Conversion rate optimization is the fastest, easiest, most cost effective way to increase your website’s impact on your bottom line. Even the smallest of businesses can benefit from increased conversion rates. Higher conversion rates mean more customers for your local business.
There is a catch, though. The most powerful weapon in conversion rate optimization â€" testing â€" can’t really be used for small websites with a limited number of conversions.
But that’s not the end of the world.
Most small business owners will be able to increase their website’s conversions just by following these tips.
1.Hire A Professional Designer
It might sound like a good idea at first. But buying templates, hiring your cousins or trying to optimize your own website will eventually cost you more money than you will initially save.
Professional designers may have experience with literally hundreds or thousands of sites. When it comes to creating a high performance website, leave it to the professionals.
2. Change The Way You Write Copy
It’s not about you, it’s about your potential customers. Your customers care only about themselves. It should be the one thing you and your customers have in common.
What does that have to do with copy?
Everything.
If you focus on your customer’s needs and how your products or services benefit them, your copy will become more persuasive. Remember to use language your customers can understand and sell the sizzle.
3.Make Your Company Human
People don’t buy from companies, they buy from people. Make your company more human by featuring your employees on the “about us†page. Use real people, not models, for the pictures on your site.
This lets your visitors and potential customers know that they will be dealing with real people when they call.
4. Localize Your Content
Customers respond to convenience and like the idea of shopping locally in their communities if possible. This means if your business has a storefront, you want to make sure that your visitors know how convenient your location really is. (Minutes from the highway, close to the center of town, etc.)
If you have a service area business (a business that provides services at your customer’s location), you need to let users know that you serve their town. You can do this by adding a service area map to your pages. Also mention your service area in your copy.
5. Display Your Affiliations
Are you a member of your local Chamber of Commerce? How about your local BBB chapter?
If yes, let your prospective customers know by displaying your affiliations proudly on your website. It will help your prospects see you as a credible, trustworthy company. It will also increase your conversion rates.
6. Use Your Testimonials More Effectively
Testimonials are incredibly important. They harvest the power of social proof and are one of the easiest ways to increase conversions. Most people don’t take full advantage of testimonials. To maximize the power of your testimonials you should:
- Use them on every page. This means you should use testimonials on every page where you are trying to generate a sale. Don’t just create a testimonial page and hope someone reads it.
- Use them in context. If you are a plumber and someone gave you a testimonial that praises your emergency plumbing service, it would be great if you could place it on your “Emergency Plumbing†page.
- Get them on video, if possible. According to conversion rate experts, video testimonials are the most impactful. If you can’t get video testimonials, testimonials with pictures are better than just text.
7. Create A Sense Of Urgency
When a visitor reaches your website, the site needs to sell that visitor on a couple of other things before it can ever generate an honest to goodness sale. It needs to sell your company, your services/products - and it needs to sell them on acting NOW. Without the last part nothing happens.
So how do you create a sense of urgency?
By convincing visitors they will lose something if they don’t act now - special pricing, a good deal etc.
8. Keep Improving Your Web Marketing
There are no universal solutions in Internet marketing. There are only solutions for your problems, in your market that work for you right now. This is true for conversion rate optimization.
Remember to accurately measure your conversion rates while you keep improving.
Sales Photo via Shutterstock
