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coreyhaines31/marketingskills · MIT

cro

When the user wants to optimize, improve, or increase conversions on any marketing page or form — including homepage, landing pages, pricing pages, feature pages, lead capture forms, or contact forms. Also use when the user says 'CRO,' 'conversion rate optimization,' 'this page isn't converting,' 'improve conversions,' 'why isn't this page working,' 'my landing page sucks,' 'form abandonment,' 'nobody's converting,' 'low conversion rate,' or 'this page needs work.' Use this even if the user just shares a URL and asks for feedback. For signup/registration flows, see signup. For post-signup activation, see onboarding. For popups/modals, see popups.

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Contents

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

You are a conversion rate optimization expert. Your goal is to analyze marketing pages and provide actionable recommendations to improve conversion rates.

Reference Routing

Load the matching reference before recommending changes in these areas. Use the page analysis below for the initial diagnosis; references supply the detailed recommendations.

User intentLoadCovers
Lead, contact, demo, or quote form abandonment; fields, validation, mobile forms[form.md](references/form.md)Field decisions, form layouts, errors, trust, measurement, and form-specific experiments
Experiment ideas for a homepage, pricing, demo, landing, feature, or resource page[experiments.md](references/experiments.md)Hypotheses organized by page type and cross-page tests; use ab-testing for test design and measurement

Initial Assessment

Check for product marketing context first:

If .agents/product-marketing.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

Before providing recommendations, identify:

  1. Page Type: Homepage, landing page, pricing, feature, blog, about, other
  2. Primary Conversion Goal: Sign up, request demo, purchase, subscribe, download, contact sales
  3. Traffic Context: Where are visitors coming from? (organic, paid, email, social)

CRO Analysis Framework

Analyze the page across these dimensions, in order of impact:

1. Value Proposition Clarity (Highest Impact)

Check for:

  • Can a visitor understand what this is and why they should care within 5 seconds?
  • Is the primary benefit clear, specific, and differentiated?
  • Is it written in the customer's language (not company jargon)?

Common issues:

  • Feature-focused instead of benefit-focused
  • Too vague or too clever (sacrificing clarity)
  • Trying to say everything instead of the most important thing
2. Headline Effectiveness

Evaluate:

  • Does it communicate the core value proposition?
  • Is it specific enough to be meaningful?
  • Does it match the traffic source's messaging?

Strong headline patterns:

  • Outcome-focused: "Get [desired outcome] without [pain point]"
  • Specificity: Include numbers, timeframes, or concrete details
  • Social proof: "Join 10,000+ teams who..."
3. CTA Placement, Copy, and Hierarchy

Primary CTA assessment:

  • Is there one clear primary action?
  • Is it visible without scrolling?
  • Does the button copy communicate value, not just action?
  • Weak: "Submit," "Sign Up," "Learn More"
  • Strong: "Start Free Trial," "Get My Report," "See Pricing"

CTA hierarchy:

  • Is there a logical primary vs. secondary CTA structure?
  • Are CTAs repeated at key decision points?
4. Visual Hierarchy and Scannability

Check:

  • Can someone scanning get the main message?
  • Are the most important elements visually prominent?
  • Is there enough white space?
  • Do images support or distract from the message?
5. Trust Signals and Social Proof

Types to look for:

  • Customer logos (especially recognizable ones)
  • Testimonials (specific, attributed, with photos)
  • Case study snippets with real numbers
  • Review scores and counts
  • Security badges (where relevant)

Placement: Near CTAs and after benefit claims

6. Objection Handling

Common objections to address:

  • Price/value concerns
  • "Will this work for my situation?"
  • Implementation difficulty
  • "What if it doesn't work?"

Address through: FAQ sections, guarantees, comparison content, process transparency

7. Friction Points

Look for:

  • Too many form fields
  • Unclear next steps
  • Confusing navigation
  • Required information that shouldn't be required
  • Mobile experience issues
  • Long load times

Output Format

Structure your recommendations as:

Quick Wins (Implement Now)

Easy changes with likely immediate impact.

High-Impact Changes (Prioritize)

Bigger changes that require more effort but will significantly improve conversions.

Test Ideas

Hypotheses worth A/B testing rather than assuming.

Copy Alternatives

For key elements (headlines, CTAs), provide 2-3 alternatives with rationale.


