Conversion Rate Essentials

85 million cold emails taught us these 15 lessons 3 of these lessons are wildly counterintuitive. Thanks to Gong and 30 Minutes to President's Club for help with this one. The data supported these 12 common best practices: ✅ Email Length: 1) 50-100 words 2) 3-4 sentences This will only continue trending downward. Keep emails short and concise. ✅ Personalization: 3) Personalized emails have 5x the reply rate of non-personalized emails No-brainer here. Gotta personalize your emails. ✅ Messaging: 4) Buzzwords, AI, platform, ROI decrease reply rates by up to 57% Not convinced you should stop talking product? ✅ Call To Actions: 5) Asking for time reduces reply rates by 44%. Ironically, time is the worst thing to ask for in a cold email. ✅ Subject lines: 6) 1-4 words has the highest open rate 7) AI, buzzwords, numbers, and questions reduce open rates by up to 18% 8) All lowercase subject lines have 11% higher open rates Subject lines should emulate internal communication style. Make sure you look like a peer instead of a vendor. ✅ Multi-Channel: 10) Add voicemails + cold calls to increase reply rates by 3.24x Point voicemails to your emails. Use the phone to drive attention to email. ✅ Bump Emails: 11) Break-up emails increase reply rates by 89% 12) Case studies reduce reply rates by 47% Yes, bump emails work. And they work very well. 🚨 The Three Surprises These three lessons surprised us. 1) Reply rates are 41% lower without social proof You miss out on a ton of replies when you don't strategically name drop. 2) Offers outperform Interest-Based CTAs by 4x and increase reply rates by 28% You need to offer the prospect something in return for their time. An audit, an insight, talk up the SE, etc. 3) Use company personalization vs. individual personalization for Director+ roles. Reply rates are 50% higher (9% vs. 6%). Leaders do not care that you know where they went to school or know a personal interest of theirs. Everything should connect to the business's goals. ~~~ Data shows that in 2025, top reps book 8X more meetings than average reps. Want the full playbook on how they're doing that? Get our cold email course. To celebrate launch week, we're offering a discount (don't follow our negotiation advice 😂). Grab the course here: https://lnkd.in/e4dxyANg

How I find conversion rate opportunities by breaking down the shopping funnel: Instead of looking at your entire funnel conversion rate (2-3% on average)... Step 1. Break it into parts. 1. All traffic 2. Non-bounce (% Sessions viewing 2+ pages) 3. Product Viewers (% Sessions viewing 1+ product) 4. Add to Cart (% Sessions adding 1+ product to cart) 5. Checkout Start (% Sessions starting checkout) 6. Checkout Complete* (% Sessions completing 1+ orders) *You can also break down the checkout flow further: Billing/Shipping > Review > Thank You As a percent of the total, a typical e-commerce site might be: 1. All traffic: 10,000 sessions - 100% 2. Non-bounce: 7,000 sessions - 70% 3. Product Viewers: 3,000 sessions - 30% 4. Add to Cart: 800 sessions - 8% 5. Checkout Start: 400 sessions - 4% 6. Checkout Complete: 300 sessions - 3% Step 2. Calculate the % moving to the next step The KEY is to look at the conversion rate between steps. Calculate by dividing the sessions on each step over the sessions from the previous step. 1. All traffic: NA 2. Non-bounce: 7,000 / 10,000 = 70% 3. Product Viewers: 3,000 / 7,000 = 43% 4. Add to Cart: 800 / 3,000 = 27% 5. Checkout Start: 400 / 800 = 50% 6. Checkout Complete: 300 / 400 = 75% Step 3. Look for trends You don't need to worry about ecommerce benchmarks. Your marketing channel mix, product type, and audience will all influence your numbers. Focus on YOUR numbers. This is your baseline. Trend these rates over time, and watch for anomalies. Step 4. Improve each step methodically Does your checkout completion rate look low (75%)? Maybe consider: - Checkout Form optimization - Adding new payment types - Simpler discount codes - Accurate delivery estimates Is your Add-to-Cart rate low (27%)? Maybe consider: - Pricing optimization - Additional social proof on PDP - Improved product images and videos - Digging into inventory and availability Step 5. Track your results As you make improvements (or run experiments) measure your intra-funnel rates. It's much easier to track improvements compared to looking at your aggregate conversion rate. Are you breaking down your e-commerce funnel? #cro #conversionrate #ecommerceanalytics

