Sabtu, 14 April 2018
Does using images on your site really boost conversion?
Short answer — YES, it does. But there’s more to this story than meets the eye.
For one, it’s not enough to slap pretty pictures on your site if they’re only around for decoration. According to eye–tracking studies by the Nielsen-Norman Group, “users pay close attention to photos and other images that contain relevant information but ignore fluffy pictures used to ‘jazz up’ web pages.”
Likewise, any old photo won’t cut it — image size, image content and photo composition all make a difference. For example, 37signals (now Basecamp) discovered that adding a picture of a person to their site increased product signups by 102.5%.
Meanwhile, a Marketing Experiments case study reported that a genuine photo of a company founder outperformed its stock photo alternative by 35%.
Finally, sometimes images might even reduce conversion, depending on how they’re used. Much to their surprise, coupon website ICouponBlog discovered that removing the security badge from their site resulted in a 400% increase in conversion. This finding completely contradicts other cases where security badges increased conversion, revealing just how important it is to ensure every page on your site is designed for its purpose.
Let’s explore how you can boost conversion rate using images, and how to maximise your site’s potential by choosing better, more relevant and more appropriate visual content.
How to Use Images to Boost Conversion Rate in 2018
So how exactly can an image help you reach those conversion goals that you have planned for your website?
First, let us quickly go through what conversion rate means for a website.
It is the ratio of the number of visitors who have completed the desired goal on the website, (could be buying the product or services, contacting or may be subscribing for a newsletter) and total visitors who visited the site.
t’d be legit to say that the conversion rate is the mission of creating a website. The essence of conversion is quite simple.
Create an unforgettable experience for the users.
Now there are more than one ways of creating an unforgettable experience when the visitors come to your website. Some of the most popular being seamless navigation, fast loading pages and compelling buttons and images.
It is imperative to obtain this perfect blend to encourage the visitors to consume your content the way you want them to and eventually influence their decision-making.
Without much ado, here are 8 ways to boost your website conversion rate using images:
Picking the Image
Looking for images and shortlisting is not the tricky part. What is tricky is doing the research before that. When you pick an image, you are actually picking an emotion. An emotion that is accepted and taken well by your target audience.
Your understanding of the target audience comes into play here. The gender, age, interests etc. of your target audience will determine the emotion of the image you will pick.
For example, if your target audience is aspiring entrepreneurs, you need to choose colors that are appealing to the age group 25-40. You need to show strength, ambition, motivation and creativity. Something like this:
Images have the power to create an emotional connect. Thus, pick the right images and hit the nail right on the spot.
No Compromises on Quality
It is important to understand that the page where the user lands, that is the landing page of your website, is the first look of your product. Therefore, the right balance should be struck when it comes to image size.
A very big image or a very small image can possibly annoy the visitor and negatively affect the brand impression. Based on my knowledge, experience and the number of website development projects I have handled, the following image sizes give the best look on your website:
Banner Image: 2000px wide and 800px long
Slider: 1920 px wide and 890 px long
Icon: 300px wide and 300px long
Post/ Event: 425 px wide and 220 px long
Portfolio: 1920px wide and 768px long
Blog: Images in the blog vary as per the content area. The width should be equal to the area of the content and the height anywhere between 400-500px.
Needless to say that pictures should be HD. The image quality also plays a very important role in forming an impression on the mind of the visitors. Here is an example from a website that has low quality images.
The quality of image shows how serious a brand is about its reputation. Low-quality images equal non-professionalism and non-seriousness. You can fail at the very first step of gaining the trust of the visitors.
Never Lose Context
If mere showing the product off could get you conversions, why would big brands spend so much on models?
The images without context are like words without emotions. Until you are not able to take the visitor on a nostalgic or fantasy journey where he can visualize himself using your product, you just cannot expect him to buy it.
An image with faces, be it a stock photo, a celebrity photo or your own photo, increases your credibility and psychologically assures your visitors that you are not hiding something.
