Does it feel like your website traffic and visibility continue to grow, but your conversions don’t? This is a common issue with digital business – it’s easy to get the consumer’s attention, but you then fall short when pushing them over the finish line to make a purchase!
If you are struggling in this department then don’t worry. In the below guide, I explain five simple ways to boost your conversion rates. This process does take time, but with planning, forethought, and a concerted effort you can boost conversions, ultimately lowering your cost per acquisition.
1. Build Trust and Brand Recognition with Social Proof
If you have two companies’ side-by-side both offering the same services at roughly the same price, how do you choose? I usually look a little deeper and check out customer reviews and testimonials. If one company has a wealth of glowing feedback and the other doesn’t, the choice is much easier!
This is the power of social proof and is one of the simplest ways to boost conversion rates. Your website and services/products may look fantastic, but if there is no proof that you are trustworthy and back up your flashy content you won’t get conversions.
Sure, you might get the odd person taking a chance, but most consumers only feel comfortable buying from or working with a company they trust.
Example of social proof methods you can utilise include product reviews and star ratings, Google Business reviews, a dedicated testimonial or case study page on your website and registering with websites like Trust Pilot. You can even add requests for social proof on items like product confirmation emails.
2. Make Sure Your CTAs are Compelling
CTAs (Call to Action) are what turn a user into a customer – they are what push the user to take the next step such as making a purchase, sending an enquiry, or signing-up to an email newsletter.
The first step of this process to boost conversion rates is to make sure you have CTAs. This should be obvious, but it’s surprising how many business websites give users no clear indication of what they are meant to do.
Ideally, you should have at least one CTA on every page of your website – even something simple like a contact page. For example, the Key Principles contact page has a form to request a free strategy session but also CTAs to get in touch of book a meeting.
Aside from visibility, your CTAs also need to be compelling and should not only tell the user what to do but give them a reason to do it such as a benefit they stand to gain.
3. Take Care of the Technical Aspects of Your Digital Content
Written content and optimisation are important parts of improving conversion rates, but the technical aspects and usability of your digital content shouldn’t be overlooked.
If your website has slow loading speeds, faulty code, or broken links, users will quickly get frustrated and simply go elsewhere. I advise undertaking a technical audit of your digital content to find any issues.
Also, look at the usability of your website and landing pages and do some testing. Place yourself in the customers shoes and complete some test purchase runs. Could you easily find the products? Was all the information provided to decide? Improving simple things like these can help remove distractions and make the customers journey easy which ultimately boosts conversion rates.
4. Streamline the Purchasing Process
Building on the above point, as part of your technical and usability audit, look at the purchasing process. Can your customers easily buy a product without having to jump through hoops?
One of the simplest things that I love is the ability to make a purchase as a guest. Not everyone wants to spend time creating a new account on every ecommerce store they use! Consider implementing this so you aren’t turning away the customers who don’t want that added hassle.
Similarly, make sure you have an abandoned cart recovery process if you have an online store. Sometimes people aren’t ready to make an immediate decision, or they may get side-tracked with other jobs. Having abandoned cart facilities makes sure they can re-open your site and complete their purchase without starting from scratch.
5. Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Mobile Responsiveness
Did you know that statistics show that around 79% of smartphone users have made a purchase on their phone in the last six months? Not only that, but over 50% of online traffic is now done via smartphones.
You cannot ignore these statistics and to boost conversions your web content must be mobile responsive. This means that things like your website and landing pages must adapt to smaller smartphone screens and still offer full functionality.
There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to navigate a poorly optimised website on your phone where you have to scroll horizontally just to see the product image or read all the services text. A digital marketing agency like Key Principles can help with these web development processes but if you are using a website builder or ecommerce platform, make sure you choose a mobile-responsive theme to base your site on.
Turn Traffic into Conversions with These Pro Tips
So, what are you waiting for? Now is the time to turn your traffic, online visibility, and enquiries into fruitful conversions to reduce your cost per acquisition, and boost ROI (return on investment) and hopefully these five tips I have provided are a fantastic starting point.
When looking at this subject, it’s also important to define your conversions. A conversion isn’t just necessarily a sale or securing a new contract. Other examples of conversions can be new social media followers, email enquiries, telephone calls, PPC clicks, or email newsletter sign-ups. Define your conversions and goals first, and you can then look at improving them using these tips.
If you are looking to increase your conversion rates. Speak to one of our friendly team today for a free strategy session.