Your email list is your most valuable marketing asset. So here are 5 funnels you can use to build it starting today: Template 1: The Bare Bones The simplest one: you post content, drive it to your profile where they can join your email list. It works well as long as: - You’re attracting the right crowd with your content. - You’re having enough traction to get meaningful signups daily. The problem is that beyond the qualify of your content and your profile, your audience doesn’t have an incentive to join your email list. Which brings us to number 2: Template 2: The Magnetized I call it “Magnetized” because it involves a lead magnet: a valuable, free resource that your subscribers get in exchange for their email. Here are a few rules of thumb to follow: - It must be so valuable people would willingly pay for it. - It must solve a specific problem your audience is facing. - It should tie directly to your core offer. That will increase the number of conversions. But it doesn’t solve for the amount of traffic. Which brings us to number 3... Template 3: Augmented I like ads for 4 reasons: 1. They allow you to increase traffic 2. They allow you to do that quickly 3. They allow you to do that without relying on other creators. 4. They also allow you to target specific people (either via targeting or specific copy) Those get more people to see your lead magnet, download it and join your email list. Template 4: Collab The next level is to leverage other people’s audiences via guest posting. Here’s how it works: 1. Make a list of newsletters in your niche 2. Guest-write an issue of that newsletter 3. Add your lead magnet link to the bottom 4. Make sure to offer the owner of the newsletter to do the same with your audience. Just like collabs in music: this tactic allows you to get in front of a qualified warm audience. The only problem is that you have to rely on someone else’s goodwill. Template 5: Viral Who are your best sales reps? Happy customers. How do you make them promote your newsletter? Do this: - Create newsletter-specific content (not recycled stuff) - Provide non-obvious insights - Make it actionable. - Incentivize them By doing all 4 you’ll create growth loops that will allow your newsletter to grow on autopilot. Template 6: Pinnacle Combine all of the above. Complex, but unstoppable.

How I help IT companies get x2 quality leads from their websites. Example 1. Traffic source: SEO Factor affected: Conversion to Lead Actions taken: - Customized CTA blocks on Blog pages - Replaced contact forms with Book a call widget - Added Book a call widget directly to blog posts (were relevant) Results: - 90% leads spam --> 10% leads spam - x3 relevant conversations happened Example 2. Traffic source: Paid ads Factor affected: Leads quality Actions taken: - Added qualification questions to Book a call form - Added relevant company size on the targeting level - Designed an attractive offer for the landing page Results: - Conversion to lead increased by 10% - Leads qualification speed shortened to 1 day Conversion isn't a destination. It's a process with very specific steps and factors you can (and should) affect. Need help with your conversion optimization tasks? Hit me up in the comments, I'll answer your questions and share more experiments and examples. ==== I'm Liudmila Kiseleva, CEO of Rampiq. We help B2B IT and SaaS companies get more revenue from their websites. Follow me for more practical tips on SEO, SEM, Analytics and content marketing.

A lot of brands focus all their energy on the ad—but drop the ball completely in the post-click experience. This is a great way to light your ad spend on fire. To maximize performance and cohesion in the customer journey, you’ll want to use test these three 3 strategies: 1) Build 5-Reasons Why Listicles 2) Create Comparison Articles 3) Correlate Your Upsells To expand on each… 1) Build 5-Reasons Why Listicle You should absolutely test a 5-Reasons Why Listicle after your customer clicks on an ad. This is where the purchase decision gets made. You should serve key information necessary to convince your customers to buy immediately upon landing. Think of it as a PDP masked as an article: You need to enable the person to purchase inside of that article because they are not reading the ‘5 reasons why article’ and then saying, “Oh, I really need to read the PDP now.” 2) Test Comparison Articles This is where you service shoppers a comparison between your product and a popular competitor. When highlighting the key differences, remember that you are creating the shopping moment there and then. Be as informative as possible, covering what might’ve been most vital in a PDP. Don’t make customers read both, or they’ll fall out of the funnel. 3) Correlate your upsells Your upsells should correlate to the primary product flow that originally engaged a customer. Don’t drive customers away by pushing products that don’t meet their preferences. Finally, the hierarchy of upsell products you are promoting matters just as much. Test this order regularly to see which variables create a material change in conversions. I continue to see these crush for brands using FERMAT, and just in general looking across the ecom space. If you want advice on multivariable experimentation, head over to my page and check out my Whiteboard Wednesday video from March 14th! PS: if you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments!