Even the website eye tracking studies reveal that users ‘Users fixate on those elements on the page that are relevant for their task’.
It means if the visitors come to your website looking for a dress, they would definitely connect better with a model wearing a dress instead of a photo with the dress on a rack or a hanger. By focusing on this parameter, you can control the way the user looks at the images.
Prefer images that focus on people using the product or images that have people in the background. This gives the images a realistic touch. Remember, 2018 is all about humanizing your brand whichever way possible.
Be Particular About the Focus
This has made the work even more challenging. Human brain has an ability to decipher the whole image just by understanding what a portion of the image is about. Putting it in simpler terms, our brain focuses on small portions of the image at a time to get the hang of the emotion hidden beneath it.
This is the reason why it is advised not to bombard your landing page with multiple images and focus on a single, effective image. Your message will be delivered most powerfully when you will not confuse the brain with too many ideas and images.
An image should have one and only one focal point. When the visitor sees the picture, his eyes should stop right on the focal point and rest everything should become faded in the back of his mind.
See the image above. The image of Nestle Cheerios on the right-hand side of the webpage is mesmerizing. If you pay close attention, the bowl of milk has the right portion of Cheerios in it, enough that the focus still remains on the Cheerios and not the milk or the bowl.
Once the user sees the images of your products, it is your responsibility to drag their focus on the product and make unimportant details disappear!
So choose wisely on which aspect of the image you want to grab the user’s attention to and then amplify that aspect using zooming, highlighting or using the line of sight technique where the images point in the direction of text or object that the user is supposed to see.
A Responsive Image
When we talk about responsive web design, it means adaptable layouts or liquid layouts that smoothly flow and fit different screens of the users. It has the ability to detect the users’ screen orientation and change layouts accordingly.
While selecting images for your website, ensure they have the same characteristics. Always test the image on your mobile screen to make sure that it doesn’t get distorted.
Check if the images that you have chosen fit screens of all sizes. With 80% of internet users having a smart phone, of internet users having a smartphone, it is very likely that your website is viewed on a mobile instead of a desktop. So when you pick images for your website, make sure they fit all screens and are equally effective.
It’s wise if you pick image according to mobile size as that will resize easily on the website.
Also, with 91% of social media users are accessing social channels via mobile images should be resized keeping in mind various social media platforms.
Here are the standard image sizes of the posts on various social media:
Facebook: 1200 x 900 pixels
Instagram: 1080 x 1080 pixels
Twitter: 506 x 253 pixels
Pinterest: Width of 238 pixels
Snapchat: 1080 x 1920 pixels
LinkedIn: Width of 350 pixels
Multiple Angles
Speculation and contemplation is a collective psyche of consumers while buying a product. This process gets even more prolonged even more time when the product they are buying is expensive and holds much importance for them. Being in that state, it is natural to not settle for the first thing that they see.
To this psyche, it is necessary to depict a detailed version of your product. Include maximum features in the product image and as many close-ups as possible. If you are offering a product having intricate details, zoom in feature on the image enhances the user experience fourfold and increases reliability.
Include different angles of the product images to help your users gain correct perspective of the product. Include different focus, angle and details in every image you add.
This how multiple angles of Sennheiser headphones give the customers a clarity on what they will be getting once they order it.
This enables the users to get a better judgement about your product and deepens the faith in the mind of the visitors.The more clarity the visitor has about the product, the more trust is built around the brand.
Connect With a Mascot
This is another way of building emotional connect with your target audience. A mascot can be animal, person or an object.
Don’t you all recall cute little Ow.ly the moment you think of Hootsuite?
It should not be confused with a logo which is strictly meant for branding purposes. A mascot also gives a friendly and warm feeling and leaves a long-lasting impression.
Apart from that the look and feel of a mascot is fun and approachable which helps the company to build those vibes. This especially works wonders for small business owners wherein a mascot helps them to win a brand recall from the visitors.
