The Blog - Where Business Collides with Human Nature

Turning occasional visitors into quality leads is a process that demands creativity from every brand – and it involves much more than having great products to display. You want to convey what makes your solution effective but also distinctive among the other options out there.

With the new challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies are looking for new strategies to promote their brand online. But evaluating all the available options and assessing the ones that best suit your needs can be a bit overwhelming for the uninitiated.

To make the task more straightforward for you, we’ve narrowed down the list of options into five crucial tools you should consider using for the consideration stage of your funnel: social media promos, sweepstakes and contests, video marketing content, and high-converting landing pages, and eBooks.

Understanding their strengths and learning how to leverage them to their full potential will help you bring your prospects closer to a confident buying decision.

Average ecommerce conversion rates are only 2 to 3% across all sectors and devices, which means the vast majority of shoppers are leaving without making a purchase. Each of these empty-handed departures provides an opportunity for savvy marketers and business owners to substantially increase revenue.

For instance, for a business with 10,000 daily visitors and an average conversion rate of 2.5%, increasing conversions 0.5 points to 3.0% would generate an extra 50 orders a day. With an assumed average order value (AOV) of $100 those additional orders result in $5K of added daily revenue, or more than $1.8M annually.

A marginal increase from 2.5% to 3.0% may not seem worthwhile to pursue, but the aggregate effect over the course of a year can be astonishing. While larger companies benefit most from increases in conversion rates due to scale, businesses of all sizes can profit from incrementally improving conversion rates over time.

Regardless of how much traffic your site receives or what your AOV is, these elements are fundamental to increasing ecommerce conversion rates:

"Keep it simple stupid." - Coined by Kelly Johnson

"Don't make me think." - Steve Krug wrote the book.

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." - Confucius

"It is always the simple that produces the marvelous." - Amelia Barr

"In building a statue, a sculptor doesn't keep adding clay to his subject. Actually, he keeps chiseling away at the inessentials until the truth of its creation is revealed without obstructions. It is not daily increase but daily decrease; hack away the unessential." - Bruce Lee

You have heard wisdom about "simple" a thousand times but your brilliant and complex mind wants to add to the puzzle while you are hoping to provide a solution. A website page (aka landing page) is created to deliver awesome to someone interested in the topic. A conversion happens when someone shares contact information because they see the relevance, understand and believe. An over complicated mind can add more than what is necessary which makes people pause vs greasing the proverbial wheel to get an introduction.

Do you have a churn policy? Is it "Good riddance"? Or as Mr. Wonderful on Shark Tank would say "You are dead to me"?  

It's easy to give up on people who have given up on you. Without an understanding of why they rejected you, it is difficult to improve. "Complaints" are the most valuable type of feedback but when they "walk away" or "unsubscribe", guessing is all you have.

Which are the best offers to use on a landing page?  The answer varies based on the visitor and what phase they are in during their buying process.  Since no two people think the same, we can break down them down into three basic groups:

1. Awareness:  People have either become aware of your product or service, or they have become aware that they have a need that must be fulfilled.

2. Evaluation:  People are aware that your product or service could fulfill their need, and they are trying to determine whether you are the best fit.

3. Purchase:  People are ready to make a purchase or take action very close to making a purchase.

The word an entrepreneur loves to hear is "yes" and it comes from faith, trust and curiosity. A landing page is a moment of decision where seven short seconds can make all the difference. As the seconds click by, here are barriers to getting a "Yes! I will complete the form and give you my real information!":

What will it take to get a yes?  Not just a nod of the head, but action in the form of an introduction.

What it takes has been referred to as an ethical bribe, bait, an offer, a bargain, something free and by many other names.  I like to think of it as something valuable that will have high impact and make their day.  You can do it online, in a radio spot, by phone or on the TV.  The reason the Internet is a great option is because of the cost and convenience.

If you have any to all of the offers on the list below, you increase your chances of getting an introduction.

What are the average conversion rates for your industry?  This marketing research chart from MarketingSherpa will give you reason to cheer or leave you depressed.

If you are in a retail business, you are more interested in the purchase than getting them to subscribe. Non profits have the most difficult time because they don't typically offer value, they are hoping for a donation.

Why professional and financial services are the top on the chart may be directly related to the dedication of professional online agencies. 

In this week's chart from Marketing Sherpa, they compare survey responses for top sources of traffic, and conversion of website visitors.