APP promotion: 95% of people use these 5 conversion strategies incorrectly

The conversion rate optimization strategy is ineffective, maybe because you are converting for the sake of conversion, not with the user at the center.

If you’re optimizing just to increase conversions, you’re optimizing for yourself.

You may feel the benefits of “optimizing for conversions” at first, but this lack of consistency will cost you in the long run. If you optimize around the user, the user will become a brand advocate, and to do this, you must follow the principles of honesty, consistency, and transparency.

By optimizing with the user in mind, your conversion rate will naturally increase. This requires you to be able to identify and avoid using unethical and conversion-focused optimization/engagement strategies on your own pages.

What is the difference between user-centric and conversion-centric?

Think back to the first time you learned about CRO (Conversion rate optimization, conversion rate optimization strategy). You may have accidentally browsed an article that showed some tips on how to use content to influence user conversions. But then you’ll be surprised to find that some strategies are deliberately inducing users to convert without providing any help to them.

• Conversion-focused strategies try every possible means to achieve conversions without considering the best interests of the user. For example: using psychology to manipulate users into conversions.
• A user-centric strategy is to help users reach the best decision, for example, providing users with helpful and relevant information at the right time and location.

No matter what conversion rate optimization strategy you are facing, the first question you should ask is: Is this helpful to users?

If the answer is no, then the strategy can be considered conversion-centric.

A conversion-focused strategy has a number of consequences. In fact, studies have shown that such strategies "can have a negative impact on users' purchasing behavior or their willingness to pay."

The consequences of a conversion-centric approach

An optimization strategy that is solely focused on conversions can have the following consequences:

• Low brand value;
• High user churn rate;
• Low user retention;
• The user life cycle value is low.

A user-centric optimization strategy, on the other hand, will lead to completely opposite results. There is even a survey showing that "86% of consumers are willing to pay more for a better user experience", which further illustrates the importance of being user-centric.

The benefits of user-centricity

So, what are the benefits of being user-centric?

• High brand value;
• Low user churn rate;
• High user retention;
• Higher user life cycle value;
• More brand advocates.

Next, let’s look at some commonly used conversion rate improvement strategies to see which ones are conversion-centric and which ones are user-centric.

5 Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies That May Not Work for Users

1. Create tension

Summary: The right way to create a sense of scarcity or conduct limited-time promotions is to give users relatively enough time so that they can make decisions with sufficient information, and also to provide users with inventory-related information (the information needs to be true).

Creating tension can be an effective way to get users to pay— if used properly. However, some brands like to use this strategy to put pressure on users to achieve conversions.

If you’re running a sale or limited-time offer that lasts for a few days or a week, this is perfectly acceptable. This time frame gives users ample opportunity to make decisions and also allows them to enjoy actual discounts - a win-win situation .

But some websites don’t do this. For example, you may see some websites offering such “limited time offers”.

Besides the misleading words like “exclusive” and “priority privilege” (everyone knows full well that this offer is visible to everyone who opens the page), OptinMonster only gives you 150 minutes to use this discount.

Does this strategy help users?

That’s 25% off—that’s a huge discount! Users can indeed benefit from it, but it also means being forced to make a purchase decision in a very short period of time.

Imagine this: Your boss asks you to research what conversion rate optimization tools are available in the company and produce a report. Is it realistic to complete all necessary research steps and produce a qualified report within 150 minutes?

At this time you need:

1. Find all companies that provide relevant tools;
2. Understand the pricing and performance of each conversion rate optimization tool;
3. Write an email/document listing all the options for your boss to review;
4. Send emails/documents to your supervisor;
5. Wait for feedback from your supervisor.

The average response time for work emails is 1.87 hours, which means you may not receive a reply from your boss until the offer ends. Companies like OptinMonster understand this.

In fact, they just don’t want users to think too much or compare with competing products. They just want users to feel “fear of missing out” so that they will make impulse purchases.

