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Testing Late Stage Traffic Improves Conversion Rates Quickly
If you’ve been following our blog, you have probably read by now that we start working with our clients by first understanding their data. We look at their top-performing marketing channels and segment each traffic source into early, middle and late stage prospects.
The traffic you can impact quickly is your late stage traffic. These are your visitors who know exactly what they want when they arrive at your site. By removing the conversion stumbling blocks that may be hindering them from taking the action they came to take, you will easily increase your conversion rate for your late stage traffic.
One of our clients, LifeSource Water Systems, recently experienced a lift in their conversion rate by more effectively speaking to their late stage traffic. First, we were able to identify that their late stage traffic was searching for brand-specific keywords such as “lifesource water systems” as well as keywords that demonstrated that the visitor was looking specifically for the product that they sell, such as “whole house water filtration systems.” We started looking at the top landing pages that these late stage keywords were driving prospects to, and provided recommendations that could help convert this specific traffic segment.
The Test…
This is the original form on their homepage (click image to enlarge). The late stage visitor wants to simply find the right product for their needs, find out price, and purchase.
LifeSource Water doesn’t feature pricing on their site because their potential customer cannot effectively decide what unit is right for their needs without an expert’s guidance. Instead, the potential customer fills out a lead generation form and a water treatment expert will contact them. After a phone call, they will set up an appointment to actually go out to the potential customer’s home to assess their specific situation and then suggest the right product for their needs. LifeSource is therefore looking to increase the number of qualified leads on their website.
The form on their homepage is the main action the late stage visitor would be looking to take in order to get their questions answered. The original version of the form didn’t stand out effectively and didn’t use language to entice the visitor to fill out their contact information. We recommended that they add a background color, and improve the copy on the form and in the call to action.
The Results…
This is the new homepage form that they tested against the original (click to enlarge).
In less than 30 days of testing, the results demonstrate a 192% increase in lead conversion rate. (What could you do with 200% more leads?) The client will be closing this test out with full confidence that their new lead form will continue to impact their conversion rate without sacrificing lead quality.
If you’re a lead generation site, you should use these tips to drive the improvements you make to your site and to help you decide what to test. They’re free, as always 
What can you learn from this test?
1) Start by breaking out your traffic sources, and then separate each channel into early, middle and late stage traffic.
2) Then, find out where your late stage traffic is landing.
3) Determine what their motivations and needs are in late stage and come up with hypotheses on what calls to action you can feature directly on these landing pages to move these visitors forward towards taking the conversion action.
4) Once you’ve got your educated guess, run a test to prove or disprove your hypothesis. Whether the test wins or loses, you’ll gain tremendous insights into your visitors’ behavior.
About the author
Melissa is a Senior Persuasion Analyst at FutureNow.
More articles from Melissa Burdon
- Nobody wants to read your sh**!September 21st, 2009
- Redesign? Ask The Right Questions!September 18th, 2009
- Cross-post: How to Improve a Product Page, Part 1September 15th, 2009
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April 2nd, 2010
1:24 pm
Great example, Melissa.
It’s good to see how they got very good results by tuning what they already had – in contrast to spending a lot on a total redesign and seeing nothing.
I wonder if they are going to try mentioning prices – and see what happens. Could mean fewer but higher quality leads.
April 3rd, 2010
5:16 am
What a difference with a simple change. Watching traffic closely and testing all stages is very essential. Would giving a more prominent title to the form make a difference?
April 3rd, 2010
6:14 am
I really liked. I wish you good work
April 3rd, 2010
6:31 am
It’s amazing how quickly you can see an improvement using your techniques.
April 3rd, 2010
1:45 pm
Great way to test. Those were some great results. I wish I could get results like that from a single test.
April 4th, 2010
6:12 am
is it a free service? can i use it on my blog for free??
April 4th, 2010
7:07 am
Great example, and great results. I am going to try to do this for my own websites. More leads = more money
April 4th, 2010
8:56 am
Thank you for this article.
Nice informations
April 4th, 2010
11:27 am
Great full article for newbie like me..tank’s
April 4th, 2010
12:14 pm
Great stuff. It is harder for some of us to identify what stages buyers are in, or what stage anybody is in for that matter. I have tried google analytics and other basic traffic tools, but they can only tell me where traffic come from, and not really what stage they are in.
April 4th, 2010
12:42 pm
Hard to get data from late stage buying behavior unless you separate your content or pages out to different stage and use them as the marker
April 4th, 2010
12:51 pm
If you can target your late stage traffic, it is great because their conversion probabliity is higher. Part of it is to use their referral. Eg, coming from certain keywords can hint at a buyers stage.
April 4th, 2010
2:52 pm
Sweet, this is some great food for thought, thank you.
April 4th, 2010
5:45 pm
[...] Testing Late Stage Traffic Improves Conversion Rates Quickly Published: April 3, 2010 Source: Conversion Rate Optimization & Marketing Blog | FutureNow, Inc If you’ve been following our blog, you have probably read by now that we start working with our clients by first understanding their data. We look at their top-performing marketing channels and segment each t… [...]
April 5th, 2010
3:36 am
“We recommended that they add a background color, and improve the copy on the form and in the call to action.” This is really a great tip! Thanks for sharing it and for free
April 5th, 2010
3:54 am
Is Google Analytics sufficient to track late stage traffic source through to conversion or do you guys use some other tool?
thanks
April 5th, 2010
4:43 am
I also want to know if this is free!!
April 5th, 2010
11:53 am
Forms to complete should be presented when appropriate based upon the conditions you have defined.
Using a popup or overlay allows you presenting the best suited form at the best suited moment.
April 5th, 2010
11:54 am
Your article and the example are really great.
We can see that a small point can significally increase the lead conversion rate. So it is very important to do test, test and test again.
April 5th, 2010
2:29 pm
A great example on how to test small things that make a great difference in leads
April 6th, 2010
9:55 am
I have always said that if you want to test something you need to have the freedom to make mistakes. Don’t be afraid to test different early, middle, and late stage conversion techniques before implementation.
April 6th, 2010
5:12 pm
I would wager that the biggest difference came from changing, “please contact me,” to “get expert advice.” People want expert advice, but they don’t want people to bother them.
Good work.
April 7th, 2010
8:44 am
Great case study, I see some options for doing similar things to another e-commerce site I’m running, so thanks for pointing the way.
April 7th, 2010
7:54 pm
Great article and looking forward to implementing this on our site.
April 9th, 2010
2:46 am
Congrats on the highly successful experiment. I’m always amazed at how small the changes need to be to create massive improvements.
So many websites make the late stage prospects jump through a myriad of hoops and frustrate them.
April 9th, 2010
10:29 am
Melissa, nice post. We are in the process of mapping out this exact process. Post is very timely. thanks.
April 10th, 2010
11:25 am
Hi Mark,
I am writing just to introduce myself. My name is Nutria, and I also have a blog in the business and marketing niche.
I found your content very interesting, and I will definitely be recommending it to my readers.
Best wishes,
Nutria
April 10th, 2010
5:16 pm
Life source is lucky to have you guys, and it looks like you really improved your clients late stage conversions!
April 11th, 2010
4:24 am
Excellent Job dear
relay good view
k thanks
April 12th, 2010
5:35 pm
i have done some late tests as well with great results. some simple changes and mostly cosmetic increased conversions big time. thank you for the article and making me think what else i can test
April 14th, 2010
8:08 pm
Once you’ve identified the needs of your customer, it becomes much easier to work with them and that is a good strategy that you ace at!
April 15th, 2010
7:46 am
[...] my last post, I shared a test we ran for one of our clients, LifeSource Water, where we helped them increase their conversion rate on [...]
April 20th, 2010
9:16 am
[...] reading my colleague Melissa Burdon’s last two posts about impressive testing wins with a client, I thought it would be fun to discuss the amazing [...]
April 24th, 2010
5:23 pm
I am always looking for ways to increase conversion and often overlook the obvious, color. Thanks for the simple idea.
April 30th, 2010
9:16 am
[...] [...]
May 1st, 2010
4:15 pm
I would say that people looking for info are more early stage, products always tend to be late.
May 7th, 2010
12:19 am
Excellent! Great way to test. Those were some great results. I wish I could get results like that from a single test.
May 15th, 2010
6:11 am
We will try it step by step, thanks.
Find out where your late stage traffic is landing, very important.
May 30th, 2010
5:43 am
Helal olsun valla ne güzel yazmış yaaa tebrikler
10.Sınıf Coğrafya Kitabı Cevapları
10.Sınıf Coğrafya Kitabı Cevapları
June 8th, 2010
7:32 pm
I actually know of someone who actually have customized pages or text based on the search keywords of a visitor. Was pretty advanced stuff.
June 9th, 2010
6:03 am
[...] my last post, I shared a test we ran for one of our clients, LifeSource Water, where we helped them [...]
June 13th, 2010
1:20 am
Late stage traffic isn’t near as utilized as other stages. Everybody worried about traffic, but how are you converting what you already have?
June 20th, 2010
5:15 pm
Hey Melissa, great post! It is amazing to see that such simple changes can really improve the conversion rates. Have checked out the 5 simple tips and will certainly be applying them. All the best.
September 28th, 2010
4:30 pm
[...] View the original article here Tags: conversion, improve, later, password, quickly, rates [...]
November 16th, 2010
3:35 am
Yea I know someone as well who actually had customized page keywords based on the search keywords of a visitor. Still learning a lot about SEO but its a great way to add additional keywords to your site.
December 3rd, 2010
4:08 pm
Great stuff. It is harder for some of us to identify what stages buyers are in, or what stage anybody is in for that matter. I have tried google analytics and other basic traffic tools, but they can only tell me where traffic come from, and not really what stage they are in.
..
January 22nd, 2011
5:19 pm
I have always said that if you want to test something you need to have the freedom to make mistakes. Don’t be afraid to test different early, middle, and late stage conversion techniques before implementation.
.
March 2nd, 2011
8:59 pm
Nice article! Um, I must add though that the content appears to be designed for experienced SEO users and not some one who is running a product, or service based business. In order to really achieve optimization regardless of where you are in your campaign, we must always consider our primary role and if necessary ensure your strategy includes SEO marketing services.