How to convert More Visitors to customers on a website

By Brendan Byrne   Tuesday, February 4, 2014

In this article the term “Conversion” refers to converting those who visit a particular website into customers. Whether the purpose of a site is to sell designer shoes, concert tickets, or counselling services, the ultimate goal is the same. Knowing how conversion optimisation works can help anyone who runs a website to convert as many people as possible into customers.

If people are visiting your site, but they are not being converted into customers, there are likely some concrete reasons as to why this is true;

• The website content may not be relevant to the people who view the site.
• The way that the site is designed might not be convenient for the users who come to the site.
• The business owner might not be depicting certain aspects of the business in the best way.

There could be any number of reasons that customer conversion is not as strong as it should be.

One way to increase the conversion rate, of customers who visit a website is to do market research. A lot of invaluable evidence can be found by examining trends in the marketplace. Various online tools are available to assist people in performing market research and analysis. Staying aware of changing trends is how many business owners and companies use their websites to attract and retain customers. Looking at what customers are saying about products and services via social media is one method of continuously learning about the latest consumer opinions and trends.

Some business owners forget to utilise all of their selling points. This is often true of professionals who are kept busy providing services to clients. They may not have time to examine the assets they have available. A dance instructor who has opened a new studio could have a long list of previous customers who were very satisfied with his or her services. Several of those customers may be happy to provide written testimonials about their positive experiences. Using those testimonials on the website for the new studio could be one way to convert people from visitors to clients.

A major factor that prevents countless site visitors from becoming customers is when a website is not easily usable. A broad array of details can make a site inconvenient for visitors to use. The web content may be informative and useful to those who read it, but it might be presented in a format that is difficult to read. An individual could be interested in purchasing a product, but then become frustrated by the fact that no prices are provided on the site. Links may not work the way they are supposed to, causing visitors to leave without returning. Unless a site owner takes a proactive approach, the reasons that people are not returning to a site and purchasing services or products may never be known by the site owner.

There are several things that a business owner can do to learn why potential customers choose to leave a site without purchasing anything;

• Survey your customers (and non-customers)
• Usability Testing
• Split Testing

 Providing a survey within the site is one way to get feedback from users. Such a survey can enable a site owner to ask questions about the overall experience that a user has when navigating the site. If users are dissatisfied with the quality of a website, they can leave specific details about the features that did not function properly or were otherwise inconvenient. A site survey might also include questions regarding why people did not choose to become customers when they visited a site. This kind of survey gives prospective customers the opportunity to give feedback related to the products and services offered on the site, as well as feedback about prices.

A business may also opt to utilise a usability testing service. Such companies hire individuals to navigate various sites and then provide their feedback. In many cases, a person who is hired to provide feedback may navigate a site via special software that can be easily downloaded. The software might be designed to record the voice of the individual who is navigating a site, so that the person can discuss details of the site while visiting it. This can provide invaluable insight for the site owner, who can discover and explore the exact issues that may cause potential customers to visit the site and never return.

One of the most useful methods for improving conversion is split testing. This is the process of providing two or more versions of individual pages within your site, and seeing which one produces the most goals for that page. A goal might be measured in terms of time on your site, subscribing to a newsletter, making contact with you, or selling a product or service. For me, there is nothing like hard data to prove a design change.

Simply creating a website is not typically enough to make the site effective. In order to convert individuals who visit the site into customers, it is generally necessary to employ some of the conversion strategies listed here.

Numerous tools and services are available to assist business owners in performing and evaluating such research. If you don’t have the time or the skills needed to implement conversion rate optimisation, there are professionals who can provide such services. Strangely enough, that is what we do here at One Orange Cow. ;-)