If you own a website, you’ll know that the overall aim is to transform those that visit your pages into customers. The problem is, you do not have the power to force or change a potential customer’s actions.
So how exactly would you be able to sway a visitor into a customer? Well, while there are a number of possible ways – the best way is simple. Conversion optimization.
Generally, there are 7 steps to conversion optimization, starting with strategy right through to tests. But of course, there’s lots more to go into here.
Anything that you are going to do, especially when it comes to digital marketing, will involve creating a compelling strategy. Building a good strategy will ultimately help to guide your tasks.
This involves having a clear understanding and direction, rather than simply trying everything and hoping for the best results.
Let’s look at this using an example. Let’s assume that you are trying to increase the number of downloads for your e-books. In order to do this, you’d be looking at trying to optimize the landing page for your e-books.
Once you’ve got this focused strategy in place, you can ensure that everything you’re going to analyze and test is correct for the purposes of this landing page.
This can be anything from the design including color and theme, copy and call to action buttons.
When coming up with your optimization strategy, you’ll need to ensure that you’re including the following points:
Set your goals
Create buyer personas
Track the results
By creating this clear cut plan, you’ll be better placed to gain the ideal information regarding your visitors and therefore should be able to more easily convert them.
[2] Ask The Visitors For Feedback
An important part of improvement is to ask people for feedback. If you ran a restaurant for example, you would ask the customers for feedback on things like the service and the food, and then ask if they would return.
When it comes to websites, this is no exception. Asking visitors why they might have left the site can help you to make important changes in the future.
This should help improve user experience and then ultimately lead to generating sales. The ways you can ask for feedback include:
Digital polls
Surveys
Interviews
Phone calls
Emails
It really depends on how rich you want your data to be.
[3] Check Where The Low Conversion Rates Are
This is a key point to conversion optimization. You’re essentially looking for a sales funnel leak here.
The best tool to assess this point is Google Analytics, which can show you exactly where visitors are coming to and where they are leaving.
Have they made any action? If not, then why are you having such a high bounce rate on this page? Assess this point and you can then move on from there.
[4] Make Your Landing Pages Easy
Simplicity is key when it comes to landing pages. You don’t want to unnecessarily convolute the user experience.
The reason for this is because you don’t want to distract your potential customers from their intentions. You can check out how simple your landing pages are through your analysis.
What makes a basic landing page though? Generally speaking it is the following:
Simple designs
Easy to understand copy
A crystal clear message
An easy to see and use call to action button
Mobile friendly
No navigation bars
[5] Social Proof
If you’ve ever visited a site like Amazon, you will have noticed that there are areas for comments, reviews and sometimes – how many products remain in stock.
This is known as social proof and it can be a very powerful tool in trying to attract extra business. It’s one of those psychological responses that people believe in people rather than advertising.
In other words, if you have products with 4/5 star reviews by other customers, the new potential customer will be more likely to make a purchase. Indeed, word of mouth will always be much more powerful than advertising can be in this sense.
A great example of this: let’s say that a potential customer visits your site and sees a product with no reviews or comments. The chances of them being a conversion is significantly less likely than if there were positive reviews.
[6] Mobile Friendly
Over half of users will be using cellular devices such as a smartphone or tablet, so you’ll need to ensure you have made your site mobile friendly.
If it isn’t, you will likely have a very high bounce rate. Use the Google mobile friendly test tool if you are unsure of it.
[7] Consistent Testing
A/B tests on a regular basis will help you to increase your conversion rate. However, it’s vital to remember you should only test one singular page element at any one time.
If you notice you are getting a much higher rate of conversions, then any changes you have made you will likely want to implement on a more permanent basis.
Conversely, if you notice something isn’t working – then you will change it again and continue testing. However, with all of these tests, you will need to keep asking the users about their experience.
It will be almost impossible for you to gauge successes otherwise. It’s also worth testing your tools using your own devices and trying to make a purchase and then self assess.
The Bottom Line
Conversion optimization is important but it is not a simple process. However, if you manage to keep with this 7 step process, you should be well on your way to success.
These days, everything is online. You can’t get your business anywhere without a great online presence. With search engines forever changing, it’s difficult to stay on top of it all! That’s where I’ll come in.
Hello, my name is Jack O’Neil and I have been in the marketing industry for almost 10 years. I focus on online marketing, SEO, advertising, and more.
