We asked 11 marketing professionals unique tips on "How to improve website conversions (signups/demo requests)?" and here's what they came up with.
Give it to a 5-year-old
As simple as it might sound, the most unique tip to improve website conversions is to give it to a "5-year-old." A 5-year-old doesn't have to be someone that is 5 it just has to be someone that may not know exactly what you do.
People have great products and services but often too much content, optimization and information can get in the way of the simple goal. Steve Jobs has a quote where he says that you actually have to work hard at simple because it "can be harder than complex." So give it to someone that is 5 year old in your industry, market or even a 5 year old and see how they interact with the site, what steps they take and really try to refine and simplify your site and design to achieve your desired conversion.
─ Gresham Harkless Jr., Blue 16 Media
Leverage lead flow pop-ups
Determine which pages on your website are attracting the most qualified, sales-ready traffic and test adding lead flow pop-ups to those pages. You can add these forms and capture eligible visitors using a platform like HubSpot. Product, service, and pricing pages, as well as consideration- or decision-level blog posts, are all good places for demo pop-ups. You can also test several sorts of pop-ups to evaluate which ones work best for your visitors (exit intent windows, drop-down banners, and bottom corner pop-ups).
─ Gerrid Smith, Fortis Medical Billing
Jump into a live chat with potential customers
Offering the ability to have a live chat with potential customers is a strategic way to increase website conversions. At GR0, we utilize Intercom to chat with interested website visitors in real-time. Responsiveness in life chats is crucial, because it informs your potential customers that you keep customer service a top priority.
─ Jonathan Zacharias, GR0
Abt! Always Be Testing
There’s no one tip that will magically improve your conversion rate. There is a mentality you can adopt that will improve conversions but it isn’t magic. Your website should be an ongoing experiment to better understand what appeals to various segments of your audience. Because no single call to action, or headline, or graphic will appeal to your entire target audience, the more you test, the better the data you collect will help you hone your conversion strategy. Mix up the messaging, mix up the CTA, mix up the graphics and your conversion rate will start to increase over time.
─ Joshua Chin, Chronos
Offer a trial, satisfaction guarantee, and no strings
Offering a trial or satisfaction guarantee helps de-risk the transaction, which means more people are willing to give you a try. Shorten your sales cycle and win hearts over sooner by offering free returns or a try-before-you-buy program.
For instance, Snif invites customers to try scent samples for up to 7 days and promises you only pay for what you keep, which is music to the ears of those who would rather not jump into an instant commitment. Making it known you include surprises or samples of other products with their first trial entices site visitors to give you a whirl with no strings attached and opens the door to a great experience they’ll want to return to rather than returning your product.
─ Marilyn Zubak, Snif
Prove value-add with actionable information
Offer actionable information as soon as the customer hits the landing page. Signups require encouragement for consumers and many are unwilling to go through the hassle of filling in their information if they believe there is not a lot to gain from signing up for a particular website.
Websites should proposition potential customers in a way that is neither salesy or aggressive, but highlights how the customer can benefit from using its particular product or service. This could mean having the right question pop up for customers when they hit the landing page or providing positive examples of how a product can be implemented in a customer’s life. Customers want to know what the value add is for them if they are going to spend time signing up. Providing actionable information is a way to prove that value-add to the customer.
─ Katy Carrigan, Goody
Provide a lead magnet
From what I've seen, not every potential customer who visits your website is ready to buy right away. However, that doesn't mean you can't start a conversation. Lead magnets are an amazing technique to establish trust with website visitors so that they will think about you first when they are ready to buy. If a website visitor does not respond to your main offer, you might pique their curiosity with a useful ebook, checklist, email newsletter, and so on. You can utilize Google Analytics objectives to determine which of your resources converts the most website visitors into leads.
─ Tanner Arnold, Revelation Machinery
Know your customer pain points to increase conversions
We all know the importance of a good Call-To-Action (CTA) to convert web visitors into customers but too often we focus on what we (the business) want the customer to do: call us, sign up, get a quote, download our guide or multiple other actions.
Instead a better way to improve website conversions is to conduct thorough research into what a typical customer's pain points, or problems, are that lead them to needing your product or service. You may already have this information if you look at the most popular content on your website.
Now, instead of using standard wording on a standard button (or other CTA type) create a clickable image that visually represents the pain point or problem and overlay with text that reinforces how clicking will solve the problem. For instance, instead of wording such as "Download our guide to improve productivity" use "Struggling with low productivity levels? Find the solution here".
─ Michelle Symonds, Ditto Digital
Run social proof front and center to improve conversions
Use social proof to increase your website conversions for email signups, purchases, or anything that your business offers to customers. Potential customers judge brand legitimacy based on reviews over 90% of the time, so showcase your best work, biggest clients, and most notable awards right on your landing page.
Social proof helps build brand ethos while offering case studies for customers to understand what your business does best. Because people trust reviews and other social proof ten times more than product descriptions and sales techniques, businesses should rely on diversified social proof-based marketing strategies to get the best sales. Get creative with curating your press, clients, and reviews, and users will flock to your business to see what the buzz is about.
─ Zach Goldstein, Public Rec
Create an irresistible and urgent offer
The most successful way to drive conversion for your website is to create an irresistible offer. The other aspects of the offer which increase conversions are urgency and authority.
Urgency is making people aware that the offer may expire soon or that this product or service will be available only for a limited time only. This works for B2B audiences too. Authority, on the one hand, helps you increase trust with your visitors by showing that they have some sort of accreditation or certification in the company’s industry. Incorporating elements such as scannable pages, testimonials and guarantee seals will also help assure visitors that you are credible and trustworthy.
─ Masha Mahdavi, SEM Dynamics
Follow the paths of your visitors
Don't optimize your pages in isolation, one at a time. Instead, check the most frequent paths your visitors take before landing on your signup form. Pick 2-3 top pages and make sure that your value proposition, core benefits, social proof, CTAs, and other conversion boosters are clearly visible on those pages. Even better if you can fit it above the fold, because most of your visitors won't scroll deep. This approach helped us increase demo signups by 19%.
─ Arkadiusz Terpilowski, Primetric
Final thoughts
There never is one silver bullet to boost your website conversions. Fundamentally, you should always be talking to your customers to understand them more deeply, and then run experiments on where the growth might be.
To improve your website conversion rate with website personalization, check out this post next.
