Growth hacking tips that work for every website. Now with even more cases. This is the slide deck of my Conversion Hotel 2014 talk.

1. Growth hacking tips that work for
every web site*
Karl Gilis
@agconsult
* Almost every web site. It depends. Sometimes they don't do sh*t. Or fail completely.

2. Download my ebook
 10 conversion tips that work on every
website
 15 cases from the real world
 6 best practices from leading websites
 http://www.agconsult.com/ebook.html
Already more than 3.357 downloads

3. Part 1
Less marketing, more action

4. Sliders suck. Always. *
* Except when they are just image slides. Without separate messages.

6. Suzuki had a slider on their homepage with 4 different
slides/messages in it.

7. We removed the slider and placed the 4 messages on the homepage
as static images, using the same screen real estate.
The result: 28% more clicks

8. Less is more. Make it easier to choose by reducing the number of
choices.
That's why this version, with only 2 static images, saw a lift of 55%.

9. This websites that sells children’s furniture had a carousel with 13
slides. Hell yeah!

10. We removed the slider and replaced it with the 6 most popular
product categories. Popular means that most visitors are looking for
these 6 product categories.
Make it easy for the user to find what he is looking for!
The result: 188% more clicks and 75% more sales from homepage
visitors.

11. Karl, did you just give
me a free bonus tip?

12. Yes, I did.
Yes. This is me (as a persona  ).

14. Kill your stock photos. Now.

16. Push product categories
instead of products?*
* This really depends from site to site. But most of the time it works. Of course, use your
most popular categories.
This is the bonus tip!

17. Kill big headers & useless photos*
* Focus on your message. That will always result in more conversions.

18. I hate this design trend, where a page starts with an over the top
image. This is an article page on a news website. You can't even see
the news title without scrolling.

19. There’s nothing wrong with big images as long as you make sure
visitors know where they are. Apple does a pretty good job on this
page.

20. I'm sorry, but this client doesn't allow me to show the real page and
his brand name. So I made a mock-up.

21. • 27,2% more clicks on
the red contact buttons.
• 46,0% more clicks on
the blue button.
12,2% more clicks on these boxes
6,6% more clicks below the page fold.

22. Integrate first steps of interactions
in your pages*
* I recently learned that Ton from @OnlineDialogue calls this the 'foot-between-the-door-trick‘.

23. This is a manufacturer of doors, windows and terraces.
Main goal of the website: send visitors to a dealer/reseller.

24. 23 times more people use the
dealer locator after we replaced the
button pointing to the dealer locator
with the dealor locater itself.

25. Main goal of this blog article: look
for (and go to) a Suzuki dealer.

26. 64,8% more dealer searches.

27. Use bullet lists*
* Especially on category pages and above the fold on product and landing pages.

28. Another blog article.
Main goal: send users to product
pages. That's why there are these
links in the tekst.

29. If that's your goal, make the links more
obvious. We rewrote the tekst, introduced a
bullet list and wham:
• 159,79% more clicks to product pages
• 76,3% more end-of-the-funnel
conversions

30. Another landing page.
Where a copywriter did what copywriters like
to do: write fluffy copy.

31. By replacing the blurbs of text with to-the-point
bullet lists, 78% more visitors visited a detail page.
This resulted in an increase of more than 150%
requests for quotes and test drives (the main goals
of the Suzuki web site).

32. A typical list of tags as you see them on many news,
blog or product pages.
I know they’re there for SEO-reasons, but I think they
also serve another goal: to engage the visitor.

33. 325% more clicks when we placed those
tags in a bullet list.
Never forget that microconversions are
important too!

34. Remove clutter*
* Consider everything that doesn't result in more conversion as clutter.

36. 11,3% more sales.
Remove everything that doesn't add to your conversion.
In your shopping cart, you should focus on the one thing
that really matters: moving the user to the next step.

38. Similar example: 11,4% more sales.
Focus on the one button that mattters.
The next step would be to remove the coupon code stuff at the
left. Or replace it with a tiny link.

39. This is a listing page of the Belgian Yellow Pages.
Restaurant owners are paying for these grey boxes with
their logo, extra information and button.

40. When removing the grey background this extra
information isn't seperated from the rest of the listing.
Result: 12,2% more clicks on these buttons

41. Part 2
Little things that can make
a big difference

42. Tell users what (you want them) to do*
* These tests always surprise me. But this little trick seems to work on every web site.

43. A typical category page on an e-commerce website.
Main goal: send users to the product pages of the products they
like.
As web-savvy people we all know we can click on the product
photos or titles to go to such a product page.

44. Apparantely your visitors are not always aware of this.
Adding the link 'More details' resulted in 72,3% more clicks to
product pages.

