How to Hack Your Global CRO

Most small e-commerce store owners agonize over their international expansion.

Where do you start?

Do you optimize headlines, hero shots, CTA buttons or pricing first?

Does it matter if my reviews and return policy are from another country?

Should I study business and cultural habits for clues about my consumers?

All of those elements play a role in any solid CRO strategy.

But they aren't where you should start.

You should start with a landing page. Don't touch the website you've spent months optimizing. Don't play with pricing. Don't change the button color. Don't try a new hero shot.

Use a simple landing page generator like Unbounce, Leadpages or Instapage.

Make it your best effort and deploy it. Don't worry about whether it's hosted on a TLD vs Subdomain vs Subfolder. (That does matter. Just not initially.)

Just pick one to start and test.

The key here is it's a test. You'll learn about traffic, origins, bounce rates and eye-tracking. You'll have a chance to test a few translations and identify any specific jargon and terminology.

This test addresses the biggest risk most webstore have: That anyone wants your product or service in your new country.

Using a basic landing page and your favorite traffic and analytics tools will tell you a lot.