How to leverage scarcity in a user-centric way?

Look at what Amazon does:

Amazon does a great job of creating a sense of scarcity while also being helpful to its users. It states on the page that there are only two left in stock - this is more meaningful to users than a random countdown icon.

1. Influencing purchasing behavior with quotes

Summary: Simply inducing users to purchase expensive plans does not mean that you will get more profits in the future. Having customer remorse is a serious matter for any company. Give users what they need now, and sell them more expensive things in the future when their income increases.

Users need to understand your offer, and there are many ways to display your offer to increase conversion rate. But some conversion rate optimization strategies focus more on conversions than users.

Look at what Neil Patel (a marketing agency) did:

The idea of ​​“listing your most expensive option first” comes from a psychological theory that when faced with uncertainty, we usually choose the first option we are presented with.

Research shows that no matter what the user’s psychological price point is, they tend to spend more time viewing the first two options on the quote page. Therefore, Neil recommends that you list the most expensive plan first, actually to get more people to fill in the highest price when registering, which means more income.

Does this strategy help users?

This strategy certainly doesn’t help if your most expensive plan isn’t the best for your users, and it probably doesn’t help you either. I’ve seen too many customers pay top dollar for a “premium” package for a tool, only to find out that they paid for far more than they actually needed.

As HubSpot points out, one of the main reasons for high churn is product-market fit. When users purchase a more comprehensive (and more expensive) service than they actually need, the brand itself suffers and users often return the product.

Initial sales may look great, but this cannot offset the loss of users, especially for subscription services.

Another conversion rate optimization “best practice” is to highlight one of the options you offer as “popular” or “recommended.” Generally speaking, these plans should be tailored to the needs of each customer. So, without knowing the actual needs of users, how can the website recommend specific solutions to everyone?

Let’s look at an example from Box (a cloud service reseller):

Box uses a lot of conversion-centric optimization strategies here, including showing a higher price next to the actual price, which takes advantage of the psychological theory of anchoring.

Box didn't explain what the higher price meant. Was it a promotion? Or do the two prices represent monthly and annual fees respectively? Or maybe they failed to explain clearly what the price mark meant? Or do they display the marked price just to make the lower price next to it look more attractive?

The anchoring effect should be used more when doing promotions or when comparing with other quotation options. However, the most prominent strategy of Box on this page is the "Most Popular" label on their business plans. Indeed, this could help users make more informed decisions — if the label is real.

Too many brands will arbitrarily put such labels on their most profitable packages.

See how KnowBe4.com uses this technique:

What are the chances that the most expensive package is also their most popular package? Not likely. (If that were the case, wouldn't they offer a more comprehensive selection on top of the "most popular" package?)

So how do you use this strategy correctly?

First, be honest when making your offer. Second, explain why this solution is the most popular or recommended.

For example, you can indicate the percentage of users who choose this package as shown below:

1. Use pop-up windows to guide

Summary: When using pop-ups, make sure they are clear, relevant, helpful, polite (not embarrassing for the user), and easy to close.

Pop-ups are everywhere, in part because some marketing teams are measured solely on the number of leads they bring in — not the number of leads that convert into customers.

Here’s an example from OptinMonster:

Does this strategy help users?

This strategy can only help users if the content of the pop-up is relevant, timely, and usable. However, generally speaking, companies use this strategy only for their own benefit. In this case, pop-ups will cause disturbances and interrupt the user's consumption behavior.

Let’s take a closer look at the click button on this popup:

Know what is not helpful to users at all? That is to make them feel ashamed when closing the pop-up window. This design and copy will also hinder users from finding/clicking the exit action.

The same goes for exit popups — the content needs to be relevant, timely, and usable (and even that may not be enough: there are articles that question the usefulness of exit popups). Exit pop-ups can be even more intrusive to users, especially when some websites don’t have an obvious one at all.

