🏈5 ways to achieve conversion rate improvement (fast)

This is Inbox Hacking, a free newsletter with unique marketing insights, tools, & tactics sent every Wednesday. Join marketers from Ad Age, ADP, & the NBA, and sign up for your Free subscription here.

Happy Valentine’s Day and congrats to KC along with football’s happiest couple – Rog Goodell & Gambling.

Today’s newsletter is packed with Knowledge Base wisdom, Today’s Hack shows why some of your marketing benefits your competition, and our feature story gives you 5 quick ways to improve your conversion rates. So scroll down, read up, then jot notes down to take action after.

5 Easy Wins for Conversion Rate Improvement

Anyone should be able to utilize these in no time, even if you’ve got a ton on your plate.

Request and insert user-generated content (shown to double conversions)
Test CTAs at midpoint of videos – versus start or finish
Improve mobile UX
Test automated SMS campaigns (21% conversion rate improvement)
By hook or by crook, speed up your website

Any and all of those are doable ASAP by any size company. Numbers 1 and 5 can be done within the next hour! (19 more conversion rate optimization stats here)

Now, we’ll claw past the surface of conversion rates.

Conversion Rate Improvement Testing

How hard is it to test asking for an email opt-in at the midpoint of a video? The easiest way is to update an older video – probably needs updating anyways. Just stick the CTA in the middle of the video. Then, you can either gate the final half of the video (part 2 link) in exchange for the viewer’s email (or not gate it).

Automated SMS testing isn’t hard either. Depending on your list size, it shouldn’t cost much or cost anything to test this. Your email service provider may already offer SMS. If not, there are free trials available for SMS-specific marketing.

Backing up now to smartphones and such…

Mobile Conversion Rate Improvement

Don’t get it twisted, desktop users convert at higher rates than mobile users. But most traffic is on mobile.

Doesn’t take a genius (lucky for me) to know mobile conversion rates have lots of room for improvement, right? So take advantage of that…

3 points to focus on to nudge up conversion rates by improving user experience on your mobile site or app.

Make logging in the easiest thing imaginable (or they won’t)
Navigation needs to be MUCH clearer no matter how obvious you believe it already is
Remove all clutter (cut until it hurts)

After you simplify things, get to giving.

Conversion Rate Optimization Means Giving People What They Want

What do people want? To let the no-thinking-needed web cascade over them (us). Need proof, Puddin?

For one, mindless TikTok keeps thriving…

More importantly, Statista reported the number one type of app downloaded after seeing ads in Apple’s App Store is entertainment apps. Not close either. This category blew away travel, games, and business apps (to name a few). Last on the chart was education apps!

I say give people what they want. Entertain them to convert them. And yes, you can entertain while educating them – if educating is your business or part of your strategy. Matter of fact… this Wistia report showed that 52% of businesses ranked ‘product education’ as their top goal for using videos. Great, but some audiences won’t sit still for no-frills education.

(Event apps were the top converting type of app in Google’s Store)

*B2B e-commerce ‘in-stock notifications’ was the most effective conversion rate optimizer (21 percentage points above last place ‘product bundling’. (Statista)

Bonus: Level Up Email Campaigns for Conversion Rate Improvement

Let me wrap up (need a nap) with 3 tactics that’ll ramp up your marketing emails’ conversion rates.

#1 Since 67% of consumers say they’ll buy via an email that has a coupon. Use more coupons! Optimize the coupons while you’re at it:

Use dotted lines around coupons (proven more enticing)
Test direct mail coupons alongside email coupons
They must have CLEAR expiration dates
Lean into appreciation factor (why the reader got a coupon)

#2 Stick user-generated content in your emails. Testimonials are easy to screenshot and insert. Paste in questions asked by customers or window shoppers. Run a contest for best video using your products. And if you can implement interactive AMP email, let your subscribers suggest a quiz or poll to put in the next email.

#3 Lastly, test a simpler version of your marketing emails. Skip the glossy photos on occasion and write a text-only message. No links except one plain-Shane one at the end. Or… no link at all. Like a friend might send them.

That’s all I got folks, nap wasn’t a joke and if you’re weary too, just do those first 5 things I listed. And keep reading the rest of Inbox Hacking to swell your IQ even more🧠.

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Knowledge Base

Knowledge is power, so is being smooth

Protect your brand rep in 2024 (15 tools)

Super Bowl ads ranked by critic versus by the public

Can you inject casual shoppers w/ loyalty?

Avoid wasted SEO success (Moz’s simple breakdown)

Getting more shoppers to use your coupons (new study)

Self Help

Saw this jaw-dropper the other day.

Weekday socializing and communicating dropped like a rock from 2017 to 2022 (19.2% plummet!). Great for legit introverts like myself. But normal folks? Unhealthy.

I see no improvement coming, though. It’s way too comfy to sit home and enjoy only the things you 100% enjoy 100% of the time. Your favorite podcaster or YouTuber isn’t gonna bother you with her problems like your neighbor might – or ask you to give them a ride to the airport like your sister-in-law could.

Life alone is too easy. Why do I bother bringing this up, if we’re doomed? One or two folks will care enough about themselves to start making things harder on themselves by intentionally mingling with others.

*Inbox Hackers Shout-out:

📢Alison at ADP

📣Wanda at Kinective (e-sign service)

Facts and Stats

In addition to their shop, 77% of e-commerce merchants sell through 3rd-party marketplaces – like Amazon & eBay (Merchant Risk Council)

Number of days in a row, Seth Godin’s published a blog post, 7,000+ (wouldn’t matter without the countless in-person interactions he’s made time for)

Only 22% of brands used a Valentine’s Day campaign last year (Omnisend)

*Meaningless fact (or crucial, depends how bored you are) – Chameleons do not change colors to blend in with backgrounds.

Bonus: What percentage of North American e-commerce orders led to chargebacks? Answer: 2.2% (MRC report)

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Get Hacking

I love preaching on making your marketing stand out. The choir might get tired of hearing it, but here’s more proof I’m right.

“LinkedIn found that, in advertising, half of brands are mistaken for a competitor. So, often, smaller brands are paying to boost the results of larger brands.”

Do I enjoy saying I told ya so? More than anything!

But mainly, I want this to give you confidence to try stand-out campaigns instead of cookie-cutter campaigns of big brands. It won’t be hard. Just look at the uninspiring, Sucktastic Super Bowl ads from Sunday. Hum-drum. Basic. Honestly, I feel sorry for the marketers who were forced to work on them.

Today’s Hack is to write a subject line for your next email campaign that could never ever be mistaken for another brand.

(Bonus Hack: Remind yourself that you are not the market and consider hidden opportunities to sell seemingly obsolete (or undesirable) goods and services.)

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