TL;DR
- Product conversion is when your audience performs a desired action using your product.
- The strategy will keep your efforts target-oriented. Don’t get lost in tactics by applying them without a solid strategic foundation.
- Understand user behaviors using analytic tools, especially qualitative and quantitative behavior tools. In this way, you will achieve continuous improvement.
- Optimize user experience to cover each and every segment to the full. Personalized UX will be your ally while doing this.
- Maximize conversion opportunities by setting competitive and personalized pricing strategies.
- Measuring success constantly will bring life to your product’s journey in the market. Invest in technologies that will help you collect feedback and analysis.
With a simple improvement, Keyhole increased product conversions by 550%.
Let me tell you a bit more.
Keyhole has realized people are more likely to upgrade when they see a sample dashboard.
This encouraged them to improve the onboarding experience they provided in the trial to gain more upgraded users.
There came the help of onboarding checklist feature and the result has been mouthwatering – to be honest:
People upgraded when they saw the checklist – even before using it. As I just mentioned, the product conversion increased by 550%.
How Did Keyhole Increase Product Conversion?
1. They took a customized step in conversion by analyzing the user behavior. They translated the information into knowledge.
2. They took their time and effort to initiate an insight into real user behavior before setting up a strategy to increase their product conversion.
Plus, the onboarding checklist highlighted:
- The value proposition and potential capabilities of the product,
- How easy it is to set up,
- Where they stand on the journey,
- Next steps to take.
Getting inspired by this success story, I prepared this article as a practical guide on product conversion.
Here, I will unveil the most important conversion strategies and the best conversion rate optimization tactics. More importantly, I will do it in a practical form so that you can take and apply them to your processes.
Step 1: Understanding Product Conversion
What is product conversion?
When you launch your product, you have a desired action expected from your target audience. Product conversion is when your audience meets this expectation.
Achieving conversion is a pivotal event that
- boosts revenue generation,
- improves customer loyalty, and
- drives sustainable business growth.
What are conversion examples?
The conversion examples can be many things covering
- making a purchase,
- increasing the number of active users,
- adopting more features,
- subscriptions and signing up for a service, etc.
Why do you need to track product conversion rates?
1. Monitor your processes and CX
Measurement of product conversion enables you to estimate the success of your overall product-related goals.
Product conversion rates will give you a crucial insight to optimize your processes and customer experience.
2. Get insights into customer journey
When you track them, you will have an opportunity to interpret customer behavior to create meaningful analysis.
- Do users complete or proceed in the customer journey?
- Where are the bottlenecks in your processes?
- Are there meaningful patterns in customer behaviors?
You can find data-driven answers to these questions using product conversion rates. This is how you will find out the conversion events in the journey and also the bottlenecks to improve.
3. Discover new ways to boost conversion
When you know how your processes work and understand the customer journey, you can take relevant steps.
In this way, you can discover new strategies to maximize the return on your efforts – just as Keyhole did with the onboarding checklist.
What is a good product conversion rate?
A good product conversion rate varies depending on factors such as the product itself, the industry, the target audience, and the specific goals of the business.
However, as a general guideline, a good product conversion rate typically falls between 2% to 5%.
To speak more in detail:
- If you're in the SaaS business, you can expect up to a 10% conversion rate for free trials using the correct strategies and tactics.
- In the e-commerce Food & Beverage achieves the highest conversion rates, at 4.9%.
Step 2: Strategies for Effective Product Conversion
When you look for it, you can find many product conversion tactics – I will also cover below. But without a solid strategy, your business will be drifting.
Strategic approaches help you see the bigger picture when planning your processes. You can have multiple strategies for multiple goals.
Even though they naturally support each other, they are not necessarily interdependent.
Let’s see what to consider while creating a strategy for effective product conversion.
Based on our experience in the field, these five strategies will significantly impact conversion rates and drive sustainable growth for your business.
1. Craft processes that resonate with your target audience
Your processes need to be shaped around your target audience rather than your product. So, you will need to know who you are addressing and understand how they behave.
If you have worked on creating user personas earlier, you will use them again in this step to analyze your product’s performance and to find new outreach strategies.
Segmentation is the key to crafting processes rather than taking generic steps.
You must already be aware that the one-fits-all is a dead approach now.
Now is the time for diversity.
You need as many messaging, offers, and channels as your user personas.
A practical tip: Put all the user personas on the table, and work on prioritizing.
Starting with higher potentials will bring you results earlier and it’s a smart way to use your resources.
With a focus on your highly promising user personas, you can craft your strategies and then move on to the next ones.
