Conversion Conference London

There are many ways you can approach conversion optimization, ranging from a purely empirical standpoint to implementing extensive psychological models. To me, the biggest eye openers of the conference were the sessions that concentrated on the psychology of conversion. Yes, we have conversion strategy and use a tactical approach to implementing it but all the best tools in the world used in ‘tactical conversion optimization’ can’t help you get in the mind of your web site visitor. I didn’t count, but I felt that the word ‘tactical’ was somewhat over used - especially on day one. I want to make love to my visitor not wage a war ;-)

Fortunately, the inspiring key notes by Tim Ash and Patrick Bultema really focussed on the psychological aspects, each in their own way. I found Patrick Bultema’s presentation the best of both days. His concise approach to how the brain works in relation to conversion was very inspiring and it felt like the basis that was somehow missing from the first day.

On both days, strategies were presented for creating the best and most fitting customer experience that drives conversion. There were a great deal of excellent and some not-so-excellent before and after examples. Changing this button increased conversion by 15%. Changing that one increased conversion by 84%! A lot of numbers, but not always clear what the exact reasoning is for the user’s choices.

Here are some of the best takeaways from day 1.

Tim Ash @tim_ash

• We have 1/20th of a second to make a first impression with our landing page, and a positive impression parallels the likelihood of conversion. Boost conversion by designing landing pages that are built on the four pillars of trust: 
• Appearance matters - don’t get disqualified by how  you look!
• Create transactional assurances - relieve anxieties about data security, payment and shipping before they arise, and don’t put them at the bottom - only 20% of the visitors see it there.
• Use outside authorities - ‘as seen on CNN’. Major clients and brands transfer trust.
• Consensus of peers - behavior of peer groups act as a shortcut to how we should behave. If millions of people download FireFox all over the globe than it should be good! 

Charles Nicols @webconversion

• Cart abandonment - 71% of all visitors that put items in a shopping cart abandon it (source seewhy). Solutions are - fine tune and improve the shopping cart process, but more importantly remarket to potential customers that have abandoned the cart via email. 

Ben Jesson blog

• Sometimes it helps to approach conversion from a ‘real world’ standpoint. If something is complex, it needs a proper explanation. There is a reason that the page on Amazon about the kindle is almost 6 meters long, or twenty printed pages! “Sometimes your sales letter needs to be bigger than a man!” 

Information foraging theory says that we will continue to do a task as long as we believe we are getting somewhere, like a rabbit following a carrot. So yes, some individuals will be stubborn enough to complete even the most horribly designed forms, but let’s not count on it! 

Conversion Conference was all about finding out who your customer is and creating a strategy that fits expectations, personas and even psychological profiles. To me, it was one the most interesting conferences I’ve been to in a while, and I hope to visit it again in the future. The next Conversion Conference is in San Francisco, on March 14th and 15th 2011. Check out the websites:  

• http://conversionconference.co.uk
• http://www.conversionconference.com

Part Two in this series next week, if you want an update, follow me on Twitter, @seomenno!