The simple formula for more conversions

Hi there 👋,

Seven years ago, I learned a simple formula to increase conversions.

We like to make growth sound a lot more complicated than it is.

We like to talk about bottlenecks, growth levers and retention. We’ll throw in abbreviations like ICE, BRASS and PXL.

It’s buzzword bingo all around.

And while all of this is important, it doesn’t have to be this complicated.

It all comes back to the formula.

Conversion = Desire - Friction

When we want people to convert, we need to increase their desire and reduce their friction.

It’s as simple as that.

So today, we’re going to look at ways to improve this equation for D2C brands and get more people converting.

But it goes without saying, always test first and use data to support where you should place your focus!

Increase your desire

1. Create an interesting first offer for new customers - What will give them a taste of your brand at a reasonable price?

2. Talk about their Jobs to Be Done - What pain will you remove? What gain will you create?

3. Create a sense of urgency to order sooner rather than later - The more time people have, the less they feel compelled to return.

4. Talk about benefits rather than features - Translate your brand into customer language. They don’t care about features, they care about what they can get out of it.

5. Share how many people have used your brand/product — This builds trust, authority and comparison.

Would you like 5 more ways to increase desire? Check out the full article.

Reduce your friction

1. Don’t push for a subscription immediately with the first order - Let them try your product before they commit long-term.

2. Free shipping on first orders or above a certain amount - We would rather spend more and get free shipping. It feels like a sunk cost, so embrace this mindset.

3. Clarity on the shipping costs before checkout - Don’t be sneaky. It very rarely works out in your favour.

4. Add a sticky CTA for mobile — By sticky, I mean a CTA that scrolls with the user. This makes sure they can always proceed and don’t have to go looking for it.

5. Go straight to checkout if you’re working with an irresistible offer - Make it as easy as possible for them to pay and snag this deal.

Would you like 5 more ways to reduce friction? Check out the full article.

Note: There are also cases where too little friction leads to low quality conversions/customers (e.g. a high discount attracts bargain hunters who often have a worse lifetime value) in which case you will need to focus on increasing friction.

The key is to always return to this equation and see which part you’re lacking in.

You’ll find that out by studying your metrics, user testing and heat mapping.

All of these methods are focused on discovering which of the following is your issue:

• Do people not see the value or aren’t convinced to buy it?

• Are people struggling to get through the journey and buy it?

Recommendation

In every edition of Growth Waves, I also share a related book, individual or newsletter to check out related to the week's topic.

Today, I get to share two fellow Dutchies as my recommendation.

I recommend following these two on LinkedIn, as they often share advice on A/B testing and optimisation.

Lucia van der Brink - I love talking about the messy reality of growth, and it feels like Lucia demystifies the messy reality of experimentation.

She frequently shares common mistakes, challenges of testing and the unexpected results of tests. I love her down-to-earth approach.

Ruben de Boer - Ruben has incredible content about stakeholder management in experimentation and running better experimentation programs.

He also has several great CRO courses, I’ve personally followed the complete CRO course and the Change Management.

Increase desire and reduce friction, it’s as simple as that.

Well, right now, I have the increased desire of spotting that box of cookies in my kitchen, and the reduced friction of no one being around to see me take them.

Until next week!

Daphne