Have you ever taken more than a day to make the decision to buy something? Chances are, you’ve even researched alternatives, read reviews and engaged with the brand on social media before going ahead and actually committing to the purchase.
As consumers continue to become more meticulous in their research before investing in products and services, encouraging and tracking micro conversions is now more crucial than ever.
Let’s explore why micro conversions are critical to the growth of your business and how you can take full advantage of them with the right strategies.
Making the Most of Micro Conversions: How They Work (+ 4 Micro Hacks)
Micro conversions are all of the activities that gently lead your customers towards a macro conversion (in most cases, the actual sale). At their core, micro conversions encompass the actions that prove that your users are pushing through the sales funnel and taking meaningful actions on your website.
For example, as an online seller, a new user registering an account on your website would be classified as a “micro conversion”. They’ve taken a step towards converting but haven’t quite gotten there yet. Some common examples of micro conversions include:
- Adding products to a shopping basket
- Subscribing to emails
- Watching an explainer video on a landing page
- Engaging with a social media post
None of these actions directly lead to a sale, but they can keep those who are interested in your company engaged and within your reach.
Converting a customer is like building blocks; small activities lead to big sales. A combination of micro conversions get your customers to that sale point, and when you track these smaller conversions, they will help you:
- Understand the behaviour of your visitors
- Nurture your leads
- Build conversion funnels
- Measure the effectiveness of your communication
Most importantly, micro conversions help you find the weakest links in your sales funnel. By tracking micro conversions, you’ll be able to identify the exact stage at which visitors are abandoning your funnel and dropping off. By removing or improving common points of friction from the customer journey, you could instantly experience a boost in your conversion rate.
Optimize Your Landing Pages For Email Subscribers
Let’s face it, filling out a form with your email address is not something anyone looks forward to.
And they can be even less enticing when coupled with the anxiety of having yet another email subscription land in your inbox. With 124.5 billion business emails being sent and received in a single day, people are more skeptical than ever of providing their email addresses to companies.
So how do companies like OptinMonster end up with gigantic email lists with over 60,000 subscribers? Here are a few tricks the company uses to keep those micro conversions high:
Real incentives
Think about the kinds of problems your target customer currently faces. Based on this, think about the types of incentives or perks they’d be attracted to when dealing with those problems. Truth is, people will be more likely to sign up for your newsletter if you can entice them with the promise of something they value in return.
For example, as an eCommerce brand, you could provide subscribers with a 15% discount upon joining your email list.
The incentive doesn’t need to be monetary. Let’s consider OptinMonster’s target audience. As a brand focused on conversion rate optimization, people who visit their blog posts are most likely conscious about their marketing efforts. Keeping this in mind, OptinMonster provides invaluable incentives in the form of eBooks and case studies that address some of the core problems their target audience might be facing.
This offer of a free case study would be extremely difficult to turn down for anyone who’s looking to grow their business through email marketing.
Exit-intent popups
While the sentiment of enticing customers with value still rings true, the delivery of the incentive is also a crucial element for success. A case study by AWeber found that popup forms convert 1375% better than traditional forms for driving blog subscriptions – and it’s not hard to see why.
Popup forms not only make a strong visual impact as they engulf the entire page, they also provide you with the opportunity to really draw people in with an offer they can’t refuse.
Clothing retailer Sivana uses this eye-catching popup to draw people into giving up their email addresses in exchange for $25 off. Sivana also does a great job of promoting urgency by making it clear that the offer is limited.
Simple forms
If the purpose of your form is to get more newsletter subscribers, make sure that the only thing you ask visitors for is an email address. You want to make the process of signing up as simple as possible.
While it might be tempting to ask customers for their name, phone number, favorite colour and so on, you’re unlikely to get as many signups if you do. In fact, research has found that eliminating one field from your form can boost conversion rates by 50%, so make sure you keep your forms as lean as possible.
Make sure to use a dedicated form building tool to create your signup forms, as these are well equipped to handle the complexities that come with attaching offers, copy and conditional logic to your lead forms.
Talk users through the process
Web notifications let marketers talk to people who are visiting their website. You can use these messages to explain the benefits of signing-up. That way, you increase sign-ups without having to change the way your page looks. You can even help users through a difficult part of the form, reassuring them and explaining how you’ll use their information.
