Inklyo
Wait, did she just say kids can teach us about conversion rate optimization (CRO)? Does she actually think that children can fathom the mysterious world of A/B testing and landing pages? That they have the capacity to navigate the jumble of red buttons versus blue ones, the seemingly arbitrary changes that result in a 30% higher conversion rate, or any other attempts to increase revenue? In other words, does this crazy writer really think that a child could possibly understand something that challenges the comprehension ability of most educated adults?
Yes and no. Yes, you can learn something from kids about how to improve your CRO. No, it’s not because they understand conversion rate, the Internet, business, or any other factors that play into it. (Well, I suppose some of them might, but most such exceptional children tend to focus their talents elsewhere.) What I’m really trying to say here is that you can learn a lot from kids about how to improve your conversion rate. Don’t believe me? Just have a look at this list.
1. Be a copycat.
Remember when everyone told you it was rude to mimic other people? Or that being original, being creative, was the most important thing? Well, forget about that. When it comes to conversion rate and website optimization, it pays to stick with what works. Do you have some pages that are converting at far better rates than others? If so, try to break down what makes those pages so much more successful. What is different about those pages? What do the calls to action (CTAs), the design, or the writing style look like on your more successful pages? Take these differences and apply them to your less successful pages. The benefit of being a copycat in the context of website optimization? No one is going to tell on you.
2. Be sticky.
Someone once said that kids insist on being sticky at least 76% of the time, a statistic that, though technically not grounded in any kind of scientific reality, is true nonetheless. (Yes, that someone may have been my mother.) Whether they’re covered in paint, glue, juice, or other leftover food substances, it seems almost impossible to get children clean and keep them that way. When it comes to CRO, you want to be as sticky as a toddler covered in peanut butter. Making your visitors stick to your site—also known as reducing bounce rates—can be difficult. This infographic from HubSpot gets into bounce rate in greater detail, but here’s the bottom line: if your site hasn’t been designed and your content hasn’t been written for your specific users, they aren’t going to stick around. You need to know who it is you are trying to attract to your site so you can create content for those viewers. This content includes the landing pages you will use to (hopefully) convert your visitors to leads. This means that if you have more than one kind of target consumer, you should have more than one type of landing page. Children may cover themselves in goo because they enjoy testing their parents’ sanity, but visitors stick to websites when they cater to their personal needs.
3. Sharing is caring.
If you have children, you’ve probably told them time and time again that nobody likes to play with someone who doesn’t share. Sharing is also a great way to make new friends. Just as sharing helped you out on the playground when you were young, social media sharing will kick-start your CRO now that you’re all grown up. Make sure that all your pages, including landing pages and thank you pages, have icons that allow users to share their content on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. This is also great for your site’s search engine optimization (SEO)! Sharing is nice. So is improving your CRO.
4. Show off.
Kids know how awesome they are, and they want the whole world to know too. And while I don’t encourage you to tell your visitors just how amazing you and your business are, I do think you should show them. If your website has any certifications or awards, make sure the badges are displayed in relevant areas of your site. If your blog content is doing really well on social media sites, make sure your shares are included with your social media icons. How will everyone know how cool you are if you don’t show them?
5. Go, go, go.
Ever watch an energetic child try to sit still? Or, better yet, ever see a kid have to wait for an activity that’s really exciting? Kids are all about action. They want to be in on everything, and they want to be in on it now. Your website copy can reflect this action-driven motivation by employing as many action words as possible while still maintaining a natural flow in the text. Using lots of verbs in your copy can significantly increase your lead conversion, as it encourages your visitors to follow through with your CTAs. This is a simple but effective way to improve your conversion rate.
6. Listen to your parents—tidy up!
The presence of a child in a room is often accompanied by a tornado of stuff. Toys, clothes, books, bananas, you name it—kids are messy. Moms and dads are constantly telling their kids to tidy up their bedrooms and play areas. Why? Because friends and family members shouldn’t have to navigate a war zone when they come over for a visit. And neither should your website visitors. While parents have desperately tried to explain this concept to their children for centuries to almost no avail, it seems much easier to grasp in the adult context of CRO. This article gets into greater depth about how improving your website’s navigation can improve your conversion rate, but the bottom line is simple: the easier it is to get around your website, the higher your conversion rate will be. (Translation: If you keep your room clean, your parents will be happy and your friends will be allowed to come over. Everyone wins!)
7. Learn your ABCs.
Do you remember learning the alphabet? At first, you didn’t really get the point. Sure, you learned the song. You could sing all the letters, and your parents were very proud. But it wasn’t until you actually started learning to read that you began to understand the real importance of your ABCs. Similarly, people new to A/B testing may become frustrated with what sometimes seems like the futility of these tedious tests. But once you learn the real purpose of testing, it doesn’t seem so bad. That purpose, of course, is to improve conversion rates. The thing is, no matter how many great changes you make to your website, you won’t know which of those changes have been effective unless you do some testing. If you’re trying to make your site stickier by changing your landing page copy, it’s important to know that the changes you have made are actually helping to achieve your initial goal. That’s why A/B tests lead to more conversions. You might even say that A + B = C. Now I know my ABCs, next time won’t you convert with me?
8. If at first you don’t succeed…
Try, try, try something different. If you can be as perseverant with increasing your CRO as a child who is determined to shove his entire first into his mouth, you will be successful. (Regrettably, probably much more successful than the boy, unless that boy happens to have the snake-like ability to unhinge his jaw.) If you try something new on your website only to discover that it does not, in fact, increase your conversion rate, do not despair! Instead, learn from your mistake, and try something new. If you had given up every time you attempted to learn how to ride a bike—or how to walk, for that matter—you would have had a far less adventurous childhood, indeed.
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