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Traffic is important but how this traffic is translated into an ROI (return on interest, no matter if it’s subscribers, sales, social media engagement) is the real goal. This is where conversion comes. Conversion is simply determined by how many people do what you ask them to do – no matter if it’s buying, subscribing, commenting or anything in between.
Traffic is the fuel and conversion is the engine. If you can make your engine work better, you can get a far better mileage with the same amount of traffic. This means that if you focus on this, you can spend less time and money on bringing traffic and make more sales.
Below are ten quick and practical ways of improving your website conversion. I’ve tried to come with tactics as evergreen as possible, that can be used for Internet Marketing, e-commerce, Facebook and blogging.
1) Jump to the benefit itself. When someone visits your site, he’s interested in understanding what’s in it for him. You can develop on the problem and other steps later but your headline and first sentences of any sales material should show him a clear benefit.
2) Know who you are selling too. Develop a customer avatar that represents your ideal customer and every time you write something, a copy, a product, a tweet, write to this person. Keep in mind though that there will be other prospects too, so you are targeting the biggest majority. Your site will be visited by the young, by the old, by the rich and by the poor. Avoid talking to every single demographic and focus only on one.
3) Talk his language. If you are selling to older, conservative markets, talk in a more respectful, formal way. If you are selling to the young, risk-taking market, talk in a very active and energy filled manner. This sounds as common sense but I’ve seen this mistake too many time. Don’t disconnect with your market. Talk as you would talk in real life to that person.
4) Proof, proof, proof. People are skeptical, now maybe more than ever. They want to buy but they also want to see some proof that it works. Even if they don’t actually believe they can make $5000/month using an online course, they want to be sure that others did it to even try. There are never enough testimonials or case studies or third party proof elements. You could have pages and it would still not be enough. So add as much proof as you can.
5) Develop a clear identity. You don’t need to be larger than life but you need to stand out in the mind of your prospect. You may be the conservative investor or the guy who travels the world or maybe the wiz kid. You don’t need to have a four page bio. It is ideal when you can say who you are and why you are unique in two sentences or less but those sentences must be as clear as possible. Don’t be just another name in the crowd.
6) Give him both a rational and emotional reason for buying. We rationalize in order to justify our purchase. No, we didn’t actually need that $750 phone but the 4G speed will “help us save time in the long term”. The emotional purchase was because it was a cool toy. People buy stuff because it makes them feel good, no matter how stupid sometimes seems but they’ll generally never admit this. They’ll use a “politically correct” reason to justify their actions.
7) Think from his point of view, not yours. Marketers are too often driven by their own POV and emotions and forget that on the other side, there is someone that doesn’t trust them or can afford right now their product. The way they usually get past this is by making claims as big as possible but this is a hit and miss strategy. Instead, recognize their worry, recognize their difficulty, mention it and offer a rational and emotional solutions to it.
8) Don’t give him reasons to back out now. They don’t want to spend money now on something they can’t see that is delivering intangible benefits. They would rather watch TV or eat ice-cream. This is why you need to offer them a strong incentive to act now and not later. Statistically, if someone says that they’ll think about it or maybe buy it later, there is a 90% chance that the sale is lost. A sale is made or is not, don’t be deceived into thinking otherwise.
9) Everyone wants to feel important. This is especially true on social media. If someone comments, reply back. I’ve seen so many people asking questions (in order to drive engagement) and never taking the time to actually reply or like those posts. Do this enough and people will realize you don’t actually care. Treat every person you come into contact online as a friend. It will open a lot of doors and boost your conversion, directly and indirectly.
10) Track. You need to know at least in a general sense if what you are doing is working. So pick a few metrics, based on your marketing materials (for example: email open rate / squeeze page conversion) and every week test one improvement and see how it ranks. If it boosts your conversion, make it the control (the default page) and then test another improvement, always dividing traffic 50 – 50.
Boosting your conversion is the fastest way to boost your ROI and make more money. So please, take one of these suggestions and apply it today. It can compound everything else you are doing.
Best regards,
Razvan Rogoz
Razvan Rogoz is a marketer, copywriter and blogger. You can find more about him at www.razvanrogoz.com. On his website, you are going to discover his own conclusions on topics as diverse as internet marketing, habit forming, time management and philosophy.
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