While driving traffic to your website is critical, site visitations alone won’t grow your business. You also need a strategy for converting website visitors into sales leads, subscribers, and customers.
Conversion rates (the number of times visitors complete a specific action, divided by your traffic volume) measure a number of important objectives – including how effective you are at persuading website users to:
- Create an account or ask for a quote
- Sign up for giveaways or email communications
- Purchase your product or service outright
Conversion rate optimization is all about reaching or exceeding goals like these by increasing the percentage of people who visit your site, and then take the action you want them to take. Good conversion rates vary by industry. But most landing pages convert at an average of 2.35%, while top sites achieve rates closer to 11.5%.
Here are 6 tips for elevating your conversion rate optimization so you can expand your customer base.
- Use an analytics platform. You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Using analytics tools (like Google Analytics, Parse.ly, or Hotjar, for example) to analyze website activity and track conversions is the only way to know for certain:
- How much traffic your website is generating
- The behaviour of visitors navigating your site
- Where users may be stopping short of completing certain activities
- Garner input from users. To get the most from your analytics data, make sure you pair it with input from the people who actually visit or buy from your website.
- Incorporate on-site surveys to gather feedback from visitors
- Implement a/b testing to determine which landing pages or web forms perform best
- Create and email satisfaction surveys to your established contacts
- Follow up on feedback. As user suggestions roll in, acting on them whenever possible will improve the form, function, and conversion success of your website.
Based on input, for example, you might:
- Add popular communication channels (like chatbots, for example)
- Speed up and smooth out load time or site flow issues
- Refocus your blog post content (when done right, blog posts can yield 3x more leads than paid search ads)
- Make the most of CTAs. The strategic placement of clickable, call-to-action (CTA) buttons can go a long way toward boosting other conversion optimization tactics like:
- Using web copy to create a sense of urgency, or a fear of missing out
- Leveraging customer reviews or quotes to influence visitor decisions
- Incorporating pop-up forms to make entering contact information quick and easy
- Provide high-value offers. One of the best ways to get new or returning guests to convert is by offering something your typical buying demographic would appreciate.
You might, for example:
- Insert e-book downloads and other giveaways into your blog posts
- Enhance ecommerce product content with links to on-site tutorials or webinars
- Include informational subscription offers or how-to guides on your service pages
- Simplify landing page content. Distracting would-be convertees with irrelevant details tops the list of what not to do to achieve conversion rate optimization.
Whether you use landing pages to tell a story or emphasize product or service benefits, make sure they:
- Focus on a single offer at a time
- Include clear, uncluttered content
- Funnel visitors directly toward the action you want them to take (usually by clicking a prominent CTA button)
Conversion rate optimization relies on knowing what and where to enhance, and who you should be optimizing your site for. Rather than wasting money on baseless assumptions, make sure your conversion efforts are built on a solid foundation of hard data, user input, and proven digital marketing methods.
