Are you looking for a way to boost conversions on your website? If so, you're not alone. Business owners and marketers have countless marketing tools and channels at their disposal, but none of them have any real value unless their site is optimized correctly.
Imagine seeing an intriguing ad on social media about a new company. Its products, marketing and brand messaging all look great. You decide to go check out its website, and it's a mess. How likely are you to slog through a broken, poorly structured website just to complete your order? The odds are not good.
Nailing conversion-based web design means more people will spend time interacting with your business. During this period, they may show interest in your brand by reading blog content or joining your email list. Alternatively, they may see your product as something they need and become a paying customer on the spot.
You'll never get to this point unless your site is ready for a wide range of users with different interests and buying habits. Today, we hope to help by showing you five ways to boost sales with a focus on conversion-based design.
1. Use one call to action per page.
Your call to action can make or break the customer experience. If someone lands on your blog, reads a helpful post and sees a relevant CTA at the bottom of the page, they are much more likely to follow through.
Here's a quick example to show you what we mean. If your website focuses on helping customers improve their marketing, you'll want to include one relevant CTA under each post that links back to the post's topic. So, a post about helping customers grow their lead list should come with a CTA that encourages users to subscribe to get the Email Marketing 101 checklist.
Using one relevant CTA per page is vital for conversion-based web design. You don't want to overwhelm your customers when they're deciding what to do next. Make the process as simple as possible by limiting your CTAs per page and, more importantly, making sure that the CTA you share is relevant to the source content.
2. Improve loading times.
Website speed plays a crucial role in how consumers perceive a brand. If your site takes forever to load, there's a good chance that people will leave and move on to a competitor's site. Part of an excellent conversion-based design is ensuring that users can quickly and easily navigate your website.
If you want proof that page speed affects conversions, consider this: Long loading times result in 75% more abandoned carts. In other words, if you don't optimize your website for speed, nearly three-quarters of potential customers will leave before completing their order.
You can improve your loading times in several ways. One of the quickest ways is to run a speed test to see exactly what you need to fix. Multiple factors affect loading times. You need to use a reputable hosting provider, optimize images, and work with a simple design for more speed.
Ideally, your website should load in under two seconds. We know that this goal may seem challenging if you currently have eight- or nine-second loading times, but you can and should get your site's speed under control if you want to boost sales and engagement.
3. Leverage negative space.
Next, let's talk about how the way you design your page can directly impact conversions. When people read posts online, their eyes often move across the screen in the shape of the letter F. This means that you should highlight specific features and forms in this area if you want to see more engagement.
A signup form in the middle of the page in between text paragraphs will get you more conversions. Why? Because the form appears right in the middle of your reader's line of sight. This design choice will ensure that more people see your offer when they scan your page, which means more people be able to sign up.
It's also a good idea to use some negative space. We've all been to websites that are jampacked with information. There are so many choices, in fact, that it can be paralyzing to casual browsers. Use a simple theme and design when creating your website, with some white space so your content and marketing material have room to breathe.
You want users to take in your offer or value proposition. It's not always easy to see the big picture when there's a bunch of other graphics and widgets in the way.
4. Focus on customer support and feedback.
You can't have an effective and profitable website without offering strong customer support. Consumers who come to your site for the first time will have questions. If your team is not there to provide answers, there's a good chance that those users will visit a different business.
We know that customer support works, because a surprising 38% of people reported that they followed through with their order specifically because live chat was an option. Getting your audience's attention is the hard part. If you can be there to actively guide them through your products and value proposition, you'll see a significant increase in conversions.
Aside from nailing customer support, you should be there to review, acknowledge and implement feedback. Your target audience understands the industry, and they know what they need from your product or website. Listen to what they have to say, let them know you're listening, and find ways to implement highly requested features in your web design.
Offering trustworthy customer service and making your talked-about features a reality are both essential to build a strong user experience. When people feel like brands resonate with them on this level, they are likely to become repeat customers.
5. Test and repeat.
The final key to boosting your sales with a conversion-based design is to A/B test specific parts of your marketing campaign. A/B testing means making small changes to your website or marketing materials to see which version gets more conversions.
Research shows that A/B testing your contact forms can improve conversions by 304%! So, adjusting the color of your CTA button or removing one or two fields can significantly impact your sales and engagement.
When you use A/B tests, your goal is to get as close to 100% optimized as possible. You can make one change to your form, marketing material, or website design and see if that decision positively impacts conversions. If so, keep the change and look at other elements you can test for even better results.
We recommend that you run tests for at least two weeks before you come to a conclusion. Data can change drastically from day to day, and 14 days will give you plenty of time to see if consumers like the change or prefer the old design.
Conversion-based marketing is something all business owners need to consider. Consumers are hyper-aware of new brands and always looking for a company with a superior product or service. You should keep your core image intact but continue making small changes to your design to see consistent growth.