Conversion is the 3rd step in our 7 step framework. (Check out the first step here and the second step here if you haven’t already read them)
Firstly.. what is a conversion?
I count a customer conversion as someone that wants to purchase what you have. Whether that is sending you a purchase order, entering into a contract for you to provide a service, or simply waving their credit card at you. Essentially where the money changes hands in exchange for your product or service.
Why does someone become a customer?
It all boils down to 3 words… know, like and trust. Your prospect needs to feel like they know you and feel comfortable enough that you are knowledgeable to the point that they have grown to trust you.
A conversion is built on engagement that started earlier on in the opt-in stage
There are numerous factors that can affect this. Some of these factors can help to speed up the process and boost your trust meter in the eyes of your prospect.
Whilst I am only going to discuss how this relates to the online world and your website in particular, there are many other factors that are used when you meet face to face.
So how can you improve your website to build that trust factor when someone visits
Go Deep
What problems might they have?
What are their pain points and can drive them nuts?
What is keeping them up at night?
Write down all the reasons that you can think of and then take the time to survey your current customers with a series of questions around what they are using the product or service for and why they purchased from you.
What issues your product or service helped them solve?
This is extremely valuable information that will help you write better copy that can directly “speak” to your customer and address their most pressing concerns.
What He Said
Have your existing customers give you a testimonial, especially if it hits at the heart of the most common problems that you found in the survey. If you existing customer will stand up and say “I had this problem but now it is fixed by using your product or service” then this can greatly boost your conversions. Every business says that they are the best but if comes from another customer then this is much more powerful. Include as many details as possible on the testimonial to make it as real as you possibly can.
Peoples’ faces, full names, title, suburb can greatly boost the trustworthiness of the testimonial. A video message is even better again!
Grab a Camera
If you have a complex or detailed product then often a 2-3 minute video will help explain things better and provide better understanding. A video is often the next best thing to a sales person actually demonstrating the benefits of your offering.
Keep it short though.
2 to 3 minutes is plenty to keep your prospect interested and can help “sway them” your way.
Tell Them What You Want
Make it very clear what you would like the visitor to do to convert to a customer. “Call this number now” “Fill in the from below to get started”
Too often it is left up to the visitor to you website to guess what they need to do to get more information or complete the sale.
Short is Best
If you have a form that requires to be completed to request more information, and lets face it nearly every website I’ve come across has some sort of form, then don’t ask for the whole enchilada. You don’t need to know the last name, full address, home phone number, birth date or anything else for a simple enquiry.
Think of it like dating. You need to get to know someone before you ask lots of personal and private information. Statistics have proven time and again that every field you add to a form doubles the likelihood that it will not be completed. Eliminate everything until you have just enough to progress to the next stage. If you can get away with just one field, like an email address to send something then this is enough.
What is the real goal of the page? Is it just to start a dialogue such as request a quote? Then I would have first name, email address and optional phone number.
Is it Really Limited?
Real scarcity can help tip the balance in your favour when a decision is undecided. It has to be real though as we can all smell a fake a mile off these days. If you have limited resources then say so. “I can only accept the 3 more customers at the moment” sounds believable if you are a single trades person like a tiler.
“Limited stock” no longer carries much weight and can work against you because people don’t believe it any more
If you are offering a special discount make sure it does have an expiry and stick to it. The worst thing you can do is train your customers to know that you always extend the special offer because you’ve done it numerous times before.
The Most Important Part and What I love About Digital MarketingTesting
Testing and measure everything. All too often I see an ad in the paper or magazine with exactly the same phone number that the business uses day to day. How are you ever going to know if that ad works? You can’t track phone calls directly to the ad so you never know if it is worth spending more money on.
Test everything
It is easier than you think… especially on a website.
With special testing software you can test different images, headlines, calls to action and a myriad of other things.
Basically the way it works is the testing software allows you to offer an alternative page to each visitor to your site.
Page A can be the control or the original page and Page B can be exactly the same except for say a change of a headline.
The software then takes over and shows each alternate visitor to your site either Page A or Page B and can track a conversion (say… filling out an enquiry form)
After a suitable number of visitors has gone through the test we can determine if the new headline is a winner or not
So what can this do?
Check this out as an example from the good people at whichtestwon.com
This was a test performed by deliverysuccess.com
By adding testimonials at the bottom of the email, Version B won an astounding 247% more clicks
at a 99% confidence rate.
(click on each image to see the difference)
So testing is well worth it when you discover an improvement like this
Want to know how we can perform testing on your site
About Peter
Digital marketing strategist for small to medium business.
I help business owners with their marketing to target and nurture more high value clients, to deliver more profit and grow their business by implementing proven tactics and strategies.
I show you successful lead generation and marketing systems that will bring in an unlimited stream of quality clients to work with.
A critical part of our system is to provide regular checks to ensure you reach your desired success as well as tap into our knowledge and support
I use statistics and data to make smarter decisions in business. Rather than the “spray and pray” marketing of old, I have been able to leverage time and resources to deliver a far better outcome and profits.