Conversion Optimisation: How to Get more Leads by Optimising Your Website

In the world of Digital – which we have found ourselves a part of whether we like it or not-is expanding at a rate faster than we could imagine. The sheer amount of digital agencies out there is a reflection on how this market has boomed – and continues to do so.

Staying ahead of your digital game – by means of implementing on-page and off-page SEO, using Google AdWords and Facebook advertising is only part of the solution. You need to allow your brand to stand out from the crowd – but HOW? This is a question we are asked countless times every day.

While the answer is simple – the implementation of conversion optimisation tactics take some time and effort – but the results are tangible and, the best part, quick.

According to Wikipedia, Conversion Optimisation – also referred to as “Conversion Rate Optimisation” is defined as “a system for increasing the percentage of visitors to a website that convert into customers, or more generally, take any desired action on a webpage. It is commonly referred to as CRO.” 

How Does Conversion Rate Optimisation Work?

First things first; you’ll need to have an SEO-friendly website to start with. Websites that have been around “longer” will typically have a higher Domain Authority, which helps, but is not a necessity. Your website is your “meeting point” between Google AdWords and your buyer’s decision to either go ahead with the purchase, or move along.

There are endless ways to optimise your conversion rate. We’ll discuss a few below:

1. A/B and multivariate testing
2. Having a structured layout
3. Customer journey analysis
4. Copy optimisation
5. Online surveys/customer feedback
6. Cart abandonment analysis
7. Personalised geo–location identification
8. Structural changes to the website (above the fold movements)
9. Chat bot
10. Introduction of landing pages (squeeze pages)
11. Navigation minimisation
12. Post Lead Traffic Aanalysis  (knowing which traffic DOES convert)
13. Offer experimentation (different CTA’s)
14. Qualifying leads – lead nurturing through buyers journey
15. Exit intent offers (pop-ups)
16. Social proof  testimonials)
17. Dynamic content (notification of returning visitors, website looks different each time)
18. Adding tools: smart search bar, pop-ups, slide-ins, live chat, online booking options, automatic price generators, product comparisons, time limited discounts counters, discount codes for signing up to newsletter (information garnering and FOMO)

Let’s discuss each aspect in detail to further understand what it involves, and why it works:

What Results Can I See by Implementing Conversion Optimisation Tactics on my Website?

All fair and well we know the names of the tactics, but let’s understand them and how to implement them:

