Organisations are spending around 92x more on traffic-driving activities than converting traffic into customers.
But as many marketers know, high traffic numbers do not result in higher ROIs, unless their website is converting as much of that traffic as possible through an effective CRO strategy.
In fact, research via HubSpot, has demonstrated that even if you increased your conversion rate by as little as 1%, you could see with an uplift to your bottom line.
Websites have matured from a simple online presence for your brand, to a key sales channel, that should operate as a seamless finale to your customer's conversion journey.
With so much opportunity for revenue gains, outside of the ever-important A/B/n and multivariate testing, here are some important trends we expect to see in 2023.
Personalisation:
Nearly every business we spoke to in 2022 had heard about Personalisation, and the concept has certainly been around for a while. However, with more and more businesses moving to purely online models, consumers are demanding an ever-increasing level of experience from every website they visit.
Bombarded with hundreds of marketing messages every day, potential customers tune out from content that does engage them on a personal level. Customers always appreciate feeling singled out and unless your website makes them feel like they are valued, they are unlikely to convert.
COVID-19 has been a main contributor to this growing expectation, especially amongst younger demographics, such as GenZ, who currently make up around 40% of the global population.
Sitecore’s Holiday Shopping Trends 2022 report highlighted that ethics and poor digital experiences are the main reasons for disengaging with a brand, with around 37% abandoning purchases or leaving poor reviews due to poorly performing sites.
Even the smallest change to personalise a Call To Action (CTA) button could help convert around 42% more prospects!
Whether simple CTA copy changes, or more complex audience segmentation strategies, every business has the opportunity to positively affect their ROI and conversion rate by ensuring your activities focus on delivering value for each site visitor.
The end of Google Optimize:
Google will sunset Optimize and Optimize 360 by September 2023 to focus on Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and third-party experimentation tools. However, testing platforms have been growing in number and sophistication, with a potential testing solution for every budget.
At Resolution, we are largely platform agnostic, however, here are some recommended testing platforms:
1. AB Tasty is a reasonably priced, simple-to-use tool that serves as a good tool for those with straight forward optimisation needs.
It offers a/b, multivariate and funnel testing capabilities, as well as trigger-based personalisation plays.
You can always integrate with existing CRMS and DMPs.
2. Convert is perfect for small to medium-size clients and businesses doing in-house optimisation.
It allows all the usual testing tools, an easy integration with CMS and ecommerce platforms, as well as with Google Analytics.
Personalisation is also available.
3. Visual Website Optimiser (VWO) is another big player in the A/B testing software market. It is a top choice for businesses with slightly smaller budgets and popular amongst many marketers.
There is a wide variety of tools you get access to, to create various page variations and track conversion goals.
Statistical analysis and heat mapping is built-in, along with personalisation capabilities.
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4. Optimizely is an experimentation platform aimed at enterprise customers exclusively.
Their tool is powerful and targeted at websites with high traffic—in other words, companies that are very serious about testing and personalisation.
It can also be used for mobile apps, messaging and across the entire customer experience.
Review your testing and personalisation needs to see which platform would be your best option, and of course, Resolution Digital is always available to provide direction and recommendations if required.
Chatbot Humanisation:
Some of our clients query whether users are still enamoured with chatbots. AI technology has come a long way, but consumer’s still cite “a lack of understanding” and “inability to solve specific and complex issues” as their main frustrations with chatbot technology.
The main benefits of chatbots come from the reduction in customer service response times, reduction in investment in customer service centres and 24hr access for simple, routine queries.
That said, chatbots are still a while away from having problem-solving capabilities like humans, especially when a user has a complex issue, or requires a specific answer. Not being able to contact a customer service representative easily for those more complex issue, is a leading cause of users complaining about poor customer service.
Ironically, whilst customers value being able to contact a business 24/7 with straightforward queries, many customers report being happy to wait a little longer for specific feedback if it means that they get the required result. Likened to a Messenger-like scenario, a user can email their specific query to a business, who will then find out the answer for them, and message back the response within a reasonable time frame.
Once again, the customer feeling like they are being ”heard” and valued, whilst providing a more “personalised” experience, is core in increasing conversion from this next generation of chatbot technology.
The rise of composable DXPs:
Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) bring together customers’ digital experiences across all journey touchpoints, to enable companies to build, maintain, and personalise the content available to its customers.
As personalisation becomes more important to deliver those exceptional experiences to users, websites need to be constantly up to date and tailored to their individual needs, even before they visit.
To allow businesses to meet these expectations, there is a shift away from traditional CRMs, to tools that promote agility and flexibility for consistent change to the omnichannel experience. This is where the composable DXP comes in. The idea is that this DXP is completely modular, allowing swift and incremental changes to each composite part. Each part can function independently whilst communicating via APIs. Doing so will help speed up implementation cycles, allow a better mix and match of digital channels and devices available for particular audiences, allow non-technical users to make changes as required, doesn’t lock the business into a particular vendor or saddled with outdated technology, and can facilitate
We are at the beginning of these changes, but those on the pulse are already reviewing their existing set ups and looking for ways to better anticipate users needs. The 2023 Gartner report predicts that businesses that adopt an intelligent composable approach will “outpace competition by 80% in the speed of new feature implementation.
User testing:
User testing is under utilised by many businesses. Session recording and heatmapping contribute to a deeper understanding of what users are doing on site, however, user testing allows you to see what users a really thinking about the UX of your site.
User testing can lead to better understanding of the real pain points or issues users are experiencing when navigating your site, what they like / don’t like about your UX structure and where the blockers are.
Many customers love the opportunity to be given the opportunity to share about their experiences and feedback, which allows you to learn even more about your unique audiences, further tailor your website to their specific needs, and achieve higher conversion rates.
Google Optimize is sunsetting on 30 September
Which alternate provider should you go with? The Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) Experimentation Matrix allows you to easily compare vendors across the complex landscape.
