Testing a new project can get to be a drudge after a while. You lose perspective and the ability to be objective because you are too close to the subject and it’s difficult to approach it every day with a fresh eye. Big gains in traffic, sales, conversion rates and leads begin to plateau sometimes. Big wins like reduction in PPC spend and organic traffic gains are hard to replicate month after month. Real conversion rate optimization starts after you get all the easy, early huge gains.
Positive results and an increased ROI are the result of continuous honing and refining your site and responding to the needs and feedback of your guests. If it seems discouraging, you need to remember that all the hard work is paying off due to the compounding effects of continuous improvement.
Mariel Bacci of FutureNow! has a post on The Power Of Continuous Improvement
I will share an example of a trend line for one of our clients- a resort chain, over the last quarter. You will notice that is does not look very exciting at all. In fact, you might look at it and think, “Why in the crap would I pay someone to help me get a .56% conversion rate?” Don’t worry, we will explain to you “Why in the crap” you would be delighted to pay someone for these results.
Click To See Trend Line Enlarged
This trend line represents hard work and dedication to testing over the last quarter. While you can see there are no major spikes in conversion rate-this trend line actually represents a major win. Disclaimer: make sure when you are looking at trend lines you understand that they will be affected by the seasonality of your product. In this particular case, seasonality was actually working against the trend. When you look at your own conversion rate make sure you are taking offline factors into account.
Here are 3 reasons why you would love for this trend line to be your own:
- It represents a 56% relative increase in conversion rate
- It illustrates the hard work of continuous improvement. We know the line isn’t exciting but in 3 more months this client will double their conversion rate if they continue their hard work
- We estimate this increase is worth $45,360 a month to the client. That’s $544,3200 over the course of a year. If They continue at the same pace for the next three months and double their conversion rate they will increase their revenue over 1 million dollars a year!
The big wins are a great way to start your optimization project, but ultimately they are the consequence of a broken checkout or lead generation form that no one can fill out without a bottle of Ritalin. It is the small wins you get by improving your pages for the experience of each persona that add up to an awesome website and great conversion rate.
Do you have the tools to help continuous improvement of your web traffic, conversion rate and ROI? SalesWarp can help. Ask us now!