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A beautiful website with fantastic design and colorful displays is wonderful, but if you are not making a profit, your hard work will be in vain. How can you convert your website visitors into profits? There are many ways you can increase your conversions, but it’s important to know where to start.
Before we discuss the top 5 ways to increase conversions, you must understand what action you want your visitors to take. Are you leading them to opt in to your list? Buy a product? Become a Facebook fan? The goal of website conversions is to lead your visitors to an intended action, so it’s important to know what that action is. Once you know, you can target your strategy to that end.
Here are the top 5 ways to increase your website conversions:
Do not give your visitors any reason to leave your website. Live chat will give them an easy and effortless way to get their questions answered.
Why is live chat so effective?
Videos add a visual element to otherwise static content. They create more of an experience for your website visitors and engage them in what you are offering.
How can you use videos on your website?
Videos can be used for many different purposes, all of which will enhance your website and increase your conversion rates.
Tip: Your videos should be brief and professional. Long videos (more than 5 minutes, unless technical) can bore visitors if they are not engaging enough. Make them just long enough to capture their attention, but not too long so they leave the site.
Your visitors will respond to images of people, for in the eyes of internet users, the appearance of people emits a sense of trust and sincerity.
In addition to product images, you can use images of peoples when displaying actual testimonials or showcase the people who work behind the scenes of your website. Any chance to establish a connection with your visitors is a good one.
When adding images of people, it’s crucial to remember some important information. Images of people can evoke strong responses in your visitors. You want a strong positive response, not a negative one. You should know the demographic of your visitors so you do not offend or turn anyone away. You can use websites like Quantcast.com to identify your visitors’ demographics and then test a few images to determine what works. For example, a young clothing brand like Guess would not add images of 50 and older people to their website.
Keep images big enough so they are visible, but not too large to distract visitors away from a call to action. Tip: Use images with people looking to where you want visitors to click. The eye will naturally go there as seen in this image:
Ever want to get inside the heads of your website visitors? Usability testing puts your website in the hands of complete strangers who are unbiased and will give you a wealth of information that will serve to increase your conversions.
It’s never a wise practice to rely only on your own opinions regarding your website. If you are serious about increasing your conversions, usability testing is a must. There are many companies on the web such as Usertesting.com that offer these types of tests for inexpensive rates. Participants are selected based on your chosen demographic and asked to answer the questions you provide or to follow your directions while they visit your site.
When running a usability test, be sure to ask the participant specific questions related to finding or buying something on your site. Bring them through a process you would want your visitors to take. The participant will record a video of each step and what they liked or didn’t like along the way. This information will prove to be invaluable to you and help you see some faulty elements you may have overlooked.
Do you know the people who are visiting your website? Are you targeting a specific group of people or are you simply hoping for more visitors, regardless of their demographic?
Website owners often fall into the trap of spending all of their time amassing large amounts of traffic. Yes, traffic is great, but if you are attracting the wrong traffic, you will never make a profit because you will not actually be converting the majority of the people to a sale.
You are selling mens sneakers on your website. Because you are striving to increase your traffic, you create a strategy and work hard until you see a steady increase. You are happy that your numbers are rising, but you are not seeing an increase in profit.
This is a very common problem because many online marketers are more interested in appealing to a large mass of people rather than a smaller, more specific demographic. This line of thinking seems like it makes sense, but in actuality it is not a successful strategy.
Wise online marketers know that a smaller, more targeted audience will make them more money than large amounts of traffic. Why? Imagine you gained one hundred people to your mens sneaker site, but you were not aware of their demographic. You only made 5 sales because half of the visitors were women and only a small amount consisted of young, athletic men. Now imagine you gained 50 more people with your targeted method. Yes, the amount of visitors is smaller, but these people are men who are interested in buying your sneakers because they are athletic and they are involved in sports. You gain 10 sales from this example because your visitors were already interested in your type of product before they even landed on your website.
In the end, it’s all about targeting, not the amount of traffic. Targeted traffic is more important than a large number of traffic and will bring you more profits in the end.
Think about who you are targeting with every marketing strategy you implement. Writing a blog post? Write with them in mind. Creating an ad? Create it with them in mind. Posting on Facebook? Speak directly to them and post content they will enjoy.
Increasing website conversions is all about knowing your audience and establishing a connection with your website visitors. The more you can make your visitors feel safe and satisfied with their experience on your website, the more they will buy from you and take advantage of what you have to offer.
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Jenna Scaglione is a writer, internet marketer, and a lover of family, friends and life. Jenna enjoys learning, growing and discovering the newest and latest trends on the internet. Known as "Lady Content", she lives in sunny Socal where she helps her clients around the world increase brand awareness on the internet through content writing and social media.
