So let’s say that you already have a fair amount of traffic coming into your service based website but your conversion rate is not quite where you’d like it to be.

Improving conversion rate, for just about any type of website, is a matter of split testing. Our question then becomes what specifically we should split test for a service based website in order to be as efficient as possible with our time and effort.

Three specific areas come to mind regarding the question of where you should start your conversion boosting campaign. The first of these areas is your unique selling proposition or (USP). The term USP refers to the way in which you express your company’s unique blend of benefits to prospective clients.

Having a well defined USP is at the core of product differentiation and if your product is not perceivably different from those of your competitors then you inject unnecessary doubt in the minds of your prospects regarding the question of why they should buy from you, and not from your competitors. Keep in mind that a USP will never be just one selling point but rather several selling points that distinguish and define your offerings.

The next area to consider revamping and split testing is site design. We live in an attention deficit society with too much information and not enough time to consume it. For this reason we must assume that the visitors who land on our sites are making split second decisions about our companys based on the initial impressions that our sites leave on them.

This is why split testing site design offers large potential improvements in conversion rates for service based companies. When considering possible improvements to your site let your creativity give you ideas for potential improvements but don’t trust these hunches for the final verdict, make sure to make your final verdict is based on the raw data and results you get from your split tests.

The third area that I would suggest you consider split testing for your service based website is the addition of and adjustment of testimonials. If you don’t have any testimonials on your site, you should definitely consider adding some since testimonials are a powerful signal to potential customers that your company is reputable.

Keep in mind that some of the people who are considering buying your service may have first herd about your company after landing on your webpage in the last 20 seconds. They need reasons to believe in, and to trust you. In this day and age where anyone from any corner of the globe can quickly throw up a website and process credit card payments, the ability to convince customers that your company is trustworthy is invaluable.

The fact that people are willing you place their picture and name on your website to attest to the quality and level of service associated with your product goes a long way.

The three above mentioned points are just for starters, if you can think of anything else you might want to split test, then by all means, test away!

E-Commerce Case Studies

The Formula

E-Commerce and Conversion Rate

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 8:07 pm by Phil Weslow and is filed under Monetization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.