What influences website conversion?

Since the launch of my first marketing book back in 2012, I’ve been studying customer behaviour along the full customer journey. One thing I realised rather quickly is that the cycle a customer goes through, from discovering a need, over exploring possible answers to that need, deciding what and where to buy and finally enjoying the product or service, is not a good guide for setting marketing priorities.

The focal point of your marketing strategy is the conversion moment, the moment the customer decides to engage with you. So that is where you best start to refine and implement your strategy.

In a digital context, and for sure in e-commerce, this conversion moment is the subject of countless studies and blog posts. I read many of them and added in my personal experience with companies I have been working with over the years. What I noted is that the most popular publications focus on how design and UX can boost conversion. This is obviously an important part of the story, but there is a lot more influencing whether or not a person decides to buy something from you.

In order to structure my thoughts on the subject, I started building a parameter model around conversion. An inventory of factors (parameters) that have an impact on online sales or lead generation. It’s a work in progress and will continue evolving over time. However, the model has proven to be a valuable source of inspiration for people working in marketing, so I decided to open it up for discussion.

Below you find the model in a Miro board, and it is open for comments. So have a look at it, use it to your advantage and add remarks, opinions, ideas, content, links, etc for me to process and integrate into updated versions.

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