If you are running an online business, one of the most important factors is conversion rate optimization. Conversions are crucial for every digital business, no matter if it operates on the B2C or B2B markets. Analyze the traffic to your website, who is converting, and who is not. Identify some patterns. This is important knowledge that can help you improve your conversion rate, and so that’s what this article will talk about. You will learn several ways haw to take care of conversion optimization, encourage prospective customers to make purchases, and how to reduce the number of abandoned shopping carts. Start taking notes; you’ll learn some handy tricks here!
What is conversion?
In short, conversion is the change of a passive user to an active user. A given user converts if they perform a desired action, i.e. make a purchase, create an account, or subscribe to a newsletter, etc. The average conversion rate is 2.35%. This means that only a little more than 2% of all visitors complete the desired actions of site owners. The conversion rate is calculated as follows: the number of conversions should be divided by the total number of visitors and then multiplied by 100%.
To understand what exactly the conversion rate is, you need to get familiar with a sales funnel. This is a tool that helps you visualize the moment when your customers make purchasing decisions, which is especially helpful if you run an eCommerce store. It captures all customers – from those at the top of the funnel who might be first-time visitors, to those at the bottom who are ready to purchase or even become loyal, regular clients. With knowledge about customers positions in the funnel you’ll be ready to take steps to make an increase in conversions, and thus sale.
Now let’s focus on the conversion rate optimization and how to make it sky-high.
How to boost your conversions?
We have a few conversion rate optimization tips below that you can pick one of or choose to use all of them depending on you and your business needs. Ready?
#1 Implement referral marketing
Customers who visit your web via referrals are 30% more likely to convert and have up to 16 times higher lifetime value.
Sounds promising? Referral marketing is a very simple way to optimize your conversion rate. You can really gain a lot from it with little effort or investment. How does it work? You first need to create a referral program – you’ll need a tool for that, e.g. EarlyParrot, thanks to which you can design your own program in the blink of an eye. Then think about what the rewards will be – whether to offer discounts to customers or rather arrange material rewards. Creating a referral program is very simple and implementing it is even easier, since EarlyParrot will guide you step by step. Once you’ve created a campaign you can invite customers by adding them to your email list and sending the details. You need to describe how the program works, what the types of rewards are, and the criteria for earning them.
Why is referral marketing so effective? Because it is based on relationships with their friends or family that your customers have. It is them who recommend your site and share links with potential customers, who are people they are trusted by. And as you know, recommendations from such people are the most reliable of all.
#2 Highlight customers’ testimonials and opinions
It is very important for your customers to see whether products meet their desires and needs. Nobody wants to be disappointed after using a given product for the first time. If you run an online store, you should present customers’ opinions on every product page – near to each item there should be a review box. It would be ideal if your clients wrote opinions and ranked products, e.g. via a star rating. Customer photos added to reviews would be also a great idea.
If you operate on the B2B market you should make even more use of testimonials from your customers, since more money is involved and nobody wants to lose it. Highlight testimonials on the main page and make sure to show several of them. Remember that each opinion should be signed not only with a name but also the company and position of the reviewer. Speaking about product presentation, you need to keep in mind that even the best customer reviews won’t have much impact if you don’t display the product property. High-quality pictures and perhaps even video content will increase the likelihood of boost in conversion too.
Customers’ opinions and testimonials are social proof. They work similarly to referral marketing, except in this case there are no rewards on offer and the recommendations come from strangers. Yet they can still be powerful.
#3 Give up on any long and distracting actions
Your potential customers must be focused on setting up an account or making a purchase, so let them do so. Don’t bombard them with a million pop-ups on every page or distract with calls to action buttons on every corner.
Remember to not make the client feel trapped on your website or force them to close many pop-up windows, because ultimately they might close the entire browser. And there will be no conversions after they’ve left your site for good.
Now let’s focus on initial actions. The first step that a user takes is very important. Therefore, an action button with the word “subscribe” on it should be clearly visible, as well as icons for adding products to the cart and looking at what’s inside it. As a result, cart abandonment rates will drop. What’s more, the process of setting up an account should not be too complicated. Only ask for basic data plus to set up a login and password at first – don’t overcomplicate the registration form. If you send email verification links to email then make sure they arrive quickly. If you want to personalize messages or an offer and you need additional information, please communicate this and leave parts of the form optional. Don’t force clients to provide too much information at the very beginning, as that will take time they may not have. No worries, they will come back to it when they have a moment or after you remind them to do so by sending an email to that effect.
#4 Drive conversions with email messages
Email marketing is still on point. Marketing emails influence purchasing decisions for almost 60% of respondents. Newsletters, WooCommerce cart abandonment emails, or happy birthday wishes – they all can make a great difference. Such communication should go hand in hand with a good content marketing strategy. What’s more, email marketing won’t change much without good message copy.
It’s crucial for email marketing to be aware of what you write and how it will make your customers feel. Bulk emails are not the best option since people want to feel special, so add a personal touch – even to a notification about a shopping cart abandonment.
Bet on diversity. What you should do is to inform customers about new offers, personalize promotional emails, and perhaps also include content like ebooks related to your industry or company. Communication and how you conduct it is very important not only in terms of the customer’s assessment of your business, but also for making a purchasing decision. And this affects the conversion rate. It’s also important not to overdo email marketing campaigns. Don’t send several or even just one message every day, otherwise your email subscribers will opt out of receiving your communication. Enough is enough, so be polite and reasonable.
#5 Highlight your uniqueness
Staying on the subject of communication, you need to show your customers your USP. Regardless of what it is, you need to emphasize what distinguishes you from the competition. You can also add customer testimonials or reviews as proof. It’s worth reminding regular clients or subscribers why they chose you in the first place. Do so not only via email, on social media, or in SMS messages – show it on your page too!
This is also an important factor for new customers who haven’t given you their contact details yet, which is another reason to emphasize the USP on your website. You can do so in an “About Us” tab or place a banner on the landing page with a short slogan about your USP. It all depends on the design of your website and the industry, plus you should know best what works for your customers.
#6 Be mobile-friendly
Mcommerce is one of the strongest sale trends right now. The majority of us shop via mobiles or at least carry out some research from such devices. Therefore, you should take care of proper mobile website optimization and/or provide a mobile app.
Suppose a client browses your website on their phone and searches for desired products, but the page is not displayed properly, freezes, or even doesn’t load at at all. The customer may not only resign from opening the page on their mobile, but also give up on your store completely. It’s not a risk worth taking, so optimize your website for mobile devices and make mobile payments an option too.
Another good solution would be an app that encourages users even more to purchase via mobile devices. Customers will generally remain logged into such apps at all times and they won’t have to count on the responsiveness of browsers on their phones. Using an app is quite simply a more convenient option for many users that will certainly help decrease the bounce rate and increase conversions.
Are you ready to increase your conversions?
Driving conversions is a process, so don’t expect results immediately after implementing the above solutions. Depending on your target audience, industry, or business size, the rate at which changes occur may vary – so don’t give up! If you do everything with proper care, you will surely notice the results eventually. If you’re not satisfied with the pace or don’t want to invest in several strategies, you can run A / B tests to see which particular solutions bring major improvements and stick with those. It all depends on your goals and the time frame you set.
When it comes to achieving your conversion goals, it’s important to focus on your audience, not the numbers. After all, conversions are people. Therefore, think about them before you quickly release another bulk email or approve another pop-up. You are definitely a buyer yourself or at least visit websites, so use these experiences to adjust your website’s behavior or call center software to be as effective as possible for your customers!