Conversion rate is the strongest metric for the performance of your business. Conversions are not always a sign for a sale, but they indicate that a person took an action on your website that pushes them closer to the actual purchase. Some examples of conversions might be the number of people who filled out your contact form, subscribed, or purchased your product. Your content, SEO, social media, advertising and website design should be consistent to achieve good conversions.
Simple message with strong call to action
To start with, when a visitor comes to your website they certainly have some expectations. In order to create engagement you have to meet or even exceed those expectations. Most often customers not only ask “Who are you?” but also “Why you?”. They have the power to choose between a plenty of suppliers. This is why you need a strong clear value proposition. And what is value proposition? It is the main reason your prospects should buy from you. Thinking of the customer your goal is to answer the questions clearly. Your message is their answer- simply shout out why you, what is your value.
Squarespace.com features a simple message and strong call to action.
Unique call-to-action buttons, not the ordinary type like “buy now”, “learn more”, “click here”, etc.
The most important task of a call-to-action button is to work, in other words to make people click on it. Make your button stand out. People are just bored of the ordinary button like “buy now”. First, you start with the colour. Make sure it is noticeable and it is not fighting the background. Always keep it simple. You don’t need to make your button blinking like a Christmas Tree. Simple statement and few design frills will do great job for you. The copy of the button should be sizzling.
You will use verbs, this is clear — buy, test, try, all of them really call to action. But never use “submit”, boring action words like “submit”, “download”, “register” can really lower your conversion rate.
Creating scarcity could also help you in your call to action button. You can cut the decision making process by simply saying that you have only 3 more or your deal is valid only in the next 3 days.
Words related to your product, are the ones which convert the most. “Download now — Free” happened to be more effective for Mozilla Firefox than “Try Firefox 3” simply because they called the user to download it now for free.
Typecast.com uses big and engaging headlines to catch the attention of their visitors.
Good headlines
Headline may make or break your website. It is what makes the first impression about you, so you have to make sure it is good because you may not get any chance to repair it, ever. Moreover, if it is not catchy, no one is going to click on it and understand how good you are. The key to success is to have a clear headline with unique value proposition. Our advice is to test your headlines frequently to find what best fits to your audience. Your winner will be the one that tells the benefit from working with you. Alternatively, you can also address a pain point.
A good headline includes two parts — a headline and sub-headline. The latter specifies your initial statement and tells the reader more. It not something new — it is the meta description in the search engine. What you need is 8 words if your audience knows you and 16–18 words if not. And do not forget to be very, very clear.
Shorter contact / inquiry forms
Time is money. Save your customer the money and let them give it to you. People come here to connect with you and if it is too complicated or time consuming, they are going to leave. You don’t need a username, security question, date of birth, or re-enter password fields. Just leave it and go straight to the point. Do not forget that this is your communication channel and give the chance to the user to be heard. Let them speak more and don’t ask too much.
Your form should be demanding. Make its title convincing in order to really convince your audience to share information with you. If you need to know more, leave some fields optional to keep the right of choice to the customer.
Quick tip: make it shorter, so you can include it in each of your pages. This shows that you really care, increases your chances for interaction and after all, you get conversions from every single page.
Benefits, social proofs and credibility indicators
There are four main reasons why people do not buy a product. First, they do not need it. Second,they don’t have the money. Next, they are not in a hurry and last, they do not trust you. The only thing that depends on you, is trust. Award and industry recognition gives you authority and this is a great weapon of influence. You can present your customers and even show their logo on your website. When people see someone they know have trusted you, they are more like to do the same. Therefore, reviews are also important.Show them and most important — do not leave them without an answer. You may receive a horrible review — if you comment on it, you show that you care. This is credibility.
Slack.com shows strong social proof by displaying a list of established client logos.
If you are selling online, secure shopping certificates are a must. Contemporary customer is very careful where they leave their credit card info. You can combat this fear with secure shopping certificates and brand certifications.
The list continues in part 2 of this article.
