Conversion Rate Optimization – or CRO – is a never-ending challenge. It drives many of the activities entrepreneurs and marketers carry out each and every day.
They obsess over the corresponding metrics, and continuously attempt to “move the needle” in the right direction.
Hundreds of tools offer to turn your site into the best one on the net. Yet, they all go about this process in different ways.
Certain conversion rate optimization tools work best in certain applications, but there is not one perfect solution in every instance. Sifting through the hundreds of tools to find the few that are right for your particular situation can be a painstakingly long process, leaving you confused and more frustrated than anything else.
Here are 9 conversion rate optimization tools that we think are best for your online performance, as well as your brand:
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a tool that tracks all content posted and shared on social media platforms and presents the information in a ranked list.
BuzzSumo sorts the information on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and more by the number of shares and traffic that those topics received within a specified time frame.
Thinking about writing an article on “marketing books?” Take a look at the top-rated articles in BuzzSumo to get inspiration for a title to use, and to figure out what content is already working for others.
This information can also be sorted by user profiles in order to better shape your webpage to a certain demographic.
By using BuzzSumo, you can implement these topics into your web pages, further optimize your marketing funnel, and capture the web traffic searching for more information on these important topics.
CrazyEgg
CrazyEgg is best known for heat mapping. Heat mapping is where you receive a report image highlighted by different shades of green, yellow, orange and red to depict the areas of your site that are most heavily viewed and clicked on:
This will give you a better idea of how users interact with your site. Then you can change the flow and layout of your pages accordingly. Understanding where the user is moving the cursor on the screen will give you a better chance of placing key content, buttons, links, widgets and other items to increase the retention of traffic on your site – and therefore conversation rate optimization as well.
Coschedule’s Headline Analyzer
When compiling a post, you might find yourself wondering if the headline that you chose will be effective in targeting the intended audience, as well as whether or not it will look professional. It turns out there is a science to this.
Coschedule’s Headline Analyzer is a great tool to help solve viewer curiosity. It presents the results in a number form that ranges from 0-100. The higher the score, the more effective the headline is predicted to be. The tool also shows how your site, and headline, will show up in a Google search, subjects of emails, and other application areas.
Take our earlier example, “marketing books:”
You can see that would make for a terrible title. It’s not specific, it’s too short, and really just contains the keyword we are aiming to rank for. Now let’s add some flair to it:
A 77 isn’t bad. It could be improved some more, but I think you get the idea.
Hello Bar
HelloBar is a very simple, free tool that allows you to add a banner of text at the top of web pages for your readers to see. This banner can function as a call-to-action, or simply for directing viewers to a particular page where they might find more information about the topic which interests them.
There are dozens of awesome ways to use this bar to help convert readers into email subscribers and sales.
HelloBar serves as a great promotional tool, whether you are revealing a new product or offering a new service. This message can be made visible on any number of pages within your website, from just your home page to every sub-page within it.
Intercom
Intercom is a communication tool that adds a chat option to your website. This allows you to communicate directly with your customers.
The goal of this communication is to provide insights into the expectations, experiences, and intent of your customers. It also allows you to chat with new customers in order to provide them with a memorable experience, which will bring them back to your site. Intercom will also trigger pop-ups or messages in response to certain time intervals, or visitor actions.
Optimizely
Optimizely is the benchmark software for A/B testing on your web pages. It is used by many large and internationally recognized websites, such as Starbucks, Disney and eBay.
Optimizely allows developers, and even non-tech savvy marketers, to make live, dynamic changes to their web pages and then to test those new pages to identify which variations are performing best.
The core of A/B testing is built around your conversion rate optimization strategy, and this tool is an absolute must for any company attempting to improve its CRO efforts.
Qualaroo
Qualaroo is another customer interaction tool that allows you to talk directly with your customers, but it takes a slightly different approach.
Depending on the stage of implementation that you have with Qualaroo, customer interactions can come in the form of surveys, automated responses, questionnaires and text boxes that allow visitors to interact with your company.
All of this is set off by different, user-specific triggers, including their time viewing a page, items added to their shopping cart, recurring visits, etc.
SubjectLine.com
SubjectLine is a free tool that lets you check whether the subject line that you have chosen for your marketing email is going to be well received and efficiently represented.
SubjectLine compares your proposed subject line with millions of previously tested subject lines in order to provide constructive feedback and advice on fixing the deliverability of your emails.
By referencing SubjectLine before sending out emails, you are greatly increasing your chances of effective marketing, and furthering your conversion rate optimization efforts.
Rebrandly
Rebrandly is the easiest way to create and share short links with your own custom domain name.
Short links like “short.ly/1N1nwh” are anonymous, ugly, unpronounceable, not trusted, not memorable, brand-unfriendly, spammy, and often blacklisted.
Rebrandly is a fresh approach to short links, which allows you to create cool, descriptive links using your custom branded domain name.
Unlike bit.ly, Rebrandly links are simple to pronounce, easy to remember and promote your brand.
A branded link, such as “brand.link/marketing” increases trust and raises CTR (Click Through Rate) by up to 39% and therefore improves conversion rate optimization as well.
Rebrandly links are also SEO-friendly because they include a keyword at the end. And other than the cost of buying your domain name, Rebrandly is free.
Final Thoughts
Examining all the options for optimizing your online marketing can be a complex process, but the payoff is worth the time invested as your prospects will be more likely to convert.
The tools outlined above make the lives of digital marketers much easier. Integrating these tools into your conversion rate optimization strategy will not only improve your bottom line but also your peace of mind as you can confidently monitor and measure your online marketing performance.
Further Reading:
- Cognitive Biases: The errors affecting your conversion rate
- How to create branded short links
- 150 best marketing tools: The ultimate list
- The best social media automation tools
This Article is About:
- Conversion rate optimization tools
- Best tools for CRO
- How to implement conversion rate optimization
- How to increase your conversion rate
Originally Posted: May 24th, 2016.
Post Updated: August 04th, 2022.