Introduction to Website Conversion Rates 100+ Tips Last Article
81. Make sure headlines are believable.
While the headline’s purpose is to attract people to the site and to buy, they should not be so outrageous that the claims sound unbelievable. If they are, many customer will steer clear of your website. Headlines are imperative to your success, so write them and publish them very carefully.
82. Don’t forget the tagline.
The tagline is also very important, and is usually found right underneath the tagline. Basically, your tagline will be a further explanation of the headline, and is usually smaller in font size. This is also important to express in a way that customers understand your intentions without sounding like a snake oil salesman.
83. Use out of the box selling techniques.
If you dare, you can always use the buy now, pay later approach, monthly installments, and free trials. This is a little bit risky for new businesses, but for more established websites, it’s an excellent way to bring in new customers, and keep them.
84. Separate your customers and/or products by type.
You can always distinguish your customers by type such as silver, gold, or platinum, and offer deals to the best ones. This offers people an incentive to buy
more in order to receive rewards. This can also apply to your products. For example, if you sell several different “grades” of an item, show the difference by attaching a type to them such as premium, etc.
85. Utilize tools for text.
In other words, be sure to use bold, highlighted, or italicized text to bring attention to the important key words, or the “buy now” type of words. You can also use some customized text types, including fonts and “hand drawn” things like stars, circled words, and more.
86. Keep the clutter out.
Do not allow any of your pages to be cluttered. While you want to pack in as much information on each page as possible, clutter will almost always drive people away from your website, and on to another one. Try to make the format and layout look smooth, organized and most importantly, easy to navigate.
87. Place links to every other page on every single page.
You want to make sure people coming to your website can find the “about us,” FAQ page, privacy policy, home page, and shopping cart from anywhere they go on your website. If they cannot easily get to their cart to see what items they’ve purchased they may try another place to buy. It’s also essential that your FAQ’s and contact us pages are very easy to find. If people cannot get their questions answered, they will probably move on.
88. Make sure home is the place to be.
Ensure that the home page is the most powerful page of all. The people coming to your site need to immediately feel comfortable, excited, and interested in what you have to sell. By making the home page full of interesting things to look at and information to discover, you’re automatically making people feel
welcome and intrigued.
89. Remove unnecessary links.
Don’t include links to other websites, links to affiliate sign up, or other extra links on every page. It only distracts people and can often lead them to click on the link, and totally forget where they were (which is YOUR site!). There’s nothing wrong with including links to other places, just be sure it’s on dedicated pages, or after the customer has purchased something.
90. Don’t forget to say thank you.
When someone makes a purchase, be sure there is a thank you page that people will see to show how much you appreciate them buying. It gives people a good feeling and also gives them confirmation of their order.
91. Order confirmation instills confidence.
Make sure you have a good, solid order numbering system as well as a thoroughly written auto res-ponder. When people make a purchase, they need to not only get the thank you page and an order confirmation, but they should also receive an email confirming the same. Be sure to include their order number with the email.
92. One good purchase deserves another.
If someone is a first time buyer, offer them a coupon for a percentage off of their next purchase. Include this either in their order confirmation email, or on a printed coupon code postcard you can include with your shipped items.
93. Shipping confirmation is important.
In order to avoid people asking “where’s my stuff?” or constantly bombarding your 800 number and inbox with shipping questions, include shipment confirmation to all customers. This way, they can track their package status without worry. People want to know the progress of shipped items ordered online so they know it’s on the way to their home.
94. Pictures of customers help boost reputation.
If you have a product people really like, encourage customers to send in pictures of themselves using it. This can be added to the testimonials page, and it gives new potential customers an idea of what your product looks like in person and while it’s being used. You can even sponsor a contest to encourage people to send in their photos.
95. Audio and visual make it fun.
Include things like music, flash movies, and other things to make the site more interactive. People want to feel like they’re really involved with the site, and video can especially help with this. You do not want to bombard people with too much media, but the option to click on a video here and there can boost the look and feel of the site.96. Don’t get too complex with your wording.
While you definitely want to get the point across to people, don’t make your sentences too fancy, too long, or too complicated. Use simple, fun language that
gives people a good feeling without causing them to feel like they’re overwhelmed or intimidated. Then, include the description in a smaller font underneath that.
97. Bulleted points grab attention.
If you have a few pages that look like a sales letter, be sure to include bulleted points. These are basically a list with bullets that point out unique, individual points about your product. Bullets make the page easier to read, and point out the important, essential facts in a nice format.98. Do not ask for too much info.
Never ask customers for things like their social security number or date of birth. Even if your website is extremely secure with no worries about fraud or identity theft, most people will immediately shy away once you request this kind of information. In most, if not all cases, you really don’t need this information anyway, so steer clear from asking for it.99. Thumbnails look terrific on any website.
When your customer adds an item to his or her shopping cart, include a little thumbnail photo of it. Not only does this look terrific, it reassures the customer that they have just ordered the correct number. It also looks very professional and streamlined when people look at their order summary before paying.100. Make sure coupon fields work.
Include a coupon code field, and then make sure it works. Since you will most likely rotate coupon promotions, make sure the new ones work. Test them often, and expect a few hiccups along the way. Whenever you introduce a new
coupon, it’s a good idea to test it out several times before you release it to the pubic for use. There is little more frustrating than entering in a coupon code and then having it not work! Often, customers will turn away from your site if they cannot get their codes to work.
101. Logos for your credit cards and shippers are an added bonus.
While logos for things like the BBB and Hacker Safe were discussed earlier, don’t forget to include other logos such as Visa and MasterCard, Discover, and UPS or Fed Ex. These logos show you’re legitimate, instill confidence, and also look really nice on a website.
102. Refer a friend programs are good promotional tools.
While an affiliate program is a great way to get others to help sell your products, a refer a friend program is also great. This offers current customers an incentive to refer your website and products to fellow friends and family members. What you offer as incentive is up to you, but many retailers online usually offer a coupon code, free shipping, or a small gift with their next purchase.103. Have a good hosting company.
Make sure you choose a steady, reliable web host for your site. Any down time is potential lost money, so it’s very important that your website stays up and running at all times. You never know when people are looking. In addition, if your site is down a lot, people will give up and even worse, spread the word to others that it often has problems staying up and running.104. Use newsletter opt-ins.
If you have a weekly or monthly newsletter, be sure to include this opt-in feature on the website either on the home page, or at the check out. This way, you can keep in touch and establish a customer base.105. Personalize.
If you can, be sure to write the customer’s name in all email correspondence. This can be either their first name, last name (i.e. Dear Mr. Smith), or both. Doing this makes people feel comfortable, and that instills buyer confidence. There are programs that can integrate the information the customer enters when checking out into the emails you send. When they open their email and see their name, they feel as if the email was actually typed by hand by your business.106. Get to know your competitors.
Find out what other websites are doing that make them successful. If you dare, feel free to contact the website hosts, programmer, or business owner of some other sites who compete with you and ask them what they are doing to get more sales. While you might not get an answer from everyone you contact, surely some fellow Internet businesses will be willing to share tips and tricks to help you out.107. Partner up.
Come up with a partner program with some businesses that sell items different than yours, but relate in some way. By creating partnerships, you make visitors to your website feel good and understand that you are working with other companies. This also allows you to create new promotions that can be beneficial to both you and your new partner.108. Test outside of the box.
Something called eye tracking is a new way to test what people not only click on, but what they look at on your site. There is a few companies who offer actual hardware for eye tracking, but you can also simply ask people you recruit to do your testing. Find out what parts of the website is catching their eye, and
look at what people are seeing first.
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