2. Design a user journey with targeted conversion events
This strategy covers understanding your audience's needs, motivations, and behaviors at each stage of their interaction with your product or service.
Define clear goals for each stage of the user journey, such as awareness, consideration, and conversion. Next, identify key touchpoints where you can attract to conversion, such as email sign-ups, product demos, or purchases.
A user journey map can make it easier to take strategic steps by revealing the areas where your users get stuck. So, you can improve them with specific targets.
3. Streamline your processes with a personalized UX
“Aha!” Moment can be different for different segments. Work on discovering intuitive, seamless, and frictionless experiences for each.
Since you have already studied your user personas, it will be easier to personalize your user experience.
Personalized UX can be anywhere from welcome messages on the product page to checkout forms.
Focus on removing the obstacles, frustration, and friction points. Instead, provide a targeted experience wherever you meet with your target audience.
Research your competitors for inspiration to see product page examples that are easy to navigate.
Let me give you an example:
If someone arrives at your trial or product page, it means they are interested in making a purchase or subscribing (whichever you want).
Help them engage with your product in a personalized manner to convert them.
See this 👇🏼
UserGuiding Trial Interface
There are options just when our users arrive at the platform. It helps them proceed while using it in accordance with their custom goals and skills.
4. Be persuasive using helpful content
Content, still being the king, will help you convert your visitors and users highlighting your value proposition.
However, you need to use it wisely.
Create high-quality and targeted content for your product page but don’t stop there.
Your content strategy will pay you back enormously if you go for more.
There are many places to make use of content from product pages to user onboarding documents. The key to success is to offer some gain from content.
A sample path can look like:
Let’s say your potential customer arrives at your blog post where you mention your product’s benefits. Just words may not be enough to convince them.
So add high-quality product images and an explainer video to your article. In this way, you can encourage them to go and try your product for free. This can increase conversions by 86%.
Seeing how easy it is to access the promised benefits, they will be more likely to give your product a chance.
5. Implement effective pricing plans
Pricing is a big deal.
Start with offering options if your product allows you to do it.
Many SaaS products and software development services can do it easily. The most common and effective way is to pack your services and features according to user personas.
E-commerce and retail businesses can create bundles to be more attractive.
Study your customer behavior, which product do they buy together? Or which ones do think are a good match?
See how Amazon does it 👇
Amazon, offering a bundle.
Plus, you can design limited-time offers, special discounts designed for certain segments, or promotions for specific use cases. The scarcity principle is a good tactic to promote your new features.
And of course, pricing pages. Design them strategically.
These pages are also great for showcasing your features in a list, which makes it easier to understand your product’s benefits.
Step 3: Conversion Rate Optimization Tactics
Now let's see how to maximize the results of these strategies.
These tactics can be applied to all the strategies. They are your tools to improve your processes while applying your strategies.
They will help you master creating and practicing strategies purposefully by showing you the detailed aspects.
These product conversion rate tactics are proven to bring great success to businesses. Give them a chance!
Here we go 💪
1. Data-driven decision-making
Remember the conversion success of Keyhole.
They achieved an astronomic product conversion rate because they kept an eye on their users. They took steps empowered by real users’ data insights.
So, this will be the first tactic to implement: study user behavior by utilizing analytics tools.
Heat mappings can be a great way to do it.
But you may need to go deeper in your customer journey analytics and in-app surveys will be your tool for it. You can customize surveys and create your own questions to collect target-oriented data.
From UX to pricing, design the strategies for higher product conversions through data-driven decision-making.
2. A/B testing and experimentation
When you ask people “this or that”, they may find it hard to decide.
But if you create two options and distribute them to a wide audience for a considerable time, you will understand which one is more preferred.
Well, this is called A/B testing and it can be used for product features, pricing, marketing material, and more.
The challenge with A/B testing is to know when to stop the test. Stop A/B testing when you've achieved statistical significance, meaning results are consistent and conclusive. It usually takes around 2 weeks depending on various factors.
A pro tip: Many companies will follow the mainstream ways to approach their target audiences.
When you give experimentation a chance and be a bit bold in CRO marketing, your opportunities to make a difference in the market will increase drastically.
3. Let your employees learn from each other
Each employee represents you. So, I highly recommend you get support from them for your product conversion process.
How?
Let them take their time to understand your product. When they do it, they will be more efficient.
You can organize detailed employee training and give them what they need to experience the product.
Another productive conversion rate optimization tactic is to bring your teams together to learn from each other.
Aligned companies churn 36% fewer customers each year, close 38% more sales proposals, and grow their revenues 58% faster.
Plus, many companies don’t connect marketing teams with sales, customer success, and product teams. When you do it, you are 1-0 ahead in the market.
