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Increase Conversions - 8 Ways to Skyrocket Your Online Sales
Any online business needs to do two things right to get sales. They have to get traffic and they have to convert those visitors into paying customers.
This post will give you some amazing ideas to increase conversions. But before I start with my list, let me give you a warning. If your website is not getting any traffic, focus on that first. A friend of mine called me the other day and she told me that he was worried because she wasn’t getting any sales from her online store. I asked her how many hits a day she was getting. She laughs and said: “How am I supposed to know that?”
So the first thing we did was to install Google Analytics and the reason why she wasn’t getting any sales became evident: in seven days she got 13 visitors. If traffic is your problem, focus on that before you start working on tweaking your website to increase conversions.
Now, if you are getting several clicks a day and your conversion rate is too low (less than 2-5%, depending on the industry) then this post is really going to help you.Make it easy for your visitors to contact you
Is your phone number visible at the top of every single page? Is the Contact Us page easy to find? Once people reach your contact us page, are you providing them with a contact form, email address, a phone number, and mailing address? If you have a fax number, include that, too.
Even if you have a contact form, include an email address. People might not want to email you at that moment but they might want to have your contact information for future reference. Make it easy for them.
Have a toll-free number. It’s only $10 a month. And display a physical address, not a PO Box. Most people don’t want to deal with online companies that do not have a phone number and a physical address displayed on their website.Make information easy to find
First, use your analytics tool to find out what information people are looking for on your website. Maybe there is one product that gets a lot more attention than all the others. Once you’ve found out what information people are looking for, make it more prominent and easier to find. Don’t bury it “three clicks away”.Have intuitive navigation
If you expect people to figure out how to get to where they want to go on your website, a majority of them will leave. The navigation is not where you want to get “creative”.
Your website is a marketing tool
A nice design is really important, but good copy is equally important. Don’t depend on cool graphics to make the sale. Use your words to convince them to buy from you. In my opinion, each website has to answer two questions using bullet-points:Why your visitors should buy what you sell Why they should buy it FROM YOU. (What sets you apart from the competition? Make sure that what makes you different from your competitors is of value to your customers.)Make the text easy to read
Some tips:
Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Most long sentences can be broken down into two or even three sentences. Don’t go over 6-7 lines per paragraph.
Use bold text to highlight the most important part of each paragraph.
Use bullets as they are a great way to summarize your main points.Show your accreditations
If you are a member of the BBB or your local chamber of commerce, show the badges on your website. If you process credit cards online get VeriSign verified and get PayPal verified if you accept PayPal. If you’ve earned awards or are linked to an industry association, your website is a great opportunity to show your credentials.Reduce sign-up and checkout times
Have you ever gone to a website, clicked on the Sign Up link and the form was so long that you decided not to fill it out? It happens all the time. If a piece of information is not vital to your business, don’t ask for it. If you really need to ask for a lot of information, get the names and email address in the first step. That way, if they don’t complete the registration/checkout process at least you know who they are and can remind them to finish the process later.Avoid mistakes with your contact form
If your contact form has a CAPTCHA (that weird strings of characters that you need to type to prove you are human), get rid of it. CAPTCHA codes are annoying, and depending on your audience 10-50% will leave if you ask them to prove they are human.
Avoid having a “clear” button next to the “send” button. Many people browse the Internet intuitively. They don’t read everything they click on. If they spend 5 minutes filling in a form and then erase all the information by clicking on the wrong button, chances are they are not going to go over the whole process again. What is the purpose of a Clear button anyway?
For one of our clients we increased their inquiries by 27% by getting rid of their CAPTCHA code and the clear button. Do you realize how big that is? A tiny change increased their revenue by 27%!
If you enjoyed this article, visit my blog at www.TheOutsourcingCompany.com/blog for more great tips on entrepreneurship and online marketing.