Free trial conversion isn't about showing off features. It's about getting users to what I call the "Kick-A$$ Moment" as quickly as possible. A SaaS marketing director reached out last week with abysmal trial conversion rates despite strong top-of-funnel numbers. The problem? Their trial experience was a glorified product tour that never delivered actual value. At a previous company, we increased conversion by 43% by redesigning our onboarding to deliver core value within 48 hours. Your job isn't to explain your product. It's to make users successful with it – fast. #SaaS #FreeTrialConversion #UserOnboarding

Let's talk about the Demand Conversion challenge. Below is the situation I see in ~50% of the companies I engage with. ** The better marketing becomes at creating demand, the more likely sales is dropping the ball on converting that demand to revenue ** The specifics: - Marketing shifts away from low-quality lead gen. - Marketing focuses on creating demand. - High-intent leads raise their hand to engage (e.g., demo request). - Qualified Lead growth reaches a new high. However: - Qualified Pipeline doesn't grow at the same rate. - Revenue doesn't grow at the same rate. - CEO and Sales Leader blame marketing. - Marketing pressured to do more lead gen. This isn't a marketing issue. ** It's a Marketing and Sales Alignment issue ** To fix this problem 👇 Review your demand conversion / inbound sales process. 1 - Marketing talks with Sales The issue starts with sales treating all marketing leads equally. Historically, marketing leads have been low quality, so sales have built a process for triaging low-quality leads. Align on treating the leads who want to talk with sales differently. 2 - Ensure you can measure lead to revenue. You need to measure lead to meeting to qualified pipeline with customer and lead enrichment to segment for qualification, routing, and stage progression to revenue.   3 - Assess if meetings happen. You will likely find that less than 40% of your high-intent leads meet with sales. The reason is a lack of urgency and efficiency in booking meetings. Effective automation can raise this to > 70%. 4 - Review your first call process. You will find SDRs taking first calls using a process designed for leads who don't want to talk to you. Instead, have AE's take first calls using a process optimized for qualified leads who WANT to talk with you. 5 - Align lead qualification between marketing & sales. You don't need MQLs and SQLs. Instead, it's one qualification criteria to route leads to sales. Adjust criteria based on what you learn by running a purposeful process. 6 - Determine if prospects need more education. You don't want sales spending the entire first call educating the prospect. The education process should be under 10 minutes. If it's longer, determine why and prioritize educating prospects before the first call. 7 - Verify sales criteria for Qualified Pipeline. Validate the degree of subjectivity in how sales convert stage 1 opportunities to Qualified Pipeline (ex: stage 2). There should be less subjectivity AND different criteria for leads who want to talk with you. 8 - Continually optimize for efficiency This process isn't "set it and forget it." You need an eye on performance with clear metrics & goals aligned across marketing and sales. Your volume and sales cycle will dictate how often to review. The above isn't visionary. It's data, logic, and systematic thinking. It's marketing and sales aligning to convert demand into revenue. Give it a shot. #b2bmarketing #b2bsales #leadership

