and re-renders that can show up in INP.

Offer One-Tap Scheduling And Chat As Alternatives

When intent is high, give buyers a fast path. A short form that leads to scheduling can outperform a long form that promises someone will “get back to you.” Chat can work as a secondary option when it is staffed and routed correctly. Track form-to-meeting rate and chat-assisted conversion, and watch no-shows so you are not trading volume for noise.

Test What Matters On Mobile: CTA Placement, Copy, And Forms

Mobile testing works when you segment results by device and network quality, focus on high-intent pages, and optimize for business actions like demo clicks and qualified meetings.

Prioritize A Mobile Experiment Backlog

Rank tests by impact, confidence, and effort, then start where mobile traffic meets intent: pricing, demo, and product pages. Sticky bottom CTA versus control, short form versus long form, and copy that clarifies the outcome (“Book live demo” versus “Request demo”) are the kinds of tests that earn real movement.

Measure The Right Outcomes

Mobile CRO starts to fail when teams optimize what is easiest to measure instead of what actually drives the business forward. Engagement metrics can look encouraging while pipeline quietly underperforms, especially on mobile where friction shows up in small but compounding ways. The objective is not more activity, it is more completed actions that indicate real buying intent, grounded in a shared conversion rate definition so marketing, growth, and revenue teams are aligned on what success looks like.

On high-intent pages like pricing or demo, that hierarchy should be intentional and clear. The primary metric needs to sit as close to revenue as possible, such as “Start trial” or “Request demo” submissions, with secondary metrics like CTA tap rate or form start-to-submit completion used to explain why performance moved. A pricing page test that increases taps but fails to increase trial starts is not a win, and without clean event tracking on mobile, it is easy to draw the wrong conclusion. Event quality matters as much as the metric itself, since duplicate fires, broken submits, or missing mobile parameters can quietly invalidate test results.

In practice, this work is shared across functions rather than owned by a single role. CRO analysts are responsible for defining the metric framework and hypotheses, while data engineers ensure mobile tracking is accurate across devices, browsers, and network conditions. Reporting should be built at the template or page level so mobile behavior is visible on its own, not averaged together with desktop traffic where meaningful signals disappear. Metrics like mobile CVR, demo click-through rate, form start-to-submit completion, and qualified meeting rate provide a clear picture of whether mobile changes are actually improving conversion quality.

The biggest mistakes tend to show up when rigor slips. Peeking at results before tests reach significance leads to false confidence, underpowered experiments create noise instead of insight, and blended desktop-plus-mobile reporting slows decision-making. Mobile conversion gains compound when teams stay disciplined about measuring outcomes that matter and resist the temptation to optimize anything that does not directly connect back to pipeline.

Mobile CRO FAQs

How can I increase the conversion rate of my mobile app? Remove payment or scheduling friction (one-tap wallets where it fits, fewer steps, saved preferences). Why is my conversion rate so bad? It usually comes back to friction: slow pages, confusing flows, or forms that ask for too much too early.

What makes a good conversion rate? Benchmarks vary, so treat your baseline as the score to beat and track mobile separately from desktop. How to boost your conversion rate? Speed up pages, simplify navigation and forms, strengthen thumb-friendly CTAs, then keep testing the highest-impact screens.

Mobile conversion optimization is not glamorous work, yet it is some of the highest-return work you can do because it improves every channel at once. If you want a clear roadmap and an audit of what is slowing down your buyers, our team can help you build and run a program that ties performance, UX, and testing back to pipeline.

Read to turn mobile traffic into pipeline with a b2b conversion rate optimization audit that identifies performance bottlenecks, UX friction, and the fastest conversion wins to prioritize next? Request your CRO + Mobile audit today.

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]]> 10 Landing Page Mistakes That Kill B2B Conversions and How to Fix Them https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/b2b-landing-page-mistakes/ Tue, 02 Dec 2025 13:15:22 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=25954 Every paid campaign eventually arrives at one moment of truth. A visitor lands on the page, scans the first section,

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]]> Every paid campaign eventually arrives at one moment of truth. A visitor lands on the page, scans the first section, and decides whether to continue or disappear. Traffic quality matters. Targeting matters. Offers matter. Yet none of it produces pipeline unless the landing page carries the momentum forward. In B2B, where teams face longer buying cycles, multiple stakeholders, and high scrutiny, landing pages play a larger role in revenue performance than most marketers admit.

The following guide breaks down the ten failure patterns that most often undermine conversion rates and provides a practical blueprint to correct them. This is not a list of surface level design tweaks. It is a strategic operating framework shaped by modern buyer behavior, CRO research, and current best practices. Landing pages that follow core optimization principles can improve conversions significantly. B2B audiences reward clarity, relevance, and frictionless experiences.

This is the playbook for creating landing experiences that move real pipeline.

1. Pre-click and post-click experiences do not match

When the content that drives the click sets one expectation and the landing page delivers something different, visitors experience an immediate break in trust. That break increases bounce rate and reduces the likelihood of continuation. Buyers rely heavily on cognitive consistency when evaluating digital experiences, and inconsistent messaging signals operational disorganization.

Correcting the issue begins with perfect alignment between ad level messaging and the hero section of the landing page. Headlines, imagery, phrasing, and the core promise must mirror what the visitor saw before clicking. Once the visitor confirms they are in the right place, the remainder of the page can expand the story without confusing the user. A matched message is one of the strongest trust signals available and consistently increases conversion velocity.

2. Calls to action compete for attention instead of guiding it

Landing pages convert when visitors understand the next step without having to think. Multiple CTAs create competing priorities and increase cognitive load. When a page offers free trials, sign ups, social follow links, blog content, and secondary micro conversions all at once, the visitor becomes unsure which action is intended.

High-converting pages commit to a single primary CTA. The path forward must be obvious, visually distinct, and repeated at relevant scroll depths. Supporting sections can add context, clarify value, or build trust, but they must funnel toward one action. Simplicity is not a design preference. It is a conversion driver.

3. Visitors do not understand what they receive when they convert

B2B buyers evaluate time, effort, and information costs before taking action. If a visitor cannot quickly understand what they will gain from a demo, trial, or download, hesitation increases. Clarity around value exchange significantly improves form engagement because buyers want transparency about expectations.

Improved performance comes from clearly outlining what the visitor receives and what the experience includes. Duration, content covered, who leads the call, whether credit card information is required, and the expected outcomes should be stated plainly. When visitors know what they are agreeing to, their willingness to move forward rises.

4. Forms request more information than the buyer is ready to give

Every form field introduces friction. Many landing pages fail because they ask for excessive or unnecessary data before trust is established. This trend is especially costly because modern B2B buyers often prefer lower commitment entry points. Instapage reports that shorter forms consistently outperform longer ones in early stage interactions.

The remedy is disciplined restraint. Only request the information needed for qualification or follow up. Sequence fields from low friction to higher friction and avoid sensitive questions until a relationship exists. For most early conversions, email and a single contextual qualifier provide enough information to route or score the lead. Reducing friction improves both completion rate and lead volume.

5. Pages lack compelling proof that the solution works

B2B buyers begin their journey in a state of skepticism. Claims without evidence create doubt and increase the perceived risk of conversion. Case studies, quantified results, client logos, and testimonials reduce the evaluation burden and build confidence. According to VWO, trust signals are among the most influential drivers of conversion behavior in landing page testing, and removing them consistently reduces results.

To correct this, ensure proof lives in strategic positions across the page, not buried below the fold. Social proof near the hero section reassures visitors, while specific outcomes and short case examples provide depth as they scroll. Trust is earned through evidence, not claims.

6. Pages rely on text blocks instead of visual communication

Large blocks of text slow the visitor’s ability to understand what the solution does and why it matters. Most B2B buyers skim before they read, and if comprehension does not occur quickly, they leave. Visuals accelerate understanding by reducing cognitive load.

High-converting landing pages use UI mockups, magnified feature views, short product walkthroughs, simple diagrams, and clear benefit groupings. Visitors should be able to visualize the outcome without reading every word. Visual clarity reduces perceived effort, strengthens value perception, and significantly improves retention.

7. Messaging focuses on the product instead of the buyer’s problem

Many teams default to explaining features, architecture, or internal strengths. None of this matches how buyers evaluate solutions. B2B research consistently shows that buyers respond more strongly to language that reflects their pain, goals, and desired outcomes rather than product centric descriptors.

The solution is buyer led storytelling. The visitor must see their challenge articulated clearly before being shown how the product solves it. This positions the brand as the guide rather than the hero and aligns with how decision makers interpret relevance. When visitors feel understood, they are significantly more likely to convert.

8. Design quality signals do not meet buyer expectations

First impressions form within seconds, and visual design is a strong proxy for perceived product quality. Misaligned elements, pixelated imagery, outdated styles, and inconsistent spacing communicate a lack of polish. Buyers associate low quality presentation with low quality execution.

Optimized landing pages use clean layouts, proper spacing, accessible contrast standards, consistent visual hierarchy, and a structure that adapts gracefully to all devices. The goal is not aesthetic embellishment. It is clarity, modernity, and professionalism. A page that feels current and intentional increases trust and reduces bounce rate.

9. Common objections are not acknowledged or addressed

Even when interest is high, B2B buyers carry concerns. Integration requirements, pricing structure, onboarding complexity, timeline expectations, and security considerations influence conversion decisions. When the landing page does not surface answers, the visitor must resolve these concerns alone. That dynamic increases friction and decreases conversions.

Correction requires anticipating objections and responding with short, direct explanations. A small FAQ near the CTA, a simple onboarding overview, or a summary of integration capabilities can significantly increase confidence. Reducing uncertainty is one of the most reliable conversion levers.

10. No continuous optimization or data informed iteration

The most damaging mistake is treating the landing page as a static asset. Performance declines naturally unless pages evolve with audience behavior. Heatmaps, scroll depth data, form analytics, and CTA interaction patterns reveal where visitors hesitate or exit. Ongoing testing creates compounding improvements and that static pages consistently underperform optimized ones.

High performing teams review behavioral analytics weekly and test improvements continuously. Headline variations, reordered benefit sections, simplified forms, and adjusted CTA phrasing all provide incremental gains. Conversion rate optimization is not a one time activity. It is a process that creates a durable performance advantage.

The Path Forward for High-Converting B2B Landing Experiences

Landing pages determine whether demand becomes pipeline or disappears without a trace. In a high scrutiny B2B environment where buyers evaluate dozens of signals before committing, the landing experience must validate the promise that earned the click, reduce friction at every step, and resolve uncertainty with authority. Teams that treat landing pages as conversion infrastructure rather than design projects consistently outperform those relying on static, surface level updates.

The organizations that win are the ones that operationalize this blueprint. They build pages that communicate value with clarity, earn trust through evidence, and adapt quickly based on real user behavior. When the landing experience works, every paid channel lifts, every campaign becomes more efficient, and pipeline grows without an equivalent increase in spend. In a market defined by precision and efficiency, this is one of the most controllable revenue levers available.

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]]> The Real Strategy Behind High-Converting B2B Websites https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/blog-b2b-website-strategy-guide/ Wed, 26 Nov 2025 13:00:01 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=49662 Too many teams build websites to attract attention rather than guide decisions. They optimize for volume instead of comprehension. They

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]]> Too many teams build websites to attract attention rather than guide decisions. They optimize for volume instead of comprehension. They chase rankings, sessions, and time on page as if those metrics correlate with alignment, confidence, or consensus. But buyers are not trying to “engage.” 

They’re trying to get clarity on … ‘’Wait? What do they do exactly?’’

The truth is that most B2B websites are built for visiting, not making a decision. And decision makers don’t have the luxury of guessing what you mean. They need to understand the problem you solve, the outcomes you create, and how your solution fits into their internal landscape. When your website can’t deliver that clarity quickly, it doesn’t matter how modern it looks. It’s not functioning as a growth lever.

What follows is a complete b2b website strategy built for the way decisions are actually made. You’ll learn how to define a value proposition that cuts through noise, engineer pages that mirror real buying behavior, place proof where it shifts conviction, and run a CRO engine tied directly to pipeline metrics. If you want a website that generates qualified demand instead of lost opportunities, this is where you start.

Make Your Value Proposition Obvious and Buyer-Specific to Reduce Friction

B2B websites tend to assume far too much about what buyers already know. They assume the visitor understands the category. They assume the problem is obvious. They assume the path forward is intuitive. Meanwhile, the actual buyer is juggling conflicting priorities, unclear internal requirements, and the pressure of making a recommendation that will be scrutinized by multiple stakeholders.

Clarity is not just a best practice. It is the one thing that cuts through this internal noise.

According to Gartner’s press release, 80 percent of B2B sales interactions will occur in digital channels by 2025. That means your website must accomplish what your sales team often doesn’t get a chance to: articulate the value in a way that accelerates internal alignment.

A strong value proposition improves hero CTR, boosts demo requests from ICP segments, and directly contributes to a higher lead-to-SQL rate. It offers a concise narrative that buyers can share internally. It shortens cycles because people understand what they’re evaluating.

Define ICPs, Jobs-To-Be-Done, and the Pains You Actually Solve

High-performing websites do not begin with personas. They begin with ICPs grounded in real data: industry, company size, martech maturity, operational pressures, and primary pains that show up consistently in win-loss notes. Clear ICP definitions make the website intelligible. They help you choose the right language, highlight the right benefits, and surface the right proof.

A good example might look like this: mid-market or enterprise SaaS, revenue between $50M and $500M, a full GA4 and automation stack in place, and pains centered around inconsistent conversion rates, leadership pressure for ROI, and friction between marketing and product. When you reduce these ICPs to simple jobs-to-be-done statements like “increase qualified pipeline without adding headcount,” your messaging aligns instantly with buyer reality.

This ICP clarity should be built from CRM notes, Gong recordings, onsite search logs, and calls with your most successful customers. And if you want to align the rest of your marketing with a similar rigor, point your team to 10 Necessities for Your B2B Marketing Strategy 

Persona fluff sounds impressive. ICP clarity converts.

 

Pass the 10-Second Hero Test With a Benefits-First Message and One Clear CTA

Most homepage hero sections look like brand statements, not buying guidance. The headline is aspirational. The subhead is abstract. The CTAs compete instead of lead. And the logos are placed wherever the design looks balanced rather than where the buyer needs reassurance.

The ten-second test is simple. If a visitor cannot clearly explain what you do, who you help, and what outcome you create within ten seconds of landing on your page, the rest of the website may not matter.

A benefits-first message gives the buyer something specific to latch onto. A single primary CTA guides their next move. A secondary CTA offers an alternative path for the evaluator who wants more context before committing. And credibility logos placed above the fold reduce the perceived risk of engaging.

Hero performance should be tracked using primary CTA clicks divided by hero section sessions. This metric is not cosmetic. It is the first indicator of whether your website communicates value at the speed buyers actually need.

If your team needs structural guidance, refer them to B2B Landing Page Design Best Practices for patterns that support decision-making instead of distracting from it.

Map Copy to the Buying Committee: Economic, Technical, and End Users

A single person does not buy in B2B. A committee does. And each member of that committee brings different anxieties, incentives, and priorities.

Economic buyers want confidence.
Technical evaluators want certainty.
 End users want clarity.

Your website should speak to each of them without turning into a fragmented experience. The navigation should reflect buyer intent rather than internal structure. The content should answer the questions each group needs to move forward. Proof should appear at the precise moment each stakeholder begins to hesitate.

GA4 content groupings or audience segmentation can help you measure how each role interacts with the site. PMM and Content should own this insight. If you want to route buyers through stronger pathways, use Optimizing Your Internal Linking Strategy to guide next steps intentionally.

The websites that fail here assume “a good page is good for everyone.” The websites that convert understand that decisions are collective and design every page with that dynamic in mind.

Turn Your B2B Website Strategy Into a CRO Engine: A 30–60–90 Day Playbook

Now that your foundation is in place, you need a way to refine it continuously. This is where a structured CRO program separates a static website from a revenue-generating one.

Most teams wait until something breaks to test. High-performing teams treat the website like a product, running experiments on a three-month cadence designed to validate assumptions and drive the pipeline.

Here is the framework.

Days 1–30: Instrumentation and Baselines

Start with measurement. GA4 must track demo requests, form starts, form submissions, pricing clicks, case study views, and chat engagement. A measurement plan defines your primary conversion and micro-conversions. It also sets naming standards and event parameters so nothing breaks later.

Pipeline metrics should be tied to your CRM. SQL rate (SQLs divided by leads) and Pipeline per Session (pipeline dollars divided by sessions) give you the first indicators of whether site improvements contribute to revenue.

Qualitative data fills the gaps. Heatmaps, session replays, and short on-page polls help you understand friction points you cannot see in aggregate metrics. Performance monitoring is non-negotiable. Core Web Vitals are the foundation of all CRO improvements. Ironpaper’s 2025 guidance reinforces the need to protect LCP, especially during iterative changes.

The goal of this phase is alignment and visibility. Without it, testing is random.

Days 31–60: High-Impact Tests on Message, CTAs, and Forms

Once you have baselines, start testing elements that influence every visitor. The value proposition is a high-impact variable. The positioning, structure, and CTA order matter more than you think. Social proof near CTAs increases conviction. Form friction decreases it.

Use tools like the Unbounce B2B CRO benchmarks to determine sample size. CXL’s statistical power guidance ensures your tests reach significance. Avoid multivariate experiments unless your traffic is high enough to support them.

For creative or layout inspiration, return to B2B Landing Page Design Best Practices and treat it like a pattern library, not a checklist. This is the phase where assumptions get validated or disproven. The patterns that emerge here shape your long-term system.

Days 61–90: Personalize and Scale What Works

Winning patterns should be deployed across pricing pages, comparison pages, integration pages, and industry-specific content. Growth PM, Design Systems, and DevOps should formalize components that consistently convert and use feature flags to safely release improvements.

This is where personalization becomes useful. Role-specific proof, industry-tailored messaging, and dynamic case studies help buyers see themselves in the solution. The more a page mirrors their world, the faster they move.

The outcome of this phase is operational maturity. Your website becomes a learning system, not a static asset.

Design for Decisions, Not Decoration

Design in B2B is often mistaken for aesthetics. In reality, it is about cognitive load and information architecture. Every visual choice either speeds up or slows down the decision-making process.

The Good’s guidance on B2B website design reinforces the need for clarity. Buyers need confidence. They need to understand cost, implementation, security, integrations, and workflow fit. Decorative design impresses. Decision-first design converts.

Prove It With Social Proof That Reduces Risk

B2B buyers do not want to make a mistake. This is why proof is one of the strongest conversion drivers on any website. But it only works when it is placed at the moments where buyers hesitate.

Case studies should follow a clear model: situation, approach, and outcomes. They must include real KPIs like costs reduced or onboarding time improved. Content and CRO should jointly own case-study-assisted conversion rate, which measures how often a case study contributes to a demo request.

Vendor analyses from 2018 to 2021 show meaningful conversion lifts when trust indicators are placed purposefully. But the key is testing. What works for one audience may not work for another. Proof modules, certification badges, and review snippets should be iterated frequently.

Evaluators who need more depth should be guided toward In-Depth B2B Marketing Guides These assets help build internal consensus.

Instrument, Test, and Iterate Without Guesswork

CRO is not a set of tactics. It is a discipline. Unbounce’s analysis underscores the fact that CRO is the most sustainable way to grow without additional traffic. CXL’s statistical frameworks prevent false positives and wasted development cycles.

Your KPIs should include conversion rate, MQL to SQL rate, pipeline per session, and CAC payback indicators. RevOps and CRO should integrate site data with CRM stages so that each test can be evaluated based on its contribution to revenue.

A baseline, a hypothesis, and a clear expected effect size protect your program from randomness. Tracking win rate and the percentage of conclusive tests helps you measure program quality over time.

Performance cannot be sacrificed for conversion. Core Web Vitals must improve alongside every test outcome. If you need expertise across UX, performance, and CRO, reference your website strategy agency within relevant context.

Final Thoughts: Build a Website That Drives Real Pipeline

A high-performing B2B website doesn’t guess. It guides. It clarifies. It answers questions buyers are too busy or too politically constrained to articulate. And it evolves through validated learning instead of assumptions.

When you build your website for decision-making rather than decoration, it stops being a digital brochure and becomes a revenue engine.

If you want to understand where your website is creating friction and how to turn it into a pipeline driver, book a CRO assessment with our b2b conversion rate optimization agency.

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]]> The Automation Guide for Improving Conversion Rates and B2B User Experience https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/the-automation-guide-for-improving-conversion-rates-and-b2b-user-experience/ Mon, 17 Nov 2025 23:30:31 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=49598 There’s a moment every B2B marketer hits where you realize the real conversion killer isn’t your offer, or your traffic,

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]]> There’s a moment every B2B marketer hits where you realize the real conversion killer isn’t your offer, or your traffic, or even your messaging. It’s the dead space between clicks. The delay between “I’m interested” and “someone get me a meeting.” The places where forms get weird, routing disappears into the Bermuda Triangle, or your personalization shows the wrong industry because your CDP decided chaos is fun.

That’s where automation stops being a backend chore and becomes a revenue lever.
 Not the fluffy “let’s automate a nurture” kind.
 The “let’s remove 40 minutes of buyer friction without spending another dollar on ads” kind.

If you want to improve b2b user experience, this is how senior operators actually use automation to do it: tighten the micro-interactions, speed up the handoffs, personalize with intent (not guesswork), and force consistency into the parts of the journey where humans… simply can’t be trusted.

Let’s get into it.

Tie automation to revenue (because otherwise it’s just chores)

The easiest way to tell the difference between an automated funnel that prints money and one that breaks quietly in the background is whether the team started with revenue mapping or “cool idea” mapping.

Operators map three friction points:

  • landing →form start
  • form start → submit
  • submit → meeting

Then they instrument the hell out of them.

Industry variation is real: Zuko Form Conversion Benchmarks show massive differences across verticals. And B2B Conversion Rates by Industry (2025) makes the same point for website performance. Benchmarks are the vibe check; your instrumentation is the truth.

Then comes the SLA reality check. The HBR classic The Short Life of Online Sales Leads found responding within one hour gives you a 7x better shot at qualifying. Which is wild when you consider how many companies still respond like they’re mailing a handwritten letter.

Routing automation keeps you from being one of them.

If you need examples of friction that should’ve been fixed years ago: friction in b2b customer journey.

Map your friction (automating guesswork is still guesswork)

Automation can’t fix a problem you haven’t diagnosed. Teams love automating at random, then being shocked when nothing improves.

Actual operator move: instrument micro-friction.

Real example: 60% of users reach field one. Only 35% submit. All the errors cluster around phone number formatting. That’s not a copy issue. That’s a UX issue. And automation can fix it after you identify it.

Your metrics:
 form conversion rate, field-level error density, time-to-submit.
 Your owners: CRO + Analytics + Martech.
 Your enemy: assumptions.

Define the SLAs that force conversion consistency

Speed-to-lead isn’t a Sales metric. It’s a conversion-rate lever dressed in a KPI disguise.

Again: The Short Life of Online Sales Leads
 Seven times higher qualification odds in the first hour.
 Twenty-three percent of leads never contacted.
 Automation isn’t optional.

You build:
 5-minute hot-lead SLA, escalation logic, pooled calendars, instant-booking, alerts.
 You kill:
 shared inboxes, “who’s taking this one?”, and anything involving the phrase “It slipped through.”

And yes when you’re ready to clean this up properly, use b2b conversion rate optimization 

Automate on-site personalization that actually makes sense

Now we get into the fun stuff: personalization that isn’t creepy, wrong, or pointless.

Modern B2B UX means personalization that responds to role, industry, intent, and behavior instantly. ON24’s Digital Engagement Benchmarks 2024: Personalization impact showed nearly double CTA engagement and 4x progression when personalization is done right.

That’s why you don’t hard-code 22 segments in a CMS.
 You automagically swap modules based on account signals and journey stage.

Account- and role-based experiences (ABM)

In B2B, every persona is basically living in their own universe. Finance is hunting for ROI proof so they can defend the spend. Product wants workflow efficiency that doesn’t create more Jira tickets. IT wants security receipts that won’t get them yelled at in their next risk meeting. Marketing just wants something the CRO will actually approve without a 14-comment Slack thread.

Automation is the only way to give each persona what they actually care about without rebuilding your entire site from scratch. It’s the difference between “generic homepage for everyone” and “this feels like you built it for me.”

Take a healthcare account: the moment they land, you’re automatically shifting the hero copy toward compliance, pulling HIPAA case studies to the surface, and redirecting the CTA to something that actually makes sense  like “Talk to a compliance expert.” That isn’t gimmicky personalization. That’s clarity. And clarity converts.

If you want the UX principles behind why these shifts matter, the grounding context lives in what is user experience 

Real-time decisioning with contextual bandits

Classic A/B testing is great when you have the traffic. But when you don’t? Contextual bandits are your cheat code. Optimizely’s Optimizely Personalization release notes (2025): Contextual bandits confirms that these models now run with real guardrails for B2B: they re-allocate traffic dynamically based on performance per context. Imagine three hero variants:  industry-focused, role-focused, value-focused. a bandit learns and reallocates within hours. Your demo CTR rises without you manually watching dashboards at 11 p.m. All of this ties back to the metrics that actually matter.

Your 30–60–90-day automation rollout

The first 30 days are where the entire thing stops being theoretical and finally becomes measurable. This is the “clean up your house before you redecorate it” phase  tag manager cleanup, proper form analytics, instant-booking on your demo flow, and one solid ABM homepage variant to prove the personalization engine actually works. Nothing fancy. Just the foundational work that turns your funnel from a black box into something you can actually diagnose.

By 60 days, you move from visibility to velocity. This is where you start stripping friction out of the buyer journey progressive profiling so you’re not interrogating prospects up front, error-proofing so phone number fields don’t destroy your conversion rate, and ABM modules built for your top three industries so the experience actually feels tailored. This is also where your first contextual bandit campaigns go live, which means the site starts adapting in real time instead of waiting for a six-week A/B test to finish.

And then 90 days hits, and suddenly you’re operating like a team that knows what it’s doing. CDP-to-CRM enrichment is flowing, your experimentation backlog is automated instead of rotting in a spreadsheet, and you’re publishing optimization scorecards without begging three teams for screenshots. This is the moment your program shifts from a wishlist to an actual machine  predictable, instrumented, and accountable.

And if you want the architecture behind all of this built correctly the first time, tap into b2b marketing automation agency.

Automate form experiences so people actually finish them

Forms are where demos go to die.  Automation resurrects them.

The data from Zuko Form Conversion Benchmarks shows exactly how sensitive users are to length, clarity, and validation. Your job is to make every field earn its place.

Progressive profiling works best when it feels invisible. Start by gating with the bare minimum  email and company  and let enrichment tools like Clearbit or ZoomInfo quietly fill in the rest. Once the user has already committed and the psychological “yes” is there, then you can ask for role or timeline. Not before. This keeps the form light, reduces friction, and still gives your team everything they need without forcing a buyer to complete a tax return just to see a demo.

If you want a list of what not to do, see B2B landing page mistakes.

Error-proofing is one of those things buyers only notice when it’s missing. Inline validation keeps people from rage-quitting your form because they accidentally typed their phone number like it’s 2009. Masked inputs clean up half the garbage that would otherwise block submissions. Domain parsing quietly fills in company names so enterprise buyers aren’t typing their 40-character corporate entity by hand. Autofill? It saves your users’ wrists and your form completion rate at the same time.

These patterns sit at the core of clean, high-trust form design  and they matter more in B2B than anywhere else. If you want a refresher on the principles behind why these micro-fixes work, see what is user experience (UX) – because this is exactly where UX clarity becomes a conversion lever, not a design preference.

Automate testing: when to A/B and when to bandit

A/B testing still matters because it gives you causality  the kind of “we can defend this in a meeting with Finance” causality. But traffic is splintered across segments, devices, and journeys, and waiting six weeks for directional significance makes no sense anymore. That’s where contextual bandits come in: they optimize in-flight, routing traffic toward what’s actually working instead of forcing everyone to sit through a science fair project. Optimizely’s Personalization release notes (2025): Contextual bandits basically formalized what operators already felt  sometimes you want to learn, sometimes you want to win, and occasionally you have to do both simultaneously. And if you want to ground those decisions in metrics that aren’t embarrassing (read: not “time on page”), lean on the frameworks in measuring saas customer experience to align reward metrics with revenue outcomes.

Scaling experimentation

When experimentation is working, it feels like your website finally has a metabolism. Tests launch without a three-week waiting period. Guardrails catch bad variants before they touch production. QA checklists are automated so you’re not breaking the site on a Friday afternoon. And every test ends up in an experiment log that your CFO will actually respect because it ties to something measurable, not a pretty dashboard. The teams that scale CRO aren’t running “cool tests,” they’re running a factory: templates, archival rules, decision frameworks, and clean audit trails. And when you want those tests tied straight into revenue instead of random UX wins, that’s where b2b conversion rate optimization comes in.

Speed-to-lead & routing: turn submits into meetings automatically

This is always the part where automation has the highest financial upside. Once a lead submits, you’ve got milliseconds to assign them to the right account, apply territory logic that doesn’t collapse under edge cases, route by product line, escalate if the owner doesn’t pick it up, and then drop them into a pooled calendar with real availability. When this flows, your submit-to-meeting rate becomes predictable. Your funnel stops leaking. And those painful “someone forgot to follow up over the weekend” moments disappear entirely. LeanData and the broader routing ecosystem help, but the real wake-up call remains The Short Life of Online Sales Leads  speed isn’t polite, it’s profitable. If you want a reminder of where routing friction hides, cross-reference friction in b2b customer journey , because mismatched routing logic is usually one of the biggest culprits.

Instant booking & automated follow-up

After someone requests a demo, the worst possible response is… nothing. Instant booking is the fastest conversion lift you’ll ever get. Automated reminders clean up no-shows. Fallback options (live chat, immediate call, alternative times) save meetings that would have died in a shared inbox. And the whole flow makes your funnel feel intentional instead of lucky. If you want this part of the journey tuned, the speed-to-lead audit CTA goes directly to b2b conversion rate optimization because this is where revenue is made or lost.

Conclusion

Automation isn’t about replacing humans. It’s about eliminating the inconsistency that tanks conversion rates even when the strategy is solid. Once your buyer journey is instrumented, personalized, validated, routed, escalated, and tested with real guardrails, conversion lift becomes the default not the quarterly miracle. And if you want an automation roadmap built by people who live in this world every day, get your audit through b2b conversion rate optimization.

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]]> The 2026 B2B CRO Trends Shaping Revenue Growth https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/the-2026-b2b-cro-trends-shaping-revenue-growth/ Fri, 14 Nov 2025 18:30:15 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=49585 Everyone keeps talking about “doing more with less”  but CRO is the one place where that’s actually true. Paid traffic

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]]> Everyone keeps talking about “doing more with less”  but CRO is the one place where that’s actually true. Paid traffic costs are climbing, signals keep disappearing, and according to Contentsquare’s 2025 benchmark, conversion efficiency dropped across nearly every vertical. So, unless you like watching pipeline evaporate, improving what happens after the click is no longer optional.

This isn’t a trends list written for people who just learned what a form fill is. This is about the top 2026 trends in conversion rate optimization for B2B that are actually being used by operators to drive pipeline: AI-driven experimentation, account-level personalization, AND  behavioral analytics. And not theoretical stuff,  the playbooks teams are already running, where they get stuck, and what’s worth piloting first.

CRO teams aren’t dealing with vague trends – they’re dealing with very real structural problems. Paid acquisition keeps getting more expensive. Signal loss makes intent harder to read. Buying committees don’t hit your site once; they’re returning six or more times on different devices and with completely different motivations each visit. And now legal and privacy teams influence CRO decisions almost as much as Marketing Ops.

So the teams actually winning pipeline in 2026 have/will (depending the date you’re reading this) tightened their focus around five things: running continuous AI-led experimentation instead of “one test a quarter,” personalizing around account-level intent rather than basic token swaps, using behavioral analytics to figure out where users get stuck and why, relying on server-side data and consent-first tracking to protect measurement, and leaning on UX patterns built for speed, clarity, and trust on the pages that move revenue – pricing, demo, and solution.

Everything that follows ties each trend to a real revenue metric (not engagement vanity) and an actual owner responsible for shipping it.

Trend #1: AI-led experimentation has finally replaced slow “static A/B testing”

We’ve all been stuck in that cycle where a test takes like 6 weeks, ends with maybe a  4% lift, and someone immediately asks, “Cool, what’s next?” Meanwhile the pipeline number didn’t budge.

So that exact process is dying. In 2026, more B2B teams are using AI-driven testing models (multi-armed bandits, reinforcement learning etc  etc.) that reroute traffic to winning variants automatically instead of waiting for a test to finish on a calendar. Adobe’s 2025  executive trends report backs it up  most senior leaders expect meaningful ROI from AI in journey optimization this year.

Quick real-world example

A SaaS company we worked with recently applied AI routing to their pricing page. Instead of testing one change at a time, the model tested multiple headline/value prop combos, routed traffic to what performed better for SMB vs Enterprise, and discovered a winner in about 4 days. No committee. No six-week wait.

From there, the measurement shifts too. Instead of celebrating one-off test wins, teams look at how many experiments they can run per month instead of per quarter, how fast they get a reliable time-to-signal, whether the primary CTA (demo, trial, whatever the goal is) actually moves, and how many net-new learnings they’re generating – not just isolated wins.

The owners: Marketing Ops + Web Dev (with Product for app-side experiments)

Tools we see a lot: Optimizely, VWO, Amplitude, LaunchDarkly

What blows tests up:
Big one is just overreacting to tiny samples because “the AI said so.” This is important. Guardrails still matter (sample ratio, MDE, traffic thresholds).

Trend #2: Personalization isn’t “Hi {{FirstName}}” anymore  it’s account & buying-group specific

The whole personalization-in-B2B conversation changed once teams realized they were sitting on data that B2C could only dream of (and if you’ve worked in both spaces, you know what I’m talking about)  Firmographics + behavior + CRM intent + ABM signals = deeply relevant experiences if you actually use them.

Adobe’s report makes the same point: B2B brands have structured data advantages  they just don’t activate it well.

What this looks like in practice

Picture someone from a target account coming back to your site. This time, instead of seeing the same generic headline everyone else gets, they’re hit with an industry-specific headline (love that). Right under it? A case study from their exact vertical – which, honestly, is huge because most teams never do this. The CTA isn’t the usual “book a demo” button thrown in the corner; it’s a relevant CTA that actually matches where they are in the buying cycle. And the value prop isn’t random,  it’s mapped to their role, so the CFO sees ROI and the product leader sees speed. It’s not creepy; it’s just finally helpful.

Creepy? Sure. Helpful? 100%. And the conversion lifts (+10–30%) reflect it.

Measure: conversion lift in personalized cohorts, pipeline sourced from ABM accounts

Owner: Demand Gen + ABM + Web (with RevOps ensuring data hygiene + consent)

Pitfall: using personalization because you can, not because it helps the buyer. Start with high-intent pages.

