I have updated the content on my homepage in the hope of improving my conversion rate, is there anything obvious I have missed? Is there anything in the design that could be improved? I look forward to hearing from you.
The previous design looked like http://web.archive.org/web/20140517011649/http://steelbeamcalculator.co.uk/
Still not sure if the new design is actually an improvement.
By taking a quick look, I can see the improvement: you have better visible CTA and the conversion paths is much clearer. Also what I like is that you added testimonials from the very start.
In theory this should work, as it’s a clear improvement. However, you never really know befor eyou A/B test
Just a quick thought here. I never see money back guarantees as part of the main “benefits header” on website from people experienced saas marketers. There must be a better marketing message than that right?
I sort of get why a money back guarantee message may not help conversions. Buying something, trying it out and then getting disappointed by it is the worst experience I could have when buying a product. I don’t think having a money back guarantee matters that much to me, what matters is the product is the best fit and won’t waste my time.
Maybe a main point about why the product is a better fit could be more effective?
I really like the new version. The old was too corporate- it was all blah blah blah.
The new one is more focussed. One point- the software allowed me to just run the calculation for free, while previously it asked for money before showing you the results. Won’t people just use it for free?
Thanks Valeriu, John and Shantnu,
@ValPPG It seems to be converting ok, so will have to see what happens, the content is good but the design could do with being a little bit more polished.
@johnf I take on board your comments regarding the money back guarantee, one of the main reason people don’t buy is that they don’t know how to use the website, I am currently writing some new content that should address this by educating potential users, perhaps even do a drip email campaign.
@shantnu The old version just had too much padding. The product is only free for beams that are 1 metre long, which makes the free demo pretty much useless.
Well now that I looked a bit closer:
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from my experience in e-commerce, customers notice the icons they are more used to. I am talking about the money back guarantee confidence building element. Check out this example
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The BUY NOW CTA doesn’t look like a button. Maybe you should play with shades and reflexions to pop it out. Again, users don’t like to think, so don’t make them.
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The geolocation doesn’t work. I am visiting from Germany, but the info is displayed in British Pounds, although you have the versions for USA, UK and EU. This is a conversion killer
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Do you track your conversion path? How many homepage visitors actually complete the purchase? I saw you are using PayPal only, which lacks customization and asks users to log in, this can be an additional conversion roadblock. If you are interested, I can give you a free demo of checkout conversion optimization to see how you can improve it for your customers (easier payment, your own design, conversion booster tools, 24/7 support and many additional payment methods)
My gut reaction is the exact opposite of this. Really, though, you should just test it!
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it’s still a robust confidence builder. Worth to have it there.
Seems to be a problem with redirect. Please try the link below:
Maybe. Maybe not. Won’t know until you test it 
Make the buy now button more obvious that it’s a button. Right now it’s crowded/flanked by text. and the text on the button makes it look less like a button.
Also, don’t forget the “Rule of 100” (not sure if that’s what other people call it). Anyway, on average you should be able to convert to sales(not trials) about 1% of visitors/leads to a halfway decent sales page.
The reason I bring that up is, if you are already at 1-2% conversion rate, you might be better off getting more traffic than higher conversion rate.
At various times in your business it ping pong back and forth between A/B testing and getting more traffic to really move the needle. When you have no traffic, you need to just get enough traffic to a non terrible page to get SOME sales. When you are getting quite a few sales, say 10+ a month, getting a 10% lift starts to mean an extra sale each month. When you have 1 sale a month, you don’t have enough data to really make a difference.
So, do you have enough traffic and sales for these changes to make a difference?
More than 10 sales, conversion rate less than 1%.
The problems is a lot of users don’t know the difference between a permanent or a variable load, whether or not the beam is restrained, what deflection means. I think the way to improve conversions would be to educate potential users on how to use the steel beam calculator safely. I am in the process of writing some new content which will hopefully address some of these issues.
In the longterm I would like to re-design the homepage, a smaller logo, move the menu up to the top right hand corner, make the green buy now button more buttony, etc.
It sounds like you either need an educational funnel to get people in - either an ebook or a drip email course, either would do.
Also, if the language you are using is a barrier, change the language to make more sense to the people who are using it. What words do they use? What problem do they have and what is the easiest possible way to solve it.
If they aren’t technical enough to understand the language of your tool they are either the wrong audience, or you are giving the right audience the wrong language and message.
In the case that you have two audiences, find a way to separate the tool into two tools - simple and advanced, or audience 1 and audience 2. It doesn’t matter how you do it, just make sure you are building the right tool for the right audience. That means more than just the correct code, but also the correct interface, language, etc.
I’m currently working on content to put on the site and also a drip email course.
I have built a separate product for non technical users www.beamcalculation.co.uk
Wow, that is a much nicer site. Why not just move the non technical users to the non technical site? Like, a giant button that says… don’t know what this means, try our other product! Something like that.
Also why two sites?
The new design of http://www.steelbeamcalculator.co.uk/ is definitely an improvement over the old one. The old one is “we, we, we” and the new one is focusing on the customer. This alone is a huge improvement, IMHO.
I’m not bothered so much by the button, as others have said, though the text shadow looks a bit odd.
What bothered me was that there is very little information. Okay, I can create steal beam calculations. Why do I want to use your software? How does it help me and make my calculations easier/faster? How else do I benefit from faster calculations?
Those icons at the top look very nice, but I’d call them “guarantees”, not “benefits”. They should add up to what your page has to say.
Also, the demo below is a bit confusing to me. It asks me to enter beam details out of the blue. I think this belongs on a separate page.
Expand on your landing page. Research your audience’s pains and tell them how you solve them. Then somewhere in the middle you’d have a link to the demo to let them have a taste. Then somewhere below you might have testimonials. I’d put in more testimonials and wouldn’t keep them on a separate page. Just plug the best ones into the copy.
Here’s an example structure: headline for biggest pain point (to draw them in) + benefits + features + call to action + testimonials + demo + FAQ link + guarantees (second attempt to convince) + second CTA
One thing you can do right now is to log on to a builders’/engineers’/target customer forum and see what trouble these people have when calculating steel beams. What tools do they use? What are these tools lacking? And so on. You solve these problems, you just have to tell people that you do.
Oh, and here is a great 15 minute video about sales page making, that is worth watching: http://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/4kx0nupk6x
These are just some things off the top of my head. On the design side, I think it’s quite well. It’s the copy that converts mostly, not the design. 
It seems counter-intuitive but I think there is a reason people don’t feature “money back guarantee”.
I mean “save time and money” and “start free trial now” is probably listed on google millions of times but we know those are lazy marketing messages. 
https://www.appointmentreminder.org/
https://www.getdrip.com/
http://www.crazyegg.com/
http://besnappy.com/index.php
100% of these sites have better marketing messages than “money back guarantee”.
I stand by my statement that testing it is the only way to know for sure.