When looking to increase website conversion rates there can be many different techniques. Simply understanding some simple areas to focus on can help increase your results. Today we are going to look at 8 simple ways for you to increase website conversion rates.
8 Steps To Increase Website Conversion Rates
1. A/B Testing
When people think of conversion rate optimization they often think immediately about split testing. Split testing and in this case, A/B testing is actually only one piece of the puzzle. A/B testing is possibly the most highly leveraged activity you can do for your business once you have steady revenue. A/B testing allows you to prove or disprove your assumptions as to what works better, find out what your visitors respond to, and more importantly what they don’t respond to.
If you aren’t actively split testing you are most certainly leaving money on the table. We regularly see, 20%, 30%, even 50% or more improvements when testing for clients.
Homework: Test ONE thing on your site in the next 7 days. Possibly starting with your headline.
2. Remove Risk
Risk reversal is a common tactic that has been used for ages in sales and copywriting and it transferred over to the online world. By removing any risk on the part of your prospect as to why they shouldn’t buy your product the better results you are going to get. The best way to remove the risk and increase website conversion rates is to have a money-back guarantee.
“Try it out for a full 30 days and if you aren’t extremely happy with your decision we will give you your money back.”
You have to make it an absolute no brainer for your prospects to want to buy. The more risk you can remove from the decision the better.
Removing risk also shows a level of trust. You believe so highly in your product that you are willing to give me my money back if I am not happy.
Homework: Look through your sales process to see where you can remove risk or communicate your guarantee better
3. Add Proof
Nobody wants to be first especially when talking about consumers. Visitors want to know that someone else paved the way for them and have experienced the results that they are looking for and the results your product is claiming to help them achieve.
The best way to do this is to leverage customer testimonials. Don’t just have a page on your site that has a list of them. Sprinkle them throughout your entire sales process. If you have quite a few customers you can also highlight… “Over 13,653 Happy Customers”. Think of the McDonalds “1 Billion Served”.
This also adds a level of trust to your sales process too.
Homework: Look for areas where you can add “proof”
4. Tell what to do next
In online marketing you can’t assume anything with assuming your visitors know what to do on your site is one of the biggest this is especially a big one when looking to increase website conversion rates. Be sure that you have strong calls to action throughout your entire site. Tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do next.
“Click the button below to get X”
“Fill out the form to X”
“Call 555.1234 To X”
Hold your visitors by the hand and walk them down the path to the desired action you want them to take and then tell them what to do to take the desired action.
Homework: Where can you improve on telling your visitors where to go and what they should do?
5. Increase Trust
Chances are your company may not have the massive brand recognition of say companies like Microsoft, Apple, Nike, or Amazon. Because of this factor you need to do everything you can to build trust with your audience if you want to increase website conversion rates. Get them to trust you enough to buy from you.
With loads of scams out there and other shady companies you have to build trust.
Having customer testimonials is just one way you can add credibility to your site. A few other ways include highlighting any awards you have won, publications you have been in, secure and trust seals, 3rd party endorsements, and adding a phone number to your site just to name a few.
Visitors have to know that you are real, that you aren’t going to rip them off, and they are going to get what you say they are going to if they purchase. The better you can communicate that the better.
Take a look at your checkout page for example. We have found that simply changing language like “Buy Now” To “Fill Out The 100% Secure Order Form To Buy Now” can increase conversions.
When looking to increase website conversion rates look for ways to add some trust. An example is toothpaste. “The ADA’s Most Trusted Brand” = TRUST and 3rd party authority leverage.
Homework: Find areas where you can increase the trust level with your visitors by leveraging some of the tips above.
6. Make it easy
Friction leads to lower conversions. Having a complex signup or checkout process when trying to increase website conversion rates is most certainly a death sentence. One example was we removed one step in the checkout process out of one companies site reducing it from 4 to 3 steps. It increased their sales conversions by over 110%.
You need to make it as EASY as possible to buy or signup with you. Remove clutter from pages, remove distractions such as multiple calls to actions on pages and have the shortest path from point A to B that you can.
Homework: Find friction points in your signup for checkout process and test removing them
7. Benefits
People buy for two reasons and that is to gain pleasure or the big one, avoid pain. That’s it. They are on your site because they are looking for a solution. Telling them how great your product is with all the amazing features is a sure way to get them to bounce on to one of your competitors.
Stop leading with features and start leading with benefits and solutions. What sounds better when you are looking at a computer.
“Comes equipped with 16GB RAM”
Or…
“16 GB of RAM that will help you complete tasks faster and reduce computer programs running sluggish or completely crashing.”
Having more RAM will help me get more done faster… It solves a problem when I discuss it from a benefits standpoint.
Homework: What solutions are your visitors looking for with your product? What are the key benefits and results of using it?
8. Keep selling
We will leave our little article with a common problem we see when looking at client’s sites and when looking to increase website conversion rates.
The problem is that you spend a good amount of time, effort and money to get visitors to your site and maybe even all the way to your checkout page but then something happens. You STOP selling.
Every page of your site allows for a chance to keep selling. Keep the visitors thoughts on the end result of using your product all the way through to the Thank you page after they purchase. Don’t just assume the sale is done when you get them on the checkout page. The checkout page is a big leverage point when trying to improve website conversion rates. Continue highlighting benefits, proof, trust, and be sure you tell them what to do with a strong call to action.
Homework: Go through your signup or checkout process and make sure you are selling all the way through
There you have it… 8 simple steps to increase website conversion rates. There are of course many more ways but these are the highest leverage areas you can focus on to increase your results.
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If you need help testing faster and getting better results out of your marketing be sure to contact us as we are happy to point you in the right direction.