If I were to say, you could increase website conversion, would you know what I meant?
Do you know what happens on your website when a conversion happens? Some people do but most of the time the answer is a hesitant “yes” while defining the term with the word “conversion” included. This would have been a sure fire way to get a red mark on your paper if you were still in high school. (Which my daughter just graduated from so I speak with some assurance). So here is what I want to do. I want to give you a short clarification of what people mean when they say, increase website conversion, so you can be prepared for the conversation and maybe I can even help you improve your website conversion. It’s good stuff, let me show you.
First, what is a website conversion?
A website conversion is when a visitor comes to your site and they complete an action you wanted them to. In today’s internet marketing world we can measure these actions and see if they increase or decrease. In the old days of the internet, you know, just 5 years ago, people were talking about web 2.0. This was the idea that your website could interact and respond. It was the transition from a static, brochure type website to something more interactive. Around this time the majority of the businesses thought that they would spice up their websites by adding some interaction. They were hoping that people would do more on their site.
Before all the interaction of web 2.0 people didn’t do much, well, interaction; Basic but true. In the simplest scenario that type of interaction was a conversion. As time went on the ability to measure all of these interactions has improved. That conversion might be picking up the phone or filling out an online “contact us” form or maybe going to the store and buying your product or service. The fact was and is, if your visitor does anything on your site that you hoped they would then it is a conversion and if you nurture those visitor actions you can guide more people towards the ultimate conversion, a sale.
Second, you need to focus on specific website conversions
Just getting people to do something, anything, isn’t enough. It is the lack of focus that leads to visitors doing nothing or almost nothing on your site. In fact http://www.bryaneisenberg.com says that over the last 15 years the website conversion rate on the internet has averaged about 1% to 2% and it hasn’t changed. Sounds a lot like direct mail doesn’t it? If the goal of having a business website was to increase website conversion for you company then it doesn’t seem to be happening. That’s the bad news but when people actually start paying attention to their website conversion those numbers can go up significantly. I have landing pages that have between a 6% and 10% conversion. That’s a conservative 300% to 500% increase in website conversions. I even have a couple of pages that are doing more than 30%. It’s not the average but it’s a whole lot better than what I had before I started to care about my own site.
Third, there are four kinds of website conversions you should care about
- Visitors
- Slightly Interested – we call this top of the sales funnel and it is researched based
- More Interested - we call this the middle of the sales funnel and this is more about trying to make a decision in your purchase or behavior
- Become a customer – We call this the bottom of the sales funnel and the decision point
We can divide these even further when we want to refine it more but for now this will be fine.
- First you need people to convert into visitors to your site. You can influence and increase those conversions by what people see around the internet. Some examples would be ads you place, Google search result descriptions and press releases you send out.
- Second, you want them to convert into being slightly interested in your content. At this point people are interested in just doing research. You can do this by offering people quality information such as white papers or lists that help educate them. Do this and you will see an increase conversion on these website pages.
- Third you want them to see you as an expert/advisor to making their decision. Offering them a white paper on your website, for instance we offer a white paper on choosing an internet marketing/inbound marketing company like us. Here is an example from us. Again, it does increase website conversion for us and our clients.
- Forth is based on your sales skill. Your website will have helped frame you as the trusted expert. All you have to do is reinforce that impression. In other words, don’t mess it up.
Here is a great way to think about the conversion process. Use the acronym AIDAS to remember how you and your customers make decisions.
(AIDAS)
- ATTENTION
- INTEREST
- DECISION
- ACTION
- SATISFACTION
We all go through this process to make a purchase decision or even to decide what to eat for dinner. We call it the sales funnel at Half a Bubble Out but whatever you call this list it can help you increase website conversion for your small business and convert more people into customers.
One Last Thing - A great conversion resource
Sometimes it's important to have an outside eye take a look at your website. You just can't always see your site the way a stranger sees your site so we sometimes use a company called usertesting.com. They have people who will look at your site and give you a strangers perspective. Here is a video of how their site works.
In Conclusion
In today’s market where money is tight and customers are harder to find we all need to unearth better, more effective ways to attract and convert more people into customers. So what are you doing to increase website conversion for your company? This blog is a good start and if we can be of any help give us a call and if you’re not ready for that spend some time on our website; it’s designed to be helpful but beware, we may even convert you! Have a great day and thanks for taking the time to let us help you grow your business.
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