Happy Sunday, Everyone!
If you’re in the US, I hope you enjoyed a pleasant, relaxing 4th of July weekend! As this has been a shorter week for us, I wanted to make this issue a shorter one – so let’s get right to it.
Over the past few months - and especially in June - we’ve consistently seen conversion rates falling. This has been echoed by a number of prominent brand marketers + agency leaders across Twitter + LinkedIn. And while there are many hypotheses for why this is happening - from platform instability to lower consumer confidence to the “summer slump” - the fact remains that marketers aren’t paid to excuse; they’re paid to adapt, improvise and overcome.
So, faced with the reality of lower conversion rates + higher advertising costs and potentially disconnected from reality client expectations, what can you do? My initial response has been to think of ways to maximize the complete conversion rate (“CCR”), which we use to measure the conversion rate of website visitors to actual, happy customers/clients.
Candidly, that’s not something most marketers (or most people doing Conversion Rate Optimization / “CRO”) are focused on, but then again, most people are wrong. With that context, here are 6 unorthodox tactics you can use to improve complete conversion rates + jump-start paid media performance:
1. Thank You Page Optimization
If you’ve attended any of my presentations on lead generation over the years (going back to 2017), you probably know that I’m a vocal proponent of the import and impact of thank you pages.
From a user psychology standpoint, a thank you page is an impulse zone - it’s the digital equivalent of the checkout line at the grocery store. And there’s a reason that every grocery store I’ve ever visited packs their checkout line with candy bars, gum and mediocre at best magazines: because people are impulsive. The restraint they’ve exercised throughout the entire shopping trip goes out the window when they’re in the checkout line and see that Snickers bar (along with the best-laid diet plans).
The digital equivalent of this is the thank-you page.
99% of websites have generic, boring-AF, categorically useless thank you pages - at best they say something like, “Thanks! Your order is on its way” or “Submission Received. A member of the team team will be in touch soon.”
This is hot trash.
Just like the grocery store above, you have your potential client/customer in an impulse zone. They’re feeling good. They’ve accomplished something - whether it’s taking the first step (lead form, inquiry, demo request), or making an initial purchase. Capitalize on it.
Use the thank-you page as a springboard to reduce buyers’ remorse, solidify next steps, upsell, accelerate loyalty or collect additional information that can be used in your nurture and/or sales process:
- Reduce Buyer’s Remorse: a Google/Ipsos Poll found that ~80% of Americans experienced buyers remorse after buying something, with ~42% regretting it even if it was on sale. Use your thank-you page to reassure your new customer that they’ve made a great decision (and, perhaps, even offer a “best deal guarantee”). Other high-performing thank-you pages highlight benefits + testimonials, showcasing how the product/service has had a transformative impact on other customers.
- Accelerate Adoption: Most people (myself included) often jump right into something BEFORE reading all the directions. If you have a product/service that requires some level of preparation, knowledge or other activity before using it (for instance, if there are forms to complete before your appointment, or measurements needed, etc.), use your Thank You page to highlight those and provide appropriate, short-form educational content that explains EXACTLY what you want/need the user to do. Keep it short + simple - and repurpose that content in your post-purchase/post-lead nurture flows. When we did this for a major Multiple Listing Service (MLS) client, we were able to reduce customer service calls by 25%+. More informed customers = happier customers = fewer returns + customer service calls = more profit for you.
- Capture Incremental Information: Virtually every lead generation website on the planet could benefit from capturing incremental information on leads - whether it’s a quiz, downloadable resources on specifics, a calculator, or something else. The simple fact is that most people will volunteer (explicitly or implicitly) additional information on their concerns + priorities on a thank you page. One example: a Cloud Computing SaaS company might offer a “savings calculator” on their thank you page - with text above along the lines of, “See Just How Much You May Be Able To Save with [Brand].” All information submitted in that calculator is appended to the just-submitted lead in the CRM, and now the brand/sales rep actually has some data points (current spend, how many devices, data usage, company size, etc.) to craft an even-more-relevant pitch. The same is true in home services (offer a new window savings calculator, or PDFs of different design styles, or whatever), Senior Care (offer floorplans, dining options, activity summaries, care options, etc.). Each of those provides incremental data you didn’t get via the initial form, all of which can be used to make the follow-on experience more remarkable.
- Upsell: If you’re feeling quite bold, use the Thank You page to add an “easy upsell” or a “people who bought X also bought Y” / “Did you forget Y” option. While your take rate on an upsell is likely to be low (though it does increase with higher ticket items), even a 10% take rate on a $100 upsell can add 5% to 7% to the top-line (at ~30% to 50% margins for most retailers; higher for service businesses).
You’re probably thinking - this is great and all, but how does it increase conversion rate? The only reason a person is seeing the thank-you page is because they ALREADY converted. While that’s technically true, the reality is that they haven’t. Even if they’ve purchased, the deal isn’t done until the return window has expired. Just because someone submits a lead doesn’t mean they’ve become a customer. What we’re doing here is increasing expected value and lowering the downside potential of each intermediate conversion step (lead submit, purchase), while providing our team with the tools to increase the ultimate conversion rate. Look at the full picture, not the marketing picture.
