How do you increase conversions from your website?
Old marketing rules still apply... we often forget that. One of the long standing rules of thumb in marketing is the 7-touch rule. So remember this: the visit to your website is 1 touch (regardless of how many pages were looked at). How do you accomplish the other six touches?
95 - 98 % of the visitors that see your website leave without interacting - no phone call, no email, no contact of any kind. 1 touch and gone! For most small businesses, if 1% of their website visitors interact they are better than most. Thinking of ways to take that 1 touch to 7 changes the picture dramatically. Here are some ways to do that and get your conversion up.
LEADMAGNET
Give something away in exchange for contact information - often referred to as a lead magnet. Just delivering the lead magnet is a 2nd touch. But since you have the persons email, you now also have the ability to followup with a series of appropriate emails.
FORM AUTORESPONDERS
Use your form autoresponders. Just about every website will have a contact form but very few of them use the autoresponder correctly. The form sends out a notification to the business. At the same time, most forms are capable of sending a simple thank you email to the prospect. In the context of that email, you could be presenting information about why they should do business with you. If you personally follow up with a phone call or email, you've just increased that 1 touch to 3.
AUTORESPONDER SERIES
Use an autoresponder series. Advanced email follow-up will set in motion a series of 3-4 emails that are scheduled out over a 1 to 2 week period presenting your initial thank you and followups to why that person should be doing business with you. While the visitor is in "research" mode, your business remains top-of-mind. Your 1 touch just went to 4 or 5.
RETARGETING
Use website retargeting. Even if someone does not interact directly with your website, you have the ability to "retarget" the visitor with follow-up ads about your product or service. These ads will show up on commonly visited sites (MSN, Weather Channel, News, Radio Stations and even inside mobile apps). Presuming that the visitor found your site via Google search, the ads are going to be very relevant to their current needs. Because ONLY people who have visited your site will see the ads, this form of marketing has a higher conversion rate than cold ads and is far less expensive to implement because the total impressions will be significantly less.
SUMMARY
Once you understand these basic principles, you can expand to higher level conversion strategies and all of a sudden your website generates as many sales as your best sales person.