Social media marketing platforms such as Facebook produce advertising conversion rates near ten percent. The typical website conversion rate, however, hovers closer to three percent.
How can businesses improve conversion rates to get in the neighbourhood of social media marketing platforms? There is not one simple cut and dry answer, but rather a host of strategies that can be used in conjunction to make some improvements.
1- Use Data and Improve Your Funnel
The first step in making some improvements is realizing that your customers may not make a purchase on the first view of the offer, and that is okay. Customers might not have the money to make the purchase, or they might be weighing other options. The key is to have memorable visuals, compelling offers and unique calls to action. When customers remember the offer, they are going to be more likely to come back and convert at a later time.
A great starting point for increasing conversion rates is to use the data that is available from whatever analytical tool is being used. You can see a good example of this type of tool if you visit Sharpspring.com/act-on-software-pricing-and-reviews/. One of the best pieces of data to look at is the number of time people is spending on the various pages of the website. For pages that people are leaving quickly, it is important to change the content to get people sticking around for a bit longer.
The more time people spend on the site, the more likely they are going to investigate all of the available offers. Adding new content, changing up the look of the page, or simply updating old content can all increase the amount of time people spend on each page.
A conversion funnel has four parts: brand or
product awareness, interest in the product or service, consideration to make a
purchase and the actual conversion. When you break down your offers into these
four categories, best practices around each one can be crafted and then put to
the test. Anyone that is in the business of converting sales has some natural
instinct about how an offer should look, feel and sound. Taking that natural
ability, combining it with some expert advice and then analyzing the data
around it is a formula for making some major improvements to conversion rates.
2- Call to Action and A/B Testing
The call to action button is a great tool for
any business, and each unique business is also likely to have its own unique
call to action buttons. Taking a hard look at the buttons can be another area
for growth in making more conversions. Using different buttons is quick and
easy, and the data around which ones are more effective is pretty simple to
track. Trying different phrases, different looks and different placements on a
page are all good areas to explore and test. Analyze the results and move
forward with whatever performs the best.
Another great data collection tool is the A/B test. You could put out two different landing pages and have one or two items that are different on the pages. The call to action buttons could be different, or just the layout of information. Put both landing pages out to customers and see which leads to more conversions. This same practice can be put into place for just about any aspect of the website that you want data on.
3- Testimonials Can Build Trust
One of the most important aspects for customers when deciding to spend money is whether or not they trust the company they are shopping with. Building trust from an online platform can be a challenge, but using testimonials is a great way to build up that trust. You could quote some clients that have had positive experiences with your site, or you could place company names and logos in a visible location on the website. Both of these tactics can help to build trust, and increased trust can help to increase the conversion rate.
The Bottom Line
Making data-driven decisions is a great place
to start when making changes to a website. The goal of increasing conversion
rates exists for just about every business out there, so being strategic with
decisions will result in a greater increase. Using analytical tools, the
natural instincts that come with being in sales, and some expert advice will
typically produce positive results.
