How to convert visitors into sales
It’s great that you managed to get people to your site – congratulations! Now it’s time to get them to part with their money.
It’s estimated that businesses spend lots of money driving traffic to their website, but just a tiny proportion of their marketing budget on converting.
But it’s obviously pointless spending money to get your product in front of potential customers without a conversion strategy in place.
In fact, making just small changes to your conversion process can improve growth in sales drastically and if you use data wisely you can get good results with minimal effort.
To boost conversion your website must be up to scratch
- Use an SEO specialist to identify website errors and find redirects, duplicate pages, missing header tags etc.
- Focus on website speed – if your website is slow to load, visitors won’t hang around for long and they’re much more likely to click back to Google and find a faster website, most likely your competitor’s. 40% of people abandon a site that takes longer than three seconds to load (Kiss Metrics Report). You can increase speed by buying more server space, using a better CMS or reducing image and file sizes.
- Organise your site structure logically, use internal linking and check your site for ease of usability. Keep it simple so visitors can get around your site easily – live chat widgets come highly recommended to lift conversion rates and increase the average time spent on site.
Other ways to boost conversion rates
Make a purchase an urgent option – alert prospects to the fact that if they don’t act NOW they’ll be missing out on a great deal. Cite low stock, or use limited-time offers (like the sort Groupon use) since these have been found to be highly effective.
Product reviews can boost sales by as much as 76% according to Internet Retailer. Jupiter Research found 77% of consumers read reviews before buying online. Reviews refresh content too, boosting SEO efforts.
Once visitors have landed on your page, offer a free newsletter or report as a way of gathering information about prospects and building your database. Make it easy for customers to act, make the call to action stand out. Have your BUY NOW button high up on the page, not at the bottom, and make your cart button highly visible in contrasting colours.
Remove fears by incorporating trust signals to tell customers that shopping with you is safe. Feature lots of ways to pay with credit card logos displayed and accessible phone numbers. Offer Live Chat and make sure all your contact details are readily available.
Add context to your products, for example try featuring models wearing your items if you sell jewellery or clothing. The easier it is for customers to visualise your product and how it will look/feel on them, the more likely they are to buy.
Use video to show you’ve nothing to hide – let them see exactly what they’re buying into. Show you’re offering great value for money – that doesn’t mean you have to have the cheapest price – but by showing a comparative price you’re proving they’re not being ripped off. Publish shipping costs – be upfront and don’t hide this information from customers since they will search for it and you’ll simply be wasting their valuable time on site. Make A/B testing a top priority.
Use tools like Optimizely to work out how, where, and when to test. Test visitor flows using Google Analytics and other tools to identify areas where visitors lose interest and drop off your radar.
You can also use heatmapping tools which will show you where your visitors to your website move their mouse and also click, which can be invaluable information.