CXL — CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) Review Part 2

Hello readers this is the second review for the CXL conversion rate optimization course from https://cxl.com/ . I have been doing this for the past 2 weeks. I this review we will be covering the best practices chapter or course by Peep Laja once again. Before we go head this course is great for novice digital marketers to gain quick knowledge and experience of this industry with some excellent case studies and great speakers. For experienced marketers, it is an eye-opening course that helps you out to think in a much more systematic & process-driven manner.

We start the chapter with web form optimization and the best practices while creating a web form. Optimizing forms is a high-impact activity. On most websites forms are very close to — or directly tied to — final conversions. So, form optimization can lead to great growth. Higher completion rates = higher profit.

The focus on forms is higher as they are the power players in the conversion game as they are your salesperson who interacts with the user on your behalf.

There is always friction between a form and the user, due to the reluctance in offering data. Hence to reduce the friction the speaker recommends the following things to do while creating a web form:

Set clear expectations:

A good way to maximize conversions and user satisfaction are by managing user expectations. If you’re transparent & up-front about what is going to happen — e.g. first some personal details, then payment info — then there’s less chance the form-filler will be (negatively) surprised when this happens and that would result in the user dropping off.

If you have a multi-step form where in the last step you ask for a payment, and this hasn’t been mentioned anywhere, you’re going to see huge drop-offs. Hence we must be clear by setting up the right expectations and keeping it clear on why do we need this information from the user.

Minimize the number of form fields

This is one of the easiest things you can do and it can have a significant impact on form completion rates. Each additional form field increases friction. By doing away with them, you’re undoubtedly reducing friction. Hence, it is recommended to reduce the form fields where ever it is not necessary. Yes, extra information helps the CRM with user data and help you understand the user persona. However, you must calculate the amount of friction it will be adding to the form. Remove unwanted fields to maximise the conversions.

Multi-step forms

The idea behind multi-step forms is to reduce the perception of friction.

Let’s say your form has 16 fields. Showing all 16 fields at once can be intimidating, and thus hurt conversions. The treatment for these cases can be splitting the form into multiple short steps. Four steps with four form fields each is much easier to swallow than 16 all at once. This also helps with commitment bias as the users have already committed to filling the form and the likelihood of the dropping in middle reduces significantly. A good strategy to use for multi-step forms is to get the most important info (like name, email, phone) in the first step — and to store that information even if they don’t end up completing all the steps. This way you get the lead-in, and can manually follow up if needed. This can be very effective when scheduling appointments, for instance.

Start with easier fields

Start with easier fields and then move towards the high friction fields. If you start with something hard — say credit card numbers — people will be less inclined to get going.

Pre-select what you can

Add preselected information like address, city, nation via pin code. Also, since you are going to be auto-populating information many users are used to typing, you should pro-actively manage user expectations by adding some simple language.

Then the course goes on and explains some more important features / best practices to keep in mind while creating fonts, however, we will move on to the next segment of how to optimise the Button / Call To Action.

Buttons come in all sizes, shapes, and colours, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution that works every time. So rather than learning tactics, the main things to know are the principles for a good CTA.

“Don’t make me think” — I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase. Calls to action minimize hesitation — “now what” — and guide visitors to the next obvious step. Our goal as optimizers is to make it clear what the next step should be. The likelihood of the user pressing a button is higher when the following conditions are met.

1) Make sure that your CTA is noticeable as you want the user to see and click on the button. The primary objective of every CTA is to be visible and drive the user towards an action. Make your buttons visible by using visual hierarchy and contrast colours than that of your web page.

2) the next step is obvious and makes sense, and

3) they see value in the next step.

After explaining in detail the best practices the course covers a series of case studies from global brands in the form of split testing. We get to learn how each of these small changes makes a significant impact and what is the right time to conclude the results as concluding the results early might result in improper learnings. I enjoyed how every detail is covered in great length like the period of the A/B test and what is the right amount of data when you can conclude that the results are fair and effective.

Further, the course goes in-depth about the importance of folds and page length and how it is even relevant to date for marketers to pay attention to them. People know how to use scrolling on websites, and they scroll all the time on their phones. Yet, the fold is very much alive in today’s era and has a great impact on your conversions. They tell us how critical stuff needs to go above the fold as that’s where people allocate the bulk of their attention and interest, this can be tested by the heatmaps offered by solutions like the hot jar. Many people will never scroll down if what’s above the fold doesn’t capture their attention. This gave me a nice insight on how to layout my value propositions well on my page.

This course is progressing well, it may look like it is repetitive and boring however, each point and case study example helps you to expand your knowledge beyond the horizon. Hope you enjoyed it, see me next week.