4. Streamline the onboarding experience to avoid early drops/churn
One of the biggest enemies of product conversions is early drops in engagement, because users aren't aware of how to get value from the product.
How to overcome this: Focus on user activation and show them how to use your product in a meaningful way.
If signing up to your trial is acquisition, using it to get value is activation. Lead the path to the latter once thew user starts their journey with the first step.
A well-organized documentation to educate people will help you with this. CitizenShipper achieved a 25% increase in activation rates using Resource Center and in-app elements.
Go ahead and read their story to find some inspiration for your user onboarding.
When your users see only basic features, they are likely to unsubscribe. Assisting your potential customers through interactive tools will enable you to reveal your core (and side) values step by step.
Gather the steps under a checklist. So, people will know what else to expect and see everything compactly. Believe me this is attractive and convincing.
A streamlined onboarding process will help you reveal the full potential of your product.
Here are some of the most effective onboarding features our clients benefit from:
- Product tours
- Onboarding checklists
- Announcement modals
- Tooltips
- Resource centers
See all the onboarding features to improve your onboarding process.
A pro tip: Create progressive paths to onboard your users so they will not miss a thing. Help them see how your product serves their custom goals.
5. Design targeted marketing campaigns
Skipping the basics such as segmentation and active communication, let’s proceed to some more detailed product conversion rate tactics.
Personalization is a must in CRO marketing.
For example, personalized CTAs perform 202% better than basic CTAs.
Many companies insist on using the same marketing material on various platforms without customizing.
I know it’s cheaper but it’s bad.
When you take your time and invest in targeted marketing campaigns, you can attract potential customers with custom goals.
How can you do it?
Let’s say your pricing strategy covers segment-based discounts. Go ahead and include them in your marketing material.
Send segmented and targeted e-mails with social proof and trust badges to your target audience rather than waiting for them to discover these discounts themselves.
You can also write segment-based blog articles and add a CTO to invite them to benefit from this discount.
Actively encourage people to start the customer journey.
6. Optimize conversion funnels
Optimizing conversion funnels enhances efficiency.
Don’t hesitate to redesign your funnels if your analysis reveals systematic bottlenecks and drop-off points within the funnel.
You may also discover some steps that convince them to proceed to the desired action.
These questions can help you:
- Where do your users abandon the conversion process?
- What convinces your users to complete the funnel?
So, the recipe is obvious: Improve the points that the first question reveals and increase the answers to the second one.
Common edits in this regard are streamlining forms, simplifying checkout processes, or improving clarity in messaging.
If you have applied the 3rd tactic, which is bringing teams together, you will boost your chances to create a super-efficient funnel.
7. Collect social proof and trust signals
Emotional marketing is rising.
So, consider how your target audience feels about you. For example, do they trust you?
To gain trust, you need to collect social proof and trust signals.
They cover customer testimonials, case studies, customer success stories, etc. Your customer success team will support you in this as they are in touch with your happy customers.
I know it takes time and it can be a challenge to convince your users to give you a thorough testimonial. However, once you get it, it will prove your expertise to your upcoming users.
I will not get bored of talking about classifying your target audience. It also touches here.
How?
Let me draw an imaginary case where this tactic supports your strategy.
Your strategy is being persuasive through expertise and thought leadership targeting a specific industry (segmentation).
You can focus on collecting success stories in this industry to strengthen your hand in marketing and sales.
How to Use Technology for Enhanced Product Conversion
Analyzing.
Collecting feedback.
Measuring.
Without technology, these tasks can be nightmares.
But, which technology to use and how?
Quantitative behavior tools are great to start.
They help you
- Build customer segments,
- Optimize user flows,
- Identify conversion bottlenecks,
- Run A/B testing,
- Track your performance.
However, don’t skip qualitative tools to discover more about your target audience and processes.
Quantitative tools will tell you “what” and qualitative ones will guide you to understand “why.”
They will help you
- Understand the user intentions,
- Discover areas of confusion,
- Improve your user personas,
- Identify best practices and more.
To sum up
Product conversion is a needed step to survive in the market. As I've covered in this guide, there are many ways to achieve it.
Here are some takeaways for maximum product conversion:
- Strategic planning and thoughtful execution hold a critical importance in driving conversion rates.
- Prioritize user experience enhancements considering personalized UX.
- Leverage data-driven insights using quantitative and qualitative tools.
- Implement personalized strategies throughout customer journey.
- Never underestimate the need for continuous improvement and innovation to stay competitive in the market.
Now, it's your turn to apply these strategies and tactics to achieve your product conversion goals.
