First off, do you know what your conversion rate is?

If your marketing is to be effective you not only need to know your conversion rate, you must also understand your conversion goal.

Everyone’s conversion goal will be different. It could be:

• Newsletter sign-ups
• Brochure downloads
• Sign-ups for a free trial
• Email enquiries
• Phone enquiries

As soon as you know what it is you’re measuring, you can begin to track the effectiveness of your website or landing page through Google Analytics.

But there is one vital element you need to get conversion and that’s traffic. You can’t have one without the other. Using your analytics you will be able to instantly see how many visitors you are getting, where they are, how they’re finding you, even the keyword that’s pulling in the most.

However, it’s not just a numbers game. Even if you are getting thousands of visitors to your website every week, if they are not being converted into sales and leads, there’s something wrong.

Why is my website not converting?

1. Traffic jam but no takers

If you’ve got lots of visitors but few conversions, you have a problem. First, check your keywords to make sure you are targeting the right ones.

Every page of your website should target a different keyword, so if you have a high bounce rate, your may not be attracting the right audience.

2. Empty promises

Staying with your keywords for a moment, if you are targeting the wrong ones, people are landing on your website expecting to see one thing, but being shown another.

This mismatch is caused by poor keyword choice. Review them and refine them to reflect the exact market you are after.

4. Call to action

Your lack of conversion could simply come down to a missing call to action.

You must always tell your reader what you want them to do next – call now, email now etc. Make sure it is clear, commanding and above the fold.

5. Your website’s copy

In fact, not just your website copy, but your website too.

Your website has to be fast to load, easily navigable, pop-up free and pleasant to look at. Then, your copy has to be interesting, relevant, benefits-led and it must address your reader directly.

If  you can tick all of those boxes, your products are good, you’re targeting the right keywords and you have strong calls to action, you stand a great chance of achieving that all important conversion goal.

This is amazing.

Your search engine optimisation strategy is working. Targeted traffic is flooding to your website and your professional copywriting is converting them because they are going straight to your contact form.

Fantastic. So what happens next?

Getting traffic that converts is one thing but does your customer service match their expectations or is it letting you down?

There are a number of ways your customers will be able to get in touch with you so you must ensure the service they receive via their preferred method is first class.

1. Email

Although your customers won’t expect an immediate response via email, they don’t to be left hanging around for weeks either.

When you get an email send an acknowledgement so they know you are aware of their question. Within that email give them a time frame in which you will respond – and make sure you stick to it.

If at all possible, try to reply within 24 hours or sooner if possible. This could well be the first contact they have with you so make sure it’s a good experience.

2. Hanging on the telephone

When your phone rings, answer it.

If you leave them hanging on the end of a ringing phone, your potential customer will probably hang up and ring someone else who will answer.

A lot of companies use an automated answering system – there’s nothing wrong with that, just make sure they reach a real person quickly.

3. Live chat

This is a great option to have on your website because it means your potential customer can get an instant answer.

A simple click on a button connects them to you and this ease of contact shows you as a company who puts its customers first.

Of course, you just have to ensure the staff member manning it is qualified and has the knowledge to help.

When things go wrong

Not every contact will go smoothly – it’s a fact of life that you have to be prepared for.

When something does go wrong (and it will), how you deal with it is what matters. Be an adult, hold your hands up and apologise. Then put it right and follow up to make sure your customer is happy.

A mistake won’t lose you a customer – how you deal with that mistake will.

It doesn’t matter what business you are in – great customer service is essential. Even if your brand is one of the most sort after of the minute, if you give bad customer service people will walk away (and are unlikely to return).

Always, always, always put your customers’ needs first.

If you’re an online marketer you need traffic – and a lot of it.

Why?

Because your traffic is your customers and more customers means more money.

How do you actually get more traffic though? And, once you’ve started to get it, how do you convince them to buy from you?

There are various things you can do to encourage more people to your website and make it more visible in the search engine rankings. And no, that doesn’t mean plastering it in bright colours with loads of flashing images.

Here are 4 ways to help boost your traffic. Remember though, gaining more traffic isn’t going to happen over night. It is something that’s going to require commitment on your part.

1. Keywords

This is hardly going to be a surprise as keywords are vital when it comes to online marketing.

You are the person who knows your business best and your market. As such, you should have a fair idea of what they are likely to be searching for when they need your products or services. So by using those keywords, you’ll attract more of your target market.

Of course that doesn’t mean stuffing them in your web copy left right and centre. You must incorporate them sensitively within your SEO website content, articles and blogs. Oh yes, keywords aren’t just for your web copy. Everything you write and publish on the web has the potential to drive traffic so make sure you optimise all your opportunities.

The main thing to remember is to ensure your choice of keywords is correct and relevant to what you do. After all, loads of traffic is all well and good but not very useful if they are not looking for what you offer.

2. Adding video

Have you noticed how many companies are now using video marketing?

More and more people are watching videos online so it makes sense to give them what they want by adding one to your website or setting up your own YouTube channel (which can be linked to your website).

What should your video be on?

Well, you can make short videos that showcase your products, act as interactive ‘how to’ guides, case studies and even video testimonials. The possibilities are endless.

3. Picture galleries

When you walk into a physical shop you have the advantage of being able to see what you’re going to buy, you can touch it and even try it out.

But online marketing doesn’t allow you to do that – well, other than see it.

No one likes to buy something without seeing it first so make sure your website offers high quality images of your products (coupled with detailed descriptions) so they know exactly what they’ll be getting.

4. Regular contact with customers

Keeping in touch with your customers will open up sales opportunities and allow you to add value by giving advice and tips.

Whether you do that through newsletters or email marketing it gives you the ability to maintain regular contact with your customers and prospective customers.

These 4 ideas are simple to instigate but very effective and can make a huge difference to your traffic.

Your website needs traffic if it’s going to be effective. If you’ve invested heavily in your online presence it makes sense to ensure people see it.

But it not only has to attract visitors, it also has to convert them into buying customers. You can read more about conversion here.

Is your website converting?

There are loads of websites out there that look great, have loads of content and, sometimes, rank quite well. But they are missing one thing – they aren’t converting.

This is a conversation I tend to have with people far too regularly. It goes a bit like this:

Client: “My website’s working really well – I get about 500 unique visitors every day”

Copywriter: “Great, so what’s your conversion rate?”

Client: “My what?”

Argh! There you have it – they’ve missed the number one reason for having a website – converting your visitors into paying customers.

That’s why I’ve written this post – to show you how you can make your website convert visitors.

How to make your website convert

Let’s look at how people behave online.

Imagine you’re looking for a new camera. First you’ll probably enter your search phrase in Google, browse down the results and open a new tab for each entry that catches your eye.

Then you’ll read through each one in turn to see what the companies are offering and gradually whittle the open tabs down until you arrive at the one you want.

Have you worked out how to get your website to convert yet?

Yup – someone will buy from you if you are offering something that no one else is. It could be a price choice, free delivery, extended guarantee…the possibilities are endless.

So if you want to convert your visitors you must identify your unique value proposition and make sure it’s the first thing your potential customers see.

Because your UVP is your primary benefit it has to be something that makes you stand out from the crowd. It could be a free bonus item, price reduction, guarantee – something that is of real value to your reader.

If you hide it within your text or deep inside your site, your reader isn’t going to find it and they’ll go elsewhere. So you have to make their lives as easy as possible and make it obvious and on all pages – after all it might not be your home page they land on.

Have a look at your website – is your UVP obvious? If not you know what you’ve got to do if you want to give your conversion rate a boost.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter