Conversion Optimization on Mobile

Conversion optimization on mobile is difficult. The reason it is so hard is because as marketers we still treat our mobile visitors as mini desktop visitors.

“We’re not really looking at the fact that we have different behaviors and we treat things very differently when on mobile.”

We do things differently, we search for different stuff and what marketers are doing right now is just taking the desktop design and shrinking it to a mobile so it looks really good but it doesn’t consider a specific behavior of mobile visitors and then what happens is there is a huge gap in conversion rates of up to 300% because people can’t find what they are looking for on mobile, they get to the website, they can’t find what they are looking for and they leave.

As per Talia, it requires a lot of resources and time for optimization so that is why they built Banana Splash to give marketers the power to do it themselves. They will be able to just launch AB tests on mobile within minutes. The idea is that, in order to start optimizing mobile you really first have to start doing research in a better way, the first thing is to understand your mobile consumer, understand who they are, where they are coming from, what devices they use and what browsers they are using, what they are searching for, what keywords they are using, what pages they own etc.

There are so many metrics you need to get to know but you also have to understand their state of mind. You have to understand they have a different need emotionally, psychologically and once we start to identify who the mobile visitor is, what they are looking for and how different they are from the desktop that’s when we can start designing a better experience.

Since there is not a lot of resources for many companies to do that and that is why they use Banana Splash because it really is a simple and easy way to increase conversion rates on mobile without needing to completely redesign the mobile site or develop it.

Tips or hacks to improve optimization on mobile fast.

Talia is not a big believer in tips and hacks because she thinks that in general conversion optimization is not about tips and hacks. There is too much content on the web on optimization like five ways you can increase your landing page conversion rates by 1000%.

It isn’t real it’s someone else’s best practice and you really do have to test all these things by yourself just because it works for someone, it doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you.

And the key for that is just because we have different target audiences and definitely not everyone’s the same when it comes to conversion optimization, it is multiple disciplines.

You need to know copywriting, design and consumer psychology and there are so many different things you need to know.

In order to really increase your revenues on mobile and really get started with optimizing your mobile experience, you really do have to start doing research and understanding your mobile visitors better. Until we continue looking at mobile visitors as if they are the same as desktop visitors, we’re still going to get the same problems.

So as per Talia, she would definitely start by looking at the different metrics and running a different kind of research just for mobile and then of course also start speaking to customers. This is something that a lot of companies miss. She would definitely run different surveys and talk to people and see what people are missing, what are they looking for and how can you help them do that?

When it comes to re-designing mobile it’s very hard to do so and you know it’s hard to do that on the desktop too with thousands of AB tests. The best way to make changes that actually matter instead of completely re-designing mobile, is to just understand the behavior of mobile visitors and then designing for that specific behavior and trying to help them complete that specific task instead of completely re-designing mobile.

Insights on emotional approach.

Talia and her team developed the emotional targeting methodology over the past 5 or 6 years. It’s basically built on why people purchase products.

“Our main focus is trying to understand what makes people buy stuff? And I am not talking about features or pricing or you know the product itself but actually about emotion. In life, we are motivated by our emotion and we buy stuff on emotion because of the way we feel. We are buying better versions of ourselves.”

Talia says that we try to make ourselves happy, we want to feel good about ourselves, we want to feel safe, we want to feel loved, every product or service that we buy helps us feel something towards ourselves, towards the community that we are in. Even when we are doing it with B2B companies for example, when you are buying a product or tool or service for your company, there is a lot of emotion involved because you are constantly thinking about what your boss is going to say, what your mates are going to say, what your employees are going to say.

So there is a lot of emotion involved and this methodology dives deep into who your target customers really are, what are they looking for, what are the different emotional triggers that set them on the right path or what makes them buy? It is basically running AB tests on strategies.

So if for example AB testing a call to action button from red to green, or just testing a copy or headline, you test the entire concept, entire strategies. So that the idea is that when you get the results from an AB test whether it is one or a lot you actually understand why it worked and it gives you knowledge about your customers.

So the idea is – What is the problem right now within the funnel and how can you solve it? And then when you think about how you can solve it, it’s not in tactic it’s in strategy. What would make your customer feel safer?

What would make your customer feel more love? What would make your customer take the next step within the funnel and then you AB test that using different emotions, different colors, different images, different fonts in order to see what makes a difference, what actually persuades your customer? It’s called persuasive design. And you AB test that to see what works and what doesn’t.

That will really give you an insight into who your customers really are and of course you see increases in conversion rates with 100’s of percentages for your customers.

“And most importantly I think when it comes to this methodology is that you are not just optimizing for the sake of one KPI and to get more registrations but you are actually optimizing for knowledge and you can use that knowledge because once you understand what makes your customers tick, what makes them buy, you can change entire processes within your company, change your sales teams, customer service teams, retention teams, and everything can change within the company”, says Talia.

Talia works with different companies all over the world and when it comes to e-commerce, for example, her approach is very much into who the customer is and what they are actually buying.

How to become an expert on CRO?

It takes many years to become an expert on CRO and it’s not something that happens overnight. You definitely have to put a lot of time and it really does help when you kind of discipline yourself in multiple different areas e.g. copywriting, design, consumer psychology, in web analysis and analytics. There are so many different disciplines in conversion optimization. You constantly need to grow and change and optimize yourself. She recommends reading information in the right blogs, in the right places, so that you get the right information. She would not look for hacks or tricks, she would look for processes and strategies.

She would try and choose one of the various different methodologies that are out there, that you can use to get to learn how to run conversion optimization tests in the right way. And then just follow the process. It would take more time but it’s definitely worth it.