Winning Tactics For Increasing Conversions
Increasing conversions begins at home.
Many marketers believe that they have a traffic problem, but this is rarely the case. Traffic is everywhere! You can find free traffic via social media and forums or you can pay for traffic via advertising. However, if your visitors aren’t buying, then traffic isn’t going to help! You need to be able to convert your visitors into buyers and there are a few solid principles that you can follow to increase your chances of this.
By the way, if you want a handy resource to refer to about increasing your conversions I have a great free checklist that will become an incredibly useful tool for you, and you can get it here.
K.I.S.S. i.e. keep it simple
You need to ensure that people who reach your website are able to take immediate action, without being confused in the process. Guide them by the hand and show them exactly what you want them to do; don’t assume anything.
For example, if you are sending people to a landing or squeeze page, you want the incentive offer to be bold, upfront and centre and the opt-in form above the fold, so they don’t have to scroll down to see your opt-in form.
It is absolutely critical to make sure you’re using a powerful headline to grab their immediate attention, and are featuring benefits via bullet-point style so that the information is broken down, easy on the eye and simple to digest.
Here are some other things to bear in mind:
Make Visitors Do Less Work.
If you are sending visitors to a squeeze or landing page, it’s important that you only ask for the information that you absolutely need. The more information you ask for, the less likely they are to opt-in. People guard their personal details jealously and with good reason.
Keep it Simple (again)!
Bearing the previous point in mind, your opt-in form should only ask for their name and email address to minimise objection and increase your opt-in conversion rate. Remember that you can segment your lists later when your subscribers begin to open and respond to your various email campaigns, but to maximize opt-in rates, you need to keep it really simple.
It shouldn’t take your visitor more than a few seconds to fill in the required information, so they can subscribe to your list.
Minimize The Need For Too Much Navigation
Keep the page crisp and clean so that you don’t confuse visitors about what action they should take. A confused visitor will likely leave the page and may never return so you need to make it as straightforward as possible for them. Remove ALL unnecessary words and navigational options.
Spend more time on an awesome headline than on graphics because a compelling headline will capture their attention and convince them to continue reading every single word on your page until you have closed the deal. It really is that powerful and can persuade visitors into becoming buyers, and makes believers out of the sceptics. Simply put, less is more.
Copy What Is Working For Others
Become an avid study of successful landing and squeeze pages from competitors within your niche and save yourself time by designing your opt-in pages around what has proven to work. You really do not need to reinvent the wheel here and if you know a page is working for someone else, then it makes sense to use a similar formula in your offers.
Offer An Irresistible “Bribe”
You need to ensure that you are offering something of clear value that resonates with your target audience. Don’t try to be something to everyone on one squeeze page. Create different offers/pages for different types of potential customers. This way you can really start to segment your lists up front so that you’re really able to connect and communicate with specific customers via your email sequences which are tailored to their specific interests. This can have a massive effect on open rates and engagement as you are writing specifically to their wants/needs/desires/concerns.
OK, you have put all the above into action. Great, so what is next; how can you increase conversion rates even more?
Well, next, you need to understand the importance of a powerful USP and how it’ll set you apart from the competition. And believe me, it’s a game changer.
Do you know what an USP is?
Basically, it’s what will allow you to stand out from your competition so that you’re able to maximize sales and build a brand recognized for value.
Arguably, one of the most important elements of branding is to find your company’s Unique Selling Proposition, or USP.
Some people call this the Unique Selling Point. Either way, your brand needs to offer something that makes you different – something they don’t, can’t or won’t offer – to differentiate you from your competitors. What is it that makes you different or unique? Why should someone choose your company or products over your competitors? You really need to spend time figuring this out and then you need to integrate that USP into your sales copy as well as all other aspects of your sales funnel. It needs to be everywhere, in all aspects of your copy, blog posts etc. so people can see it and (hopefully) resonate with it.
Most likely, your product will already have a USP; your job is to identify what that is, and highlight it in your sales copy and marketing campaigns.
It all begins by evaluating your product objectively. Ask the following questions to help you find its USP:
- How can it improve someone’s life?
- How can it help your prospect?
- What does it offer that other products fail to provide?
- Is your product easier to use than the competitions?
Now, it goes without saying that before you even think about creating your USP, you need to know your target audience. Again, here are some questions to get you started:
- What is most important to them?
- What are they struggling with the most?
- How can you truly connect to your target audience?
- What is their greatest challenge?
The closer you know your audience, the easier it will be to develop a USP that means something to them. This process will enable you to create an ideal customer avatar; give them a name too! The more you know about this “person”, the better.
There are many different strategies that you can use to create a USP for your product. Direct marketing legend Dan Kennedy uses a specific question that he needs to answer to identify the USP and that question is, “Why should I choose to do business with you versus your competitor?” The very reason that you created a product in the first place could hold the key to defining your USP.
Think about how your product is different than others on the marketplace; how does it add more value? How does it address a question, concern or simplify a process, such as reducing a learning curve, saving your customers time or money?
Your USP will differentiate you from your competition; more than any other aspect of a marketing campaign ever will.
Follow these simple strategies and I can virtually guarantee that your conversions will increase. And this will result in more opt-ins so you will have a bigger list to market to and hopefully more sales and profit for you.
So, get it done! 😉
