The Power of Conversion Centred Design (CCD)

To be considered a serious competitor in today’s business market, CCD is not only an advantage – but a necessity

So, what is Conversion Centred Design? (CCD)

CCD is a discipline targeted specifically at designing experiences which achieve business goals. Through CCD, users are directed to complete one specific, desired action as a result of a mixture of persuasive design and psychological triggers. CCD ensures you convert more of your website visitors into sales, leads and customers.

There are a range of factors to consider when applying CCD to a website – an example being landing page websites, which convince visitors to converse with a business “right here, right now”. Fewer links on landing pages are desired - you want to avoid analysis paralysis (too many options resulting in no action being taken). Perfecting your landing page will lead to higher conversion rates and optimization, so it’s worth considering either: Lead Gen landing pages, which capture user data using incentives such as eBooks - or Click Through landing pages, which guide visitors to another page offering further detailed information.

Do you know the Seven Basic CCD principles?

Design

Encapsulation – Creating a tunnel vision effect using dynamic shapes to hijack your visitor’s eye to a call to action
Contrast & Colour – Allow your call to action to be seen clearly, choose colours which will evoke an emotional response
Directional Cues – These are visual indicators pointing to the focal area of your landing page i.e. arrows, pathways
White Space – Incorporating white space onto your website emphasises an area of importance, such as your call to action

Psychology

Urgency & Scarcity – Statements emphasising urgency and scarcity motivate users to converse quicker i.e. buy now, x amount left
Try Before you Buy – Provide a preview of your services if possible i.e. a sectioned sample of your web design for the client
Social Proof – Ensure a sense of authentic believability, promote the amount of registrations or downloads your site has gained so far

Persuade visitors to complete your conversion goals by applying a range of design elements and psychological cues to your website design. The Seven Basic CCD principles are as follows:

Where it all happens: Call to Action (CTA)

Think of your Call to Action as the magic button – it’s where visitors begin to converse with your site. When designing your CTA, remember the Three S’s: short + sweet = success. Ensure you’re clear with what happens when your CTA is clicked, don’t mislead your website visitors (use primary and secondary statements for explanations).

Consider your CTA’s placement, either above or below the fold. If above the fold, (the most common option) your CTA should be accompanied by a mini landing page website with supporting conversion centred content appearing below - an effective technique to achieve this is the Five-point punch as demonstrated below.

Remember to sell your services, language is an important tool, so use it to your advantage. Persuasive conversion centred copywriting will trigger subliminal reactions and encourages website visitors to interact with your content. Phrases such as “you, free, because, instantly, new” should be incorporated into your site regularly – watch your click rates rise as a result.

Don’t forget mobile device usage

“Fat” Fingers – think about all that pinching and zooming that comes with mobile sites, ensure your content is big enough for visitors to click around and converse with easily - especially your CTAs
Local – phone numbers for sessions and bookings should be easily located as well as your business’ mapping
Big CTA – the most prominent feature on your site is your CTA, contrasting colours can help with this
Content Chunking – section your page into bite sized portions with clear headings for skim reading and quick scrolling
Simple Navigation – partially hidden menus give visitors the option of choosing pages to visit which is time effective

Websites should always be “mobile friendly”. When a website translates well onto a mobile device, more traffic is directed to that business, thus resulting in performance boosts. There are five key mobile design rules to apply to any mobile site are as follows:

Time to test your performance.

Choose your website’s most high profile page and active elements and decide on your test’s purpose. What is it that you want to find out? Each test should receive at least 100 unique visitors for at least one week. Statistical significance for change should be over 95% - this is a measure of confidence. A/B Split testing is the most effective comparative testing method for your websites.

Remember, online marketing is targeted, accountable and affordable.

Would you like a free CCD audit of your website? Click here to contact our experts today.