AT ALBION, WE DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY…

How do you know if the wording on your charity website’s homepage is using the best messaging it could use? How can you tell if image A has more effect on the visitor than image B, in order to generate higher donations or more subscribers and paid members? How do you know if certain messages or wording puts people off and encourages them to leave your website altogether?

The answer to these questions is Conversion Rate Optimisation and A/B testing, or indeed, multivariate testing. This is a discipline used by savvy Conversion Rate Optimisation experts to increase the number of actions visitors take on your site, including having more visitors subscribe to your campaign or make a donation. Indeed, split testing is a win-win tactic that has helped some of the most effective charities generate more interest, engagement and revenue than those who rely on guess-work alone.

Not only that, but this proven approach to website design and copywriting has been shown to be one of the most powerful ways to increase leads from the web in all industries, commercial or charitable. Doubling your signups or sales can be achieved by doubling your website’s traffic, (which is very hard to do) but also by doubling your site’s conversion rate. Doing this is often the biggest opportunity many in the charity and non-profit sectors have yet to take full advantage of.

Most marketing team members have no way of knowing which “pain-points” need to be resolved in order to help your potential new subscribers or benefactors take action (for example, that your staff are volunteers and all revenue will be used to help the cause, rather than pay for the board’s salary). They don’t even have the information that allows them to know which messaging generates the most interest and donations. But this information is essential for any organisation that needs to grow online.

More often than not, lots of what is written on charity websites is left to pure guess-work – and gut-feelings are the deciding factor. However, CRO split-testing provides you with scientific results about which wording and imagery or layouts generate the best results from your audience. If you knew exactly which bullet points to add to your donation form in order to get more donations, you would be sure to use it.

Another example where charities are leaving money on the table is where subtle psychological tricks are not used in order to tap into known cognitive biases. Say your donation form has tick boxes to donate 5, 10 or 20 dollars you are likely to see the median 10 dollars as the most common donation. However, by adding a 50 dollar option to the list more and more visitors are likely to choose between the two median donation amounts. We can increase your income with simple and easy-to-implement methods known to work well around the web.

Further, most savvy CRO experts know that homepage slideshows are one of the worst conversion-killers (because they often hide critical messaging in slides nobody notices or even sees). And few website designers and copywriters are aware that adding a large high-contrast “call-to-action” button at the top of every webpage is known to generate a significant increase in revenue.

Unfortunately, many good causes are not taking advantage of proven digital marketing strategies that have been helping the commercial world online for years. Money is being left on the table, which is a great shame. Especially for good causes that are key to making the world a better place. So, what are you waiting for? Now may be the right time to get a free CRO review in order to uncover for a fact which parts of your message and brand have been holding your charitable organisation back from increased revenue and the online growth you deserve.