This time I am reviewing Conversion Optimization, written by Khalid Saleh and Ayat Shukairy. Conversion Optimization refers to the practice of converting page visitors to buyers, when talking about e-shops.
Most companies that own websites focus on driving visitors to their page, but a large number of visitors do not necessarily represent an increase in sales. Marketers noticed
this, and the practice of conversion optimization was born.
This book describes the Conversion Framework™, a process Khalid and Ayat developed in 2007 and have evolved since. The framework is built around eight principles: the first six principles cover how visitors interact with different websites and whether they are persuaded to stay or decide to leave. These principles are:
- Getting to know your Customers through persona creation
- Creating confidence and trust
- Understanding the buying stages
- FUDs (fears, uncertainties, and doubts)
- Appealing with incentives
- Engaging users
The seventh is about tesing
- Testing the voice of visitors
And the eighth is about long-term commitment to conversion optimization, because it is not a process you do just once.
- Be iterative.
In addition to these eight chapters, there are two introductory chapters talking about some basic concepts of Conversion Optimization, and analytics concepts and mathematical formulas behind conversion optimization.
The book is very analytical and detailed in the subject. Everything is explained, and supported by examples and case studies. Also there are a lot of photos and snapshots of real e-shops. It dedicates a lot of pages to personas and persona creation, being the important thing behind Conversion Optimization. The ability to create good personas, and the ability to “see” through the eyes of your personas, is the way to succeed in converting from visitors to buyers.
Although simple in language, detailed and good supported with real life examples, I found this title somewhat of boring. I felt like the book was talking about the same things over and over again. Maybe this is a good tactic for making you learn something, but on the other hand it is annoying for someone who wants to get an idea and put things in action soon.
As I said above, in the core concept of conversion optimization is the creation of good personas and the consistency of what you say and what you sell. Exercise your common sense and also commit to what you do, for succeeding in converting page visitors to buyers.