For more examples of how to build personalized content blocks without wrecking UX, check out our guide on Conversion Optimization & Performance Design.

Trend #3: Behavioral analytics is how teams find the real conversion killers

Most CRO teams don’t need another brainstorm doc,  they need an actual diagnosis. Behavioral analytics finally shows what users struggle with, not what we think they struggle with. The tools are brutally honest: rage-click tracking, scroll drop-offs, form hesitation, all the little friction points no one sees until you watch it happen. And according to Contentsquare’s 2025 benchmark, frustration signals are climbing even as engagement goes up, which is basically the giant neon sign pointing at where the real CRO opportunity lives.

Take a pricing page with a high bounce rate. Everyone assumes it’s messaging or price. Nope. Sometimes it’s the chaos underneath. We saw 28% of users clicking UI elements that weren’t even clickable. Scroll depth tanked right before the CTA. Secondary CTAs were literally stealing intent from the main one. Once the team simplified the tiers, added a sticky CTA, cleaned up the enterprise card, and moved social proof higher on the page, conversion jumped 14%. One page. One fix cycle. No overthinking.

And the metrics that actually matter here aren’t vanity numbers – it’s the rage click rate, the friction index, the form hesitation patterns, and the conversion lift tied directly to removing that friction. 

That’s the difference between guessing and operating.

Owner: UX + Web + Marketing Analytics

Pitfall: bragging about lower bounce rate without tracking pipeline impact.

2026 CRO Prioritization Matrix (Impact × Feasibility × Risk)

Scoring Model:

  • Impact: 0–5 (pipeline + revenue potential)
  • Feasibility: 0–5 (resource/tooling lift)
  • Risk: 0–5 (reverse scored → 5 – Risk)

Example initiative rankings:

  • Form UX + progressive profiling → 4 Impact / 4 Feasibility / 1 Risk = 13 total
  • Behavioral analytics playbook (top pages) → 3 / 5 / 1 = 12 total
  • AI test routing on pricing/demo pages → 5 / 3 / 2 = 11 total
  • Account-level personalization for top 5 industries → 4 / 3 / 2 = 10 total
  • Server-side tracking + consent orchestration → 5 / 2 / 3 = 9 total

Rule of thumb: Pilot anything scoring 10+ first. Everything below 10 becomes backlog or future phase.

Score it monthly. Anything ≥10 gets piloted. Everything else goes to backlog.

Owner: RevOps drives the meeting, Marketing/Web/Product provide inputs.

Pitfall: ranking projects based on “cool factor” instead of revenue impact.

CRO roadmap based on real operators 

Q1 pilots

  • AI test routing on pricing
  • Behavioral UX fixes on top 10 pages
  • Baseline server-side tracking

Q2 pilots

  • Industry-based personalization for top 5 ICP verticals
  • Form UX overhaul with progressive profiling

Targets

  • +15% demo CTA rate on pricing
  • -20% form abandonment
  • +10% conversion in personalized segments

We’ve used this approach on multiple pricing pages. The workflows in our SaaS pricing page conversion rates breakdown show how tier simplification actually impacts demo CTA performance.

Governance & QA so you don’t create fake wins (or crash prod)

This is the part people love to skip until something breaks. A real QA pass isn’t optional – it’s how you keep your experiments from turning into fake wins or, worse, taking down production because someone “felt good about the numbers.” At minimum, every launch needs a sample ratio mismatch check, confirmation that you’ve hit your minimum detectable effect, proper bot filtering, the right consent segmentation, and an actual rollback plan in case things go sideways. It’s not glamorous, but it’s what keeps your CRO program credible …and your engineers from slacking you at 11 p.m.

Ownership: Marketing Analytics handles QA, Web implements experiments, and Legal signs off on any data or consent changes.

The new CRO stack: privacy-safe and server-side first

At this point, everyone knows the rule: if your tracking doesn’t work, your CRO doesn’t work. Full stop. The 2026 CRO stack almost always includes the same core pieces, a consent platform to keep everything compliant, server-side event tracking so form submits and demo bookings don’t vanish the moment a browser or ad blocker changes something, a centralized data warehouse, and an experiment + analytics layer that feeds clean data into your CRM and BI reporting. The big shift is the move to server-side tracking for those core conversion events, purely because it’s the only way to keep measurement stable. The benchmark hasn’t changed either: you’re aiming for a ≥90% event match rate between client-side and server-side data if you want any experiment readout to be taken seriously.

Owner: Marketing Ops + Engineering

Pitfall: do not bypass consent to patch tracking. That’s how you end up with legal in your Slack.

Using consent + first-party data as a CRO advantage

This part isn’t really about compliance at all,  it’s about performance. When teams use progressive profiling on gated content with actual value exchange copy, they get more usable data, higher opt-in rates, and stronger personalization downstream. It’s one of the few places where “do the right thing” and “get better numbers” line up perfectly. The metrics that matter stay the same: your consent rate, your field completion rate, and the impact on demo conversion downstream. And if you want to see how this plays out in the real world, our B2B e-commerce conversions guide walks through gated flows that lift opt-ins while also improving demo conversions later in the funnel.

CRO that Finance actually cares about = funnel reporting tied to revenue

This is the part where most teams quietly get exposed. A conversion lift is nice, but if Finance can’t follow it all the way to SQL or opportunity creation, it’s theatre. The metrics that actually matter (and the ones Finance will question you on) are Lead → MQL → SQL → Opp, opportunity value by test or variant, SQL acceptance rate, and time-to-impact. If your CRO work can’t answer those four things cleanly, nothing else will feel real to the people who approve the budget.

Owner: RevOps + Finance

UX updates that always move revenue (even when everything else is messy)

Pricing pages are still the biggest revenue lever in B2B, and if yours looks like it hasn’t been touched since 2018, that’s probably why it isn’t converting. The patterns that actually work in 2026 are pretty consistent: keep the table to three tiers max with a clear enterprise CTA, give buyers a soft price range instead of hiding it behind a form, and add an ROI calculator for finance personas who are already doing the math in another tab. These changes consistently push toward a +10–20% CTA click rate, even when the rest of the funnel is messy. And if you want to see what strong pricing pages look like in practice, we break down patterns in our SaaS pricing page conversion rates resource.

Form UX is another place where teams consistently earn back revenue they didn’t even realize they were losing. The formula is basically universal: reduce the fields, handle enrichment later, put social proof right beside the form, and make step one stupid simple. When teams actually do this, the target is clear, a 20% reduction in abandonment within 60 days. Trust signals follow the same logic. If your security badge or testimonial is buried in the footer, it might as well not exist. Top-of-page proof always outperforms the classic logo wall. A security badge paired with an industry-specific testimonial right next to the CTA does more heavy lifting than 20 logos three scrolls down. We break down real-world layout patterns like this in our B2B CRO agency guide.

Benchmark, forecast, prove value –  then ask for budget. Benchmarks are just markers

FirstPageSage says most B2B landing pages convert in the 1–3% range, SaaS often closer to 1%. Use that as context – not as gospel.

Your baseline matters more than the industry average. Forecast first, test second.

Example calc:

Incremental SQLs = (sessions × current CR × proposed lift) × SQL rate

Incremental pipeline = incremental SQLs × average opp value × opp rate

Just doing that math up front gets leadership to stop saying “but what if it only moves by 1%?”

Communicate results like someone who wants to keep their budget

If you want anyone in Finance or leadership to take CRO seriously, you have to communicate results like someone who actually wants to keep their budget. That means publishing monthly CRO memos that don’t just brag about wins, but lay out what shipped, what it changed, the exact variant IDs and dates, and the real impact at the pipeline level. And yes, you even include the nulls and the losses, because credibility is budget, and nothing builds trust faster than showing the full picture instead of only the highlight reel.

For more context on where CRO fits into the larger revenue landscape, we covered this in our b2b revenue optimization consulting industry news 2025 analysis.

If you want a partner who actually does this work in the messy real world of B2B SaaS, not in a whitepaper, book a strategy call with our B2B CRO team.

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]]> Designing the Ideal B2B User Experience & User Journeys https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/designing-the-ideal-b2b-user-experience-user-journeys/ Tue, 28 Oct 2025 19:21:25 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=49319 Your buyer’s first impression isn’t your product. It’s your navigation menu. It’s how fast your demo page loads. It’s whether

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]]> Your buyer’s first impression isn’t your product. It’s your navigation menu. It’s how fast your demo page loads. It’s whether your pricing page actually answers the question that’s on their mind. Your digital experience is no longer supporting the sales process. It is the sales process.

The problem is most B2B websites still operate like old-school brochures. They serve the same CTA to the intern doing research and the VP holding budget. They force every visitor into the same journey, regardless of role or intent. And they expect qualified pipeline to come out the other side.

This guide is for operators who know that’s not how buying works. You’ll learn how to map intent, simplify navigation, and build CRO-aligned UX systems that move buyers forward. Not with guesswork, but with structure that reflects how actual buying groups evaluate and convert.

Because in B2B, user experience isn’t about aesthetics. It’s about how fast you can get the right person to the next best step.

Turn B2B user experience into guided buying journeys

Most B2B websites are designed around pages, not paths. They’re built to showcase content, not to guide decisions. That disconnect is a major reason why high-intent traffic fails to convert. The reality is, your buyers don’t want to browse. They want to evaluate. Your job is to help them do that faster, with less friction and more relevance.

The best B2B user experiences are structured like guided product tours. Not the autoplay kind, but the ones where each step anticipates what the buyer needs next. That requires more than good design. It requires buyer intent mapping, clear journey architecture, and collaboration across Product Marketing, Web, and RevOps.

Start by identifying the key decision paths. For most B2B companies, that means at least two primary tracks: one for users and one for approvers. Engineers want documentation, integrations, and proof that it works. Procurement and finance want pricing logic, implementation scope, and risk mitigation. These are not preferences; they’re actually table stakes.

When you serve both roles with clarity, you stop asking visitors to guess where to click next. You create motion. That’s what turns high-traffic pages into actual revenue drivers.

This is not a one-and-done project. Modern teams run journey reviews monthly. They evaluate progression by persona and adjust content, calls to action, and page flow based on analytics and qualitative feedback. The best teams treat UX like a performance channel, not a brand asset.

Map “users and choosers” across the buying group

In B2B, your website has to sell to two different kinds of people: the ones who use the product and the ones who fund it. Ignore either group, and your conversion rates will quietly stall out.

Some call this distinction users versus choosers. Business buyers tend to evaluate on depth, clarity, and alignment to their specific role. Yet most B2B sites still try to do everything in one generic experience.

The fix is segmentation. Not by industry, but by job to be done. If you sell a data platform, engineers care about schema access and uptime. Finance leaders want to know about cost models, procurement timelines, and vendor risk. You should be able to guide both personas to the answers they need without making them sift through pages built for someone else.

A good journey starts at the homepage or landing page and forks based on what matters to the visitor. Give engineers a path to technical docs and integration guides. Give decision-makers a direct route to ROI, case studies, and compliance details. Then measure the click-through rate into those role-specific tracks. If you’re not seeing at least 20 to 30% engagement within sixty days, you’re likely missing the mark.

This isn’t just about navigation. It’s about momentum. When a buyer finds exactly what they’re looking for, they move forward without needing a rep to explain it.

Align intent signals to content, CTAs, and routes

Not all traffic is equal. A homepage visit from a cold LinkedIn ad is very different from a pricing-page visit coming from a “competitor vs” search. Yet many B2B websites serve both visitors the same message, the same CTA, and the same friction.

This is where intent mapping turns into pipeline. Every click, referrer, and query modifier is a signal. Your job is to route that signal to the right message, the right offer, and the right next step. When done well, buyers feel understood before they ever talk to someone.

Start by identifying high-confidence intent signals. These include UTM source, landing page type, and keywords like “pricing,” “compare,” or “alternative.” A visitor searching for “Vendor A vs Vendor B” should never land on a generic solutions page. They should see a side-by-side comparison, proof points that matter to their segment, and a CTA that fits their level of readiness.

That might mean skipping the generic “Talk to Sales” button in favor of something more specific. For example, “See a tailored demo based on your current stack” performs better when paired with competitive intent because it respects the buyer’s context. It’s not just a CTA. It’s a shortcut to relevance.

Track the percentage of sessions where your content, CTA, and intent signal align. If that match rate isn’t at least 70% after ninety days (based on 60-80% as standard CRO goals), you’re leaking buyers. Not because they weren’t qualified, but because the journey made them feel like just another click.

Maintain continuity from ad click to on-site to sales

Every click costs money. When a prospect moves from a paid ad to your website, the only thing that guarantees ROI is continuity. If the message that brought them in doesn’t match what they see next, they bounce. Not because they’re not a fit, but because the experience made them start over.

This is one of the most common breakdowns in B2B funnels. The ad promises speed, clarity, or a solution to a specific pain point. The landing page responds with generic positioning and a recycled CTA. The buyer feels the disconnect immediately and moves on.

The fix is simple in concept but rare in execution. Match the message. If your LinkedIn ad targets IT leaders with a hook like “SOC2-ready archiving in 30 days,” the page must reinforce that promise within the first few lines. Show the outcome. Offer proof. Deliver the next step with the same clarity as the ad.

The best teams run regular audits on ad-to-landing alignment. They score message match, check for CTA consistency, and track the bounce rate delta between aligned and misaligned paths. Top performers aim for 90% message match and treat every misfire as a conversion blocker, not just a creative issue.

The consistency doesn’t stop at the landing page either. When Sales picks up the conversation, they need context. What ad did this person see? What page did they land on? What asset did they engage with? That handoff determines whether momentum continues or stalls.

7 Steps to Design Seamless B2B Journeys That Convert

Great UX doesn’t start with creative direction. It starts with performance targets. If your user journeys aren’t mapped to revenue outcomes, they’re just nice design work. This playbook outlines the core steps needed to turn static websites into guided buying systems that reduce friction, qualify faster, and drive measurable pipeline.

  1. Baseline and goals
    Audit current performance across your top revenue pages. Start with conversion rates, form abandonment, and MQL to SQL progression. Identify where traffic drops, what pages slow decisions, and how each page maps to actual sales outcomes. Set realistic improvement goals tied to revenue, not traffic.
  2. Personas and roles
    Define your primary buying group by role and function. Map their jobs-to-be-done, objections, and content needs. Distinguish between users, choosers, and blockers. For each, define what success looks like and what friction stops them from moving forward.
  3. Journey mapping
    Document the stages from first touch to decision. Use a linear model if you need to, but layer in cross-channel behaviors. Include key content, owners, and conversion points at each stage. Highlight where drop-offs happen, then prioritize paths that tie directly to qualified meetings or deal velocity.
  4. Information architecture and navigation
    Rebuild your IA based on how buyers think, not how your org is structured. Use role-based and industry-based entry points. Simplify labels. Add visual cues and headers that make it easier for someone to find what they came for in less than three clicks.
  5. Revenue pages
    Prioritize pages like pricing, demo, and solution overviews. These are your decision accelerators. Add clarity to CTAs, make risk reversal obvious, and surface trust indicators without burying them in sliders or logos. Every word on these pages should earn its place.
  6. Performance and trust
    Optimize page speed, mobile usability, and accessibility. Trust drops the moment a form feels slow or a layout breaks on mobile. Add compliance badges, client proof, and support cues near conversion zones. Don’t ask for trust. Show that you’ve earned it.
  7. Measure and iterate
    Treat UX like a revenue channel. Run experiments, monitor stage progression, and tie improvements to actual pipeline. Don’t optimize for time on page. Optimize for how fast the right people move to the next step.

Common pitfalls and QA checklist

Even the best UX strategies fall apart in execution. Pages go live without proof points. Forms collect too much too early. Navigation gets cluttered with internal logic instead of buyer intent. Most conversion leaks aren’t caused by one big failure. They’re death by a hundred small misalignments.

Before launching any new journey or redesign, run a full QA pass focused on performance, clarity, and continuity. This isn’t just about broken links or typos. It’s about pressure testing whether the experience actually helps the buyer move forward.

Common pitfalls to flag early:

  • Personalization efforts that outpace data quality or consent
  • Message match breakdowns between ads, pages, and CTAs
  • Burying proof points below the fold or behind tabs
  • Overlong forms that ask before they give
  • Pricing pages that dodge real numbers and delay trust

QA checklist to run before go-live:

  • Message match score: 90 or higher between ad and landing
  • Page speed: LCP under 2.5 seconds on mobile (per Google’s Core Website Vitals)
  • Form UX: 5 fields or fewer on first step, with autofill enabled where compliant
  • Trust indicators: proof or social validation visible within one scroll of key CTAs
  • Event coverage: client and server-side tracking on all meaningful CTA interactions where compliant

Each of these should be owned and monitored. Web teams handle speed and structure. Marketing Ops validates event tracking. RevOps connects form completion to actual follow-up. Legal ensures consent is handled appropriately at every stage.

Your goal isn’t to make pages perfect. Your goal is to make them predictable, accountable, and high performing. That starts with quality control systems that go deeper than design.

Architect navigation and IA to reduce time-to-task

In B2B, buyers don’t explore websites the way marketers hope they do. They land with a job to complete, not a desire to browse. If they can’t find what they need quickly, they bounce. Not because they’re unqualified, but because the navigation failed to respect their intent.

Good information architecture reduces time-to-task. It gives buyers clear entry points based on who they are and what they need. It doesn’t mirror your org chart. It mirrors buyer logic. When navigation is intuitive, the experience disappears and the content does its job.

Start by simplifying global IA. Use shallow hierarchies, consistent label structures, and visual cues that make paths obvious. Avoid over-nesting categories. Instead, cluster by buyer role, use case, or outcome. Then cross-link key paths so users don’t dead-end or loop back unnecessarily.

Navigation should orient the buyer and nudge them forward. If someone enters through the homepage, give them a fast fork into role- or industry-specific journeys. If they’re coming from a campaign, drop them deeper in the funnel and make the next best step obvious. Your site should feel like a smart SDR who knows what to show, when to ask, and how to help someone self-qualify.

Information architecture that matches how buyers think

Most B2B sites are built by internal teams naming things for themselves. The result is a sitemap full of categories that mean nothing to the buyer. Page labels reflect product names or org structures instead of real-world tasks. That gap kills momentum.

Good IA speaks the buyer’s language. It reflects how they think, not how you operate. Labels should focus on outcomes, not features. If someone is trying to automate approvals, don’t bury that under a generic “Platform” tab. Make it explicit: “Automate AP approvals.” Remove the guesswork.

Clear, task-focused navigation reduces time to first action and improves path completion. It’s not just a usability improvement. It’s a conversion accelerant.

One example: instead of a catch-all “Resources” tab, build segmented hubs. Create content centers like “For Engineers,” “For Finance,” or “For Security” with curated proof points, demos, and relevant CTAs. This lets each buyer persona feel seen immediately, without sifting through irrelevant content.

Time to first meaningful click is your lead indicator. Measure the average time it takes for someone to engage with the right page or asset after landing. Cut that by 20% and you’ll see lifts in CTA engagement and sales conversations without needing more traffic.

Role- and industry-based paths without clutter

Tailoring UX to buyer roles and industries doesn’t mean turning your homepage into a maze. It means offering clear, intuitive entry points that serve different audiences while keeping the overall experience clean and easy to follow. The best websites make it obvious who they are built for, and just as obvious where each visitor should go next.

Start with your highest-value segments. Create dropdowns or hubs that lead to focused paths by role or vertical. A simple “Industries” or “Solutions by Role” menu can branch into five targeted tracks. Each one should highlight key outcomes, recognizable proof points, and a clear next action. Keep the copy brief and structure-driven. Let clarity do the work.

If someone clicks into a cybersecurity path, they should immediately see compliance badges, client results, and deployment details. If they’re evaluating for finance, they should find cost justification, procurement alignment, and ROI benchmarks. Avoid trying to serve everyone in one space. Specificity builds confidence.

Your primary metric here is path completion rate. That means tracking how many visitors who enter a segment path reach the intended CTA. If traffic is high but conversion is low, revisit the offer and copy. If traffic is low, refine your navigation labels.

Smart UX is not about more choices. It’s about fewer wrong ones.

On-page wayfinding that makes next steps obvious

Getting a buyer to the right page is only half the job. Once they arrive, the experience needs to guide them forward without hesitation. If a visitor lands on your solutions page and scrolls aimlessly, the problem isn’t interest. It’s direction.

On-page wayfinding helps users stay oriented and understand what comes next. Use sticky navigation to anchor longer pages. Break content into clearly labeled sections that reflect what buyers actually look for, like integrations, compliance, pricing, or implementation timelines. Avoid clever copy. Clarity is what builds trust.

Your primary call to action should never be hidden. It should appear early, remain accessible, and use language tied to buyer intent. Buttons like “Get a demo,” “View pricing,” or “See how it works” outperform generic labels because they communicate value and reduce uncertainty.

Measure scroll depth and CTA engagement to see if your content layout is doing its job. If buyers are making it halfway down the page without clicking, they are not seeing enough value soon enough. Adjust positioning, tighten messaging, and keep next steps visible at the right moments.

Optimize revenue pages and flows for multi-stakeholder decisions

When B2B buyers reach your pricing, demo, or solution pages, they are not looking for more marketing. They are looking for answers. These are the most commercially important pages on your site, yet they are often the least strategic. Vague copy, missing proof, and clunky forms turn high-intent sessions into lost deals.

Your job is to design these pages for the questions buyers actually ask when a purchase is on the table. That means reducing risk, clarifying value, and helping multiple stakeholders find what they each need without friction. One page cannot serve everyone equally, but it can serve decision-making if it respects the buying process.

Bring clarity to pricing. Outline your plans in plain language. Add toggle views or calculators to help buyers understand cost fit. If you need to gate enterprise pricing, give procurement teams what they need to move forward, including SLAs, compliance documentation, and onboarding timelines.

On solution pages, highlight outcomes first. Support claims with case studies and quantified proof. Include scannable sections that speak directly to each buyer role. For technical evaluators, that might be security and integration details. For executives, it’s often ROI and customer success evidence.

These pages carry weight. Treat them like digital sales reps. Every section should anticipate an objection or advance a conversation.

Pricing pages that reduce risk and confusion

Pricing is where interest turns into evaluation. It is also where many B2B websites get vague, defensive, or overly complex. Buyers notice. If they leave your pricing page with more questions than answers, they are less likely to return and more likely to move on to a competitor.

Good pricing pages are not just about numbers. They are about clarity and confidence. Your plans should be explained in plain language, with clear differences between tiers and a visible path for enterprise buyers. Even if you cannot list exact prices, show what affects cost. Outline what is included, what scales, and what to expect during procurement.

Buyers at this stage want to understand what they are signing up for. Add signals that reduce friction, like customer quotes near pricing blocks, compliance badges, onboarding timelines, or links to procurement guides. These trust elements do not need to be flashy. They just need to be visible and relevant.

Your goal is to move the buyer closer to a yes. Track how many visitors go from pricing to CTA clicks, demo requests, or calendar views. A 10-20% lift after redesign is a strong signal that the page is doing its job.

Forms that respect busy professionals

In B2B, your form is not just a gate. It is a signal. The way you ask for information tells buyers everything they need to know about what it will be like to work with you. If your form is long, confusing, or asks for details before offering value, high-intent prospects will walk away.

Great forms remove friction without sacrificing qualification. Start by asking only what you need to continue the conversation. Use progressive profiling where possible. Let buyers fill in the basics first, then collect deeper details after the first interaction or once intent has been confirmed.

Step-based forms work especially well for complex sales. Ask for name, email, and role up front. After submission, follow up with company size, timeline, or specific needs. Pair each step with social proof or clarity about what happens next. Make the exchange feel mutual, not extractive.

Track form completion rates and abandonment patterns. A common goal is to reduce drop-off by 20% within sixty days of simplifying the experience. Focus on quality, not just quantity. A well-structured form should generate meetings with buyers who are more prepared, more informed, and more likely to convert.

Define KPIs and baselines for each journey stage

If you want to improve how buyers move through your site, you need to know where they stall. That means defining key performance indicators for each part of the journey, not just at the conversion point. Most teams measure form fills and call it a day. The better ones track progression from first click to closed revenue.

Start by identifying the critical journey stages. For most B2B funnels, that includes lead, MQL, SQL, and opportunity. Then connect those stages to the pages, content, and CTAs that influence them. Your pricing page should drive demo requests. Your demo page should produce MQLs. Your thank-you page should trigger follow-up that turns into SQLs.

Set baselines for each of those moments. Measure current conversion rates by page, by persona, and by channel. Use that data to define targets and track lifts over time. You do not need a complex attribution model to get started. You need clear ownership, consistent tracking, and enough time to see real patterns.

Publish a simple scorecard monthly. Include trend lines, key takeaways, and confidence levels. Your goal is not just to spot what worked. It is to build a system that shows what to improve next.

Forecast incremental pipeline from UX changes

Great UX isn’t just about creating a better experience. It’s about creating better outcomes. To prove value and prioritize investments, you need to forecast how specific changes can drive incremental pipeline. That means turning percentages into revenue.

Start with a clear hypothesis. If a new pricing page lifts demo conversions by 5%, how many additional SQLs would that produce? What is the average deal size and close rate for those leads? Multiply it out. Build a simple model that takes sessions, conversion rate improvement, SQL rate, and opportunity value into account.

This forecast should be shared with stakeholders before the change goes live. It creates alignment and gives everyone a benchmark to track against. It also builds credibility with Finance, especially if you include constraints like rep capacity or follow-up coverage. When your forecast includes operational realities, it’s more believable and more actionable.

Use a calculator format that can be reused across teams. Once you’ve proven one or two wins, apply the same structure to other high-traffic pages. Forecasting pipeline impact doesn’t require perfection. It requires discipline, transparency, and the ability to communicate what a 5% lift actually means for the business.

Standardize experimentation and personalization guardrails

Without a clear system, UX testing turns into a stream of disconnected ideas. One team changes a button. Another runs a form test. A third adds personalization based on shaky data. Results get lost, and no one knows what actually worked. To scale UX as a performance lever, you need structure.

Start by setting experimentation standards. Every test should begin with a written hypothesis, a defined success metric, and an owner. Track test velocity, not just wins. Run A/B tests with enough volume to reach statistical confidence. Document results and roll them into a centralized archive. This is how you prevent reruns and learn faster over time.

Personalization should follow the same discipline. Use only high-confidence data like role, source, or visited page history. Avoid over-targeting with weak signals or inferred attributes. Always offer a control experience, and never remove core functionality from the default path. Good personalization improves clarity, not just segmentation.

Respect consent and data privacy at every step. Make sure your Legal team is looped in early, especially for anything involving behavioral tracking or location-based content. Personalization should build trust, not jeopardize it.

The teams that win in UX aren’t just more creative. They are more consistent. When testing and personalization follow shared standards, you stop guessing and start building systems that scale.

The UX that converts is the UX that closes

B2B user experience is no longer a branding exercise. It is a performance system. From homepage to pricing page, from ad click to booked demo, your buyers are asking the same question at every step: does this help me move forward? If your UX cannot answer that clearly, it costs you pipeline.

The teams that win are not chasing trendy redesigns or flashy UI. They are building systems that reflect how real buying groups evaluate, align, and decide. They test. They measure. They tie user experience to revenue. And they treat every click, scroll, and CTA as a chance to reduce friction and increase trust.

You do not need more pages. You need better paths.

If you’re ready to turn your website into a conversion engine, our CRO team can help. We specialize in building UX and CRO systems that create clarity, capture intent, and drive measurable pipeline. Schedule a call and walk through your website with our team.

The post Designing the Ideal B2B User Experience & User Journeys appeared first on Directive.

]]> What is A/B Testing in Digital Marketing? https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/what-is-ab-testing-in-digital-marketing/ Mon, 27 Oct 2025 16:00:17 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=20754 A/B testing is one of the most important elements of conversion rate optimization, but what is A/B testing in digital marketing exactly? How do tech marketers use it to increase their landing page conversion rates and achieve better campaign ROI? Here's a quick resource on A/B testing in tech marketing.

The post What is A/B Testing in Digital Marketing? appeared first on Directive.

]]> A/B testing remains a cornerstone tactic of CRO, but what does it truly mean in the evolving landscape of digital marketing as we head toward 2026?

How are today’s tech marketers leveraging A/B testing in digital marketing strategies not just to increase landing page conversion rates but to drive smarter, data-driven marketing strategies that deliver measurable ROI?

In this piece, I’ll walk you through the essentials of A/B testing in digital marketing from a CRO perspective, highlighting its enduring value, the most relevant use cases today, and a streamlined process to help you get started or refine your approach.

What is A/B Testing in Digital Marketing?

At its core, A/B testing in digital marketing is a controlled experiment where marketers create two versions of a landing page, email, or other digital asset to determine which version delivers better performance against primary success metrics.

Unlike split testing, which compares completely different pages or experiences, A/B testing focuses on making incremental, data-driven changes to one element such as changing a call-to-action button color, tweaking ad copy, or adjusting form length. Marketers then collect data to measure the impact on user behavior, engagement, and conversion rates.

Multivariate testing takes this a step further by testing multiple variables simultaneously, but A/B testing remains the most accessible and actionable method for most teams aiming to fine-tune performance without overwhelming complexity.

Five Essential A/B Testing Use Cases in 2025

While landing pages continue to be a primary focus for A/B testing, the scope has broadened significantly. Here are five critical areas where A/B testing drives meaningful impact:

1. Email Campaign Optimization

By testing variations in subject lines, visuals, layout, and CTA text, marketers can uncover what improves open and click-through rates. This enables more precise segmentation and lifecycle-based messaging.

2. Landing Page Design and Copy

Testing copy, CTA placement, button color, or lead form length reveals what actually drives conversions. Using platforms like Google Optimize or Optimizely simplifies variant creation and traffic splitting.

3. Paid Search and Display Ads

Text and display ads benefit significantly from A/B testing. Marketers can test headlines, ad extensions, images, and CTAs to uncover what combination drives the highest CTR and ROAS.

4. eCommerce Customer Journey

From product descriptions and recommendations to checkout flows and home page layouts, A/B testing improves every step of the eCommerce funnel.

5. Content Personalization and Visitor Segmentation

Test variations tailored to personas, funnel stages, or industries to learn what resonates most with high-intent visitors. Personalization isn’t a buzzword when it’s backed by validated experiments.

A Streamlined A/B Testing Process for CRO Success

The fundamentals of A/B testing remain consistent, but in 2025, the emphasis is on integrating testing into an ongoing process of continuous learning and optimization.

Step 1: Identify Optimization Opportunities

Use performance data from Google Analytics, heatmaps, or CRM reports to uncover pages or emails with low conversion rates. These are high-impact areas for optimization.

Step 2: Develop a Clear Test Hypothesis

Your hypothesis should state what you’re changing, why, and the expected outcome. Keep the focus on a single element. For example: “Shortening the lead capture form will reduce friction and increase conversion rates by 10%.”

Step 3: Create Variants Thoughtfully

Use CRO tools like Google Optimize, VWO, or Optimizely to create page or ad variants. Changing only one element ensures test clarity.

Step 4: Run the Test with Statistical Rigor

Split your audience evenly between control and variant. Run the test until each version receives enough traffic to achieve statistical significance.

Step 5: Analyze Results

Your CRO tool should provide clear analytics. Determine whether performance changes are due to real impact or statistical noise.

Step 6: Implement and Iterate

A/B testing is an ongoing process. Use learnings from each test to inform your next hypotheses and continue fine-tuning your marketing assets for better customer engagement and conversion. Running more tests regularly helps uncover false positives and refines your marketing strategies.

Why A/B Testing is More Relevant Than Ever

In 2025, data-backed iteration isn’t optional. With rising acquisition costs, shrinking attention spans, and increased buyer skepticism, marketers can’t afford to rely on gut feel.

By embedding A/B testing into your CRO strategy, you build a culture of continuous experimentation and learning. This ongoing process of running tests in a controlled environment is essential for staying ahead in today’s dynamic digital marketing environment and achieving better search results.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re optimizing email subject lines, refining landing page copy, or testing product features, A/B testing offers a scientific method to improve digital marketing performance. It empowers marketers to transform subjective opinions into proven strategies that yield more conversions, better customer experiences, and ultimately, stronger business results.

At Directive, we’re passionate about helping organizations harness the power of data-driven decision making through CRO and A/B testing digital marketing campaigns. If you want to explore how to elevate your marketing campaigns with strategic testing and experimentation, book a call with us today.

The post What is A/B Testing in Digital Marketing? appeared first on Directive.

]]> Understanding Friction in the B2B Customer Journey: When Is There Too Much…or Not Enough? https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/friction-in-b2b-customer-journey/ Wed, 20 Aug 2025 19:30:34 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=48626 Friction is everywhere, it’s a force of nature, but it could be costing you pipeline. In B2B, “friction” shows up

The post Understanding Friction in the B2B Customer Journey: When Is There Too Much…or Not Enough? appeared first on Directive.

]]> Friction is everywhere, it’s a force of nature, but it could be costing you pipeline.

In B2B, “friction” shows up in a dozen small ways: a CTA buried below the fold, a form that asks for a little too much, an interstitial step before the demo scheduler, a slow-loading modal, confusing navigation labels, or even subtle micro-interactions that interrupt momentum. On landing pages, friction might be a long form. In the journey, it could be an extra click to view pricing or a confusing step between the ad and the scheduler. In forms, it’s the classic debate: short = more conversions vs. longer = better quality.

The tricky part: friction is not inherently bad. Sometimes it’s a filter that protects Sales from low-intent leads. The difference has real revenue implications. Behavioral economists have even coined terms for harmful friction (e.g., “sludge”), showing how needless process steps materially suppress action.

The question isn’t “how do we eliminate friction?” It’s “where is friction helping, and where is it hurting?” That answer changes by offer, audience, traffic source, and funnel stage—and it won’t match your competitor’s reality.

Why friction matters more than you think (and the psychology behind it)

When we reduce friction, we reduce cognitive load and physical effort—both powerful levers in digital behavior.

  • Choice complexity slows decisions. The Hick’s-Hyman Law shows that decision time increases with the number of choices. On pages with too many options, labels, or CTAs, people take longer to act (or don’t act at all). In complex B2B journeys, unnecessary branching can be especially costly.
  • Motor effort matters. From a human-system interaction standpoint, the time to hit a target (e.g., tap that small mobile CTA) depends on distance and target size (Fitts’s Law). Small tap targets, crowded layouts, and fussy input controls literally take longer to use—which compounds drop-off on mobile-heavy paid traffic. Now on mobile devices, we’re used to scrolling with our thumbs (the goal can be to “stop the scroll” for many campaigns). For Desktop devices though, our brains have to actually send a signal to our hands to move the cursor to the spot we want to click. Any doubt or hesitation in the thought process means we’re less likely to move that cursor.
  • Processing fluency shapes trust. People prefer information that’s easy to process (clear copy, simple layouts, readable type). High “fluency” can boost perceived credibility and reduce perceived risk—critical in B2B where the stakes (and perceived costs of a bad choice) are higher. So, does that mean you should strip out every hurdle? Not quite.
  • Effort can equal value. Under the right conditions, a bit of effort increases perceived value or commitment—the “IKEA effect.” While you wouldn’t make a prospect assemble your value proposition, asking a serious buyer to self-segment or provide context can improve outcomes for both sides. The key is to earn that effort with a clear value exchange. Sometimes even asking for a small piece of information makes it more likely they’ll provide more information later on (aka the “Ben Franklin effect”).
  • Friction can act as a quality filter. In B2B funnels, adding a qualifying step can deter tire-kickers while preserving (or even increasing) conversion among high-intent buyers—improving Sales acceptance rates and downstream win rates.