Add Videos To Your Landing Pages
Not sure if creating videos for your website is really worth it? Here are some stats to consider:
- 90% of users claim that product videos help them in the decision process of the buyer’s journey.
- 84% of consumers are convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand’s video.
- Including a video on a landing page can increase conversions by more than 80%
If you’re a brand selling something online, including videos in your marketing efforts is proven to move people further down the funnel, directly into the loving arms of a macro conversion.
So how do you make sure that the videos you’ve so meticulously put together are actually being watched? Here are 3 foolproof tricks to boost video views:
- Keep your video above the fold. Wistia found that, not only are videos viewed substantially more when placed above the fold, but video views also had a direct correlation with increased signups for their product.
- Add subtitles. Including captions is proven to increase views, as while videos without captions are watched to the very end by 66% of people (on average), the figure jumps to a whopping 91% for videos with captions.
- Optimize your thumbnail image. Make sure that the thumbnail for your video is eye-catching, has a high resolution and includes a close-up of the subject. It also helps to include add some text on top of the image to provide visitors with more context. Here’s how Animoto nails this:
Boost Social Media Engagement
Micro conversions like social media interactions can lead to significant boosts in macro conversions. In order to make the most of this perk, it’s worthwhile investing some time into boosting user engagement across your social channels.
Let’s dive into some tips to keep those engagements coming.
For Instagram:
- Interact with other users in your niche
When it comes to Instagram, engagement feeds engagement. Make sure to interact with other users on the platform, as this will increase your own chances of being seen.
The more targeted you can be with your engagement, the better. For example, if you’re a fashion brand, you’re more likely to receive engagement from a fellow fashion Instagram account as opposed to one about cars. Small things like commenting on similar accounts every day can help you receive more comments in return, which can then boost your visibility across the Explore menu.
- Be strategic with hashtags
Generate buzz for free by running creative contests and attaching catchy hashtags to them. A fantastic example of this is a campaign used by Adidas to promote their Neo brand.
Adidas asked their followers to create Instagram posts inspired by their new brand and adding the #MyNeoShoot hashtag to them. In return, the brand promised to invite the winners to participate in a professional photo shoot for the brand. Not only did Adidas generate more than 71,000 mentions through the new hashtag, they also gained 41,000 new followers.
For Facebook:
- Use videos
It’s no secret that Facebook prioritizes video content. Make the most of this by sharing short videos that show your products in action.
Boosting your videos with Facebook Ads can be a winning combination, as you can be extremely targeted about who gets to see them. In fact, SaaS company BigCommerce saw immense success with this strategy, as a recent video ad campaign on Facebook tripled their free trial conversions.
- Respond to comments
If someone has taken the time to comment on one of your posts, make sure to reply to them through your company’s Facebook page. If it’s a customer query, the worst thing you can do is redirect them to an email address to reach out to. Treat your Facebook page as a (very public) ground to showcase your excellent customer service – help users by solving problems, reassuring them about your product or even just making them laugh.
Engagement can often have a snowball effect, as the more comments you receive on your posts, the more other people will be comfortable commenting on them as well. Moreover, if you take the time to engage with each commenter in a friendly and personal way, they’ll be much more likely to engage with your brand again.
In general:
- Schedule posts in advance to get more views
It always helps to know when your target audience is hanging out on social platforms, as this can help you boost engagements for your posts. There are a few helpful guides to help you determine the best times to post your content, however, it’s always good to experiment with a variety of posting schedules to determine what times work best for your particular audience.
You can use tools like Later and Buffer to schedule your posts in advance, so you never have to post manually again.
#1 Invest In A Chatbot
Consumers want what they want, and they want it now. Whether someone is surfing the net at 9 am after the children are at school, or they’re online at midnight after a long shift, instant gratification plays a large role in online consumption.
As an online brand, you need to ensure that you are able to offer the same service at 9am, 5pm and midnight all week long (especially if you operate globally).
Consider this scenario: A visitor fills out your contact form with a query that’s crucial to the completion of their purchase. However, since the form is filled out at a time that’s outside your operating hours, the user goes on a hunt for another platform that offers the same solution as yours – and there goes your micro conversion to waste.
