Marketing – Page 16

8 Reasons Your Website Is Failing to Increase Your Conversion Rate

The Internet is a huge network of people, businesses, information, and services striving to attract the most visits to their respective websites. When you first launch your business website or service, the process of attracting potential customers can be overwhelming. Your website is probably one of many that offer similar products. Despite this, you can set yourself apart from competitors and increase your sales in two ways: attract more potential customers or increase the conversion rate of the customers already visiting your website.

Optimizing your website to increase conversion rates is therefore an important component of any online marketing strategy. A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your site that take the action you desire them to take, whether that means filling in their information to become a lead or buying a product or service to become a customer. Many factors contribute to successful conversion rates, and you can make a number of small changes to your website’s design, content, and accessibility to boost your lead conversions or sales. Maybe the number of visitors to your website has stagnated, or maybe it’s growing, but why aren’t those visitors turning into customers? Below are eight potential problems your website is facing and eight solutions that will help you optimize your website and increase the conversion rate of its visitors.

1. Your website design is outdated.

On average, it takes less than a second for a visitor to judge your website (and business) based on its design and overall aesthetic appeal. People are more likely to buy from a business that presents itself in a way that appeals to them visually. This is bad news if your design is outdated or unprofessional, with clashing color schemes, mismatched fonts, unprofessional images, or too much information crammed into a small space.

Solution: Simplify your design and choose an attractive and consistent color scheme that compliments your business and the aesthetic of the customers to whom you want to appeal. Create an attractive and obvious header image that showcases the name of your business so your customers know they are in the right place. Understand and use font hierarchy so the most important information you need a new visitor to know stands out from the smaller print. Avoid large blocks of text on your main pages. They can overwhelm visitors who are new to your product or service—leave the more substantial content for the blog posts, ebooks, and other great resources your website has to offer.

2. Your call to action (CTA) isn‘t the first thing your visitors see.

This step is crucial for increasing conversion rates. Is it clear what you are offering and how potential customers can obtain your product or service? Depending on your business, your call to action could be a free service quote, a subscription, a free trial, or a consultation. All these lead a potential customer to a purchase and should be among the most prominent elements of your website.

Solution: Be bold and make your CTA as obvious as you can. Create an attractive, easy-to-see button to advertise what you have to offer, and be sure to place it prominently.

3. Your website doesn‘t load quickly.

When more people can find your business’s website, you have more potential customers. Are your products and services easy to find? Customers who run into problems loading pages, face long wait times to see information, and encounter broken links or other errors are customers who will most likely go somewhere else with their business.

Solution: Optimizing your website for all browsers and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, will naturally increase your conversion rate. Invest in a hosting service that ensures your information loads quickly. Make sure that all pages on your website load properly and that all links work.

4. Your website lacks great content about what you have to offer.

Your website is built and your product or service is available, but you are still having trouble attracting visitors and converting those visitors into leads or customers. People tend to buy from companies that not only have something to sell but also have knowledge to share.

Solution: A great way to attract visitors and convert them into customers is to create great content. Become an authority in your niche to increase your visitors’ confidence in your company and product. Consistently writing helpful articles and engaging content related to your business will help solidify your reputation as an online resource that people will return to again and again.

5. Your navigation is complicated.

Too many options can be overwhelming. Does your website do a great job of leading customers to the information they want to find? How navigation is addressed in your website design is one of the most important factors in increasing conversion rates. Visitors who can’t find what they need quickly and easily will most likely not turn into customers.

Solution: Check out how your competition handles website navigation. Often, certain types of businesses have a recognizable system that works efficiently to get visitors where they want to be. Keep menus simple and clean, and lead your customer to information by presenting it in a progressive and intuitive way.

6. Options to purchase aren‘t immediately clear.

A website for a product or service should make it easy to purchase that product or service. Navigating to products should be easy and intuitive with clearly defined menus. Once a visitor is viewing a particular product, it should be easy for that visitor to find the Add to Cart button and become a customer.

Solution: Make every effort to create an easy-to-use ecommerce system with visible “Buy” buttons and checkout options. Finding product categories or services on your main page should be quick and easy. Avoid complicated menus.

7. Your content isn‘t honest and authentic.

If you’re the owner of a small online business, you’re responsible for many different things. You want to add content that attracts visitors and increases your conversion rates, but you’re not sure how to write it.

Solution: The key is to be transparent about who you are and what you do. People are more likely to buy from you if they recognize that real people are behind the online business. Try to convey this through your content in a way that makes your visitors more likely to connect with what you have to offer and become customers. Be open about your products and services and about the availability of both.

8. Your website isn‘t up front about purchasing or product information.

It can be hard to compete with other online businesses, some of which may have a much larger following than you. Reputation and word-of-mouth testimonials are just as important online as they are in real life. How do you go about building trust to convert more customers?

Solution: Building trust and a great reputation online can take time. Offer customer reviews so that first-time visitors can gain an idea of how previous customers feel about your product or service. Be transparent about your return policies and shipping fees, and make it easy for each customer to track their transactions so that they can see exactly where their purchase is.

6 Article Marketing Tips for Your Business

Creating content for your website is a great way to promote your business. You can indirectly promote your business and encourage readers to become customers if you provide your readers with interesting information they enjoy reading.

