Boost Your Conversions Today by Steering Clear of These 7 Conversion Errors

Most entrepreneurs would agree with me on this one thing. 

They like their conversion rates like their coffee. 

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The stronger the better.

Now brewing the invigorating elixir is simple. 

Boosting conversion rates? Not so much. 

Legends have tried and failed. 

But that shouldn’t deter you from trying to boost the conversion rate of your website landing page, social media campaign, email, or any other digital channel. All you have to do is avoid these 7 ridiculously common mistakes.

Let’s quickly dive deep and take the elevator to higher conversion rates. 

The 7 Sins That Are Killing Your Conversions

Mistake #1: Not Understanding Your Audience

You need to know your audience like the back of your hand. Anything short of it and you are in for a tough time. You need to speak the language of your target audience. Understand their pain points. And see things from the same lens as they do.

Or else you’d end up as Pepsi did with Kendall Jenner in their 2017 ad. 

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In an attempt to jump on the social bandwagon, the carbonated drink manufacturer misjudged their audience’s value. And they had to roll back the ad and apologize. 

The conversion rate from the ad campaign? You guessed it right. Negative. 

Mistake #2: Ignoring Your Website's User Experience

Would you buy from a supermarket that is hard to navigate? You don’t want to keep running around the aisles in circles, right? The same is the case with your website. Visitors don’t want to keep clicking from one page to another, dilly-dallying between weird elements and crazy imagery. They need something simple and aesthetic. And not giving them that is the biggest mistake you can make. The user experience (UX) on your site should be top-notch for any conversion to happen. 

Virgin America understood the assignment well. 

In 2014, the airline decided to make flying fun again with a responsive website. And with that, they saw:

• A 14% increase in conversion rates, and
• 2X booking speed, on any device.

That’s a clear show of the importance of digital customer experience.

Mistake #3: Not Utilizing Social Proof

“If your friends jump off the cliff, will you do it too?” Every child has heard their parents say this exact same line. 

While our parents were right, it's the power of social proof that makes us do things that others have done. 

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If you are not utilizing this psychological phenomenon where people look to others to determine what is correct or acceptable, you are missing out. People are likely to trust and follow the actions of others. So you can talk about former clients (with examples and numbers!) to increase the trustworthiness of your brand. That will ultimately lead to a boost in conversions.

Case studies, testimonials, trust icons, data… give social proof some room on your website and see the conversions skyrocket.

Mistake #4: Having a Slow Website

According to a 2019 study by Portent, website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% for every second of website load time delay (from 1 to 5 seconds)

So it is not wrong to say that a slow website can be the death knell for your conversions. Now, do what you have to, but don’t let your website crawl in front of your audience. Make it run. Fast. You’ll be astonished by the results. 

Some companies that have seen these results before include:

• Walmart - For every second of improvement in their website's load time, the conversion rate increased by 2%.
• COOK - With a 0.85-second increase in website load speed, conversion increased by 7%.
• Mobify - The conversion rate increases by 1.11% for every 100ms improvement in homepage load speed.  

So make sure you get website design services from experts who ensure optimal load speed as well as aesthetics.

Mistake #5: Not Having Clear Call-to-Actions

Yeah, yeah, your audience isn’t stupid. They know what to do. But most internet users are overstimulated and overwhelmed. By the flurry of text, visuals, audio, and video content thrown at them. They don’t have the time (or energy) to “figure out” what you want them to do. So drop the clever clues and clearly tell your visitors what action you want them to take. 

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If your website lacks clear and prominent CTA’s that visitors might not understand, this leads to lost conversions. Apple's "Download Now" CTA during the early days of the App Store is a classic example. Apple used the “Download Now” CTA on their app pages. And users didn’t realize the app would be downloaded on their phone, not the computer. 

This led to severe confusion, a lot of frustration for users and lost conversions for Apple.

Mistake #6: Not Offering Enough Value

All else will be a waste if you don’t offer real value to your users. Whether it's a discount, a free trial, or exclusive content, your offer needs to incentivize users to take the action.

“Download this ebook” flashing in big bold letters won’t work. 

“Get the guide to boosting conversion rates by 10X” WILL do.

Take cues from Dropbox for this. The cloud storage company offers users additional free storage space for referring friends. 

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Source

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This incentive led to an increase in sign-ups and fueled 3900% growth in 15 months. 

Mistake #7: Not Testing and Optimizing

Conversion optimization is an ongoing process. It requires continuous testing and optimization to see real results. You can’t stop when you find something that works. Keep testing different messaging, designs, and layouts to find what’s better. Make A/B testing your friend.

Just like Airbnb does. For example, they once ran a campaign to test how the maximum amount on the price filter on a page affects conversions.

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While increasing the max value from $300 to $1000 did prove to be beneficial in the first days, over the long run, the difference became negligible. This helped them understand what aspects of design do and don’t have an impact on their key metrics - search to booking rate. 

You can read the complete conversion testing experiment and many others from Airbnb here.

Boosting conversion rates is no rocket science. All it requires is a strategic approach. Now that you know the 7 deadly conversion rate sins, you can quickly steer clear of them. And boost your conversion rates. Remember to get inspired by websites with stunning UX designs that support conversion. Knowing the recipe doesn’t make you a chef. So onboard conversion rate optimization experts to see the best results. Talk with an expert to see how you can start boosting your conversion rates today.

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Want to learn more? Join the Jebbit team for a group demo where we'll walk through key features and functions and showcase how an interactive experience and get results such as: revenue growth, customer conversion, increased average order value. Join one today!