If you’re convinced that your brand needs a mascot (believe me, it does!), the next process is selecting which mascot fits the best for conversions.
There are two aspects of creating a mascot for the brand.
- You can create a mascot that is the personification of your brand. This involves using the emotions that fit your brand. If it is modern, casual, fun-loving etc., the colors and the mood of the mascot will be set according to what personality your website wants to wear.
- You can also create a mascot that is the personification of the customer’s persona. This rolls mainly on visitor’s emotions. All that time that you spent researching your target audience and defining user personas pays off here.
- Your mascot with personality traits of your users can evoke a feeling of nostalgia and relatability.
Here are some of the most memorable mascots that are standing out from the competition.
So decide how you want to approach your visitors and create that indelible impact that you’d been dreaming of.
Be Creative with Stock Photos
Often it is prescribed not to use pictures from stock photos and give more preference to professionally clicked photographs because of the redundancy that the stock photos have today.
However, I have a slightly different take on this. Professionally clicked photos are all good, but what if you want to save some time and bills on that?
You can use stock photos for your website after retouching and tailoring keeping few points in mind. The challenge always remains in how you do the retouch.
There are some critical points that you need to keep in mind while choosing the stock images for your website:
Never use images that are generic without adding text. Stock images without text look so offbeat and boring and out of context. Why would you want to bore your visitors?
Give the stock photo a tinge of your brand. You can use your brand specific colors on these images or even use your logo. This transforms a regular stock photo into your brand specific photo.
Change the focus of the stock photo to use only those components that are essential to your content. You don’t have to use the whole photo, be creative and change your focus. Zoom into parts of the image that holds weight as per your content.
Check out the image below:
If that image were to be used for website development services, it would not hold much weight on a visitor’s mind as the focus of the image is somewhat unclear.
Now check out this image:
Here, I zoomed in the laptop, threw some light on the image, and made my message quite conspicuous that I am offering website development services.
Use tools like Canva for these retouches and editing and you will successfully be able to use stock images to your benefit without looking redundant and boring.
Conclusion
A website is like your online store that is open 24×7. It is the cheapest and the easiest way to put your product out there.
That is why 55% of the inbound marketers consider growing company’s website as their topmost priority.
Website conversion rates don’t happen overnight, you need to work hard and keep testing to stumble upon that perfect formula that works for your audience.
Even though every business has its own unique formula, the ingredients remain the same. It’s just the matter of ratios.
So are you ready to start tweaking your perfect formula to boost conversion rate?
About the Author: Uzair is the VP, Sales & Marketing at Enterprise Monkey; an Australia based website and app development company which helps Small-to-Medium Enterprises, Large Enterprises and Startups increase their productivity and profitability. Uzair possesses a comprehensive experience in B2B and B2C marketing. Pursuing his vision to help Small and Medium Enterprises, he has successfully helped many such organizations increase their revenue and efficiency.
ultimate tricks How to Use Images/Visuals to Boost Website Conversion Rate
Last Friday morning I received an email from Andrew.
This email was very much like any other many of us receive on what seems like an almost hourly basis.
A shameless attempt at getting a link shared because “your readers would really enjoy it” without any real benefit to you.
The funny part is that these emails are always formatted almost exactly the same. Why? Because of the slew of templates put out by high profile bloggers in an attempt to help you with email outreach.
What some people fail to understand, however, is that these templates are meant purely as an example. And by copying them, Andrew is only demonstrating to his clued up recipients that he knows how to copy and paste a script and add some links.
Today I’m going to share with you the email I received from Andrew, I’ll dissect the email and tell you what’s wrong, and in the end I’ll show you a better example that would work much better for Andrew.
The Email
Here is Andrew’s outreach word-for-word (with a few edits for anonymity) and the numbers I’ve added will become relevant in the next section:
“Hi ,
(1)I’m Andrew from Andrews Co.
