8 Techniques to Improve Your Website Customer Conversions
This is a guest contribution from Emma Henry of True Target Marketing…
Welcome Emma
It is all too common for websites to be built and then sit dormant, doing nothing productive for a business. Your original web designer may have built you a decent looking site, however they probably did not create you a responsive website that attracts sales leads and converts them into paying customers. Now is the time to take action and make your website start converting like it should. Here’s how:
1. Clearly Articulate Your Offerings
One of the most important things is to make sure your website provides a good experience for the end user. You should include a concise message on the home page that describes “what’s in it” for the customer. Your website content should be customer focussed. Prospective customers want to know what results they can expect to achieve from engaging your services or buying your products. A summary of your key offerings should be clearly visible on the home page with links to more detailed and descriptive pages.
2. Simple Navigation
People want their website experience to be straight-forward so make it easy for them. Keep your site clear of clutter and only include essential elements on each page. Ask yourself if every single item on the page really needs to be there and is that element contributing to a prospective sale? Make the navigation simple. A clear navigation menu at the top of the page that includes a drop down menu of services works best, as well as a Home, About, Testimonials, FAQ, Articles/Blog and Contact tab. Don’t try to overcomplicate your site – a clean and clear site is always preferable.
3. Include multiple conversion elements
Every page should have a clear “Call to Action” to encourages the visitor to take the next step Make the end user experience easy and tell them what to do next. Examples of effective Calls to Action include “Call today on xxx”, “Click here to buy”, “Contact here for a free quote”, “Phone us on xxx for more information”. If you can’t sell them in to a new click to another page or to an action, then you may lose them to your competitor. Your best contact details should appear in a prominent position on your home page above the fold (the section of the screen that you can see without scrolling down the page). You should include multiple contact forms on your website. Implementing these conversion rate optimisation strategies will help you to convert sales leads into customers.
4. Good Content
Competition online is stronger than ever before. You can become the online authority in your industry niche by creating unique, quality, relevant content. Add query based content to answer typical questions that arise in your industry. You will not only become the authoritative website in the eyes of your customer prospects but also in the eyes of Google. Google rewards websites that create regular, good unique content and engage in SEO best practices, with higher rankings. The more content, the greater chance of being found in the search engines for a wide range of keywords.
5. Lead capture form
Incorporate multiple lead capture forms on your website to build up a highly valuable email marketing list. By offering an incentive (such as a giveaway, competition, discount, free report etc.) in exchange for people leaving their email contact details, you will build your list much faster. Once you have a list of customer prospects, you can implement an email marketing campaign sending broadcast messages or setting up an auto sequence of messages that is sent to new subscribers to your list.
6. Testimonials
Before committing to a purchase, some people like to know that you are reputable and that other people are happy with your products and services. Ask every single customer for a testimonial and update your website testimonials page on a regular basis. Once you collect a good volume of testimonials, you can categorise them and use them in the sales process, providing undecided customers with testimonials from other clients in a similar industry who have successfully used your products and services.
7. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
People love FAQ pages. Think about what common “housekeeping” questions you get asked time and time again. Your sales people and receptionist will be well positioned to compile a good list of questions. Leave the more detailed industry related queries to an article or blog post, but a compilation of short and sharp typical questions will make up your FAQ sheet.
8. Responsive design
These days, people are accessing websites on many different devices, so you need to make sure your site is responsive. This means that your website content will adapt to the size of a range of different screens (Iphones, Tablets, PC’s etc). Your content should be easily accessible no matter where or how your audience is consuming it.
In summary, if you can adapt your site so that it clearly articulates your offerings, is easy to navigate and responsive, includes multiple conversion elements, contains unique quality content, testimonials, a FAQ page and a lead capture form, you will be well on your way to improving your customer conversions.
Emma Henry is an Online Marketing Specialist and the owner of True Target Marketing. Emma tailors bespoke online marketing strategies for her clients. She specialises in lead generation, customer conversions, increased website traffic and improved website responsiveness. For more information contact emma[at]truetargetmarketing.com.au.