In the world of digital marketing, traffic gets a lot of attention. In fact, it seems like you can’t go anywhere online without reading a traffic metaphor invoking red and green lights, rush hour, and things of that nature.
Don’t get me wrong. Traffic is important. But ultimately, it’s not the amount of traffic you get that will determine the success of your business.
Conversions are the name of the game.
And guess what? I have good news for you. You can stop beating your head against a wall trying to figure out how to get more people to your site. Instead, I’m going to show you how to take the traffic you already have and increase your conversions to grow your business.
Buckle up and let’s hit the road! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
Simplify Your Forms
There’s lots of evidence showing that simple forms get more conversions than complex forms. In fact, removing a single field from your form could boost your conversions by as much as 26%.
As of 2020, the average number of fields for online forms is five. I recommend paring your forms down to include only the information you need. In many cases, you will need only the lead’s email address and first and last names.
That said, you shouldn’t hesitate to ask for additional information if it is necessary. The idea is to make your forms easy to complete to minimize the risk of a potential lead becoming annoyed and navigating away before they have submitted the form.
Add a Pop-Up to Your Site
Pop-ups have a bad reputation, but I think it’s largely an unfair reputation. Why? Because some annoying folks overdo it, setting up repeated and intrusive pop-ups that lead to frustration and irritation.
The key is to add a single pop-up to encourage people to sign up for your list or fill out a lead form. You should time it to appear 30 seconds or a minute after a visitor lands on your page. That way, they’ll have time to read some of your content before it appears. An alternative is to trigger the pop-up when a lead scrolls to a certain point on your page.
For the best results, test multiple offers to get people to fill out your lead form and then stick with the one that gets the best results. Also, make it extremely easy for people to close out of the pop-up, but make sure to have a static call to action on the page where they can get your offer later if they want to.
Eliminate Excess Content
A lot of businesses make the mistake of using the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to web design. They have a lot of bells and whistles on their landing pages and they don’t realize that much of the content serves as a distraction from the main objective: conversion.
The best way to identify content that’s not serving your goals is to use a heat map or a click map. You’ll be able to spot the sections of your page that aren’t grabbing visitors’ attention.
The goal should be a simple, focused page with a clean, easy-to-navigate design. Making simplicity your target will make it easier for potential leads to learn what they need to know about your product or service and to get to the point where they’re ready to fill out your form.
Add a Third-Party Signup Service
You have probably noticed that a lot of websites have an option allowing visitors to sign in using a third party. The most common options are Facebook and Google.
I understand the desire to have customers create a unique log-in for your site but allowing them to use an existing account to sign in removes a potential obstacle to conversion. 86% of web users say they’re bothered by having to create a new account.
Social log-ins simplify the conversion process. You can add a social log-in using a simple plugin such as Facebook Login to your WordPress site. Research shows that using social log-in can increase your conversions by up to 20%.
Improve Your Call to Action
There’s nothing wrong with a simple call to action. After all, “Sign Up” and “Subscribe” can get the job done. The problem is, they’re just not exciting.
One easy way to increase your conversions is to spice up the calls to action on your site. Here are some suggestions and statistics:
- Turning your CTA from a link to a button can increase conversions by 45%.
- Adding an arrow to direct people to your CTA can increase click rates by 26%.
- Using first-person wording (Schedule my free consultation) can increase conversions by as much as 90%.
- Putting your CTA below the fold (meaning below the part of the page that visitors can see without scrolling) can increase your conversions.
One explanation for the last statistic is that people prefer to learn as much as they can about an offer before completing a form.
Address Potential Objections
It’s a marketing truism that your content must overcome obstacles in a potential customer’s mind to make a sale. That’s just as true when the goal is conversion as it is for sales.
Ask yourself what the most common objections to filling out your form are. Some may be solved by programming – for example, by reducing the number of fields in your form. However, some may be issues that you haven’t addressed on your page.
Here are some examples:
- Overcome a price-related objection by offering a money-back guarantee.
- Overcome fears about a product’s effectiveness by adding reviews and testimonials to your page.
- Overcome FOMO objections by comparing your product directly to other options on the market.
You get the idea, I hope. The more you can do to alleviate potential concerns upfront – before a potential client completes your form – the more likely it is that you’ll see a jump in your conversion numbers.
Does any of this mean that you shouldn’t try to attract more traffic? Of course not. But you may find that you get better results if you use the methods I’ve outlined here to convert more of the traffic you’re already getting.
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