Your website looks great. Traffic is on the rise. You’re running a few Facebook ads, and you’re sending out newsletters. Things are going pretty well – except that pesky sales column is still stuck at $0. What gives?

Your demographics are off

You’re clearly targeting well enough to increase your traffic, but something is going wrong if none of those visitors are biting. In this case, you might want to look at your demographics.

If you’re using fairly vague customer profiles, try zeroing in on a smaller, focused, and hopefully more engaged audience. Take a look at your CTR to see who is actually engaging with your posts on social media, and try targeting different niche demographics instead of a wide swath.

Doing this could help you find a more narrow and exact customer profile that has intention to buy.

IF YOU’RE USING FAIRLY VAGUE CUSTOMER PROFILES, TRY ZEROING IN ON A SMALLER, FOCUSED, AND HOPEFULLY MORE ENGAGED AUDIENCE. 

Your keywords don’t match your goals

Take a look at what keywords are driving your traffic – there are a couple things that can go wrong here.

First, are your visitors just seeking out information? You may have an active keyword that’s drawing people in that have no intention to buy — “best laptop processors” vs. “cost-effective laptops.” If people are going to your site to find out more about a product they’re interested in, they are extremely unlikely to convert. Try ramping up the keywords that are more sales-focused.

Second: are you “tricking” people into visiting your website? Check the popular keywords to see if they’re directing your visitors to relevant pages for what they want. If they’re looking for a comparison list and being directed to a product page, they’re going to leave your site immediately, and that means you’ve found a successful keyword…but not for you.

You aren’t telling them what to do

This is a huge problem with social media campaigns in particular, but can be a problem with websites as well.

Take a second look at those social media ads you’re running. What is your viewer supposed to do? Visit your site? Sign up for a free trial? Download this whitepaper? Make sure you’re telling them to do that, clearly and immediately. Try experimenting with different copy for your call to action to see what works best.

If your CTR is high, meaning that people are engaging with your ad (either by liking, commenting, or clicking the link), they may like the ad but just not know what you want them to do from there.

On your website, make sure your call to action button isn’t too hard to find, and is as concise as possible.

Your website is not actually that nice

We know, your website is your pride and joy. But you’ve been working on it for too long, you’re too close to it, and you have no idea what a first-time user is experiencing. Things that seem obvious to you will not be obvious to your user.

If you’re getting visitors but no sales, it’s time to experiment with some A/B testing, and potentially invest in some site testers. You need to find out what they don’t like or don’t understand so you can fix it. Whether that means upgrading your checkout experience to involve less clicks or creating a smarter dynamic search feature that anticipates what customers are looking for, it’s a task that requires some elbow grease if you’re to improve sales.

But how do you figure all that out?

Well, that’s where the data comes in. You need to invest in a tool that can give you relevant and accurate data about where your visitors are bouncing or converting, how much time they’re spending on each area of your site, and how they’re navigating to different areas. All this data will help you see everything through the eyes of your user, so that you can make necessary changes to make their experience a positive one.

YOU NEED TO INVEST IN A TOOL THAT CAN GIVE YOU RELEVANT AND ACCURATE DATA ABOUT WHERE YOUR VISITORS ARE BOUNCING OR CONVERTING.

You don’t look good on mobile

As you know, mobile is the name of the game — clearly, because of those social media campaigns you’re running. But there is no faster way to alienate a mobile user than to not make your website optimized for mobile users.

Is it formatted correctly? Is there a clear way to get to the menu and navigate around the page? Are the buttons visible and not hidden behind weirdly-misplaced text? Is the clickable area of a button too small or too large?

All that increased traffic without the payoff could be because your mobile visitors love your ads but are bouncing because of poor design for tablets and phones.

Getting your website up and running and starting some ad campaigns is a great start, but there’s a lot more work to do. Getting an increase in traffic is the first step; the next one is to make more sales! Hopefully these tips helped you think about where you might be making missteps, and how to steer yourself back in the right direction.

Jake Rheude is the Director of Marketing for Red Stag Fulfillment, an ecommerce fulfillment warehouse that was born out of ecommerce. He has years of experience in ecommerce and business development. In his free time, Jake enjoys reading about business and sharing his own experience with others.

ContentSquare CEO Jonathan Cherki answers burning questions about digital experience and customer journey optimization. Follow this series.

