When it comes to your conversion rate, ignorance isn’t bliss — it’s often business suicide. Whether you’re selling a product, generating leads or getting people to sign up for a newsletter, conversion rates are a key component of your overall business strategy, and they can make or break your success.
The question is: How do you increase your conversion rate? More on that in just a moment.
What Is A Conversion Rate?
First, let’s get on the same page about what a conversion rate is. Your conversion rate is calculated by taking the total number of visitors to your website and comparing it to those who completed a specific goal. Depending on the nature of your business, this goal could be almost anything, but here are a few common types of conversion goals:
- Making a purchase.
- Submitting a form.
- Opting in to receive a newsletter.
How To Calculate Your Conversion Rate
The most common conversion rate formula requires you to divide the total number of goals completed in a given period by the total number of visitors to your website and multiply the result by 100%. So if you have 100 visitors to your page and three complete a goal, you have a 3% conversion rate.
Fortunately, if you set up tracking correctly, Google Analytics and most other analytics solutions will automatically calculate your conversion rate and present you with an accurate figure right in your dashboard.
How To Increase Your Conversion Rate
You’re probably paying to drive visitors to your site through paid ads or a good search engine optimization company, and a higher conversion rate means a better return on your money or time spent. Additionally, improving your conversion rate allows you to provide a better experience to visitors who are expecting to gain value from your site in the form of a product, service or information. With that in mind, here are some tips to help you increase your conversion rate.
1. Run A/B Tests
A/B or split testing is the strategy of identifying elements within a website that have the greatest potential to increase your conversion rate. For example, if you have two different offers for your product or service and can’t decide which to use, you can perform an A/B test to see which one gets a better response.
Create two versions of your page (design A and design B) with different designs, calls to action or messaging. Then use Google Optimize or another A/B testing tool of your choice, such as HubSpot and Kissmetrics’ A/B testing kit. These tools will send a portion of your traffic to page A and others to page B, and then they will measure the difference in performance. The page with better performance is the one to consider making live to increase your conversion rate.
2. Eliminate Distractions
Website visitors are often easily distracted. This means you can’t afford to have unnecessary images or content on your website slowing down the speed of your page or delaying your customers’ understanding of what you have to offer. Remove every element that’s not crucial to emphasizing the offer that you want visitors to accept.
Try these tactics as well:
- Minimize links on your menu so your most important call to action stands out.
- Avoid suggesting that your website visitors check out your latest social media posts. The last thing you want is to send them off and down that rabbit hole, never to return.
3. Leverage Social Proof
Social proof is the concept that prospects are more likely to make a purchase from you if you’ve been recommended by a mutual contact, a previous customer, or a trusted third party, or if they’ve been exposed to your social media content and built up some trust based on what you share. Here are some examples of social proof:
- Reviews and testimonials: These are shared to provide a reassuring and direct answer to visitors’ most pressing question: “Will I be satisfied with this purchase?”
- Customer count: This is a powerful benchmark for prospective customers to see how many people trust your products or services.
- Industry endorsements: Endorsements from key personalities and thought leaders can be worth their weight in gold.
- Trust seals: These could be Better Business Bureau accreditation seals, SSL secure site icons, verification symbols from merchant accounts or other types of credibility markers that vary by industry. Especially for products and services where you require the submission of personal data, you want to communicate that visitors can trust you to manage their information with care.
The presence of social proof can make your company instantly more trustworthy because statements about how your product delivers a positive experience come from unbiased sources.
Conversion rate optimization is an endless journey. With some of the tips mentioned above, you should be able to see an uptick in conversions. It’s all about figuring out what works and continually making improvements to maximize your results.