Use Color and Copy to Turbocharge your Conversions
Changes to your website's copy (wording) can have a big impact on its conversation rate, even if you're basically saying the same thing. Using A/B comparison testing, these websites optimized their sales copy over time. Though the meaning stayed mostly the same, How it was said had a major impact on their ROIs:
- Systropin did an A/B comparison study to test variations in how their landing pages were themed. They kept their content the same, but found that they converted 50% better when their theme was more emotive and less technical. They did this by including aspirational imagery and copy.
- This study details how Citicliq got a 47.8% conversion rate, a 90% improvement over the original, simply by changing the value-proposition wording used in the headline of their website.
- RightNow rebuilt their website based on buyer persona. Buyer personas are distinct groups of potential customers. So, by directly messaging their potential customers, RightNow was able to increase conversions by 400%!
- By changing the wording and presentation of their pricing page to be “Bolder, brighter, clearer, nicer, [and] more obvious,” BaseKit was able get a modest 25% increase in conversions.
- Similarly, Maxis, makers of the popular game series The Sims 3, doubled their registration rate by modifying the offer proposed to visitors on their website to be clearer and more obvious.
- L’Axelle changed the wording of their copy to be more action oriented. This simple change helped L’Axelle realize a 93% conversion rate increase.
Color and Image Choice
Color and images are both elements used to break up what is commonly referred to as a “Wall of Text” (which gave rise to another popular internet acronym TL:DR, or “Too Long, Didn’t Read”). Designers should carefully select colors and images to guide a visitor’s eyes towards call-to-action buttons and other sections they’re looking for.
These sites are examples of how changes in color and image, without modifications to image size or layout, can improve conversion rate:
- BMI increased conversion by 2.5% and Performable a 21% conversion rate improvement by changing the color of their buttons and links to red. The change in color helped their buttons stand out and were simply more effective in communicating urgency.
- HawkHost did something similar. They found that by changing a single header image and nothing else, their page’s conversion rate improved between 200% and 300%.
It’s tempting to try to communicate every product’s benefits all at once in hopes that something will resonate with what a visitor is looking for. However, some sites realized that less is more:
- Preceden found that by removing feature lists from their value proposition, 37% more visitors became customers.
- Similarly, AssessmentDay cut the amount of content on their landing pages and focused more on visitor questions and saw a 62% increase in sales. Be careful, though, as it was found in the same study that removing all information cumulatively dropped conversion rates by 10%.
Wording, images, and color are an integral part of website design. These elements help potential customers differentiate websites with similar offerings and help draw their eye to the information they need. By tweaking and adjusting word, image, and color choice, sites have found that they can quickly and easily increase sales without modifying anything about their products.