6 advanced conversion techniques to grow your business fast

This article looks at six customer-centric conversion optimization techniques to help you ease the customer journey and accelerate business growth. You’ll walk away with actionable steps you can take today to improve your website and increase conversions.

6 conversion optimization techniques to elevate the customer experience (CX) 

We often equate ‘conversion’ with ‘sale,’ but really, a conversion is that moment when the customer takes the next step in their journey, like signing up for your newsletter or opting to give your free trial a go. 

Hillary Bush, former product manager at MasterClass and founder and CEO of Pollen, a company providing playbooks to freelancers looking to grow their businesses, puts it this way: 

Let’s look at six conversion techniques you can use to improve the user experience (UX) and guide shoppers toward a purchase:

1. Identify bottlenecks

With so many elements on a standard site, it’s all too easy for a visitor to get tripped up by a single misplaced CTA, confusing pricing table, or incomplete product description. 

The goal, then, is to look for website bottlenecks that may cause users to drop off too early. 

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) agency The Good found that identifying bottlenecks for their client Swiss Gear increased conversions by 132%.

After using Google Analytics to access data like where and when users exited the site, The Good used Hotjar’s behavior analytics tools—like Heatmaps and Recordings—to paint a fuller picture of what was happening on Swiss Gear’s ecommerce website. Heatmaps offered quantitative data about user actions in an easy-to-understand, visual way, and Recordings provided qualitative insights into why users act the way they do.

With information like click data from Heatmaps and behavior patterns in Recordings, The Good determined that some iconography and copy frustrated users. Equipped with insights from these tools, they tested changes like a new mobile hero image and a menu-driven interface—and conversions skyrocketed.

2. Conduct A/B testing to improve navigation

A/B testing, also known as split testing, is essential for reducing friction in site navigation to improve PX and CX—and increasing conversions. 

“At MasterClass, we ran over 100 tests a quarter just on the marketing site,” Hillary says. “Tests should be designed around hypotheses that you’re trying to prove or disprove. These hypotheses focus on what's changing, what user impact that makes, and an estimated impact to conversion.”

Once you have a solid hypothesis, you’ll need to make sure you have the right tools to test it.

Carefully analyze how changes affect conversion rates, but try not to get discouraged if they don’t work. Whether your conversion rate stays the same or goes up, you’ll gain valuable data about your users you can use to improve their experience.

3. Highlight product reviews and testimonials

If customers need even a little nudge in converting, social proof—like product reviews and testimonials—provides just that. 

In fact, Baymard found that 95% of shoppers on traditional ecommerce sites use reviews to evaluate a product.

When shoppers see that others have purchased (and had a good experience with) an item, they feel more confident buying it themselves. 

Some online retailers leverage the power of reviews by making it easy to filter and sort them. J.Crew’s a great example. On product pages, they let users sort reviews by body type and height. If a customer’s tall, for example, they can quickly sort reviews to learn how the item fits people of similar height.

These features erase any lingering doubts about product fit that might prevent users from purchasing. Plus, the company handles fewer returns by helping customers get it right the first time.

4. Upgrade to high-quality photos and videos

Customers need to see a product from all angles to feel confident buying. A backpack might look appealing from the front, but a shopper might hesitate to click purchase without seeing a close-up of its straps. 

In addition to helping customers convert with confidence, high-quality images inform customers’ perception of your company as trustworthy and professional. 

More companies are also using videos on product pages to let customers visualize how an item functions. For example, you can see how a backpack shifts with each step the model takes.  

While these videos are important in retail, they’re equally as vital for software-as-a-service (SaaS) products. By showing a clip of the software in action, buyers can clearly see how the product works without committing to a personal demo. A video clip might be the nudge that makes a buyer say, “Oh, I need that!”

5. Make the checkout process seamless—and unforgettable

We’ve all been there before: a daunting checkout page requiring credit card information makes us move a purchase to the ‘later’ list.

Eliminating obstacles at checkout makes for a calmer, happier experience for your customers—and more sales for you. Research by Baymard shows that large ecommerce sites can increase conversion rates by over 35% by improving the design of their checkout page. 

Web design agency NerdCow found and resolved cart abandonment issues on a client’s site by launching surveys to ask the customer why they didn’t buy. The most common reason? People simply got distracted or forgot.

To fix the issue, NerdCow created a cart reminder email sequence and an on-site cart reminder for returning shoppers. The result? Conversions tripled in two weeks.

6. Personalize the customer experience

Personalizing the customer experience helps you improve conversion rates—and creates satisfied, loyal customers.

Consider a high-touch sales experience, like buying a home. Throughout the process, you work closely with the seller (or, in this case, the realtor). You frequently chat with them, gaining trust in their guidance, and your enthusiasm about the sale grows.

“Companies that want to do this at scale without 1:1 interaction can bring in qualities of the concierge experience,” Hillary says. “This makes the user feel more understood and that the product is tailor-made for them and their needs. It’s extremely powerful.”

Help your customers take that next step

The best way to improve conversions is to understand your customer and their perspective as fully as possible. Use quantitive and qualitative data to guide your decision-making—and create a smoother customer experience while you watch your conversion rates soar.