You did your homework. Your website is enjoying a steady stream of visitors and your social channels have a decent number of followers. You’ve optimized your online portals using the right strategies and techniques. You’ve established your online presence.
Well done!
You’ve attracted potential customers. For this, you deserve a pat on the back. Unfortunately, that’s just the first step in inbound marketing.
Marketing doesn’t stop with attracting potential customers or leads. The end-goal is to convert these leads into actual customers and close the deal with sales! After all, sales and revenue are what really matter.
According to Econsultancy, only around 28% of companies are satisfied with their conversion rate while 37% are dissatisfied. Making your audience check and buy products and services is a tough challenge. You have to think of creative ways to nurture your visitors and turn them into consumers.
A digital marketing specialist from a programmatic advertising agency War Room Inc. shares some proven strategies to increase your conversion rate. These strategies include using effective landing pages, using powerful CTAs, highlighting social proofs, improving your customer service, and investing in email campaigns.
Let’s discuss these methods further.
Use Targeted Landing Pages
You invest so much in advertising your website and driving visitors into it. But where do these visitors end up? If you’re sending them to your homepage, you’re missing a huge conversion opportunity.
Online users have a very short attention span, and you have to catch their attention within this very short span of time. An effective landing page does that.
If you’re suffering from a poor conversion rate, you might need to check your landing page. Chances are it is a generic, boring homepage that wasn’t designed to sell.
An effective landing page should have a clear, concise and catchy headline relevant to the visitor.
It should also have a compelling and persuasive message that fully explores the problem your product solves ― and positions your product as the best possible solution. Today, many brands are doing this with video sales letters.
And finally, you need a powerful CTA (call-to-action) that encourages your prospect to take action now.
Make Powerful Calls to Action (CTAs)
Every landing page should aim to drive just one action. That means one CTA.
You may repeat the CTA multiple times, but it should always drive the single objective you’ve set for that page.
Now, having said that, you don’t want to bombard your leads with too many buttons on one page. Play it cool. If you repeat your CTA, put it in the places within your sales copy that people are most like to want to take action.
Then make sure your CTA is clear: Use simple language, large fonts, and visually-attractive colors. Like this:
Highlight Social Proof
People are more likely to do something when they see others doing it ― a phenomenon known as bandwagon-effect. This is also true in marketing.
Before potential customers buy online, they want to be sure they’re making a good decision. So they look for:
- Trust seals from reputable 3rd-party organizations
- Testimonials
- Awards and certifications
- Reviews
Why not make it easy on them? Put these trust-building elements front and center, where they’re easy to see.
Put trust logos and your guarantee next to your CTA.
Add testimonials in your landing page and website, and place them in a prominent spot of your website.
Get people to share your marketing creatives, content strategy, and landing pages. Encourage discussions about your brand in social media.
Answer Any and All Questions
Prospects won’t make the purchase if they have any unanswered concerns, questions, or doubts.
To win the conversion, you need to answer all questions and overcome all objections.
Devoting a space in your landing page for frequently asked questions, or FAQs, can help address your customer’s worries. Basically, the most common questions will relate to:
- Price
- Comparison of your product to competitors
- Your brand’s or business’ capabilities
- Ease-of-use of the product or service
- Cancellation or return policies
You might also need to consider a live chat feature to better address your visitors’ needs. However, make sure your live chat representatives have good customer service skills and are knowledgeable about your products and services. Consider your live chat representatives as your frontline sales team.
Offering a money-back guarantee is another effective way of boosting your customer’s confidence in your brand. It should give them a chance to see firsthand your service or product.
Remove the doubt from your visitors and you can expect better conversions.
Follow Up with Email
It’s rare that you’ll convert a cold prospect after just one touch. They need time to know, like, and trust you.
Which is where email marketing comes in. (Need help choosing an email service? Read this post.)
Once you’ve got leads, the next step is to nurture them through the buying process until they’re converted into consumers.
You can structure your nurture campaigns any way you like, but many companies are having success with 3 to 5 follow-up emails that answer questions, share testimonials from happy customers, offer special bonuses for acting now, and remind prospects of the benefits they’ll enjoy if they go ahead and complete the purchase.
Final Thoughts
In a highly competitive digital marketplace, attracting customers and connecting with them isn’t enough. You have to build and nurture your relationship with leads to convert them into sales — and ultimately into loyal customers.
Follow the strategies above and see how your conversion rates and sales improve.
About the Author: Josh Harisson has 10 years of experience in IT industry as a web developer and cloud computing expert researching extensively at techendo.com. He frequently writes about IT and branding efforts. In his free time, you will often find him taking a walk, or playing video games.
