You can be attracting legions of visitors to your website, but if your conversion rate is low, then all of the site traffic would be leading to nothing. If you want more people to convert through your web pages without exceeding the budget on redesigns, it’s certainly possible.
However, before we delve into the specifics of how to improve your website conversion rate, you need to understand what conversion rate is. Your website conversion rate is the number (denoted by percentage) of visitors who perform some action on your site. Now the actions taken by the visitors depend on your business, and it’s objectives. Some visitors become leads; some become subscribers or customers.
Now coming back to the topic of increasing the conversion rate of your website, you need to understand what works and what doesn’t with your target consumers. Your target customers have specific expectations, needs, and pain points, so you have to make them an offer they can’t (or at least wouldn’t want to) refuse. Here are some ideas that you can adopt in 2020 for better conversions.
Resolution #1. Charm ‘em with headlines
Headlines and banner texts are ideally the first things a visitor notices after landing on your site. The headline is a means of winding the entire sales pitch up in one bold sentence. It’s meant to ignite the curiosity of visitors, solve a problem, answer a question, or be instructional. With that thought, the following types of headlines have proven to be impactful and promote better conversion.
- Question Headlines
- Direct Headlines
- Command Headlines
- Problem Solving Headlines
- Instructional & How-to Headlines
It’s important to note that without an appealing headline, you risk the chance of losing many potential consumers. In this case, the style and placement of these headings and subheadings are also quite important.
Take a cue from the banner text of Slack to get an idea of what a perfect headline looks like.
Resolution #2. Mobile-friendliness is crucial
As per a report prepared by SaleCycle, conversion rates on mobile are leaving a lot to be desired at this point. While mobile accounts for approximately half of the web traffic worldwide, the conversion rates remain a cause of concern. One reason behind it is that many businesses don’t optimize their websites for mobile, making navigation difficult.
To elaborate on this, another report provides great detail on deciphering the ‘m-commerce gap.’ The top reasons provided for consumers not converting on mobile include:
- Security concerns
- Too difficult to enter the details
- Difficulty in navigation
- Can’t see product detail
- Can’t browse multiple screens/compare
When these barriers are looming large, your consumers are less likely to convert. Sure, you can bet on these consumers to return to your site on desktop to convert, but that isn’t guaranteed. This is why it’s important to consider optimizing your site for mobile to increase the chances of your users converting then and there.
Resolution #3. Place the CTAs strategically
Your website’s landing page has an objective. These pages are intended to acquire something from your audience. By using a CTA, you promote this objective and guide your visitors to perform a particular action. Using strategic CTAs and positioning them in the right way can be the defining factor as to whether or not there will be an increase in the number of visitors you convert.
So, where should you put CTA’s? Well, as per research from Google, the most viewable position is right above the fold, not at the top of the page.
Apart from that, you should also make sure your CTA buttons are vivid, specific, and answer visitors’ questions. For instance, if it’s a blog, “Subscribe” is far less impactful than “Join over 5,000 readers who receive weekly marketing tips.” This language is more vivid — it describes exactly what the visitors would be committing to.
Resolution #4. Design smarter and simpler forms
Whether it’s a detailed user registration form or a single-field email sign up, there are myriad ways you can optimize your forms to boost your conversion rates.
Your form length should be based on where the consumer is at in their journey and also the value they receive for filling out the form.
For instance, if it’s an eBook download or newsletter signup, then a first name & email field is fine. But if the consumer is further along in their journey or you want to better qualify them as leads, including additional fields may be helpful.
Think of it this way, if your website provides academic writing services, you can invite the consumers to download an eBook on “how to write an annotated bibliography”.
Platforms like Hubspot, Formstack, Zoho Forms also let you design forms, which may change based on who the visitor is and their behavior. For instance, you can choose to display a shorter version of your form on mobile devices to minimize the friction of signup.
Resolution #5. A/B testing is the way to go
Conversion rate optimization is a science. It needs to be researched, challenged, and constantly upgraded through frequent experimentation.
A/B testing is when you experiment with two different versions of a web page to check which one is better at deriving the desired result. For instance, you could have a CTA button on one web page that says “Buy Now” and another stating “Place an Order.” Then after observing the performances of these pages, you would take a page that performs better and run that against a new CTA.
No matter how you choose to optimize your page, it’s vital that you keep testing. Only then will you notice improvements to your website conversion rate.
Now, you might be wondering, “That sounds great, but how do I actually implement a split test?” Fortunately, there’s an increasing number of A/B testing tools on the market that you can try.
Since you’ve made it to the end of this post, here’s a bonus insight.
Resolution #6. Provide reviews, or testimonials
Testimonials and reviews from the existing consumers make a world of difference to your conversion rate because they help develop trust in your brand and minimise risk and anxiety for the consumer. In fact, client testimonials have the highest effectiveness rating (89%) when it comes to influencing buyers.
“The positive feedback from your existing consumers, offers a ton of credibility to the product and service you’re offering”, opines Andrew Bovine, an expert on marketing who assists students with book reports. You can ask your happiest consumers to leave a review – that should offer you a plethora of materials to include in your web pages.
Winding it up,
Conversation rate optimisation is a continuous process. Hopefully, by implementing all the resolutions above, you should be able to witness a quick increase in sales or leads. And if you have already tried these ideas, then share your experience with us in the comment section below.
Author bio: Gracie Anderson is a senior marketing professional working for a notable corporate firm in Australia. She has completed her MBA from Bond University. She has close to a decade long experience in her chosen field. She is also a member of MyAssignmenthelp as an academic advisor and provides assignment help to students.
