Generating a lot of traffic to your website is great. However, there’s a difference between getting someone to visit and managing to convert website visitors into paying customers!
Seeing your site visit numbers grow but your sales stagnate can be incredibly frustrating. But you can turn things around! The easiest thing to do when you want to convert website visitors into paying customers is to put yourself in their shoes. Just imagine walking into a shop and getting swarmed by a small army of sales assistants:
“Look at our new collection over here!” – “Have you seen what’s on sale yet? Be quick, the offer ends soon!” – “Sign-up for our newsletter to get even more discounts and offers!” – “Oh, you have to follow us on social media. Look what we’re doing on Facebook and Twitter!”
Is it time to declutter?
Anyone in their right mind would back out as quickly as possible and make a run for it when encountering something like that. So why are a lot of small business websites doing it anyway? It certainly doesn’t help convert website visitors into paying customers.
A pop up here, social media feeds over there and, of course, recent blog posts and latest offers, too. If your website fires everything at once at your visitors you risk losing out on a lot of business.
For you as small business owner, all of those things are equally important. But your potential clients only want to see what’s relevant to them.
So how can you guarantee a smooth user experience for each and every visitor to your website? Check out these 6 tips to convert website visitors into paying customers!
1. Keep it simple
When planning the structure and content for your small business’s website, limit yourself to one call-to-action. That means encouraging the visitor to do one thing, and one thing only. For example, “buy now”, “sign up” or “get in touch”.
To find out the right one for your website, ask yourself what people are looking for when coming to your website. Use Google Analytics and user testing to learn more about their behaviour on your website and focus everything on delivering a solution as quickly as possible.
Read more about how your web copy can improve your conversion rate.
2. Speak clearly
In order to convert web visitors into paying customers, make your USP (unique selling proposition) clear to the reader on every web page. Also, talk to your specific target audience and speak their language. Don’t try and sell to everyone and anyone.
Similarly, always speak directly to your reader using “you” and “yours”, and avoid always speaking about yourself (“we” and “us”).
3. Swap words for pictures
‘A picture paints a thousand words’ – so use images to replace copy when you can. You’ll find that most web visitors find large chunks of text hugely off-putting.
Too much text and not enough visual elements will only result in a potential customer clicking away from your site. And keep in mind that this applies even more to your mobile web visitors.
Don’t forget to consider video content too! Video marketing is an ever-growing area, and it can really help to build a personal connection with your audience!
4. Link up
Make sure to use an easy navigation with clear internal links. For example, your homepage should have obvious links to your blog, contact page and services. And not just in the visible menu at the top, but also within your page’s content.
This doesn’t just please your web visitors but also Google as it improves your SEO (search engine optimisation).
Looking to upgrade your website? Check out this post for my recommendations for a self-hosted site!
5. Clean up your menu
Ideally, your website should have one menu with a maximum of 6-8 items, all with short titles. This guarantees an easy-to-understand and concise navigation that allows visitors to find what they’re looking for with ease.
It can be tempting, when you know your business inside out, to throw absolutely everything out there. But again, put yourself in your customer’s shoes. You might know that one topic could be broken down into three highly specific menus, but is that relevant to them?! Or do they just want to get to what they need asap?
6. Avoid clutter
While you’re decluttering your menus and copy, make sure the page isn’t too busy with sliders, carousels or moving parts in general. They might look nice, but they increase loading times and distract the reader.
Instead, stick to one visual focus, keeping different colours, pop-ups and banners to a minimum (or removing them altogether).
Having professional, consistent branding can help with this. Stick to your brand colours, fonts and style, and make sure it all works together. I recently published a post covering all you need to know about creating a strong brand.
KEEP READING
If you are interested in reading more about this topic, have a look at these:
4 Tips for a Web Copy that Converts
How to Get Started With Your Small Business SEO
What to do when your Small Business goes Quiet
How to Attract Enquiries That Convert