Monday, March 5th, 2012 01:33
Glad you like it Brian! As I was compiling the list, I saw the different themes so I thought it would be good to break them out so everyone could focus in on their biggest concerns. :)
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 14:38
cool reading, the live chat is one of the stuff that I will do in the near future …
Monday, February 13th, 2012 20:31
I agree with the feedback idea and that users should have all sorts of tools available at disposal, to leave messages, impressions, complaints and chat with you, but thinking about the long term effect for some of these makes me wonder. Okay, a simple chat-box available in the down-corner, right or left is fine as long as it doesn’t disturb visitors, but whenever a popup message appears with a chat-box is quite annoying and you might give users the wrong impressions.
I also don’t agree with the idea that you don’t have to give your visitors a chance to leave your website. Personally I believe you should think about the long term relationship between you and your user and think about making him come back. That will most certainly be more beneficial for you instead of annoying him with unwanted messages, pop-ups and please don’t leave panels!
Still, videos and images or interactive content can really build a bond between you and your users so thanks! nice article, very well written.
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 17:50
Thanks for the great ideas. I will be looking to post more videos on our site.
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 15:18
Pictures of people? Really? That’s a pretty ridiculous blanket statement seeing as how a half dozen studies have been done to show that users literally ignore generic stock photos and their value is nil.
Monday, October 3rd, 2011 17:05
hi
Thanks. It was great and my mind worked!
I think the last title “How do you target a demographic?” was an important part but it didnt have attention on it
Saturday, September 24th, 2011 11:08
Great article with very cool insider tips on how to improve conversion rates!
Friday, September 23rd, 2011 21:02
Having a video on your site is a great way of capturing your visitors, you could even have those live videos, where a real person walks onto the screen and guides you though your website, and talks directly with your visitor.
Monday, September 26th, 2011 02:37
Great advice Wasim. I think that would be a fantastic idea for a video.
Friday, September 23rd, 2011 18:43
It would be beneficial if you write about how to increase blog conversation. Thanks
Friday, September 23rd, 2011 18:41
Great post, Jenna!
There are so many great conversion tools out there to boost conversions.
Our Live Chat have experience at least 25% more conversions from using the service. I would also recommend Click-to-Call and Online Scheduling.
Monday, September 26th, 2011 02:41
Thanks Nancy! Your recommendations are great. Anything that will decrease the time it takes for a visitor to get their questions answered is a great conversion tool. Thank you also for your recommendations on Brian Massey’s caption test. I always welcome feedback so our readers can benefit.
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Nancy
Friday, September 23rd, 2011 18:41
Great post, Jenna!
There are so many great conversion tools out there to boost conversions.
Our Live Chat have experience at least 25% more conversions from using the service. I would also recommend Click-to-Call and Online Scheduling.
Jenna Scaglione
Monday, September 26th, 2011 02:41
Thanks Nancy! Your recommendations are great. Anything that will decrease the time it takes for a visitor to get their questions answered is a great conversion tool. Thank you also for your recommendations on Brian Massey’s caption test. I always welcome feedback so our readers can benefit.
Morgan
Saturday, September 24th, 2011 11:08
Great article with very cool insider tips on how to improve conversion rates!
Wasim Ismail
Friday, September 23rd, 2011 21:02
Having a video on your site is a great way of capturing your visitors, you could even have those live videos, where a real person walks onto the screen and guides you though your website, and talks directly with your visitor.
Jenna Scaglione
Monday, September 26th, 2011 02:37
Great advice Wasim. I think that would be a fantastic idea for a video.
Gagan Chhatwal
Friday, September 23rd, 2011 18:43
It would be beneficial if you write about how to increase blog conversation. Thanks
mahmood
Monday, October 3rd, 2011 17:05
hi
Thanks. It was great and my mind worked!
I think the last title “How do you target a demographic?” was an important part but it didnt have attention on it
Mellisa James
Monday, March 5th, 2012 01:33
Glad you like it Brian! As I was compiling the list, I saw the different themes so I thought it would be good to break them out so everyone could focus in on their biggest concerns. :)
Ken
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 14:38
cool reading, the live chat is one of the stuff that I will do in the near future …
Cosmin
Monday, February 13th, 2012 20:31
I agree with the feedback idea and that users should have all sorts of tools available at disposal, to leave messages, impressions, complaints and chat with you, but thinking about the long term effect for some of these makes me wonder. Okay, a simple chat-box available in the down-corner, right or left is fine as long as it doesn’t disturb visitors, but whenever a popup message appears with a chat-box is quite annoying and you might give users the wrong impressions.
I also don’t agree with the idea that you don’t have to give your visitors a chance to leave your website. Personally I believe you should think about the long term relationship between you and your user and think about making him come back. That will most certainly be more beneficial for you instead of annoying him with unwanted messages, pop-ups and please don’t leave panels!
Still, videos and images or interactive content can really build a bond between you and your users so thanks! nice article, very well written.
Brad
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 15:18
Pictures of people? Really? That’s a pretty ridiculous blanket statement seeing as how a half dozen studies have been done to show that users literally ignore generic stock photos and their value is nil.
Damien
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 17:50
Thanks for the great ideas. I will be looking to post more videos on our site.