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It is always great to have a large number of visitors flocking to your website but that is not the ultimate goal of online marketing. The purpose of luring people to your website is for you to convert them to paying customers at the end of the day. This is where your website design and organisation comes into play. You should make sure that your website is captivating to those who land there. As a business person, you should therefore employ all ways possible to ensure that those website visitors do not abandon your website but end up buying your services or products. After rigorous online marketing campaigns, website conversion is the main goal. When website conversions increase, then we can say that your marketing efforts have been successful.

There are basically two types of conversions namely:

• Prospect to lead
• Lead to customer

Prospect to lead

This is whereby a website visitor responds to your calls to action and signs up. When they do this they become a potential lead or customer. This is the first stage of conversion in most cases. It is a sign that this particular web visitor is interested in your services or products.

Lead to customer

This type of conversion entails a lead actually buying something from you. This is therefore the most important type of conversion as the final aim of making a sale and thereby increasing income will be achieved. As a business it is always a highlight when someone visits your website and actually buys something.

There are a number of ways that one can adopt to ensure that website visitors are converted into customers. These ways include:

• Use of high quality images
• Landing page optimisation
• Clearly stating the benefits of the product or service
• Offering free trial
• Testimonials and social proof
• Offering various paying options
• Installing live chat
• A/B testing
• The use of exit intent popup
• The use of social media snippets

These ways are explained in detail below.

Use of high quality images

Visuals are a great way to lure potential clients so it is important that you choose the best ones for your website. Poor quality images are often repulsive so you might find that even though you might have succeeded in attracting visitors to your website you will not be able to make a single sale. Even if your products are the best potential clients will not buy if you upload poor quality pictures. Those poor images will give the impression that your product is of poor quality as well. Before someone buys a product he /she wants to be sure of the quality.

People can assess the quality of a product through seeing, touching and in some instances taking the product for a test drive. Since it is impossible for a potential client to touch a product or take it for a test drive online, it is very important for you to provide the best pictures of your product on the website to assure potential clients of the quality of your merchandise. The perception of web visitors is that image quality correlates with product quality. Studies have shown that good quality images lead to a higher conversion rate so always make your images irresistible.

If you choose to use images of people you should make sure that you use those of happy smiling people. These have the tendency of drawing people. Studies have shown that websites with happy people have higher conversion rates.  An example is shown below.

Uploading an image of  your product in context is also another way of convincing your web visitors to buy from you, for example if you are selling curtains you can show them in a room setting where there is a carpet and couch and all the decor. The idea is to make the visitors envision themselves using the product and therefore give them the desire to buy. The image below is an example of showing  a product in context, let’s say we are selling curtains.

Where possible also try to provide alternate and detailed views of your products. This gives the potential client a detailed idea about your product which in turn will boost their confidence in your product. If you do this properly you might see some of your web visitors signing up and becoming leads and some actually becoming real customers.

You should avoid using stock photos on your website, opt for real ones.

Landing page optimization

The landing page is the first page that web visitors see when they visit your website so you should make sure that it looks attractive and friendly so as to capture your visitors’ interest. It is advisable to keep the page simple so as to avoid confusing your visitors. To successfully convert your web visitors into leads and eventually into actual paying clients, you need to go through a process called landing page optimization. By definition landing page optimization refers to the process of improving each element on your landing page to increase conversions. Optimizing the landing page includes the use of recognizable, straight forward calls to action, use of the right colors, the use of readable headers and  organizing your website the right way.

Use of recognizable, straight forward calls to action

When having your website designed you should make sure that your website developer puts calls to action that are recognisable and straightforward. No web visitor wants to spend time looking for a call to action button so you should make them visible and easy to locate. Calls to action should stand out if you want your visitors to take action.

Use of the right colors

Always use the right colors on your landing page. People are always attracted by beautiful and appropriate colors so choose them wisely. It is a great disappointment to have a tremendous number of visitors and then have no conversions at all just because your colors are not appealing enough. It is always a good thing to use colors that define the personality of your company or business.A website that offers infant related services should be different from a more professional website e.g that of lawyers.

