Struggling to convert your visitors into customers?

Start doing this immediately and see your conversion rate go REALLY HIGH

So, let me ask you a question founders/marketers, what is your conversion rate? (you can reply to this email to answer)

I mean, like just think of it from a bigger perspective: if your conversion rate is 1%, then even if you get 10,00 monthly visitors, only 100 will sign up.

It doesn’t end here because if 100 visitors sign up, and the conversion of the paid plan is also 1%, then you’ll get only 10 customers.

And if your paid plan is let’s say, $10/month. Then, it’s only $100/month.

It’s pretty low, right? So, as the founder, your only option is to increase your conversion rate.

But how? I mean, you can’t force your visitors to buy from you, but you can make small decisions that stack up and increase your conversion rate.

In this article, I am going to cover how you can use A/B testing to make these “small” decisions that are going to increase your conversion rate.

What is A/B Testing in SaaS?

A/B testing – also known as split testing - is an experiment conducted, for example, on a website or mobile application to test potential improvements compared to an original version.

In the case of a website, A/B testing allows you to get insights into visitor behavior by creating 2 or more versions of their webpage and analyzing which version leads to a higher conversion rate.

Version A refers to the original state, while version B refers to the new version of the testing variable.

So, A/B testing allows you to make small “converting” decisions in your website that compound up and increase your conversion rate.

When should you use A/B Testing?

If you’d ask what’s the best time to use A/B testing, the answer would be there’s no perfect time to do split testing.

In my opinion, you should do it when you are struggling to make small decisions or you think that changing this or that will improve your conversion rate.

If you’re facing at least one of the challenges below, consider A/B testing:

• You are not happy with your CTA conversion rate

• Your landing page fails to convince users to act

• You lose users during the onboarding process

• Your users don’t understand what value your business brings

• You have great downloadable content, but your lead capture form fails to get sign-ups

• Your product page doesn’t generate free trial sign-ups

A few minor tweaks to a CTA button, landing page, or copy can affect the number of leads your SaaS business generates.

As soon as you’ve identified the problems, it is time to make a hypothesis and narrow down the potential causes (and solutions) so that you don't need to examine every single element on your SaaS website.

Once your testing is completed, review the results and see if any of the tested variants bring you closer to your objective.

If yes, perfect. If not, don’t worry. A/B testing is an iterative process of trial and error rather than one-and-done.

Having said that, we need to cover one of the biggest challenges in A/B testing - the amount of people your A/B test is exposed to.

For example, if you just released your website and have very few visitors, your test results might be off because too few people tested it.

If you have 10 people in your email newsletter, and you want to test the effectiveness of two different subject lines, there is little sense in sending one email to the first 5 people, and the second email to the second 5 people.

The user group is just too small. With only a small user group, it makes more sense to do user research and talk to people to improve your website, instead of A/B testing.

Which elements to A/B test?

Even though you can A/B test almost every important element, it’s recommended to narrow down your list of A/B tests so you can only focus on important things.

Here are some of the elements that you can test:

Headline

The first thing visitors see on your website is the headline, so it’s crucial to make a great first impression with it and – much more importantly – show what value you provide.

If the headline is dull, unclear, or irrelevant, it’ll discourage readers from continuing, and they will abandon your website.

When you see a high bounce rate in your analytics, A/B testing your headline makes sense.

To A/B test with your landing page headline, try different title lengths, highlight the key product benefits, use limited words, or integrate numbers.

One pro tip is to set yourself in your visitors’ shoes and directly address their pain points.

To make your headline effective, focus on highlighting the unique benefits and value that users will gain from your product.

Copy

Your landing page copy should act like a digital salesperson by communicating with multiple potential customers, generating interest, guiding visitors through the purchasing decision, and inspiring them to take action.

But many SaaS landing pages fail on that. I bet you’ve seen landing pages focusing on what solution the company offers rather than on the customers’ needs.

But how can you test the landing page copy? First, the purpose of a landing page is to persuade visitors to take a specific action.

To achieve that, the copy on the landing page should use language that encourages and motivates the visitor to take action.

Second, ensure that your copy aligns with the customer's level of knowledge about your product or service.

An effective landing page copy should reflect the level of understanding that the customer has about the problem the company is trying to solve.

So keep it simple and do not use any fancy words or business jargon.

Don’t be afraid to A/B test with words or phrases you don’t come across very often in your sector if you can better address the visitors’ problem this way.

Call-To-Action (CTA)

A CTA is a request (or manipulation) for visitors to perform a specific action.

Every customer journey comprises distinct phases and touchpoints.

Typical CTA elements are buttons, because of their high visibility. However, a CTA can be anything that motivates users to move further down the funnel.

The goal of every Call To Action is to take the user by the hand and help them reach their goal.

The better you understand what your customers want to achieve, the better you can craft your CTA and the better your conversion rate will be.

You may see SaaS landing pages containing two or more different CTA buttons, whereas some landing pages stick with only one kind of CTA button.

Here’s what you need to consider: Go with one CTA if your website is focused on a single action and a visitor doesn’t require any extra information about your product or service.

Onboarding Process

Okay, so let’s consider that the user has signed up, but how the user signs up is also very important when it comes to increasing the conversion rate.

Most of the SaaS products offer a free trial.

A free trial allows users to use a service for a limited period without charge. During this time, users can take advantage of the product's features.

This allows users to try out the service and see if it meets their needs before making a purchase.

Many SaaS products today request credit cards for free trials.

But how about A/B testing with cardless free trials to see how it affects conversion rates?

Requesting payment information during a free trial will decrease the number of sign-ups, however at the same time improve the quality of leads.

Alternatively, offering cardless trials can increase sign-ups and facilitate the acquisition of more subscribers.

This approach is ideal for SaaS products wanting to increase sign-ups or launch a beta version.

Try both options and see which one brings you more towards your business goal.

Conclusion

In conclusion, A/B testing is a very powerful strategy to understand your user behavior and make small decisions that stack up and increase your conversion rate.

If your visitors aren't converting, or if there's a sudden drop in your conversion rate, it will hurt your revenue.

Whether you measure how many people bought your product, how many new leads came in via your free trial, or how many people downloaded your newsletter, conversion rate should always have a direct impact on your business goals.

Given the right circumstances – for example, enough traffic on your website, A/B testing comes in handy to constantly improve your conversion rate.

Keep in mind that A/B testing is about experimenting. Don’t be afraid if you don’t know all the answers upfront but rather stay in a testing mindset.

Use insights from heat maps, your website analytics, session recordings, user tests, or direct user feedback, create a hypothesis, and quickly test new versions to see how they affect your conversion rate.