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.

One of the most important aspects is understanding user behavior. This understanding can help you enhance your conversion rate optimization efforts. In this post, you’ll learn all about user behavior analytics, and how you can use it to improve your conversions.

Disclosure: This content may contain a few affiliate links, which means if you click on them, I will get a commission (without any extra cost to you).

User Behavior Analytics and How It Can Improve Your Conversions

User behavior analytics can help you understand what your website visitors do and how they engage with your web content. 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 website’s performance.

User behavior analytics help you identify specific behavior patterns of your site visitors. They give you the ability to classify customers based on some common characteristics. Then you can customize your marketing and promotions 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. It is extremely time-consuming and unnecessary to try to optimize every single detail, one at a time. Using user behavior analytics you can get a big-picture look and help you quickly optimize conversions.

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

#1: Send Personalized Emails Based on User Behavior Analytics

In email marketing, it’s important that you send relevant emails to your customers. The same 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.

You can leverage user behavior analytics to identify behavioral patterns and segment your customers based on them. You can then send more relevant and personalized emails based on these customer segments.

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:

  • Past Purchases – You can send emails recommending similar products and update them on the latest items in that category.
  • Cart Abandonments – You can send an email reminder to people who abandoned their carts or update them about price drops and stock changes
  • Past Browsing History – You can analyze the past browsing history of consumers to understand the kind of products they are interested in. You can then send emails recommending similar products to them, leading to potential conversions.
  • Time Taken to Make a Purchase Decision – This metric can help you 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.

amazon - user behavior analytics

#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 could make personalized product recommendations? Recommending relevant products to each customer can increase the chances of conversions.

You can do this by leveraging user behavior analytics, and looking at 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-selling products in categories that each customer is 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

Baby products retailer, baby & tiener, used personalized product recommendations on their website and saw a revenue increase of 13.4%. They used a recommendation engine that used real-time data on user behavior to make recommendations.

baby site - user behavior analytics

Image Source: retail rocket

#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 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.

car seats - user behavior analytics

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.

baby 10 - user behavior analytics

#4: Use Exit Reports to Find Testing Opportunities

Why do people leave your website without converting? It’s perfectly normal for visitors to leave when they’ve reached end-of-content pages or completed their purchase. But what about exits that occur on pages that are not end-of-content pages?

For example, maybe people are leaving your website after reading about your services. Or maybe they’re leaving in the middle of the checkout process, without completing the signup form.

User behavior analytics help you determine which pages on your site have the highest exit rates without being the final piece of content. And you can use this data to select pages that require testing and optimize those for conversions.

For example, if your signup page has an extremely high exit rate maybe you should make changes to the page and test them out. Try reducing the number of form fields, and see how that impacts the exit rate.

This is an important step to improve your conversions because a high exit rate often translates into a low conversion rate. You want people to smoothly transition from one page to the next, and eventually convert into paying customers. And a high exit rate means that's not happening.

If people are exiting a certain page more often than usual, it means you need to start testing that page and optimizing it for higher conversions.

Example

Nabler conducted a case study in which they found that their client was experiencing a drastically high exit rate on their “Speakers” category page. The exit rate on this page was 75%, which they needed to reduce to increase conversions.

The team analyzed and made changes to various elements on the page such as the calls-to-action (CTA) and layout. They then ran tests on those changes to see how they impacted the exit rate and conversion rate.

nabler - user behavior analyticsImage Source: Nabler

Nabler changed the layout from a grid view to a list view, to increase the page’s usability. The team also changed the CTA buttons to show various offers such as free shipping and 5% rewards back. They also gave shoppers an option to check for shipping info and availability to provide more clarity and transparency.

Overall, the team conducted seven tests and successfully brought down their exit rate to 37%. Consequently, the conversion rate for this category page increased by 34%.

#5: Personalize Experiences for New and Return Visitors

How you treat your new site visitors and your existing customers shouldn’t be the same. A new visitor is just going through your site to get familiar with your brand. They will take some time to size you up and determine whether or not you’re a good fit. Return visitors, on the other hand, are most likely there to make another purchase and hence, are easier to convert.

You should immediately engage your new visitors and encourage them to make their first purchase. And user behavior analytics can help you make the distinction between new and returning visitors.

When you’re getting a lot of new visitors to your site, you need to try to include them in your marketing list immediately. You can do this with the help of overlays that encourage visitors to subscribe to your mailing list. In exchange, you can provide them with an offer, such as a discount on their first purchase.

But not every new visitor will necessarily be relevant to your business. So you can further use user behavior analytics to determine whom to display those overlays to. Try analyzing the time they spend on your site, how many pages they visit, their intention to exit, etc.

Example

Nice Laundry displays the following offer when first-time visitors click on a link to their product page.

nice laundry - user behavior analytics

Similarly, for return customers, the goal should be to get them to make a purchase. For such customers, deals and discounts are a good way to ensure conversions.


In the case of return visitors, you can use overlays to welcome them back and encourage another purchase. If they have any item abandoned in their cart, you can remind them about it in the overlay. Or you can give them updates about new items similar to what they've viewed before. Or you can simply welcome your return customers by giving them a personalized discount or an offer.

User Behavior Analytics Tools

Now that you know how to leverage user behavior analytics to drive conversions, it’s time to acquaint you with analytics tools. These are the tools that can help you track and analyze your user behavior analytics and make decisions based on the insights.

Let’s take a look at some of the best user behavior analytics tools:

  • Google Analytics is a great place to start as it provides a wide variety of data you can use and it is absolutely free. It is an easy-to-use tool that you can start practicing on before you move on to other tools.
  • CrazyEgg – CrazyEgg is a valuable user behavior analytics tool that provides heat map data. It analyzes how people behave on your site and how they interact with various elements. It can help you discover at which point you’re losing people’s attention and which areas aren’t getting enough attention.
  • OptinMonster – OptinMonster’s exit intent technology is a must-have user behavior analytics tool for re-engaging visitors who show an intention to leave your site. The tool monitors the activity of visitors on your site. If it detects that they’re about to leave, it will display a pop-up with an offer to help prevent them from leaving.
  • Formisimo – Formisimo is a tool that analyzes the performance of your web forms. The tool helps you run more effective A/B tests on different form variations so you can discover which one can improve your conversions.
  • Mixpanel – Mixpanel is an essential user behavior analytics tool, especially for ecommerce retailers. It gives you insights into how people interact with your site, app, and products. It can also help you determine at which stage of the sales funnel you’re losing customers.

Conclusion

Now you know how to improve your conversions using user behavior analytics. Notice that the focus is always on the customer. You need to strive towards improving user experience and simplifying the purchase process for them, so you can easily turn them into paying customers.

If you have any doubts about the tips mentioned above, let me know in the comments below. I’ll be happy to clarify them for you. You can also get in touch with me if you need my help to better understand your customers and improve your sales.