Lots of traffic, but no leads
In February 2020 Seed Creativity approached me to carry out an audit for their ‘full-service agency’ website.
In the build-up to contacting me, Seed Creativity had noticed that despite getting adequate levels of traffic to their site, the enquiries were not following. They needed to turn more visitors into leads.
After an initial chat, they decided to commission me to put together a CRO Audit and discover what was going wrong.
The first thing I did was install tracking software to capture data on how users were behaving on the site. In this instance, I used FreshMarketer, which allowed me to not only set up maps but also record user sessions and watch them back.
Next, I delved into Google Analytics to explore KPI’s such as; how many pages users were looking at, how long users were staying on the site, and which pages they were exiting on. The data gave me a good indication of where problems were occurring. The data also showed me that the conversion rate for the main landing page was as low as 0.08%!
Next, I put myself in the position of the end-user. I walked through the site to look for any issues that it would be hard to pinpoint by looking at the data alone.
I combined these three elements (the tracking software, Google Analytics data and site walkthrough) to build a comprehensive picture. I shared my findings with Seed Creativity in a 36-page, detailed report, which went into depth about what was going wrong on their site.
A bitter pill to swallow
My CRO reports don’t pull any punches.
The report highlighted several issues, which I grouped into three key areas:
- Users were struggling to navigate around the site and find the information they needed.
- Users were not engaging with the brand or the site. ALL of the key metrics highlighted that engagement was very low,
- While the site looked great cosmetically, there wasn’t enough information on key pages and the information that was present did not flow naturally.
As a result of these fundamental challenges, users were leaving the site very early in their journey. On average, users were only staying on the main landing page for 0:23 seconds.
How to build a site that works
It was clear from my findings that the site needed a major overhaul. Hearing that the site needs a major overhaul can make business owners think that launching a new website is the answer. However, data has shown that this can often not be the most helpful course of action to take.
Instead of completely redesigning the site from scratch, we decided to work on finding a new structure and information hierarchy by testing a new layout on a key landing page.
If we could find a layout that works, we could then test this across all key service pages and start to build a website that converts.
When redesigning the key landing page for the test, we laid out how we wanted the information on the page to flow, then produced wireframes and a page prototype.
After the design was produced, we set up the test criteria, launched the page and patiently waited while data was collected.
Why not just redesign the whole site?
We decided to redesign the site in a staged, control way rather than all in one go (as with a typical site redesign). This way we can guarantee we’re not going backwards (by producing something less effective than the existing version). Whenever a site has a total redesign, there is no guarantee that the new version will solve the problems of the old one. By redesigning incrementally, we are making changes to the website based on reliable data, (rather than ploughing lots of time, money and resources into something that could ultimately fall short of expectations).
Results that speak for themselves
The results that I was able to report back to Seed Creativity were music to their ears. Time spent on the page by users had increased from 0:23 seconds to 2:25.
The page was now converting higher than average benchmarks! The conversion rate for the page had gone up from 0.08% to 2.15%, which is a mega impressive uplift of 2,587%.
The results didn’t stop there either, this uplift ultimately resulted in a 300% increase in sales.
Naturally, we are all delighted with the results, so the next step is to replicate the new layout across all service pages.
I asked Jonny if he would be kind enough to write a testimony. What he wrote humbled me.
Working with Robert is a game-changer. If you are looking for new leads and sales, then CRO must be at the top of your marketing to-do list. Our initial audit opened our eyes to so many obvious issues that were detracting new customers. Robert's processes are built around common sense, and his auditing is clear and easy to understand. Robert has an amazing breadth of marketing knowledge and is great to work with. Want new business? Then working with Robert is no brainer.