Last week, ContentSquare was at Adobe Summit in Las Vegas, meeting digital leaders and digital experience teams from all over the world. One of the questions I got asked a lot during the event was, “How do I know which type of content to invest in?”

A change to the User Experience (UX) only becomes an improvement once it evidences a positive impact. That’s why having the ability to measure the performance of digital investments is invaluable to brands wishing to see a healthy ROI for their digital assets. Brands need strong data attribution models so they can react fast and confidently to their customers’ needs and usage patterns.

A change to the User Experience (UX) only becomes an improvement once it evidences a positive impact. That’s why having the ability to measure the performance of digital investments is invaluable to brands wishing to see a healthy ROI for their digital assets. Brands need strong data attribution models so they can react fast and confidently to their customers’ needs and usage patterns.

REVEALING HIDDEN DIGITAL EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITIES

One of the motivators for starting ContentSquare in 2012 was the realization that many companies developing sites had no idea what was happening online. Their website was like a black box that no one could open, full of information about the digital behavior of customers and prospects.

This challenge is one of the things that got me interested in analytics in the first place—making obvious what was hidden until now to help brands distribute time and resources in the most productive way.

In the luxury industry, for example, brands have vast budgets to develop inspirational content with extremely high production values. But how do they know whether this content or campaign is working for them and driving business?

Being able to attribute revenue to content at an elemental level – seeing not just which page, but which individual pieces of in-page content encourage conversion, and which are obstacles in the navigation – is key to identifying where your UX budget is best spent. Whether that’s a menu item, CTA button, thumbnail image, video, etc. – getting an accurate measure of content value allows teams to focus on prioritizing and validating optimizations, and invest in the areas of highest impact.

DEMOCRATIZING THE REVENUE ATTRIBUTION PROCESS

Furthermore, a clear, shareable attribution model has the power to change brands’ digital marketing culture by empowering even non-analysts to measure their contribution to a company’s digital revenue goals. The ability to pinpoint where and why you lost visitors helps you determine where you should invest efforts and resources to get the highest ROI. It’s also more efficient to A/B test when you can tell not just which test but what element, in a variant, led to better results.

A CLEAR, SHAREABLE ATTRIBUTION MODEL HAS THE POWER TO CHANGE BRANDS’ DIGITAL MARKETING CULTURE.

Analytics have come a long way in recent years, and today, marketers know that understanding the expectations and behavior of digital consumers is the backbone of a good online experience. In the same way, understanding the needs and challenges of brands with online assets is vital to developing a good digital insights platform.

Certainly for us, improving our product would not be possible without listening to the people who use it day-to-day. We want the solution to keep growing with your goals, which is why we put brands at the heart of our research and development strategy. When we develop new features and capabilities for our product, it’s in direct response to the feedback and questions of those who want to leverage big data into a better connection with their customers.

So – keep those questions coming—email us at askmeanything@contentsquare.com—keep talking to us, and we will listen and work to solve the issues most important to you.

Brands today are constantly on the lookout for the perfect user experience (UX) formula that will keep their digital audience engaged all the way to conversion. But connection is a two-way street, and to be successful, requires a sophisticated understanding of who it is you’re trying to connect with.

For that, brands have personas – ideal archetypes of the people who might come to them for goods and services. And while personas are helpful, what they lack are the layers of complexity that define everyday interactions – including browsing for stuff online.

A cosmetics brand, for example, might direct its collection and messaging at a specific demographic. A typical persona might be Coachella Chloe, a 19-year-old college freshman and fashion enthusiast who never turns her phone off. Based on the variables used to define Chloe, our cosmetics brand will make a number of assumptions about the digital behavior of their target audience.

But while some things about Chloe will remain constant, many things won’t. Her behavior online, for one, is subject to any number of influences depending on where she finds herself, what device she’s using, and of course, what she’s trying to achieve.

Making Chloe a happy digital customer requires more than simply taking into account her persona. Only the combining of persona with intent and context can lead to an in-depth understanding of Chloe’s mindset – the emotional foundation that will impact her navigation.

Become a mindset reader with behavioral analytics

We analyzed millions of user sessions to better understand the digital patterns of behavior associated with different and recurring consumer mindsets.

We investigated three distinct combinations of persona, intent and context, looking at what happened when one of the variables – persona, intent, or context – was different.

To understand the impact of context on mindset, for example, we examined the difference in behavior of a converting group of users on laptop versus non-converting users on mobile. From our research, we were able to extract two distinct mindsets – distracted and determined.