Practitioners see this play out in forms and funnels:

  • Zuko Analytics’ large-scale form benchmarking finds field count isn’t a simple “more = worse” lever across industries; the relationship can be surprisingly flat, which suggests context and design quality matter as much as raw field count. 
  • In controlled tests, adding a qualifying step has sometimes increased lead generation—by clarifying value and aligning expectations. One case reported a ~20% lift after inserting an extra step in a B2B software lead-gen flow. Another set of case studies shows two-step flows occasionally beating one-step forms. The “best practice” is not universal. At Directive we’ve seen forms that have suffered from “greedy marketer syndrome” – including too many fields, such as phone number and social links, or open response form fields to vague questions. While these may help with internal lead routing and marketing attribution models, it’s always important to ask “If I’m the customer, do I understand why you need this?”. Think of your own experience. When a form asks you how many employees are in your organization, do you think it helps you – or them?

Bottom line: friction is a double-edged sword. Remove the wrong friction and you lose lead quality. Add the wrong friction and you throttle pipeline. Leave the wrong friction and your paid dollars bleed out on high-intent pages. That tension is exactly why Conversion Optimization testing—not opinion—should arbitrate the right amount of friction for each journey. At Directive we have the battle cry “Tested practices beat best practices” – and with hundreds of tests across dozens of clients in the B2B space, we have plenty of tested practices to pull from and apply to every industry.

Click here to schedule my free 30 minute funnel audit

What most teams do when they see friction (and why it backfires)

Many teams default to “make it easy, remove all hurdles.” Short forms. Fewer steps. Fewer questions. One-click everything.

That instinct is understandable—less effort often boosts compliance—but it can produce two failure modes:

  1. Quantity over quality. You celebrate higher form fills, but SDRs report lower connect rates, AEs complain about no-shows, and close rates stall. The funnel becomes operationally expensive: more meetings booked, fewer that matter. (This is where your CAC quietly rises.)
  2. Value signaling collapses. When the path is frictionless, prospects can act without intent. Without a small ask (e.g., role, company size, use case), your routing, personalization, and Sales discovery all suffer. You can’t match them to the right motion. Unless your company likes getting a bunch of spammy leads, less form fields and steps isn’t always better.

The inverse mistake—adding friction everywhere—also backfires. Long forms on top-of-funnel content, multi-step walls before ungated assets, or clunky schedulers on mobile can tank response rates and kill your paid efficiency.

What works is smart friction: make it easy to say “yes,” but ask for just enough commitment to (a) qualify fit, (b) route and personalize, and (c) protect the Sales calendar. The specifics vary by channel (Paid vs. SEO/Content), campaign type (TOFU vs. BOFU), and offer (demo vs. guide vs. pricing).

Just like your favorite nighttime infomercial, yes, surely there is a better way.

The Solution? Use Conversion Rate Optimization to calibrate friction (and pair it with Paid Media)

Here’s how we approach it in what we call CRO2 – the Directive Consulting approach to Conversion and Performance Optimization – and why it pairs perfectly with Paid Media and Directive’s broader Customer Generation methodology.

1) Map friction to intent and traffic source

Start by segmenting where users come from and what promise got them to click:

  • Paid Search (high-intent): Reduce sludge (confusing copy, slow page speed, dead ends). Keep forms focused but include minimal qualifiers (e.g., role, company size, use case) that directly improve routing and demo quality. Test single vs. multi-step forms and calendar-first vs. form-first on bottom-funnel terms.
  • Paid Social (mid-to-low intent): Consider progressive profiling or a two-step flow to earn the form. Tighten messaging match between ad and landing page to boost processing fluency and reduce bounce. Test “soft commitments” (e.g., select use case) before asking for full details.
  • Content/Organic (research mode): Gate selectively. If you gate, keep early asks light and value-forward. Use micro-friction (topic selection, role) to personalize nurture paths rather than forcing full-funnel data too soon.

2) Identify “sludge” vs. “signal”

  • Sludge: duplicate fields, unclear error handling, slow input masking, tiny tap targets, cryptic labels, extra clicks to view pricing or schedule, broken state handling on validation errors. Remove ruthlessly. (Think: respect for user time.)
  • Signal: fields or steps that unlock better routing, qualification, and sales readiness—and that your Sales team actually uses. Keep these, but test how and when you ask for them (single step vs. progressive, optional vs. required, upfront vs. after value preview).

3) Design experiments grounded in behavioral science

When we visit a website, especially a landing page from a brand we may not be 100% familiar with, our brain goes through thousands of little micro-decisions “Do I like this button? Do I like that font? Does it look like they’re talking to me?” and “Boy, is this going to take a lot of work?”

Leveraging behavioral science and mental shortcuts (or heuristics) can tap into what users are thinking — no matter what your value proposition is. 

Here’s a few of our favorites that we use in our A/B testing program (every single test must have at least one psychological component before it gets approved, No exceptions.)

  • Use Hick’s Law to simplify choice architecture (one primary CTA per view; clear pathways for “Talk to Sales” vs. “Learn More”).
  • Apply Fitts’s Law to mobile-first UI (bigger tap targets, adequate spacing, sticky CTAs). 
  • Increase processing fluency via clarity: plain language, high-contrast type, tight ad-to-landing message match, and obvious next steps. Let someone know that when they fill out a form, they will get a call from a human within one business day, not “soon”.
  • Leverage the IKEA effect carefully: ask for small inputs that signal intent (e.g., “Which use case best fits your team?”) when you can return immediate value (tailored content, better routing, or a relevant demo path). 

4) Instrument for both conversion rate and lead quality

One thing that makes Directive Consulting different from other agencies is that we do not ship experiments without downstream metrics. In addition to page-level CVR, we track:

  • Meeting show rate,
  • Stage progression (SQL ➜ Opportunity),
  • Cycle time and Win rate.
  • Revenue Lift and its impact on LTV:CAC

Form analytics tools show where users abandon, which fields trigger errors, time-to-complete, and “hesitation” fields. While we don’t advise always using something like Hotjar (the size of the script can slow websites down) — adding in qualitative data measurements can help supplement the quantitative data from any website test.

5) Calibrate friction per offer (not one-size-fits-all)

  • Book a demo / Pricing request (BOFU): It’s reasonable to ask for a bit more (e.g., team size or tool stack) if it improves the meeting and reduces no-shows—especially on high-intent paid keywords. But make sure every single question you ask is defensible – ask yourself “Given this visitor journey – is this a reasonable thing to ask?” Test calendar-first vs. form-first flows and two-step qualification (short step → scheduler).
  • Product tour / Assessment: Keep the initial gate light. Earn additional details after value proof (e.g., results preview → “add context to personalize your plan”).
  • Guides / Webinars (TOFU/MOFU): Consider progressive profiling over time, asking incremental, high-signal questions that sharpen segmentation without spiking abandonment.

6) Pair CRO2 + Paid Media to turn tests into real pipeline

Friction strategy is inseparable from acquisition strategy. Paid teams control who arrives and with what intent; CRO ensures those users experience the right level and timing of friction to convert efficiently.

  • Campaign-fit friction: Align form depth to keyword intent and audience maturity.
  • Message match: Reduce cognitive friction by tightly mirroring ad promises on the landing page. This decreases cognitive load and lowers bounce before you even touch the form.
  • Budget efficiency: When friction upgrades lead quality, Paid Media performance often improves (lower wasted spend on non-buyers, better LTV:CAC). Conversely, when friction is sludge, paid dollars underperform.

This is exactly how Directive’s Customer Generation approach connects the dots between acquisition, experience, and revenue—designing journeys that respect user psychology and maximize pipeline, not just page-level metrics. 

Conclusion: There’s no “optimal” friction—only the right friction for this campaign, audience, and offer

Friction isn’t good or bad by default. It’s a dial, not a switch. Your ideal setting changes with traffic source and intent, offer and stage, and even device and industry. The only reliable way to find it is through Conversion Rate Optimization—iterative, behaviorally informed experimentation that pairs tightly with your Paid Media strategy and the principles of Customer Generation.

When you calibrate friction with data, you don’t just lift form fills—you improve lead quality, Sales efficiency, and revenue predictability.

Contact us for a free 30 minute web audit of your B2B customer journey here

The post Understanding Friction in the B2B Customer Journey: When Is There Too Much…or Not Enough? appeared first on Directive.

]]> How a Simple A/B Test Drove $112K in Revenue in 30 Days https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/how-a-simple-a-b-test-drove-112k-in-revenue-in-30-days/ Wed, 16 Apr 2025 18:53:26 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=47803 As marketers, it feels as if we’ve come to accept that driving results has to take a long time, from

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]]> As marketers, it feels as if we’ve come to accept that driving results has to take a long time, from content development, to technical SEO, to link building, and more. While all of those are critical to steady growth and are central to our typical SEO engagements, we shouldn’t ignore  the power of layering on simple but effective low-hanging fruit that can have an immediate impact. 

Like a single A/B test.

An A/B Testing Case Study

For one of our existing SEO clients, we had already completed a lot of the SEO heavy-lifting, with detailed technical fixes, a built-out content strategy, content optimizations, and more.  But we didn’t stop there.  We decided to also layer on a CRO (conversion rate optimization) initiative, after spotting several opportunities to improve their conversion rate across the site. On top of providing recommendations to optimize their main conversion pages, we also began a series of A/B tests, meant to validate the impact that our recommendations would have on conversion rates. 

For one of these A/B tests,  we took a look at their website’s user experience and noticed one detail: the primary call-to-action (CTA) button in the header was a dark blue color that didn’t stand out from the rest of the site’s design.  Our hypothesis? Changing the button to a brighter color (that also matched their brand colors better) would draw users’ attention to it and result in a higher conversion rate.

So we decided to test it.

We ran a basic A/B test comparing the original dark blue button to a light green variant that had more visual contrast.

The test was simple. There were no layout changes, no new copy, and no design overhaul. Just a different button color, tested on a 50/50 traffic split within our A/B testing platform.

After 30 days, here’s what we found:

  • Original dark blue button: 0.43% conversion rate
  • Light green button: 0.81% conversion rate

That increase might not seem dramatic on the surface, but when applied across the client’s monthly traffic and their average order value, it translated to 15 additional conversions and $112,000 in additional projected lifetime revenue—from a single color change.

Why This Test Worked

Visual hierarchy matters. The CTA button is often one of if not the most important elements on a webpage. It directs users on what to do and helps guide their journey from visitor to customer. But if that CTA blends in with the rest of the design, it gets ignored—even if the page copy is spot on.

In this case, the dark blue button got lost, even against a white background. The light green button, on the other hand, popped visually. It attracted attention and encouraged clicks.

This wasn’t a wild guess—it was a hypothesis based on experience and validated through testing. And while the test was simple to execute, the process behind it was rooted in strategic thinking and thousands of hours of practice.

The Problem with A/B Testing in Practice

Here’s the catch: A/B testing isn’t always this straightforward or this effective, as many marketers know.

Most marketers know that testing is important, but a lot of teams abandon it quickly. They run a few experiments that don’t move the needle and conclude that testing isn’t worth the effort.

There are a few reasons for this:

  • Lack of traffic: Not enough site visitors to make significant conclusions.
  • Poor hypothesis design: Testing arbitrary changes with no strategic CRO reasoning.
  • No follow-through: Tests are run, results are inconclusive, and nothing is implemented.

We get it. Testing takes time, patience, and the right infrastructure. And sometimes, even smart tests won’t lead to wins. But if you’re not testing at all, you’re flying blind—and leaving easy dollars on the table.

The Directive Difference

What makes testing work at Directive is the way we operate: as a team. As an SEO Strategist, I’m blessed to work with some of the most talented and skilled marketers in the world.  As a team, we are constantly sharing results, insights, and learnings from across our client base. That means every test (whether successful or not) adds to a growing pool of real-world data that we can use for all our clients.

In other words, when one client benefits, all clients benefit.

This approach allows us to identify patterns, spot opportunities faster, and implement high-impact changes with a higher success rate. That button color test? It wasn’t our first, and it won’t be our last—but now it’s one more insight we can bring to the table for every future client.

Let’s not forget – this A/B test represents only a small part of our overall strategy.  We’ve already made strong progress with our long-term initiatives, and there’s so much more ahead for this client. That said, this test proves something important: while long-term strategy lays the foundation, identifying short-term wins and thinking creatively about how to drive immediate impact is just as essential to delivering outstanding results.

Why CRO Deserves Your Attention

If your marketing strategy is focused solely on acquisition and long-term strategy, you’re only seeing half the picture. Getting people to your site is critical, but converting them once they arrive is where the ROI lives.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is often treated as a nice-to-have, but we’d argue it should be foundational. Why spend more on traffic if your site isn’t designed to convert it?

A/B testing is just one part of a broader CRO strategy, but it’s a powerful one. It allows you to move beyond guesswork, validate assumptions quickly, and make data-driven decisions that lead to measurable business impact.

Ready for Results?

If you (or your marketing agency) aren’t consistently testing and optimizing your website, you’re likely missing out on untapped revenue. Sometimes, the difference between stagnation and growth isn’t a massive campaign, but a small test that’s been right under your nose.

At Directive, we’re committed to helping our clients uncover that missed revenue and opportunities, one test at a time.

If you’re ready to find yours, we’re happy to help. Get started today.

 

The post How a Simple A/B Test Drove $112K in Revenue in 30 Days appeared first on Directive.

]]> How To Shoot, Edit & Create a High Converting SaaS Demo Video https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/high-converting-saas-demo-video/ Fri, 15 Apr 2022 00:40:22 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=26404 The days when a customer came to your SaaS website and started reading texts and presentations to figure out what

The post How To Shoot, Edit & Create a High Converting SaaS Demo Video appeared first on Directive.

]]> The days when a customer came to your SaaS website and started reading texts and presentations to figure out what your brand and product are all about are over. Instead of making presentations and writing text, you should instead focus on shooting, editing, and creating a high-converting SaaS demo video. 

If you prepare enough data and have screenshots of where a customer uses your video, why they’re using it, and how they’re using it, it will be multiple times more effective than simply having a text explaining what your product does. 

If an image is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand images. However, making a high-converting SaaS demo video isn’t an easy task. But that’s why we will explain all the necessary elements your demo video needs to have to be a high-converting video and for your customers to watch it and then take action. 

In the article, we will cover: 

  • The types of SaaS demo videos
  • What are the benefits of a SaaS demo video
  • Best Practices
  • And all the how-to’s that are happening behind the screen like budgeting, goal-setting, developing a script

With that in mind, let’s jump right to the reason why demo videos are doing so well in today’s marketplace.

 

The What & Why of SaaS Demo Videos?

Wyzowl, a video content study, recently did a study that showed how customers prefer to watch a short video that would explain what the product does. In fact, 69% of customers prefer to watch the video and 84% of people say that they have been convinced about buying the product after they watched the video. 

These numbers tell the story— if you have the right demo video that explains your brand’s product in a short amount of time, you will influence the visitors that come to your website to buy your product.  

When it comes to SaaS products, it’s essential that your customers realize the value of your product as soon as possible and a demo video is a perfect opportunity for that. It tells them what the product is about, how it will solve their problem, and how they can use it. 

 

The Types of SaaS Demo Videos

There are multiple types of SaaS demo videos and which one you will make or create depends largely on your product or service. Since you’re selling something intangible like a service or software, you can use a screen recording tool to capture the features of the product. 

There are three main types of SaaS demo videos that you can use to help people understand your brand’s product: 

  • Live demo. A live demo is a brief explanation that presents the product through a video conference call. 
  • Overview demo. An overview demo is a short and brief explanation of what the product does without going into details. 

There is also a variety when it comes to video styles, but some are more popular than others: 

  • Desktop and smartphone screen capture
  • Live demo call
  • Animated product video
  • Live-action video of the presenter talking

 

The Benefits of SaaS Demo Videos

There are multiple benefits to SaaS demo videos. First of all, they’re scalable—once you make the demo video and you upload it on your website, you don’t need to make it again and an unlimited number of people can watch it. There are some other benefits as well like: 

  • Can be entertaining
  • Can be used to explain things in the simplest way possible
  • Can be personal
  • Depending on the production level, they can be quite inexpensive

The best thing about demo videos is that it takes little to no effort to consume the material. You play the video and watch it. When you compare that with text or presentations, it’s no wonder that consumers prefer videos. 

Your product videos are all about conveying crucial information about your brand’s product to your potential buyers as quickly as possible and as early as possible. And the biggest benefit to a demo video is that it can do just that. 

 

Channels for SaaS Demo Videos

The great thing about small demo videos is that they have really good usability. You can use your SaaS demo videos on multiple channels to promote your products and services. 

One of the most common channels where you can demo videos are: 

  • Homepage on your website
  • Email signatures
  • Sales materials
  • Marketing campaigns that present new features and products

 

Tips for Recording a SaaS Demo Video

There are a couple of tips that you should take into account when recording a SaaS demo video: 

  • Have a stable angle for the camera
  • Minimize movement of the camera (it can be disorienting and hard to follow for the audience)
  • Avoid industry jargon. You’re communicating with your consumers that might not know the acronyms that you’re using. 
  • Add captions for people who watch videos without sound (there are a lot of them!) 
  • Use your brand color palette so that customers connect your product with your brand

 

Demo Video Best Practices

Demo videos have been out there for quite some time and marketers have noticed what works really well. Getting to the point fast, keeping the video short (2 minutes ideally, 5 minutes a maximum), and explaining the essential features and benefits of the product seem to be the winning formula. 

Here are some of the best practices when it comes to demo videos: 

  • Keep it simple. Don’t try to cram every piece of information into your video. Just keep it simple by explaining only the fundamentals elements of your product or service (2 minutes isn’t a lot of time).
  • Do your research. When you know what problem your product solves and why your customers are using it, you can use that in your demo videos to already handle objections from new customers. 
  • Investing a lot of time in the headline. People click on a headline if it’s intriguing and beneficial for them. So invest time to write a really good headline for your video (write 25 different headlines and you will find the right one in there).
  • Invest even more time in the thumbnail.  Since video is a visual format, you will need to invest in making a really great thumbnail. The thumbnail should inform the customer what the video is about, reveal just enough to make them click on the video, but not reveal enough that the customer gets everything from the thumbnail.
  • The first seconds matter the most.  When a person clicks on your video, you will only have a couple of seconds to make an impression on them. So you need to start with something strong to keep their attention and make them “hooked” on your video. 
  • Write a script and use it. Creating a perfect demo video means having a really great script. So either write the script yourself or hire a writer to do it for you. And then stick to it when making the video.
  • Practice until it’s perfect. The first take probably won’t go that well. You will be nervous, use filler words like “umm” and “like” so it will take a couple of takes to get it perfect. Don’t get discouraged— practice makes perfect. 

 

The How-To Behind SaaS Demo Videos

Creating a high-converting SaaS demo video is a process that requires a couple of steps to pull off: 

 

Identify the Goals

What is the main goal of the SaaS demo video? You need to answer that before you start making the video. Is it sales, subscriptions, or brand awareness? Because the answer will guide you through the creation of the demo video. 

It’s best to frame your goal as “After the Customer watches the video, they will do _____” to know what the main objective of the demo video is. 

 

Determine the Audience(s)

Who will be the people that will watch the video, how far along are they in the buyer’s journey, and how long will they watch? All of these questions and many more are the things you need to answer if you want to make a high-converting SaaS video.

If you have multiple buyer personas, you need to determine who the video is for and then market the video to that target audience, solving their pain points.

 

Set Budgets & Timelines

A SaaS demo video will have a different quality to it if you invest $1000 than it would have if you invested $10 000. 

You need to know your budget limitations before you start making the SaaS demo video because that will determine what you can do with the video. Are you going to hire a video production agency and an experienced video script writer or will you do everything in-house? 

You will also need to determine a realistic timeline for creating the SaaS demo video. Again, if you’re working on the video only with the in-house team, you will save money on your budget, but it will probably take you more time so you will prolong your timeline. 

 

Create a Marketing Strategy

Once you created your video and it went through the editing process, now it’s time to start sharing your demo video. To do that effectively, you need to create a marketing strategy around it. 

Sending a special email announcement, putting it on your YoTube channel, having it on top of your homepage, or having everyone change their email signature to the demo video, are a couple of options for distribution. 

 

Develop a Script

Last but least is to develop a script for your SaaS demo video. It’s the essential part of your video. The script will define your tone of voice, pace, and the message you want to send to your customers. 

If you’re hiring an external writer to write the script, you will need to provide them with a detailed brief on top of which they will deliver the outline for the script. After the outline is approved, they will write the draft(s) and then you will start polishing them. 

Since you only have a couple of minutes, the copy can’t have any “fat” to it—every word needs to hold its weight.  

When the script is finished, always do a verbal run-through before starting the camera. This will let you know if there are sections to the script that need to be corrected. 

 

Final Thoughts

Creating a demo video that will explain what your SaaS does will greatly influence the visitors on your website to start using your products and become customers. 

But shooting, editing, and creating a high-converting SaaS demo video isn’t the only thing you can do to grow your SaaS business. If you want to get more sales-qualified leads instead of marketing-qualified leads, you should book a demo call with one of our agents. 

The post How To Shoot, Edit & Create a High Converting SaaS Demo Video appeared first on Directive.

]]> Why You Should Use The Unbounce WordPress Plugin As A Growth Marketer https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/installing-unbounce-wordpress-plugin/ Thu, 14 Apr 2022 23:15:34 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=26398 It’s quite difficult to create landing pages…and it’s more difficult to build landing pages that work (convert). Most marketers are

The post Why You Should Use The Unbounce WordPress Plugin As A Growth Marketer appeared first on Directive.

]]> It’s quite difficult to create landing pages…and it’s more difficult to build landing pages that work (convert). Most marketers are having problems creating landing pages that convert, spending hours upon hours on a single page that they hope will work. 

On top of that, they need to learn how to code to be able to create custom landing pages which takes additional time from their schedule. And when they do all of that, the marketers are still not sure if the landing pages will convert. 

And that was the problem that gave birth to Unbounce.

What is Unbounce?

Unbounce is a platform that helps you build high-converting landing pages. Unbounce has a drag-and-drop function and pre-made templates which means that the people using it can create a landing page in minutes. 

And you don’t need to worry about functionality or conversion— Unbounce created the entire platform with pre-made templates that will provide high levels of conversion. You can simply take the elements that you like from the Unbounce platform and create a landing page from them. It’s easy, it works, and it doesn’t require coding skills. 

Unbounce also has an AI-powered A/B testing feature on their platform so they’re not only a landing page builder, but an effective tool when it comes to conversion optimization. It’s no wonder that it’s one of the most popular tools for marketers all around the globe. 

Who Uses Unbounce?

Unbounce is mostly used by growth marketers, SEO managers, and paid media strategists. But not all companies using conversion optimization use Unbounce. 

In fact, most of the companies that use Unbounce are small and medium-sized companies, usually with up to 50 employees. Unbounce is in the same market as some big tools such as Google Conversion Tracking, Google Website Optimizer, and Optimizely. 

If you’re a company with 10-50 employees and doing < $5 million in revenue, you should be looking to use Unbounce. 

Core Features of Unbounce

Unbounce is a tool that has many features and benefits. However, there are only four main benefits that Unbounce is being used for: 

  • Landing Page Builder. Unbounce has a drag-and-drop option on its platform that makes building landing pages easy. The option is available for text and image elements so you can create the complete landing page on their platform. On top of that, their designs work both on desktop and mobile versions. 
  • A/B Testing. Unbounce has an AI-powered A/B testing option on its platform. So you can run A/B experiments with different elements of the landing page to see which one converts higher for your target audience and your product. There are also advanced options like targeting your audience based on specific behavioral triggers. On top of that, you can use hundreds of proven conversion optimization templates and use them in your test to see which one works the best. 
  • Engagement Metrics. Unbounce has a set of engagement metrics that will help you increase your conversion rates. Their smart traffic features enable you to attach attributes to visitors (like geo-location or device) and identify conversion patterns so that you don’t need to have plenty of data to benefit from it.
  • Forms (integration). You can integrate Unbounce with almost any marketing or CRM tool and even with quite a lot of applications. You can integrate email signups into your workflow tools like InfusionSoft or Mailchimp. Also, you can use Unbounce to collect leads all in one place that you received from other marketing automation platforms (like Mailchimp or Hubspot).

Installing the Unbounce WordPress Plugin

There are a couple of things you should do to connect your Unbounce account with the WordPress domain and install the Unbounce plugin. 

Adding a WordPress Domain to Your Unbounce Account

You need to have WordPress installed as either your subdomain or as your root domain, not as a path domain. If you’re trying to do it on a path domain, it will have problems with conversion counters and lead tracking. 

To add a WordPress domain to your Unbounce account, you should first log into your Unbounce account.

After that, you should navigate to the client account (top-left corner of the screen), click Domains, and then Add a Domain button. 

When you click on the Add a Domain button, a small window box will appear where you will need to enter your website’s URL. When you do that, just click Add a WordPress Domain and that’s it.

Adding the Unbounce Plugin to Your WordPress Account

Adding the Unbounce plugin to your WordPress account requires only three steps: installation, activation, and authorization of the plugin. 

  • Installation. Log in to your WordPress website and go to the Installed Plugins section. Find the Unbounce plugin and follow the installation screen instructions.
  • Activation. After the installation is done, go to the Plugin tab and activate the plugin. 
  • Authorization. When you activate the plugin, go to the Unbounce Pages plugin and click Authorize with Unbounce. You should get a “Working with WordPress” message after a few minutes. 

Publishing Pages to your WordPress Domain

Publishing pages to your WordPress domain is a fairly easy task. You simply go to your WordPress domain, go to Onbouce Page Overview on the left side, and then click the option Change URL to publish a page. 

Troubleshooting

When it comes to troubleshooting, Unbounce can really only have four options: 

  • WordPress ‘Default’ URL Structure. WordPress’s default state is to use web URLs that have numbers and question marks, but unfortunately, this structure doesn’t work with the Unbounce plugin. So you should update the permalink structure on your WordPress domain (yourdomain.com/wp-admin/options-permalink)
  • WordPress caching plugins can cause conflicts. There are some caching plugins that can cause conflict with the Unbounce plugin. If a problem like this happens, you should contact the Unbounce team and send them a list of your active plugins so they can investigate further. 
  • Unpublishing Pages. There can be a problem when there are two or more pages published on WordPress and then unpublished. It can happen that the last unpublished page shows a 404 error. You should simply wait a little bit and the problem will resolve itself. 
  • 404s. A 404 error can indicate many problems. If you get a 404 error, it can be one of the following problems: Caching plugins, Cloudflare problem, Firewall configuration, or Proxy configuration. 

Conclusion

Unbounce is a great tool for marketers, SEO managers, and paid media strategists that allows for building simple, yet effective and high-converting landing pages. But if you need additional help growing your sales-qualified leads, you should book an intro call with our team.

The post Why You Should Use The Unbounce WordPress Plugin As A Growth Marketer appeared first on Directive.

]]> SaaS Design: The Guide to Creating a Meaningful Saas Experience https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/saas-design-guide/ Wed, 16 Mar 2022 23:17:36 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=26325 10 years ago, if someone said, “I’m doing some SaaS design for a SaaS website,” you might wonder what they

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]]> 10 years ago, if someone said, “I’m doing some SaaS design for a SaaS website,” you might wonder what they were talking about. Today, that’s a completely different story. The average number of software products a company buys is about 125 per company, and the SaaS industry has grown to an estimated $146 billion — almost 5x the size it was six years ago. 

What does that mean? Predictably, it means the number of SaaS websites visited daily has increased at the same exponential rate. And how is your SaaS product supposed to stand out in this new (and crowded) world of “automated this” and “scalable that?” 

 

Website or Landing Page?

Before you design a SaaS website or Saas product landing page, you’ll need to decide which one you want to drive traffic to during your PPC campaign. If your main website converts at 1% or greater, you may want to drive users to one of its existing pages. Good websites give users a choice of what they want to do and where they want to go next. They’re also structured with conversion in mind. 

Landing pages, on the other hand, are great for controlling the user conversion path from start to finish. Unlike web pages, landing pages don’t have any nav bars or menus to distract users from the intended path of conversion. You’re in control every step of the way. A SaaS Landing Page is also a great way to test specific messaging before adding it to your SaaS website. 

 

Creating a Meaningful SaaS Landing Page Experience

The goal for any SaaS landing page is to convert visitors to leads. But to do this effectively, you’ll want to create a unique experience that speaks to customers’ emotional motivators and pain points.  This isn’t a B2B, templatized, talk-about-your-product equation. To connect emotionally, you need to deliver an experience that’s dynamic, deeply connected to who and where your customers are, in a way that stands out. 

At Directive, we call this Customer-Led Creative. Here are several aspects to consider when designing and writing this effective way to convert customers.

 

1. User Experience

Designing a great user experience plays a huge role in any successful SaaS landing page. But contrary to what you might think, it’s more about understanding who your customers are than the design itself. Before you start designing, start doing your research.

 

2. Buyer Personas

Why is it so important to know the different players you’re targeting? So you can better understand their unique pain points and needs. For example, if you’re targeting developers and you know one of their checkboxes is integrations, make sure you’re including that information on your page. Many landing pages are so concerned with getting visitors to click on that Free Trial, they fail to provide the information the user needs to make a purchase decision.
 

3. User Behavior 

Before you start designing your SaaS landing page, it’s important to consider how users will behave when they land on it. Great landing pages incorporate a breakdown of visitor behavior, and what they usually need to become a customer. Using heat mapping to understand how visitors interact with your page brings value to your decision making and tools like Hot Jar or Crazy Egg can help. Once you have this, you can better plan the elements to include on your page and how to optimize it for maximum conversions.
 

4. Great Copywriting 

Writing great copy is such an important step in your SaaS landing page communications strategy. The attitude, tone and character of your copy can also define your brand personality. Connecting emotionally with your customers is hands-down the #1 best way to convert visitors to leads, and copywriting plays a huge role in that. Headlines should be short and punchy with the customer pain point woven smartly into the solution. Subheads should clarify and enrich the headline, and any copy underneath should be short and catchy or bulleted for easy skimming.
 

5. Well Produced Videos 

It’s a visual world. Speak in a visual way. Video is the world’s #1 communications medium for a reason. Most people don’t like to read. They’d rather be entertained. A well-produced video breaks through the consumer-attention-span barrier of eight seconds, and gives visitors a more engaging overview of your SaaS product.
 

6. High Performing Gifs 

Show how your product works or how it looks in action. Quickly showcase unique product benefits in a way that draws attention. Gifs do a great job on either front. Put them next to a compelling headline and subhead and you’re communicating multiple benefits on multiple levels – all at the same time.

 

7. Social Proof 

Showcasing the companies you’re doing business with is a proven way to bring instant credibility to your product or service. Social proof is another way of saying don’t believe us, believe them, and best practice says, put it above the fold.

 

8. Customer Testimonials 

Another great piece of social proof is the customer testimonial. Using shots of real customers with a quote next to them is a fast and effective way to get those believable benefits across, but sometimes it’s better to let the customers do the talking.  Short video testimonials or customer stories speak way louder than words and beg to be viewed. Plus, you can use them creatively in your paid media efforts as well.

 

9. Testing Strategies 

The great thing about landing pages is you can test them at will, and may the best communication win. Testing can be big, like measuring engagement from adding video to your page vs. a static page. Or it can be small, such as changing the color of a button, or putting the contact form above the fold. Testing goes hand-in-hand with heat mapping and is all about optimizing your page to perform its best by giving customers the information they need to convert with the least amount of friction possible.

All of these are important to consider when planning out a meaningful SaaS landing page experience, but there are several common mistakes that can derail that effort. These are easily avoidable if you know what they are. 

 

Common SaaS Design Mistakes To Avoid

Below you can learn more about some of these common derailing mistakes plus how to solve them.

 

Mismatched pre-click and post-click experience

Mistake: The ad showed one thing, but the landing page delivered something else, confusing your customer and causing them to bounce off of the page before converting.

Solution: Consistency is key—not only for paid ads and pages but for your brand voice as a whole. Your ads should be incorporating the same visuals and headline found on the page you’re directing users to—at least for the hero section of the page.


Lacking a single, clear call-to-action (CTA)

Mistake: It’s one of two problems: either there are no high-contrast CTA buttons or there are so many, the user gets distracted away from what you actually want them to do. Ideally, you want to give the user one goal in order to keep them on the landing page—not distract them with social pages or ebooks.

Solution: Decide upon a singular, actionable goal you want users to take. Then, make your CTA button stand out from the rest of the page with a high contrast color, used sparingly elsewhere to draw the user’s eyes to it.

 

Not outlining what the user will get from submitting their personal information

Mistake: Even with a clear CTA stated on the page, if you’re not outlining what the user will get out of filling out a form, they may not understand the benefit of doing so. Merely saying “get your ebook/demo/trial” doesn’t clearly communicate what information they’ll learn, how long it will take, if it’s worth their time, etc.

Solution: Put yourself in their shoes—what do they get and what additional questions might they have? Think of the top 3-5 takeaways your user will get in exchange for their time and list them out next to your form. Disclose things like how long it will take (a 5-minute read, a 30-minute demo), whether it’s live or on-demand, or if they need to enter in credit card information.

 

Asking for too much info in the form (off-putting)

Mistake: Once you’ve convinced your audience to take the next step, they’ll generally move to fill out a form. However, if that form is asking for too much or too personal information, you may miss out on a great prospective customer.

Solution: There are some general accessibility rules to consider, such as keeping field labels outside of the form field, but ultimately it boils down to “what information does our sales team 100% need to know in order to qualify this lead?” Since most sales follow-ups are done via email these days, it’s likely you’ll never need to ask for someone’s phone number. But if you have different solutions based on the size of the company, the pain point they’re trying to solve, their industry—those are questions to consider including. Not only will you get a better understanding of how to solve their problem, but you can also ask those questions first to help ease the user into filling out more personal information such as their name and email address.

 

No reason to believe

Mistake: You’ve talked a big game on how incredible your solution is, but forgot to back it up with any substantial evidence. Your customers want to fix their problems but won’t trust that you have the answer without some social proof.

Solution: Evidence can come in many forms: a logo farm of clients (bonus points for big names), case studies that outline how you fixed someone else’s problem, statistics from customer success stories. Anything that highlights how you’ve solved the same problems for others, especially if you can highlight different pieces of social proof that resonate with specific audience segments.
 

