Top Three Conversion Myths You Should Avoid

Myths are stories that are not supported by facts or evidence. The business of online marketing, or more specifically, marketing through conversion optimization, is a relatively new concept that is steadily gaining momentum in the online marketing world. But is not exempted from dealing with those “superficial claims”. Most marketers have assumptions about the process of conversion. These “myths” should be avoided to make the most of your marketing campaign.

In a recent webinar, Chris Goward of Widerfunnel, along with Convert, discussed the common conversion myths that can cause confusion and misinterpretation among the website owners. These “conversion myths” affect your business in a negative manner – by letting you do unnecessary work, inappropriate changes and actions. This can also slow down your traffic or even stop it completely.

What To Believe

CRO (conversion rate optimization) tricks only exist in an imaginary world or in your mind. Optimization tricks were created for those who do not know how conversion really works. What is funny here is how bizarre most of the ideas were. But if you will look at it more closely, these myths will make you ask “seriously, that works?” Apparently, despite the hesitation, there are some who still end up joining the bandwagon without realizing that these myths are actually pulling their business down, instead of helping lift their conversion.

• MYTH 1: The Color Button Myth
  This myth states that there are colors that you should use for your “BUY ME” button to make the customers convert or buy your product. There are websites that claim that a green button works best, while there are some who would say that a red or orange button would work better. Well, there is no proven study to support that the color of the button really affects your market’s buying decision. Buttons are just buttons, and concentrating on the color of the button will just get in the way of working harder on the content.

• MYTH 2: The Multivariate Testing Myth
  The common myth about multivariate testing is that it works better than any of the testing methods available, including A/B testing. Multivariate testing measures the increase or decrease in conversion rate based on the over-all changes made in your website. This method uses a statistical model to perform the test – allegedly more advanced and reliable. This is being offered to a higher price than A/B testing. According to Chris Goward, this only increases tool fees, (but this is not the case with Convert.com). Paying more does not guarantee that the method works better than the rest. It’s good to note how Avinash Kausik of Avinash Web Analytics once said,

[Tweet “It is better to spend only 10% (of your time and money) on the tools and 90% on the people”]

• MYTH 3: Testing On Your Own Myth – Letting Your Own People Do the Work
  When you have your in-house team doing the testing, their tendency is to do the work in your favor. Meaning, their actions are motivated by the fact that they are your people. Aside from bias approaches, the work is limited to pre and post testing, or before the changes were applied – the old website and after the changes have been made- the new website. You do not have to worry about exposing your business to this scenario when you get outside sources because it tests on a controlled environment. It is always better to use an outside control group, rather than have your own people do the work. According to Neil Patel’s 30 Quick Conversion Tips Every Marketer Needs to Know,

Never run tests based on what you want. Run tests based off what your visitors say they like or dislike

Unbiased and not limited results are what you are getting from this outsource provider. Believing in something to make it seem real is not applicable to conversion because this discipline is not a fairy tale. A happy ending will not come from just merely “believing”, but from analyzing the facts and gathering the evidences to prove that a certain approach is working. Click here if you want to know more about proven landing page techniques, or if you want to view the entire webinar.