Competition is tougher than ever in the digital space. With a likely recession coming in 2020, conversion optimization will be more important than ever to your business or even just your voice / career. You’ll need to provide value in extraordinary ways because the future will be very different from the past and present. Economists have noted that technology has reduced inflation. That can be a great thing but we must expect lower revenues going forward and prepare for a more nomadic lifestyle just in case. While there are many benefits to globalization, the reality is that because of the ever-expanding nature of the Internet we will all have to work harder to get our voices heard. Since I was a child the world population has doubled. Pretty crazy.

Two ways I think will be very important to reach people going forward: email and video / YouTube. These platforms really let your content be personal and the value shown is apparent and immediate. Once you connect with your audience and gain trust, you’ll need to convert them. For most people a conversion action might be a newsletter sign up or some baby step, but the ultimate conversion is a sale. If you haven’t used an ecommerce platform or haven’t updated one in a while take another look. Friction has drastically been reduced for users. Free platforms like Woocommerce enable quick payments through advanced technologies like Apple Pay and Google Pay (through a Stripe plugin – Stripe only takes 3% transaction fees!).

Career Conversion Optimization

If you don’t have an online business and just want to build your career, I’ve noticed LinkedIn has grown much more popular in recent years. Lots of people creating content and much of it fairly high quality. I would recommend taking some time to join groups and be active in those groups. If you have the time, you might even want to start your own LinkedIn group. I started the Podcast Producers group on LinkedIn and because I am the group owner people look to me for advice.

As you network with people on LinkedIn you can gradually promote your content to them through links you directly email them in the platform or they might comment on posts you write in LinkedIn, thus raising your profile on the network because of the number of comments you receive.

Tactical Conversion Optimization Tips

Here’s a stream of points I’ve picked up along the years. I hope you have a bag to collect all these conversion optimization nuggets.

• How compelling are your meta descriptions?
• Optimize your organic snippets like a paid ad.
• Rich snippets boost CTR 20-30%
• Use ratings and reviews | breadcrumbs rich snippets
• Explainer videos (show how something works) boost conversion 20%
• Caption images
• Gather testimonials and proof
• Google rich snippets can pull out of context information, perhaps to your benefit
• One page, one purpose for user queries
• Optimize font sizes for age – point size half your target’s age
• Plan a clear path for goal completion
• Prove you are the best solution for a problem

Video Tips for Conversion Optimization

• 4x engagement for video over text for brands
• 33% of marketers feel their videos are hindered because they lack strategy
• How to videos increased 37% since 2012
• Industry commentary video blogs
• The shorter the video the less production value needed

Video strategy

• Corporate overview
• Executive interview series
• Corporate culture video
• Product launch video
• Comedy gets 530% more views per video than videos that are only about the products
• Keep videos short
• CTAs after video finishes
• Landing pages with video had 257% increase in conversions

Remarketing for Conversion Optimization

• Consumers have higher expectations for relevancy
• 7 vs 4 convert out of 100 with remarketing
• You should tag all parts of your website
• Focus lists with remarketing. Target homepage viewers, shop abandoners, past converters, etc.
• Pair remarketing with conversion optimizer
• Use all display ad sizes and formats
• Use dynamic remarketing – 2x conversion rate – use an ad related to the offer they saw
• Move from conversion optimizer to return on ad spend eventually ROAS
• Let algorithm optimize by itself – don’t use frequency caps
• Expand to similar audiences – lookalike – increases conversions 40%

A/b test everything

And there you have it! Feel free to reach out if you need custom solutions for your business or career. ‘Till next time…

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