We found that determined users were quick to make up their minds about the products they were drawn to, browsing fewer items and heading straight to the pages that interested them.

They were twice as likely to land on the cart page, for example, than the other group.

Distracted users were 23% more likely to land on a product page than determined users and saw these pages 22.3% more than their determined counterparts. They also displayed an 18.8% higher chance of reaching the homepage during their navigation, indicating longer, more chaotic sessions.

Distracted users on mobile were 17.6% more likely to reach the checkout than determined users on desktop, suggesting a real intention to buy. Despite this, determined users had 59% more chance of reaching the checkout confirmation page than when distracted, presumably encountering enough friction at checkout to defeat their initial purchasing objective.

Determined users also saw the cart page 82% more times during their navigation, spending 1.7 times longer there than when distracted.

Why think beyond digital personas

Putting consumer mindset at the heart of their strategy helps digital teams adapt interfaces to changing environments and fluctuating user moods. It allows them to move beyond the composite sketch of persona to address real-life situations and the feelings they trigger.

Because digital behavior and digital journeys are anything but static. Coachella Chloe, for example, will browse differently depending on whether she is determined or distracted. By developing experiences that can adapt to her changing mood, our cosmetics company is that much closer to delivering a consistently satisfying experience to its valued audience.

As mobile traffic continues to flaunt a healthy growth, conversion rates on the device remain underwhelming compared to desktop averages. Behavioral data illustrates a significant gap between consumers’ willingness to shop on their smartphones, and the quality of experiences that are being developed for mobile users.

We analyzed 17 million user sessions in 2018, across 13 sites (cosmetics, footwear, clothing, media and DIY) and in 4 countries (France, Germany, UK, and the US), to better understand what is preventing mobile users from purchasing on their small screens.

PURCHASING VS NON-PURCHASING MOBILE JOURNEYS

One thing we noticed is that desktop and mobile consumers exhibit similar user behavior when their journey ends in a purchase.

Desktop buyers browse for an average 24 minutes – that’s only 3 minutes longer than the 21-minute navigation average of mobile buyers. In that time, desktop users will view an average of 28 pages, with the typical mobile purchasing journey unfolding over 26 pages.

As we can see from the data, the purchasing journey doesn’t change that much from desktop to mobile, with both segments requiring a similar level of engagement with a brand and its offer before filling in their credit card details.

When it comes to non-buyers, mobile users also view a similar number of pages as their desktop counterparts – 6 pages on desktop versus 5 on mobile.

Non-buyers, however, abandon their journey much quicker on mobile than on desktop. In fact, users spend half the time on mobile as they do on desktop during non-purchasing sessions, with the average no-purchase desktop session lasting 6 minutes – versus 3 minutes on mobile.

Once frustration sets in on mobile, it’s a short path to exit, and users clearly have little patience when it comes to negotiating a clunky user experience (UX).

ONCE FRUSTRATION SETS IN ON MOBILE, IT’S A SHORT PATH TO EXIT.

Another glaring contrast is the difference between the time spent on a site for buyers and non-buyers. Mobile shoppers who walk away with a purchase will spend 7 times longer browsing a site than those who don’t – 21 minutes versus 3 minutes. This gap reduces for desktop users, with converting users spending 4 times longer on a site than non-buyers – 24 minutes versus 6 minutes.

What we can see is that the device does not really impact the number of pages a user is willing to view during their navigation – visitors who end up buying, whether on desktop or mobile, are particularly hungry for content.

VISITORS WHO END UP BUYING,WHETHER ON DESKTOP OR MOBILE, ARE PARTICULARLY HUNGRY FOR CONTENT.

There are many steps brands can take to optimize content for mobile. Developing easy product comparison tools to cut down on unnecessary steps, speeding up loading times, upgrading the information architecture to anticipate the content needs of users with different intents and contexts will go a long way to improving the connection with your audience.

PRODUCT PAGE AS LANDING PAGE

Users who start their journey on a product page spend less time on a site than those who enter through a non-product page – 3 minutes versus 8 minutes. The product page as landing page also has a 56% bounce rate (which is actually quite healthy!), meaning only 1 in 2 users persevere in their journey after landing on a product.

When it comes to mobile browsing, efficiency is key – welcoming visitors to your site through a product page can result in more focused, productive journeys.