Telling instead of showing

Mistake: With consumer attention spans ever-shortening, lengthy paragraphs of text can lead users to skip over the information entirely. The most compelling copy in the world won’t convince your target audience that you have all the answers unless they can also visualize how you’d pull it off. In the digital age, there are more visual learners than ever before, and they need to see it to believe it. What you include should clearly communicate a specific benefit or feature—no random screengrabs of dashboards where the user can’t tell what the product actually does.

Solution: There are so many effective ways to do this—chunking information into bullet points or sections, showing product walkthrough videos, high-quality UI mockups, even lifestyle imagery if you’re targeting a specific industry or persona. If it helps your customer understand how they could use and benefit from your solution, it’s well worth the time and effort to create it.

 

Product-focused rather than person-focused

Mistake: Donald Miller (author of Building a Story Brand) said it best: “The customer is the hero, not your brand.” When companies only focus on how great they are, they miss out on connecting with their customers’ pain points and goals. No emotional connection means no customer, and wasted marketing spend.

Solution: Rework your messaging and visuals to focus on the page’s target audience. Have a pain points and benefits section that highlights how your solution is going to make their lives better. In keeping with the Donald Miller lessons, your brand should be the Yoda to their Luke Skywalker.

 

The design sucks

Mistake: Plain and simple—if you’ve got misaligned elements, text that doesn’t meet accessibility standards, a demo video made in Powerpoint, or pixelated imagery? Your users will take that lack of quality control as an indication of how your product looks and feels too.

Solution: Invest in quality. Directive’s Performance Creative Service team brings strategy together with best-practice land page design to turn page visitors into customers. Our retainer-based model includes full design and build of pages, ongoing variant testing, and image ads for display and social to go with. Our designers also work side-by-side with an exceptional video team for dynamic explainer and demo videos, customer testimonials, or just to add engaging motion graphics to your pages.

 

Takeaways on SaaS Design

SaaS is a great space to be in, but it’s expanding at a rate of nearly 100% year-over-year. Adding to that, 55% of top enterprise companies are planning to increase their software spend in 2022, which means more competition will be entering the market, and more SaaS websites and landing pages will be jockeying for attention. 

How will your site stand out from so many competitors offering similar benefits? It’s important to work with an expert like Directive. 

Directive is a performance-driven agency with individual departments that specialize in all the mediums that matter. Our Customer-Led Performance Creative teams create smart, engaging communication strategies for landing page design and development, and work seamlessly with our video team to bring emotional engagement to the forefront of our design strategies.

Whatever your ultimate performance goal is, make sure it’s Customer-Led, and see how emotional connection helps create meaningful site experiences that boost your conversion strategy.

Performance = Directive.

 

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]]> How to A/B Test Your SaaS CTA’s for Optimal Conversion Rates https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/saas-cta-ab-testing/ Tue, 01 Mar 2022 01:25:41 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=26231 You’ve created the perfect landing page and have reached a product-market fit with your company’s main product. But now, it’s

The post How to A/B Test Your SaaS CTA’s for Optimal Conversion Rates appeared first on Directive.

]]> You’ve created the perfect landing page and have reached a product-market fit with your company’s main product. But now, it’s time to find more potential customers, increase revenue, and scale your business. 

For that, you will need to optimize your SaaS CTA or call-to-action buttons so that you reach out to more visitors, increase revenue, and improve your conversion rates. And the best way to do that is through a data-driven process that can be implemented and proven through A/B testing of your CTA. 

This article will cover the elements that will help you A/B test your SaaS CTA’s for optimal conversion rates.

 

What Is a CTA?

A call to action or a CTA is a medium through which the marketer leads his audience, visitors, and customers to the next step of the buyer’s journey. CTA’s come in different forms— they can link to a direct sales page, move the person from the visitor to the subscriber phase, or enhance the revenue from the buying cycle by prompting users to upsell.  

A call to action should be placed immediately after the marketing message when the effects of the message are the strongest. That’s why you will see CTA buttons at the end of the articles, sales and landing pages, where it makes the most sense for them to be. 

And to be beneficial, a CTA needs to: 

  • Capture attention. A CTA needs to be visible and easy to click on. We will talk a lot more about design, placing, coloring, and language later on. 
  • Deliver on the promise. A CTA needs to be aligned with the marketing message or otherwise make sense for the reader to click on it. If you spent all of your time talking about one thing in your marketing message, then the CTA needs to follow-through on that message and lead the person further in the sales funnel. 
  • Increase your revenue/subscriber number. And the last benefit of the CTA is its effectivneess. It needs to lead your visitors, consumers, and customers further into the cycle because that’s how you will increase your revenue and/or subscriber number. 

Even though this sounds simple enough (and it is), it’s not easy to do. A CTA should be informative, yet concise, eye-catching, yet subtle and this also applies to your Saas CTA’s.

So let’s how do CTAs differ when it comes to SaaS. 

 

How Do CTAs Differ for SaaS?

When it comes to SaaS, your customer’s first visit to your website and their first interaction with it is crucial. On it, your customers need to grasp how complicated/simple your product is and if they can understand it in mere seconds. 

When it comes to CTAs for SaaS, they should focus on getting the visitor to either schedule a demo session with one of your agents or start a free (7, 14, 30 days) trial. Since there’s some time needed to set up everything for your SaaS, having a demo session to go over all of it or a trial period is a good way for your customer to get to know their options. 

Considering your SaaS needs to be integrated with the company’s other tools, do a team-wide installation, and go over the data security points, it will take some time so a direct “buy now” CTA that would work for a B2C company wouldn’t work for a SaaS company. 

When it comes to your SaaS business, you should find a way to integrate CTAs into your SaaS content. You can do three things when it comes to your CTAs for your content: 

  • Consider a whitepaper. When your visitors still aren’t ready for a demo session or a free trial, you might use a whitepaper or an ebook at the end of your SaaS content for them to consider. This will provide them with more detailed information on your product and how it would work for them specifically. This can usually lead your visitors to schedule a demo session or start a free trial.
  • Read more for awareness. If it’s a visitor that’s interacting with your content for the first time, it might be better to provide them with a CTA that would lead to another informational content before a demo session. That way, they will get to know the benefits of your product in a more organic way and become ready to start a trial. 

 

What Is A/B Testing? 

A/B testing is also known as split testing. It’s a process where you show two, three, or more versions of a single variable to different visitors of your website, sales page, or landing page. You do this to determine which version is the best one (which one provides the best results out of all of them). 

A in the A/B testing stands for the original or the control testing variable and while B is the variation (it’s still called A/B testing even if you have multiple variables). 

Since the data-driven approach to decision-making is essential for SaaS businesses, you eliminate all the guesswork out of your CTA optimization since you rely on data. And not any kind of data, but the best kind of data— your direct visitor, consumer, and customer data. 

Once you created your variation, it’s time to test them out. One audience will get the original while the other audience will get the variation(s). And you will see how the winner is by comparing data—  which variation provided the best possible outcomes for your business. 

 

How Can A/B Testing Help My SaaS CTAs Convert? 

When you A/B test your CTA, you can drastically improve the effectiveness of your call to action buttons. 

All types of businesses have problems that A/B testing can solve. For SaaS businesses, it’s about finding SQLs instead of MQLs and A/B testing can help you with this. You will find out where your customers drop from the sales funnel, why they do that, and what can you do to fix it. 

The following five reasons are why A/B testing will help your SaaS CTAs convert: 

  • Solve visitor pain points. Your visitors come to your SaaS website to solve a specific problem they have. And your CTAs should entice them to click on them because they promise to solve their pain points. By A/B testing, you will look at the data and find the CTAs that speak to your visitors’ problems in the most optimal way. 
  • Get better ROI from existing traffic. When you optimize your CTAs on the website, you will make better use of the visitors that are coming to your company’s website. So to get a better ROI from the traffic, you should A/B test your CTAs. If you have 20,000 monthly visitors on your website and you increase your click-through rate by just 1%, you will have 200 more visitors that have clicked on your CTA and may become new customers. 
  • Reduce bounce rate. The new Google Analytics no longer measures bounce rate (the new metric is called average engagement time), but the term bounce rate still remains in the marketing circles. When you test out your CTAs’, you reduce the number of people who leave your website because they don’t understand something about it. 
  • Make low-risk modifications. The beauty of A/B testing is that you can still keep the current optimization rate numbers while you make modifications. So you can keep testing until you find a better alternative and you should do that with your CTAs. A complete rehaul of your website or a landing page might lower your current conversion numbers so an A/B test is always a safer solution.
  • Achieve statistically significant improvements. When it comes to A/B testing, you will take a look at the data and determine which variation is the best. And this adds up— when you make multiple changes through A/B testing, it can add up to significant improvements in your business such as increased revenue for your business. 

 

Helpful A/B Testing Tools

We’ve established the many benefits of using A/B testing to optimize your conversion rates. You don’t have to manually establish an A/B test because there are tools that can help you with that. 

So we will cover a couple of those, go over their pros and cons, and see their pricing models. 

 

Google Optimize

Google Optimize is an online-split testing tool. You simply plug this tool into your website and then you can facilitate three types of testing: 

  • A/B testing
  • Multivariate testing
  • Redirecting testing

Google Optimize has two key elements to it: Editor and Reporting. In Editor, you write up your variations for A/B testing, while you go to Reporting to see the data for those tests.

 

Advantages

Google Optimize has many advantages: 

  • Plenty of integrations. Since this tool is Google’s tool, it can easily be integrated with many other Google tools such as Google Analytics, Tag Manager, or AdWords. 
  • Easy setup. Google Optimize is quite user-friendly and it’s easy to set up the A/B testing campaigns in it.

 

Limitations

Google Optimize also has some disadvantages: 

  • It doesn’t have built-in analytics. With Google Optimize, you always need to integrate it with Google Analytics if you want to get reports from your A/B testing campaigns. 
  • It doesn’t have the capability to test complicated features. If you’re a bigger company, then this might be a problem for you. 

 

Price

Google Optimize utilizes the freemium pricing model. With the free model, you can run up to three simultaneous tests. 

If you want access to all of its features, you can upgrade to Optimize 360, but it’s an expensive tool. It costs around $150,000/year and it’s more geared toward companies that have more than 1 million visitors a month on their platforms. 

 

Optimizely

Optimizely is a platform that is aimed at enterprise-level customers almost exclusively. Companies that choose Optimizely do that because they need to run multiple web experimentations and they approach testing with the utmost seriousness. 

Advantages

Optimizely has many advantages: 

  • Optimizely isn’t only used for websites, but also for testing mobile apps, messaging platforms, and more. 
  • Their platform is highly customizable so you can use it for plethora of options such as various group segmentation, multiple A/B testings at the same time, etc. 

 

Limitations

Optimizely has some limitations: 

  • It’s a robust tool with many options so the user interface isn’t so user-friendly at times (it’s easy to get lost in all the options)
  • Depending on the scenario that you set in the console, it can have a really slow loading time. 

 

Price

Optimizely is quite a pricy tool. They don’t have a free version and they don’t offer a trial for their tool. You can choose between three plans: 

  • Standard
  • Business
  • Enterprise

The price starts from $50,000/year.

 

VWO

VWO is an optimization platform where you can use A/B testing tools to improve your business metrics. It’s one connected platform where you can test ideas, discover insights and improve engagement all across your customer’s journey.

With VWO, you can receive actionable insights because the platform enables you to use heatmaps, on-page surveys, funnels, and recordings. 

 

Advantages

VWO has some advantages: 

  • It’s one of the easiest A/B testing tools that you can use. You can create tests with ease, without any technical assistance with their Editor. 
  • VWO has a user-friendly interface and it’s quite easy to get to know your way around the platform

 

Limitations

VWO has some limitations:

  • It can be difficult to modify and implement advanced A/B testing campaigns
  • VWO is still lacking in integrations with some other tools.

 

Price

When it comes to pricing, VWO has a base rate of $199 per month per feature. These change depending on the additional features your SaaS business needs from VWO. 

 

A/B Testing Ideas for SaaS CTAs

There are many places on your website, sales, and landing pages where you perform A/B testing for your SaaS CTAs. And we will start with CTA’s styling— design, coloring, and language.  

 

A/B Test CTA’s Styling

Style can make quite a big difference when it comes to optimizing your CTAs. We will cover tactics that will help you optimize your CTAs when it comes to design, coloring, and language. 

 

Design

One thing you can do is to overlap images and page elements. With this, your users will scroll further down because they will see a part of the next elements and they will be curious to find out what the entire element or image is. 

This way, you will encourage visitors to read ahead, go down your page, and in the end, click on your CTA.

 

Coloring

When it comes to coloring, you can use Von Restorff’s Effect. This effect states that people remember shapes that differ from other similar objects around them. 

What you can do with this effect is group a series of text and have a coloring scheme around them that contrasts the other elements on the page. With that, you can “point” to your visitors where they need to give their attention on the website. 

 

Language

When it comes to language, you can frame highly vague and intangible concepts with phrases and metaphors so that your users make them tangible in their minds. 

For example, you could say that you protect your consumer’s data with privacy and that their information is safe with you. Or you can describe it by saying that their data is “Being stored in an online version of Fort Knox.” 

 

A/B Test CTA’s UVP Language

One more thing you can do is to insert your unique value propositions (UVP) in your CTA’s and A/B test them. 

With your UVP, you offer your customers something that’s unique just for your organization that no other company can match. It’s what makes you stand out in the market. 

So when A/B testing your CTA’s, try to insert your UVP in it. An example would be “Click Here To Get SQLs instead of MQLs”.

 

A/B Test CTA’s Location

It’s always better to display the CTA button instead of having it be a link. The button will garner much more attention from you. But you will also have to insert the button in multiple locations on your sales or landing page. 

Sometimes, visitors might miss the button altogether so you should have it in the top, middle, and bottom of the page. It will have an effect on your visitors by mere exposure effect.

 

Conclusion

We’ve covered the most important aspects of A/B testing your call to action so that you can optimize your conversion rates. 

And of course, we will end the article with a CTA of our own. If you’re still unsure if your CTAs are on target, book an intro call with us to learn how Directive can help you boost SQLs, not just MQLs.

 

The post How to A/B Test Your SaaS CTA’s for Optimal Conversion Rates appeared first on Directive.

]]> 10 Best Landing Page Ideas to Boost Conversions https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/landing-page-ideas/ Wed, 14 Oct 2020 23:45:44 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=21939 Are you searching for innovative landing page ideas that can help you increase conversions for your email marketing or PPC

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]]> Are you searching for innovative landing page ideas that can help you increase conversions for your email marketing or PPC advertising campaigns?

Landing pages are the focal point of your digital advertising funnel. These are the pages on your website where visitors “land” after clicking on one of your paid advertisements or email marketing links.

While other pages on your website may encourage exploration and discovery, landing pages focus on specific goals known as conversion targets. A conversion target is an action that users can perform on the page to move into the next stage of the marketing funnel. Conversion targets can include behaviors like filling out a lead generation form, watching a demo video, or purchasing a product or service.

Once you learn how to create a landing page, you can start to experiment with different landing page design elements to optimize conversion rates and drive campaign success – a process often referred to as conversion rate optimization (CRO). 

To help you get started with CRO, we’ve created this list of the best landing page ideas to boost your conversions.

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10 Best Landing Page Ideas to Boost Conversions

Test Short-form vs. Long-form Landing Page Copy

Before you start experimenting with individual design elements on your landing pages, it may be worthwhile to run content experiments where you test short-form vs. long-form landing page copy.

Short-form landing pages may be up to two pages in length, but are frequently just one page long (or less). As a result, short-form landing pages contain very little content, which helps keep the user’s attention laser-focused on the conversion target.

Long-form landing pages are typically three or more pages in length. They typically contain all of the same design elements as short-form pages but may incorporate additional product information, FAQs, social proof, and other features that encourage conversions.

Short-form landing pages usually work best when you’re encouraging a landing page visitor to exchange their email address for a high-value offer. Long-form landing pages can be more successful when you’re trying to convert sales on a high-ticket item and need to address lots of customer concerns/pain points/objections on the page before your prospects feel comfortable making a purchase.

Test and Optimize Your Headlines

One of the biggest landing page ideas you can use to drive increased conversions is headline optimization.

Most landing pages are published with a headline at the top of the page. The purpose of a headline is to grab the user’s attention, encouraging them to remain on the page and to convert on your offer. 

landing page headline test

Caption: This headline grabs the user’s attention by conveying the exact pain point that the product/offer will address.

If you notice that your landing pages have high bounce rates (40-60% or more), with users departing soon after the page loads, you should run experiments with different headlines to discover whether there’s a better way to captivate users as they arrive on your page. The best headlines target a pain point that your prospect can relate to – then you can use subheadings and additional text to explain how your offer solves the problem.

Maintain a 1:1 Attention Ratio

The concept of Attention Ratio is a ground-breaking landing page idea that was first explained by Unbounce co-founder Oli Gardner at the Carnegie Dartlet Conference in 2015.

Attention ratio is defined as a ratio between the number of things that users can do on a page, versus the number of things that users should be doing on a page. 

For any landing page, we know what users should be doing: they should be fulfilling the conversion target, whether that means signing up for a newsletter, webinar, or starting a free trial. 

landing page attention ratio

Caption: This landing page keeps a 1:1 attention ratio by offering exactly one CTA button with a link to the conversion target and no other navigation options on the page.

To keep user attention focused on the conversion target, we can maintain a 1:1 attention ratio by reducing the number of things that users can do on the page. As a marketer, you can draw attention to the conversion target by removing navigation menus and extra features from the page. This prevents your audiences from paying attention to anything that isn’t your conversion target. 

All of this follows from the philosophy that each landing page you create should have one purpose: to convert visitors from the corresponding marketing campaign. Maintaining a 1:1 attention ratio means creating landing pages that are laser-focused on conversion targets and provide few other interactive or navigational options for users.

Incorporate Social Proof 

Social proof marketing is one of the most powerful landing page ideas of the last five years – look at any great landing page for a B2B SaaS company and you’ll most likely see that social proof is being used to build trust with prospective customers and encourage a purchase.

The basic premise of social proof marketing is that individuals in an uncertain situation are most likely to conform to the behaviors and actions of others. The purpose of social proof marketing, therefore, is to offer some evidence to your prospective customer that other individuals or businesses have purchased from you in the past and been satisfied.

landing page social proof

Caption: This landing page by SEMrush incorporates the logos of high-profile customers, a powerful form of social proof that can build trust with prospective customers and increase conversions.l

There are many ways to incorporate social proof marketing into your landing pages. You can experiment with social proof marketing by adding landing page features like:

  • Customer testimonials
  • Customer success stories or case studies
  • Raw statistics indicating how many customers you have satisfied or how many users have accepted your offer in the past
  • Logo images of companies that are your customers
  • Trust badges or awards your organization has received
  • Images or links to third-party websites with reviews or ratings of your product/service

Optimize and Improve Your Calls to Action

If visitors to your landing pages tend to stick around for a while without converting, you might see improved results after optimizing your call-to-action (CTA) buttons. As a marketer, you can combine best practices in CTA button design with your own unique CTA copy to provide a unique experience and encourage your visitors to convert.

Some of our favorite ways to optimize CTA buttons include:

  • Writing a CTA that clearly explains what you’re offering and what your visitors must do to redeem the offer.
  • Changing the tone of your CTA 
  • Creating CTA buttons that look click-able and contrast well with the background.
  • Making your CTA button stand out using negative space.
  • Experimenting with differently-colored CTA buttons
  • Changing the style or font of your CTA text

Optimize Form Fields to Reduce Friction

If you’ve created a landing page to support your lead generation efforts, your page probably includes a form where you can collect information from prospective customers.

Determining how many fields should be included with your landing page forms is always a trade-off. 

If you include more fields and ask for more specific information, you’ll end up with a lower volume of potentially higher-quality leads. If you include fewer form fields and ask for less information, you’ll see a higher volume of leads but you’ll need to undertake additional steps to collect additional information and qualify those leads.

The best way to maximize lead generation from your landing page is to shorten your lead generation forms, only collecting the most important information you need to advance your prospects through the sales funnel. 

The simplest lead generation forms reduce friction by asking visitors to enter just their email address to redeem the offer.

Experiment with a New Offer

If your landing page isn’t getting results with your current offer, why not try offering something else?

Maybe your visitors aren’t particularly excited about joining your email newsletter or signing up for a webinar, but they’d love to download one of your white papers or a set of templates related to your product, service, niche, or industry. 

landing page offer test

Caption: This eCommerce landing page offers a 50% discount for shoppers – highly valuable for a prospective customer with the intent to purchase.

If your prospects don’t find your offers genuinely valuable, it will be difficult to drive conversions regardless of how well you optimize other design elements on your landing pages. Bringing the right offer to the table can make the difference between a successful landing page and an underperforming one.

Leverage Conversational Marketing

Conversational marketing is a new landing page conversion strategy that uses automated chatbots to start conversations with visitors to your landing page. These chatbots can be programmed in advance with responses to the most common questions that your prospects may have before converting on your offers. 

As a marketer, you can even jump into conversations and speak directly to your prospects as they browse your landing pages. Conversational marketing makes it easier to start connecting with your visitors on a one-to-one basis, identifying barriers to conversion on your landing pages, and addressing those issues to drive overall campaign performance.

Experiment with Video Content

If you’ve invested marketing dollars to put together a video that effectively showcases the features and benefits of your product along with the pain points that you address, it might be worthwhile to include that video on your landing page. 

Leveraging video on your landing pages makes it easy and low-effort for visitors to get a full understanding of your product, service, or offer, and researchers have found that marketers who incorporate product videos into their campaign experience higher-than-average conversion rates.

Optimize Page Loading Speed

Our final landing page idea for boosting conversions is to optimize your page loading speeds. 

Over a decade of browsing data has shown that slow page loading times are positively correlated with poor landing page conversion rates; if your landing page takes too long to load, visitors will leave before they ever find out what you have to offer.

We recommend testing your pages with a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights to assess page loading times, diagnose the causes of poor load speed, and improve your load speed to drive conversions.

page speed optimization

Summary

Increasing conversions on your landing page is the most efficient way to start generating more revenue from your ad campaigns without spending more advertising dollars to generate traffic. With the right landing page ideas and some design inspiration, you can create landing pages that are quick to load, capture the attention of visitors with a compelling headline, present a genuinely valuable offer, and drive conversions with a strong CTA.

We hope you’ll use these landing page ideas to inspire your CRO efforts and drive results in your upcoming email marketing or PPC advertising campaigns.

The post 10 Best Landing Page Ideas to Boost Conversions appeared first on Directive.

]]> 5 Top Examples of Website Buttons that Convert https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/website-buttons/ Thu, 08 Oct 2020 21:10:10 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=21895 Website buttons can play an important role when it comes to pushing visitors towards the conversion targets on your website

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]]> Website buttons can play an important role when it comes to pushing visitors towards the conversion targets on your website or landing pages. Compared to text-based or image-based links, website buttons do a much better job of grabbing the attention of your target audience and directing them towards your on-page conversion targets.

In this short guide, we’ll highlight some of the most important best practices that result in high-converting website buttons. We’ll also show you five examples of website buttons that convert and explain why they work so you can copy them for your own campaigns.

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What Makes a Website Button Convert?

High-converting websites buttons are the result of an effective call-to-action (CTA), thoughtful button design, and optimized page layout.

Marketers can implement many different tactics to improve their CTA sales copy, such as:

  • Creating urgency
  • Using imperative language
  • Triggering FOMO or other emotions
  • Preemptively overcoming objections (cost, time, not decision-maker, etc.)
  • Offering an instant reward or benefit
  • Focusing on pain points or benefits – not features
  • Aligning CTA text with campaign offers and user expectations

High-converting CTA buttons are typically brightly colored to draw user attention. Marketers can choose to implement website buttons with brand colors or choose a button color that elicits a specific emotion from the audience.

Page layout also plays an important role in the performance of website buttons. Some of the most common tips for increasing conversions include:

  • CTA buttons should be surrounded by white or negative space to maximize contrast and help them stand out for audiences.
  • CTA buttons should be positioned at the top of the page or above the fold, such that visitors to your web/landing page are guaranteed to see them before scrolling.
  • Landing pages should have fewer navigational options, encouraging visitors to focus their attention on the campaign offer and the CTA button.
  • Landing pages should use flat design to minimize distractions.

With these tips in mind, let’s look at five website button examples and why they work.

5 Examples of Website Buttons that Convert

Watch Demo Video

watch demo video cta

Why It Works: When your conversion target is to have your audience member watch a demo video of your product, “Watch Demo Video” is one of the most effective CTAs. Allowing audiences to watch the demo on their own instead of scheduling a demo with a sales rep is more convenient, helps to overcome objections and minimize risk, and reduces friction, ultimately leading to more conversions.

Shop Now

shop now website button

Why It Works: “Shop Now” is one of the most popular call-to-action phrases that we see implemented in eCommerce campaigns on both paid search and social media. This CTA promises your audience the opportunity to review your products and services with no strings attached. Landing pages using this CTA may include information about a sale or a new product line, further encouraging curious shoppers to click through.

Claim Your Free Trial

free trial website button

Why It Works: When your campaign goal is to have your audience members start a free trial of your product, this CTA can be highly effective. Each word in this CTA contributes specific meaning and connotations that contribute to the whole:

  • “Claim” – Uses imperative language, encouraging the audience to act now.
  • “Your” – Speaks directly to the audience member and gives them a sense of entitlement, as if the free trial already belongs to them.
  • “Free” – This word reduces friction, promising audiences that they won’t have to pay any money or risk anything to start using the product/service.
  • “Trial” – The idea of a trial implies a test period with no commitment, further reducing friction and making audiences more likely to click the button.

Get Started

get started website button

Why It Works: “Get Started” is one of the best CTAs for a multi-step lead form or conversion process. This CTA works best when you’re asking your prospect for just one or two pieces of information to get to the next step – usually their name and email address, or an email address and password to set up a free account.

Grab the Templates

grab your templates cta

Why It Works: As you learn how to optimize your CTA, you should realize that the most effective calls to action are highly aligned with your offer as well as user expectations. If you’re promising your prospective customers a set of templates that are useful for their industry or niche, referencing the specific offer in your CTA helps keep your audience laser-focused on the value you’re providing – ultimately making them more likely to convert.

Summary

Following website button design best practices can have a positive impact on your landing page conversion rates and overall campaign profitability. We hope you’ll use our tips and advice to create more high-performing website buttons for your upcoming digital marketing campaigns.

The post 5 Top Examples of Website Buttons that Convert appeared first on Directive.

]]> 6 Top Landing Page Optimization Tools https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/landing-page-optimization-tools/ Thu, 08 Oct 2020 21:06:12 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=21882 Landing pages have always been a crucial component of the marketing funnel, but marketers haven’t always had access to the

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]]> Landing pages have always been a crucial component of the marketing funnel, but marketers haven’t always had access to the amazing landing page optimization tools that are available today.

In the past, conversion rate optimization (CRO) was much more complicated for digital marketers interested in improving the performance of their landing pages. Without today’s high-tech landing page optimization tools, digital marketers had to rely on their teammates with web development and graphic design skills to support the optimization process – or develop these complex skills themselves.

In 2021 however, digital marketers can use landing page optimization tools to create a good landing page, perform content experiments with A/B, multivariate, and split testing, and identify page high-performing page variants that maximize conversions. 

To help you increase your competitive advantage in PPC advertising, we’ve put together a list of the 6 top landing page optimization tools that you can use to drive campaign performance in 2021.

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6 Top Landing Page Optimization Tools

Unbounce

unbounce landing page optimization tool

Platform Overview: Unbounce is one of the leading user-friendly landing page optimization tools. The platform offers a comprehensive drag-and-drop interface that digital marketers can use to customize their landing page designs and create variants to test with content experiments. Unbounce users also get access to a library of more than 100 landing page templates that they can customize and use with their own paid search campaigns.

Ideal Use Case: Unbounce is a great landing page builder for digital marketing professionals of all stripes – from solo marketers and small business owners to in-house marketing teams and agencies. You can learn how to create a landing page with Unbounce by checking out our in-depth course at the Directive Institute.

How to Get Started: Unbounce offers a 14-day free trial for first-time users. Following that, subscription packages for Unbounce start at $99 per month.

Instapage

instapage landing page optimization tool

Platform Overview: Instapage is another example of a landing page optimization tool that marketers can use to build page variants, measure user behavior, and perform content experiments. Instapage offers a drag-and-drop landing page builder and a collection of over 200 landing page templates that marketers can customize for use in their own campaigns. Instapage users can also leverage built-in heatmaps to track user behaviors on-page, identify sources of friction, and make changes to convert more potential customers into buyers.

Ideal Use Case: Instapage is a mid-market landing page optimization tool that’s primarily built for marketing agencies and in-house marketing teams.

How to Get Started: Instapage offers two subscription options: a business plan starting at $149/month, and an enterprise subscription plan with customized pricing and packages available. Enterprise plans include additional features like audit logs and better access to customer support, but you’ll need to contact Instapage directly to organize a demo and negotiate pricing.

LeadPages

leadpages landing page optimization tool

Platform Overview: LeadPages is another landing page tool that promises to help you convert more of your website visitors into paying customers. In addition to a drag-and-drop landing page builder, marketers can use LeadPages to build pop-up forms and alert bars into their lead generation funnels and increase landing page conversion rates.

The biggest innovation from LeadPages, however, is the Template marketplace. The marketplace contains hundreds of templates that marketers can purchase, usually for around $10-15 each, then customize for use with their own campaigns. LeadPages users can build their own templates and sell them in the marketplace for 100% commissions. The result is that platform users can customize their campaigns with a huge amount of affordable landing page templates.

Ideal Use Case: LeadPages is one of the most powerful and affordable landing page tools for small businesses and digital marketing entrepreneurs or freelancers.

How to Get Started: LeadPages is the most affordable landing page builder for solo marketers and small businesses, with subscription packages starting at just $25/month.

Hotjar

hotjar landing page optimization tool

Platform Overview: Most digital marketers are already using a free tool like Google Analytics to collect user behavior data and measure user experience on their landing pages. While these analysis tools can yield valuable insights into your target audience, they don’t actually tell you what visitors are doing once they arrive on your landing pages.

Hotjar is a landing page optimization tool that uses heatmaps to help marketers discover, understand, and interpret how audiences are interacting with the important elements on their landing pages. Marketers can also use Hotjar surveys to engage with their audiences directly and collect feedback on the landing page experience that can drive future optimization decisions.

Ideal Use Case: Hotjar is the leading user behavior tracking/heat mapping software for digital marketers. The platform is currently used by over 500,000 organizations in 184 countries around the world.

How to Get Started: Business-tier subscriptions to Hotjar start at $99/month, but there’s a $39/month package for low-traffic websites and a free basic version for websites with less than 2,000 daily pageviews.

Optimizely

optimizely landing page optimization tool

Platform Overview: Optimizely is one of the most powerful landing page optimization and content experimentation platforms available for digital marketers. Optimizely offers a codeless visual editor where marketers can quickly and easily design landing page variations and include them in content experiments to measure their impact on conversion rates.

Ideal Use Case: Optimizely is an enterprise-level landing page optimization tool that’s ideal for organizations with large websites that receive a high volume of traffic. 

With Optimizely, businesses can run content experiments on their web properties, mobile apps, TV apps, IoT apps, and other digital properties. Edge computing technology also makes it possible for businesses to run many content experiments on their websites, including multiple on the same page, without impacting performance.

Optimizely is already used by 24 of the Fortune 100 top businesses in the world to drive key business and user experience metrics.

How to Get Started: Optimizely is an enterprise solution, so you’ll need to get in touch directly with their team for a customized solution and pricing details.

Visual Website Optimizer

vwo landing page optimization tool

Platform Overview: Visual Website Optimizer (VWO) is one of our favorite platforms for testing landing pages and optimizing conversion rates using content experiments. The complete VWO platform includes:

  • VWO Testing: Allows digital marketers to set up A/B, multivariate, and split testing with no coding and no IT involvement
  • VWO Insights: Allows digital marketers to understand user intentions and behaviors with marketing funnels, session recordings, heatmaps, surveys, and form analytics.
  • VWO Engage: A remarketing tool that leverages push notifications, Facebook Messenger bots, and cart abandonment campaigns to re-engage previous users.
  • Even more powerful tools to support your marketing campaigns.

Ideal Use Case: VWO is ideal for both mid-market and enterprise marketing organizations with fairly robust landing page optimization and user behavior analysis requirements.

How to Get Started: VWO offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. VWO Testing subscription plans start at $199/month.

Summary

Thanks for checking out the 6 top landing page optimization tools! We hope you’ll use this resource to choose the ideal landing page tool for your circumstances and boost conversion rates and profitability for your upcoming digital campaigns.

The post 6 Top Landing Page Optimization Tools appeared first on Directive.

]]> CRO Certification: Should You Get One? https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/cro-certification/ Fri, 18 Sep 2020 22:54:07 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=21574 If you’re thinking about a career in digital marketing or planning to launch and promote your personal brand, a CRO certification course could be right for you. There are many CRO certification programs available online where aspiring digital marketing professionals can learn the basics of CRO, start using CRO software tools, and build their confidence in CRO while gaining practical experience. 

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]]> If you’re thinking about a career in digital marketing or planning to launch and promote your personal brand, a CRO certification course could be right for you. 

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is all about optimizing websites, microsites, and landing pages to maximize on-page conversion rates. There are many CRO certification programs available online where aspiring digital marketing professionals can learn the basics of CRO, start using CRO software tools, and build their confidence in CRO while gaining practical experience. 

These certification courses can prove tremendously valuable to the right person, but the hardest part is deciding whether they’re really the best option for you.

To help you decide, we’ve put together this quick guide to determining whether you should get a CRO certification.

What is a CRO Certification?

A CRO certification represents the completion of a specialized training program in conversion rate optimization for digital marketers.

The best training programs for CRO will:

  • Introduce you to the basic concepts and principles of conversion rate optimization.
  • Provide instructions for setting up powerful CRO software tools.
  • Teach you how to test variations of your landing pages and other high-intent pages on your website by optimizing sales copy, calls-to-action (CTAs), design elements, lead generation forms, and leveraging social proof marketing.
  • Teach you how to perform content experiments and evaluate their results to find high-performing page variants that drive on-page conversions.
  • Offer case studies and practical examples so you can see the impact of effective CRO and start gaining your own experience.

Upon completing a CRO program, candidates will usually be awarded a certificate that can be saved in a digital format or printed for inclusion in your resume or professional portfolio. Your certificate of completion is an acknowledgment of your participation in the course and serves as evidence of your knowledge and qualifications in CRO.

Why is a CRO Certification Useful for Digital Marketers?

Some marketers are generalists with a fair bit of expertise across multiple digital channels, while other marketers choose to specialize and focus their knowledge and skill development on just one or two channels. 

With that being the case, there’s a strong argument that every digital marketer can benefit from knowing more about CRO.

