Conversion rates or CR’s, are a big deal when talking about marketing & Growth, because if you’re not turning lookers into buyers at a high rate, what are you advertising for?  While there is no such thing as a perfect conversion rate score (so we think anyway), ideally you want to break into the top 10% — these are the landing pages with rates of 11.45% or higher. If you’re currently looking at your conversion rates and scratching your head because things aren't adding up, don’t worry, there are many ways to find that conversion sweet spot where you get the maximum number of prospects to take action.

Lucky for you, the first step toward improving your conversion rates includes reading this article as we’re about to identify how you can remove any barriers between shifting customers from being casual visitors to buying from your company. Before we look into fixing those numbers, let’s clear up the different ideas of a conversion rate.

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 Conversion Rate Definition. 

For online marketing, a conversion rate is the ratio of total visitors to visitors who perform desired actions. Internet businesses measure successful conversions differently based on the nature of their business and their goals. An online publisher might consider submitting a form on a subscription page a successful conversion; whereas an online retailer might measure their conversion rate by number of clicks to the "Add to Cart" button. Essentially, we are just looking to increase the number of occurrences of your visitors taking the action that you most want them to take. Super simple stuff!

So, with that checked off the knowledge list, let’s start reviewing our 10 point step-by-step process in boosting your conversion rates.

 

1. Use a CRO planner

Getting started can seem like a daunting task, so finding something that'll help identify the starting point is ideal. That’s where a CRO planner can come in handy. There are many CRO planners which can provide instructional and well-informed information on conducting site audits, how to improve your conversion funnel, understand users on your site, and go through the process of A/B testing and experimentation. 

 

2. Increase trust in all aspects

A core reason for decreased conversion rates stems from friction caused by distrust or uneasiness in the process experience. Long forms/ in-depth or intrusive questioning processes for information, spammy emails, no money-back guarantees or confusing websites are some things that can instil distrust in consumers. While hard to avoid, distrust will lead to hesitation, especially if they feel they are being tricked into something. Optimising conversions means eliminating hesitation - not creating it. Therefore, shorten your forms to create trust among your audience, ensure your site is reliable and authentic in all aspects to minimise any consumer hesitation and improve conversion rates.

 

3. Include customer feedback & testimonials

You wouldn’t realise how important customer feedback is for your conversion rates. A whopping 97% of consumers indicated that customer reviews factor into their buying decision. Making it kinda obvious that people seek reviews to identify the reputation and quality of your business.  

Therefore, its super important to include proof of happy customers such as product reviews & testimonials on your own platforms and third-party platforms. The message and tone of the content should make it obvious that your customers have enjoyed using your product or service. If it isn't, your conversion rates will drop.

 

4. Monitor customer site interaction

Distracting and confusing websites can seriously decrease conversion rates as they have a negative impact on the consumer’s experience. To improve that experience you should understand how your users are interacting with the site. There are many website analyses tools which help pinpoint what they click on, if they skip over an offer, or if they stop filling out a form in the middle. Through heat maps and eye tracking technology, you can see where visitors are getting tripped up and eliminate these issues to improve your conversion figures.

Another aspect of improving customer site interaction includes A/B testing. Sometimes it’s hard to identify exactly what is or isn’t working regarding types of headlines, colours, copy, layout, and CTAs work for your audience. Therefore, it is definitely worth experimenting to see what is best received by your target audience to ensure your site attracts and satisfies your consumers.

 

5. Incorporate a live chat bot

Lower conversion rates could mean your potential consumers have questions or concerns that are unanswered and stopping them from making the final move. To eliminate this issue, you should consider adding a live chat feature to your site. With live chat, your customer service or sales employees can alleviate concerns of prospects who are on the fence. Aside from this, a live chat is a more humanised way to provide information which is a plus for any marketing team! 

 

6. Double-check content

It may feel like you've checked everything -- you've written strong copy, included social proof, and have optimised your forms … but you are still seeing that your conversion rate is down. If this is happening, it might be time to re-check your content offers. Do they align with your audience? Are they creative and compelling? Do the offers make sense for the page they're on?

