Conversion: The Holy Grail
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Here you will find testing and conversion strategies and tactics both proven from our many years of experience but also ideas and tests run by others for you to also try, all in the chase for higher conversions. You can double your income with the same amount of traffic so consider this area one of your most valuable learning centers.
Important Conversion Lessons That Cannot Be Ignored
What does it take for a website to truly convert? As a business owner, conversion is, without a doubt, the most important factor in running your online business. After all, what’s the use of a savvy website, millions of unique hits and visitors, if, at the end of the day, no one is still buying your product or service?
There are different formulas to get each website to convert, and take note that there is no one, correct way. Strategies that prove successful for others may not be so successful for you, because the truth is each website is different. So what should a business owner like you do? You have to come up with ideas and designs that work for your unique product or service.
For a website to truly convert, it not only has to have a budget for testing, but a good dose of creativity and ingenuity as well. From our many years of designing websites that convert, we’ve picked up a few lessons and noticed a few trends.
Here are just some of them that you can apply, test and tweak, so that you can do what ever it takes to get your own websites to increase your conversion rate.
Good, clean design.
We’ve noticed all across the board, that a simple, uncomplicated design works better than one that has too many images or too many words. Too much of anything confuses the visitor, leaving him clueless on what to do on that page.
Good design immediately presents visitors which link they should click, eliminating what could be unnecessary choices. Other benefits of good design include instilling confidence in your visitors with trust elements like BBB logos, testimonials, professional credentials to name a few. Good design clearly illustrates that you are a direct, no nonsense and professional company that they can rely on.
Takeaway: You should lead the horse to water.
A Catchy Headline and Compelling Copy
When you receive an email, what makes you decide to open it or immediately send it over to your trash or spam folder? Isn’t it the subject line? A great subject line will have you opening that email right away and skimming its contents.
It is exactly the same thing that happens on your website every time a new visitor comes to visit. Upon seeing the design of your brand name, and the first headline on your website, your visitor then makes the quick decision to stay and look around a little more, or to just walk away and click on the next site. This is why it is imperative for your headline to shine!
If your headline is the bait, and your visitor has bitten it, then it is good copy that will reel them in! Your copy should not only be interestingly written, it should go back and support what your headline states again and again AND again! If your copy is interesting and continues to reiterate the main point of your headline, your visitors will read it all up, no matter how long it turns out to be!
Takeaway: You better get their attention with a benefit statement quickly.
Add Some Trust to Your Recipe
Trust elements have become a requirement for high conversion. Things like well-recognized logos such as TV stations who have mentioned your business. Newspapers where you have managed to get some coverage, even if it was an ad! We will sometimes buy a cheap overnight commercial on local cable channels just so we can say “As seen on” CNN, FOX, ABC etc. Other trust elements include Better Business Bureau icons (you must be a member) and Buy Safe type of security seals.
Takeaway: Trust is critical before someone will do business with you.
A Clear and Well-defined Call to Action
If your great design and your headline has not only gotten your visitor to look around, and hear out what you are trying to say, then there is just one final challenge for you to hurdle through: your call to action.
Your website must have a clear, and very visible call to action button/link present. It is the only way that your visitor can locate and try out the product and service that you are offering.
If your call to action is written in easy to understand language and in more cases than not, is an actual button that visitors can actually click, versus just skim through, trends show that there is a greater chance that visitors will actually click that button.
Another point to consider is what color will work best on your call to action button. Studies show that red is actually the most effective color, as it is bright, eye-catching and immediately drives the visitor’s attention!
Takeaway: Our latest tests prove that an Amazon style/color along with oversized buttons are creating higher conversions.
Your Personal Role
While you may be busy with making sure the three points I’ve mentioned above are just perfect for your website, you may easily forget your personal role in all of this! Yes, you, the business owner, have to make sure of some certain things too.
It is imperative for you to remember that to increase conversions, you should not make your visitor think about what you are offering. Instead, what you should be concerned about is how to make them try the product or service that you are offering!
To do this, it is your job to make everything as obvious and as simple as it can be. You should see to it that there is a smooth flow guiding your visitor from the moment he enters your website and reads the headline up to when he skims over the copy, and finds the call to action. This is your most challenging goal as a business owner! Succeed in doing this, and we can tell you right now, the conversion will come!
Takeaway: The “offer” must be compelling. After the headline, it’s all about your “offer”. Make it either unique or extremely compelling and beneficial for the visitor.
So to recap, here is what you should have learned:
1. Takeaway: You should lead the horse to water.
2. Takeaway: You better get their attention with a benefit statement quickly.
3. Takeaway: Trust is critical before someone will do business with you.
4. Takeaway: Our latest tests prove that an Amazon style/color along with oversized buttons are creating higher conversions.
5. Takeaway: The “offer” must be compelling. After the headline, it’s all about your “offer”. Make it either unique or extremely compelling and beneficial for the visitor.