Articles are an excellent form of content for marketing. Articles can be any length; they provide information that customers find useful, and they can be published regularly, often in a short time. These articles must be published online strategically so they can effectively promote your business and give your website the engagement it needs to succeed.

How do you achieve this? How can you ensure your article marketing reaches your audience?

1. Give your readers something unique

Article marketing is the presentation of written material that gives customers useful information about your product. This means that the articles you write must give your customers something no one else can. This content should be unique and interesting, as well as encourage readers to visit your website again. A really good question to ask yourself when thinking about what to write about is: “How can I serve my customers?” By making it about your customers, and not about you, you will provide value.

2. Summarize your article

To convince your customers to read your article, try writing a summary paragraph to accompany the full article. Beyond a catchy headline, a summary will give your readers a better idea of what your article is about so they will be more inclined to read it. In article marketing, a summary could be the deciding factor of whether someone browsing the Internet will devote time to reading your business’s material. The one or two line summary should reinforce the headline and suggest the article’s value proposition. You want to reassure the reader that the article will be worth his or her time.

3. Build authority

Obviously, you should share your own content to your followers. However, you should also share good material from other authors. Why? Because doing so will help you build authority in your niche.

The key word here is good material. Try to find articles that will provide high value to your followers. The more value you provide, the more likely people are to trust your judgement. You will become an authority in your industry, and you will find more people willing to share your articles.

4. Publish your articles elsewhere

While it is necessary to publish your articles on your own website, it is a good idea to publish them on other websites, as well. Some websites only accept new and original guest articles, while others allow you to republish material from your site. Readers that might not have previously heard of your business can be directed to your website, opening up new possibilities for potential customers.

Where should you publish? Where your customers are, of course. Rather than just submitting your articles everywhere and hoping for the best, it’s a good idea to figure out what your potential customers are reading and submit your work there. This will have two benefits: First, you will help search engines understand what your site is about if your inbound links come from places that are semantically related to what you do. Second, the best inbound link is one that also sends you visitors.

5. Use social media to share

Social media is an excellent tool for increasing your website’s visibility and engaging in valuable article marketing. Sharing your articles regularly on these newsfeeds will remind your followers of your business and brand. As well, customers can re-share your posts to their own networks.

6. Ask for the share

If your articles are well written and informative, other websites will probably link to them or share them organically. However, it doesn’t hurt to gently remind readers occasionally to help you get the word out. This can be done via share buttons at the bottom of your page, or in your status update (e.g., if you like this piece, please share it with your friends!)

What To Look For in a Chief Content Officer

Creating and managing content within a company is a big job. Now, more than ever, brands need to make clients and customers smarter about their product, service, organization, and how they do business. Traditionally, this job falls on the shoulder of the marketing and promotions department. Eager to get word out about their company, these tenacious individuals sit alongside agency partners, discussing brand strategies, campaign catchphrases, creative concepts, and media master plans, and yet, rarely is there a top-level executive assigned to oversee the very foundations of the creation and execution of these marketing messages.

In today’s content crazed world, brands are becoming more and more like social enterprises, as such, the need for companies to tell their stories through engaging, educational content is becoming increasingly paramount. Enter the CCO, or Chief Content Officer. The mastermind behind content-driven programs, it’s the CCO’s job to manage, coordinate, plan, and distribute content as part of an inbound marketing strategy.

And yet, very few organizations have extended their C-suite to include a communications professional. Not surprisingly, this is because many management teams aren’t entirely clear on what a CCO should do. The following are five basic qualities that every CCO should have:

1) Be a leading content creator and curator

The old models of marketing (press releases, product launches, video advertisements etc.,) need to be remodeled for the new world of engaged marketing. The best Chief Content Officers know how to turn customer success stories into sales pitches, and external recognition into community engagement.

2) Have a keen understanding of everything

This may seem like an impossible request, but it’s what sets exceptional CCOs apart from the pack. When you’re working across an enterprise, it pays to know what’s happening in each and every department. This will enable you to create content that ties in a wide variety of components. Remember, your goal is to guide the type of content that is being produced so that it can be used to draw more people into your brand circle. As such, you need to have a strong understanding of everything that’s happening in the marketing, public relations, product development, and editorial management departments.

3) Share your knowledge

The best brands understand the power of knowledge distribution. So don’t be shy. Give your CCO the duty of researching, coordinating, creating, and packaging content campaigns that provide your customers with insightful, relevant, and useful information. Become the expert in your chosen topic in order to gain credibility and customer loyalty.

4) Be capable of building relationships

CCOs need to be connected. From Google+ to Twitter, marketing conferences to media events, CCOs know how to find, engage, and maintain relationships with top writers, reporters, and reviewers in their industry. Always remember that people connect with people. So don’t just send out a faceless pitch or stock press release. Your CCO is there to bridge the gap through the creation of newsworthy content and network building interactions.

5) Be a content DJ

The best brands understand that content can no longer be produced in singular, simplistic forms. The digital world has provided us with countless was to express our stories — text, photos, graphics, videos — the list goes on and on. A CCO understands the nuances of narrative delivery and is willing to remix content in order to engage audiences in a way that encourages engagement.

There’s no question that content can have a major impact on your company. Unfortunately, few organizations have the leadership in place to head up successful content strategies. Make finding your company CCO a priority in order to enhance your company narrative, and enjoy the cost savings that come with a disciplined content plan.