IA Summit: Conversion Rates

by April 10, 2010

At the IA Summit in Phoenix, AZ Kejun Xu talked over a few insights for optimizing sign-up conversions in her presentation Conversion Rates: Small Design Tweaks That Make a Difference. Here's my notes from her talk.

  • An online mortgage foreclosure business based on conversions explored what gets people to sign up using usability testing, surveys, and a/b testing.
  • Take-aways from the research: professionalism, usability, answering people’s questions up front, appropriate calls to action, content above the fold, and social validation increased conversion numbers.
  • Professionalism: had two versions of website. The more professional looking website positively impacted conversion rates (over 30 days).
  • Usability: the site asked for credit card numbers despite a promise of being free for seven days. People went back to an earlier page to see if it was really free. This wiped out the data people entered. Conversion rates went up when this issue was fixed. Surprise!
  • Answer people’s questions: people wanted to know why a credit card number was required for a free site. The site added a link that explained why on mouseover. Drop off rate feel 2% when this information was added.
  • Call to action: originally had a red banner as a big call to action on home page. This increased bounce rate. With a less aggressive call to action that fit more with the design of the page, the bounce rate dropped 10%
  • Real estate above the fold: moving some more content above the fold decreased home page bounce rate by 2%
  • Social validation: people will do what others do. Showing content featured on TV raised conversion. Promote comments and reviews of your service.
  • What is the niche you can provide? Tell your users how you can differentiate your service. The art of persuasion: ethos the credibility of the source of communication. Logos: the proof of truth through reasonable argument. Pathos: the stirring of emotion in individuals