WELCOMING VISITORS TO YOUR SITE THROUGH A PRODUCT PAGE CAN RESULT IN MORE FOCUSED, PRODUCTIVE JOURNEYS.

The product page as landing page also has a better scroll rate than other pages (54.6% versus 48.1%), suggesting users are more willing to engage with these types of pages at the start of their journey. This is confirmed by a high level of interaction, with users who land on a product page displaying a 31% activity rate (time spend scrolling, hovering or clicking), versus 19% when they land on other pages.

The data also provides interesting insights into the impact of various mobile acquisition sources. In the case of product page as landing page, for example, visits from social media, SEA or email sources have a 1.4% conversion rate. That’s 27.3% higher than visits from SEO sources (1.1% conversion rate).

Visitors from social media, SEA or email sources also bounce slightly less – 52% versus 56% for SEO visitors.

Brands should continue to invest in these acquisition sources, which are driving a meaningful chunk of mobile conversions. Ensuring consistency between the messages brands convey in their social media, advertising or email campaigns and the landing page content is key to keeping users interested.

OBSTACLES AT CHECKOUT

Checkout abandonment is a real problem when smartphone shopping. Mobile users who reach the shopping cart have a 16.8% conversion rate – that’s almost half the conversion rate of their desktop counterparts, who have a 32.2% conversion rate.

In other words, over 80% of mobile users who reach the cart don’t complete their purchase.

Data shows that mobile users who reached the checkout page but don’t go through with their purchase spend more time on the page and interact with it more than those who do make a purchase. Non-buyers spend 4 seconds more than buyers interacting with the page, and have a 33% higher activity rate than those who ultimately click Buy.

The key to shrinking exit rates at checkout is to make the final steps of conversion as seamless as possible. Reducing form filling by allowing users to log in via their social media accounts, offering guest checkout options and alternative payment methods such as fingerprint authentication will all help reduce friction.

Today’s consumers are addicted to convenience, and the most forward-thinking digital brands are making sure that shoppers don’t have to pick between choice and seamlessness.

And as mobile traffic continues to grow, adapting desktop interfaces to mobile is no longer a winning strategy. Brands need to understand the demands and expectations of their time-sensitive and highly mobile audience, and put these needs at the heart of experience development.

See My Industry’s Benchmarks

Q&A with Bobby Chucas, Product Manager OVO

Energy is a fast-moving industry with changing consumer expectations and intense competition. So – in a crowded landscape of energy suppliers, how can your brand outshine the competition and enhance the customer experience? According to OVO Energy Product Manager Bobby Chucas, the answer could lie in your User Experience (UX).

When it comes to data analytics, how do you think the energy sector compares to other industries like retail?

BOBBY CHUCAS: There’s been a noticeable shift over the past few years to focus on agile ways of working, testing, optimization etc., reflecting a similar change that occurred across other industries such as retail, travel, and gaming.

There have also been a number of newer entrants who have been able to gain traction in the market, based somewhat on the simplicity and quality of their UX. The difficulty here is that there’s a serious amount going on behind the scenes in an energy company, and many of these newer entrants are unable to provide basic operational services, such as installing smart meters, so there’s more to the UX equation than just digital channels. OVO is in something of a sweet spot as we have strong operational capability behind us, while also being customer focused in our development approach.

The energy industry has grown from the big six providers to over sixty in the past decade, and as in any closely contested industry, UX will continue to be a significant differentiator for companies that prioritize it appropriately.

Would you say today’s customers are more engaged with their energy supplier than in previous years?

BC: We see more than ¾ of our customers checking their account online, and that ability to give customers instant access and data is important to keep them engaged with their energy usage, and ultimately their energy supplier.

Energy is more than simply turning the lights off and on. As more people start using more energy, the way they interact with their energy supplier and suite of new services is crucial to engaging with the customer of the future. There are a range of processes and interactions that users undertake with their energy company which makes the overall value proposition more than just their unit rates. And as providers get more effective at conveying this value, they will be rewarded with increasingly loyal, engaged, and satisfied customers.

AS MORE PEOPLE START USING MORE ENERGY, THE WAY THEY INTERACT WITH THEIR ENERGY SUPPLIER AND SUITE OF NEW SERVICES IS CRUCIAL TO ENGAGING WITH THE CUSTOMER OF THE FUTURE.

How have digital channels changed the way customers interact with their supplier?

