9 Must-Have Conversion Rate Optimisation Software Tools
Today I’m going to run through the must-have conversion rate optimisation tools for any online brand, but this won’t be like most articles you see on this topic. Instead of focusing on the tools themselves, I’m going to flip things around and list the essential CRO tasks you need to complete with a number of tool recommendations along the way.
The reason I’m doing it this way is because most optimisation tools do various tasks, but none of them do it all. So it’s better to know what you need from your toolset before you sign up to anything. This way you can choose the right combination of tools and make sure there are no gaps or unnecessary overlaps in your CRO tech stack.
Task #1: Analytics
The first tool any website needs for conversion optimisation is a solid analytics platform, but I always suggest using at least two. Aside from being one of the best tools in the business, Google Analytics is free, which makes it a no-brainer. But why am I saying you should have more than one analytics tool?
Well, You only have to look at the problems Facebook had in 2016 with data accuracy to see no analytics platform is 100% reliable. So it always pays to have at least two sets of data coming in for your most important metrics. You’ll also find certain discrepancies in the data tools provide, which means the more datasets you have, the more robust your insights are.
The good news is just about every CRO tool provide some kind of analytics, making it easy to compare datasets. There’s even a free Google Analytics competitor in the name of Piwik, an open-source tool that comes with most of Google Analytics’ features. You also have the likes of Kissmetrics and Adobe Analytics that come with a richer set of features although you have to pay for the privilege with these ones.
Task #2: Landing page optimisation
Normally, your most qualified traffic starts their journey on a landing page (or product/service page). Needless to say, these are pretty damn important and they should be a key area of focus for your conversion optimisation strategy.
Tools like Unbounce and Instapage are great for creating and managing your landing pages from one place and they also offer analytics and testing features. You’ll still want to set up events tracking in Google Analytics (and your other analytics tools) for more accurate conversion data, but tools like Unbounce make it incredibly easy to manage and edit pages without writing any code.
Task #3: Form optimisation
Unfortunately, forms are a real conversion killer but there are plenty of optimisation tools you can use to reveal where users are running into problems with your web forms. The reason I like Leadformly is it comes with pre-optimised web forms you can embed on any page and customise without writing any code. Of all the form tools I’ve used, this is by far the quickest way to make a positive impact on your form conversion rates.
Task #4: A/B testing tool
VWO is one of the best A/B testing tools in the game
There are so many A/B testing tools on the market these days, it’s hard to keep up with them all. On the one hand, it’s great that testing has become so accessible, but there’s been a lot of misinformation to come with it.
First of all, I don’t buy into the notion that small-to-medium size businesses should be testing every CTA button; your time can be better spent elsewhere. The most important thing with any A/B test is to be sure you have a large enough sample audience to make your data reliable. When you test small details or multiple variations you’re instantly reducing the size of your sample audience and the quality of your data decreases.
Unless you’re a major eCommerce brand (or attracting similar volumes of traffic) I would stick to testing full pages or major sections – eg: landing pages, hero sections, etc. Optimizely and VWO are probably the two biggest names in testing tools while Unbounce and Instapage also come with A/B testing features for landing pages.
Task #5: Personalisation
Optimizely makes it easy to personalise your content for multiple audiences
Personalisation is the new big trend in conversion optimisation, allowing you to show different messages to users based on their previous actions. For example, first-time visitors can see a completely different homepage to returning visitors and different again to previous visitors who abandoned their shopping cart.
Tools like Optimizely, VWO, Adobe Target and various others make personalisation pretty easy – all great options if you’re looking to get involved.
Just remember that splitting your visitors into different segments cuts your sample audience into smaller chunks – so make sure you have enough traffic for each segment to generate a large enough sample size for testing.
Task #6: Sales automation
It’s no good generating leads if you don’t have the resources to handle them and platforms like Infusionsoft automate a huge chunk of the process for you. One of its best features from a conversion point of view is automating lead follow-ups with personalised messages for a range of different actions: email sends, form submissions, payment history and more.
As the number of interactions between consumers and brands increases it can be tricky to keep track of where users are long the buying process. With sales automation, you know where everyone is and you have an automated system to send them personalised messages encouraging them to take the next step.
Task #7: User behaviour
Clicktale is an incredible enterprise analytics and CRO tool
One of the best ways to measure website performance is to see what users get up to while they’re on it. If people aren’t seeing your call-to-action, you know it needs to go somewhere else. If they keep clicking on static elements, you know it’s time to revise the design of your links, buttons and other UI elements.
This is where heatmapping remains one of the most valuable conversion rate optimisation tools in your tech stack. CrazyEgg is still the big name in heatmapping and I’ve mentioned Hotjar before – both of which are great tools for heatmapping specifically. However, if you want a full analytics and conversion optimisation tool rolled into one, Clicktale gets my recommendation.
Task #8: Speed optimisation
GTmetrix is a free page speed tool that gives detailed feedback and recommendations
The best tool you can have on your side for speed optimisation is a quality developer who knows how to put code together with performance in mind. However, if your site is already live and lagging behind, you need to diagnose what the problem is.
Luckily, there are plenty of free tools to help with this. GTmetix, Pingdom and Google’s Page Speed tools are just a few of your free options.
To get the fastest results you’ll also want to look into content delivery networks (CDNs) to speed up your site and caching tools for return visitors. You should also minify your CSS, JavaScript and other resources and don’t forget to optimise your images and other files for faster loading times.
Task #9: Competitor analysis
Every tool we’ve looked at so far helps you analyse your own site but there’s a lot to be said for learning from your competitors. Competitor analysis tools have been around for ages but Similar Web is the standout option for me right now.
First of all, its pool of data is huge and global (many are US-centric). With this tool you can pinpoint your closest search competitors, based on keyword performance, and it also tells you when new competitors emerge. You get detailed insights into their performance, including number of visits, page views, bounce rate and visit duration – plus audience interests, geolocation details and a whole lot more.
Be efficient with conversion optimisation
It’s easy to get lost in a sea of data and irrelevant tests with conversion rate optimisation, which only ends up wasting time and money for nothing – or worse, causing more harm than good. Conversion rate optimisation only works when it’s efficient and this means choosing the right tools and areas of your site to focus on. Always aim for key areas of your website rather than small details because this is where the real impact will be made and automate as much of the process as you can with your CRO tech stack.
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