This post will give you some amazing ideas to increase conversions. But before I start with my list, let me give you a warning. If your website is not getting any traffic, focus on that first. A friend of mine called me the other day and she told me that he was worried because she wasn’t getting any sales from her online store. I asked her how many hits a day she was getting. She laughs and said: “How am I supposed to know that?”
So the first thing we did was to install Google Analytics and the reason why she wasn’t getting any sales became evident: in seven days she got 13 visitors. If traffic is your problem, focus on that before you start working on tweaking your website to increase conversions.
Now, if you are getting several clicks a day and your conversion rate is too low (less than 2-5%, depending on the industry) then this post is really going to help you.Make it easy for your visitors to contact you
Is your phone number visible at the top of every single page? Is the Contact Us page easy to find? Once people reach your contact us page, are you providing them with a contact form, email address, a phone number, and mailing address? If you have a fax number, include that, too.
Even if you have a contact form, include an email address. People might not want to email you at that moment but they might want to have your contact information for future reference. Make it easy for them.
Have a toll-free number. It’s only $10 a month. And display a physical address, not a PO Box. Most people don’t want to deal with online companies that do not have a phone number and a physical address displayed on their website.Make information easy to find
First, use your analytics tool to find out what information people are looking for on your website. Maybe there is one product that gets a lot more attention than all the others. Once you’ve found out what information people are looking for, make it more prominent and easier to find. Don’t bury it “three clicks away”.Have intuitive navigation
If you expect people to figure out how to get to where they want to go on your website, a majority of them will leave. The navigation is not where you want to get “creative”.
Your website is a marketing tool
A nice design is really important, but good copy is equally important. Don’t depend on cool graphics to make the sale. Use your words to convince them to buy from you. In my opinion, each website has to answer two questions using bullet-points:Why your visitors should buy what you sell Why they should buy it FROM YOU. (What sets you apart from the competition? Make sure that what makes you different from your competitors is of value to your customers.)Make the text easy to read
Some tips:
Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Most long sentences can be broken down into two or even three sentences. Don’t go over 6-7 lines per paragraph.
Use bold text to highlight the most important part of each paragraph.
Use bullets as they are a great way to summarize your main points.Show your accreditations
If you are a member of the BBB or your local chamber of commerce, show the badges on your website. If you process credit cards online get VeriSign verified and get PayPal verified if you accept PayPal. If you’ve earned awards or are linked to an industry association, your website is a great opportunity to show your credentials.Reduce sign-up and checkout times
Have you ever gone to a website, clicked on the Sign Up link and the form was so long that you decided not to fill it out? It happens all the time. If a piece of information is not vital to your business, don’t ask for it. If you really need to ask for a lot of information, get the names and email address in the first step. That way, if they don’t complete the registration/checkout process at least you know who they are and can remind them to finish the process later.Avoid mistakes with your contact form
If your contact form has a CAPTCHA (that weird strings of characters that you need to type to prove you are human), get rid of it. CAPTCHA codes are annoying, and depending on your audience 10-50% will leave if you ask them to prove they are human.
Avoid having a “clear” button next to the “send” button. Many people browse the Internet intuitively. They don’t read everything they click on. If they spend 5 minutes filling in a form and then erase all the information by clicking on the wrong button, chances are they are not going to go over the whole process again. What is the purpose of a Clear button anyway?
For one of our clients we increased their inquiries by 27% by getting rid of their CAPTCHA code and the clear button. Do you realize how big that is? A tiny change increased their revenue by 27%!
If you enjoyed this article, visit my blog at www.TheOutsourcingCompany.com/blog for more great tips on entrepreneurship and online marketing.
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Comments
Jumping in here
- In my opinion, yes a paypal only site can be successful.
Of course, you may turn away some people who have an aversion to PayPal.
Also, PayPal has a number of payment processing options now - that do not require a buyer to have a PayPal account in order to pay.
UPDATE: I just did some online shopping and found a number of national retail stores provide checkout with PayPal (in addition to "regular" credit card processing).
~Roland
vwebworld12/15/2008 7:11 PM