Use of readable headers

This is a very essential part of your landing page optimisation. Your header should be written in fonts that are easy to read. Avoid using fancy fonts that are not clear. In this era people no longer have patience which means that noone is going to spend their time trying to read your headers. If they find it hard to read the headers they will not take action.

 Organizing your website the right way

A lot of clutter on a website can be off putting for some website visitors. They can just view and leave your website without taking any action. An organised website shows professionalism. If people feel that you are professional then they will be willing to do business with you. The ultimate goal of increasing your income via website conversions will therefore be recognised.

Clearly stating the benefits of the product or service

As I mentioned earlier, clients need to have as much information as possible about a product before they can make a purchase. To increase your website conversion rate you therefore need to convince your website visitors that your product is of the best quality. This can be done by clearly stating the benefits of your product rather than just stating the specifications. You have to make your web visitors feel like they really need the product you are offering.

Offering free trials

If your goal is to increase your income through website conversions, offering free trials will be of much help. The benefit of offering free trials is that your potential clients’ curiosity about your service or product as well as your customer service will be satisfied. Most people are afraid to commit to something they are not sure of so offering a free trial will satisfy the questions that they might have. Free trials also show that you as the provider are confident about your product. If the potential clients are satisfied by your service they will most likely buy the product thereby increasing your website conversion rate

Free trials, however do not work in all cases. They are best for products or services like SaaS (software as a service).  If you are offering services or products, for example, clothes which can not be offered for free, giving a discount will be a good option.

Testimonials and social proof 

Another thing you should do as a business person to increase income via website conversions is to have your clients write testimonials for you. If your web visitors see positive feedback from your previous or current customers they will be assured that your products or services are good and they might want to join too. As a business person you should build trust in your visitor in order for them to convert to paying clients.

You can also put some of your ‘big’ clients on your landing page as social proof. However, you should always ask for approval from the clients before you do so. Stating reputable companies on your website will boost your web visitors’ confidence in your product and might lure them to buy.

Offering various paying options

Make sure that you provide various payment channels on your website. For instance, some clients may not comfortable using paypal so you should  provide alternatives. Some of your web visitors might try to purchase your product and fail due to the payment channel provided. Clear contact details will also help in this case, if someone experiences difficulties they might choose to contact you.  It will be a great disappointment to lose a client due to such a simple issue.

Installing live chat 

Good public relations will never fail you when it comes to engaging people. It is therefore essential that you have a live chat on your website so that when a prospective client has a query they will get a response instantly. According to research done,visitors are likely to choose a live chat over a contact form. If you interact with your visitors in a satisfactory way they will most likely convert.

A/B testing 

A/B testing is the process of preparing different landing page designs and presenting them to different segments of website visitors. This is used to determine which design works best. This process enables you, as a website owner, to play around with the organisation and colors of your website and see which one converts best. If you do this properly you will see that your website conversions go up and in turn the ultimate goal of increasing income will be achieved.

The use of exit intent popups

The use of exit intent popups is also another way of increasing your website conversions. Exit intent popups use exit intent technology which is a technology that can track and monitor your web visitors mouse clicks and movements. When the technology senses your visitors cursor heading for that ‘X’ or close button in the browser a popup is triggered. You can choose the popup that works best for you for example it might be a special discount or an important tip. The purpose of a popup is to give your visitors a reason to stick around.

The use of social media snippets

One might be wondering what a social media snippet is. A social media snippet is a preview of a page that is used when you share that page on social media. Instead of a simple link, users get additional information about the content behind the link.

People are normally attracted by visuals so providing a snippet will generate more interest than just providing a link. Links have the tendency of making things look vague. People will not be sure about the content they will find if they follow that link. A snippet will increase web visitors’ trust and will therefore increase the chance of them acting when they get to your website. This will result in an increase in website conversions.

To conclude, it is every business owner’s goal to make money through their website. Rigorous marketing campaigns lure visitors to the website but those visitors should, at the end of the day, become paying customers. Employing the strategies above can help you achieve this.

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