Published on November 4, 2014
Ask many marketers how to increase online sales and they’ll reply with a simple and predictable strategy: generate more traffic. While more traffic does mean more sales, it’s far from the most efficient way to increase your online leads and sales.
In fact, one of the most effective ways to increase the amount of sales and leads your website generates is by focusing on improving conversions with the traffic you have right now through conversion rate optimization.
In this blog post, we’ll share five simple “conversionThe completion of a desired action by a referred user, such as making a purchase or filling out a fo... booster” – page elements, icons and digital assets – that you can add to your website today to boost conversions and increase the amount of revenue your online marketing efforts generate.
One of the biggest reasons people avoid buying products and services online is due to a lack of perceived trust. If your audience doesn’t trust you, the chance of them buying your product or inquiring about your service is very slim.
Testimonials prove that your business has helped people before, that your product is worth buying or that your service offers real value. To prospects, testimonials are major confidence boosters that can make the difference between sale or no sale.
When adding testimonials to your website, it’s important to be strategic. Make sure you add testimonials from clients or customers that match the type of businesses or people you’re trying to attract.
Has your company been featured in a well-known magazine or newspaper? Were you recently profiled by a popular blog? Are some of your clients large companies with brandingThe process of creating a unique name, design, and image for a product or service in the consumer's ... that most people will recognize?
Logos are powerful tools, particularly when it comes to persuasion. If you’d like to build additional trust with visitors to your website and increase your conversion rateThe percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a..., consider adding logos from businesses you’ve worked with to your website.
Just like with testimonials, it’s important to be strategic with logos. Include logos from companies that match your target customer profile, and link the images to your coverage in those media outlets for additional social proofThe influence that other people’s actions have on one's own behavior, often seen in likes, shares,....
People trust businesses they can contact. If your website has a phone number and support email address that are easy to spot, people know that they’ve got an easy way to reach you should something go wrong with their order.
Many online businesses, often in an effort to reduce their support costs and replace traditional customer service with FAQ pages, keep their support phone number off their website. This is a major mistake, especially if you’re a small business.
Keep yourself accessible and list a support phone number, even if it requires you to commit more to customer service. The small additional investment in service will be paid back many times over in extra leads, sales and online opportunities.
As well as trusting businesses that are easy to contact, people intuitively trust any business that’s willing to give away a sample of its product for free. If you offerThe specific product or service being promoted by affiliates. an online service, your “product” is information, and you can give it away via content.
From tutorials and guides to video reviews, creating amazing content is a good way to earn the trust of your audience. It’s also an excellent way to keep people on your website after they’ve found you and increase your brand recognitionThe ability of consumers to identify a brand by its attributes, such as logo, color, or packaging..
As a general rule, aim to have at least one hour’s worth of content on every website you product. Whether it’s a series of videos that take an hour to watch or a detailed guide that takes an hour to read, an hour of content is a good target to aim for.
Social proof matters, and while many of us wish that the world of digital business could be an absolute meritocracy, it’s often more of a popularity contest. Having a large audience on FacebookA social networking site where users can post comments, share photographs, and links to news or othe... or TwitterA microblogging and social networking service where users post and interact with messages known as "... is a great trust-boosting social signal.
Even if your company isn’t interested in social media marketingThe use of social media platforms to promote products or services, engage with audiences, and build ..., having a Facebook Page and Twitter account for your business increases people’s trust in your brand, as well as making your business significantly more accessible.
Make sure your social media pages are easy to access from your website. Adding a Twitter or Facebook button to your top and bottom navigational bars (as well as in your blog’s call to action) is a quick, simple way to create powerful social proof.
Of the five confidence-boosting items on this list, how many are on your website? If you’re missing any of these powerful on-page elements, add them to your website as soon as possible to improve customer trust and increase your conversion rate.