The key is to create offers and opportunities that hold targeted but still great value to your customers. Rather than offering a free trial or consultation, you could offer a manual or template which guides the user through a particular process. Hence, moving from a fairly generic opportunity to something relevant and super helpful to the customer. As tangible and compelling offers always perform better than a generic offer, it’s exactly what is needed if your conversion rates are suffering.

Get creative with your offers and test multiple different options to find the one that aligns best with your audience. If you want to get really crazy (you know you do), find different offers that can help you qualify leads in the process.

 

7. Communicate clearly

Something to remember throughout this process is communication is key, and if your customers cannot clearly see your company’s value proposition in your message you’ve got a problem. To overcome this issue, you should first form a solid understanding of who your audience is and your buyer persona. Use this new-found information to align your messaging to better target your audience.

Moreover, things like the benefits and how your product can solve your audience’s problem should be the main focus of the copy communicated, rather than ‘features’ of your product/service. Presenting your product as a problem solver/benefit provider will help customers imagine their own life with your products making them more effective. If you feel your copy is lacking, then it might be something to revise if you’re having conversion issues.

 

8. Include multimedia elements

Have you ever heard of the saying; a picture is worth a thousand words?  Essentially, this means that communicating something accurately is way easier through pictures instead of words. Hence, when trying to communicate to customers you should use images and videos of your product and service. In doing so, you can ensure there is no miscommunication between what they wanted and what they got.

Not only this, but multimedia elements also make your site feel more trustworthy. Plus, it's the preferred way of consuming content - who wants to read a thousand words about your upcoming new product when they could just see an image? To improve your conversion rate, try adding images of graphs and charts, or video testimonials to your site. This content is much easier to absorb and much more appealing to the eye.

 

9. Provide strong CTAs

A huge component of conversion is your call-to-action (CTA). Your CTA could be to download an offer, share a post on social media, or subscribe to your email newsletter. Typically, each landing page will only have one call to action but be incorporated several times on a page. For example, this blog post has three CTAs that lead to one offer. One at the bottom of the page, one in the text in the introduction, and one that pops up after scrolling down the page. No matter what, you need to include CTAs throughout your website and landing pages.

The pathway and accessibility of these should be clear and directed towards the consumer taking action. This includes using action words rather than non-action words. Optimizely; a marketing software company, was able to increase conversion rates on their homepage 27% by changing the call to action button text from "Get Started" to "Test It Out." Such a small change with massive results shows the significance of CTA language choice.

 

10. Meet customer expectations

So, you’ve set up an amazing ad campaign and a landing page which directs your customers from the Google ad. How disappointing would it be if the page they find themselves on was not what they clicked for? If you do not follow through with the promises that were made in the ad copy, they will not convert. That's why thinking about conversion rates means thinking about the entire process from seeing an ad, going to your landing page, and downloading an offer. If a landing page isn't converting, review your posts and descriptions to make sure everything aligns correctly.

 

Something To Remember...

With these points in mind, I think it’s important to clarify that you should always keep your eye on the prize, which is making more sales or generating leads most likely to convert to sales. Don't let high conversion rates take precedence over lead quality or you're going to spend more qualifying leads. You need to find a balance where everything works like a well-oiled machine.

It’s so easy to get caught in solely focusing on increasing the percentage, but if you're converting less qualified leads, you might accidentally end up throwing MORE money away, because those leads cost you money. So, while you should focus on conversion rate optimisation like the above says, always work towards attracting higher quality, more qualified lead generation, not JUST more conversions.

At the end of the day, we've all been consumers before. We know what we like and what makes us take action whether that be buying or something else. My main advice would be to get some perspective and put yourself in your customer's shoes, and think about whether you would make a purchase off your site. Because chances are the customers you're trying to attract are harder to please than you. If you're looking for more info on finding the perfect leads to convert, check out our blog linked below on lead conversions; the quick guide to get more leads!