Last week I was interviewed by NETT, an Australian small business magazine, on how to improve online conversion rates. I'm a strong believer in getting the fundamentals right and by simply going back to basics and taking another look at your website, sign-up forms or landing pages you can improve your results. Conversion can be a very confusing topic, so a simple way to look at is ask yourself "what is the one thing you want people to do on this page?". Conversions happen when they do what you want them to.
My top 5 tips for improving online conversions are:
1) Keep your customer top of mind. Always consider your buyer personas and think through; Why are they here? What do they want? Does it make sense? Does it look easy? Does the page look trustworthy?
2) Make the call to action clear. Keep it positive and action oriented (ie. Join rather than Submit). Keep it simple and clear. Make it stand out or "pop". Link both the images and the text.
3) Is the offer valuable? Again with your customer in mind, think about "what's in it for them". Free trials work very well and are a tried and tested method for many businesses. Try putting a "kit" together. Make sure that you match the offer with the landing page and with your promotional copy.
4) Landing page. If you are promoting something specifically, make sure that you have a landing page for it. Keep the landing page simple and short. Show a picture of what the customer is going to get. Keep the registration forms short and above the fold. Don't ask for too much information, particularly if you're never going to use it and don't ask for very personal information. Make sure that whatever information you ask for correlates to the value of the asset you're providing.
5) Test, Test and Test. Google's Website Optimizer is a great free tool to help you improve the performance of pages. Test each element of the promotion (Graphics, Offer, Copy, Form).
There's no "silver bullet" that will instantly improve your conversion rates, however by eliminating distractions, showing the benefit, building trust and keeping it simple, I'm sure you can make a difference.