(2)I came across your article on Copywriting: http://blogtrafficbuilder.com/blogging-resources/ , and I thought it was great.
(3)I’m emailing you because we have content you might find interesting. We create really cool cheatsheets about email marketing and this one in particular is about copywriting, and getting thousands of hits since it was published. I think your readers would really enjoy it.
(4)Here it is: https://andrewshamelesslink.com.
(5)Would you be interested in sharing our cheatsheet with your audience? We’d really appreciate it.
(6)If not, just let me know and I won’t follow up. Thanks!
Andrew
www.andrewsco.com“
(The real links have also been removed, as I’m not planning on doing Andrew any favours by sending him traffic)
The Problems
These kind of emails always follow a similar structure;
- Introduce yourself.
- Flatter the recipient.
- Offer proposition.
- Present link.
- Call to action.
- Leave on a high note.
This email was no different, and on the surface it seems like the perfect outreach email. So where did Andrew go wrong?
Let’s break it down;
1. The Email Introduction
“Hi ,
I’m Andrew from Andrews Co.”
Firstly, Andrew’s introduction is great.
He introduces himself right away and I know exactly who this email is from (even if I’ve never heard of him before).
But at least now I know who he is and who I would be responding to, before we’ve gotten to any of the important stuff.
Think about a real life introduction; you don’t meet a person for the first time and say “I’m a blogger at http://blogtrafficbuilder.com and also my name is Tom”, do you?
The only real issue here is he doesn’t address the email to anyone, so clearly he hasn’t looked at my blog enough to know the my name and my big red spam flag is now flying at half mast.
This is common for people using tools like Ninja Outreach, that haven’t taken the crucial few extra minutes to set it up properly.
2. The Flattery
“I came across your article on Copywriting: http://blogtrafficbuilder.com/blogging-resources/ , and I thought it was great.”
This is where it starts to go downhill for Andrew.
I’m used to seeing these emails so I know that most of the time, they didn’t really look that far into one of my articles before emailing.
Everyone loves to be flattered, and call me cynical, but it’s gotten to the point now where I just don’t believe it.
Most of the time people target resources pages because they know they’re more likely to get a link there, because resources pages are typically choc full of links.
However, in this case, Andrew had cited my blogging resources page as “great” but had referenced it as an “article on Copywriting”.
Aside from the fact that “Copywriting” is actually two words (Copy writers hate when you get that one wrong) the page he’s referring to has nothing to do with copy writing.
In fact, if the URL and title wasn’t enough, this only further confirms that Andrew hadn’t even bothered to visit the article in the first place.
It’s just too obvious.
3. The Proposition
“I’m emailing you because we have content you might find interesting. We create really cool cheatsheets about email marketing and this one in particular is about copywriting, and getting thousands of hits since it was published. I think your readers would really enjoy it.”
Andrew says he has content that I might find interesting. Andrew might be right – but unfortunately, we’ll never know because I’m never going to click his link.
At this point, Andrew also let’s me know more about what he does, and that he creates “really cool” cheatsheets.
He then proceeds to mention that YOU the reader may also enjoy his content.
Gee, I had never thought of that, thanks for bringing it too my attention, Andrew!
The proposition isn’t actually that bad, it mentions that the cheatsheet is already popular and that’s usually a precursor to other’s sharing it.
Everyone wants to share great content and Andrew might just be doing us a favour by sending it directly to us.
4. The Link
“Here it is: https://andrewshamelesslink.com.”
There’s not much to say here, maybe Andrew could improve it by shortening the link or including some tracking to know if his shallow emails are converting though.
5. The Call To Action
“Would you be interested in sharing our cheatsheet with your audience? We’d really appreciate it.”
By now, Andrew’s given me pretty much all the information I need to make an action – all that needs to be done is seal the deal.
Andrew steps up by asking me to share his link – he’d really appreciate it!
