The end goal of almost any website is to generate profit. To do so, you need to bring traffic. And then make your visitors convert.
A solid marketing strategy will help you bring enough traffic. But converting them is not that easy.
On average, ecommerce sites have a conversion rate of only 2.48%. Even websites with great products and services may fail to make enough sells.
So, how can you maintain the profitability of your website?
There are hundreds of conversion rate optimisation techniques that you have probably heard of. But all of these are based on some general principles. If you know these well, you can create more customised optimisation strategies for yourself.
Here are the 5 general tips that will increase the conversion and profitability of any business focused website:
1. Make it simple to convert
Make it very easy for your visitors to convert. Don’t offer them too many options. Don’t ask them for too much information. Just present what you have to offer.
People tend to have very short attention spans. Especially when they are looking for something online. A site that goes straight to the point has a better chance of converting its visitors.
2. Present your product or service in the right way
(a) Mention the benefits of your products:
To be honest, your potential customers are not really interested to know how great your product is. They want to know how your product can solve their problems.
So, it’ll be a lot more effective if you describe the benefits of your product rather than some general descriptions. Suppose you sell kitchen knives. You may describe your products to be made of 100% stainless steel. But a better description will be “100% stainless after years of kitchen use”.
If you are describing an air conditioner, statements like – “comes with advanced dust filter” will be a lot less effective than something like – “get cleaner air with our advanced dust filter”.
(b) Show your customers how to use your product:
Mentioning how your products can solve your customers’ problems is great. To take things even further, you can also demonstrate how to use your product.
For example, if you are selling an email marketing service, a step-by-step guide that shows how to set up a campaign will be really appreciated by the potential buyers.
(c) Add testimonials or reviews:
Adding reviews and testimonials will certainly increase the conversion rate of your website. Reviews help to improve the trust and credibility of the products or services that you offer. Which in turn makes it easy to sell those. Study shows that 72% consumers will trust your business more if they see the positive reviews on your site.
(d) Include photos, videos and demonstrations:
For physical products, high-quality photos is a must. For services, you may offer a free demo or trial for interested customers. Including product videos, 360-degree images or animations are good ways to give an idea to your visitors about the real product. An engaging website design will compliment your product presentation.
3. Offer responsive, multiple-channel communication
Many websites don’t offer multiple channels of communication. And that is a big mistake. Your site should offer email, phone, live chat (if possible) and a physical address. Omitting phone number or email will definitely reduce your conversion rate. Apart from these, establishing a responsive and friendly customer care is another must for any business-focused site.
4. Narrow your focus
A site that tries to cater a wide audience will find it hard to become profitable. You may think that appealing to a larger group of people is a viable strategy. But it’s not. At least not unless your business is really huge with lots of products and services.
Set a well-chosen niche and focus all your efforts there. This will help your site to get regular visitors and more conversions.
Narrowing down your focus also involves fine-tuning the tone of your site. Your brand voice must have a definite tone and this should reflect throughout your online presence.
5. Always offer something free but useful
Even if a visitor doesn’t buy anything from your site, they shouldn’t leave empty-handed. Offering an ebook, a discount coupon or anything that they might find useful will help you get future conversions. Any free stuff you offer must be of high quality and useful to your potential customers.
So these were our tips to increase the profitability of your website. Though each site is different, these best practices are applicable to pretty much all kind of business-focused sites.
Apart from the basics, maintaining profitability needs continuous efforts and fine-tuning of strategies. A large part of the effort goes towards analyzing the competitors and consumer behaviour. But the best practices that we mentioned above will make sure that you have a solid foundation to amp up your profit.
Contributed byWebalive.com.au
