We all know that there are different sites for different things. In as much as some products and services differ from each other, we all share a common interest which is making sales, and a keen interest in conversion. Yes, increasing traffic is good, but that is not the utmost. Are your customers buying, signing up, registering or watching that video or they are not taking actions at all?
Here in this article are 15 top secrets to converting site visitors to customers.
Have an Exciting Landing Page
You need to create a landing page that speaks our your brand without the use of plenty words. In other words, make use of pictures – Visuals, etc. display pictures of what you have up for sale.
Plenty words tend to be boring and don’t forget you have just 5secs of a visitor’s attention before he goes to the next exciting thing. Instead, have bold statements that highlights the features of the product and details proving that it is a good product.
[bctt tweet=”Plenty words tend to be boring and don’t forget you have just 5secs of a visitor’s attention before he goes to the next exciting thing. Instead, have bold statements that highlights the features of the product and details proving that it is a good product.” username=”@DMSInstitute”]
User Review
In most cases, the review of customers or users as the case maybe can be more efficient and attractive than paying too much to generate traffic that you are not sure it will convert to leads.
Setup a review corner and allow comments from users which serves as social proof, research has proven it does boost sales. Comments rates your products or services high are better than the use of some search engines which could be costly. Seriously, No need for plenty talk.
Personalize the Pages
It would probably require an extra effort in some configurations but if it’ll result in sales why not. Looking at Amazon, you’d discover that they are doing a great job with this as they turn your home page into recommendations based on your wish list or what you’ve browsed about or last purchased.
With this then, when someone visits your e-commerce store, he is welcomed with visuals of what they are likely to yearn for.
Shopping Cart Software
Pending on the shopping cart software, you could make use of what is called a Shopping Cart Abandonment Email. The implementation of this is such that the marketing technique with a very high (probably the highest) return on investment triggers the cart.
For one, not all conversions take place on your website. It operates in such a way that when logged in and you drop some things of interest in the cart, on leaving the site you end up getting an email from the website. And this act as a reminder, giving visuals of products left in the cart.
And then it could also mean that the company can run deliveries for them. There are links to the main store, and thus they could always go back to that page and make more picks or change items. Now this works with you encouraging customers to register the emails as they sign up and sign back in on each visit which it is a profitable strategy.
Retargeting and Remarketing
Now, this brings the second highest return on investment. Having visited some sites like that of staples to browse an item, when you leave for other sites for example Facebook, you still see the item there. Now this is an all up in your mind until you purchase me strategy.
It’s simply called Retargeting or Remarketing. It’s an ad structure targeted towards visitors of a site it works with a sponsored sidebar ads of other sites like facebook, google ad words, etc. And the more your visitors are reminded of the product they browsed the more likely they’ll pay for it.
Use Your Return Policies to Convert Visitors into Customers
There are lots of scary terms for refunds or returns on purchases. Often people order and then want to change their mind and at other time, they ordered, and you’re not able to meet up with the delivery deadline…in times like this, I want to know what your website has to offer in these cases.
You can’t tell me to ask for a refund if I don’t get my order in 3days and then there’s no link to click or no number to call…to me, it’s just a fluke. Every new shopper would want to check out your terms before making a purchase for guarantee and trust purposes.
What are your return policies saying? Are they restrictive? Can you improve on them? You just mind ending up scaring customers away.
Endeavour to make your return policies fair and it’s clearly stated after taking a look at that of your competitors and good enough for your products, so you don’t run at a loss.
Multiple Payment Options Attract More Buyers
Now the idea behind this is simple, visitors or potential customers can be able to make instant payment online with their cards without needing to take a break to get to the bank which could be very stressful for the customer or at worst give them a second thought.
Now having a variety of third-party payment options is giving the client a choice on which of the options is favourably or trustworthy based on previous business done with them. And this in itself is a sales booster.
A variety of third party payment gateways includes; Interswitch, simplepay, as well as other banks that have their online payment gateways. Do not restrict your buyers to one. You just might be losing sales. Expand your payment options
Don’t forget; online sales are very competitive, know what your competitor is doing and improve. Make checking out and payment online as easy as possible.
Provide Easy Access to Customer Service
How easy is it for customers to reach you, should in case they have questions or concerns? Do you have customer service options and if you do, how best can you improve on them?
No matter how small your online business is, you have to give it the illusion that it isn’t but that you know what you are doing, and this can be done right with dedicated customer service representative. This can make or mar your business.
[bctt tweet=”No matter how small your online business is, you have to give it the illusion that it isn’t but that you know what you are doing, and this can be done right with dedicated customer service representative. This can make or mar your business.” username=”@DMSInstitute”]
In as much as emails are easy and cheaper, when it comes to customers purchasing an item or spending cash they want to know that it’s not a fluke and that there is a human behind it.
