How to Convert Website Visitors into Customers Using Conversion Rate Optimization
Launching and running a thriving ecommerce business can seem like a simple and straightforward affair. But because of intense competition in the digital space, you can’t afford to take a step back. You need to constantly optimize your site to improve conversions. The conversion game is constant and without ongoing optimizing, it won't just happen.
Why Does Conversion Rate Matter?
Traditional marketing approaches use a “spray and pray” strategy. This is where you direct massive effort to drive traffic to your site. The hope is that out of this massive volume of targeted prospects, some will make a purchase.
This strategy, however, only suits impulse-based purchases and a wide customer base. What if your target audience is much more limited?
The real world presents a complex situation where merchants have to compete in a different market. That's why you need a robust strategy for converting and retaining your customers in a crowded market. The key is to implement a solid conversion optimization rate plan that guarantees results.
Tactics to Convert Website Visitors into Customers
Define your site’s goals
Conversion always starts with deciding what your goal is. Your conversion goals are what you are optimizing your site or web page for. Without a goal, you won't know what to optimize for. These goals define what action you want users to take in order to create value for your business.
The goals can then be used to rate your user actions in order to measure your conversion success. Conversion goals can consist of clicks on links, elements, page visits, form submissions, or custom conversions.
Collect and analyze visitor data
Your conversion rate optimization plan should always be data-driven, not based on assumptions or guesswork. Your optimization efforts will rely on data which means gathering customer data about their preferences as they visit your site. You can then use the data to construct a user persona that represents your ideal visitor.
Perform competitor analysis
Competitor analysis is essential to help you gain an edge over your rivals. This is how you learn how you measure up against your competitors in terms of strengths and weaknesses. You can then design what your USP (unique selling point) should look like to stand out from the competition.
When you conduct a competitor analysis, you are also viewing the user experience through the customer's eyes. This is because they are also weighing the competing options before buying products.
Optimize high-performing blog posts
Make your blog content work hard for you by optimizing them to convert better. For example, you can use images or visuals that best impact visitors and generate interest. You can also declutter your blog homepage if it has too many elements. This minimizes distractions so that your site visitors can focus on your message and brand.
Assess your current conversion funnel
It's always a good idea to know what's not working in your conversion funnel before setting out to fix anything. Try to get into the customer's shoes to find out why — and at which points in your funnel — they are getting frustrated and dropping out.
For example, if customers are abandoning their carts, focus on how to optimize your checkout process by simplifying it. Through conversion rate optimization services, you can optimize funnel stages where buyers are stepping off and failing to move to the next stage.
Define and clearly highlight your value proposition
What makes you different from your competition? This is the job of your value proposition, which is a statement that concisely explains why buyers should prefer your product to others.
To make your value proposition compelling, it should highlight your USP and it should be clearly reflected by your copy, images, or headlines.
Optimize layouts of your critical pages
Sometimes all your efforts at improving your conversion rates may not succeed. That's when you should think of making sweeping changes to your pages. By employing visitor data, you can turn around your conversion performance by improving page design and navigation.
Various studies prove that site visitor engagement in your site is highly influenced by page elements. You can use scroll maps, eye tracking, click maps, or mouse tracking to help you discover ideas to make changes.
Apply sales copy best practices
Making your sales copy more compelling is vital to your conversion rate. Never overlook the impact of even small improvements to improve your conversion rates. Identify sales copy areas that can be tweaked and tested.
Build trust with reviews and testimonials
How strongly do your prospects trust you? Without trust, it's hard for conversions to take place. One easy way to garner trust is to share what other happy customers are saying about you. You can showcase testimonials, success stories, or reviews to overcome mistrust and create credibility.
Make site navigation simple and seamless
There is nothing worse than a visitor getting frustrated when navigating your site. Remember that your visitors are already looking for a solution for a problem. Don't add an additional problem with a website that is hard to navigate. So make it easy for them by enhancing the usability of your site.
Improve page load time
If you are having abandonment issues on your site, chances are it is because your pages take too long to load. Patience is not a virtue of the typical online surfer. So long page load times can hurt your conversion rates, sending your visitors to your competitors. Aim for loading times of about four seconds or less. You can turn to AMPS to improve speeds. These tools help to eliminate large images which slow down page loading.
Test everything before deployment
Instead of relying on assumptions, use data-based methods to optimize your pages. A smart way of doing this is by employing A/B testing before allowing your site to go live. This allows you to test the impacts on your conversion rates by assessing different versions of your web pages.
Conclusion
Improving your conversion rates is essential to increase your marketing ROI. To do this, start by implementing the above strategies or engage conversion rate optimization services to yield better results.