Implementing a chatbot could alleviate this problem entirely. Companies like RapidMiner, Amtrak and MyTradingHub have seen great success from implementing chatbots into their sales cycle. SaaS platform Anymail Finder even found that 1 in 3 of their buyers used their chat system before making a purchase, while 9 out of 10 of their largest purchases were made after using a chat system.
#2 Remove Or Reduce Points Of Friction
In order to turn micro conversions into macro ones, you need to ensure that all points of friction on your website have been optimized to keep customers moving through the purchase cycle. Keeping this in mind, it’s worthwhile to invest in some tools to track movements through micro conversions.
Here are some useful ways to find weak links in your sales cycle:
- A/B tests: An A/B test allows you to compare two variations of the same marketing asset by exposing each to a predetermined portion of your audience. You can A/B test anything from the copy on your page to the placement of CTA buttons – and when executed well, they can seriously boost your conversion rates.
Take insurance company Humana for example. Their website saw a whopping 433% increase in click-through rate by adjusting the copy, placement and CTA of their banner.
Here’s a helpful guide on A/B testing to get you started.
- Heatmaps: Heatmaps are a data visualization tool that use colour to help you identify the parts of a webpage that receive the most attention. They’re particularly useful for understanding whether each element on your page is being used in a manner that is intended.
Design tool Bannersnack used a heatmap to determine that page visitors were not paying enough attention to their CTA. As a result, they increased the size of their CTA button and witnessed a 25% spike in signups.
User testing: User testing allows you to monitor individual users as they move through your site, and ask them targeted questions while they do so. It’s a great way to gain qualitative insights that might not be easily sourced through A/B testing or heatmaps.
Here’s a helpful guide on setting up a user test from scratch.
Together, these tools can help you identify the leaks in your funnel, find problem pages and turn page views into conversions.
#3 Use Social Proof
Do you know who customers trust more than anyone else? Each Other. Hurt as it might, you should be aware that your views towards your own products are less persuasive than those of an impartial consumer.
Social Proof can take the form of a testimonial from an existing customer, a simple sales figure, or even the inclusion of a client’s logo (if they’re a prominent brand). You can easily show information about your previous customers by installing a social proof app and displaying notifications or other visual features.
If you have a page that has proven to be a common point of friction, adding a testimonial near the CTA can do wonders for your conversion rate. After all, 88% of customers report that online reviews influence their buying decisions.In fact, adding just one review to a landing page has been proven to boost conversion rates by up to 10%.
Getting positive reviews is one of the most important parts of marketing, so it’s good to have some proven tips and strategies to drive positive reviews for your business.
#4 Focus On Reducing Shopping Cart Abandonment
Did you know that 69.57% of all shopping carts are abandoned? This means that after completing every single step in the sales funnel, most visitors abandon the journey entirely right before the macro conversion.
For eCommerce brands, the shopping cart is the single most important micro conversion to optimize, as it’s the one closest to the big sale. Thankfully, there are a few different ways you can improve the conversion rate for your shopping cart experience:
- Be upfront about costs
Unexpected costs like shipping and taxes account for 55% of all abandoned shopping carts. By making additional costs clear on product pages, you can avoid surprising customers at the shopping cart stage.
Since shipping costs can often vary depending on location, you should consider using a calculation form on your product pages to help users know the shipping cost before hitting the shopping cart.
- Offer guest checkout
While adding a new user to your database is an important action, you should not let it overpower the importance of making the actual sale. Unfortunately, by forcing customers to create an account before making a purchase, you might be doing just that.
34% of all abandoned shopping carts are due to there being no guest checkout option. Make sure you tear down that barrier and save any signup prompts for after they’ve made their purchase.
- Provide multiple payment options
comScore found that 56% of online shoppers want to see a variety of payment options at checkout. Every customer has different preferences when it comes to payment, so the more options you have the better. At the very least, make sure you offer payment through Credit Card, PayPal and Stripe.
You might also consider adding a ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ option like Afterpay, ZipMoney or Klarna to your checkout process, as they are estimated to boost conversion rates by 15% on average.
Making The Most of Micro Conversions
While macro conversions are vital for success, micro conversions are too important to be relegated to an afterthought. They’re not only essential for increasing brand awareness and trust, they’re the ultimate indicators of a relationship forming between yourself and your target customers.
By not tracking your micro conversions, you might be missing out on the opportunity to convert more leads and understand your customers better – which is at the core of improving your performance as a business.
