It’s great knowing you have a lot of people visiting your website – but if all they’re doing is looking around and leaving, it’s not doing you much good. The average website’s Conversion rate is only 2.35%. That means that, if they get 100,000 visitors a day, only 2,350 of those people are becoming active buyers. Could you imagine owning a store where nearly 98% of the people who come in leave without buying anything? You wouldn’t be satisfied with those numbers if you owned a physical store, and you shouldn’t be happy with it online.
Fortunately, there are few easy tricks you can use that’ll really increase conversion – and that can turn a floundering company into a success.
1. Keep CTA copy action-oriented with a large CTA button
Your call-to-action (CTA) is the key to turning all those passive viewers browsing your website into active customers. This is where you tell people what you want them to do, whether that’s making a purchase or signing up for a weekly newsletter.
Keep your writing active, exciting, and interesting when you write your CTA and work in a big, bright button that makes it as easy as possible for your readers to do what you want them to do.
Colour matters — colours like red and yellow are going to attract more attention than a pastel blue. Find a way your visitors’ eyes and you’re sure to increase conversion.
2. Highlight your value
Let people know exactly what they can get if they take action. If your website has the lowest prices or if you’re giving a free bonus with every order, don’t keep that a secret! Spell it out in plain, simple English where everyone can see it and lure your readers in!
Be blunt when it comes to what you have to offer. Writing copy isn’t writing poetry. There are a time and place for subtlety and metaphors, but if you’re focused on conversion optimization, you need to be as plain and clear as possible.
After all, you can’t increase conversion if you don’t give them a reason to convert!
3. Include trust elements
Customers need to trust you – especially on the internet. The people who visit your site have been burned by too many Nigerian princes and flashing download buttons to just start doing anything your website tells them to do.
That’s why building trust is so important online. Your visitors need to know that you’re legit and you’re reliable – because, on the internet, not many sites are.
Testimonials from customers in your target demographic are a great way Conversion Rate Optimization strategy, especially early on. Building in user-generated reviews, too, will show your visitors that real people trust you and like what you do. That’s going to make your visitors a lot less nervous – and a lot more willing to answer your call-to-action.
4. Emphasize data safety
Data safety is a big part of developing trust online. It’s something anyone interested in Conversion Rate optimization is going to have to think about in today’s world.
Our news stories are full of scandals about Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and Google location services that never shut off. Private companies are the new Big Brother, and people are getting paranoid about what they’re planning to do with their information. All that paranoia can really put a wrench in conversion optimization dreams.
Data safety seals, though, can help. If you really want to increase conversion, get a third-party to validate your data safety methods and let your visitors know that it’s safe to put information into your site. One such company you may refer to is Provensec.com
5. Be there when customers need you
A pop-up chat window in the bottom of your screen could be your secret to conversion optimization.
Customer service is a huge part of sales. When you walk into a store, that salesman who shakes your hand shows you around, and answers all of your questions is a big part of the experience. In fact, when the internet first came out, some people thought online shopping would never take off, purely because of the lack of salesmen.
That’s why that pop-up chat window is so helpful. Increase conversion by letting your visitors connect with your customer service department in the easiest way possible. When they can voice their worries or ask those questions you couldn’t possibly have anticipated, they’re going to be a lot more like to answer your call-to-action.
6. Be authoritative and show your authenticity
If you needed a life-saving operation, who would you trust: the kid fresh out of medical school who says he isn’t sure if he can do it or the surgeon who tells you he’s done this a thousand times before?
Confidence is one of the secrets to sales – and, online, to conversion optimization. When you show your customers that you know what you’re talking about and you’re an expert at providing your service, they’re going to start trusting you, and that’s when you’re really going to increase conversion.
But that doesn’t mean you should lie. It’s not enough to pretend to be great; you need to show your visitors that you really are great. Being authentic and let people see that you’re trustworthy and you’ll start seeing more active customers.
7. Keep your checkout page simple
When people shop online, they want to be able to shop with the click of a button. They don’t want to feel like they’re filling out their taxes – they just want it to be easy.
The reason you’re struggling with conversion rate optimization might have nothing to do with your landing page and everything to do with the checkout. If your visitors are wading through form after form setting up all their information just so that they can buy something online, they’re going to give up and go somewhere else.
But if you make it easy, they’ll keep coming back – and they’ll keep clicking that “checkout” button.
8. Play with the layout
Your first idea isn’t always your best one. You might have a layout on your website that seems easy to you, but there’s a chance it isn’t doing anything for the people who visit your site.
If you’re struggling with conversion optimization, don’t be afraid to rework your layout. Play with different imagery and a different structure and see how it changes your visitors’ behaviour.
The difference can be huge. The management company Highrise, for example, managed to nearly double their conversion rate just by adding pictures of smiling customers to their website. It was just a small change to the layout, but it led to a massive increase in sales.
9. Create cognitive ease
Cognitive ease is how easy it is for our brains to make sense of what we’re looking at. It’s a huge factor for conversion rate optimization. Study after study has proven again and again that, if people can’t figure out what they’re looking at, they’re not going to buy anything.
