Heuristic Framework for Conversion Optimization
A strategic framework to improve your optimization program.
As part of the series of posts to review the Conversion Rate Optimization course at CXL, this week we look at the heuristic framework for conversion optimization.
If you Google “Heuristics’ ‘, you would find scores of definitions, but the instructor Andre Morys keeps it quite succinct and effective with the below definition.
Heuristics are strategies derived from previous experiences with similar problems.
So we will look at a proven framework that can be adopted to run conversion optimization using heuristics.
Introduction to heuristic evaluation
There are a whole number of methods to evaluate a website though they come with caveats — user testing (provide you are asking the right questions), A/B testing (if you are clear about what you are testing), data analysis (if read with the right context), voice of customer (provided the respondents have the required awareness) as so on. Hence it takes a combination of quantitative as well as qualitative methods to do a comprehensive evaluation.
A simple concept that you need to keep in mind on optimization is called “SOR” or Stimulus-Organism-Reaction. You’re essentially trying to optimize a stimulus (your website) to an organism (your users or their mind) that creates a reaction (the action he/she takes on the stimulus). So it is key to keep the user as the central focus in the whole exercise.
When you keep a user’s perspective at the forefront, you will realize that motivational factors that make a user to take action is more important than the must-have features from an ROI perspective, since users take the must-haves for granted and that doesn’t tilt the scale in terms of enticing a user to take the desired action even though those do contribute to it. As depicted in the below pyramid, appealing to user motivation has the potential of a better ROI.
That being covered, let’s look at the 7 levels of conversion that make up the heuristic framework for conversion optimization.
Relevance: It is generally a feeling and that happens in a fraction of a second and users who are spoilt for choice in this hyper-distracted world take only that much to make an impression of your website.
A really big factor on relevance is where your users are coming from — what have they searched to reach your site, what content where they are on and so on. The user will expect the same factor that influenced him to click to your page from a dozen possible options on a Search Engine Result Page, on your site as well. So it is key to keep those factors prominent, be it simplicity, easiness, richness, joy and whatever else that caused the action.
In short, when a user lands on a website, they will ask the question, “is this the right website for me?”
To put this into practice, there are a couple of useful tools — employ User Personas for analysis (that will enable you to think in terms of the desired desires and emotions of your target audience) and do A/B Testing (that will help find out which one works if you have multiple user personas to consider).
Trust & Orientation: The trust factor is inversely proportional to the size or popularity of your brand and so if you’re trying to catch up with the big boys in your niche, trust becomes very important. Like relevance, trust is also a feeling and it doesn’t take much time for users to judge you on this factor.
In a study done by Stanford a few years back, it was found that the top 3 factors that influence trust in a website are the design, information architecture and clarity in that order.
Another key factor in building trust in a site is Social Proof. The herd mentality is a widely accepted phenomenon and so people like following people. Don’t believe it? Watch this experiment :)
Any sign of approval or endorsement from fellow users adds to the trust factor of your site. It could be celebrity endorsements, testimonials, trust seals, company logos and so on.
For instance, the ratings and reviews on the below listing from booking.com are hard to escape, won’t you say?
Coming to the second part of this point, orientation is vital in making the users behave the way you want them to and as important it is to avoid design clutter, it is equally vital to avoid content clutter and keep it simple for the user to make a choice. The CTAs of your site direct the navigation to a large extent and so they need to be clearly visible and explicit in their function.
Stimulation: What makes the user buy from you and not from your competitor? That’s what stimulation is all about. This is a critical step in the buyer’s journey and more often than not, people make a buying decision or seriously consider buying from you at this stage.
It is often called the step that tilts the balance one way or the other in the Rubikon model shown below.
So you need to give the user a reason to buy from you and though counter-intuitive, the things you want to stay away from are price and delivery options which could turn out to be “expensive” since it will be hard to win if you go that route. These reasons constitute your unique value proposition or your differentiator from the crowd.
The more things that you have in your USP that are related to value and benefits, the better the chances you have of making the user convert. The must-haves or the hygiene factors as Andre likes to call it, don’t have that effect.
And if you spice it up by including urgency and scarcity that are genuine, you will have the required ingredients to stimulate the users.
Security & Convenience: Once you are able to move your user across the Rubikon barrier, it is all about handling objections. The funny part here is that it is easier to convert users who have objections than those who don’t because if you can address those objections effectively, they are more likely to be convinced. So, proactively addressing objections is part of the sales process that you should do. Having a chat option on the site is an effective way of addressing the objections.
Objections could also be raised on the kind of information you collect and they can be handled by explaining why you are doing so. E.g. DOB for specific insurance plans as they differ based on the age.
Effective guarantee and refund policy is a tried and tested method of handling objections and you should clearly explain those, especially on your checkout pages. An FAQ page that handles all objections is a good practice as well.
Convenience is how easy you make it for the user to do things on your site and also how convenient the user perceives it to be. They need not be exactly the same always. Things like clear visual hierarchy, having space between elements, rounded buttons, clear CTAs etc. all contribute to the convenience to your users.
Confirmation: Users may make emotional or irrational decisions, but they also seek to justify those decisions through confirmation and rational thought. And if you are able to win the customer on this factor, it will result in increased customer lifetime value and repeat purchases.
So it is imperative that you give your users rationally good reasons as confirmation for their action since the worst thing that can happen is for your customer to have buyer’s remorse. So use every opportunity to affirm your customer of their buying decision — be it micro conversions where the users give you contact information or thank you page post a purchase.
Systematic Evaluation: Believe it or not, it is not just your customers who have confirmation bias, you do too and to ensure that your own cognitive biases are not coming in the way of validating your evaluation, you need to follow a process to systemize it. Here are a few things you could do.
- Benchmark your competition (follow the same process explained here on your competitor’s websites)
- Work with multiple raters to increase the validity of the evaluation
- Show the effects of the optimization work which will present a before and after scenario
This way you will be able to get a better buy in from all your stakeholders on your optimization program.
To conclude, the most striking part of this module of the course is that the concepts are explained and illustrated in a comprehensive manner which makes assimilation a lot easier. Andre Morys deserves a lot of credit for that. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
The conversion research methods and frameworks have been quite heavy, but fascinating all the same. Catch you with the next step in the journey, where we’ll look at the world of testing. I’m sure it will be fun.
Ciao!