Here’s why:

Let’s imagine you’re a digital marketer whose website gets 1,000 unique visitors per day. Your product sells for $10 and you have a 1% conversion rate, so you sell an average of 10 products daily and earn $100. In this extremely simplified model, you have three basic ways to increase revenue:

  1. Increase prices
  2. Increase traffic
  3. Increase conversions

Let’s think about what it takes to execute each of these three solutions.

cro certification benefit

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Increasing prices is the easiest thing to do. If you double your prices and have the same number of transactions, you’ll make twice as much money! The problem with increasing prices is that your customers don’t like it and you’re more likely to see a drop in sales and an overall drop in revenue.

Increasing traffic is probably the most expensive way to increase revenue. If your website is getting paid traffic, you’ll need to at least double your costs to get twice as much. If you’re generating traffic organically, you’ll need to invest significant time and resources up-front to see any long-term growth in traffic.

The final option – and the best option – is to increase your conversion rate with CRO. In just a few hours, you can set up content experiments to help discover high-performing variations of your landing pages that convert even more visitors. Content experiments can take 7-14 days to complete, but they run automatically and take minimal time to configure.

In this example, increasing your conversion rate from 1% to just 2% would double your yearly revenue – and you won’t have to increase your advertising budget or launch a major SEO campaign to do it.

The best thing about CRO is that the same principles and concepts can be applied to every digital campaign that uses landing pages. 

Digital marketers can maximize the value of their traffic from email marketing, paid search and display advertising campaigns, organic search, social media, and just about any other source using CRO. This makes CRO one of the most versatile and valuable skill sets that can benefit digital marketers and the organizations that employ them.

5 Ways You’ll Benefit from CRO Certification

Improve Your Skills & Discover Your Passion

If you’ve never practiced conversion rate optimization in the past, getting your CRO certification will help you develop new skills to improve bottom-of-funnel conversion rates for any campaign. You may even discover a hidden passion for CRO and the rewarding feeling you get when you design a really high-performing landing page. 

cro skills

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The most dedicated conversion experts love the multidisciplinary nature of CRO that enables them to regularly practice and develop their writing and visual design skills while leveraging knowledge about marketing and user experience optimization.

Learn to Leverage Cutting-Edge CRO Tools

As part of your CRO certification course, you’ll be introduced to the latest conversion rate optimization software tools that significantly streamline the process of experimenting with content on your landing pages.

In the past, web developers were in charge of CRO because even the most minor changes had to be coded by hand. Today, software developers have created web-based CRO software tools that make it easy to edit design elements, sales copy, and other aspects of your website with just a minimal knowledge of code. 

These tools have made it easier for the average person to start implementing successful CRO experiments that drive conversion success.

Build Confidence and Validate Your Knowledge of CRO

We’ve met thousands of aspiring digital marketers who have read everything about CRO but still have yet to experiment with their own campaigns.

If you’re one of those people, earning your CRO certification could give you the confidence boost that you need to finally take the leap and work towards your goal of becoming a digital marketer – either as a solo entrepreneur promoting your own product or service or in a professional environment. 

Successfully completing a CRO course helps increase your confidence and our CRO course at the Directive Institute will provide you with a repeatable process for optimizing landing pages that you can replicate for your own campaigns. 

Enhance Your Marketing Results

Successfully completing a CRO program and obtaining your certification will empower you to achieve better results on your future marketing campaigns. You’ll learn how to build compelling landing pages that convert, and you’ll be able to convert traffic from a variety of sources with greater success.

Uncover New Career Opportunities

If your long-term goal involves working for a marketing agency, collaborating with other marketers to execute on larger projects, or joining an in-house marketing team, obtaining your CRO certification can help you unlock valuable new career opportunities.

cro opportunities

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On the entrepreneurial side, being a CRO expert sets you up to become a valued team member for B2B, B2C, eCommerce, and many other kinds of digital marketing projects. If you’re thinking about corporate careers in digital marketing, obtaining your CRO certification demonstrates initiative and a commitment to personal skill development – both traits that are valued by employers.

Summary

Obtaining your CRO certification isn’t necessarily the right career move for everyone, but if you’re planning a career move into the world of digital marketing or using personal branding to sell your own products and services online, a CRO certification can give you the skills and confidence you need to achieve success.

At Directive, we pride ourselves on delivering exceptional results for our clients through our proprietary Customer Generation approach—and our tech marketing specialists are the driving force behind our success.

If you’re interested in becoming a part of our team and embarking on a journey of professional growth and development, we invite you to check out our careers page. Our team is committed to providing exciting opportunities for growth and learning, and we look forward to welcoming you aboard as we navigate the ever-changing tides of the tech marketing world. Join us today!

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]]> Website Button Designs: 7 Examples that Convert https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/website-button-designs/ Fri, 18 Sep 2020 22:05:20 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=21553 Creating conversion-optimized website buttons is both an art and science for digital marketers in 2020. Website button designs have a

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]]> Creating conversion-optimized website buttons is both an art and science for digital marketers in 2020. Website button designs have a direct impact on conversion rates, and while there’s plenty of room for creativity and experimenting with new design trends and UI elements, there are at least a few best practices that produce consistently good results and simply can’t be overlooked.

In this article, we highlight some of our favorite website button designs and the features that make them great. 

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What Makes a High Converting Website Button?

Marketers in 2020 use call-to-action (CTA) buttons to grab the attention of their visitors and encourage them to advance through the marketing funnel. In the past, a CTA might have been presented as a piece of hyperlinked text or even an image, but marketers have realized that CTA buttons result in the highest performance and the most clicks or conversions.

However, not all CTA buttons are created equal, and effective website button design is still necessary for maximizing conversions. 

Here are some of the most common characteristics and design elements that make high-converting website buttons.

  1. The button appears clickable and all buttons look like buttons
  2. The button contrasts with the background
  3. The button appears in a logical or expected place
  4. The button is connected to a clear and descriptive CTA and users understand easily what the button does
  5. The button is an appropriate size for the platform
  6. The button is not cluttered by other on-screen elements or features

Check out our list of 7 website button designs that convert and you’ll see how each one follows these critical elements of design to deliver an optimized user experience that encourages their visitors to convert.

10 Website Button Designs that Convert

Evernote

evernote button design

Overview: Evernote’s popular note-taking app is used by over 200 million people around the world. The Evernote homepage includes two prominently displayed CTA buttons: one asking users to sign up for Evernote and another asking users to get Evernote Premium.

Why It Works: Evernote follows all of the key website button design principles on this page. The CTA buttons are high-contrast (green on a white background) and easy to find. There’s also plenty of white space to minimize clutter and make it easy for visitors on this page to decide where they should click next.

Monday

monday button design

Overview: Monday offers a team management software platform that’s great for communication, file sharing, and more. Monday’s homepage includes two CTA buttons, each one encouraging visitors to get started by creating a free account.

Why It Works: Monday chooses a sleek website button design here – bright pink rectangular shapes with rounded edges that stand out against the background and grab the user’s attention. The use of brightly-colored buttons with white space ensures that these buttons won’t be overlooked by visitors, and the placement in the middle-left and top-right corner is exactly what the user is expecting.

Brooks Running

brooks website button

Overview: Brooks is a shoe and apparel brand that makes running gear for both men and women. On the homepage of their website, Brooks uses CTA buttons to initiate the purchasing process by directing men and women to the appropriate sections of their online store.

Why It Works: In a real-life retail clothing store, you walk in the door and either turn left for the women’s section or right for the men’s section. With the use of CTA buttons on their homepage, Brooks has adapted this experience to the online retail setting. Brooks uses descriptive calls-to-action, contrast, and negative space to make sure their buttons stand out on the page and generate clicks.

Sentiment.io

sentiment website button design

Overview: Sentiment is a multi-channel customer messaging platform for everyone from small retail stores to enterprise organizations. The CTA button on this page asks visitors to watch a live demo to find out more about Sentiment’s product and services.

Why It Works: The bright red color that Sentiment chose for this CTA button contrasts well with the white background and makes it impossible for visitors on this page to miss. We also like how the phrase “Over 1000 views and Counting” can trigger FOMO (the fear of missing out) and drive user engagement. The CTA used here is also descriptive and compelling – users know exactly what they’re going to get when they click on the button.

Demio

demio website button design

Overview: Demio builds software that helps marketers produce and distribute webinars to their audiences. This homepage features a CTA button that prompts visitors to “Get Started Free” and a ghost button that prompts visitors to “Watch a Demo”. A third CTA button in the upper-right corner gives the same CTA as the main one.

Why It Works: Demio’s homepage is an example of predictable (user-friendly) CTA button placement, high-contrast CTA buttons with bright colors, and the use of white space to simplify decision-making for the user.

Zendesk 

zendesk button design

Overview: Zendesk makes software to help businesses with customer support, sales, and customer engagement. Their demo page pictured here uses a basic lead generation form to connect visitors with a demo video of Zendesk software.

Why It Works: This page does a great job of simplifying decision-making for the end-user by providing very few options besides filling out the form and watching the demo. The website button design looks great – there’s color, contrast, white space, and a descriptive CTA. The use of a short lead generation form with just three fields also helps to minimize friction and drive conversions on this page.

Spotify

spotify website button

Overview: Spotify is a music streaming service with millions of customers around the world. On their homepage, Spotify uses a green CTA button to prompt users to download their music streaming app for free.

Why It Works: The primary goal of Spotify’s website is to encourage users to download their app and start listening to music. To support this objective, Spotify places a descriptive and relevant CTA front-and-center on its homepage. For a visitor who lands on this page, Spotify is making it as fast and easy as possible to get the app and start listening. 

The rectangular-shaped button with rounded edges, contrasting colors, and use of negative space are all examples of effective website button design on this page.

Summary

Whether you’re doing interaction design for a mobile app or web design for a business website, the way you present your CTA buttons has a direct impact on how audiences respond. That’s why understanding effective website button design is such an important component of how to optimize a CTA. We hope this resource helps you understand and apply the principles of effective website button design on your next marketing campaign.

The post Website Button Designs: 7 Examples that Convert appeared first on Directive.

]]> 10 Tips for Increasing Website Conversions https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/increase-website-conversions/ Fri, 10 Jul 2020 22:47:50 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=20810 Looking for strategies that can help you increase website conversions and generate more leads, sales, or revenue from your online

The post 10 Tips for Increasing Website Conversions appeared first on Directive.

]]> Looking for strategies that can help you increase website conversions and generate more leads, sales, or revenue from your online marketing efforts?

Increasing conversion rates on your website is one of the best ways to generate big improvements in your marketing results with relatively less effort.

Increasing traffic to your website can take weeks or months to positively impact your revenue and lead generation numbers. In contrast, spending just a few minutes or hours on conversion rate optimization (CRO) can have an immediate and positive effect on how well your website converts visitors and supports your marketing campaign objectives.

To help you get started, we’ve created this resource with 10 tips to increase website conversions. We’ll highlight 10 of the best website changes that can increase your conversion rate and maximize the results of your digital marketing efforts.

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10 Tips for Increasing Website Conversions

Create Unique Landing Pages for Each Ad Group

One of the most important best practices for increasing website conversions is creating individualized landing pages for each of your ad groups. Here’s why:

Advertisers enjoy the best conversion rates when they provide audiences with personalized and contextually relevant experiences.

To achieve this in PPC advertising, advertisers can customize each ad group around a clearly defined customer persona, then create advertisements with messaging targeted specifically to that ad group/customer segment.

This measure on its own is likely to increase CTR, but advertisers can go a step further by creating unique landing pages for each ad group. Landing pages should include offers and messaging that appeal specifically to the target ad group or customer segment, resulting in a more cohesive ad experience and increased conversions.

Optimize Lead Generation Forms

The design of lead generation forms on your website can have a significant impact on the number of leads you generate through your digital marketing efforts.

While optimizing lead generation forms is something we always recommend, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should implement every lead form optimization tip you can find. Common advice like removing unnecessary form fields are likely to boost conversions, but can also result in fewer conversions in some cases!

The key is to carefully test variations of your lead form to determine which one performs the best.

With that said, here are a few ways to get started:

  1. Enable autofill so users can fill in their information more quickly.
  2. Remove form fields that aren’t absolutely necessary.
  3. If you can’t avoid having a long lead generation form, consider breaking it up with a multi-step form.

website form example

Image: We’ve optimized and shortened our sign-up form for the Directive Institute Free Trial, hoping to encourage more of our readers to register and experience our insightful marketing lessons and video tutorials.

Communicate Your Unique Value Propositions (UVPs)

Your unique value proposition is the core element of your marketing message. It consists of a short sentence or a few words that describe the benefits of your product, the pain points that your product addresses, and how you’re different from competitors in your niche.

Your landing pages should prominently display your unique value propositions, enabling visitors to quickly understand exactly what it is you’re offering and why they should be interested in doing business with you. High-converting websites also use their home page, product pages, and text advertisements to promote unique value propositions – you should too!

Test Alternative Calls to Action (CTAs)

A CTA is an image, button, or line of text on your website that explicitly asks users to take a specific action, such as signing up for a free trial or purchasing a product or service.

While text and image CTAs are still used in many different contexts, we recommend using a brightly-colored CTA button on your website that stands out and grabs user attention.

website cta example

Image: Slack uses high-contrast CTA buttons on its home page. These buttons are positioned above the fold and amidst plenty of negative space, making them immediately noticeable for visitors to this page and increasing the likelihood of a conversion.

There are many different techniques you can use to increase the power of your CTAs:

  1. Use direct or imperative language
  2. Trigger the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
  3. Position some social proof near your CTA button, like a testimonial or the company logos of your happy customers
  4. Change the color of your CTA button
  5. Change the position of your CTA button on the page (place it above the fold!)
  6. Offer exclusive content or a free benefit for visitors who respond to the CTA and complete the objective

Test Alternative Copy Elements

When you’re working to increase website conversions, you may be surprised at the results you can achieve simply by testing alternative sales copy on your landing pages.

Again, the key here is to test. Don’t assume that making a change will boost conversions – use an A/B testing software tool to create a variant and test your change against the original before you decide whether it’s really an improvement. You can test any element of the sales copy on your website, including:

  1. Headlines
  2. Images
  3. Subheadings
  4. Page Length / Amount of content on the page
  5. Social Proof

Use Pop-ups and Sticky Bars

Pop-ups and sticky bars are extra features that you can add to your website to increase conversions.

Pop-up offers can be customized to trigger at key times, such as right before a user is about to leave the page. Use pop-ups to present exclusive offers or connect visitors with content that encourages them to stick around.

Sticky bars are pop-ups that stick to the top or bottom of the page, keeping your best offer visible to users as they scroll up or down.

website popup example

Image: Landing page software tools like Unbounce can help digital marketers implement pop-ups and sticky bars to drive conversions.

Remove Distracting Elements

Each page on your website should be designed with a goal in mind – a specific action that visitors can take to advance to the next stage in the customer journey.

To increase the likelihood that your website visitors will complete the desired action, one of the best things you can do is take away distractions and minimize the options that your visitors have besides completing the goal.

That means reducing the number of links on the page, taking away distracting images or advertisements, and using white space to ensure that your most important page elements (unique value props, hero image, social proof, CTA button, etc.) immediately grab the attention of your visitors.

Secure Your Transactions

Beginning in 2017, the Google Chrome browser started showing a “Not Secure” message when users complete a lead generation form on a website that does not use SSL encryption.

website transaction security

In addition to securing your website with an SSL certificate, it could be beneficial to add a “Trust Badge” to your checkout screen. There’s plenty of evidence that including a trust badge on your checkout page increases customer confidence that their privacy and security are being safeguarded, making them more likely to complete a purchase as a result.

Create Urgency

Sometimes a little bit of urgency can nudge customers towards a conversion, making them feel like there’s an opportunity for a great deal even if their intention was just to browse.

website creating urgency

You can communicate urgency in many different ways, but the key is to offer something valuable that’s only available for a limited time. It could be a discount on a product, a bundle deal, free shipping, a unique product colorway, or something else unique to your niche.

Offer a Free Trial or Money-Back Guarantee

If you’re selling a subscription product, your potential customers may consider it a big risk to pay up-front for your product without having tested it before.

To get around this, offer a free trial period during which customers can test out your software and make sure it’s right for them before purchasing. When a user signs up for a free trial, collect their contact information and use it for follow-up or email re-marketing to complete the sale.

Summary

Thanks for checking out our 10 tips for increasing website conversions!

For a more in-depth intro to conversion rate optimization, check out our Intro to CRO course on Directive Institute.

The post 10 Tips for Increasing Website Conversions appeared first on Directive.

]]> 15 Best Call to Action Phrases by Industry https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/best-call-to-action/ Wed, 08 Jul 2020 01:57:32 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=20723 Looking for examples of the best call to action (CTA) phrases that you can use to drive conversions on your

The post 15 Best Call to Action Phrases by Industry appeared first on Directive.

]]> Looking for examples of the best call to action (CTA) phrases that you can use to drive conversions on your website?

A CTA is one of the most important tools that digital marketers use to compel their audiences into taking the next step in the sales funnel.

Whether the goal is to drive purchasing behavior, encourage free trial sign-ups, or have users watch a demo video, call-to-action phrases combine direct language with strong action words, value propositions, urgency, and promises of convenience that help drive conversions.

The best call to action phrases effectively reduce friction by addressing common objections and relieving consumer anxiety, which further enhances conversion rates.

 

To help you identify the best call to action phrase for your unique circumstances, we’ve created this resource with 15 of our favorite CTA phrases across five different industry/product categories:

  1. Digital Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Products
  2. Video Streaming Services
  3. eCommerce
  4. Video Conferencing Services
  5. Online Travel Booking Websites

For each call to action on our list, we’ll explain why it’s effective by highlighting the most important elements that persuade customers into taking the next step.

15 Best Call to Action Phrases by Industry

Software-as-a-Service

Moz

Moz Pro web interface

CTA(s): “Start My Free 30-Day Trial“, “Start my free trial”

Overview: Moz Pro is one of the leading all-in-one search engine optimization tool for digital marketers. Moz uses this calls-to-action to encourage users to begin a free trial of their SEO software.

Why it Works: A CTA needs to clearly communicate an offer and a unique value proposition to prospective customers. On this sales page, Moz promises two important benefits that anyone doing SEO is looking for: higher rankings, and quality traffic. The CTA in the center of the page is prominently displayed to encourage clicks, but the one in the top right contains even more descriptive information. It includes a high-value offer (30-day trial) and the word “free”, which reassures users that it won’t cost them money to take advantage of the offer.

Lightspeed

Lightspeed web interface

CTA(s): “Free Trial“, “Watch Now”

Overview: Lightspeed is a technology company that builds cloud-based point-of-sale solutions for retail, restaurants, and eCommerce companies.

Why it Works: An effective CTA reduces friction with the customer, making them more likely to take the next step in the sales process. Lightspeed achieves this by allowing its prospective customers across all three verticals to watch a demo video online instantly instead of scheduling a demo with the Lightspeed sales team. As users engage with the “Watch Now” link and view the demo for their industry, the “Free Trial” CTA in the top right primes them for the next step.

MailChimp

Mailchimp web interface

CTA(s): “Sign Up Free“, “Claim Your Custom Domain”

Overview: Mailchimp is an email marketing solution for digital marketers and eCommerce businesses who re-market to their best customers through email.

Why it Works: This CTA is supported with a very clear value proposition: users can get their business online with a free custom domain. We like the word “Claim”, as it suggests users are entitled to something of value and are missing out if they don’t take advantage. The CTA in the top right helps get around early financial objections by indicating to users that they can register for free.

Video Streaming

Disney Plus

Disney Plus web interface

CTA(s): “Sign Up Now“, “Save on 12 Months”

Overview: Disney Plus is one of the most popular streaming services right now, with IP rights to the Marvel and Star Wars franchises and many beloved Disney films.

Why it Works: This sales page highlights a key value proposition for Disney Plus: access to some of the world’s leading movie franchises in a single streaming service. Disney does a great job of removing friction with promises like “No ads” and “no up-charges”. The “Sign up Now” CTA builds urgency, and Disney even offers an opportunity for customers to save money by purchasing an annual subscription.

Netflix

Netflix web interface

CTA(s): “Get Started”

Overview: Netflix is a pioneer in online video streaming with a major focus on creating new content, securing rights to valuable content, and expanding its global customer base.

Why it Works: This sales page promises users that they can watch their favorite shows from anywhere in the world and cancel their subscription anytime. This promise of convenience helps put customers at ease and drives conversions through a simple email submission form with the “Get Started” CTA.

Hulu

Hulu web interface

CTA(s): “Start Your Free Trial“, “Get Bundle”

Overview: Disney purchased the video streaming service Hulu for $5.8 billion in 2019 and continues to market the platform with thousands of different movies and television shows available.

Why it Works: This sales page highlights several key factors that encourage users to register: a low monthly price, lots of available content, and the opportunity to add on other desirable channels or packages like HBO Max and Showtime. The promise of a free trial here encourages users to click through and start enjoying the available content with zero up-front cost. We also like the “Get Bundle” CTA, which is supported by a strong value proposition and pricing information.

eCommerce

Ebay

eBay web interface

CTA(s): “Cue the Fireworks”

Overview: Ebay is the original eCommerce marketplace and maintains a market share of just under 5% of retail e-commerce sales in North America.

Why it Works: With this CTA, eBay demonstrates the value of a contextually relevant call to action. For the July 4th holiday, eBay is promoting items that are associated with summer fun: an Xbox One S Bundle for gaming with friends, cookware for entertaining guests, and running shoes for exercising outside. “Cue the Fireworks” is an unconventional CTA, but its contextual relevance to the shopper makes it both attention-grabbing and persuasive for shoppers.

Groupon

Groupon web interface

CTA(s): “Shop Now“, “Shop Deals“, “Shop Dining“, “See The Deal‘”

Overview: Groupon is a group buying website that offers its users discounts and coupons for local and online retailers and service providers.

Why it Works: Groupon features a large number of revolving deals each day, so effectively categorizing the available discounts is crucial to connecting customers with offers that inspire a purchase. Groupon does a good job of categorizing deals by type and offering a unique call to action for each category. There’s also a 4th of July Day Sale banner with the “Shop Deals” CTA that encourages clicks by promising up to 75% off regular prices.

HBO Shop

HBO shop web interface

CTA(s): “Shop Now”

Overview: HBO Shop is the online eCommerce outlet for the Home Box Office (HBO) television network. Customers can buy merchandise from their favorite HBO shows here, including Game of Thrones.

Why it Works: “Shop Now” is one of the time-tested CTAs for eCommerce websites. It sets clear expectations, creates urgency, and effectively primes users for engagement on the next page, where they’ll see a range of products they can purchase in their chosen category. The featured “Buy Two, Get One Free” deal is situated front-and-center on the HBO Shop home page and offers great value for interested purchasers.

Video Conferencing

Zoom

Zoom web interface

CTA(s): “Sign Up, It’s Free“, “Explore resources and features“, “Register Now”

Overview: Zoom Meeting is a video conferencing software tool for businesses and personal use.

Why it Works: Zoom uses its best call to action phrases to target customers at various stages of the purchasing journey. Users can sign up for free using the CTA in the top right, learn more about Zoom by clicking the CTA in the middle of the page to explore resources and features, or register for a daily learning session with Zoom experts using the CTA button in the bottom left.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams web interface

CTA(s): “Sign up for free”

Overview: Microsoft Teams is a web-based video conferencing solution for business teams.

Why it Works: Microsoft Teams operates on the “Freemium” model, where users can sign up for free but must purchase a subscription to access more advanced features. The “Sign up for free” CTA encourages users to get started with the free version so they can assess the functionality and business value of MS teams before deciding to purchase.

Skype

Skype web interface

CTA(s): “Create a free meeting“, “Download Skype”

Overview: Skype is a video communications software tool that offers video chat and voice calling services for customers around the globe.

Why it Works: On this sales page, Skype emphasizes the shortest path for prospective customers to get started with the program: creating a free Skype meeting online with a single click and no download required. A strong value proposition, promises of convenience, and removing friction with the word “free” combine to make this one of the best call-to-action phrases for video conferencing solutions.

Online Travel Booking

Car Rentals

Car rentals web interface

CTA(s): “Get Coupons”

Overview: CarRentals.com is the leading online car rental booking platform for travelers.

Why it Works: If you’re visiting this website, chances are you’re looking to book vehicular transportation for an upcoming trip. This sales page highlights that Car Rentals is a trusted Expedia brand and promises a convenient booking process in just three steps. The process of getting a discount on their purchase with a free coupon makes this an attractive CTA for prospective customers.

Booking.com

booking web interface

CTA(s): “Get Started –>”

Overview: Booking.com is one of the leading travel booking sites for hotel and airfare. Individuals and businesses can list their guest houses, spare rooms, bed & breakfast establishments, or apartments on Booking.com to generate extra income.

Why it Works: The CTA text itself here is fairly generic, but the strength of this sales page is that it supports that call to action with effective sales copy. Booking.com emphasizes that listing your property with them is free, easy and convenient. The page highlights features like 24/7 support, free listings, and the ability to sync calendars with other booking sites – addressing some of the most common objections and pain points for target customers.

Travelocity

Travelocity web interface

CTA(s): “Sign up now, It’s free!“, “Subscribe for Member Discounts“, “Get help with your trip”

Overview: Travelocity is an online travel booking company with hotel, flight, and resort listings from around the world.

Why it Works: Travelocity’s focus on its home page is to have visitors sign up for the membership so they can start receiving the 10% discount. Users sign up with their email addresses, creating opportunities for Travelocity to offer them personalized travel deals that are more likely to result in conversions. Travelocity combines several elements of an effective CTA to make this page more effective:

  • Value Proposition: “Unlock an extra 10% or more off select hotels”
  • Urgency: “Sign up now“
  • Fear of missing out: Save an extra 10% or more on select hotels with Insider Prices“
  • Reducing friction: “It’s free!“

The way these elements work together to encourage conversions makes this one of the best call-to-action examples on this list.

Summary

Thanks for checking out our list of the 15 best call-to-action examples by industry!

We hope these examples inspire you to craft an exceptional CTA that works for your product, service, or offer. For more details on how to optimize a CTA for your industry, check out our in-depth guide on Directive Institute.

The post 15 Best Call to Action Phrases by Industry appeared first on Directive.

]]> How to Choose the Best Conversion Rate Optimization Course for You https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/conversion-rate-optimization-course/ Tue, 07 Jul 2020 22:50:28 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=20707 Wondering how to choose the best conversion rate optimization course (CRO) for you? If you’re a digital marketer looking to

The post How to Choose the Best Conversion Rate Optimization Course for You appeared first on Directive.

]]> Wondering how to choose the best conversion rate optimization course (CRO) for you?

If you’re a digital marketer looking to maximize revenue, increase conversion rates, and achieve your campaign objectives, conversion rate optimization is the best place to start. CRO is an ongoing process of refining the content and structure of your website to get the highest number of conversions possible from your existing web traffic.

Expertise in conversion rate optimization can make you a valuable asset for an in-house marketing team or at a marketing agency and a CRO course is the best way to learn the basics and start developing your skills.

In this guide, we’ll outline a simple process for choosing the best conversion rate optimization training for you.

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How to Choose the Best Conversion Rate Optimization Course for You

Self Evaluation

Before you can look at a CRO course and know whether it’s right for you, you need to take a look at yourself. Understanding your goals and objectives in marketing and taking an inventory of the skills you currently possess can help you identify what type of CRO course will work best for you. Here’s where to begin:

What are my goals?

Ask yourself why it is that you want to learn about conversion rate optimization. What are your goals and objectives? Are you hoping to earn a certification that you can add to your resume, or are you only concerned with gaining skills and knowledge? Are you hoping to launch a career in digital marketing? Move to a different position or company? Improve the way you market your own website or brand online?

Once you clearly understand your personal goals, it becomes easier to evaluate courses in terms of whether they will help you reach your goals in the future.

reflect on goals stock image

Image: Reflecting on your goals, skills, and needs can help you determine what kind of conversion rate optimization course will be best for you.

What are my skills?

After evaluating your goals, it’s time to take an inventory of your skills. What skills do you bring to the table? A CRO expert in digital marketing combines skills like copywriting, web design, software skills, and numeracy/analytical aptitude with marketing knowledge and customer insights to improve website conversions.

Maybe you’re coming from a visual design background, but you’re missing the marketing knowledge – so you’ll need a course that covers that.

Or maybe you’ve got the marketing knowledge and some writing skills, but have no idea how to design a CRO test or analyze your results – again, you’ll want to choose a CRO course that fills those gaps.

What are my needs?

Understanding your goals and skills, you should be able to start thinking about the most important criteria for the best CRO course for you. Does it offer certification? Does it show you how to design content experiments? Does it show you which tools to use with step-by-step instructions? Understanding the answers to these questions can help you narrow the field early on and focus solely on the best CRO course options that are worth your time.

Course Content Evaluation

Once you’ve taken a basic inventory of your needs, it’s time to investigate CRO courses by analyzing their contents. Here’s what you should look for when evaluating the content of a CRO course:

Syllabus

Read the course syllabus, lesson plan, or table of course contents to find out exactly what lessons are included in your chosen CRO course. The best conversion optimization courses cover things like:

  • A basic introduction lesson with definitions and a process overview
  • Instructions for setting up CRO software tools
  • Step-by-step tutorials for optimizing various aspects of your landing pages, including calls to action, sales copy, design elements, and lead generation forms
  • Guidelines for identifying the best areas of opportunity for CRO and prioritizing your tests to maximize the impact
  • Clear directives for assessing the results of your conversion rate optimization efforts and structuring your CRO process to generate the most useful results over time

Directive's Institute CRO course

Image: Here’s the syllabus for our conversion rate optimization course on Directive Institute. Before you choose a CRO course, review the course contents and make sure you’re getting a step-by-step process with practical examples and opportunities for skill development.

Recency

When choosing a conversion rate optimization course, favor courses that were published more recently. Digital marketing changes all the time, and older courses frequently contain out-of-date information that may conflict with current best practices. Make sure that the course you choose has been updated in the past six months to reflect new findings and CRO best practices.

Practical Exercises

Choose a conversion rate optimization course that offers practical exercises, helping you get real experience and know-how that you can transfer to your own campaigns.

If you search around online, you’ll find plenty of free content about conversion rate optimization that’s mostly high-level, theoretical, and concept-driven. The best courses diverge from this paradigm by offering step-by-step tutorials and a proven process that helps you generate real results using their product.

Our CRO course at the Directive Institute was designed to help marketers learn practical and technical skills that they can easily transfer to their own digital marketing projects.

Free Trial

One of the best ways to determine whether a CRO course is right for you is to register for a free trial. A conversion rate optimization course publisher may offer access to one or two lessons for free, giving you the opportunity to sample the content and find out whether the information included is genuinely valuable for you and your business.

Course Creator Evaluation

Before purchasing a conversion rate optimization course, you should always spend time researching the course creator to make sure they’re legitimate. There are very many gurus who sell CRO courses online, but very few that can produce verifiable evidence of conversion rate optimization success. Here’s how to pick out the course creators with the best reputations:

Authority

Identify the course creator and investigate them to make sure they’re a real authority on CRO. Look for references to the course creator and their work that come from other reputable sources. You could even use an SEO tool to see whether other reputable digital marketing websites have linked to the course publisher’s website in the past.

Reviews & Testimonials

Read any testimonials about the course that were provided by the course publisher, or check out whether any reviews have been posted on reputable review aggregator sites.

testimonial example

Image: Customer reviews can provide valuable insight into the contents and value of a conversion rate optimization course.

Case Studies

If the course publisher has its own website, look around for any case studies describing successful conversion rate optimization projects. If you can’t find any case studies on successful campaigns, that could be a red flag that the course you’re looking at wasn’t created by a real expert. Check for partnership logos, success stories, and other forms of social proof.

Summary

Thanks for checking out our guide to choosing the best conversion rate optimization course for you.

Whether you’re searching for a career in digital marketing or working on a conversion rate optimization process for your own business, we hope this guide helps you select a CRO course that takes your marketing skills and campaign outcomes to the next level.

The post How to Choose the Best Conversion Rate Optimization Course for You appeared first on Directive.

]]> Conversion Web Design: 10 Tip to Increase Online Leads & Sales https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/conversion-web-design-10-tip-to-increase-online-leads-sales/ Tue, 07 Jul 2020 22:33:16 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=20700 Conversion web design is all about customizing your website to drive more lead generation, more sales, and more revenue into

The post Conversion Web Design: 10 Tip to Increase Online Leads & Sales appeared first on Directive.

]]> Conversion web design is all about customizing your website to drive more lead generation, more sales, and more revenue into your business.

When users land on your website from a Google search or a referral link, you’ll have an opportunity to convert them into paying customers. Doing so requires more than spiffy sales copy, however – you’ll need a solid web design that’s optimized at every level to make your visitors more likely to convert. Your website is like your online storefront: if it doesn’t look attractive and inviting, folks simply won’t want to shop there – regardless of how compelling your products and offerings might be.

To help you make the most of your upcoming digital marketing campaigns, we’ve put together 10 quick tips on how to optimize your online lead generation and sales with conversion web design. We’ll show you how to support your sales copy with effective web design elements that make visitors to your site more likely to convert into paying customers.

Conversion Web Design: 10 Tips to Increase Online Leads & Sales

Create One Landing Page per Ad Campaign

Our first tip is related to both web design and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising strategy.

If you sell a product or service online, you should have identified ideal customer personas, representations of the types of people most likely to purchase and benefit from your products.

We recommend creating one ad group for each established customer persona when building a PPC advertising campaign. Each of your ad campaigns should target a single ad group (and by extension, a single buyer persona) with a highly targeted message designed to appeal to that specific audience.

To maximize results, digital marketers should design a unique landing page for each ad campaign. This creates an end-to-end advertising experience that is personalized and specific to an established ideal customer persona, making it highly relevant and more likely to result in conversions.

Implement a Visual Content Hierarchy

A content hierarchy simply means that some content on a page is more important than other content and that the most important content should be emphasized in the right way to drive user actions.

Web designers can use many different tools to establish a content hierarchy on the page and guide the attention of their visitors to the desired actions. First, however, web designers should understand how users are most likely to engage with the pages that they create. Human users in the United States are used to navigating two different kinds of content hierarchies:

  • Z-pattern Hierarchy – For a website with lots of images and minimal text, a human user would be likely to scan the page using a Z-pattern. That means scanning a page from left to right, then diagonally down to the bottom left, then across the page again, as if they were reading lines of a book.
  • F-pattern Hierarchy – For a website with lots of text, most users would scan the page in an F-pattern. Users may not read every word right away. Instead, they may look across the top of the page, then start looking down the left side for clues about where to find useful content, then scan from left to right again once some interesting image or text captures their attention. This F-pattern is one of the most commonly observed results when measuring how users interact with web pages.

F pattern web design

Image: Pay attention to how content on this page is organized in an F-pattern, catering to the natural tendency of users to engage with text-based pages in this way. We expect users to read the top navigational menu first, where they’ll encounter the first CTA on the page. Then, we expect they’ll scroll down until they encounter other attention-grabbing elements, like our above-the-fold CTA and logo carousel, prompting them to scan across the page. These page elements are organized into a visual hierarchy that is familiar and accessible for our visitors.

