Conversion optimization is the holy grail of internet marketing because it results in outcomes that directly fulfill specific business objectives. So, how to successful marketers do it? Here are five, easy to implement tips that can help transform your site into a high converting one.
Forget About the Old School Hard Sell Tactics
For sure, your eyebrows have reached record-breaking height upon reading this statement. Needless to say, you still need to keep your conversion end goal – whether it’s to generate new leads, acquire more subscribers, download your e-book or make a sale. What you need to do is to tame down the salesman in you. In short, your site visitors should not feel that you are converting them.
According to Forrester Research, customers don’t trust sites that pounce almost immediately with a sales message, especially because 98% of them are not yet ready to make any purchase on their first visit. “Buy me, buy me, buy me” won’t work online. What you need to master is the ability to guide your visitors through your conversion funnel without them noticing that you are trying to convert them.
Show People that You “Get Them” and that You Care
People are persuaded to buy a product or service when they get a favorable answer to one question: “What’s in it for me?” Best-selling author and internet and networking guru Bob Burg couldn’t have said it any better: “All things being equal, people will do business with and refer people that they know, like and trust.”
The truth is that there are dozens of other companies and brands out there that are selling the same items and services as you are. What will set you apart is not the rational or functional things you can offer, but how you can provide value to them on a personal level – whether it’s answering their questions, calming their fears, providing clarity on their concerns or giving them a vehicle to reach their aspirations.
Before slapping your visitors on the face with your hardcore conversion messages, you have to make them feel that you care about their interests, their needs, their wants and their passions.
Use Strategies that Will Result in Long-term Relationships and Repeat Purchases
Sure, there are conversion strategies that are meant to increase sales at point of purchase. However, the upper echelon of conversion optimization involves strategies that cultivate customer loyalty and repeat purchases. Presence of mind in conversion marketing means not losing sight of the more lucrative and long-term objectives which is to develop real and meaningful relationship with customers, foster loyalty and encourage repeat purchases.
That being said, this does not mean that you have to wait for eternity to see results. For you not to get frustrated and disappointed, tier your conversion campaigns into different stages and set metrics for each. For example, your first stage can be lead generation and your success metric can be number of sign-ups. And so on and so forth.
There’s no overnight bus bound for conversion marketing success. Patience is a virtue.
You Don’t Have to Talk to Them All the Time
If you send more updates to your customers than their parents or friends do, it’s either they have a dysfunctional relationship with their loved ones or you’re overkilling your marketing communications. Most of the time, it’s the latter.
According to an article published in the Harvard Business Review, the quantity of interactions between a brand and its customers does not have a direct impact on conversion. Bombarding your customers with 300 emails per year is not called marketing. It’s spamming. And most of the time, it’s annoying.
In the same study, it was revealed that 64% of customers said that “shared values” and not the frequency of interaction that will prompt them to buy and buy more. This brings us back to the importance of building rapport and communicating the value of your brand to your customers on a personal level.
Easy Navigation and Easy Access to Information
What’s the takeaway here? It’s two-tiered – usability and product information.
There are thousands of potential consumers out there who will find it difficult using things that they are unfamiliar with. Site usability is an essential conversion factor, especially if you are capturing new visitors. According to the Return on Investment (ROI) for Usability Report conducted by the Nielsen Norman Group, if you spend 10% of your web design and development budget on optimizing your site’s usability, your conversion rate will increase by 83% on average.
The other layer is your product description. You don’t want your prospective customers to “totally blank out” about what you’re trying to sell. Here, explainer videos and other multimedia product presentations do the trick. Incorporating a video on your homepage can boost conversion significantly and adding explainer videos on your product pages can also stimulate more sales.
Net of discussion: Don’t allow your customers to be lost and get confused when browsing your site. Confusion and conversion don’t go well together.