"Close pop-up" button:

Imagine a real-life store doing the following to you: As you’re leaving, a salesperson stops you and says, “Wait, don’t go away. Do you want to sign up for an upcoming webinar? Or are you interested in furthering your career?”

If it leaves a bad experience for you, don’t make your users feel the same way.

So how do you use this strategy correctly?

Make sure the pop-up is highly relevant to the page the user is on, or the action they are performing. For example: If a user is browsing your blog, then a pop-up window that asks them to "subscribe to your blog" is highly relevant. At the same time, ensure that users are given equal opportunities to proceed to the next step or close the pop-up window.

Take a look at the positive examples provided by Sumo:

1. Limiting user choices to speed up conversions

Summary : Limits are only necessary when there are countless options on a page or form. Whenever possible, use categorized, segmented, or progressive forms as an alternative.

Hick's Law states that when we are presented with too many options, we are less likely to make a decision.

So what is the recommended strategy?

Reduce the number of options to make it easier for users to decide, for example: reduce the number of items on your form.

Another common example is to reduce the number of redirect links on the home page, but now some websites have simplified the "options" on the page to only conversions.

Note the options presented to the user on the page below:

Aside from the redirect link in the footer, Neil's homepage only has two options:

1. “Yes, I want Neil to teach me how to do business”;
2. Fill in your spot now for a webinar.

Does this strategy help users?

For a user who wants more information before making a decision, neither of the above options is useful (and this type of user is usually your target user). Both of these options are conversion-focused actions that are more beneficial to Neil’s sender list (and wallet) than they are to the user.

Another bad example comes from Wix. If you browse their homepage, you’ll be bombarded with “Go” buttons they place under every content area, EVERYTHING! one! indivual!

The "Hero" area looks like this:

The second area is as follows:

The same is true for the third area:

The fourth area is the same: (This appears twice!)

The sixth area (they left the fifth area alone):

Seventh area:

Area 8 (Yo, what more can I “know”?)

This setting traps users in a single experience, and interestingly, it also causes users to suffer from "banner blindness": overexposing the same button gradually makes users numb until they completely ignore the existence of the button.

So how do you use this strategy correctly?

Use segmentation or classification to ensure comprehensive coverage of the user's usage path. If there are too many options on the form, try using progressive selection (one page talks about only one thing).

1. Misuse of badges/certification marks that represent authority

Summary: Only use relevant (and authentic) logos in appropriate contexts to ease user anxiety. The first thing to do is to determine which certification logos users identify with the most.

Studies have shown that certification marks, medals, or just plain badges can help increase conversions, but some sites abuse this.

Take Ultimate Forces Challenge as an example. They even published a blog post to show off their support for SSL as a certification mark, but in fact every website must support SSL. (This is like a surgeon bragging about how often he washes his hands.)

Does this strategy help users?

The above behavior places some authentication logos that have no practical significance on the page, thus giving users a false sense of security. Some websites even create their own seals or emblems to create an illusion of security.

In the above examples, we have no way of knowing whether these sites actually take extra protective measures to protect orders, or whether they are just saying it to make users feel better.

Some websites even put their own badges next to the authoritative certification to exaggerate their credibility:

So how do you use this strategy correctly?

Display authentic, relevant badges or icons for security services your company uses:

in conclusion

Some strategies may have good intentions and can help you achieve your goals quickly. But if the industry you are in focuses more on user value and customer reputation, then this shortcut will not apply. Instead, it will form a company culture that is conversion-centric rather than user-centric.

To effectively use conversion rate optimization strategies, you need to do the following:

1. Create a real sense of tension and provide users with real information;
2. Encourage users to choose packages based on their current real needs, rather than based on your interests;
3. Pop-ups should be highly relevant to the usage scenario and easy to close;
4. Don’t limit users’ choices in order to force them to convert;
5. Use real certification logos – not fake icons that create a false sense of security.

Source: Vegetable Ice Cream