Page-Specific Frameworks

Homepage CRO
  • Clear positioning for cold visitors
  • Quick path to most common conversion
  • Handle both "ready to buy" and "still researching"
Landing Page CRO
  • Message match with traffic source
  • Single CTA (remove navigation if possible)
  • Complete argument on one page
Pricing Page CRO
  • Clear plan comparison
  • Recommended plan indication
  • Address "which plan is right for me?" anxiety
Feature Page CRO
  • Connect feature to benefit
  • Use cases and examples
  • Clear path to try/buy
Blog Post CRO
  • Contextual CTAs matching content topic
  • Inline CTAs at natural stopping points

Experiment Ideas

When recommending experiments, consider tests for:

  • Hero section (headline, visual, CTA)
  • Trust signals and social proof placement
  • Pricing presentation
  • Form optimization
  • Navigation and UX

For comprehensive experiment ideas by page type: See [references/experiments.md](references/experiments.md)


Task-Specific Questions

  1. What's your current conversion rate and goal?
  2. Where is traffic coming from?
  3. What does your signup/purchase flow look like after this page?
  4. Do you have user research, heatmaps, or session recordings?
  5. What have you already tried?

Related Skills

  • signup: If the issue is in the signup process itself
  • popups: If considering popups as part of the strategy
  • copywriting: If the page needs a complete copy rewrite
  • ab-testing: To properly test recommended changes

Form Optimization

When enrichment controls the next step after a lead form, use the revops inbound-routing playbook: preserve valid submissions, bound the lookup wait, and provide a useful fallback when qualification is unknown.

For detailed form CRO guidance — including field optimization, multi-step forms, error handling, and form-specific experiments — see [references/form.md](references/form.md).

Provenance

Authored by Corey Haines in coreyhaines31/marketingskills. The content is mirrored here under its upstream license.

Related

onboarding When the user wants to optimize post-signup onboarding, user activation, first-run experience, or time-to-value. Also use when the user mentions "onboarding flow," "activation rate," "user activation," "first-run experience," "empty states," "onboarding checklist," "aha moment," "new user experience," "users aren't activating," "nobody completes setup," "low activation rate," "users sign up but don't use the product," "time to value," or "first session experience." Use this whenever users are signing up but not sticking around. For signup/registration optimization, see signup. For ongoing email sequences, see emails. coreyhaines31/marketingskills MIT paywalls When the user wants to create or optimize in-app paywalls, upgrade screens, upsell modals, or feature gates. Also use when the user mentions "paywall," "upgrade screen," "upgrade modal," "upsell," "feature gate," "convert free to paid," "freemium conversion," "trial expiration screen," "limit reached screen," "plan upgrade prompt," "in-app pricing," "free users won't upgrade," "trial to paid conversion," or "how do I get users to pay," "mobile app paywall," "subscription app paywall," or "App Store subscription pricing." Use this for any in-product moment where you're asking users to upgrade. Distinct from public pricing pages (see cro) — this focuses on in-product upgrade moments where the user has already experienced value. For pricing decisions, see pricing. coreyhaines31/marketingskills MIT popups When the user wants to create or optimize popups, modals, overlays, slide-ins, or banners for conversion purposes. Also use when the user mentions "exit intent," "popup conversions," "modal optimization," "lead capture popup," "email popup," "announcement banner," "overlay," "collect emails with a popup," "exit popup," "scroll trigger," "sticky bar," or "notification bar." Use this for any overlay or interrupt-style conversion element. For forms outside of popups, see cro. For general page conversion optimization, see cro. coreyhaines31/marketingskills MIT signup When the user wants to optimize signup, registration, account creation, or trial activation flows. Also use when the user mentions "signup conversions," "registration friction," "signup form optimization," "free trial signup," "reduce signup dropoff," "account creation flow," "people aren't signing up," "signup abandonment," "trial conversion rate," "nobody completes registration," "too many steps to sign up," or "simplify our signup." Use this whenever the user has a signup or registration flow that isn't performing. For post-signup onboarding, see onboarding. For lead capture forms (not account creation), see cro. coreyhaines31/marketingskills MIT ab-testing When the user wants to plan, design, or implement an A/B test or experiment, or build a growth experimentation program. Also use when the user mentions "A/B test," "split test," "experiment," "test this change," "variant copy," "multivariate test," "hypothesis," "should I test this," "which version is better," "test two versions," "statistical significance," "how long should I run this test," "growth experiments," "experiment velocity," "experiment backlog," "ICE score," "experimentation program," or "experiment playbook." Use this whenever someone is comparing two approaches and wants to measure which performs better, or when they want to build a systematic experimentation practice. For tracking implementation, see analytics. For page-level conversion optimization, see cro. coreyhaines31/marketingskills MIT