You’ve spent time, money, and effort on developing your website and online presence.
And you want to see a return on your investment.
Generally, this return on investment will involve increased conversion rate and revenue, also known as Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO).
But you need to tread very carefully indeed. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. How do you think this customer feels if they are bombarded by advertisements every time they visit your website? Or if they feel that the website is deploying underhanded tactics to make them convert?
The answer to both these questions is, of course, not very good at all.
Take a look at some techniques and rules you can follow to prevent alienating your audience while still working to increase website conversion rates.
Put the User Experience First
You can’t simply tell your customers that they need to convert — you must encourage conversions by giving them what they need. You can guide and mould this experience, by all means, and you can advise customers on the actions you want them to take on your website, but their needs and aims come first as you strive to boost CRO.
Target a Developing Knowledge
Of course, you can only put user experience first once you have gotten to know this user. In many ways, the process of developing your website and your customer journey is a collaborative one, in which you work with customers to learn more about what they want and need, and then put a plan into action to fulfil these wants and needs. Remember to keep learning more about your customers as they grow, developing an understanding of their evolving needs, and amending the content on your website in light of this knowledge.
Be Completely Transparent
Never try to trick your customers — remember how smart they are. If you make spurious offers that are not quite what they seem or use a flashy design to garner clicks dishonestly, users will not react well to this at all. Yes, you may trick someone into a one-off sale, but you are going to lose out on business in the long run.
Consider Technical Page Performance
Your page needs to be loading quickly and efficiently if it is to support conversion optimisation. Don’t forget this during your website design phase, and don’t overload the page with plugins or features that will slow the site down.
Find the Balance
As a business owner, you want to be informative and interesting to your audience, and yet you also want to make sales. This is where you need to find the balance between unbiased objectivity and a hard sell — move too far one way, and your website will be too weak to convert; move too far the other way, and you’ll drive your consumers away.
Honesty and integrity are key to balancing CRO with a positive customer experience, but so are knowledge and understanding. Take the time to get to know your customers, and play it straight with them. You will be rewarded.