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When people are finding your small business online, either by finding you organically through your marketing efforts or researching your company, your website is the first thing to greet them. Your small business’s website has the power to persuade and convert a potential new customer. That is why you want to make sure your website is working for you.
As the founder and CEO of Succeeding Small, a Digital Marketing Agency in Colorado Springs, Madeleine Costa understands the power of a small business’s digital presence, especially the business’s website. Keep reading to learn the top 5 ways to increase conversions on your small business’s website today.
Use Specific Calls to Action
You can do this by identifying the goal that you want your clients to take. For instance, if you want someone to schedule an estimate with you, that is your call to action. Likewise, if you want your client to buy your product, then that is your call to action. Whatever your goal is, make it known and be as explicit and specific as possible. You increase conversions more efficiently when you are clear about what action you want clients to take.
You can even work backwards from your call to action as you construct your site, write copy, and design navigations on your website. If you know the desired action you want people to take, you can distribute that throughout your website and guide your client as they explore your website.
Strategically Place Your Calls to Action
Not only do you want to use specific calls to action, but you also want to place them throughout your website strategically. Therefore, one of the best places to put your call to action button is on your website’s header. When visualizing your website, people traditionally have the call to action button on the right of the navigation menu. That way, it stands out to your customers. Placing your call to action button on the navigation menu also means that people will be met with that button no matter where they are on your website.
You can also place your call to action button on the very first section of your homepage, otherwise known as the hero section. To visualize this, let’s define the term ‘above the fold.’
Above the fold is a term that comes from the newspaper industry. What is on the cover of the newspaper will persuade you to pick it up, unfold the newspaper, and read the rest of the content. What do people see when they first click on your website? Do you have to scroll to find out more information about your small business? Or is there an enticing title?
Including an enticing title on the homepage of your website is vital to catching the attention of your potential new client. You can have a sentence or two about what you do and then a call to action button placed below, right before the client has to scroll.
Furthermore, it is essential to have a call to action button at the bottom of every page. This way, no matter where on your website your customer is, they have a clear call to action.
Use Trust Signals
One of the most common trust signals and forms of social proof is testimonials. Testimonials are powerful and can be the most persuasive element to increase conversions on your website, so it is essential to use them frequently and strategically. Ideally, you want to feature testimonials that mirror your ideal audience. For instance, if you are building a page about wedding catering, it is important to have testimonials from brides and grooms about how you catered for their special day. This will just allow your visitors to feel heard and seen. If you showcase people like them who have been satisfied with your product or service, then they don’t have to do as much of the guesswork of whether or not to trust you. You have already gained their trust and have proof that you can fulfill the service they want for people just like them.
Another form of trust signals are certificate and accreditations. This means, whatever association or education program you have gone through, or are a part of, go ahead and showcase those logos throughout your website. This builds authority and trust with your audience. It shows them that you are an expert in your field and you know what you’re doing. You can place these logos on your homepage or wherever you see fit. Madeleine recommends placing these on the ‘about us’ page. Therefore, after giving your bio or company story, place these logos below your name or image. Have it so that wherever you scroll, people can learn more about you and understand that they can trust you before hiring you.
Use ‘You’ Language in Your Copywriting
‘You’ is one of the most powerful words in the English language. This is because it talks directly to the person and creates a relationship and conversation that you can have with the person in front of the screen. That being the case, instead of saying, ‘we are a wedding cater, we do X, Y, Z for all of our clients in this particular area’, you can say something like this, ‘you deserve the best on your wedding day with us as your caterer, you can be fully present with your spouse and guests while we take care of the meal’.
This puts the focus back on the customer and paints a picture of what potential problems your customer could have and how you can be a guide to solve those problems for them. This makes the visitors more involved in the purchasing decision and will prompt them to be able to convert quicker because you have described the scenario of how you can best serve them. Using ‘you’ language is a proven way to increase conversions.
Have Calls to Action That Follow the Stages in Your Customer’s Journey
By customer journey, Madeleine means the journey a person takes to feel comfortable buying from your small business, especially if this is a stranger who has never heard of, or hired you before. It is important to keep in mind that sometimes people aren’t ready to fully commit to your services or product. By having calls to action, you can build and nurture a relationship with your customer until they are ready to buy and convert.
There are three stages in a customer’s journey; one is awareness, two is consideration, and three is purchasing. So when your potential customer is in the awareness stage, you can place that call to action button on your website that encourages them to subscribe to your newsletter.
The best way to gain your customer’s trust on their journey is to offer a freebie, like your newsletter, a free trial, or some sort of no-obligation quote or program that allows people to evaluate whether or not you are the best business for the job.
Then, when the customer is near the end of their journey, the purchasing phase, that is where your traditional call to action button comes in. So, if you place all three of these stages on your website in the form of calls to action buttons, you are more likely to not only increase conversion but you’re able to collect customer information and data that allows you to continue to nurture relationships over time.
Improve Your Website Speed
If your website takes more than 4 seconds to load, 40% of your visitors will leave. This statistic proves people’s short attention span but also indicates the importance of having a quick loading website. Having a fast-loading website not only increases conversions on your website, but also helps with your search engine optimization as well.
Website speed is one of the most important rank signals that Google cares about when it decides where to rank your site on its search engine results page. So if you have a quick-loading website, you are able to rank higher and convert more customers.
A tool that you can use to see your website speed is called GTmetrix. This is a tool that Succeeding Small uses to test website speed and get explicit recommendations on how to improve it. With GTmetrix, you are able to get full recommendations on how to improve your website speed along with a downloadable PDF of how to implement these changes to your website. One thing that often slows down your website is your site’s images. This can be solved by compressing your images so the pixels are not as large and it will take the internet server less time to load these images. If your website is built on WordPress, you can also use plugins to help you compress your file sizes.
Succeeding Small is Here to Help You Increase Conversions on Your Website
Conversion rate optimization is so important in digital marketing, and this can be the difference between someone bouncing off your site or converting them into a loyal customer. Conversion rate optimization will enhance all of your marketing efforts and turn your website into a working asset that truly benefits your small business. If you have any further questions on how to increase conversions on your website, don’t hesitate to contact us today.
