Conversions are always important. No matter the page, no matter the strategy, the purpose is to convert your audience. But that elusive conversion growth is particularly important when you’re talking about donations to a nonprofit. There, every dollar truly counts. So how can revamping a landing page impact the bottom line?
The wrong change can obviously wreak havoc on your results, so it’s understandable why so many focus on the old adage of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But what if you took the approach of, “this is fine, but could it be better”?
I’ve come to find that landing pages — or any page, really — can nearly always be made better, because no matter how fantastic that page was when it came out, even the best of them can become stale as time evolves. And when you make strategic incremental changes based on the data your page statistics are telling you, successful conversion increases tend to follow.
So what did we do to the page in question to improve it?
…. The end.
Kidding, obviously. Otherwise I wouldn’t have wasted so much of your time convincing you to read this blog.
Here are the 3 things we focused on to earn more donations and donors:
1. We nixed the generic header image in exchange for something more compelling. We also made sure this image worked better with the hero text we wanted to overlay, creating a crisp look where the image of a child smiling and staring straight at you immediately captures your attention. It’s also important to note here that we made sure our image swaps throughout the page used real images, not staged or generic ones.
Why?
Because, don’t you feel more compelled when a literal person whose life was changed is put in front of you?
Seriously, you are human, right? (Talking to you, AI…)
2. We simplified the form — and put it below the fold.
While it might seem counter-intuitive to put a form to donate at the bottom of the page, this allowed landing page visitors to really feel invested by the time they reached the end, therefore more compelled to donate.
By having the form at the top of the page, instead of making the process of donating easier, we found page visitors didn’t react well to being immediately asked for money, even if that was their plan when they chose to visit the donate page. In other words, even if they specifically went to that page while reaching for their credit cards? They dropped off.
With the new page layout, visitors not only got to experience the stories of how the program impacted lives, but also saw real images and faces of those people whose lives had already been changed. Because of this, they understood exactly why their dollar mattered and were less likely to leave the page without contributing to the cause.
3. We added content that told a story.
All this garbage about how, “No one reads anymore, anyway,” is simply not true. It’s been proven. But it’s about organizing that content in a way that’s pleasing to the eye, so that the skimmers can get as much as they want, and so can the in-depth readers.
Well organized and written content can capture both demographics.
And, especially when money is involved, it’s important to never assume your audience is already 100% committed. By painting a picture through design, copy and image changes, we created an increase in donations of 58% — even when traffic to the site (which wasn’t being promoted at the time) decreased by 57%.
But of course, our work is never done. We’ll continue to monitor this site and figure out what changes will be ideal to make next. Because data-driven work is never done.
How can Crash help you increase your conversions? Let’s chat and find out!
