Improving Conversion Rates

byDaveSw

5.6K followers

Updated 6 years ago

Hi, Everyone...

Today I want to digress just a bit from my email series to talk about conversions.

We all create voluminous amounts of content to draw in organic traffic, and at times we use paid ads to get more traffic.

If we have not prepared our pages, websites, and offers for that traffic, it is an exercise in futility...People will stop by and leave again, without taking any action...

Traffic in and of itself is of no use to you. You want traffic that is ready to take action and buy what you are promoting.

But even if they ARE interested, if the message they see once they are on your website does not match their expectations you will lose them.

Training here from Kyle speaks of creating congruency across your offers, from banners and ads to the landing pages (or reviews or posts) to the sales page...

That is good advice.

Here are some other key considerations as you take a 30,000 foot view of your online business:

5 Factors To Keep In Mind

Compass did a study of the most effective online sites when it came to conversions. The focus was on e-Commerce, but the same principles apply to affiliate marketing. We can learn (and earn) from what the best are doing. Emulate, propagate, and excel.

Let's look at each principle...

(1) Customer Experience. Look at your website with the perspective of a visitor. Is the design easy to see, easy to navigate, and does it have the tools needed to easily access the information they are looking for?

(2) Analyze Data. The longer I am in the online marketing business the more I am loving numbers and data. Google offers so many tools to help you track what is going on with your website and it is free to use. The best websites have tools that provide data, and they look closely at what is working and what is not, and take corrective action on the fly. Numbers are your friend!

(3) Optimize Initial Contact. The first time someone stops by your website, it is like meeting someone for the first time. They will get an impression and that sticks. It is hard to change that initial impression. You want to make sure that first time is more than they expected so they become a regular visitor, a subscriber, and eventually, a buyer of your products.

(4) They Use High Performing Traffic Channels. The top three channels the most successfull sites use is Organic (content and repeat customers), Google (Adwords), and Facebook (Paid Ads). For many of the best performing sites, between 33% to 50% of the traffic is through organic means. Content plays a big part of business, even for the big players!

NOTE: It is interesting that they get sales from social traffic but it is not a high percentage - between 2.5% to a 6% maximum of all their traffic comes from the social platforms (I am not talking about paid ads, rather from social pages and accounts)...This reinforces the importance of creating sought after content as you learn here...

(5) They Plan The Website Visitor's Journey. By planning ahead and determining what website visitors should see while they are on their sites, they can shape the landing pages and content visitors see as they move them through a funnel as follows:

(a) Awareness, to...

(b) Interest, then on to...

(c) Consideration...

(d) Intent, and then...

(e) Evaluation, and finally...

(f) Buyer...

This whole process is one that we can emulate on our websites. There is some training from Kyle here on setting up landing pages and I think I and others have some too. I will be adding more as we get closer to the frenzied shopping season.

What To Do Now?

Now is the time to get ready for that season, because it represents probably the most opportune time for you to realize some substantial sales. But you have to be ready for it. People need to see a nice page when they come to look at what you are offering.

They need to have tools at their fingertips (i.e. search windows, categories and menus that lend themself to navaigation to the information they are looking for, etc.), and they need to see a congruent landing page when they come from your ad or banner.

Remember to analyze your set up and buying process as if you were a buyer. Get some feedback from others, and set up tracking and testing so you can adapt on the fly and make changes to leverage your sales...

If you are going to use paid ads, think about using pixels and tracking so you can test and make changes and also retarget the site visitors that may not have completed the purchase from you.

You can approach each prospect differently based on how far along they got in your sales funnel, and capture some of those people (remember they already have shown an interest) to get more sales...

Think now about setting up email sequences that will trigger based on that funnel and at what stage they were when they left. This is one of the reasons I am drilling down now on email marketing. It can help!

Look at how they pay. Checkout is a step that loses you a lot of business. If you are promoting affiliate products, make sure that the landing pages and checkout process looks good and is easy to navigate. If not see if there are alternative pages you could link to...

One last thing: Get reviews if at all possible. Social proof is a big factor these days for buyers. If you have a happy customer, ask them to tell others...Make that process as easy as possible so it does not take up too much of their time...

Conclusion

This is the most exciting time of year for us. People are pulling out their credit cards, they are buying lots of things, and what we are selling can be some of what they buy if we plan now and test, check, track, and adjust BEFORE the shopping season starts!

I believe in ALL of you!

Cheers!

Dave : )