I keep reading to see what Andrew’s going to offer me in exchange; maybe it’s a reciprocal share, maybe it’s a link, maybe it’s even a feature on their blog!
Nope.
Andrew’s only counteroffer is my peace of mind that he’ll go to sleep tonight feeling appreciative.
Now, as I mentioned before, everyone likes finding great content to share with their followers – and I’m no exception (believe it or not, I do try!).
But if you’re going to randomly email me, and ask me to do something for you, try to offer some kind of value other than “my readers may enjoy it”.
Offer me a link, a reciprocal share, cash, a Christmas card, a used coupon for half a gallon of milk – whatever. As long as there’s some kind of benefit for me (or someone like me) and not just you.
Right now I think this email is getting poorer by the character.
6. The End
“If not, just let me know and I won’t follow up. Thanks!”
Up until this point, my expectations of Andrew’s success have been steadily dropping.
However, Andrew seems to be clawing it back with his finishing statement.
At least Andrew has the humility to acknowledge that I might not be interested in his spam email and instead of helping him out, I could email back and tell him to get lost.
Lastly, But Probably Most Importantly
I know sending these emails can be tough to get right, and although I don’t do it that often, I have done it before with a very high success rate (we’re talking a 33% positive response rate).
Even if you can’t put together a decent outreach email, there’s one VERY important factor that you must remember, and that is to make sure you’re being CAN-SPAM compliant.
The fines for not doing so are up to $16,000 per email sent.
I’d imagine Andrew has sent this same email to hundreds or thousands of people, and so those fines would add up to a life-ruining amount pretty quickly.
Using a service like Ninja Outreach can help you with making sure your outreach is done compliantly.
Making your emails CAN-SPAM compliant is really quite simple (most email providers, including MailChimp do this automatically), you just have to include these 7 factors;
- You must allow people to opt-out/unsubscribe.
- When they do unsubscribe, you must honor it.
- You must make it clear who you are (at least Andrew has this one nailed).
- You mustn’t have a misleading subject line.
- If you send an ad, you must make it obvious that it’s an ad.
- You must include your physical location (this is where Andrew falls over).
- Be wary of third parties and monitor them if they send emails on your behalf as you’re still responsible for what they send.
See, it’s not that difficult, even Andrew has most of these covered, but the BIGGEST and most obvious one is the physical location.
The main concern is that Andrew just mentions that he’s “from” the company and so may be at risk of getting the company in trouble – oops!
I’m not the kind of person to report someone like Andrew for something like this, but you can bet your ass there are people out there that would.
So how should Andrew’s outreach email look?
Here’s my redraft of Andrew’s email given all of the points I’ve made above – but again, emails like this are purely templates and should be used as such.
Authenticity in email outreach truly comes from writing your outreach email in your own style with your own words using a template strictly as a guideline.
“Hi Tom,
I’m Andrew from Andrews Co.
I came across your blogging resources page: http://blogtrafficbuilder.com/blogging-resources/ , and I thought it was great.
At Andrew’s co, we’ve created some really cool cheatsheets about online marketing. This one in particular is about blog traffic, and has already received thousands of hits since it was published.
Here it is: https://andrewshamelesslink.com.
I was wondering if you would be interested in sharing this cheatsheet with your audience? We’d really appreciate it, and I’ve already taken the time to tweet your blogging resources page to our followers.
If not, no hard feelings, just let me know and I won’t message you again. Thanks!
Andrew
www.andrewsco.com
Andrews Co, #1 Andrews RD, Andrews City, Andrews State, ZIPCODE, USA”
See how I added at the end that Andrew had ALREADY done something for me, and so I’m now exponentially more likely to do something for him?
That’s what turns a solid fail campaign like Andrew’s into a 33% conversion success like some of my previous campaigns.
If you follow the points in this article, I’m 100% certain you’ll see more success from your email outreach campaigns.
Don’t spam. Don’t be an Andrew.
