If you’re unfamiliar with the term “Conversion Rate Optimization”, here’s the best way of phrasing it: Traffic is what you get. Conversion optimization is what you do with it, such as making a sale or capturing a lead.
Turns out, what you do with your existing web traffic is significantly more important than how much traffic you get. For example, increasing your earnings per visitor by just $1.07 can have a way bigger impact on your revenue than just increasing your traffic by 10,000 visitors per month (which, by the way, is a much simpler task).
“Your landing pages aren’t Wikipedia. Stop adding unnecessary links.”
– Oli Gardner
To get you started thinking about conversion optimization, here’s a few valuable, actionable tips on conversion rate optimization you can put into practice right away.
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Don’t talk about what you do. Talk about why the customer needs you.
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On your landing pages, there should be exactly and ONLY ONE thing you want people to do. If there are multiple elements / actions competing for the someones attention, you’re doing something wrong.
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Use the term “Add to cart” — rather than “buy/purchase” now. Since “buy now” denotes more of a commitment, users are less likely to click.
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According to Bryan Eisenberg, every website in the world has a problem with conversions, and he’s right. The job of testing and improving your conversion rates will never end.
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Try making your signup button a sticky — i.e. let it scroll with the user as they move down your page.
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Get feedback from your customers. The best way to know what’s going on in a customer’s head is to (you guessed it) ask them! Web Engage is a popular tool to get on-site anonymous feedback from viewers.
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Sell a solution, not a feature. Even though features help you to differentiate and stand out, focus your marketing message around the overall problem that your product solves (particularly if you’re in an obscure market).
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The footer of your website is extra real estate that you can’t just waste. If you use WordPress, remove that generic “Proudly powered by WordPress” and use it to include a call-to-action, add links to social profiles, or both.
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Have a call-to-action somewhere on every page. You should lead the visitor through your funnel by the hand — don’t let them just roam around without a purpose and expect an outcome.
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Take a page out of Amazon’s book and use time-based offers. Shipping, for example — if you order XYZ widget within 7 hours and 27 minutes, you can get the XYZ Widget by Saturday, March 22nd. It’s that emotion of urgency that influences customers to take action.
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