Nobody wants a website to feel like solving a Rubik’s Cube. Keep your landing page as simple and easy to understand as possible. Make it nice and easy for people to see your call-to-action, to understand what it’s for them, and to answer the call and you’re sure to increase conversion.
10. The pricing and number strategy
There’s a simple three-step process to pricing that can really increase conversion:
A) Make prices as simple as possible
People appreciate transparency and clarity – they don’t want to have to crunch a bunch of numbers. They’re making a decision, and if you’re ruining their cognitive ease, they can always buy from somebody else.
B) Price emotionally based on product/service type
Shopping is an emotional experience. People feel a stir of excitement when they see a great price – especially if it’s highlighted in some eye-attracting colour like yellow.
C) Display a higher price/plan first
Putting the highest prices first can be a great way to price emotionally. When the second price you see is a big drop from the first one, it feels like a better deal. People will feel relief and calm, and that’s going to make them want to buy.
11. Use social proof
When you see a huge line-up spilling out of a restaurant, you’re instinctively going to think that the food there has got to be good. That’s called “social proof” – the psychological effect that makes us think something’s good purely because it’s popular. And it can be a great way to increase conversion on your website.
Let people know how popular you are and they’ll see it as proof that you have value. That might mean showing off all your visitors – but if you’re just getting started, you can also call on an expert or a trusted figure to vouch for you and increase customer trust.
12. Create a powerful lead magnet
A lead magnet is an incentive: something you’re willing to off your customers in exchange for their contact information. And it’s something every business needs.
If you care about conversion rate optimization, you need a good lead magnet. Nobody wants more spam in their e-mail, and if that’s all they think they’re going to get for giving you their contact information, they’re not going to sign up.
You need to give them something they want in exchange for sharing their e-mail. If you want to increase conversion, make it clear, make it quick, and make it worth their while. They’ll be much more willing to sign up.
13. Leverage the power of word “FREE”
“Free” is an incredibly powerful word. People love things that are free. They’ll sign up for almost anything, as long as it doesn’t cost them – even if it’s something they don’t care about.
Free samples, free bonuses, or one-month-long free trials and going to lure a lot of people off of the fence and get them to dive right into your service. It’s a classic conversion optimization trick that you’ve probably seen on every application on your computer – and odds are it’s worked on you before.
14. Use Authentic Images And Videos
There’s nothing more crushing that when reality doesn’t meet your expectations. That’s true of everything – whether it’s life experiences, tender dates, or things you order online.
This can really affect your conversation rate optimization. If you over-promise and under-deliver, people who buy from you are going to come back, and those who haven’t bought from yet aren’t going to trust you enough to start.
Using authentic pictures and videos of your products can really increase conversion. If people can tell that they’re really looking at what they’re going to get, they’re going to trust you more.
You can even let your visitors share their own photos of the products they receive. When people know those images and videos are coming from real customers, they feel a lot more confident clicking on that “Buy” button.
15. Leverage the principle of scarcity, urgency and exclusivity
Going home to sleep on it rarely ends in a sale. When visitors to your site feel like the things you’re offering them are still going to be there, no matter how long they wait, they’re not going to put it off – and, most likely, they’ll forget you exist altogether.
Any website focused on conversion rate optimization needs to make people feel like they need to act now. Let them know they can only get this product here, or that there’s only five left, or that the deal is going to be gone if they don’t act fast.
This is going to really increase conversion. When visitors don’t have the option to be wishy-washy, they take action.
16. Implement a solid guarantee
Trust is a big part of conversation optimization, and a guarantee that’s worth your customers’ while can go a long way in building that trust.
Let your customers know that they’re going to get something of value and something that works. And make sure that, if it doesn’t work out, they know exactly how you’re going to make it better – before they answer your call to action.
A solid guarantee will really increase conversion on your site. A lot of those passive visitors who aren’t clicking the “buy” button are just worried it’s going to backfire on them, and a good guarantee can really help put them at ease.
17. Use a video sales letter
A good video sales letter (VSL) can get 3X as many sales as one of those long letters people have to read.
The kid to a successful VSL is to get straight to the point. VSLs help with conversion optimization because they give viewers something they want to see. They’re sick of working their way through long, boring letters just to figure out you want to sell.
A quick, to-the-point video with engaging visual, though, can really them to listen.
18. Utilize A/B-split testing
You need to try different things before you can know what’s really going to help your conversion rate optimization plans. That’s where A/B-Split Testing comes in.
In plain English, this is just trying out two different approaches and seeing what works best. For example, it might be trying out two different layouts on your website and seeing which one drives more sales.
Sometimes, the results might surprise you. A plan you never imagined could increase conversion might actually be exactly what you need.
Conclusion
Trust, value, and ease-of-use – those are the keys to conversion rate optimization. Make things easy on your visitors, and all those passive visitors are going to become your best, most active customers.