By understanding the ways that humans interact with and browse individual pages, conversion web design experts can position the most important design elements in the right places where they will have the maximum impact on conversions.

Use Colors & Contrast to Emphasize Key Elements

Colors and contrast are two additional tools that web designers can use to emphasize the most important on-page elements and drive conversions.

If there’s an element on the page that you really want your visitors to interact with, make sure visitors notice it by giving it a unique color that contrasts well with the background.

If there are two separate-but-related elements on the same page, give them the same background color and your visitors will naturally group them together. In the same way that you can emphasize similarity by using the same background color, you can emphasize differences by using two different background colors.

The best conversion of web designers understands how to communicate and direct their prospective customers using color and contrast.

Optimize CTA Design and Positioning

A call-to-action (CTA) is a phrase on your website that tells your visitors exactly what action they must take to advance to the next stage in the customer journey.

How you design your CTAs and where you position them on the page are both critical elements of conversion rate optimization. Try the following tips to see improved conversions on your site:

  • Avoid text-based CTAs or simple hyperlinks.
  • Use a brightly-colored CTA button to capture the attention of your website visitors.
  • Choose a color for your CTA that contrasts well with the background.
  • Place CTAs in the middle of the page above the fold, or on the right side of the top navigation menu.

color CTA button example

Image: We’ve optimized our CTA placement on this page with high-contrast CTA buttons in the top-right of the navigation menu and above the fold on the left. There’s also a secondary “See The Proof” CTA for visitors who aren’t ready to get a proposal yet.

Optimize Lead Generation Forms

If one of the goals on your website is to generate leads for your business, you may have one or more lead generation forms present on your website. Optimizing the design of your lead generation forms can reduce friction for your visitors, leading to improved conversions. Here’s how to get started:

  • Position your lead generation form above the fold.
  • Shorten your lead generation forms by reducing the number of form fields and collecting the minimum required information.
  • Include a clear offer of value, and a promise of convenience and privacy when presenting a lead form to your website visitors.
  • Include a powerful CTA with your lead generation forms to encourage visitors to take action.

Use Engaging Visuals & Human Faces

When a visitor lands on your website for the first time, you may have just a few seconds to engage that person and capture their interest.

As it turns out, compelling visuals and images of real humans are two of the best ways to accomplish this.
engaging human visuals example

Image: Human images engage audiences, trigger emotions, tell a story and build trust in just a few seconds, helping you connect with your visitors and drive downstream conversions.

The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than it processes text, and up to 90% of the information that gets transferred to the brain is visual. From that perspective, a picture really is worth a thousand words when it comes to capturing the attention and sparking the interest of audiences.

Pictures of humans have an added dimension of effectiveness when it comes to driving conversions. A picture of your team members featured on your website builds trust with your audience, humanizes your business, and puts your potential customers at ease when dealing with you.

Incorporate Social Proof

The concept of social proof is based on the idea that when individuals aren’t sure how to act in am ambiguous situation, they are likely to look at others for behavioral cues to inform their actions and decision-making.

Here’s what that means from a marketing standpoint: if a customer isn’t sure whether to buy from you or from the competition, you may be able to influence them by demonstrating that their peers have already bought from you and been satisfied with their purchase.

There are several ways of incorporating social proof into your conversion web design:

  1. Publish case studies or customer success stories describing your past successes
  2. Publish the logos of companies you have worked with in the past next to your lead generation forms and CTA buttons
  3. Publish raw data on your website indicating how many successful projects you’ve completed, or how many customers have purchased your product
  4. Publish testimonials from your past customers on your landing pages

monday.com web interface

Image: Monday.com uses social proof on its home page, including raw data on its user base and the logos of some of its best-known customers and partners.

Narrow the Options for Your Visitors

Your website should be designed like a sales funnel, with each page playing a role in ushering visitors through the customer journey, from initial awareness to the final purchase.

If a page contains too many links to different areas of your website, you’re increasing the likelihood that a potential customer will navigate their way out of your sales funnel. To avoid this, it’s important to avoid giving users too many options on each page that can distract them from the desired action that you would like them to complete.

Build a Mobile Responsive Site

One of the easiest ways to ruin conversions on your website is to design a website that only works on desktop machines.

In 2020, more than 50% of all Google searches are expected to originate from mobile devices. If your website doesn’t work properly on mobile devices, Google will avoid listing your web pages in the search engine results and you’ll miss out on loads of traffic and conversion opportunities.

To avoid this, a conversion web design specialist would build a mobile responsive website with elements that automatically change their orientation to look and function perfectly on devices of every type and size. Marketers can use a free mobile-friendly test provided by Google to verify that their website works well on all devices.

Google's Free Mobile-Friendly Test

Image: Google’s Free Mobile-Friendly Test is a diagnostic tool that checks whether your website looks and functions properly on mobile devices. Just type in your domain and you’ll be able to access a virtual render showing exactly how your website looks on mobile.

Minimize Page Loading Times

Page speed has a massive impact on user behavior, including downstream conversions. We live in a consumer culture where your website visitors simply don’t have the patience to wait for a slow page to load.

A case study published by mPulse found that pages loading in 2.4 seconds had a 1.9% conversion rate, while pages that loaded in 5.7 seconds had a conversion rate of 0.6% – that’s nearly a 70% loss in conversions due to 3.5 seconds of page loading time!

Even Google found that when page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds, the probability of page abandonment increases by 32%. When load time goes from 1 second to 5 seconds, the probability increases by 90%.

The best way to get a handle on your page loading times is to audit your website using Google PageSpeed Insights.

Summary

Thanks for checking out our exclusive guide to conversion web design and reading our 10 web design tips to help improve your online leads and sales.

For an even deeper look at how to leverage conversion-boosting design elements on your website, visit our comprehensive lesson on Directive Institute.

The post Conversion Web Design: 10 Tip to Increase Online Leads & Sales appeared first on Directive.

]]> 18 Key Website Design Best Practices to Follow https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/website-design-best-practices/ Tue, 07 Jul 2020 22:13:14 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=20693 Looking for a list of website design best practices that you can use to improve conversions and drive more revenue

The post 18 Key Website Design Best Practices to Follow appeared first on Directive.

]]> Looking for a list of website design best practices that you can use to improve conversions and drive more revenue on your website?

When it comes to optimizing your website for conversions, there are several different factors to keep in mind. Providing a seamless user experience for your customers, following visual design principles, optimizing functionality and page speed, and maintaining excellent technical SEO are all equally important elements of building a successful website.

To help you get started, we’ve put together a list of 18 key website design best practices that you should be following. These best practices will help you maximize the performance of your website, improve technical SEO, and deliver quality, user-friendly, on-brand experiences for your visitors.

We’ll even include examples throughout so you can see how other successful websites follow these website design best practices to get the best results from their digital marketing efforts.

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18 Key Website Design Best Practices to Follow

Deploy Consistent Branding Everywhere

Branding is one of the most important aspects of marketing your business. Your brand includes your business name, logo, symbols, slogans, and images that you use to distinguish your company in the marketplace and communicate your values to prospective customers. Branding gives your business a unique identity and associations that make it memorable for customers.

Having consistent branding on your website means that you’re using every page of your website to increase brand awareness and make your business more familiar and memorable for your visitors. You can achieve consistent branding by:

  • Using your company logo as the favicon for your website.
  • Ensuring that your company name is written and spelled the same way, and present in the header menu on every page of your website.
  • Ensuring that only one version of your logo is presented in your marketing materials.
  • Using the same font on every page of your website and across marketing channels, including in videos, white papers, etc.

Use a Consistent and Well-Defined Color Palette

Most small business owners know that branding is important, but those without a background in visual design may overlook the importance of defining a color palette to represent their brand.

Not only does defining a color palette ensure that you’re using the same few colors in all of your marketing materials, but your choice of colors can also actually communicate something about your business. The color red is associated with emotions like passion or anger, blue conveys a feeling of trustworthiness, green is related to environmental consciousness, gold with wealth, yellow with cheerfulness (or danger), and purple with luxury.

Defining a color palette will help guide the aesthetic development of your website and send prospective customers a strong message about the values behind your brand.

Leverage Negative/White Space

White space or negative space refers to the space between page elements, such as between text, or between images or navigation menus on the page. Here’s why it’s one of our most important website design best practices:

  1. Navigation – Having too much content on the page is confusing for users. It makes it hard for users to decide where to click, what to read, or where to navigate, and they may simply give up.
  2. Conversions – If you want your users to click onto the sales page, bombarding them with links to 100 other pages is not helpful. Using white space helps emphasize and guide users towards the most important links and calls-to-action on each page.
  3. User Experience – Pages with too much content on them are simply unpleasant for users. They can cause a headache! Just look at this example!

zero white space example

Image: Here’s a textbook case of a website with nearly zero white space. With so many links on the page, arrows, advertisements bright colors, and flashing lights, this website is potentially confusing and overwhelming for visitors.

Create a Hierarchical Website Architecture

Organizing the content on your website into a hierarchical structure has several benefits.

When you create a hierarchy of content, your website becomes logically organized and human users can discover the content they’re searching for more easily.

Creating a content hierarchy is also the best way to ensure that search engine crawlers can efficiently discover and index new content that you publish on your website.

Here’s how to set up your content hierarchy:

  1. Your content hierarchy should have a maximum of three or four tiers. This would allow a human or robot visitor to start at your home page and navigate to any page of your website within just a few clicks.
  2. Your home page should be found at your root domain and should occupy the highest position (Tier 1) in the content hierarchy.
  3. Tier 2 pages include your content category pages (products, services, solutions, blogs, etc.). These pages should help users navigate to different sections of your website where they can find relevant content to their interests.
  4. Tier 3 pages include individual product pages, service pages, solutions pages, and blog posts. They should be grouped and published under the appropriate Tier 2 category or section.

Set up Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are a website navigation feature that tells users where they are in your hierarchy of content.

The idea for breadcrumbs comes from the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale where the siblings leave a trail of breadcrumbs to help them find their way back through the woods. In the same way, breadcrumbs on your website help your visitors find their way back from an individual page to the top of that portion of your content hierarchy.

Amazon breadcrumbs example

Image: Amazon uses breadcrumbs to help shoppers navigate between categories and subcategories while shopping. In this image, users can use the breadcrumb links (there are five of them, underlined in alternating colors) to quickly navigate to any level in the hierarchy of product categories and sub-categories.

Optimize Website Navigation

Optimizing your website navigation means ensuring that visitors can find the information they want on your website both quickly and easily. In addition to setting up breadcrumbs and a content hierarchy, here are a few other optimizations you should try to incorporate into your website design best practices:

  • Add a search bar if your website has a lot of content
  • Include “Back to Top” buttons on long pages so users don’t have to scroll
  • Use short, descriptive URLs for each page
  • Categorize blog posts so users can more easily find older content that’s related to their interests
  • Avoid cluttered menus with too many options

Build Pages with a Purpose

When used by a business as a marketing tool, a website has a clear purpose: to drive lead generation and revenue creation for your company.

Your business website should be set up like a marketing/sales funnel, driving users towards the pages where they can take actions that satisfy your business objectives, such as purchasing a product, signing up for an email newsletter, or requesting a quote.

When you add a new page of content, ask yourself:

  • Where does this content exist in my sales funnel?
  • Where do I want my visitors to go after reading this?
  • What will be my reader’s next question once they finish reading this page? What is their next logical step?

Incorporate CTAs to Drive User Action

A call-to-action (CTA) directly asks visitors to your website to perform a specific action that corresponds to your business objectives, such as starting a free trial, registering for a webinar, requesting a quote, or adding a product to their cart.

Moz home page

Image: Bright CTA Buttons and ample white space are used by Moz to show visitors exactly where they should be clicking on this page to advance through the customer journey.

An effective CTA drives user action by offering something valuable, creating urgency, promising ease and convenience, demonstrating social proof, triggering the fear of missing out (FOMO), and reducing friction.

Use Consistent CTAs to Reinforce the Desired User Action

If your website uses CTAs on multiple pages, it is a good idea to have similar or identically worded CTAs on each page. Many websites do this by having the same CTA located in the upper-right corner on each page.

Showing users the same call-to-action on multiple pages reinforces the desired user action and makes users more likely to eventually click.

Use Colors or Shapes to Emphasize CTAs

Web designers should use (on-brand) colors and shapes to emphasize their CTAs on each page. A CTA needs to stand out on the page, making it clear where users should click to advance to the next stage of the customer journey.

A brightly colored button with contrasting text is the tried-and-true formula for a CTA that’s easily recognized and tells the customer exactly what to do next.

Use Familiar UX Elements

While it is advisable to design a website with a look and feel that’s unique to your brand, there are some elements that you really shouldn’t mess with when it comes to user experience. Creating a website with familiar design elements makes it easier for users to navigate around your website. Some website design best practices here include:

  • Hyperlinks should follow the traditional format with blue underlined text
  • Website logo on the top of every page links to the home page
  • The primary navigation menu at the top of the page
  • Avoid customization options that change the user’s cursor

Create User-friendly Content

User-friendly content is informative, logically structured, error-free, easy to read, and easy to share. Make your content more user-friendly with these web design best practices:

  • Use keyword research to inform your content marketing strategy. Take the time to learn and understand what your audience is searching for, then address their biggest needs and pain points with relevant content.
  • Use a spell checker to edit your content for spelling and grammar
  • Write short, simple sentences to maximize readability.
    Hemingway Editor app

    Image: A readability app like the Hemingway Editor can help you edit your content in real-time for clarity, conciseness, spelling, grammar, more.

  • Use short paragraphs, lists, and bullet points to break up content on the page and make it easier to read
  • Use short, descriptive URLs to make it easier for visitors to share your content or visit your pages directly

Design for Technical SEO Requirements

Designing your website for technical SEO requirements meaning ensuing that search engine crawlers can efficiently crawl and access content on every page of your website. Start by following this website design best practices:

  • Categorize your content into sections, but avoid subdomains.
  • Avoid framing content from other websites on pages of your website
  • Watch out for large media files that can impact page loading speeds and disrupt crawlers
  • Avoid publishing “orphan content” that can’t be found by navigating your website via internal links

Design for Mobile Responsiveness

More than half of all searches come from mobile devices, and your website will seriously suffer in the search rankings if it doesn’t work properly on mobile.

Google's free mobile-friendly test

Image: Use Google’s free mobile-friendly test to make sure your website works properly on mobile devices.

A responsive design ensures that every page of your website looks and functions correctly on devices of every type and screen size.

Don’t Forget About Page Speed

Slow page loading times have been correlated with high bounce rates, low conversion rates, and poor organic search performance. Use Google PageSpeed Insights to optimize your page loading times.

Incorporate Human Elements

The strongest businesses understand the power of human connection – even when it comes to their marketing material.

homepage hero section design

Images: Connect with your customers and humanize your online presence by including images of real people on your website.

Including pictures of real humans on your website is a great way to forge a genuine connection and build trust with your audience.

Include Engaging Images, Graphs, and Data

Humans are visual creatures – we have a strong capacity to connect with and receive information from images. Digital marketers should know that using engaging visuals, graphs, infographics, and data presentations as part of their web design efforts will have a tremendously positive effect on user engagement.

Collect User Behavior Data & Iterate

Optimizing your web design for conversions is an ongoing process – you shouldn’t expect to get it 100% correct on your first try. That’s why there are tools like Google Analytics that marketers can use to collect user behavior data and analyze it for opportunities to increase conversions.

Summary

Thanks for checking out our list of the 18 key website design best practices you should be following!

For an in-depth look at how to optimize design elements on your website, check out our lesson on Directive Institute.

The post 18 Key Website Design Best Practices to Follow appeared first on Directive.

]]> Website Form Design: 11 Best Practices & Examples https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/website-form-design/ Sat, 30 May 2020 00:17:18 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=19934 Interested in mastering website forms design and generating more leads than ever for your business? Designing forms for your website

The post Website Form Design: 11 Best Practices & Examples appeared first on Directive.

]]> Interested in mastering website forms design and generating more leads than ever for your business?

Designing forms for your website is both an art and a science. On the scientific side, there are some best practices that should be implemented in almost every website forms’ design to reduce friction and optimize for user experience. On the artistic side, lead forms can vary significantly depending on the nature of the offer and user intent.

The key to effective website forms design is to apply best practices for UX while optimizing your form fields, layout, and design for your unique offer and target audience.

To help guide you through the form optimization process, we’ve created this resource that highlights some of the most important aspects of website form design and how to integrate them into your own forms.

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Website Form Design: 11 Best Practices & Examples

Use a Single Column Design & Include Field Titles

When you start looking at different website form designs, including the ones pictured in this article, you’ll notice that some use a two-column design and others use a single-column design. While both options can work, we’d recommend using a single column design in most cases. Here’s why:

English users read left-to-right and top-to-bottom. When you use a two-column design, users can get confused about the flow of your form – should they go left-to-right on every line, or fill out the first column and then the second column?

Using a single-column design makes it easy for users to figure out how to fill out the information you’re asking for in the most logical way.

single column form design

Image: Jamf’s single-column website forms design offers a great user experience – it’s easy for prospects to figure out the flow and add information in a logical order. Source: Jamf

Another feature you’ll notice in the example pictured here is the field titles included with every form field. Field titles should be positioned above each of the input fields and aligned to the left – this helps ensure that users will understand which titles are for which fields and enter their information in the right location.

Guide Customers with Placeholder Text

Another way you can optimize your website forms design and make life easier for users is by adding placeholder text. Also known as “hint text”, placeholder text is automatically placed into the form fields when a user loads your form, but it will be removed once the user begins typing their information into that field.
placeholder text on forms

Image: Dashlane uses placeholder text in every field of this form to guide customers through the process of starting a free trial of their Internet security products. Source: Dashlane

In the example pictured above, Dashlane uses placeholder text instead of field titles to guide users through the sign-up process.

One benefit of this design choice is that it reduces the total size of the form since the field titles would take up additional space between the form fields.

A drawback, however, is that the fields are no longer labeled once the user starts interacting with them.

In general, we’d recommend using both field titles and placement text to label form fields, unless there’s a compelling reason to use just one or the other.

Enable Autofill to Reduce Friction

In today’s consumer culture, your prospective customers expect a convenient sign-up experience that’s as painless as possible for them.

That’s what reducing friction is all about: making the process of engaging with your website lead forms as painless as possible for the customer – and one of the best ways you can do that is by enabling the autofill feature for your website forms.

People got sick and tired of having to type out their personal information into every form, so Google created a Chrome Browser feature called Address Manager to help streamline the process.

autofill on forms

Image: Access the address manager in chrome settings and you can customize your own contact information to use autofill any time you encounter an autofill-enabled form on the Internet

Once users have saved their form data into the Google address manager, they can use it to automatically populate form fields with their information before signing up for a free trial.

In the following image, we’ve highlighted all form-fields that we were able to complete just by selecting the correct autofill option from the drop-down menu.
auto fill browser form

Image: This Dashlane form has a total of 10 fields, but 7 of them can be populated automatically using autofill. This significantly reduces friction by cutting down on the time it takes for users to complete the form. Source: Dashlane

In just a couple of clicks, a user can fill in 70% of this form with data that’s already been saved in their browser. This friction-reducing feature ultimately makes users more likely to complete the form and register for a trial.

Avoid Asking for Excess Information

Another way to reduce friction when you design forms to generate leads on your website is to avoid asking for excess information – however, there is a need to strike a balance here.

On the one hand, collecting more information about prospects can help you understand more about your audience and develop new ways of marketing to them in the future. Collecting more information also helps with lead scoring and qualification.

On the other hand, asking for too much information can make prospects feel like their time is being wasted and result in reduced total lead volume.

It’s worthwhile to experiment with different lead forms and find the sweet spot where you’re effectively qualifying prospects without sacrificing too much lead volume.
form field amount example

Image: Sophos does a great job of pushing this free trial with a simplified lead form that asks for just your first and last name and business email. Business email fields typically don’t accept email addresses from public providers like gmail and yahoo, so Sophos is already avoiding a lot of spam registrations and qualifying these leads by what company they work for. Source: Sophos

Use a Progress Bar for Multi-Step Forms

Multi-stepped forms can be off-putting for users if it’s unclear how long a registration or checkout process will take on your website. Not only is this poor UX design, but it will more than likely have a negative impact on your overall conversion rate. The best way to address this source of friction is to include a progress bar that guides your customers through the multi-step sign-up.

amazon progress bar

Image: Amazon is a world leader in technology and eCommerce, so we should probably take notes on how they’ve used this progress bar to guide customers through millions of annual transactions on the Amazon platform. This user-friendly progress bar shows customers exactly where they are in the checkout process and what steps are left to complete when placing an order. Source: Amazon

Multi-step forms are a natural fit for eCommerce checkouts, but they also work with multi-step free trial forms for SaaS companies.

multi step form design

Image: Pluralsight uses a progress bar and collapsible form containers to guide customers through a multi-stepped free trial registration process on a single, user-friendly page. Source: Pluralsight

Indicate Required Fields & Optimize Error Messages

When it comes to indicating required fields and optimizing error messages, there are several different ways you can implement.

Most website forms simply place an asterisk at the end of the field title (often in red) to indicate required fields. Others, like the Pluralsight form pictured below, add text to field titles to indicate which fields are optional.

We generally prefer the asterisk method, as it’s more familiar to users.
form error message

Image: When a user tries to submit an incomplete form, this Pluralsight form indicates exactly which fields need to be updated to rectify the issue. Source: Pluralsight

It’s also important to think about what happens when users fill out a form incorrectly. Ideally, there should be individualized error messages for every form field, indicating whether data was missing, invalid, or incorrectly formatted. In the image above, Pluralsight uses individualized error messages for each form field that was missed.

Validate Input in Real-Time

Real-time input validation is a great way to provide incremental feedback and encouragement to users, especially when they’re filling out a longer form with more fields. That little green check-mark gives users a feeling of accomplishment and validates that they’ve input the proper information in the correct format, every step of the way.

form validation

Image: In this clipping of an Airship free trial registration form, you’ll notice that work email inputs are validated automatically. This is common for forms that required a work e-mail, but input validation can be implemented for all types of fields, including email addresses, phone numbers, and birthdays.  Source: Airship

Add Assisting Text & Write a Clever Call to Action

Assisting text sits at the top of your form and tells users exactly why you’re asking for their information and what they can expect to get in return.

You don’t have to include a huge amount of detail with your assisted text – just a line or three is enough to help keep users focused on why they’re bothering to fill out your form in the first place.

form subheadline

Image: WorkBoard uses assisted text and a customized call to action button, both examples of effective UX design for website forms. Source:  WorkBoard

It’s also worth experimenting with your call to action text to optimize for conversion rate.

You may choose to start with basic CTA text like “Submit” or “Get Started”, but these generic calls to action are may be confusing for a prospective customer and don’t really describe what’s going to happen next. We like the example above because it cleverly tells prospects exactly what they’re signing up for, in an enthusiastic and positive tone, and in very few words.

Summary

Thanks for checking out our list of best practices for website form design!

Next, be sure to check out our complete guide to form optimization on Directive Institute! With our step-by-step guidance, you’ll be able to produce fully optimized website forms and maximize lead generation or free trial sign-ups with your next marketing campaign.

The post Website Form Design: 11 Best Practices & Examples appeared first on Directive.

]]> Top 12 Call to Action Examples to Improve Conversions https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/call-to-action-examples/ Wed, 06 May 2020 23:00:05 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=19650 Looking for some call to action examples to help you optimize your landing pages? To get the most value for

The post Top 12 Call to Action Examples to Improve Conversions appeared first on Directive.

]]> Looking for some call to action examples to help you optimize your landing pages?

To get the most value for their marketing efforts, digital marketers must carefully optimize their landing pages to increase conversions and drive campaign success. That includes optimizing Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons by testing different variations of CTA copy to determine which one performs the best. A compelling call to action can make the difference between an impression and a conversion, so it’s worthwhile to try several variations until you can identify which one performs the best.

As you learn how to optimize a CTA, there’s no need to come up with brand new CTA copy from scratch. We’d recommend looking at some common call to action examples on other websites and tweaking them to fit your own campaigns.

To make it easier, we’ve curated this list of 12 Amazing Call to Action Examples to improve conversions. We hope these examples will inspire you to optimize your landing pages with an amazing CTA.

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What is a Call to Action?

In a nutshell, a call to action is a specific type of ad copy that directly tells the reader to do a thing.

What is that thing?

That thing is whatever brings the reader into the next stage of the sales funnel. It could be asking them to purchase a product, to sign up for an e-mail newsletter or to accept a free trial offer.

On your website, CTAs will encourage readers to purchase products and services, sign up for free trials, watch a demo or submit their email address for a newsletter or free download.

While it’s possible to set up a generic CTA button that says “Submit” or “Click Here”, we think it’s much better to customize slightly longer CTAs using the 5 elements of a great CTA.

5 Elements of a Great Call To Action

The entire purpose of a CTA button is to encourage readers to click on it. We need to give readers a compelling reason to take the next step, promise something of value and get them excited. We also need to show or tell them exactly what the next step is to get what we’re offering, and we can build trust by being transparent throughout the process. All of these ideas are covered by the 5 elements of a great call to action.

  1. Verb – Verbs are action words. In a CTA, verbs are used either to tell the reader what steps to take next or to describe what will happen when the reader clicks through.
  2. Value Proposition – Readers respond to your CTA because it offers them something of value. That thing could be information, access, or a free sample.
  3. Urgency – A great CTA creates a sense of urgency. The reader should be encouraged to act now – not later.
  4. Convenience – An effective CTA has convenience built into its value proposition. A CTA that promises to deliver the offer quickly and conveniently is sure to convert at a higher rate.
  5. Overcoming Objection/Relieving Anxiety/Reducing Friction – Reducing friction is all about making it as easy as possible for someone to take the next step. That means anticipating any objections or anxieties that readers might have and overcoming them within your CTA.

As we go through the call to action examples below, we’ll highlight how they use the 5 elements of a great CTA to effectively communicate with audiences and encourage readers to take the desired actions.

Top 12 CTA Examples to Improve Conversions

Free 5-Min Demo Video – GPS TrackIt

demo video cta example

Why it Works:

GPSTrackIt offers a fleet tracking software solution for the trucking industry.

The company uses its website to generate leads for its sales team by offering a free demo. While most SaaS companies have prospective customers schedule a demo with a member of their sales team, GPSTrackIt recognized that scheduled demos are difficult to schedule and rarely bring together all of the decision-makers needed to move forward. By offering a free demo that prospective customers could watch on their own time, GPSTrackIt could get their product in front of more people with less hassle and potentially fill their sales funnel with even more qualified leads.

This CTA button did a great job of communicating with its audiences. The words “demo video” are the value proposition – that’s what prospects are looking for, they want to see the platform in action. The CTA also promises that the demo is FREE (removing objections/anxiety) and that it only takes five minutes (convenience).

Sign Up For Free – Evernote

free sign up cta example

Why it Works: Evernote’s home page does a great job of giving users just enough information to want to start using the program. There is a compelling headline and a carefully crafted description that identifies use cases and promises an amazing experience.

The CTA button here tells users to “Sign Up for Free”. The value proposition here is free access to the software, which the reader can get by “signing up” (this is the desired action). Letting the audience know that the sign-up is free removes a potential objection. We also like how this page offers a discount on the premium version with an “Upgrade” CTA, which communicates to the audience that they would be paying some money to get a better version of the product.

Try It Now – Netflix

try it now cta example

Why it Works: Netflix knows what users want when they navigate to its website – they want to try out the service for free to see if it’s worth subscribing. Netflix also wants users to sign up for its streaming service with their email address, so they’ve constructed their entire home page around this email opt-in form and “Try It Now” CTA button, which cleverly hones in customer intentions.

See Drift on Your Site – Drift

interactive demo cta example

Why it Works: Drift’s product is a website overlay that lets webmasters or digital marketers communicate directly with users that are browsing their websites through chat widgets.

Drift uses this opt-in form to deliver live demos of its product from its own website – you just type in your business email address and you’ll be presented with a mock-up of exactly how the tool looks on your website.

We like this CTA because it hones in on what prospective customers would want to see and creates a value proposition around that. It also feels very convenient, as the CTA implies that you can get access to the demo by providing just your email.

Watch Now – Lightspeed

watch now cta example

Why it Works: Instead of scheduling live demos, lightspeed makes it ultra-convenient for prospective customers to check out the features and benefits they have to offer.

The “Watch Now” CTA communicates to the audience that they won’t have to wait or schedule a demo – these videos are instantly available and will show you exactly what features you can expect and how easy it is to get started.

Download Now for Free – HubSpot

download now for free cta example

Why it Works: The word “free” appears three times in the sales copy for this HubSpot eBook offer, including in this compelling call to action example. This CTA is full of powerful words that follow the five elements of a great CTA:

  1. Download – this is the verb and the value proposition. The eBook download is what the audience wants.
  2. Now – communicates convenience, promises instant access without any waiting or extra steps
  3. Free – removing anxiety, promises the audience that it won’t cost them anything to download the book

Grade My Account for Free – WordStream

free account grader cta example

Why it Works: This CTA button is part of a lightbox pop-up campaign featuring on the WordStream website.

This ad is full of clever copy, including the “Close this Ad” button that says “No thanks, I’d rather work all day.”

The CTA button here promises major value to audiences, essentially saying that WordStream is going to do their jobs for them by analyzing their Google Ads Performance so they can save time and optimize their ad spending. The word “free” removes an objection by assuring audiences that the account grading is a free service.

Start Free Trial – Axosoft

start free trial cta example

Why it Works: The headline and description here tell the audience everything they need to know about Axosoft. The CTA uses three powerful words to encourage readers to sign up and start using the software:

  1. Start – This is the verb, Axosoft is directly telling the audience to start using its product.
  2. Free – This helps remove objections, Axosoft is telling the audience that they can use the product without paying for it.
  3. Trial – A trial means that audiences will only be able to use the software for free for a limited time. This sets the expectation that the user will eventually be asked to purchase the software.

Sign Up For Free – Zoom

zoom free sign up example

Why it Works: This page does a great job of removing friction and overcoming objections using effective sales copy and CTA buttons.

Readers are encouraged to “Sign up for Free” or to “Sign Up, It’s Free” – yes, there are two CTA buttons on this page that address audience anxieties about the cost of the service. Zoom very much wants people to know that they can download the product for free.

The other links that feature prominently here are “Helpful Resources” and a “Register Now” button for daily educational seminars on how to use the software. Zoom positions these links are to reassure prospective users that there are resources and support available to help them get the product working. These factors work together to remove friction and encourage audiences to take the desired action.

Get a Free Reader – Square

get a free reader cta example

Why it Works: If you’re a small business owner, you may have heard that a square reader can allow you to take credit card payments using your iPhone.

If you were interested in that, you might pay a visit to the Square Reader website where you would see this compelling call to action example inviting you to “Get a free reader”.

Square crafted this CTA button to tell small business owners in no uncertain terms that the exact piece of technology they need to solve their problems is available for free at the click of a button. This is a great example of communicating a strong value proposition and removing all of the friction to prevent readers from taking advantage of the offer.

Order Your Free Sample Pack – MOO

free sample pack cta

Why it Works: This is one of the most effective and most highly customized call to action examples on this list.

MOO offers printing services for small businesses that need basic marketing and brand collateral to support their businesses.

We love how MOO presented clear visuals of their sample packs on this page and even used the shopping cart icon in their CTA button to tell audiences that they would enter the checkout process for their free sample pack after clicking on the ad.

I’ve Heard Enough! Give Me Instant Access for Just $79 – Big Interview

instant access cta example

Why it Works: This CTA is about 80% of the way down a very long sales page with loads of product details, features and benefits of Big Interview.

This CTA has a self-aware personality – it uses the phrase “I’ve Heard Enough!” to cheekily acknowledge how long the landing page is and how far down you have to scroll to finally get to this CTA button.

If readers are already prepared to move forward at this point, this CTA outlines the exact process: Pay $79 for the course, receive instant access to everything described on this landing page. We love how this CTA tells audiences exactly what the next step is, even down to the dollar amount they’ll have to pay.

Summary

Thanks for checking out our list of the top 12 call-to-action examples that can improve conversions!

We hope these examples inspire you to come up with compelling CTAs for your next digital advertising campaigns.

The post Top 12 Call to Action Examples to Improve Conversions appeared first on Directive.

]]> 8 Best Conversion Rate Optimization Tools https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/best-conversion-rate-optimization-tools/ Wed, 06 May 2020 22:36:36 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=19602 The best digital marketers work with conversion rate optimization (CRO) tools frequently to continuously improve the performance of their websites

The post 8 Best Conversion Rate Optimization Tools appeared first on Directive.

]]> The best digital marketers work with conversion rate optimization (CRO) tools frequently to continuously improve the performance of their websites and landing pages.

CRO tools include features like content experiments (e.g. A/B testing, split testing or multivariate testing) and user behavior tracking (heat maps and analytics) that help marketers optimize their conversion funnels and maximize their digital marketing ROI by providing the best possible user experience for audiences.

To help you create fully optimized conversion funnels for your next digital marketing campaign, we’re sharing this list of our 8 favorite conversion rate optimization tools that you should use.

 

8 Best Conversion Rate Optimization Tools

Hotjar

hotjar cro tool

Overview: Hotjar is a user behavior analysis tool that gives digital marketers several ways to track, monitor and visualize how users interact with their website and landing pages. This helps marketers develop insights, driving optimization test ideas that can potentially increase conversions.

Unique Features & Value: Hotjar’s main feature is its Heatmaps, which create a visual representation of where users click, where they scroll and where their cursor moves on a given webpage. Marketers can also use a visual recording feature to replay sessions of real website visitors and see exactly how they interacted with the page. In addition to monitoring user behavior, Hotjar also supports feedback polls and surveys so you can find out exactly how audiences feel about the user experience on your website.

Pricing & Access: Hotjar subscriptions are priced based on how many pageviews your website gets each day. There’s a free version for websites with 2000 daily pageviews or fewer, but the business packages include 20,000 daily pageviews starting at $89/month.

Unbounce

unbounce cro tool

Overview: When it comes to landing page builder tools for digital marketers, there’s no better option than Unbounce. This feature-rich platform gives digital marketers a powerful drag-and-drop editor from which they can customize their own landing pages to drive conversions.

Unique Features & Value: In addition to its landing page builder tool, Unbounce supports content experiments and makes it easy to implement extensive testing to find high-performing landing pages. Digital marketers can further optimize their campaigns with pop-ups and sticky bars with special offers that drive even more conversions. When it comes to building and testing landing pages, Unbounce is one of your best options.

Pricing & Access: There’s a free 14-day trial available for new users, otherwise the basic package starts at $79/month.

Optimizely

optimizely cro tool

Overview: Optimizely is one of the best enterprise-level conversion rate optimization tools featured on this list, with a customer base that includes 24 of the Fortune 100 global businesses. They’ve published case studies on their successes working with HP, Salesforce, and IBM, to name a few.

