Conversion rate optimisation for small businesses with heart

The beautiful thing about small businesses is that every visitor is cherished. In person, or online. And when it comes to online visitors, I’m reluctant to use the word ‘traffic’, because it turns those cherished visitors into an object, a faceless mass (not that I’d say no to a ‘faceless mass’ arriving at my site).

But the elephant in the room when it comes to conversion rate optimisation (CRO) for small businesses is that those cherished visitors tend to be lower in number, at least at first. And traditionally, a big part of conversion rate optimisation relies on a significant volume of traffic flowing through the multiple variants of a split test. This is so the result can be defined as ‘conclusively positive’ (or negative), and this mathematical equation ensures we have enough people in the test to classify the result as reliable.

I argue that CRO doesn’t need A/B tests to render it worth your time. In general, conversion rate optimisation means working with the site traffic you already have (there’s that word again) to generate more [insert_your_primary_goal]. More sign-ups, more bookings, more donations, more subscriptions, more enquiries: whatever it is you want your visitors to do. If I have 10 visitors to my site today, and one of them responds to my new, bolder call to action and schedules a call with me, that’s a result. And a copy change like that can take 15 minutes (if you know what you want to say).

Now, what you want your visitors to do should align with what they came for. And it’s this kind of subtle dance between understanding your visitor’s needs, and offering them the right action, answer or product at the right time, which is at the heart of proper UX. 

For all businesses, conversion rate optimisation includes changes to copy, layout, design, and logic. In my experience working at Booking.com, the copy changes often have the highest ROI. For a small business, that’s good news, because changing copy is the simplest thing to do on your site. Plus, you don’t need 40,000 visitors to know if your new, ballsy H1 copy is increasing conversions. You’ll know straight away because of how close you are to the action, and those 2 or 10 or even 30 new leads you get that week can have a hugely significant impact on your revenue.

So where do you start?

Look at what you already have. Most small business owners are surprised by how much their existing data can tell them. You don’t need sophisticated tools. Google Analytics, even at its most basic, will show you which pages people are landing on, how long they’re staying, and where they’re exiting. That alone is a map. If people are consistently dropping off on your pricing page, that’s a signal. If they’re spending time on your about page before enquiring, that’s a signal too.

1. Look at your site like a stranger. This is harder than it sounds. You know your business inside out, which makes you the worst person to read your own website. Try this: land on your homepage and give yourself five seconds. Can you tell immediately what the business does, who it’s for, and what you should do next? If the answer is anything other than yes, there’s work to do.
   
2. Get a real stranger to look at your site. Can be quite galling if you’ve spent six months lovingly tweaking your homepage, and this person can’t even figure out what it is you do. But one honest conversation with someone experiencing your website for the first time can be life-changing. Or at least refreshing, and it will spark so many ideas as you witness the moment-to-moment grappling of a real user, using your site. Trust me, user testing gets addictive.
   
3. Change one thing at a time. You don’t need a testing programme. You need a discipline of intentional iteration. Make a change, note why you made it, and watch what happens. Over time, that builds into real knowledge about what works for your audience. And give it a few months, maybe even six. Learning about your true customer shouldn’t be rushed.
   
4. Talk to your customers. Linked to getting a stranger’s view, but you’re asking for feedback from a recently converted customer. Ask them what nearly put them off. Ask them what made them trust you. Ask them what they wish they’d known sooner. If possible, record your conversations. As your business grows, you may start hiring, and these user sessions are gold dust for showing your team what your users are like.

CRO for small businesses isn’t about staring perpetually at dashboards. Leave that to the enterprise peeps. It’s about understanding the people who are already choosing to show up, and making sure your website is worthy of that choice.

If you’d like a fresh pair of eyes on your site, or a chat about where you’re trying to get to, I offer a Small-Business Hour. This is an honest look at what’s working, what isn’t, and where the opportunity lies.

Ready to find out what’s stopping your visitors from converting? Book a free chat.