2. Help Users Self-Select A Solution
If you’re in an industry with a significant information asymmetry between the user and the brand (think: wine, cars, financial products, home services, jewelry, professional services, advertising/marketing, SaaS/Cloud Services, etc.), odds are that a material portion of your target market has an unknown-unknowns problem (i.e. they don’t know what they don’t know).
If you were to poll wine-buying users on the internet and ask them to describe the kinds of wine they like, odds are that most (not all) would fail miserably (but probably not admit it, because pride). The same is true in many other industries: the brands know FAR more than the customer (and even a somewhat-educated customer is unlikely to possess the specificity and depth of knowledge required to parse through what a salesperson is saying and get to a reasonable, correct answer).
From a marketing standpoint, this usually materializes in a few ways: (1) loads of unresponsive/abandoned leads; (2) commodity-based decision-making and (3) an abundance of enter-low-and-upsell journeys. You’ve probably experienced this - and as a customer, it’s downright dreadful. You think you need X, only to find out that you actually need A-W to make X work.
The solution - and one way savvy brands can increase conversion rate without resorting to shitty, deceptive and otherwise manipulative processes, is to help users self-select a solution.
NakedWines does a great job of this with their quiz:
As does Trade Coffee (and they actually have great coffee, too). Ditto for Warby Parker and my personal favorite, Wove (a custom jewelry company). These sorts of quizzes are becoming increasingly popular in Senior Living (example from the Arbor Company), too.
A slightly different variant of this is Hims, which funnels users based on their challenges/desired results (“regrow hair” and “lose weight” as examples).
On the B2B front, Paychex does a nice job of helping potential clients find the right solution for their business, while collecting about a dozen data points that could be relevant for sales/business development teams.
In each case, the brand is (effectively) enabling users to design their own solution, educating them (+collecting loads of data) each step of the way. This bridges the information asymmetry between the customer + brand, increases transparency and mitigates the feeling that the brand is over-selling the prospect.
The end result: customers get a more trusted, personalized and likely-to-be-in-the-ballpark experience. That estimate also tends to be an anchor point in future evaluations, so bonus points to brands who often provide a slightly higher quote that the sales team can then move down slightly (creating a pleasant surprise for the user).
3. Deny Non-Ideal Customers/Leads
If you like the idea of having users self-select, but what to take it to a new level, add in a Ideal Customer Profile (“ICP”) match test, along with a polite rejection for those users who aren’t likely to be a fit. While I can already feel many of the lead generation marketers screaming into the void, hear me out: the single-worst outcome for any brand is a deluge of long-nos (long time to decide against buying from your company).
In any lead-gen industry (B2B or B2C), “long nos” are resource sucks: sales teams spend way too much time / energy / attention on prospects that are an imperfect fit and have low probability of being net profitable to the business.
The same is true in eCommerce:
4. Break Up With Your Bad Leads
Let me start by saying: most brands are flat-out terrified to do this, and that’s probably why it works so well.
The concept is simple: segment your non-converting / non-responsive leads (you might need several segments based on size/budget/challenge/barrier, such as: (1) price, (2) solution fit, (3) scale), then send a “break up” email to each one, focusing on their trait or behavior as the reason why you’re “breaking up”.
From a psychological perspective, no one enjoys rejection, especially if that rejection is based on something they know (but don’t want to admit) about themselves.
Note: I’m not saying send one of those terrible sales breakup bait emails (like the below):
An example of this, from a SaaS brand to a group of price-sensitive / price-reluctant buyers might go along the lines of:
Hi Taylor -
It’s been a genuine pleasure to meet you and the [potential customer brand] team. Unfortunately, it appears that [Company] might not be the right fit based on the budget allocation. We completely understand that - as we shared from the outset, we’re not for everyone.
If you’re still in the market for a [whatever you do] product, might we suggest one of the below three less expensive options, which might be a better fit:
[Option 1]
[Option 2]
[Option 3]
We’ll go ahead and remove you from our list, and we hope that you’ll reach back out should your budget increase.
All the best,
[Name]
The only way this tactic works is if it's genuine AND you’re OK with 75% of people who receive it going “poof” from your list. Candidly, I think you should be: those 75% weren’t buying anyway. The only purpose keeping them around served was your own vanity: bigger list numbers make marketers feel better about themselves.
I was speaking with one of the co-founders of Wove a few weeks ago, and he mentioned how effective this tactic has been for them, following a similar recipe to above - the instant those emails go out, there’s a flood of calls/emails from a massive number of prospective customers who are (all of a sudden) serious about moving forward. On the flip side, there are a bunch of people who are churned out, which is perfectly fine: it keeps the “prospect” list smaller, hotter and aligned with their pipeline.
