Business is getting harder with every passing second. Imagine trying to swim in a large pool with a lot of other people. You can only move forward by either pushing them away or grabbing onto something to pull yourself forward. In the business world, this act of pushing and pulling is called “conversion.”
You can’t exist in the business world without conversions. A conversion is defined as taking a potential customer and turning them into an actual paying customer. In order to do this, you need to have a well-oiled conversion design.
In this article, we will explore:
1) What is conversion design
2) The benefits of a conversion design for businesses
3) How can you create a conversion design for your business?
What is Conversion Design?
As the name suggests, Conversion Design is the art of designing conversions. That is, designing user experiences that result in the desired action or set of actions to be taken by the user. What makes it even better is conversions stats from the very beginning of a user’s visit to your site. You have not used any manipulative techniques, nor have you even asked for the user’s email address yet. Only a plain but effective design has been used that encourages conversions.
Conversion design is based on persuasion principles, which help you influence the decision-making process of your users. You need to take into account their feelings, needs, and logic when designing your user experience.
The best conversion designs are those that employ a mix of all three persuasion principles (feelings, needs, logic), AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action), and the user’s journey.
Now, let’s take a look at the benefits of having a conversion design for businesses.
The Benefits of a Conversion Design for Businesses
There are many benefits of having a conversion design for businesses. You can use it to increase sales, get more leads, or even reduce costs. Let’s take a look at each of these benefits in detail.
1. Applying Conversion Design doesn’t Need Any Experience
The special thing about conversion design is that it does not require any experience. Conversion design is based on AIDA principles, which are easy to learn and apply. All you need is a little creativity and some persuasion techniques, and you’re good to go! Businesses of all sizes can benefit from conversion design, regardless of their industry or niche. If you are a business just starting, you will find conversion design a valuable asset. For instance, AIDA shows us how to write powerful headlines, create urgency, and use images to increase conversion rates. AIDA is easy to learn and implement, making it the perfect tool for businesses of all sizes.
2. It’s Affordable
People often confuse conversion design with other forms of marketing, CRO. CRO is a very different field and is based on paid traffic, which can be expensive. For instance, conversion rate optimization relies on A/B testing and analytics, which can be costly for businesses. As you need to pay for traffic and test different versions of your site, the costs can quickly add up.
Conversion design, on the other hand, starts conversion from the day first, even without any paid ads. You need to design your website in such a way that it encourages conversions from the very beginning. Let’s say a visitor lands on your site, and the conversion game begins right from that moment. The headline, images, and even the colors on your site should be carefully chosen to encourage conversions.
If your headline is well placed, the font is easily readable, sufficient use of white spaces, and it is persuasive enough; you have done your job well! AIDA comes into play when designing every aspect of your website. What does it cost to be creative and design a website that encourages conversions from the very beginning? Not much! You can even do it yourself if you have learned the basics of persuasion, know AIDA, and understand the user’s journey.
3. Conversion Design Works on Any Platform
You are designing a landing page, but which platform are you using? Is it WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, Weebly, or something else? Regardless of your platform, conversion design principles can be applied to any of them. In fact, it is platform agnostic, which means that it can be used on any platform.
The only thing you need to keep in mind is that the platform you are using should be easy to use and should allow you to design a landing page that is conversion-centric. You don’t need to be a coding expert or hire a developer to design a landing page. All you need is the proper handholding, some persuasion techniques, and a bit of creativity.
4. It doesn’t Require Any Data
No matter what strategies you use, be it CRO, PPC, or SEO, all require data. For instance, if you want to run a PPC campaign, you need data about keywords, ad copy, and other things. Conversion design does not require any data. All you need is to understand the user’s journey and then design your website accordingly.
You can use conversion design principles to design the foundation of your landing page, which is the most important thing. Once you have designed the foundation, all you need to do is to focus on unique value propositions, headlines, and images. No data is required for this. Now, what data do you need for that?
Here are the main elements of a landing page that you can design without any data:
- AIDA principles; never change no matter what business you are in
- Social proof; builds trust
- Urgency; it encourages people to take action
- Scarcity; creates a sense of urgency
- Trust icons; builds trust
- Call-to-action buttons; should be placed above the fold
5. Conversion Design Works for Every Industry, Business, and Niche
Another great thing about conversion design is that it works for every industry, business, and niche. No matter what business you are in or what products or services you are selling, you can use conversion design to design your website.
There are some basic principles that remain the same no matter what business you are in. For instance, trust is important for every website. If people don’t trust you, they are not going to buy from you. For instance, do you see star ratings on different landing pages? These are trust icons that show people that others have bought from you and that they are happy with your products or services.
In the same way, call-to-action buttons are important for every website. They should be placed above the fold so people can see them and take action.
For instance, check this screenshot from 215 Mercury:
215 Mercury got a free audit from ConversionWise that is held every weekend on their Facebook group. We looked at their website and found some important things they were doing right and some things they could improve.
The above-the-fold section didn’t have any user reviews or star ratings, which are considered social proof. However, they did have some customer logos, which is also considered social proof.
The problem with customer logos is that people don’t understand what they mean. They can’t relate to them, and they don’t know if they should trust the website or not.
They had so much empty space on both sides, which again is not good for conversion. It also results in a small font size which is not good for mobile users.
After the audit, they added some user reviews and star ratings which is a great way to build trust.
Check this screenshot now:
Do you see it now? The addition of user reviews and star ratings makes a big difference. Plus, they have reduced the empty space and increased the font size for headlines which is much better for mobile users.
This is just one example of how conversion design can be used to improve the design of a website.
6. Conversion Design is a Proven Method
Anything that is based on psychology hits the emotional buttons of people and is scientifically proven is always a great method. The same goes for conversion design.
It is based on tried and tested psychological principles that have been proven to work.
Moreover, it is also based on the user’s journey. If you understand the user’s journey, you will be able to design your website in a way that encourages people to take action.
Conversion design works on both macro and micro elements: Macro elements are the big things like page structure, platform, unique selling point, mobile friendliness, and user journey. Microelements include user intent, social proof, call-to-action buttons, headlines, and trust icons.
Both of these things are important for conversion. You can’t have one without the other. That’s why conversion design is such a powerful method. The design is not a fad. It is here to stay and will only become more popular in the years to come. Only a few years ago, most businesses didn’t even know what conversion design was, what impact it could have on their business, or how to implement it.
Now, more and more businesses are starting to understand the power of conversion design and are implementing it on their websites. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you need to start using conversion design on your website.
Conclusion
There you go! These are the six benefits or reasons, whatever you want to call it, for using conversion design. As we have seen, conversion design is a powerful method that can be used to improve the design of any website.
It is based on tried and tested psychological principles, it is scientifically proven, and it is a proven method. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you need to start using conversion design on your website.
Unlike other design methods, conversion design is focused on one thing – getting people to take action. And that’s what makes it so powerful.
If you want to know more about conversion design, check out our free blog. If you want to learn the exact steps to implement conversion design principles on your website, then become a part of our Conversion Rate Academy and join thousands of other businesses already seeing the benefits of conversion design.
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