45. I wanted to test this on another website.
This is part of a landing page of Suzuki. The heading of this part
of the page reads 'Choose the Suzuki that suits you best‘.

46. Even with such a clear instruction, adding a link 'Discover the
[model name]' resulted in 13,1% more clicks to product pages.

47. Make it easy to compare/choose*
* Make sure you use the main decision criteria and emotional triggers of your users.

48. On a list page you want visitors to go to a detail page.
But in order to do so you have to help people choose.
This implies you need to know the main decision criteria of your
audience.
This page is not bad. Suzuki shows the model, price, average
consumption and CO2 emissions.

49. We did user research and discovered 2 other main criteria:
• Petrol or diesel
• Manual or automatic
We added these. It made the page less beautiful but it resulted in
7,5% extra clicks to model pages. And even a much higher rise in
conversion at the end of the funnel.

50. Put a reassuring message near
your call-to-action*
* Make sure you use positive words. You don't want to frighten the visitor.

51. This is the add-to-cart box on a website that sells homeopathic
solutions.
There are 2 messages in this box that are supposed to help
convince the visitor:
• Free shipment from €60 onwards
• Immediately deliverable

52. 23,2% more conversion19,4% more conversion
We thought that placing one of these reassuring messages near
the call-to-action would help reduce friction.
And it did. In this case ‘immediately deliverable' was the winner.

53. Repeat your CTA at the end
of your page*
* Or even repeat it several times throughout the page.

54. 43,8% more clicks
Why does this always work?
A user who scrolls to the end of your
page is probably pretty interested in
what you have to offer.
You just have to reel him in at the end.

55. In forms, explain why you want
certain information*
* Once again, make sure you use positive words and be polite.

56. 35,4% more forms submitted
Another example of reducing friction.
Explain why you want certain information.

57. Part 3
You should test that

58. Green check marks always work!*
* Apparently not always. I still believe they work in 99%. But as always: you should test that.

59. Remember this one? The winner of a previous test.
See what's missing? Green checkmarks!

60. And because green checkmarks always work according to some
experts, we added them.
We even added extra reassuring messages, because 3
checkmarks always work best.

61. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. -5,1% -5,9%
Apparently not.
I'm not saying green checkmarks suck.
I only want to make clear that you should always be testing.
Even best practices that you've seen in cases over and over
again.

62. CTA copywriting*
* Most of the time changing words will have more impact than changing colour or position.

63. Words on buttons can make a big difference.
This one reads ‘Look for a dealer‘.

64. Changing this to 'Find a dealer' resulted in
14,3% more searches.
That's because the goal of your visitor is to
find something, not to search for something.

65. Part 4
The grand finale

66. Combine these tips for better results*
* You can always backtrack to see which changes had the biggest impact.

67. Remember this landing page type?
This one shows all 4x4 vehicles Suzuki has.

68. Adding the link and the extra decision criteria resulted
in a lift of 22,1% more clicks to model pages.

69. A page on the web site of the Belgian Yellow Pages, where
you can buy contact data of Belgian businesses.

70. 34% more orders thanks to:
- Removing the useless intro image
- Rewriting the copy
- Adding green checkmarks
- Better copy on the cta
- A reassuring message underneath the cta

71. Attack the whole funnel!

72. The funnel on most websites

73. The goal of conversion optimization
Attack the whole funnel, not just the end of it
(check-out, forms, …).

74. 35,4% more forms submitted
Remember this one?
It was the first test we did for Suzuki.
Yes, at the end of the funnel. And we were proud.

75. In real numbers
From 6 to 8
requests for quotes
per day
Until we noticed the real impact on business…

76. That's why we started to examine the funnel. Where were
users coming from? What were their main paths in the web
site. Where did we loose visitors?
That's why I showed you so many cases of one single web
site. Because there are always a lot of opportunities!

77. The result of this funnel optimization
From 6 to 84
requests for quotes
per day
During the Belgian Car Trade Show all this work resulted in a
whopping increase of 1.300% request for quotes.
Because we studied the user needs, we found the holes in the
web site and attacked the whole funnel.

78. Thx.
Follow me on Twitter @agconsult
Mail me at karl@agconsult.com
I will make your website better!
But wait…
I have one free bonus tip.

79. Download my ebook
 10 conversion tips that work on every
website
 15 cases from the real world
 6 best practices from top 10 sites
 http://www.agconsult.com/ebook.html
Already more than 3.357 downloads

80. What about these growth hacking tips that you can find
everywhere?
Such as this agressive exit overlay?
Most of them work. So test them on your web site too.

81. Thx again!