BC: Many people might not want to always ring up a call centre if they need to manage their account, and the primary focus of our digital channels is to allow users to do everything they need to do quickly and easily. This covers things like submitting meter readings, booking smart meter installations, renewing tariffs – things that were pretty onerous in the past.

In an ideal world, any interaction with your energy supplier should be quick and easy. That isn’t really possible without appropriate digital channels, and by listening to and understanding our users’ needs around available functionality, user interfaces, and support content, we can incrementally iron out any obstacles and hopefully leave our users happier.

What can energy companies do to ensure their online interfaces cater to customer needs?

BC: First things first, you’ve got to know what the customer needs are! For us, that comes from a few different areas: the explicit feedback customers provide over the phone (as well observing the common topics that customers call up about), and the in-app feedback alongside behavioral data that shows how users are engaging with our interfaces.

Secondly, you’ve got to listen to those needs. If you’re able to capture that data and access it appropriately, then you’ll be able to fairly represent the needs and frustrations of your users. Segmentation is hugely important here: the breadth and quality of data you are able to leverage about your users will define how well you can cater to more specific groups, which is often more powerful than one-size-fits-all optimization.

IN AN IDEAL WORLD, ANY INTERACTION WITH YOUR ENERGY SUPPLIER SHOULD BE QUICK AND EASY.

Thirdly, you’ve got to try to meet those needs. By clearly understanding which needle you’re trying to move and what the goal is, you’ll be able to articulate success much more credibly – particularly to stakeholders who don’t necessarily agree with an idea.

Lastly, you’ve got to make sure you’ve met the needs. Obviously A/B testing is the ideal way to do this, but there will be situations where this isn’t really feasible. For example, if we notice that the bounce rate on a certain page is high for mobile devices, and hypothesize that this is down to page speed, that’s pretty difficult to A/B test. But, there should always be a relevant metric that you can observe and understand, while being aware of the impact of seasonality, volume, external campaigns etc.

Once you feel those needs are met, rinse and repeat!

With more and more brands embracing the idea that customer journeys are fundamentally emotional, I am often asked how analytics can be leveraged into experiences that address the needs of different consumer mindsets.

It’s a great question. With such a huge market for online retail, how do you create seamless digital journeys that meet the needs and expectations of every consumer? And how do you do this knowing that one consumer does not equal one consumer journey, and that visitors will navigate your site differently depending on their circumstances?

The emotional side of the digital experience

Digital marketing teams today have the tools to understand the nuances of visitor behavior, and have started to embrace the emotional side of data. Where they once segmented their audience according to personas, they are now adding a layer of insight to their workflow by adding consumer mindsets to the equation – i.e. the feelings that go hand in hand with digital behavior.

WHERE THEY ONCE SEGMENTED THEIR AUDIENCE ACCORDING TO PERSONAS, THEY ARE NOW ADDING A LAYER OF INSIGHT TO THEIR WORKFLOW BY ADDING CONSUMER MINDSETS TO THE EQUATION.

Think of it this way – digital journeys are influenced by more than just demographics and content. Factors like device, time of day, and quality of service all impact navigation. So do variables like traffic source, customer intent, etc.

For example, when ContentSquare’s office manager is trying to book six flights to Las Vegas on a desktop, she has a different experience than when she is on the subway platform, looking up last-minute package trips to Tulum on a mobile with a spotty connection. She might be focused in the first instance, and frustrated in the second.

Connecting with profitable mindsets

The challenge for brands today is to develop navigation paths that adapt to the potential mindsets of their most profitable audiences – answering the needs of focused users and those who, for a variety of reasons, are more distracted in their navigation.

And since e-Commerce disruptors like Amazon or Airbnb have accustomed today’s consumers to a near-faultless user experience (UX), and raised the bar for digital convenience even higher, it can seem like a daunting challenge.

The first step to answering all these different needs is to understand them. Really getting to know the ways in which visitors navigate your site will help you refine segments according to behavioral criteria. It is this level of understanding that will help you tailor optimizations to specific mindsets, removing another layer of guesswork and truly putting consumer experience at the heart of your marketing strategy.

Knowing where that productive mindset drops off, or which field is a field too many for the distracted mindset will help teams focus improvements, and create journeys that can withstand the influence of all those factors brands can’t control.

Because while you may be unable to control your users’ mindset, you can anticipate it, and make sure that your UX caters to it.