Unique Features & Value:  Optimizely gives digital marketers the flexibility to run content experiments on websites, mobile apps, television apps, mobile kiosks, messaging bots, email, call centers, and more. This makes it the ideal platform for enterprise organizations whose media optimization needs to extend beyond website experiments and into other domains.

Pricing & Access: There’s no free version of Optimizely available, and you’ll have to book a consultation to set up your account.

Instapage

instapage cro tool

Overview: Instapage is a conversion rate optimization tool that empowers digital marketers to deliver personalized landing page experiences to their advertising audiences.

Unique Features & Value: Instapage is, first and foremost, a drag-and-drop landing page editor that makes it easy to customize aesthetically brilliant landing pages without writing a single line of code. Instapage also offers personalization features, enabling digital marketers to create and present specific landing pages to members of a specific ad group or respondents to a specific advertisement. There’s also a robust content experimentation functionality that includes A/B testing, multivariate testing and heatmaps.

Pricing & Access: The most affordable Instapage subscription starts at $199/month for a business plan. Users that require more support and additional features can set up a customized enterprise plan which includes a dedicated customer success manager.

Crazy Egg

crazyegg cro tool

Overview: Crazy Egg is a user behavior analytics tool that uses heat maps to understand how your website visitors interact with your landing pages. Heat maps offer insights into user behavior that drive landing page optimization opportunities and increase website conversions.

Unique Features & Value: The simple workflow for getting the most out of Crazy Egg makes it one of the best conversion rate optimization tools for digital marketers. To begin, test your site with Crazy Egg and start analyzing user behavior with heat maps, snapshots and session recordings. Next, identify the lowest-performing pages and develop landing page variants that address the most common user issues. Crazy Egg lets you quickly edit page elements, so it’s easy to develop new variations in a hurry. Finally, you can use Crazy Egg to A/B test your landing page variations against each other and discover which one performs the best.

Pricing & Access: There’s a 30-day free trial of Crazy Egg available for all new customers. After that, pricing starts at $24/month for the basic package, which is good for collecting data from 1000 page views each day.

Visual Website Optimizer

vwo cro tool

Overview: Visual website optimizer (VWO) is one of the most powerful conversion rate optimization tools in the market, with thousands of companies relying on the platform each day to help optimize their post-click landing page experiences.

Unique Features & Value: The VWO platform has everything you need to implement CRO effectively across your landing pages and PPC advertising campaigns. The VWO Testing product supports A/B testing, multivariate testing and split URL testing. There’s also VWO Insights, a user behavior analytics tool that offers session recordings, heatmaps, on-page surveys and form analytics for lead generation pages. Digital marketers may also be interested in the customer retargeting capabilities offered through VWO Engage.

Pricing & Access: There’s a 30-day trial available with the most basic subscription package starting at $99/month.

Drift

drift cro tool

Overview: Drift is an unconventional addition to this list, but we’re featuring Driftbot here because it represents a totally different methodology for increasing conversions: conversational marketing.

Unique Features & Value: Digital marketers that implement Drift on their landing pages will have the power to engage prospective customers in conversation directly as part of the post-click landing page experience. The tool can be implemented as a “live chat” that automatically connects your sales team with prospects on your website, or as an artificial intelligence chatbot that works around the clock to qualify leads on your website. Drift is one of the best marketing automation tools that can help engage your prospective customers and drive conversions.

Pricing & Access: There’s a free version with live chat support and a paid version with additional features for business and enterprise clients.

Hello Bar

hellobar features

Overview: Hello Bar is a simple yet powerful conversion rate optimization tool designed to help anyone from digital marketers to thought leaders capture more leads and conversions. We love the customizations and variety of modules included along with the no-fuss setup.

Unique Features & Value: One of it’s best features is that it’s easy to get up and running with a 1-click installation. It allows users to create popup notifications, banners, and modal windows with custom content and design options, so they can tailor their messages to their target audience.

Pricing & Access: Their plans start as low as $29 a month for up to 50,000 popup views/month and basic customer support.

Summary

Thanks for checking out our list of the 8 best conversion optimization tools!

There are plenty of free trials to go around, so test out a few of these CRO tools with your upcoming digital marketing campaigns and let us know which one is your favorite.

The post 8 Best Conversion Rate Optimization Tools appeared first on Directive.

]]> What’s a Good Landing Page Conversion Rate? https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/whats-a-good-landing-page-conversion-rate/ Wed, 22 Apr 2020 19:17:25 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=19403 Most digital marketers already recognize the importance of optimizing their PPC landing pages to achieve a good landing page conversion

The post What’s a Good Landing Page Conversion Rate? appeared first on Directive.

]]> Most digital marketers already recognize the importance of optimizing their PPC landing pages to achieve a good landing page conversion rate.

But, exactly what is a good landing page conversion rate?

This is one of the questions we hear most often from digital marketers who simply aren’t sure how to define success for their landing page optimization efforts. In practice, landing page optimization is an ongoing process of improvement with no real upper limit for success – so at what point should you look at your work and say “I’ve done a good job”?

That’s what we’re trying to help with by creating this resource. We’ll explain how landing page conversion rates work, how they vary between different industries, and what factors influence landing page conversion rate for a given campaign. By the end, we hope you’ll have a better idea of what is a good landing page conversion rate.

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What is a Landing Page Conversion Rate?

When you start a PPC advertising campaign, one of the first things you will do is determine a high-level strategic goal for your campaign. Broadly speaking, there are three strategic goals you can choose from:

  1. Generate brand awareness
  2. Generate qualified leads
  3. Generate sales

Once you have decided on a strategic goal, you need to create an offer. Your offer will be presented on your landing page to your target audience after they click on one of your paid advertisements or arrive from another targeted referral source. To succeed in PPC advertising, you need to know how to create a landing page. The purpose of a landing page is to encourage visitors to accept the offer, thereby fulfilling the goals of your campaign.

Offers can take many different forms that connect with your campaign goals.

Want to generate brand awareness? Use your landing page to connect visitors to your home page or another useful article or resource on your website.

Need to convert visitors into qualified leads? Your lead generation offer could be an email newsletter opt-in form, a website membership sign-up form or a webinar registration.

Ready to ask for the sale? You can offer a product or a service for sale directly on your landing page.

Landing page conversion rate is defined as the percentage of visitors to your landing page that takes the desired action by accepting your offer.

What is a Good Landing Page Conversion Rate?

Conventional wisdom dictates that a good landing page conversion rate is probably between 2-5%, with some high-performing landing pages achieving up to 10%+ conversion rates.

Well, we’d like to challenge that wisdom.

Consider the following two scenarios:

  1. Mike runs a SaaS business with a $500/month subscription product in a niche market. He builds a PPC campaign with the strategic goal of generating sales and pays an average CPC of $15.00. Mike’s calculated customer lifelong value (CLV) for his software product is around $10,000. Mike’s landing page converts at just 1.0%, which makes sense since his product is niche and quite expensive. Yet, even while converting only 1/100 visitors into customers, he can expect to earn $10,000 for every $1500 of ad spending. In regards to return on ad spend, that’s a successful campaign!
  2. Tony runs an online clothing store with fast fashion products. He builds a PPC campaign with the strategic goal of generating sales and pays an average CPC of $1.50. Tony has optimized his landing page to convert at 7.0%, with each converted sale generating $65 in profit. For every $150 of ad spending, Tony generates $455 in net profit for the business – not bad at all!

So, we have two profitable and successful campaigns, but with very different landing page conversion rates.

Not only that, but Mike’s campaign with the lower conversion rate actually has more than double the return-on-investment of Tony’s campaign.

Could you honestly say that Mike’s landing page conversion rate isn’t good, given what you know about his product and overall campaign profitability?

The lesson here is that while conversion rates are important, the real focus should be on overall return-on-investment and campaign profitability. Every business, product, service, PPC campaign and landing page has unlimited variables and unique characteristics that impact conversion rates in different ways.

Digital marketers need to optimize their overall PPC campaign to support downstream value creation, not focus on individual metrics like landing page conversion rates that are meaningless by themselves. Landing page conversion rate does not determine success in PPC advertising – campaign profitability does.

What is a Good Landing Page Conversion Rate for My Industry?

With that said, there is some information available about average conversion rates between industries that we wanted to share.

conversion rate average chart

Image Source: Unbounce

The above graph was published by Unbounce, who conducted an analysis of landing page conversion rates across industries. There are two important details you should know about this data:

  1. This analysis was done using lead generation landing pages – not landing pages with a sales offer or brand awareness pages. Lead generation pages may ask for an email opt-in or webinar registration, so you’d expect higher conversions than with an eCommerce landing page that’s asking for a sale.
  2. These are median values – not averages. They don’t include the large numbers of low-converting landing pages or the small numbers of high-converting landing pages that exist.

Take a look at this chart published by WordStream and you’ll see what we mean:

conversion rate distribution chart

Image Source: Wordstream

This conversion rate data is not for individual landing pages, but for individual advertiser accounts. That means the best advertisers are converting at more than 11.45% across their entire account, not just on individual landing pages. But here we have no sense of what kind of offers are being presented – are these brand awareness conversions, lead generations or sales?

Without that level of segmentation, it’s hard to make a solid connection between the bars on the chart and what landing page optimization rates you should expect for your own campaign.

The good news is that unless your landing pages are converting at 15% or more, you’re probably being outperformed by the best digital marketers and that means there’s plenty of room for improvement. In the final section of this resource, we’ll give you five quick pointers for landing page conversion rate optimization.

Five Tips to Achieve a Good Landing Page Conversion Rate

Refine Your Traffic Sources

One of the best ways to increase the overall conversion rate for your landing page is to refine your traffic referral sources and send more qualified users to your page. You don’t necessarily need a greater volume of leads, but you need to ensure as much as possible that visitors to your page are motivated to convert with your offer. To achieve this, you may want to adjust your ad creative, change your ad copy or change where your ads are being displayed.

Try Something New

If you’ve been sticking to simple text and images for your landing pages, there are several options you can explore that could lead to higher conversions. The best available data tells us that adding video to your landing pages can increase conversions. You could add a video testimonial, an explanation video about your product or a simple elevator pitch that encourages the conversion.

A/B Testing

A/B testing is a methodology for landing page optimization. When conducting A/B testing, you split the traffic from your PPC ads between two versions of the same landing page – an A version and a B version. The two versions should be identical with a single element changed, such as the headline, ad copy, offer, or call-to-action text. You can then use analytics to assess which version of the page generated more engagement and conversions. Once you’ve collected a big enough sample size, you decide which version is better and keep it.

You can keep A/B testing your landing page to push your conversion rates higher over time.

Split Testing

Digital marketers should be aware of the difference between A/B testing and split testing, and when to do each one.

In A/B testing, you’re showing target audience members one of two versions of the same landing page with a single design element changed or modified.

In a split test, you’re showing two different landing pages that can differ in just about every way, including the offer they present, ad copy, headlines and every other design element.

Split testing should be used to hone in on the most successful landing page design. A/B testing can then be used to optimize each element in that design to drive conversions.

Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion rate optimization goes beyond referral sources and testing your landing pages. It also includes things like mobile optimization, page responsiveness, formatting, readability, page speed and many other factors that impact the overall user experience. We’ve created an entire conversion rate optimization course that covers all the info you’ll need to get the most out of your landing pages.

Summary

So, what is a good landing page conversion rate?

Honestly, it depends. While you can choose to benchmark your conversion rates against industry averages or the performance of the best advertisers, you shouldn’t focus too hard on achieving a specific target number.

Instead, you should take the appropriate steps to optimize your conversion rate as much as possible while driving down CPC and maximizing the value that you generate from each conversion. Effectively managing these factors means optimizing your overall PPC campaign for profitability and success.

The post What’s a Good Landing Page Conversion Rate? appeared first on Directive.

]]> Instapage vs. Unbounce – What’s Best for You? https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/instapage-vs-unbounce/ Wed, 22 Apr 2020 18:37:15 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=19391 Instapage vs. Unbounce: Which landing page builder is the best option for your business? Each one offers something unique for

The post Instapage vs. Unbounce – What’s Best for You? appeared first on Directive.

]]> Instapage vs. Unbounce: Which landing page builder is the best option for your business?

Each one offers something unique for digital marketers who rely on landing page builder tools to support their pay-per-click advertising efforts. While there’s plenty of feature overlap, digital marketers choosing a landing page builder for the first time should be aware of the subtle differences between them before making a purchasing decision.

To help, we’ve created this resource to help you choose between Instapage vs. Unbounce. We’ll highlight what’s the same and what’s different so you can choose the best landing page software for your business.

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What is a Landing Page Builder?

A landing page is the page that your target audience members land on after clicking through on one of your PPC advertisements.

The best digital marketers build highly focused landing pages for each campaign. Each landing page will be optimized and targeted for a specific customer persona, ad group and advertising message to deliver the best overall experience and drive conversions. Knowing how to create a landing page that converts is obviously important, but it still takes a lot of time to deploy landing pages at scale for a major campaign.

Landing page builder software tools make it easier for digital marketers to produce high volumes of conversion-optimized landing pages and test them against each other in a much shorter period of time and with far less manual work.

Comparing Instapage vs Unbounce

Instapage and Unbounce are two of the leading landing page builder software tools available in the market today.

Founded in 2012, Instapage is a landing page builder tool whose core features include landing pages, personalized targeting, content experiments, campaign visualization tools and lead capture.

Unbounce was founded in 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. Unbounce allows marketers to create high-converting landing pages with a range of powerful features and customization options.

To make this comparison as fair as possible, we’ve created a simple point scoring system that focuses on the most important features of landing page tools. With a total of 100 points up for grabs, here are the 6 categories we’ll be looking at:

  • Landing Page Builder (20 points maximum)
  • Templates (20 points maximum)
  • Content Experiments (20 points maximum)
  • Personalization & Targeting (10 points maximum)
  • Integrations (10 points maximum)
  • Unique Features (10 points maximum)
  • Pricing (10 points maximum)

Now that we’ve covered the details, let’s compare these landing page builders and see which one comes out on top!

Instapage vs Unbounce: Landing Page Builder

Instapage and Unbounce each offer a drag-and-drop landing page builder that makes it easy to customize landing pages without any special knowledge of coding or graphic design. These editors are great because what you see is exactly what you get – simply move elements around until you’re happy with the layout and you’re ready to launch.

Digital marketers can customize every element on their landing pages, including call-to-action buttons, colors and fonts, images, ad copy and even social sharing buttons.

unbounce ui example

Image: Unbounce Landing Page Builder

instapage ui example

Image: Instapage Landing Page Builder

Unbounce and Instapage are both user-friendly and deliver on the promise of making it easy to create beautiful and high-converting landing pages.

Score:

Unbounce: 19/20

Instapage: 16/20

Both landing page editors are powerful, but they’re not the same. Instapage doesn’t offer the same flexibility as Unbounce does, but it’s still a good option for marketers that value ease-of-use over customization. We found the Unbounce user interface more intuitive and it was much easier to incorporate custom HTML and CSS into our landing pages.

Instapage vs Unbounce: Template Collection

Templates are a great design tool for digital marketers who work from inspiration and would rather improve on a great design than start over. Unbounce and Instapage both offer a huge collection of templates, but while Instapage has over 200 in its collection, Unbounce has just around 100 templates to choose from.

unbounce template example

Image: Unbounce 100+ Landing Page Templates

One thing we loved about both tools was that we could browse their template collections directly through their websites without having to access the platform. It was great that we could see exactly what templates were offered and start imaging how we might customize them for our own campaigns. We also like that templates were organized by campaign goal, so marketers could easily find a template that matches their campaign objective (webinar registrations, email opt-ins, free trial sign-up forms, etc).

Score:

Unbounce: 17/20

Instapage: 18/20

Instapage and Unbounce both offer lots of templates and an easy way to browse through them. Instapage has a lot more templates to offer, but many of them are categorized as “legacy layouts” and follow a generic design that may not appeal to modern digital marketers. Despite having fewer options on paper, Unbounce has great variety and visual appeal in their designs.

Instapage vs Unbounce: Content Experiments

A/B Testing Capabilities

A/B testing is a core functionality for both Unbounce and Instapage. Either platform will enable digital marketers to create experiments where different versions of the same landing page are presented to target user segments to determine which one converts at a higher rate.

instapage experiments example

Image: Instapage A/B Testing Interface

While Unbounce and Instapage offer a basic A/B testing function, digital marketers should also be aware of tools like Google Optimize and Optimizely that take a more complex and data-driven approach to analyze experiments. With Unbounce and Instapage, you’ll have to apply your own statistical methods to figure out which landing pages are really outperforming the others.

Score:

Unbounce: 15/20

Instapage: 15/20

Unbounce and Instapage both include A/B testing, which is fantastic, however, they don’t have the same depth of content experimentation features as a dedicated conversion rate optimization (CRO) tool like Optimizely or Google Optimize.

Instapage vs Unbounce: Personalization and Targeting

Dynamic text replacement is a landing page feature that automatically replaces words on a landing page with the keywords that the user typed in before clicking on an ad. Both Unbounce and Instapage use Dynamic Text Replacement to drive conversions by delivering more personalized landing page experiences for users.

unbounce personalization example

Image: Unbounce Dynamic Text Replacement

With Instapage, marketers have even more options for targeting users with specific landing pages. Instapage includes personalized targeting features that can be linked to virtually any known user attribute, including the referral source, UTM tags in the URL, or the type of ad that brought them to the page.

Score:

Unbounce: 8/10

Instapage: 9/10

Unbounce and Instapage are both effective at offering personalized experiences to visitors at scale.

Instapage vs Unbounce: Integrations

Unbounce and Instapage both offer extensive integration options for their landing page software. Integration options for both include CRM tools, chat software, social media extensions, email integration, automation tools, analytics and even webinar hosting.

Instapage offers 70+ integrations with lots of popular marketing tools, which makes it easier for digital agencies to integrate Instapage into their tech stack.

Unbounce offers more than 100 integrations for its users. We’ve noticed that Unbounce does a great job of covering its feature gaps by strategically building integrations with leading products in other niches. This has allowed Unbounce to focus its efforts on where it drives the most value – its feature-rich landing page builder.

Score:

Unbounce: 9/10

Instapage: 7/10

Integrations are important usability factors for agencies that need landing page builders to work with their existing marketing & analytics stack. Unbounce seems to do a much better job of this, especially when it comes to marketing attribution integrations.

Instapage vs Unbounce: Unique Features

Heatmaps

Heatmaps are a user behavior monitoring feature that gives marketers insight into how users interact with a given page. With Instapage, marketers can leverage heat maps to see how far their visitors are scrolling down the page, which page elements they interact with most frequently, and even where they move their cursor.

instapage heatmaps example

Image: Instapage Heatmaps

While Unbounce does not offer a heatmaps feature, it does allow users to integrate with Hotjar and Crazyegg, two other software solutions that provide heatmaps and user behavior analytics. Marketers using Unbounce don’t necessarily have to go without heatmaps, but it’s certainly more convenient to have them built-in as Instapage does.

Pop-ups and Sticky Bars

Pop-ups and sticky bars are marketing features that sit on top of your landing page and engage users directly with relevant and targeted messages. When a visitor lands on your page with the intention of browsing, a pop-up or sticky bar can alert them to a special event or offer and nudge them further down the sales funnel. While Unbounce allows marketers to create and customize pop-ups and sticky bars for every page, Instapage is, unfortunately, missing this useful feature.

unbounce popups example

Image: Unbounce Pop-ups and Sticky Bars

Score:

Unbounce: 9/10

Instapage: 8/10

Heatmaps are a useful but non-essential feature when it comes to assessing how visitors interact with a landing page. We give the edge to Unbounce here because customizable popups and sticky bars drive real conversions, which is ultimately better for our bottom line.

Instapage vs Unbounce: Pricing

Unbounce and Instapage are using the software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model to deliver their products, so users will be paying a monthly fee for a subscription package with defined features and access.

Here’s how the pricing options compare between these two landing page software tools:

Instapage Subscription Options

Business: $199/month ($149/month if paid annually)

Enterprise: Request Demo

Unbounce Subscription Options

Essential Plan: $99/month (20% discount if paid annually)

Premium: $199/month (20% discount if paid annually)

Enterprise: $499+/month (20% discount if paid annually)

Score:

Unbounce: 9/10

Instapage: 7/10

We give Unbounce the edge here for three reasons:

  • Unbounce offers an essential package that’s more affordable for small businesses, while the cheapest Instapage package is $199.
  • Compare the Instapage Business plan to Unbounce Premium Plan. They’re the same price, but while Unbounce offers 500,000 unique visitors and 150 published landing pages in their $199 plan, Instapage offers just 30,000 unique visitors and 30 published landing pages.

Instapage vs Unbounce: Final Score

We tallied up the scoring and here’s what happened: Unbounce wins!

We narrowly preferred Instapage for its landing page templates and personalization capabilities.

We found that both tools were pretty much equal when it came to A/B testing capabilities and running content experiments.

However, when we looked at the overall quality of the landing page builder, extra features, pricing, and integrations, it was clear that Unbounce was the top performer.

The final score was…

Unbounce: 86

Instapage: 80

Summary

Thanks for reading our comparison of Instapage vs Unbounce.

We hope our comparison helps you realize the benefits of a landing page builder and choose the right option to support your next digital marketing campaign.

The post Instapage vs. Unbounce – What’s Best for You? appeared first on Directive.

]]> 10 Best Landing Page Tools https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/best-landing-page-tools/ Thu, 16 Apr 2020 06:00:49 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?post_type=institute&p=18896 For most digital marketing campaigns, we recommend building a unique landing page for every customer persona. When you’re managing a

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]]> For most digital marketing campaigns, we recommend building a unique landing page for every customer persona.

When you’re managing a lot of PPC campaigns, there’s a need to create a lot of customized landing pages that convert well and deliver a great user experience.

That’s when you should start using landing page tools.

Landing page software tools help digital marketers quickly create and optimize landing pages. With the right tools, it can take just minutes to create and optimize a great landing page for your campaign.

In this top-ten list, we rank the top ten landing page tools that can help you save time and boost your PPC conversions.

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10 Best Landing Page Tools

Unbounce

unbounce interface

Unbounce is a market leader in landing page tools for digital marketers. The simple drag-and-drop tool makes it easy for users to customize landing pages with zero knowledge of coding.

Pros: Unbounce offers over 100 landing page templates for users. One of the great things about Unbounce is that you can review all of the available templates on their website before even starting a free trial. This makes it easy to envision how the different templates would work with your marketing campaign. The company claims to have been adopted by over 15,000 brands, so there’s plenty of social proof that digital marketers are getting results with Unbounce.

Cons: Unbounce is a premium landing page builder, so it costs more than many of the alternatives.

Pricing: Unbounce offers a 14-day free trial for its users. After that, three subscription options are available:

  • Essential: $79/month
  • Premium: $159/month
  • Enterprise: $399+/month

Instapage

Instapage User Interface

Instapage trademarked the term “Post-Click Automation” to describe the unique set of capabilities that its platform delivers to marketers. Instapage helps digital marketers optimize their PPC campaigns with personalized post-click experiences, including landing pages.

Pros: Instapage lets users create and customize an infinite number of unique experiences for each landing page. The platform captures data from visitors and uses it to deliver personalized ad copy that has been shown to increase conversions.

Cons: Some Instapage core features are not included with the basic subscription plan. Be sure to review the feature list before subscribing to make sure you get the features you’re most excited about.

Pricing: Instapage has a very simple pricing model. It’s $199/month or $149/month if you pay up-front for the year. They also offer customized enterprise solutions, but you’ll have to contact their internal sales team to get a quote.

LeadPages

leadpages example

LeadPages is a powerful landing page builder that makes it easy for small businesses to deploy a range of conversion-optimizing tools, including alert bars, opt-in text and pop-up offers.

Pros: It takes just a few minutes to set up a mobile responsive landing page and launch it using the drag-and-drop builder.

Cons: It’s a little expensive for users who just want to create a few pages.

Pricing: LeadPages offers a 14-day trial. Its three pricing packages are:

  • Standard: $25/month
  • Pro: $48/month
  • Advanced: $199/month

Lander

lander interface

Lander is one of the world’s most popular landing page tools, with over 1.5 million users. Lander has created over 100 landing page templates for marketing products and services, events, lead capture and eBook downloads.

Pros: Lander has been adopted by well-known brands like Cisco and The New York Times. It integrates well with other popular marketing tools like Mail Chimp, Salesforce and Google Analytics.

Cons: Lander is very easy to use, but its relatively narrow feature set means that it’s less powerful than some of its competitors. Still, we think it’s an amazing tool at this price point.

Pricing: Lander offers a risk-free 14-day trial and two subscription plans:

  • Basic plan for small businesses: $16/month
  • Professional plan for in-house marketers: $83/month

GetResponse

GetResponse interface

GetResponse is a powerful landing page builder that’s been integrated with a feature-rich email marketing platform.

Pros: The best thing about GetResponse is that it brings together a landing page builder with email marketing tools. Users have all the tools needed to build an audience and communicate with that audience. GetResponse also helps with webinars and offers marketing automation solutions.

Cons: Email lists created with GetResponse live on the platform. Remember to back them up externally on a regular basis to protect against data loss.

Pricing: GetResponse offers three pricing packages:

  • Basic: $15/month
  • Plus: $49/month
  • Professional: $99/month

These are the prices for monthly billing, but GetResponse does offer discounts when customers pay up-front for a one-year or two-year subscription.

ClickFunnels

clickfunnels interface

ClickFunnels is an impressive all-in-one tool that goes beyond landing page creation, allowing users to build an entire sales funnel with simple drag-and-drop customization. It takes just a few minutes to figure out how to create a landing page, and there are dozens of landing page templates so the process is mostly automated.

Pros: ClickFunnels is truly all-inclusive. You can host a website on their platform, create landing pages, manage up-sells, manage e-mail marketing and re-marketing, process payments, and even create membership websites. There’s great value and a lot of features.

Cons: Some users have reported issues with response times from ClickFunnels customer service.

Pricing: ClickFunnels offers a 14-day free trial. Afterwards, the two main subscription options are:

  • ClickFunnels Plan: $97/month
  • Full ClickFunnels Suite: $297/month

 

Wishpond

Wishpond interface

Wishpond is a powerful suite of marketing tools geared towards small businesses. Their solution includes email marketing, referral campaigns, lead management and a landing page builder.

Pros: Wishpond enables access to a robust set of tools for a low cost, and there’s really no technical knowledge required. The platform has been adopted by companies like Yelp, Walmart and ESPN.

Cons: The free trial places a limit on the number of leads captured, so it’s somewhat difficult to “try before you buy”.

Pricing: Wishpond offers three different pricing plans with increasingly robust feature sets:

  • Starting Out: $49/month
  • Everything You Need $99/month
  • Rapid Growth $199/month

The rapid growth package includes extra perks like priority customer support and free implementation coaching.

Kajabi

kajabi user interface

Kajabi is a powerful all-in-one marketing and conversion optimization platform, with a focus on serving online course creators. Users can use Kajabi’s platform to create, host and promote online courses, webinars, events, surveys and quizzes. With Kajabi’s landing page builder and email marketing functionality, users end up with a broad range of tools for marketing their products and services. With Kajabi’s larger subscription packages, users can launch more online courses, store more email contacts and build more marketing funnels to drive conversions and sales. Kajabi also charges zero fees for transactions on their platform.

Pros: Kajabi includes secure, unlimited hosting for all of the landing pages that you create using their platform, so you won’t even need your own web domain or hosting.

Cons: Based on the monthly cost, Kajabi may be a bit too expensive for smaller businesses without dedicated marketing teams. However, digital marketers managing multiple campaigns can definitely benefit from Kajabi’s offerings.

Pricing: Kajabi offers three subscription packages:

  • Basic package: $149/month
  • Growth package: $199/month
  • Pro: $399/month

 

HubSpot

Hubspot integrations

HubSpot offers all-in-one marketing, sales and customer service solutions for businesses of all sizes.

Pros: In addition to its industry-leading CRM tool, HubSpot integrates seamlessly with over 200 different applications like the most popular email and calling platforms.

Cons: Several useful marketing tools like landing page creation, A/B split tests and sales funnel analytics are part of the professional subscription tier, making this a cost-prohibitive option for many small businesses.

Pricing: HubSpot offers three subscription options:

  • Starter: $50/month+
  • Professional: $800/month+
  • Enterprise: $3,200/month+

Elementor

elementor interface

Elementor is a drag and drop builder that facilitates codeless development on the WordPress platform. Elementor is empowering citizen developers to customize their own layouts and create landing pages that boost conversion rates.

Pros: With more than a third of websites powered by WordPress, many small businesses are already in position to take advantage of Elementor’s focus on the WordPress platform. Elementor has its own theme builder, so users can now customize themes instead of purchasing them from the theme store. Users can also optimize their sales funnel and conversion rates with customized forms and pop-ups.

Cons: Elementor does not offer a white-label version, so hosting resellers or digital marketing agencies might prefer another platform that does.

Pricing: Three pricing options:

  • Personal: $49/year for 1 website
  • Plus: $99/year for 3 websites
  • Expert: $199/year for 1,000 websites

Summary

This list includes something for everyone – from enterprise-grade, all-in-one solutions to affordable, powerful tools for small businesses. We hope we’ve helped you find the landing page tools that can take your business to the next level.

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]]> Landing Page vs Homepage: What’s the Difference and When to Use? https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/landing-page-vs-homepage/ Fri, 10 Apr 2020 10:25:09 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=18838 Landing pages are among the most important tools that marketers and advertisers use to provide online users with targeted and

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]]> Landing pages are among the most important tools that marketers and advertisers use to provide online users with targeted and relevant experiences.

At Directive, landing pages are an important part of how we meet the objectives of our digital marketing campaigns. As part of our PPC strategy, we construct ad groups that correspond to defined customer personas. Then, we’ll design unique advertising creative and a unique landing page specific to the target audience for each ad group. This ensures that each of our identified customer personas is being targeted with relevant content after clicking on one of our ads.

We consider this a best practice, but not all advertisers are on the same page. We’ve seen countless examples of advertisers linking to their home page in situations where a customized landing page would have produced far better results. We’ve also encountered links to highly targeted landing pages in places where a link to a homepage would have been more subtle and more effective.

To help generate the best returns on their ad spending, advertisers need to be aware of the differences between a landing page vs homepage and when it’s appropriate to link to each one. We’ve created this guide to help you:

  • Understand the differences between a landing page vs homepage
  • Understand when to link to a landing page vs homepage in your ad campaigns

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Land Page vs Homepage – What’s the Difference

Let’s start by clearly defining a homepage and a landing page in terms of their basic characteristics.

What is a Homepage?

Websites are designed in a hierarchy with the root domain at the top, sub-domains around the middle and other web pages towards the bottom. This hierarchy of content makes it easier for users to navigate to areas of the website that match their goals or interests.

  • Root Domain: http://directivecons1.wpenginepowered.com
  • Sub-Domain: https://institute.directiveconsulting.com
  • Web Pages: https://directiveconsulting.com/resources/

A homepage is the page that occupies the root domain of your website. An effective homepage should act as a hub or directory, linking to other important areas of your website. Visitors to your home page may never have heard of your company before, so it is important that readers can use your homepage to quickly figure out who you are and what you do. An effective homepage also lets readers know how to connect with you, such as including phone numbers, social networks, call to actions to contact form or live chat widgets.

What is a Landing Page?

A landing page is a page whose specific purpose is to receive and convert traffic from an advertising campaign.

While each website has just one home page, advertisers can create an unlimited number of landing pages to support their advertising campaigns.

Landing pages got their name because a prospective customer would “land on” one of these pages when they clicked on an advertisement.

We will highlight more defining features of landing pages as we outline the differences between a landing page vs homepage.

Landing Page vs Homepage – Five Key Differences

Purpose/Objective

While the purpose of the website homepage is to help users navigate to the most important or useful areas of the website, landing pages focus on receiving and converting traffic for a specific marketing campaign.

Traffic Sources

Traffic to the home page of a website typically comes from many sources. In contrast, landing pages should primarily receive traffic from a single ad campaign.

Visitor Intent

To create the best experience for visitors to your website, it’s important to deliver content that matches closely with user intent. Understanding what your users want when they’re visiting your pages or interacting with your advertisements is crucial for optimizing the user experience and increasing conversion rate for your ad campaign.

Here’s what we mean in specifics:

Visitors arrive at your home page with a variety of intentions. They may just be checking you out, they could be doing a market research project, or they may be checking out your products and services to decide if they want to do business. To deal with this, we design home pages that serve visitors with a wide range of intentions.

Landing pages are very different. A landing page is customized for a specific ad campaign that targets a defined customer persona with an offer. This makes it much easier to understand user intent for a visitor that arrives at one of our landing pages.

Navigation

Homepages are primarily a navigation tool for your website. Your homepage should include links to all of the most important areas of your website, including basic information about your company, product and service pages, your contact information and any other resources that you offer. A homepage should encourage users to click through to other areas of the website and keep exploring.

In contrast, landing pages are designed to support a specific advertising campaign. They should be designed to optimize the conversion rate for that campaign. The conversion target could be that the customer provides their e-mail address, or that they purchase a product or service. Either way, the landing page should direct and encourage the customer towards the conversion target and not towards browsing additional areas of the site.

Content

Homepages don’t typically need a lot of content. They’re more like a navigational hub that connects your visitors with other areas of the site.

Content for landing pages should be highly targeted towards the user intent of the ad campaigns that they support. They should be action-oriented and encourage the prospect to take advantage of the offer mentioned in the ad that they previously clicked on. They often include call-to-action buttons throughout the page, along with specific information about the relevant offer.

A landing page for an e-mail opt-in could be very short, with just a simple form for readers to fill out. A landing page for a product or service could be much longer, including details about the product and answering customer questions while encouraging a sale or conversion.

Landing Page vs Homepage – When to Use Each One?

So, when should you link to your home page and when is it more effective to use a landing page?

When to Link Your Home Page:

  • When you’re filling out your company information on social media profiles, Google Maps and other directories
  • When your campaign objective is to increase brand awareness (especially using display ads)
  • When you’re writing guest blogs to generate brand awareness

When to Link a Customized Landing Page

  • When you’re running a targeted e-mail marketing campaign
  • When you’re running paid search ads
  • When you’re advertising the launch of a new product or service
  • When you’re running Facebook ads

Home pages provide the most general information and a broad overview of your website, while a landing page can connect with visitors with information that is specific to their specific intentions and customer persona. You should gravitate towards using customized landing pages when:

  1. You understand the visitor’s intentions because you just served them a highly targeted advertisement.
  2. You have a strong idea of what you want visitors to do after they click on an add, such as respond to a specific offer.
  3. You have extra information about the visitor, such as a customer persona or demographics, that you can use to deliver a more customized and relevant experience.

Summary

The discussion surrounding when to link a landing page vs a homepage is really a conversation about targeting.

The greatest benefit of digital marketing is that it allows advertisers to deliver highly targeted and customized content to audiences, which we know increases conversions.

If you’re delivering a customized ad to a uniquely defined and targeted audience, you should also want to give them a customized experience once they click on your advertisement.