Again, this isn’t for everyone. It works best for upmarket / more expensive / more exclusive brands, but it can work in any context.
5. Go Longer + More In-Depth
I’m pretty sure there’s a chapter in CRO101 dedicated to all the reasons why the Call To Action (CTA) should ALWAYS be above the fold. And over the past few years, there’s been a trend toward shorter, more conversion-oriented landing pages, with more forms at the top and more in-your-face, above-the-fold offers.
In many cases, that strategy + structure is effective. There’s a reason Neil Patel et al advise it: 60% of the time, it works every time.
But if you’re a brand that:
- Has a complex product/service that isn’t intuitive to an unfamiliar audience
- Is a challenger brand or startup that needs to establish credibility before asking for more information
- Is a category creator or disruptor that is meaningfully changing how a given problem is solved
- Uses a process, tools or technology that is meaningfully different from your competitors AND which would be unfamiliar to most of your target audience
- There’s a significant commodity perception in your industry that is unfairly applied to your brand
Then it may be worth abandoning the form/offer at the top and putting it below the fold.
From a user behavior perspective, people convert (form submit, demo request, purchase) when they’re informed, confident and comfortable. But if your brand falls into one (or more) of the above buckets, odds are that whatever content you’re putting above the fold - headline, tagline, description, imagery - isn’t going to be sufficient to convey your value proposition and offer, let alone convince a skeptical or unfamiliar audience that it’s worth their time (and their information/money).
Instead of trying to force the conversion or squeeze the user, use your landing page as an opportunity to address these gaps, THEN ask for the conversion. In order for this to work, you’ll need excellent copy and on-the-money headlines that hook the user into reading/scrolling more. But, your reward for making the additional investment is a significant increase in qualified leads and/or higher dollar sales.
So, if you find yourself in one or more of these buckets, take a page out of the luxury marketing playbook and lean into the experience + education. Take the time to help your audience understand why you’re the best option (or, if you’re not the best option, reject them - exclusivity is good).
6. Ditch The Discounts & Sales
Finally, one of my absolute favorites: ditch the sales.
Far too many brands have “trained” their customers to expect discounts all the time - and the only thing they succeed in doing over the long term is cheapening their brand and forcing themselves to compete in the commodity arena (spoiler alert: no brand leaves that place alive).
But perhaps the most nefarious outcome of discounts-as-business-as-usual are the implicit messages it sends to your customers:
- We don’t believe our product is worth the list price
- You should never buy at full price // we’ll always discount if you wait
- Our margins on this product are so high we can afford to give away (whatever) and still make a ton of money
None of those are messages any brand wants to send. And the result of discounts-as-business-as-usual are predictable: your conversion rate normalizes around the sale price / discount, and any attempt to move away from those discounts results in a perceived price hike in the minds of your customers (which is doubly bad if they already believe your margins are too high).
The simple reality is this: most discounts/sales are utterly pointless and serve only to undermine the long-term viability and competitiveness of your brand in the marketplace.
Do you need to give away 10% or 20% for an email / SMS signup? No. More than likely (and what we’ve seen time and time again), you can achieve a near-identical conversion rate on SMS/Email opt-ins with a quiz, giveaway, free gift with purchase or downloadable resource. Congratulations, you just added 10% or 20% to your bottom line AND you’re more likely to increase conversion rates, since users won’t forget or wait around for that discount code before buying.
The same is true for any perpetual discounts (you know the type - one week it’s save $10, the next week it’s 10% off $100 or more, the week after that it’s some weird variant of the above).
Before anyone asks: yes, there are valid times for discounts/sales - but these are almost exclusively concentrated into three main categories:
- Revenue Acceleration: if you absolutely need cash flow immediately, use a discount. Don’t get in the habit of it (the discount → need more inventory → need cash to pay for the inventory → discount vicious cycle is real), but in a crunch, sure.
- Surplus Spending Capture: any externality that results in a meaningful segment of your audience spending more than normal in a short period of time CAN be worth a discount. For example: Black Friday / Cyber Monday, Back To School, April Homebuying Season, etc.
- Liquidation or Expiration: This one is most often used by car dealerships and fashion retailers, but you’ll find it elsewhere, too: the sale functions as a way to liquidate (read: sell) surplus inventory that is likely to become completely useless/worthless in short order.
If you’re planning on running discounts for any of the above reasons, the #1 rule is to be crystal clear with your audience about why you’re running the sale. Done well, this creates urgency AND undercuts the ability of the discount to delude the thinking of your target audience. A well-run discount should accelerate revenue from likely-to-buy customers, funnel a larger-than-expected segment of on-the-fence consumers to your brand and ensure that your business-as-usual conversion rate remains unchanged in the long run.
That’s all for this week! I hope you all enjoy the rest of your long weekend (here in the US) or your summer.
Cheers,
Sam
Loving The Digital Download?
Share this Newsletter with a friend by visiting my public feed.
Follow Me on my Socials
