Everybody is always looking for the next great marketing hack.
The next great tactic that is going to skyrocket their sales and company growth.
That one glorified A/B test to change everything…
But more often than not, this leads to neglecting key factors that we know impact sales.
Product pages don’t need to be fancy, and simple tweaks don’t always net big results.
Instead, you should be focusing on the forest, not the individual trees.
Here are four stupid simple ways to increase product page conversions TODAY.
1. Speed and Usability are Everything
When optimizing product pages, more often than not we focus on things of less importance.
Things like our call-to-action button color or copy. Small one-off tactics we saw in the latest case study.
But these are generally a waste of time if you aren’t hitting the key elements of successful product pages.
And one of the biggest (in impact and amount neglected) is uptime, page speed, and usability.
Don’t believe it?
According to BigCommerce, a simple one second delay in page load time results in a 7% conversion rate drop. “For an online store earning $50,000 a day, that one-second delay adds up to more than $1 million in lost sales each year.”
And according to Google, the average site in every industry is far too slow:
Every second raises your bounce rate dramatically. That means less sales and failing to capitalize on existing traffic. A single minute of downtime is $24,420 down the drain for Facebook and $66,240 for Amazon.
If you have spent time testing button colors for your CTA, but have been neglecting both page speed and uptime, you could be costing your business sales and growth.
Even a few seconds can result in millions of lost sales over the course of a few years. And as you grow, this gap only widens.
Why is this happening? Well, a recent study shows that most business owners are using ecommerce builders to launch their site. In fact, nearly 60% have used them.
But using ecommerce builders alone isn’t the problem, in fact, they have some stellar benefits, according to expert Nick Schäferhoff:
“Especially when going with a hosted solution, you are able to let go of more parts of running your site. No need to deal with web hosting, security, updates, and likes. Instead, you are able to simply concentrate on growing your business.”
The real problem lies beneath their primary benefit: ease of customization. The same study found that most businesses conduct full site theme/redesign changes every year.
That’s a recipe for poor site speed. Updating your theme can wreak havoc on your page elements and subsequently page weight, directly slowing your site down.
To combat this, use a tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights, where you can get direct data on your site speed:
This will generate a score from 0-100 based on your site speed. In this case, closer to 100 is better.
The first number you should analyze in this report is the Speed Index. This is the general summary on how many seconds your page takes to load on your selected device:
If your speed is under three seconds, congrats! If not, you should definitely be considering every potential way to improve it.
Next, analyze the opportunities report. This is a list of potential fixes you can make on your website to improve site speed. Focus on the column marked as estimated savings. This details the amount of time you can shed from your site load time by implementing the fix.
This will help you prioritize your efforts on the biggest wins. When it comes to site speed, sometimes the most technical, difficult, and expensive fixes don’t net you big wins.
If you currently have a web developer, simply send them this generated report with the fixes listed in the opportunity section.
If you prefer DIY, click on each opportunity to get detailed instructions on how to modify them.
Deliver a better user experience with fast loading and reliability before you micro-optimize.
2. Limit Purchase Hesitation and Conversion Roadblocks
Product and service pages often display key information about your offerings.
They address user wants, needs, and desires. They tap into pain points and evoke emotion.
But regardless of that, conversion roadblocks still occur.
Whether it’s pricing, specific features, or interest in key information that isn’t on the page, they happen. Often. It’s why cart abandonment rates are so high both in B2C ecommerce and B2B product pages.
So, how do you limit it? There are many ways.
First, you can start attacking roadblocks head on using a knowledge base. Freshdesk defines a knowledge base software as:
“A knowledge base software helps you document tutorials, DIY guides, and answers to frequently asked questions in one place. A well indexed Knowledge Base empowers customers to discover answers and fix easy problems by themselves allowing your business to focus on the tough problems.”
Why is it needed? Because more than half of consumers will ditch their purchase if they can’t answer their question or solve a problem quick enough.
And just having your company phone number and a form ain’t gonna cut it.
A searchable, indexable knowledge base ensures that these abandoned sessions rarely happen. Take Slack for example:
You can find answers to any question from emojis to password resets, third-party integrations, and high-level features for businesses. It accommodates every purchaser and target market.
They limit purchase hesitation by tackling potential roadblocks before they arise, not after.
Want to increase product page conversions? Address every pain point and problem in the book.
3. Develop Your Brand as a Niche Expert
Branding is the first thing that consumers look for in search engine results.
If someone is searching for products and services in your niche, you better hope you’ve invested time and money into branding.
If you haven’t, your competitor is likely getting the sale.
Developing your brand as a niche expert requires creating a content strategy to produce value for targeted searches in your space. And your content has to be top notch.
An example of niche, expert content includes OrbitMedia’s annual Blogging Survey, a piece that CEO Andy Crestodina spends 150 hours on each year to complete.
This niche content helps the OrbitMedia brand to stand out in search results and convert prospects on their product pages.
If you cater to multiple target markets and niches, you can customize your product page copy for different audiences.
This is a tactic that successful brands like Slack take advantage of. For example, they target engineers with their own product page:
And subsequently, they target marketing with their own page too:
Developing your brand as a niche leader is critical to obtaining market share and increasing conversions.
Doing so means less money spent on remarketing and bigger profits. Does it take longer? You bet. But the payoffs are big.
4. Audit Your Pages Using Heatmaps and Scrollmaps
It’s difficult to know what information you should include and exclude on your product pages.
The dilemma is: more content is often better for SEO, organic search, and rankings. But too much content on a product page takes away from the main goal of selling.
So, where do you go from here?
First, you should conduct an audit. Using scrollmaps and heatmaps, you can assess what portions of your product pages get the most traction:
Hot (red / orange / yellow / white) sections of your product page mean that people are spending more time here. This is a good sign that the content within this section is interesting and informative.
Conversely, if sections are blue, people are likely skipping over the content and don’t find it relevant.
This gives you insights into two specific things:
- What content works and doesn’t work
- Where you can start to place call-to-actions buttons
If your call-to-actions are located in cold, blue zones, shift their location on the page into warmer zones and see how your conversions perform in comparison.
Audit your top product pages using these scrollmaps and heatmaps. Then, A/B test your new idea to the existing page and analyze the results.
If you see improvements, you are on the right track and can start to iterate that idea across other product pages too.
Conclusion
Product pages are the lifeblood of sales. Whether it’s direct to consumer, ecommerce, or B2B sales, you need heavily optimized pages if you want to grow.
And more often than not, key factors are neglected in favor of edgy, flashy marketing hacks.
Before ever considering them, you need to go back to the basics. The heavy hitters are almost a surefire way to improve sales.
Start by addressing your speed and usability, improving it wherever possible. Then, begin limiting purchase hesitation with a knowledge base and clear-cut messaging. Start auditing using heatmaps, and developing your brand through niche content to “warm up” visitors before purchase decisions.
Only then will your product pages become the goldmines they were intended to be.
Take a look at Codester.com in depth analysis to help Selling Your Digital Products On A Marketplace: How To Get Your First 100 Sales