"We need to verticalize." Every SaaS company says this around $10M ARR. Then they create "industry experts" who know nothing about the industries they're suddenly "experts" in. 6 months later, conversion rates are meh and reps are confused. Why? Well, because verticalization isn't about reorganizing your sales team in so much as it’s about speaking human. When you sell generically, you sound like every other vendor. When you sell vertically, you sound like you actually understand their world. The data backs this up, btw. Companies that verticalize correctly see 10-15x conversion rate improvements. Not 10-15%. Ten to fifteen TIMES. But most companies screw it up because they think verticalization means hiring new people. Wrong. It means speaking differently. Here's how to do it right: 1. Start with your data rather than your dreams. Don't pick verticals because they "feel big." Pick them because you're already winning there without trying. Look at your last 100 closed deals. What industries bubble up? Start there. One company I know found 40% of their wins came from SaaS companies and nonprofits. Different industries, but similar buying patterns. THAT became their first two verticals. 2. Start at the top of the funnel, not the bottom. Don't hire vertical AEs first. Start with SDRs and marketing. Change your messaging. Build vertical landing pages. Create industry-specific case studies. Test conversion rates before you restructure comp plans. 3. Make the same product sound different. Remember that you're not building different products. You're translating the same product into different languages. - Generic message: "Our platform improves efficiency." - Healthcare message: "Reduce patient wait times and streamline HIPAA compliance." - Manufacturing message: "Cut production delays and optimize supply chain visibility." Same platform. Different pain points. Different outcomes. 4. Don't verticalize everything at once. Pick your biggest opportunity first. Get gangster at speaking that language. Build the muscle memory. THEN add vertical #2. Not before. Most companies try to tackle 5 verticals simultaneously and end up pretty shitty at all of them. 5. Measure what matters: conversation conversion, not team structure. Track conversion rates by industry before and after verticalization. If your healthcare reps aren't converting better than your general reps were, you're doing it wrong. tl;dr = verticalization works when you commit to becoming fluent in your customer's world. It fails when you think putting "Healthcare AE" in someone's title makes them a healthcare expert. So before you reorganize your entire GTM team, ask yourself: Do we understand these industries well enough to sound like insiders? If the answer is no, it’s better to start learning before you start hiring.

If cold email is dead for you, here is how to make it work in 2024. Cold email used to work for any company hiring 5 SDRs armed with Salesforce and Outreach. For most, this is not working anymore. Your sales team is not able to get results through outbound anymore? Don't give up on it just yet. The key is evolving your copy to align with modern buyer habits. Here are 8 tips to get you to a 20% reply rate: 1. Personalize every message - use the prospect's name, role, company etc. A lot of haters will tell you that personalization doesn’t work, it won’t solve a bad offer but it does make a difference. 2. Mention a problem that you know that your prospect is facing, and discuss their KPIs and priorities specifically - make it only about them. Never pitch yourself in the first email. 3. Niche down - e.g., help cat clothing stores in LA vs all e-com websites. 4. Craft intriguing subject lines - pose questions and incorporate their company name. 5. Demonstrate that you understand their goals and speak their language. Don't use generic messaging. Don’t talk to a CFO like you would talk to an SDR. 6. Include a relevant customer case study to make it tangible. Use real data, ”we increase sales by 257%” will discredit yourself in an instant.” 7. Use a soft CTA - ask to send something useful rather than demanding a meeting. 8. Keep. It. Short. - 10 secs max to read. This formula may require more upfront work than blasting templates. But that’s the price to pay to not get ignored like 99% of emails. Any other tip you would add to the list?

The biggest mistake people make when doing dayparting... "Increase bids where sales are highest." ❌❌❌ WRONG ❌❌❌ You should increase bids where 𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙝 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙩! After doing analysis on hourly data for 10 different accounts totaling >$500k spend the last 2 weeks, here's what I'm discovering: 🔹 There is a LOT of "window shopping" in the evenings 🔹 This creates volume, but has significantly lower CVR and much higher ACOS 🔹 Evening hours also get higher CPCs (likely caused up by all the rookies increasing bids in the evening trying to chase that volume) 🔹 Conversion rate is at it's HIGHEST during lunch time, likely when people are making quicker decisions on their break 🔹 There's still a lot of volume at this time, with much lower CPCs and better ACOS 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆? 🤑 Don't merely chase volume, or you end up getting lost in the herd of other PPC managers running similar second-rate strategies. Instead, capture that little white space -- the opportunity which your competition has overlooked. Snag those sales while competition is asleep at the wheel, then let them fight each other for worse performance in the evening. 😎 Comment "video" if you want me to make a video showing this whole process. #amazon #amazonppc