Competition Conversion in 2 Words:
Competitor Research
Influenced By?
I remember a comedian being asked who were his major influences and he replied: “Do you mean who do I steal from? The best.”
We were recently commissioned to review 5 of our client’s competitor sites and do a competitive Conversion Rate Optimisation Report for each and so we learnt a lot. Is this theft or in ‘geek-speak’ simply ‘reverse-engineering?’
If you want to learn anything you learn from the best, then you absorb that learning and apply your own ideas. It’s simple and certainly speeds up any CRO project. By reviewing a competitor’s site for conversion ideas you open your mind to multiple experiences and learn quicker. That site might even be doing something well that they’ve never considered as CRO, like writing copy for their visitors that is fun and engaging.
How Competitors Help Your Conversion
By looking deeply at the process, the sales funnel and the features of your competitor sites you can start to build a vocabulary that you may never obtain by following CRO best practice and following CRO experts.
Suddenly you have your own mind, your own reasoning and you are off in a new, stronger direction.
What to Look for
Something’s are easy to find out? An overview SEO report from builtwith.com will tell you what analytics packages the site is using if they have a problem with keyword stuffing and lots more stuff that makes you think ‘mmm I must check my own site. ‘
Competitor Break Down
Where do you think your gains will come from? Will you be able to put such insight into action? Look at a mixture of conversion factors, like Online Value Propositions and Signs of Confidence and combine them with acting like a visitor (your own mini-usability study) and think of the marketing, like promotions and guarantees, the categories of information, the weight of the copy and the features offered to engage and educate the visitor on the products/services.
Build your own CRO Comparison Chart. Then you’ll see the gaps in your competitors’ online conversion and pick up actions for your own site.
All the best,
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