5 Ways To Increase Your Website's Conversion Rate Right Now

In the world of conversion rate optimization (CRO), tactics are a dime a dozen. While some tactics may offer small opportunities for increases, for most businesses, it takes more than a testimonial and a brightly colored call to action to get someone to sign up for your newsletter or buy your product.

This doesn't mean conversion rate optimization needs to be complicated, but it does need to be driven by sound principles. Principles that help you understand what is driving a user to take action on your site. The best way to build a set of principles is through a deep understanding of who your customers are, what they are currently doing on your site, and how changes to your site impact their behavior, provided by an active, on-going testing program.

Even if you currently lack this in-depth understanding, I've shared some of the principles that continue to drive results time and again below to get you started. Here are 5 ways you can raise your conversion rate, right now...

Test Solutions To Problems, Not Ideas

To improve your conversion rate, you must create a change in user behavior. To accomplish this, you must understand (or hypothesize) what tangible or intangible obstacles prevent your users from taking your desired action. The more significant the problem you solve for your users, the greater the impact you'll have on their behavior. Data is key to this discovery process as an obstacle big enough to show in the data is often significant enough to create a measurable change in your customer conversion rate if you can mitigate or successfully remove it.

Understand User Motivations & Establish Continuity

The better your understanding of the information your users want before taking your desired action, the better prepared you are to deliver an experience that converts users. And when you do find messaging that resonates, use it to drive continuity from one step to the next. With every click, a user tells you something about their interests, expectations, and intended next steps. Use this information to create experiences that naturally move the user through the buy flow, building on the user's motivation and leading to the natural conclusion that their desired action is the same as yours.

Clarify Calls To Action

Don’t build out an excellent user experience only to leave the user confused or underwhelmed by what they should do next. When it comes to closing the deal, clarity is crucial both in understanding and the value offered. Understanding timing, commitment levels, potential concerns, and preferred contact methods are all key to providing an effective call to action.

Let Your Customers Build Your Credibility

Like a journalist, your message is only as good as your source. If your product solves a problem for users, let your current customers be the one to establish that problem and then let them be the ones to discuss how your product solves that problem. Customer testimonials, statistics, third-party credibility indicators, all go a long way in establishing the credibility of your offer.

Support Claims With Evidence

It's one thing to say your product or service is the best; it's another to get people to believe it. Don't let any claim go unsubstantiated. The more evidence you provide to back up a claim, the more weight it will carry in the mind of the user. Give users the facts, and quantify benefits where possible, and let them reach the conclusion you intended. Don't say you have the best customer service, back it up: "Our team of 75 Customer Service Experts Has Solved 98% of Customer Claims within 24 hours."

I have to stress here that any changes you implement on your website should be backed by data and should be tested. While these 5 tips above are great places to start with raising your conversion rate, having a well-structured research and testing CRO process in place will help you run a successful campaign. Never implement changes on your website without data to back up your decision. Doing so could cause decreases in your conversion rates and engagement rates overall. With any digital marketing campaign or strategy that ends on your website, it's important that you use CRO to help that campaign run as effectively and successfully as possible.

If you and your team have questions about your current conversion rate and would like to learn more about our how CRO process could benefit your website, get in contact with us. We'd be happy to take a look at your current website testing strategy and answer any questions you may have.