The Longtail of Conversion

John Ekman

BIG strategies are IMPORTANT and can lead BIG results. And where the little things are more or less unimportant, does not lead to anything right and can be assigned to anyone on the IT-department to implement if there is time inbetween things.

The Conversion(ista) Shark never stops swimming

Or could it be that small details can actually lead to MAJOR improvements and above all that the sum of all these small improvements can lead to dramatic results. Now we’re talking “The Long tail of Conversion“.

This post is a brief summary of my presentation of the Conversion Jam #2.

You can get the presentation by clicking here >>

Here are my 8 tips, but most of all: What small uncut diamonds conversion you have found and want to share? Use the comment field and take the opportunity to shine.

1. Remove brackets (0) in the phone number

If you want people to be able to call you you’ll exclude the targetgroup “Those who use iPhone” if you have a parenthesis (zero) in the phone number.

Then you can not do click-to-call, but must go through 12 bothersome steps with cut and paste to make the call.

(O) does nothing good, but is an old relic from another era when international calls were “something new”.

2. Start taking transactional emails seriously

Nobody reads your newsletter and everyone reads your order confirmation mails and your mail to activate the account and similar.

Time to start thinking about which of these two you should optimize ??

3. “Can not read the newsletter? Click here to ….”
This is also about Click-Trough-Rate:

Almost no one clicks on “Can not read …..”, but up to 50% read your newsletter on the go in thier mobile phone. This is where they make the decision to save or discard. And you choose to show them lots administrative junk instead of telling them what you have to offer.

Stop that and make a sensible pre-header instead.

4. Fix your 404 pages.

We’ve said it before and we say it again: Fix your 404-pages. This is how you do:

  1. Talk english. Avoid data-nerd language. Most people do not know what a 404 is.
  2. Resist the urge to pun into it too much.
  3. Add the blame on yourself, not on the user.
  4. Guide the visitor to your best / most popular content.
  5. Show the search functionality clearly.

5. Say YES to your web form is not NO!

Read the blog post that summarizes how we mean:

Are You Saying “No” When You Could Be Saying “Yes” in Your Web Forms?

6. Track error-messages in Google Analytics

If you want to find out what is going wrong and when it goes wrong and for whom: Make sure that you track error messages in Google Analytics.

7. Never tell your visitors that they’re done

At each point of a visit ponder always the question: “What do I want the visitor to do now?”. Never let go. There is always an action you want them to do.

8. Positive communication when purchasing

It’s really important for us with “post-purchase rationalization”. One of the key elements of a purchase is to convince himself that they were right by buying the product.

To help with that. Send delighted personal notes in your packet. Say congratulations order confirmation. Give the customer a hearty pat on the back for doing something clever.

Because they’re wort it!

Now it’s your turn

Actually, all these points are not important at all. It is the attitude, the attitude is important. You must be a Conversion shark that swims around looking for new opportunities and never stop swimming because if you stop, you’ll fall to the bottom.

Read also

Conversionista is open for business in The Netherlands.
Conversionista is open for business in The Netherlands. Read more.