1. A/B and multivariate testing
   Having your website setup for A/B testing is a great starting point. You can literally see which layout (format), content and design draws more customers to your website. If you see page 1 is getting substantially less visits per month than page 2, focus on page 2. From there, make another change, and see how visitors respond.
2. Having a structured layout
   Your website needs to be structured in such a way that visitors want to be there; no horrible backgrounds, various fonts, overwhelming colours etc.
3. Customer journey analysis
   Ensuring you have content that is aligned with your AdWords is vital; what’s even more vital than this alignment is the availability for customer research to allow them through their journey (read more about the buyers journey in this blog). To summarise this section, you have one of three types of people visiting your website or searching you product / service at any given time:
   -Those in the “awareness” stage (aware your product or service exists, and wants to know more about)
   -Those who have done their due diligence, know exactly what the product or service is and are now in the “consideration” phase; they are weighing up their options and researching providers.
   -Lastly, there are visitors in the “decision” stage. They have decided what they want, and are reaching out to companies to see what their best deal is. Lower prices, better services, more services or products offered, backup, support etc. Ensure you have content on each of your products or services that speaks to each of these buyer personas. A prime example is someone who is only in the “awareness” stage, reading a blog about product A vs product B. They might not know about either, will feel overwhelmed and that your content is irrelevant. Hello, high bounce rate!
4. Copy optimisation
   This is your SEO. Ensuring each page (product or service page, contact page , home page etc.) is fully optimised is the first part. Easily navigable panels help, too. Your blogs should be categorised, keyword-focussed and ideally setup with a contact form to capture visitor information as soon as possible.
5. Cart abandonment analysis
   E-commerce sites have it hardest when implementing CRO. Many of us are guilty of filling up our online shopping carts, and then leaving without buying. This could be for many reasons, but imagine how many more would purchase the cart if you contacted them offering them a deal (whether it be 5% off, free shipping or a discounted item?) Alternatively, analyse WHY they did not checkout their cart. Is there something wrong with your payment gateway? You need to fix that ASAP. Is your system glitching and not allowing users to enter an address manually? Fix that, too.
6. Personalised forms
   This works especially well on Facebook. However, it works just as well on your website. Personalise pop-up forms per page, per category, per special etc., and you’ll likely have a lot more users interested in reaching out to you. For example, if someone has spent time on your home page and navigated through to your blogs, a pop-up form asking them “would you like the ultimate buyers guide on OUR PRODUCT sent to your mailbox?” –you’ll be reaping a three-fold reward.
   Firstly, you’ll have garnered their e-mail address and phone number for your marketing database. Secondly, they will have interacted –which is a great indication of their willingness to be led through the buyers journey – hopefully into the “deciding” phase. Lastly, you’ll have an opportunity to keep channels of communication with them open by means of e-mail follow-ups, offering them a personalised deal on your product or service.
7. Personalised geo–location identification
   I bet you’ve seen this before, or at least something similar: “Johannesburg Residents, join us for an exciting quiz night in *your area*.” Targeting your adverts by geo-location is a great way to bring the product or service TO your potential customer. Nobody in Jo’burg is interested in a one-night event in Stellenbosch. Target area-specific adverts to get your audience engaged.
8. Structural changes to the website (above the fold movement)
   People don’t scroll anymore! Ensuring your website has a clear, concise message that does not require the visitor to scroll through to find information, or battle to find it in the first place, is the best possible option. Adding a “jump to” button will help visitors understand what type of information I available below the line, but don’t force them to do the guesswork and end up getting lost on your site.
9. Chat bot
   Chat bots can be one of two types; one is known as live-chat, manned by a human who responds personally to each message. This is great, but it does have it’s downside. Many people don’t want to make an indirect commitment by asking the live chat “person” questions, and also, the respondent on the live chat from your company may not respond fast enough to the inquiry – which could lead to a lost sale. A chat bot, however, has pre-determined questions and answers (set by you) to easily assist the user by allowing them to simply click “yes or no” answers, to a point where they are either redirected to a landing page for the specific product or service they are looking for, a contact form for a sales rep to call them back to discuss – or re-direction to a page (perhaps a FAQ page) to answer their other questions.
10. Introduction of landing pages (squeeze pages)
    If your website doesn’t use landing pages, there’s half your problem. Landing pages are THE EASIEST way to ensure you garner information from qualified leads. A “squeeze” page is non-indexed, meaning it cannot be found when navigating through the website. You can add the URL to this landing page to your adverts etc. It can give the potential lead a feel for the product or service they showed interested in, and then allow them to fill out their details to be contacted back. The real secret here is calling the lead while it’s HOT (less than a minute after they have competed the form) so that you are their first response, and thus the first provider in their minds when they decide to buy. Showcase your customer service excellently on this platform!
11. Navigation minimisation
    Nobody likes to scroll through 6 pages to find one bit of information. Changing your website layout to include easily noticeable and navigable tabs, such as “Home”, “About Us”, “Products”, “Blog” and “Contact Us” will not overwhelm a new or returning visitor.
12. Post-Lead Traffic Analysis (knowing which traffic DOES convert)
    Once a lead has become a customer, you can easily use a CRM such as HubSpot to trace back their original first point of contact with your company. You will have better insight as to what type of adverts are garnering traffic which leads to real sales, and focus more on that type of advertising or content.
13. Offer experimentation (different CTA’s)
    On your blog or product / service pages, try using different, specific call-to-actions. CTA’s can be provided by means of pop-up forms, regular contact forms or a “Call Me Back” button, easily added to your site. If you find one type of CTA is receiving more response than another, try using that format on more pages to see if it would be a good fit for a permanent change.
14. Qualifying leads – lead nurturing through buyers journey
    You do need a CRM such as HubSpot for this, but it can prove invaluable. While some leads may seem entirely unqualified, you can market to that lead through e-mail campaigns, sniper targeted Facebook adverts etc., to lead them towards becoming a buyer in the “consideration” stage. Making them aware of your product beyond what they can see on your site will make them feel at ease, and feel like you as a business really care about them. You can use HubSpot to send out scheduled campaigns, trigger responses based on activity or non-activity – and let the CRM do the work for you.
15. Exit intent offers (pop ups)
    Ever been on a site that you felt a little on-the-fence about when considering purchasing one of their products; you navigate to close that page and it’s like the site KNOWS you want to leave. It’s real. There are pop-up forms that can be triggered when a visitor shows intent to exit. This is an “urgency” call to action – making the customer believe this is their last chance to get hat product.

VentureHarbour points out the below:

“FOMO, which stands for ‘fear of missing out’ is leading a lot of the actions we do online today. It’s what is pushing us to keep checking our Facebook timeline and taking our devices wherever we’re going. But FOMO isn’t a new thing. It can be applied to pretty much all areas of our life, too. There’s the fear that we could be in a better job. A better relationship. Living in a better home. Or a better city.

