There is a saying that goes “Don’t sweat the small stuff, and it’s all small stuff.” When it comes to conversions on your site, the small stuff can make or break a buyer’s journey, so it is worth some sweat to get it right.
We have put together this quick guide to help you avoid making small mistakes that kill conversions.
Not Having a Clear Call to Action
You’ve probably heard the expression that your website is your best salesman who works 24/7. A small mistake many site owners make is only using their website as a passive salesman to collect leads. Engineering an omnipresent call to action can be done in a variety of ways, but two of the most effective are the traditional route of including a CTA such as a “contact us” on every page, and the more novel chatbot route.
The traditional CTA route involves having a subtle link in the form of a bubble or pop-up that sends visitors to the desired page. If your CTA is going to be on every page, try to make it as non-intrusive and non-pushy as possible. Although it should grab the visitor’s attention, going as far as to create something that gives the impression of an alarming “BUY THIS NOW” will chip away at any genuine value you are giving to site visitors.
The rise of chatbots has allowed sites to insert a point of contact everywhere along the buyer’s journey that is ready to navigate visitors to any relevant information or products immediately.
Unclear Landing Pages
Your landing pages should have a clear, outlined purpose in order to attract the right sort of traffic.
Instead of having a landing page that aims to collect email addresses, showcase new products or services, and introduce visitors to your brand, it would be wise to create individual landing pages based on their purpose. Getting as specific as possible will help you to nurture conversions.
For example, if a martial arts dojo wants to attract and convert visitors for each of its classes, it could have three different landing pages for boxing, Taekwondo, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. This way, people searching for a specific martial art will find a page tailored to their interest, eliminating any information overload and increasing conversion.
It could even go as far as to create a piece of value-driven content for beginners that helps visitors to qualify their search, and then links to either more information or a specific sign-up page.
The Paradox of Choice
Your site has enough content to answer any question visitors could possibly have about your site. The only issue is that, when presented with all this content at once, its utility diminishes very quickly.
People already have extremely short attention spans online, and a few seconds of confusion is enough to throw off conversion rates by double digits. This is why organization is extremely important.
The points where visitors get stuck and tend to drop off are often the most obvious points that need attention, but that doesn’t mean that the problems originate there. One quick solution is to inner link relevant content throughout your site to help guide visitor attention to your ultimate goal.
Pushing the Sale Too Soon
For example, let’s assume one of your landing pages titled “12 Ways to Get Started with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for Beginners” (Point A) attracted 100 visitors. If the point of your landing page was to encourage visitors to sign up (Point B) for your beginners’ Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes, having links to your class schedules and sign-up pages would be the logical move. However, you notice a significant drop-off once visitors visit your sign-up page.
Assuming there are no issues with your sign-up page, the problem might be that you have not established enough of a relationship with your visitors to push the sale. The paradox in creating a piece of value creating content is that, although you want to create value for the visitors, you also ultimately want visitors to convert into customers.
The solution is to entice visitors with more value-focused content. Instead of your CTA being linked to a sign-up page, why not try providing an “Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: 10 Things to Know Before You Get Started.” This will not only quell any visitor hesitations to signing up for classes but will also establish you as an expert with knowledge in their specific issue.
Conclusion
When you pay attention to the small stuff, you will notice big changes in your conversions. Small issues quickly accumulate into big issues, and, sometimes, the most latent mistakes involve the opportunity cost of using a better alternative, such as chat bots.
This quick guide should help point you in the right direction to make sure your conversions are properly nurtured.
