Imagine that you’re online shopping, and you see a promotional ad for your favorite store. You click through to the website to take advantage of that deal, but, once on the site, you’re presented with additional offers. Suddenly you’re questioning what the best deal is and how you should move forward. It’s confusing – and most importantly – it’s friction.
Users want indicators that they’re on the correct path to finding what they’re looking for, and online retailers can accomplish this through effective information scent. Strong information scent provides users with clear, consistent indicators enticing them to continue down the path towards achieving their goal.
Optimizing Information Scent for Lids
As the digital marketing agency of record for Lids, we wanted to increase sales through optimization of its promotional messaging. We would accomplish this through increasing promotional scent throughout the purchase funnel, including on product detail pages.
We selected one of Lids’ most attractive promotions and created three different versions for displaying the promotional messaging on the product detail page. We then tested the variants against a control. Results revealed that each test variant outperformed the control across all performance metrics, confirming that users are more likely to purchase when promotional messaging is present on product detail pages.
We turned off the lower performing variants and finished out the promotion with our highest performing message. As a result of our promotional scent optimization, Lids saw a 13.9% increase in conversion rate and a 17.4% increase in sales.
Implementing Information Scent
Are you providing users with information scent across your site? If you’re not, you’re missing out on conversions and ultimately, revenue.
To find out how prepared you are with information scent and other aspects of your digital marketing plan, read our guide 5 Digital Marketing Mistakes to Fix Before Cyber Monday.