Putting a contact phone number is so critical to your business sales. Shoppers would rather pick an item and then call to place their order by phone, and thus you need to have a phone number.
Toll-Free Numbers
Well, 99.9% of people like free things and trust me; it’s not just a Nigerian thing. How much more when they are calling to buy something from a company whose presence is just online.
With a number to call, most shoppers expect a toll-free call and then it makes your business look real.
It is also advisable that for companies with just an online presence, can use a toll free number like 0-800, 0-700 etc. You can get a toll-free number assigned and then customize your calls.
At the end of the day, you might discover that it is more economical for your company. But then again avoid long-term contract commitment, so it doesn’t tie you down peradventure some of the services aren’t favorable.
Offer a Toll-Free Number and Make it Highly Visible.
Mystery Shoppers and “Dummy” Purchases
It is important to know how easy your site is to use. You should put yourself in your customer’s shoes.
You could pretend to have stumbled upon your site or better yet allow friends to go there and give you feedbacks on what they think about the site…they should go as far as trying to make purchases. The good thing about this is that varying questions that pertain to the success of your company would be answered. These questions include:
Is your website easy to use?
Would they want to make purchases if not that they know you or peradventure they stumbled upon the site?
What are the hindrances to converting visitors to paying customers?
How easy was it for them to find what they need from your site?
Are the products or services well displayed and attractively?
The images on your site, are they bright and large enough for one to see details peradventure the items are somewhat new or strange
These are answers you can find by either you or your friends becoming the mystery shopper and going as far as making purchases. The Good thing is that you could do this from time to time and place yourself in your customer’s shoes.
Make sure everything from your site is correctly running as well as being taken to a secure site before sensitive information is needed.
The truth is, if you or your friends don’t like the experience your visitors will never convert because they too won’t like it either.
Secure Your Site
Most shoppers find it difficult to shop and pay online because of security issues. This skepticism is borne out of the fact that there are hackers and scammers everywhere. So if you hope to boost sales, you should be thinking of securing your site and publicizing it.
Examples of these security sites include Hacker Safe and Verisign. With logos like this on your shopping site, your customer would be at ease and be free to buy as well as drop personal details.
Work with both your e-commerce provider, shopping cart service as most of these shopping cart services affiliates with security services.
If your online provider can’t help you with security, source from another – but without this settled your customers would hand the money over to your competitors
Having done this, endeavour to make it boldly known that your website is SECURE and not just have the logos hidden somewhere in the checkout area.
Find Out What Your Competitor is Up To
Whether you like it or not there are things you’ll keep learning from your competitors. It’s either you’re learning what you should do or find out how your business can offer best service to your customers and the only way you’d find this out is by checking up on them as often as possible. Always visit their sites and know what seems to make them better and improve on it
And then not just your competitors, but those that are like big brothers in the business or better yet mentors. From there you can learn valuable lessons.
Feedback Links
Almost similar to our number two top secrets, you should also provide feedback links. Encourage them to tell you want they feel is right about your site as well as what they feel is wrong and then suggest how best they would love to be treated just as you have in ‘Suggestion Boxes.’
Know what their favourite products or services are and then capitalize on that information vice versa.
You can make it easy for them to send feedbacks by including e-mail links from both those that end up making purchases as well as those that leave without making purchases or doing what you intended for them to do. And who knows the customer with the best constructive criticism, customers could win something or get a discount on their next purchase.
Discount Offers and Promotions
It’s often said that nothing goes for nothing. Well, true to a point and then in e-commerce it might just be your boosting factor…it’s proven that it boosts sales but still, you have to implement the other tips so that after the discount you can retain them most especially first timers.
Beat your competitor’s price by a certain margin. Also, you could set up a referral system where when one customer refers a visitor to complete a purchase, he/she gets a reward. This is a good incentive for visitors to converge as well as paying customers remaining faithful, be it purchases, newsletter sign up etc.
Don’t just put the information on existing discount or promotion on one page, let them know immediately they visit your website and avail them the opportunity to take you up on it.
You Need an Expert Review
People may love your website and spend many happy hours clicking from page to page. But what if they never actually buy your product or ‘convert’ in any way? You need to hire an expert.
At Digital Marketing Skill Institute, our team of consultants will work to tell you your website conversion barriers as well as remove the barriers that stop people from converting into customers, clearing the way for higher sales.
We will go through your entire site and end up with specific recommendations along with the reasons behind the slow sales or no sales at all. We will also give you strategic advice to help your site.
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