It’s no secret that online shoppers routinely fill up shopping carts and then abandon them before checking out. According to KISSmetrics, 88% of shoppers have bailed out altogether, never coming back to complete the sale.
If your virtual aisles have too many abandoned carts hanging around, it’s time to take a closer look at why your customers are leaving without buying and what you can do to increase website conversion.
Are you going to sign up for an email newsletter when the Call to Action button says “submit?”
Do you really want your visitors to “submit?”
If you think about the word literally, what’s your reaction? It probably isn’t “YES I want to submit… I need to submit. Watch me grovel on the floor before you, and submit to your superior knowledge!!! “
And it’s not just the wording on your Call to Action button that may need work. How is the color, or the design? Could they be improved? Here’s the quandary. Do you just arbitrarily make a decision and change the button, or do you find out what your visitors think?
Go for a test. Let your visitors show you the button that works the best for them.
We’ve all done it. We’ve tweaked our website design, rearranged our layout, and implemented new tips and techniques to boost conversion rates—and seen no difference in results. Conversion rates barely move and profits remain the same or even drop a bit.
When you run into website conversion challenges, it’s time to take a closer look at your strategy to determine what mistakes you might be making without even realizing it. Here’s a list of six of the most common:
Strategic use of video can increase engagement and conversions.
There are lots of opinions out there about the pros and cons of using video on your landing pages.
It’s clear that you can significantly boost lead generation conversion with video, but that doesn’t mean you can just slap up any video and expect an increase.
Of course, at the end of the day you’ll have to find the format and style that works for you by testing various options, but let’s take a quick look at some do’s and don’ts as you create videos for your lead gen pages.
“Why am I getting fewer leads from my PPC traffic this year?” Is the money I’m putting into SEO really paying off?
Getting answers to questions like these involves some detective work and a good place to start is by reviewing your Google Analytics data. To understand why your PPC lead flow is down this year, you’ll want to start by viewing only your PPC traffic. In analytics parlance, you’ll need to segment your data.
Are you making a good first impression?
The teen fashion site generates excitement and a cool vibe. The yoga site leaves you feeling calm and reflective. The bookkeeping services site gives off a sense of professionalism and competence.
When people reach your landing page, what is the first impression they receive?
While first impressions are made up of many landing page optimization factors, it’s important that you look at your page as a unit seeking to communicate one central message.
Let’s take a look at five cardinal rules of make a good landing page first impression:
Give yourself a round of applause with a success story.
Singing your own praises is never good form. But if you can’t boast about your company or services, how do you let potential customers know how great you really are?
Have your clients do it for you in a Success Story.
Let’s say your clients know you have exceptional customer service. But how do you say that to potential clients without sounding either boastful or trite.
Instead putting up something banal like “Our Customers Come First,” consider interviewing a current client about your exceptional customer service and use their quotes about your company in a story.
How do you plan to use the story? What message do you want potential customers to get from reading the story?
Pick just one goal for each Success Story. More than one goal and you’ll dilute your message. Pick a single goal to guarantee that your message comes through loud and clear.
Are you being hypnotized by your own website?
When I took driver’s education as a teenager, we learned about something called “highway hypnosis.”
It happens when you stop paying attention to what’s going on around you and you just drive along watching the white lane markings mile after mile. You lose sight of the big picture and get hypnotized by the minutiae, which can cause you to miss important things like your exit or another car swerving into your lane.
In conversion optimization, you can experience a similar phenomenon. When the newness of your website has worn off, website hypnosis can set in. You can lose sight of your overall strategy, leading to crucial mistakes.
How to Get Started Testing Your Landing Pages
Testing lets your visitors tell you what works.
Have you heard of Which Test Won? Each week they profile a different online test. Everyone votes for the page they think is the winner. And you get to see which page actually won… along with the numbers of winning and losing votes.
Sometimes 75-80% of the audience gets it right… and sometimes it’s the reverse. It’s fun and fascinating.
The main takeaway though is how helpful testing can be.
You don’t need to guess which form, button or headline gets more sign-ups for your newsletter… you can test it out. And best of all, you can do it yourself.
If this is your first foray into testing, start with the basics and learn how to determine which tests will bring you the most benefit.