One of the most important, yet overlooked part of a marketing plan is conversion rate. That is, the percentage of your visitors who are taking the specific actions we (as marketers) would like. For example, your sales pages may convert 1.5% of its unique visitors to sales or your opt-in may convert 35% of its visitors into signing up for your mailing list.
Here are a few tips on how to increase the conversion rates of your website:
1. Keep It Simple
A simple design does two things for you. First, it’ll make it easier for your visitors to navigate and use. Second, by keeping the distractions to a minimum, you’ll naturally keep the focus on the primary purpose of your page.
2. Make It Useful
The reason, of course, is that if your customers find your site very difficult or confusing to use, they won’t purchase from you. Put yourself in their shoes. Imagine browsing around and spotting a really nice pair of shoes. Just when you are about to buy, what if you couldn’t easily locate the “buy” or “add to cart” button? Would you hang around hunting for it or would you just head to Zappo’s and see if they have those same pair in stock?
3. Build The Trust
You can build trust with your potential customers pretty quickly using “trust seals.” These are images like credit cards you accept or even a “badge” image that talks about your guarantee. You could even experiment with different “security” images that show doing business with you is a safe process.
4. Maintain Your Focus
Each page of your website should have a single, primary focus. If, for example, a blog post is there to build social engagement, then be sure you ask readers to share your content often (and make it easy to do with quick access to the like/share buttons). If, you it’s a squeeze page you’re designing to build a list, the same rule applies. Stay focused on what you want them to do (entering an email) and don’t diffuse your message by trying to get them to do anything else.
Your Next Steps:
If you’re wanting better conversion rates, start with these tips. Make sure you’ve simplified your pages. Check to see if you have everything a potential customer may need “within reach.” Audit your pages (especially your shopping cart page) and see if there is an opportunity to use “trust images.” Go through each page you’re hoping to raise conversions on and see if the message is focused on the one action you’d like your viewer to take.
Finally, leave a comment below with any questions you have and by all means, please share this post with your friends and associates!
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