This is exactly what landing pages accomplish and why it’s important to know how to create a landing page for every ad campaign.

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]]> 3 Conversion Rate Optimization Tips to Boost Sales https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/conversion-rate-optimization-tips/ Fri, 25 Oct 2019 16:04:13 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=17527 Three. It only takes three conversion rate optimization tips to advance your team’s sales. In today’s digital landscape, it’s often

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]]> Three. It only takes three conversion rate optimization tips to advance your team’s sales.

In today’s digital landscape, it’s often beneficial to consume CRO articles with over 10 pointers to lead you to better results. If you want to see these comprehensive articles, I’ve created them for various digital outlets here:

However, today, I’ll simplify three tactics further. I’ll provide fundamentals that help to elevate successful CRO campaigns from their mediocre counterparts.

Think of this process as learning how to create the mother sauces of French cuisine. Once you have the main sauce recipe down, you can discover the hundreds of different entrees, soups, and stews that partner well with this sauce.

Many marketers understand the concepts of changing landing page button colors, updating forms to be multi-step, and adding social media logins for eCommerce carts. What is not discussed as often is the power of copywriting and how to sell effectively to your customers. It’s time to open that conversation.

1. Justify Your Value: Focus on Unique Benefits

Have you ever heard the phrase WIIFM? “What’s In It For Me?” Aim to answer this question for your target audience on every web page you create. It’s one of the most vital conversion rate optimization tips there is.

Why should your prospective customers buy from you over anyone else? What language can you utilize that reveals to them that you value their specific needs?  Include your team’s unique value propositions upfront as soon as possible.

Take this example from one of our clients.

Original Variant

Original version of landing page, utilizing one of the conversion rate optimization tips, focusing on benefits.

In this initial version, the headline read, “Gain unique call tracking insights your competitors don’t have” and the subheading beat around the bush. Several optimizations can be included here to increase conversions.

Currently, the copy is:

1. Vague and nonspecific. What are the “unique call tracking insights”? This is a statement every competitor could claim about their software too; it doesn’t provide any unique value.

2.  Not result-focused. What types of results can these customers predict by using this tool? How much conversion lift could a person expect to see from this?

Additionally, this page’s CTA doesn’t include the enticing language that it could. Why should the customer create a free account for $5? What do you want the potential customer to do?

Revised Version

Revised version of landing page, utilizing one of the conversion rate optimization tips, focusing on benefits.

After noting these concerns, the team enhanced the headline, subheading, and the CTA to be more benefit-driven.

Additionally, the new headline read, “Pay only for what you need, nothing more.” This met a customer’s pain point of potentially wasting money or carrying strict budget constraints.

Also, by letting prospects know that they’re not going to be locked into a recurring contract, the copy silences fears they may have around testing Retreaver.

Next, the CTA was updated to “Start Tracking (It’s Free)”.

This copy educates visitors, so they are aware there is no monetary risk involved. It also is distinctive as it varies from the “Free account” verbiage that numerous verticals implement on their sites.

Screenshot showing how conversion rate optimization tips focused on unique benefits can lead to growth.

After employing this test, the new variant’s conversion rate nearly doubled. By focusing the copy around the benefit to the customer, these results were made possible. Remember, “WIIFM”?

2. Social Proof is King

Do you even visit restaurants anymore without checking the ratings?

Reviews have become a significant part of B2C and B2B interactions. Whether it’s a restaurant, a hotel, a beauty product, or a new hiring software, prospective customers always look to reviews.

Here are some stats from G2 on how people truly see reviews today:

68% of millennials trust online reviews, with positive ones producing an 18% average uplift in sales. User-generated content is trusted by millennials 50% more than traditional media (Crowdtap via VPDM, 2014).

97% of shoppers say reviews influence buying decisions (Fan and Fuel, 2016).

Displaying reviews for higher-priced products can increase conversion rates by 380% (Spiegel Research Center, 2017).

92% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review (G2 and Heinz Marketing, 2017)

If people are reviewing something as affordable as a sandwich, why should we expect any less from our customers with enterprise products or services? That’s what makes this conversion rate optimization tip is critical.

Each of your prospects long to know what your existing customers have to say about you. This information is likely more valuable to them than what you, the business being reviewed, has to say.

If you’re not using social proof on your website or landing pages, expect to have a much lower conversion rate.

You can utilize social proof in several ways:

1. Ask your current customers for feedback. Apply your testimonials on your homepage, product pages, demo sign up pages, and landing pages to show that real people are advocates of what you offer. Show the trust that your product or service provides.

2. Utilize third-party review sites. Aim to show up in top “lists” that your potential customers review before they land on your website. If your business is B2C, some good sites would be Yelp, Amazon Customer Reviews (for Amazon eCommerce), Choice, and Trustpilot. Angie’s List is great for contractors.

If you are in the B2B space, Google My Business or Capterra, SoftwareAdvice, and G2Crowd are great platforms that people utilize to compare competing businesses. Hubspot covers 26 options here!

3. Develop case studies from your pleased customers. Explain the problem, and, most importantly, the results that your team received for you clients.

Additionally, here’s what you shouldn’t do when working with social proof:

1. Don’t create vague testimonials. This can include, “It’s a great product! I highly recommend it to everyone!” This statement is not providing proof to your prospects of why they should trust your team with their money. Plus, this statement could be said for any product.

  1. Here’s a great testimonial: “Sumo Logic gives us a higher amount of revenue protection than any other vendor.” – Lending Tree
  2. Or how about this “Sumo Logic reduced our total cost of ownership by 50%.”

The second testimonial is excellent because it provides real data with the 50% statistic. The more real numbers in your social proof, the more believable you are to your target audience. Additionally, you’re able to quantify your value.

2. Don’t lead case studies with client names. People don’t want to see this. With all respect added, these visitors want to see the results you provided them with instead. Most business websites have a scrolling bar of clients on their homepage and other pages already. So, use your case study to focus on results first and then client logos.

Try the following formatting instead of a vague headline like “CapitalOne partners with Company Name”.

pasted image 0 42

You will notice that Eckstine Electric is still mentioned, but it’s much smaller than the title that states the result. By updating this client’s case study layout to focus around results, we increased engagement with the case studies by 400%.

Here is another successful example. Our client provides car insurance services in a specific location. Although this click-through page was already performing exceptionally well, there was room for improvement.

We wanted to test adding specific user reviews from a trusted review site to add credibility to this smaller insurance company. We chose testimonials that spoke to the most significant pain points of the consumer and added the logo of the review source for quick brand recognition.

Original

pasted image 0 43

Added Social Proof

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Test Results

Screen Shot 2018 12 20 at 1.14.50 PM

After adding this section below the hero, we saw a 65% lift in conversion rate for an average conversion rate of 96.67% in the new variant!

If your homepage is missing any elements of social proof, we recommend that your team tests adding user-generated reviews to build credibility for your targeted audience. You may see your conversions increase by 20% or more.

3. Rethink Your Sales and Marketing Funnel

Another key conversion rate optimization tip is to avoid pushing for a free trial, which is a bottom-of-funnel offering and typically requires a lot of the visitor’s personal information.

Instead, offer a low-friction demo. This also allows your sales team to convince prospects to get a free trial later on.

We naturally aim for every lead to turn directly into a sale. So, we focus on the action that will transform the lead; however, this is not always the best option. If you are finding that offering a trial is not working for months on end, no matter how much you optimize, it may be time to take a step back in the sales funnel.

Instead of pushing free trials, why not offer a demo video in exchange for a prospect’s email address? From there, you can offer a live demo or trial on the “thank you page” of this demo video offering. You can also pitch your live demo/trial in your follow-up email, now that you have the visitor’s email address.

screencapture go easyvista gartner report thank you 2019 10 24 15 14 34

Your offer could read, “If the data presented in our demo video inspired you to learn more, schedule a call with our team so we can answer more of your questions.”

Tie copy like this to your new CTA to get your prospects on board to continue their interest in your product or service.

This may seem backward, but our team has seen a lot of success with this conversion rate optimization tactic. Focus on “baby-stepping” people into the process instead of laying the final step before purchasing on them immediately.

To continue on this topic, our team created a landing page focused around demo requests. This page was not performing nearly as well as we would have hoped, so we decided to change the offer to a demo video.

By switching the offering from a scheduled demo to a short 5-minute demo video, we saw a tremendous lift in conversion rates. It made sense when we realized that the people in our target audience were in the awareness stage and were not interested in spending 30 minutes to an hour with a stranger explaining a product that they were not ready to buy.

The demo video outperformed the full demo by an increase of 800%.

 

Graphic showing results from one of the conversion rate optimization tips, rethinking your sales and marketing funnel.

Data from an optimized sales and marketing funnel revision on a landing page.

Now, these leads may not be primed to sign their name on the dotted line just yet; however, if you are finding no traction at the bottom of the funnel, then it’s worth gathering a larger pool of leads that could potentially have people ready to buy within that pool.

Our test resulted in 71 emails we could nurture vs. only the two from before. Again, not all of these will be qualified, but they are at least in the realm of possibility since they downloaded a demo video.

Moving Toward Prosperity

The primary purpose of this article is to decipher the fundamentals that our team sees broken over and over again. Without these foundational elements in place, marketing teams encounter roadblocks, which halts growth success.

Focus your energy on the acronym WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) when thinking of your target audience in your content. You’ll discover that large portions of your copy will need to be reworked, and that’s okay. Think about the immense potential for increased sales, simply by being more explicit about your real value over competitors.

Next, use all of the social proof you can, wherever you can, to prove your value further. Remember, no one goes to a restaurant without checking ratings. So, expect potential customers to look you up everywhere before they come in contact with you.

Lastly, as scary as it might be to move away from your free trial offer, if you do not see the traction you need, scale back to a live demo or a demo video and move forward from there. You’ll have more potential customers to nurture into the next steps toward a sale.

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]]> 15 Data-Driven Landing Pages Built to Convert https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/ppc-landing-page/ Fri, 11 Oct 2019 21:58:36 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=17467 With consumers making purchasing decisions online, one of the most critical factors that affect where they buy from is their

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]]> With consumers making purchasing decisions online, one of the most critical factors that affect where they buy from is their PPC landing page experience.

This is due to the psychology behind the offer, messaging, and overall design of the page. This either drives users to bounce off your site or entices them to take the action you are eliciting. Statistics show that if you don’t prompt visitors to enter your sales funnel on the first try, the chances of them returning and performing the desired action plummet quite drastically, with only 26% of users returning.

The human brain was found to process information within about 13 milliseconds. It then takes 400-500 milliseconds, on average, to respond to visual stimuli.

Looking at previous statistics of user interaction, the majority of new users spend only 15 seconds on a webpage. Therefore, if you do not catch someone’s attention between the time they see your page and the time they process that information, you have lost the sale.

What differentiates a high-performing landing page from an average or poor-performing one can be the slightest variance. These aspects are studied as a science amongst conversion rate optimization (CRO) designers.  Below are 15 different examples of highly-effective PPC landing pages. We will outline elements that make them exemplary models to inspire your own brand’s pages.

Editor’s note: You will notice that the focus is mainly on the “above the fold” section of each PPC landing page, since this is the most impactful area. The research found that 80% of users’ viewing time was spent above the fold, making this area the most important part of your page.

1. Volusion

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Competitor poaching: The messaging uses a competitor’s loss to take advantage of their prior clientele in a way to show how stable their brand is.
  • Action-based call-to-action (CTA): The call to action, “START FREE TRIAL”, is well-written, action-based, and contains the buzz word “free” to get users clicking. It also utilizes a great color scheme to draw the eye.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Page segmentation: The page itself lacks organizational structure with no use of colors or lines to separate each section. This can cause sensory overload to the user. By segmenting each section, including the navigational menu and image on the left and strategically using color and shape, you can create a visual and informational hierarchy on the page.

2. Convertize

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Directional design: The addition of an arrow on the page instantly draws your eye to the primary, bottom-of-the-funnel CTA button.
  • Attention-grabbing colors: The pop of color on the button works to enforce the directional design cues.
  • Dual call-to-action: Including a double CTA with different offers meets users at higher and lower stages of the sales and marketing funnel. If they’re not quite ready to book a demo, they can experience a 30-day trial to understand the service better before they make a purchase.
  • Elimination of user friction: By including the snippet “No credit card required,” users can feel at ease knowing they receive a free trial with no commitment afterward.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Selective Language: While the main focus is getting users to sign up for a free trial, the secondary CTA  focused on demo signups should be optimized. The phrase “Book a demo” implies that the user has to put in the effort, they will have to put in work to schedule, and most likely speak to a salesperson for the demo. Changing the language to focus on what the user receives rather than what they have to give will result in higher clicks. The revised version could be: “Get my demo” or “See my demo now”.

3. Bluehost

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Benefits section: The benefits, listed in bullet points below the headline, clearly depict their value to the reader in an easy-to-consume format.
  • Human line of sight: In this example, the person on the page is looking directly to the left. This causes an instinctive directional cue that focuses user attention on the benefits and CTA on the page.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Specifying a Unique Value Proposition: The current headline is very vague without any supporting context. Every brand claims they are the best. However, this text doesn’t say why or how. What makes Bluehost the best? Where is the data? Including “why” the audience should use this tool in their headline could increase signups.
  • Encapsulation: To intensify the directional cues of the human line of sight, the copy and CTA can be encapsulated within a box on the left-hand side. This form of directional design further guides users to your main goal on the page.

4. Hippo

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Utilizing statistics: Communicating exactly how much a user can save on their insurance (25%) incentivizes them to get a quote.
  • Alleviating friction: The addition of “60 seconds” within the button eases any apprehensions a user might have by showing just how fast they can receive a quote – reducing friction.
  • Quick capturing multi-step form: The form is narrowed down to one question to fill out, which makes winning the first lead simple. Behind this first step is the rest of the form. Although more information is required, it has been proven that users who start filling out a form are more inclined to move through it than users who never fill out their information.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Augmenting the button color: Currently, it blends with the branding color scheme. Utilizing a different color would be more attention-grabbing.
  • Implementing better imagery: The current image is difficult to see and does not support the messaging as much as it could.

5. Nationwide

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Why It Works:

  • Dual-directional design: The image utilizes multiple directional cues with the two men and their different lines of sight, pointing to the headline.
  • Authoritative figures: Using country star, Brad Paisley, and former NFL quarterback, Peyton Manning, as reliable figures, instills overall trust and brand endorsement. Keep in mind; this marketing tactic only works if you have the budget for it. However, it can lead to an increase in conversions on your PPC landing page.
  • Offer incentives: Promoting the offer to receive a free Amazon Echo upon signup gives even greater enticement to users deciding between multiple insurance companies.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Using arrows over the line of sight: The human line of sight is currently focused on the main headline rather than the overall page goal itself (CTA button). The best practice is that directional cues should be drawing attention to the essential element of the page, rather than the headline. Adding a directional design element pointing to the “Get Started” button, such as an arrow, would help the user take the desired action.
  • Honing in on one offer: If you look closely at the page, you find a total of five different CTAs, which can cause confusion. Limit the number of choices a user can make to one or two. By providing too many options, you risk the potential of an indecisive consumer and the paradox of choice.

6. Magisto

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Subtle, implicit direction cues: This page subtly uses directional design by positioning the subheading in an arrow shape pointing down to the “Get started” button.
  • Clear value proposition: Users learn that the program is easy and straightforward to use by reading the copy. It informs them of how fast they can create videos by utilizing this software.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Eliminate distraction: Remove the navigation bar to eliminate distractions and keep users focused on the CTA page.
  • Establish brand trust: Adding social proof, such as customer quotes or logos of flagship clients, can increase overall brand trust (see example below).

Directive The Search Engine Marketing Agency for Enterprise Brands

7. Angie’s List

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Robust color scheme: As mentioned previously, this page uses opposing colors with an orange CTA button versus the green color scheme on the page. The color pops and draws the visitor’s eye in.
  • Customer-specific info:  This page uses copy that is specific to the customer by providing location-specific data.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Drive attention to statistics: If the number of plumbers in the region stood out, it would build further confidence in the potential buyer to make a purchasing decision. Currently, the number fades into the background.

8. Dialpad

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Establishes user confidence: Highlighting the high star-rating above the fold creates a feeling of trust, validity, and confidence in the product. It also shows a sense of reality because it’s not full five stars.
  • Descriptive subheading: The subhead text clearly describes the platform features and relevant use cases.
  • Supportive product imagery: The image shows the platform in detail, which can offer a preview into what users will receive when they sign up.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Avoid focusing on yourself: The headline is centered around the company and can come off as “promotional”. Companies can miss the mark here and not resonate with prospects. Instead, utilize language centered on your target audience and THEIR priorities or pain points. For example, “Increase Your Team Communications by X% Compared to Traditional Phone Systems.” Avoid over-using your brand in your messaging because users care more about what THEY get.
  • Distinguish the review source: The high star reviews are excellent to highlight but begs the question, where are these reviews coming from? Do not assume that the user will recognize the branding of your chosen review platform. Showing the review stars, without an authoritative source, (Capterra, TrustPilot, Software Advice, G2, etc.) limits the authenticity.

9. DoorDash

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Straightforward motivation: The form headline is very motivating for users and convinces them to enter their email to sign up and start earning cash. The focus of the copy is centered around what users find most valuable, $$. It also ties back into food, which DoorDash is delivering, with the mention of “bacon”.
  • No distractions: There are no options to leave the page in the navigation bar, and the page is short with one primary CTA.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Better organization: The copy and the form blocks the current image. If you were to move these elements to one side or the other, it would make the background picture more visible. This would allow users to better visualize the service, as well as increase organization across the whole page.
  • Streamline the language: A stronger CTA such as  “Start earning” would yield better results, as it ties back to why a person would get started in the first place. This would allow the messaging around the headline and subheadline to flow right into the call to action.

10. T-mobile

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Clean, minimalist design: The page conveys a simple design with a clear purpose to get users to pre-order the new phone. It lets the images of the phone speak for themselves without the extra noise.
  • On brand: There is no need for the utilization of a subheadline and motivational extra words for household names, such as Apple. Why? Since the products are already so well-known and their products are in demand, they can utilize their name in their favor.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Reducing multiple CTAs: The purpose of this page is for users to pre-order the new iPhone. However, the “Chat with an expert” CTA is competing for users’ attention.

11. Hello Fresh

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Speaks to the right audience: The phrasing within the main headline, “Cooking as easy as eating,” accurately depicts their unique value proposition, which resonates with their ideal customer profile (ICP).
  • Valuable offers: The multiple offers on the page provide excellent incentives for users to convert and distinguish themselves from their competitors in a highly saturated industry. Putting an exact dollar amount also helps your audience see their savings from the beginning.
  • Relevant visuals: The image on the page is connected to the service and provides support to the copy by giving users a tangible visual of the quality and ease of the product.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Better use of the offer: Utilizing the offer as the primary touchpoint can create a sense of urgency; however, it can be used to their advantage a little better. For example, implementing a directional design element, such as a timer countdown of when the offer expires, would work here. Also, adding an exit-intent offer that pops up as a user moves their cursor away from the page would provide value. These elements increase urgency and keep a user on the page who may be ready to bounce off.
  • Better CTA labels: A change in CTA text from “Get started” to “Send my meals”, “Get my savings,” or another similar CTA that is more specific to the product would have a better chance at converting. Speaking directly to your customers and their specific offer leads to higher conversion rates.

12. Monday.com

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Stand-out call to action: The CTA button color pops out and draws your eye directly to the most crucial part of the page.
  • Bullet structure: The bulleted value propositions provide action-based copy that is easy to digest. This can further ease users down the funnel who may need more convincing before they make a decision.
  • Organized page flow: The overall page design harmoniously works together to enhance different elements and create a stellar UX.
  • Direct messaging: The short, simple headline and subheadline increase the chances that users read the entire page rather than just skimming past essential details. Including too much “fluff” when building out your landing page or ads, is one of the most prominent mistakes marketers make.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Moving the field label: Having the label “work email” within the form itself could lead to some friction since it disappears when a user clicks to type. By adding the label above the form box itself, it will make it easier for users to know what is needed at all times.
  • More compelling verbiage: Changing the “Get Started” CTA to “Start tracking” could lead to more conversions. Always come back to the visitors’ pain points; they’re visiting this site because they’re interested in lead tracking. Help them get to where they need to be.

13. Slack

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Brand utilization: Since Slack owns a massive brand name, utilizing the company name in this circumstance is beneficial in establishing authority.
  • Social proof of enterprise customers: The inclusion of customer logos from high profile brands instills a sense of trust and popularity for the users. It puts the idea of “If Target and EA trust this brand, it must be worth my time” within the minds of users.
  • Limited distractions: There are no additional links within the navigation, sending visitors to various pages. The point of this page is clear, with a direct CTA and secondary CTA for existing customers.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Furthering trust: The page does an admirable job to instill confidence already; however, utilizing different phrasing in the headline can further establish an already powerful idea. Copy that includes “Increase work productivity by X% with Slack” would add even more value and that trust factor.

14. Progressive

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Directional cues: The background image provides directional cues with the woman looking directly at the form.
  • Resonates with their ICP: The headline is specific to their target audience. By including “small business,” they can deter any customer who is not in that bucket.
  • Hyper-specific CTA: The CTA label is specific to their offer rather than a more general wording such as “Start now”. Users are prepared to receive a quote, once they’ve filled out their information, and take the next step closer to a purchasing decision.
  • Balanced CTAs: The secondary CTA is readily available but not as prominent as the main “Get a quote” CTA.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Color change: Utilizing a pop of color on the CTA button to stand out should be implemented here. The current blue stands out, but not as much as it could with an entirely different color. Make people notice what you want them to do.
  • Speak to the user: Speak more toward the audience by saying, “Get My Quote” rather than “Get A Quote.” This adds a sense of personalization, and while it’s a small effort, it can add a touch of connection between your product and the audience.
  • Stand out from the competition: In a highly competitive industry such as business insurance, companies must emerge from the crowd. Including statistics within the subheadline describing how much your team can save users, such as “Save up to X% on insurance,” would build trust and take this PPC landing page to the next level.

15. Pipedrive

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Why It Works for a PPC Landing Page:

  • Explicit design cues: Whether intentional or not, the imagery toward the bottom of the page acts as a directional design cue pointing to the primary CTA.
  • Specifying an increase in performance: Using real stats (28%) is an impactful way to increase conversions and give users a tangible numerical value to motivate them to try out a product. By providing actual numbers within your copy, users can resonate with how much your product will improve their own lives as well.
  • Minimizing Barriers: The copy below the CTA button limits any hesitation that the user could have when trying a free product. Typically a credit card is required even with a free trial. However, stating that it is not needed leads to a better UX.

Areas of Improvement:

  • Brand trust: Adding social proof to the page above the fold in the form of customer logos or reviews. You know the drill.
  • Adding a round button: Changing the button from sharp edges to a rounded button shape has proven to increase conversion rates and overall user experience in some studies and could help improve this page.

The Importance of CRO

Overall, these landing pages are just a few examples of how a small optimization can lead to robust results. As you have gathered above, most pages follow the same overall best practices of which elements they include above the fold.

These best practices all factor in customer psychology and how the brain reacts to different shapes, language, and interactions. By understanding how the brain works, you will start to learn the foundations of CRO and increasing conversions on your pages.

Think about the last time you went grocery shopping. What were the factors responsible for choosing one brand of frozen pizza over another? Was it brand familiarity, price, packaging? Or was it the strategic placement of the product higher on the shelf, which made you subconsciously think it was a better brand?

All of these minor elements play an impressive part in consumer psychology and buying decisions.

With such little time, users take to make a snap decision online; you must implement best practice CRO strategies and continuously perform A/B testing. Building out your pages with this notion in mind will lead to growth overall and a better UX.

The post 15 Data-Driven Landing Pages Built to Convert appeared first on Directive.

]]> How to Reduce Bounce Rate and Make it Last https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/how-to-reduce-bounce-rate-and-make-it-last/ Thu, 24 Jan 2019 23:42:11 +0000 https://directiveconsulting.com/?p=15691 Imagine you run a 24-hour restaurant. You have hundreds of patrons coming in all hours of the day and night

The post How to Reduce Bounce Rate and Make it Last appeared first on Directive.

]]> Imagine you run a 24-hour restaurant. You have hundreds of patrons coming in all hours of the day and night staying for various amounts of time.

However, a large portion of your patrons only stay five minutes, never order anything, and then leave. This same thing could be happening on your website. Your bounce rate is the percentage of all users who enter and exit on the same page, without any clicks to other pages on your site.

The higher the rate, the higher the percentage of prospects coming and leaving without exploring your other pages, filling out a form, or buying something.

Graphic describing bounce rate.

A bounce might be triggered by any number of events:

  • Returning to search results
  • Closing the browser
  • Entering a new URL in the address bar
  • Following an outbound link
  • Staying inactive and timing out the session
  • Reading the entirety of a page but not triggering any events, and then leaving

A high bounce rate is proof that something is amiss with your strategy. Either you’re attracting the wrong crowd, or your target audience is correct, but they are not having a good user experience on your site.

So, I’ve put together a short list of 6 proven tactics you can incorporate right now to drastically reduce your bounce rate and improve conversions on your website and landing pages.

Is your bounce rate too high? It’s the perfect time to find out.

What’s a good bounce rate?

Unfortunately, there’s not one answer for this. What is considered “good” is based off many different factors: the page type, the industry, plus some areas in need of optimization, such as page speed, irrelevant content, or unclear CTAs.

Most websites see bounce rates fall somewhere between 26-70%. In general, a bounce rate in the range of 26% to 40% is excellent, 41-55% is average, and 56-70% percent is higher than average, but may not be cause for alarm depending on the website.

Anything over 70% is disappointing for everything outside of blogs, news, events, etc. So if you’re running a blog, may that give you hope! Custom Media Labs has a nifty infographic breaking down the average based on website type.

Graph showing benchmark bounce rates by website type.

Graph showing bounce rate by business type.

This graph shows general averages for business types, but consider digging deeper into the specifics of your industry. For example, the difference in benchmark bounce rate between the food and drink industry and the real estate industry is more than 20%. To check this, you’ll want to use the benchmarking feature on Google Analytics. Just open the Benchmarking options found in the Reporting tab under Audience.

This will let you see the data for over 1,600 industry categories. You can filter by traffic level (5000-9999 sessions) and geographic location (United States – All Regions).  

Compare bounce rate to time on site

Assuming you use Google Analytics, you will have seen the Average Time on Page metric right alongside Bounce Rate. As the self-explanatory name suggests, this is the average amount of time all users spend on a chosen page.

However, this is more of a guideline than an exact measurement. This is because Google Analytics (and other analytics platforms) require two clicks to accurately calculate Time on Page; an “entrance” click and an “exit” click, which is usually a click on a navigational element that leads off of the page.

How many times have you left a tab open for hours but weren’t actually viewing it? Well, Google considered all of that time as if you were viewing that page for 8.5 hours because you never exited the page.

Also, if you close the tab without exit-clicking, Google considers that as a bounce – even if you read the whole page top to bottom. Therefore, many marketers are moving away from bounce rate as a metric as it’s not reliable. Now they are using so-called “attention metrics” such as dwell time and scroll depth. Although it’s improbable to accurately determine your bounce rate, it’s still worth trying to keep your bounce rates low.

Optimize page load time

What’s the point of spectacular content if it takes forever to load? 47% of users expect a web page to load in two seconds or less, making on-page optimization crucial to reducing your bounce rate.

This is especially true for mobile sites. According to data from Radware, a connection speed delay of just 500 milliseconds can result in an increase in “peak frustration” of more than 26%, and a decrease in engagement of 8%.

Graph showing page load time consumer expectations and how to reduce bounce rate.

A slow site can ruin your business and keep prospects from buying from you. Considering that Google rates site speed, your business could also drop in rankings. These consumer behavior statistics explain it simply:

Image showing how website performance affects bounce rate.

Smart Insights proposes that faster loading pages usually see higher conversion rates. Even if your conversion rates are already stellar, an improved bounce rate will only help more.

Graph showing how faster conversion rates are a great start on how to reduce bounce rate.

Find out your site speed by using Google’s helpful tool called PageSpeed Insights. This grades your website and provides suggestions on what you can do to improve your speed. Once you analyze your site through this tool, you will discover what needs to change to improve site speed.

Check mobile bounce rate

Graph showing how mobile continues to dominate desktop views online.

It is now common knowledge that the majority of people browse on their phones more than their desktop, and that gap continues to grow every year. 95% of your customers are on mobile, which is why optimizing for mobile is so important.

Mobile users are also more likely to bounce across the board, so it stands to reason that any website with a large, growing percentage of mobile traffic will see a higher bounce rate.

Graph showing mobile users more likely to have higher bounce rate across the board.

Ensure that your site is responsive on all devices. Whether your customer views your site on a desktop, iPhone, iPad, Android, or a tablet, make sure it is displayed correctly.

Test your site, by following these steps:

#1: Analyze your site using Google’s mobile friendly test tool. Plug in your site URL (e.g., qualaroo.com). Click the “ANALYZE” button:

Using Google's Mobile Friendly Test Tool can be helpful when learning how to reduce bounce rate on your website.

#2: Once the page processes, You’ll see the result. A mobile-friendly result looks like below:

Mobile Friendly Test Tool image that is helpful when trying to reduce bounce rate on your website.

A non-mobile-friendly page will show this:

Image showing what it looks like when your website is not mobile friendly.

NARS Cosmetics launched a mobile-responsive site and increased its smartphone checkout conversion rate by 54% (24% for tablets), and they cut their higher bounce rate in half… all in less than two weeks.

Attract the Right Visitors

If you sell crochet needles and other knitting products, which group of people do you want on your site: males ages 18-24 or females ages 65-80? I’m sure there’s a USC student out there with a mean purl stitch, but you’re probably going to get better business from sweet older women.

Higher bounce rates can be caused by getting the wrong visitors on your site. This is why 58% of marketers plan to increase their paid distribution budgets. They’ve seen the impact of the right content on the target audience.

Also, keyword optimization is essential for directing users to your site. Be aware of who your visitors should be and deliver content that speaks to their needs and interests.

Brian Dean boosted his conversions by 785% in one day, with A/B split testing, because he recognized that the traditional ebook giveaway is no longer effective for building a massive list.

Instead, he created the “content upgrade” strategy, which is now a marketing standard.

Here’s a breakdown of the 5-step process:

  1. Find a high-traffic page on your site.
  2. Identify a resource that would make the content better.
  3. Create that resource.
  4. Add the resource to your site.
  5. Get more email subscribers.

Many content marketers assume high bounce rate is caused by a lack of quality content, but one person’s definition of quality is not the same as another. Lengthy articles of 2000 words or more are considered quality since they usually address most of the questions the target audience might have.

However, for entertainment, health, or finance, shorter, “snackable” content is preferred. A piece of content that is technically considered quality could still be the wrong content for your target audience. You have to continually reach out to them, via the right channel.

Example of GIF that shows interaction on a mobile device and can be a tactic on how to reduce bounce rate.

For example, LeadPages launched LeadDigits and their users started to implement it on both desktop and mobile targeting. Those users are seeing an average conversion rate of 91%.

When you create the right content and use the right channels to distribute it, you will reach the audience that is actually interested in what you are selling. Once you’re targeting the right people, you will notice that your bounce rate will greatly improve.

Create relevant and readable content

According to Hubspot, companies that produce blog content generate 126% more leads than those that don’t. However, on top of getting the right people to the right content, your content has to make sense.

If what you’re writing is challenging to read, you probably won’t see many people sticking around. User experience begins when your content is readable and legible. The quality of your messaging is dependant on more than spellcheck.

Too much text is overwhelming to the reader, so the copy needs to quickly communicate to the prospect the following:

  • You understand their need.
  • You have a solution that could solve this need.
  • They need to just take the next step.

If you’re not hitting these key points, a visitor will bounce and not continue.

You can test how readable your site is at www.read-able.com.

Here are some tips to provide credible and readable content for your prospects:

  • Include correct spelling and grammar (obviously).
  • Make your contact information visible at all times.
  • Include the appropriate use of headers.
  • Have frequent subheadings to explain your topic a bit more than just user a headline.
  • Use suitable images and break up heavy blocks of copy with photos, charts, gifs, quotes – anything that breaks up the monotony of a wall of text.
  • Include lists to explain benefits or points worth noting.
  • Bold keywords a few times but not too much!
  • Give readers an invitation to participate by asking lots of questions in your content. It helps prospects to think more critically about your message.
  • End your content with a subheading entitled “conclusion.” This tells the reader to quickly read the last few words and take action. Make your conclusion actionable.
  • Link to external sites that reference your company. 

Now that you have readable content being read by the RIGHT audience, you need to keep it going! By consistently adding fresh content, you’re gradually building awareness of your brand and establishing trust.

This means that your repeat visitors will begin to exceed new visitors, which begins to increase your conversion rate. You can generate more revenue from repeat visitors because you’ve established a level of trust with them.

Learn more about quality content creation by clicking here!

Image showing pie chart of revenues generated by existing customers.

Use compelling CTAs

There’s a reason why we suggest one CTA per landing page. If you provide too many options, you could overwhelm your prospects leading to a bounce. Your visitors should have no doubt about the action that you are asking then to complete, so they need to be able to quickly find what they are looking for and not have to choose between getting a demo, getting a free trial, or just downloading a guide.

Do you think “continue” is a clear CTA? Does that tell you as a visitor what you are expected to do next? By making your calls to action very specific, you will keep confusion and concerns at bay, promoting your visitors to continue through the sales funnel. Check out this example from VWO.

Screenshot of example of a clear CTA to reach customers' needs.

Think about user intent and where your visitors are in the sales funnel. How are your pages going to provide a solution for these prospects? Make sure your CTA is clear and relevant to potential customer’s needs.

Avoid too many different offers, ads, or pop-ups

I’m sure we’ve all been annoyed by a pop up that showed up right when we landed on a home page, giving us no chance to look at anything else but that cheesy newsletter sign up request. If you’ve ever left a website because of its intrusive pop ups or ads, then you’re not alone.

Image showing an example of a pop-up.

According to statistics, only 14% of consumers will consider responding to a popup ad, compared to 51% who respond positively to email offers. However, as obnoxious as they can be, popups still work and can grow your email list very quickly. Just as anything in life: everything in moderation.

If you want a site with a steady flow of organic traffic, consider limiting or avoiding popups altogether and instead focus on the user experience of your site.

Graph showing online advertising tactics and how to reduce bounce rate.

Conclusion

We’ve gone over several different ways to reduce your bounce rate, which will, in turn, increase your conversion rate. If your site loads too slowly, expect a higher bounce rate. If your content is irrelevant to your audience or difficult to read, expect a bounce there too. Research your audience, find out what they’re looking for, and craft your content to their needs.

This is a gradual process so don’t expect an improved bounce rate overnight. You will need to continue creating relevant content regularly to keep growing your audience and repeat customers.

Try these tips out and share what worked for you. What were your results? Happy testing!

The post How to Reduce Bounce Rate and Make it Last appeared first on Directive.

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