If you want your website to be successful, you need it to have a reasonably high conversion rate. Otherwise, all the traffic in the world won’t be enough to provide you with meaningful revenue.
So what are your options if you currently have a low or nonexistent conversion rate? How can you build it up to be sustainable?
Diagnosing the Issues
You probably won’t be in a position to boost your low conversion rate until you understand why it’s low in the first place. In other words, you need to diagnose the issues that are in play before you attempt to fix those issues.
This can be challenging, as the issues with your conversion rate probably arose from deliberate strategies and tactics that you thought would make your conversion rate higher, or at least acceptable. You may or may not have an intuition for what the problems with your conversion rate are, but in either case, it’s a good idea to work with outside experts, or at least boost your own knowledge, before proceeding.
One option is to find a fractional CMO. A fractional CMO is similar to a traditional CMO in terms of experience and capabilities, but they work on a much more flexible, part-time basis. These marketing professionals can help compensate for your blind spots and introduce you to concepts you may not have considered.
In most cases, a low conversion rate is a byproduct of one or more of the following:
· The offer. In most scenarios, a conversion is some kind of an exchange. You’ll make an offer, and you’ll need people to accept that offer if you want them to convert. For example, if you’re selling a product, you’ll need to convince people that it’s worth whatever you’re charging for it. If you’re simply interested in having people fill out a form, you’ll typically need to give them something in exchange for providing their contact information, such as a piece of premium content. If your offer isn’t sufficiently compelling, your conversion rate is going to suffer. Start the analysis here to make sure the balance is optimal.
· Web design. Low conversion rates are sometimes a byproduct of poor web design. If your website is unappealing, if it doesn’t accurately reflect your brand, or if it creates confusion about how to go through the conversion process, it’s going to fail. There are many schools of thought when it comes to web design and best practices for conversion, but there are some clear fundamentals that you can iron out before digging into these nuances.
· Web functionality. The functionality of your website also matters. You need to make sure that people can get to your website, navigate it quickly and reliably, and complete your conversion process with no errors or bugs. If your website doesn’t work correctly, you won’t have an ideal conversion rate.
· Audience targeting. You also need to think about audience targeting. A nearly perfect landing page for one demographic might have no discernible effect on another. The better you understand who your target demographics are and how they think, the more effectively you’ll be able to create persuasive messaging for them. You can’t hope for a good conversion rate if you’re trying to appeal to the masses.
· Lead quality. Along similar lines, you need to make sure that your web traffic is optimized for success and that you have genuinely high-quality leads. Building a lead funnel can set you up for success, helping you filter out people who aren’t necessarily interested in products like yours.
Fixing the Problems
Once you’ve identified the biggest problems responsible for your low conversion rate, you will be in an excellent position to begin fixing them.
· Collaborate. Try to collaborate with other people in your marketing department to come up with ideas for how to improve things like design, copywriting, and your central offer.
· Brainstorm. With creative brainstorming, you and your team can generate unique ideas for how to make your web presence stand out, and how to better appeal to your target demographics. Many minds working together can reduce blind spots and come up with more creative ideas.
· Review successful examples. You may also want to review examples of successful landing pages and other conversion opportunities. They might give you the inspiration you need to push forward.
Testing and Refinement
There’s no such thing as a perfect conversion rate, as there are always opportunities for improvement and refinement. Use AB testing and other forms of experimentation to figure out which elements are going to work best for your customers.
The most important principles to remember when testing your new tactics are:
· Try bold new things. Experimentation is your time to try bold new strategies, so don’t get too complacent – or restrict yourself to only attempting mainstream, familiar ideas. Don’t be afraid to go against the grain.
· Introduce one variable at a time. When testing a new variation, consider introducing only a single variable as the difference between your “A” and “B” sample. This way, you’ll be able to pinpoint exactly why one version is performing better than the other.
· Compare apples to apples. As much as possible, you need to compare “apples to apples.” If you test two different versions of your landing page with different traffic sets or under different conditions (like at different times of the day), you’ll introduce more variables that can compromise the reliability of your experiment.
· Figure out the “why.” Don’t just settle for the fact that one version is better than another; try to conceptualize why that version is better. For example, why do people like the brighter colors? This can help you generate new ideas to push your conversion rate higher.
· Gradually build a better system. Experimentation is an ongoing process, so keep pushing your conversion rate higher with gradual adjustments.
A low conversion rate isn’t a death sentence, even if your business is struggling. If you’re willing to analyze the issues with your web presence, and work through those issues proactively, you can push your conversion rate closer to where you want it to be.
Featured Image by Carlos Muza on Unsplash
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