Website conversions can seem like the holy grail, but getting them - and more of them - doesn’t have to be impossible.
Converting leads, as well as generating traffic, is usually a small business’ biggest challenge - and often the most crucial element of a successful marketing and sales strategy.
- 61% of marketers say generating traffic and leads is their top challenge. (HubSpot, 2018) (Source: HubSpot)
- Businesses who nurture leads make 50% more sales at a cost 33% less than non-nurtured prospects. (Strategic IC, 2017) (Source: HubSpot)
If you’ve tried content marketing, paid advertising and A/B tested to your heart’s desire - or perhaps you know you need to do those things, but don’t know where to start, to start improving conversion rates, follow our tips!
01. Strategise everything
You know what your goal is:
- More traffic
- Better leads
- Increased conversions
- Higher quality conversions
But this simply isn’t enough. Plan out how you will achieve this goal by producing an in-house marketing strategy. Within your strategy include the various marketing and sales tools you’re using, the content marketing campaigns you have planned and the key people involved.
02. Get wordy
Consider each element of your lead generation and content marketing campaigns - is there a clear drop off point for new prospects (website visitors)? Do they fall off your website when it gets to your landing page? Are they not clicking CTAs leading to your landing page?
You should test the following elements on CTAs, landing pages, forms and follow up emails:
- Action words on CTAs - Call to actions such as “Buy now”, sound more immediate and enticing than “Click here”.
- Length of your forms - are you asking for too much in return for a piece of content that could be deemed as being lower in value?
- Font size, colour and graphic elements
03. Lay it all out
You’ve got your strategy and you’re starting to review your content marketing and lead generation, to ensure the wording is right - fantastic! Now you need to review how everything is laid out. Is your lead generation funnel simple and suitable for your typical buyer’s journey?
For example, does it make sense for them to read a blog about replacing their window wipers, to then be directed to your 2019/20 Car Parts Brochure - or should there be a stage in the middle, such as a video about Regular Car Maintenance for Ford Fiesta Owners (because they’ve signed up and you know they’re a Ford Fiesta owner)?
It’s also worth reviewing the final or connecting stages in your workflows and follow up emails. If they’ve completed stage one of your lead generation campaign, how nicely does stage two follow on? Keep them engaged at every stage and monitor open rates and time spent on webpages, to check if you’re missing the mark of successfully targeting prospects with the right content.
04. Be simple and engaging
Don’t overthink it! People want to land on a website that meets their expectations - it is what they thought it would be, it does what they thought it’d say and it can deliver the advice and products they expected, based on their Google search, or pre-existing knowledge of the company.
Remove all distracting pop-ups, particularly those that pop up in the middle of the screen, and all pre-playing videos (especially ones with auto-sound on functionality). Our best advice is to just keep your website experience ‘clean, simple, on-brand, and easy-to-navigate’, with clear messaging and an obvious user flow for new visitors to follow.
05. Create trust
Build a sense of reliability and thought leadership by completing steps 1-4. This is how to build a positive reputation with your web presence:
- Your content should be well-written and in your brand’s tone of voice
- Your lead generation campaigns should be tested regularly and suit the user’s buyer’s journey
- Your website should be on-brand and responsive (works without issue on mobile and desktop)
Voila! Building trust doesn’t have to involve expensive, lengthy content marketing campaigns, it’s about creating a positive end-user experience. And, simplicity, thorough testing and regular updates are the easiest way to do just that!
06. Testing, 1,2,3...
Ahh, testing! We say it time and time again, but until you’re absolutely sick to death of your website, or that niggly CTA, then quite frankly, you haven’t tested your site enough to be sure of success.
Once a site, or landing page, or content marketing campaign, is built/rolled out, that really isn’t the end. If you see it as an end-point you may have failed before things have really begun.
We recommend getting a focus group made up of trusted clients, regular site visitors (suppliers?) and team members (preferably customer-facing staff who probably relate to clients’ common frustrations about your site/lead generation funnel) and asking them to test the site. Give them specific instructions, such as:
- Download ebook ABC
- Buy test product 123
- Sign up to the newsletter
- Find out what our Site Manager Andy’s responsibilities are
If all of this functionality is on the site, you want to know how easy it is to achieve these steps and how they can be improved from an end user’s perspective. Setting challenges and allowing your focus group to give you honest, transparent feedback in a safe environment is critical to getting the best from your testing stage.
