Websites have become modern-day storefronts. They were once mere supplements to your business, but now, in many cases, they are your entire business.

As a result, two of your top priorities need to be:

1. Driving traffic to your site; and
2. Converting visitors to your site into customers.

The first one is “easy” enough, and by easy we mean that we know how it’s done. You need to run ads, build up your SEO profile, be active on social media, and so on. However, the second point is usually where people get stuck.

Either conversions simply aren’t happening—which is just the worst—or they are frustratingly low.

We all wish to run sites that generate consistent revenue, and to do this, you must convert. Here’s a few reasons why it might not be happening.

Types of Traffic

If conversions aren’t where you want them to be, the first thing you should look at is the kind of website traffic you’re driving to your site. Who is coming to the site? And how are they getting there?

The reason this is important is that it will tell you how well you are doing at bringing people from your target market to your site.

For example, if your target market is young men between the ages of 18-34 who live in cities, and most your traffic is made up of females, then low conversion rates shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Not all traffic is created equal in the sense that not all of it will be interested in what you’re selling. So, if conversion rates are low, check to make sure the people you’re attracting to your site are those you’re interested in reaching.

If it’s not, then your conversion woes are likely the result of a misguided approach to driving traffic, and this is where you’ll want to focus your efforts.

You may like reading: How to easily generate website traffic

Website Copy and the Sales Funnel

When you feel comfortable the people coming to your site are the right people, the next thing you’ll want to do is to look at your sales copy to make sure it aligns with people’s expectations.

This is because poor conversion rates are often the result of misaligned content, i.e. you provide people ready to make a purchase with information, or you push sales copy on people just looking for information.

But to correct this issue, you need to understand the concept of a customer journey, which is a way of understanding how people go from being passive consumers of content to actual customers.

It varies from product to product, but all variations include some combination of the following steps:

• General Interest and Information Gathering
• Purchase Interest and Options Comparing
• Specific Interest and a Purchase
• Calls to Action
• Test and Retest

General Interest and Information Gathering

In this stage, people aren’t looking to make a purchase. Instead, they just want to learn more. Aggressive sales copy probably won’t work here. But being useful and encouraging people to follow you on social media or subscribe to your newsletter might, and then once they do this, you can maintain the relationship and turn it into a conversion down the road.

Purchase Interest and Options Comparing

At this point, people are interested in making a purchase and they want to know what their different options are. Gently pushing people one way or the other could sway their decision, but being too aggressive will likely cause them to look elsewhere.

In many ways, this is the trickiest type of copy to write. You want to make sure you’re highlighting that which will drive people to make a purchase, but you also don’t want to be too push and drive them away.

Review content is great for this as it allows you to provide people with information about the different options while also steering them in a specific direction.

Specific Interest and a Purchase

When people reach this point, they’ve made up their mind that they’re going to make a purchase. It therefore becomes your job to convince them to purchase from you.

In this scenario, you don’t need to pay much attention to other options. You simply need to present what you’re offering in the best light possible and let people make their choice.

Calls to Action

Lastly, poor conversion rates could be the result of bad calls to action (CTAs). Your CTAs are important because they are what will make people finally make a purchase.

One common problem people have with CTAs is the language they use. Phrases such as “buy,” “buy now,” “purchase,” “add to cart,” etc. often don’t work as well as other choices because they are too pushy; people don’t like being told what to do.

Instead, it’s better to say, “try it out,” “join the movement,” “get involved,” etc., as these coax people  into thinking their purchase decision was not the result of your sales tactics but rather their own free will.

Another issue is placement. If people are reading your content to inform themselves, then peppering CTAs throughout the piece is not going to work, and it may actually annoy people.

The best moment for a CTA is right after you’ve presented your value proposition. You’ve spent time empathizing with the problem people face, and then you provide them with a solution: your product.

Overdoing it with CTAs, or putting them in weird places will most definitely cause conversions to suffer.

Test and Retest

Low conversion rates can be fixed by paying attention to these parts of your website. However, there is no “one size fits all” solution.

As a result, the best thing you can do is to test out different strategies. Change up your content and website design, then see how it performs. If there’s an improvement, then you’re onto something.

Another option is A/B testing. This is where you expose part of your audience to one thing and another part to something else. It’s a great way to test out what works, and it’s particularly effective in determining which CTAs will be most effective.

In conclusion, spend some time considering these issues, and then start testing some stuff out. Soon enough, conversions, and revenue, will improve, and that makes everyone happy.

By Ethan Payne — Broadbandsearch.net