Conversion Rates

In Randy Ingermanson’s newsletter for March of 2018 he wrote a section discussing conversion rates. It was an interesting read and it started me down a path I thought I’d share.

At my current employer we have a number of rules around who can and cannot provide recognition in our system. The problem is there are also a number of exceptions and there is no clear cut path to our ultimate goal: getting somebody to redeem the “points” the have been awarded.

I did a quick calculation on the error/standard deviation we have for our numbers. It’s infinitesimally small: .00000002 % deviation from the numbers we show up on the screen. Small enough to be very confident that the numbers we show are the actual conversion rates. That doesn’t mean there are not things we can do to increase our rates. And there are a number of changes we want to implement which will help our user base increase their usage of the platform. Still, as we look at the numbers themselves, I’m encouraged. Many people are concerned about some of the rates, but there is really only one that is concerning. The rest are fairly typical of conversion rates.

The biggest challenge I see with conversion rates is that you are trying to get people to do something that they may not want to.

For example: At our company we want people to redeem their points. But, personally, I’m not interested in redeeming my points. I’m saving up for something. I have a goal in mind and so while our focus may be on getting me to redeem my points, any kind of targeted messaging may be falling on deaf ears because I have something in mind, but I cannot control when I get points.

So what do you do?

Find out what the customer wants and help them get it. In my case: I just need more people to give me more points.

Any takers?

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The image, titled “How to Convert Leads at the Bottom of your Sales Funnel”, was created by joethegoatfarmer. You can find it on flickr.