Benji Rabhan argues for a holistic optimization approach. Through Holistic Conversion Rate Optimization (HCRO) we may consider the big picture of what happens when people enter and exit our website. Rabhan provides advice on how to apply HCRO principles to our businesses and organizations.
Change, Test, Assess, Consolidate.
The underlying model of HCRO is that of an ecosystem. A website is a series of co-dependent components that work together. Therefore, because everything influences everything else, we must be deliberate with our actions. We need to form and evaluate a hypothesis. Then, after the hypothesis is tested and confirmed with our expectations, we need to then assess it. In this stage, we are asking what other effects occurred as a consequence of our actions. If we find a positive outcome then great. However, if we find some negative outcome we obviously must start again. The lesson here is that it is not enough to just determine whether your action did what you wanted it to do, you must also determine if it affected everything else in the ecosystem.
Relevance and Design
Rebhan tells us that there are a few things that a potential customer considers within a fraction of a second upon entering our website. Is this page relevant? Is it credible? Is what they’re offering a good enough value to get the conversion? The goal is to design our website in a way that meets these subconscious considerations. Some questions to consider when evaluating our websites are:
- Is it relevant to our audience?
- Does it have a credible feel to the target visitors?
- Does it look professional enough to trust?
- Is the offer a good value?
- Does it come close to visitors’ true desire?
- Is the offer clear enough to be understood in the amount of time they are visiting?
Color and Contrast
The color of our web page and the concentration of colors on certain spots on a page can subconsciously affect the users and significantly affect the way that they interact with it. A good example of this is if we have a web page mostly made of white and black colors, a bright color placed somewhere on the page will draw the user’s eye to it. Colors can also be used to make associations. For example, many people associate green with “go” and red with “stop”. These associations could be used to dictate the way traffic flows on the website.
The Get Principle
When people want to get something, whether it's information, a product, a service, self-esteem, They also want to get confirmation that they were right about something. Whatever they want, give it to them. But don’t tell them what we’re going to give them, tell them what they’re going to get. It’s important to use the word get instead of giving. When in doubt, we need to use the word “get” to focus our brain thinking in the right direction. In this way, we remind them of their side of the exchange.