Storytelling and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

It’s easier than you think.

You want more leads. You want more visitors buying your product or signing up for your service. You’ve tried to boost traffic with SEO. More traffic means more sales, right? Most marketing teams think this way. But that’s only half the story.

What if, instead of directing more visitors to your page, you found a way to get more of them to buy or signup? Think of it this way. If you run a supermarket, would you prefer 2000 visitors but only 50 of them buy your stuff OR 1000 visitors with 100 checkouts? That’s easy!

Only one of those gets more money in your pocket. The other sounds expensive to maintain.

The best marketers know that the key to sustainable growth is increasing conversions, not just boosting traffic. That’s why we’re telling you about conversion rate optimization (or CRO). So what is it?

This action could be completing your signup form or making a purchase, or whatever goal you have for your sales page.

The idea is: 15% of 1000 is better than 5% of 2000. 

So before trying to get more people to your page, optimize your site so more people who get there want to buy or signup for your service – optimize for conversion!

How they do it

The usual CRO approach is to find what’s wrong with your page. Maybe we need to change the design. Maybe your layout’s wrong. Perhaps we should scrap the entire landing page and make a new one. For most people, CRO means changing what’s wrong. But there’s a massive problem with that approach.

The Frictionless Way

Unless you’re making zero sales, something about your setup works. If you have a conversion rate of 4%, for example,  then your sales pitch works for 4% of visitors. That’s great, and you should be proud. Don’t disturb that 4%. 

Also, if you’re considering going after all the remaining 96%, don’t. That’s like trying to boil the ocean. Instead, you should target those visitors who are leaning in with interest but haven’t seen enough to make up their minds. So here’s what we do.

We don’t redesign your site or construct a new landing page. We don’t disturb the 4% of people your setup already works for. We tell better stories! For those visitors leaning in with interest, a great story is what they need to get them over the edge. That’s what we give them –  better stories about you and your product. How?

We place very subtle call-to-actions that don’t disturb your existing design but are visible enough for this target audience. These CTAs link to compelling stories that help you close the sale. But there’s a problem. To see zoomed image click graphic below:

How do we know what stories work?

Well, we don’t. Each visitor is different. This visitor wants an origin story. That one wants a demonstration of expertise. This one wants to know why they should pick you instead of the others in your niche. Yet another wants justification for your prices. We can’t know what works until we try them. So that’s what we do – rigorous A/B testing. If you think of it like entering a new city, then having our bunch of stories is like having a map. You can’t do without it! But you still need GPS to get you to your exact destination. A/B testing is our GPS.

So that’s how we boost sales the frictionless way. But now you’re thinking: that sounds great, but how do you build these stories?

And the answer is simple: We’re not telling you! But that’s only because we already have an entire article about it called The 9 Truths About Online Shoppers. That article has all the fundamental elements we use to build our stories. Let me make you a promise (and I keep my promises). After reading that article, you’ll never look at your sales page the same way again.