Is your fledgling website struggling to succeed? Are you becoming frustrated with lacking sales conversions while seeing your bounce rate steadily increase? Maybe you’re having a hard time getting your products and message out to the market.
Whatever the issue is – the point remains, your website isn’t creating the type of profit you’d thought it would, and it’s nowhere near the type of money that can cover your bills.
We’re going to tell you about the tools that you need to be using in order to convert your website visitors into loyal customers. Keep reading for more information!
Get the Word Out
One of the biggest issues that small businesses and e-commerce stores face is building brand recognition and spreading your message. Unfortunately, many people are unlikely to buy from companies with an unknown reputation, instead deciding to make purchases from well-known brands – even if the price point is higher.
What this means is that even if people are discovering your website, they’re navigating away and searching for similar items elsewhere, all because they don’t know you. The quickest fix to this is proper marketing and public relations.
If marketing isn’t your strong suit or you can’t seem to find the time to devote to it, a digital PR agency might be the answer to your problem. It’s understandable if you’re thinking that you don’t have the budget for an agency or that this is an extreme solution.
You might be surprised at how cost-friendly PR agencies are, not to mention the fact that they’ll take the guesswork away from the marketing mystery and you don’t have to spend valuable time hoping that your strategies work. The question is, can you afford not to have the best marketing and public relations teams behind your brand?
Make Your Website Easy to Search
You’ve probably searched for a product online, clicked on a website that claimed to have it, and ultimately navigated away from the site because the product wasn’t easy to find. If this sounds somewhat familiar, you might need to take a quick look at your website.
A site search feature will allow your customers to easily find the items that they’re looking for. It’ll also help you see what visitors are looking to buy which can further help you make the best possible decisions when it comes to what products you carry and which items could be the next hot seller.
This is an easy way to help improve your website’s user experience while at the same time being relatively inexpensive.
Optimize for Mobile Use
56% of organic search engine visits are from mobile device users. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly and loads slowly, you’re losing potential sales before they ever even see your products!
There are a lot of technical ways to help boost your loading speeds, but there are a few quick steps that you can take to minimize your bounce rate and help improve conversions:
- Simplify your website’s design – all of the code required for a glitzy website will make it slow for mobile users
- Compress images or possibly reduce the total number of images used
- Fancy, custom fonts also require a lot of code; instead, only use custom fonts in headers
- Make sign-ups and forms easy to complete – the more steps that are involved, the more coding that’s required. Not to mention, an easier sign-up is more attractive to buyers
- Activate caching so that your website loads faster for repeat visitors
- Use Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project
As you can see, most of these steps are relatively straightforward and can be adjusted easily by either you or your website’s developer.
Help People Trust Your Brand
Aside from building your brand recognition through marketing, you can also help people know to trust your brand by displaying trust badges/seals, testimonials, and making sure your website is secure.
Trust badges are basically another company’s seal of approval for your website. These badges may be from the companies that you use to accept payment, third-party companies like Norton, Google, or the Better Business Bureau, or may simply be an icon showing a “money-back guarantee” or promising “free returns.” While these badges might seem insignificant to you, they can have a huge effect on whether a visitor chooses to move forward with their purchase.
Testimonials are another great option to help build visitor’s trust. You can choose to feature Google reviews of your business or opt for product reviews obtained through email. If possible, it is ideal to include a photo of your customer next to their testimonial – it helps your website’s visitors better relate and feel connected to the review.
Finally, you’ll need to make sure that your website has a secure connection. This is done by having a valid security certificate. Many web hosts will configure this for you, but if they don’t, you’ll need to obtain your own HTTPS certificate.
Questions, Comments, and Concerns
Even when you believe your website is completely user-friendly, there will inevitably be someone who has a question, comment, or concern about your products. Some visitors may even check your website to see if a contact button is readily available just to put their minds at ease before making a purchase.
With this said, it is absolutely important for your contact information or customer support to be easy to find. You may choose to have a contact form or offer a live chat option. Whatever your choice, it will help customers know that you care about their experiences and opinions. It can also help you deal with any problems that crop up instead of hearing about them later and losing business.
Converting Visitors into Customers: The Takeaway
The best way to win a visitor’s business is to put yourself into their shoes. If you weren’t the owner of your website and were visiting it for the first time, ask yourself if you’d want to make a purchase based on the factors mentioned above.
If you’re not sure whether you’d make a purchase or navigate away, then you probably have a bit of work to do. The idea of converting visitors seems easy, but it is essentially about building a trusting relationship with anyone who finds your site.
By using the tools and implementing the steps mentioned above, you will find that your conversions and profits will soar!
This article has been published in accordance with Socialnomics’s disclosure policy.
