How to Improve Your Conversions with User Behavior Analytics

Like every other business, you want to improve your conversions. But the problem is you’re not sure how to get started, or where to start. This is only natural because there are so many elements that come into play in conversion optimization.

Most importantly, you need to understand your customers, and how they behave. This understanding can help you adjust your conversion rate optimization efforts. In this post, you’ll learn all about user behavior analytics, and how you can use them to improve your conversions.

User Behavior Analytics and How they Can Improve Your Conversions

User behavior analytics help you understand what your website visitors do, and how they behave on various channels and touch-points. By understanding user behavior, you can personalize messages and experiences for the right audience at the right time. This, in turn, will improve your conversions, and also boost many aspects of your performance.

User behavior analytics help you identify specific behavior patterns of your site visitors. They give you the ability to classify customers based on common characteristics. Then you can customize your promotion efforts based on this segmentation.

For example, user behavior analytics help you find shoppers who browse through similar items or categories. You can then personalize product recommendations based on this browsing behavior.

Tips to Improve Your Conversions Using User Behavior Analytics

There are numerous elements involved in conversion rate optimization. If you try to optimize every single detail, it won’t be effective. Instead, you need to have a clearer understanding of how your customers behave. You can then come up with a conversion optimization strategy based on those insights.

Here are some of the ways in which you can use user behavior analytics to improve your conversions:

#1: Send Personalized Emails Based on User Behavior

In email marketing, it’s important that you send relevant emails to your customers. One email may not be relevant to each and every person on your mailing list.

For example, sending an email offering 5% off on their first purchase may be relevant to new subscribers. But the same email won’t be relevant to someone who has been a loyal customer for years.

So you need to segment your email recipients based on their purchase and/or browsing behavior. And then send out personalized emails based on which segment they belong to. According to a MailChimp report, segmenting your emails can result in 14.31% higher open rates, and 100.95% more clicks. In other words, receiving an email that’s relevant to a customer could compel them to click through and eventually convert.

Otherwise, you can also analyze the behavior data of each visitor on your site. You can then use these insights to create personalized email campaigns. Look for metrics such as:

• Types of products purchased – So you can send emails recommending similar products and update them on the latest items in that category
• Items left abandoned in cart – So you can send an email reminder, or update them about price drops and stock changes
• Items viewed by the customer – So you can send emails recommending the items along with other similar items
• Time customer is most likely to make a purchase – So you can send out your marketing emails at the right time

Example

Amazon sends out marketing emails with product recommendations based on a customer’s past purchase behavior.

#2: Make Personalized Product Recommendations

As stated earlier, something that’s relevant for one customer may not necessarily be relevant for another. That’s true for your best-selling products as well. But what if you were to recommend products that they are highly likely to be interested in?

Personalized product recommendations can be an excellent way to improve your conversions. You can analyze the browsing and purchase behavior of individual customers. Then you can compare this data against the performance data of different products. Based on this, you can recommend best-sellers in categories they’re most likely to be interested in. You can also recommend products that would go well with items that they recently purchased.

This personalized experience can improve your conversions because you’re guiding the purchase decisions of your customers. And according to Invesp, 59% of shoppers believe they can find more interesting products through personalized online stores. In addition to this, 56% are highly likely to make repeat purchases on sites that offer product recommendations.

Example

A Barilliance case study highlighted the strength of personalized product recommendations. And how they helped outdoor retailers Millets and Blacks increased their conversions. They analyzed the preferences and intent of visitors to recommend relevant products. For example, if a shopper views a sleeping bag, they recommend relevant camping equipment known as the, “sleeping bundle.” 

Instead of just recommending other sleeping bags, Millets recommended mats, airbeds, and foot pumps; which the shopper might be interested in. As a result of this campaign, Millets experienced a 332% increase in conversions, and Blacks increased their conversions by 277%.

#3: Create Personalized Landing Pages Based on Referral Traffic

Just imagine how confusing it would be if someone clicked on an ad for a special offer and landed on your homepage. They’d have to manually look for the offer again in order to find out how they can get it. While some may persevere, you might end up losing a lot of potential customers this way. But here’s where you can make use of user behavior analytics to prevent these losses and improve your conversions.

You can start tracking the referral traffic for your site visitors. Then create personalized landing pages based on this data. For example, if someone clicks on an ad promoting your latest collection, they should land on a page showcasing the collection. Or if they click on an ad promoting a certain product, they should land directly on the relevant product page.

Similarly, if someone clicks on a coupon code on a particular website, you could display a relevant pop-up to greet them. For instance, maybe you promoted a 15% discount through an influential blogger. Visitors coming from that blog should see a personalized pop-up displaying the blog name and the amount of discount. This makes it easier for the visitor to fulfill the purpose of their visit, which in turn can help you increase conversions.

Example

Target displays the following banner offering 10% off on baby items using a certain discount code. The banner is displayed on a page selling car seats for babies and kids, which means there’s a huge chance it’s going to reach the right target audience.

 If you click on the link in the banner, you get redirected to a page selling the baby items for which the discount is applicable. So people who wish to get the discount won’t have to manually search for items that are eligible for the discount. This makes shopping easier for customers, and can easily result in more sales.

 Read the full article on Shane Barker's Digital Marketing blog.