It’s a very powerful strategy you can implement in your landing page, for example making your offer exclusive for a specific time only period or by telling your users they’re missing out if they’re not pursuing that action in that specific time. 

You can apply it in your copy and CTAs, for example stating exactly how long someone can take advantage of the offer or how many products are left before running out of stock (or the price returns to normal).”

16. Social proof (testimonials)
    Nobody buys from a liar. But who would willingly make a public testimonial attached to their name if it’s untrue? Success stories should be easily visible and accessible to any visitor, whether it be in the form of a written post, a video or even a special thank-you the customer has given you.
17. Dynamic content (notification of returning visitors, website looks different each time)
    Knowing when a visitor is returning to your site is modern day gold. This immediately shows they are genuinely interested in your product or service, and this is your chance to strike while the iron is hot. Imagine returning to a site and being greeted with a pop-up message, saying “Hi, John, thanks for returning. What can we help you with today?” I’d personally be blown away, albeit offended that the bot called me John, ‘ cause that’s not my name. Being able to see what visitors to your site do “behind the scenes” gives the provider absolutely invaluable insight on what changes to make to their site, to make it usable to the point that every person who previously left the site without contacting you or buying is now not only able to, but willing to as well.
18. Adding tools: smart search bar, pop-ups, slide-ins, live chat, online booking options, automatic price generators, product comparisons, time limited discounts counters, discount codes for signing up to newsletter (information garnering)
    People don’t like people, so if you can get their information without speaking to them, all the better for your cause. Make it worth their while!

What Results Can You Get from CRO?

First and foremost (and also quickest) is a marked increase in leads. That’s where we step in with our Sales Optimisation, though.

All fair and well that you get two or three-fold increases in your leads, but those leads are allowed to cool down and fizzle out before your limited resource of outbound salespeople get to call or e-mail them. We make use of artificial-intelligence and automatic systems to get you to the point where all you have to do is close the deal. We do the behind-the-scenes work, you make more money. Find out more about that here.

Other results you can expect to see is an increase in “fluff” metrics, such as page likes or article shares on social media.

Expect to see more traffic, more returning visitors, product  /service evangelists who will further help by spreading the news by word of mouth – as well as  a WHOLE lot more enquiries.

Be prepared to handle the influx, and also be prepared to make more money!

Best Conversion Rate Optimization Methodologies

1. “Reduce Form Fields
Eliminate unnecessary form fields. Don’t try to make your work easy by adding extra fields to be filled in by your customers.

Ask yourself again — do you really need their company’s name, zip code, CVV code of their credit card, reconfirmation of their password/email ID? A company reduced their 11-field form to 4 fields, which increased their conversions by 160%. Follow their example.

2. Use a Contrasting Color for Your Call-to-action (CTA) Button
You may read case studies that say, red color call-to-action converted better than a green one, and so on. But this doesn’t mean that you should use the red color CTA to improve conversions.

It’s all about which color pops up better on the background of your web page. So, when I tell you that changing the button color from green to red improved conversions by 32.5% for Performable, you know that I’m taking about the better contrast and not the actual color that improved the conversion rate.

3. Place your CTA above-the-fold
Unbounce A/B tested their landing page and hypothesized that shifting their pricing call-to-actions above the fold should boost their conversions. And their hypothesis proved to be right. The treatment page with call-to-actions visible above the fold increased their clickthroughs by 41%.

4. Make Sure You Have a Clear Headline
Headline is usually one of the most noticeable things on a landing page and getting it right can boost your website conversions to a great extent.

5. Create Urgency (FOMO!)
Offer a limited-time incentive. Give them a reason why they should bother to take action now and not after a few days!

6. Display Your Phone Number in Huge Font
It’s usually best that you add your number in your homepage header so that it isn’t missed by your site visitors. This adds credibility and also assures people that you are easily approachable if they have any problems or concerns during their purchase process.

7. Change Your CTA Link into a Button
Text links are often lost with the rest of the text, making it difficult to spot them on the page. Do yourself a favor and change them into huge buttons that stand out on the page

8. Add Value to Your Offer
As long as the perceived value of your offer is not greater than what you are asking from your customers, you cannot make them convert.

One great way to increase the perceived value of your offer is to add benefits in your copy. Answer the “What’s in it for me?” question of your visitors, and they will happily convert into leads or sales.

9. Add Live Chat
Virgin Airlines use their live chat support for upselling and not to sell their tickets. People who use their live chat feature have a 15% higher average order value than other customers.

10. Use Relevant Images
Images on your website have a purpose, i.e to push your visitors toward the conversion goal. If you’re using them just to break the monotony of the text, you’re not doing it right.”

Source credit: https://vwo.com/blog/conversion-optimization-best-practices/