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Written by, Erin Stuebing 

What is a conversion rate?

Depending on what industry your business operates in, a “conversion” can look like many different things. It may be an action such as;

·      Calling your business

·      Making a purchase

·      Submitting a contact form

·      Signing up for a subscription

·      Engaging with your online chat

·      Downloading a document (e-book, pdf, app download, etc.)

Simply put, your conversion rate is the percentage of users who visit your landing page or website and end up doing the thing that you want them to do. In analytical terms: Conversion Rate =(Conversions / Total Visitors) * 100%.

Why is it Important?

Understanding and monitoring your conversion rates is important because they can be used to directly measure the success of your marketing efforts. Of course, there are several moving parts to your company’s advertising and marketing strategies, and conversion rate can typically be used to measure just about any of them. If you want to be ROI positive on your advertising spend, you must put effort into your conversion rate.

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The beautiful thing about the world of digital marketing and advertising is the flexibility that it allows you to have in your strategies.If you are finding a low conversion rate over an extended period of time, there are always things that can be done to improve. Often times what seems like a minor tweak to your strategy can lead to an improved conversion rate.

Industry Averages and Benchmarks 

When it comes to Google Ads, the average conversion rate across all industries is 4.40 percent (0.57 percent for the display network) That being said, the average conversion rate does vary from industry to industry. As you can see below, the Arts &Entertainment average conversion rate for Google Search is above the 4.40percent average across industries, at 4.74 percent. However, the DisplayNetwork average conversion rate comes in below the 0.57 percent average across industries. This is an example of how one industry may find great success with one channel, but require an adjusted approach to succeed in others.

Source: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2019/08/19/conversion-rate-benchmarks

What is a Good Conversion Rate?

Here is the thing about industry benchmarks and averages; there are several aspects that are not accounted for. When it comes to the question of “what is a good conversion rate?”, the answer is simple… higher that it is right now. If we’re breaking this down into simple terms, the most important figures to compare to are your own. A growing conversion rate is a good conversion rate.

10 Ways to Improve Your Conversion Rate 

1. Use A/B Testing

 What is A/B Testing? It is simply the method of comparing two different variations of a marketing element and comparing their performance for optimization. Marketing elements refers to aspects such as CTAs, headlines, image, colour, font, etc. A/B testing is basically the marketing version of applying human psychology to business.

Source: https://www.addthis.com/blog/2014/11/05/5-tips-to-run-simple-effective-marketing-website-tests/

2. Use action words in your Call to Actions (CTAs)

 It is crucial to any business to build some form of sales funnel in order to generate leads, improving conversion rate. We have talked on our blog before about the importance of using strong Call to Actions (CTAs) at all levels of your funnel.

3. Improve your landing page speed

 Having a lagging landing page is a surefire way to suffer the consequences of a low conversion rate. There are numerous plugin options available to activate on your website, with many user friendly options for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

4. Make your site easy to navigate (be-rid of the fluff!)

 You have about 3 seconds to grab your users’ attention before they exit your site, so you don’t want to compromise your first touch with distractions. Instead, your landing page should focus deliberately on getting the web user to take one specific action before exiting your site.

Avoid filling these pages with excess messaging and content, you will see more benefit from directing your users to narrow in one taking one action.

5. Use limited time offers

 One thing that makes every human feel good is scoring a good deal, whatever the product or service may be. It is always more tempting and more convincing of an investment in the eyes of the consumer when they are saving time and/or money in the process.

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Limited time offers can come in the form of promotional marketing emails, pop-up forms on your website, social media posts announcing and linked to limited time offer, etc.

6. Include as few fields as possible

 When your customer enters your funnel and is willing to subscribe to what you are offering, you must still strategize to carry this customer through the end zone. One common mistake made on websites is taking up too much of their customer’s time. The longer it takes for the user to get to the end point, the more likely they are to exit prematurely.

7. Use testimonials and reviews

 Trust is the foundation of every relationship, business and personal. Not often does someone want to be the first person to use a product or service, which is why people rely on online reviews so heavily before making a final decision. This is why using customer testimonials and reviews on your landing pages can be effective in increasing conversion rates.

8. Include a clear value proposition

 On any landing page, a clear, strong value proposition should be immediately apparent. Try to focus on highlighting the benefits, rather than the features or specifics of the product/service. Consumers need to know what problem you are going to solve for them, above anything else.It is important to note that to have an effective value proposition, you must understand your audience and use copy write that resonates with said audience.

9. Add a pop-up to your site

 We mentioned earlier that pop-up forms can be used as a method of delivery for limited time offers in order to improve conversion rate.It is worth mentioning that pop-up forms can be used in several ways. Try using a pop-up form on your landing page that offers the user a benefit such as free document or guide, discount code for product or service, webinar registration, free gift, etc.

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Don’t be afraid to experiment with different strategies here, you will never know what works for your audience without doing some of your own experimentation.

10. Know how to talk to your audience

The above tips can be executed seamlessly, but none of it matters unless you understand who your audience is, and how to best communicate with them. This goes for the language that you speak, and the words that you use in your copy write. Using copywrite that is too simplistic, or contrarily, too difficult, for your audience can put a halt on all other marketing efforts.

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These are just ten of the numerous tips and tricks that can be used in your marketing strategies to improve conversion rates. It is important to remember that any element or method used in your marketing strategies must be tested to determine its success with your audience. Our team at AMG can take care of improving your web conversion rates, reach out to us today and let’s get started!

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