The only 3 conversion blockers

Everyone overthinks conversion.

Most teams start conversion optimisation by simplifying the user experience.

But, after some quick wins, they hit diminishing returns. How can you move from marginal gains back to step-function improvements?

Here's the thing... You can’t fix conversion until you understand why prospects are stuck.

Good news... Given a clean UX, qualified prospects only ever drop out for 3 reasons:

1. They don’t understand what you do

2. They understand but don’t care

3. They get it, they care, but they don’t believe you.

In that order.

Here’s how to diagnose and fix each of those 3:

Step 1: Comprehension

Diagnose: Show your headline to a prospect for 5 seconds. Ask them “What does that mean?” Repeat 5 times. If nobody gets it, rewrite.

Fix: You’ve got 5 words + one image to demonstrate how you can help them. If your headline talks about your product, you’re asking them to guess. If your headline talks about their goal, you’re on the right track. (Here’s my best headline article)

Step 2: Urgency

Diagnose: This usually shows up as poor sales conversion, or an activation problem if you’re self-serve. If prospects say they’re “too busy,” that means you’re not a top-3 priority.

Fix: You can boost urgency with simple tactics like time-limited discounts, or poking at their pain. (Here’s my best article about how to turn a vitamin into a painkiller). But you might have a chance to deepen product/market fit: Ask prospects what is on their top-3 list, and reposition or pivot to address a top 3 priority.

Step 3: Trust 

Diagnose: Talk to recent signups, and ask them “what made you almost not sign up?” What specific questions or worries did they have?

Fix: People see trust as an amorphous concept and throw money at “brand building.” But trust is rooted in specific concerns like “What will my team think?” “Will I actually use it?” or “Are your providers vetted?” Here’s my best article re: Building trust.

Simple next step

If you’re stuck in the land of marginal gains, look beyond simple UX tweaks. Discover the root cause of dropoff and address it: Improve comprehension, find urgency and build trust – in that order.

I hope you find this useful!