4 Tips To Improve Your Website’s Conversion
We’ve got traffic… but why aren’t the sales ticking up?
Having run a digital marketing agency for over 6 years (BMAS), we’d ask ourselves that question on a daily basis. It was our responsibility to ensure that we did all we could to drive relevant traffic to our clients’ websites and, once on site, ensure the site was best placed for those users to convert.
I guess I never fully appreciated the mind of my clients until now. See, in January this year I left the agency (on good terms, I’m still a shareholder and advisor), to pursue a dream of building my own brand. Enter stage left, Manors Golf. I’ll save the long-winded explanation as to why I did that for another article. After all, you are here to learn about improving web conversion and having sat on both the agency and client side, I’ve got a good perspective (hopefully you’ll agree).
Quick bit of context, the agency specialises in working with startups and SMEs. Our brands do between £25k-£1m+ in annual revenues. So this information is relevant for a range of business sizes.
Let’s set the scene.
You spent all that time planning out your marketing strategy; maybe you convinced someone to write an article about your business or you finally decided to take the plunge and invest into some Instagram ads.
Like any good business owner, you then spend time looking through your Google Analytics. Your traffic is up and there is a 10% increase in new visitors; result! But wait, your conversion rate is down… “Why didn’t these new customers buy!!?”.
Frustrating, I know.
Then again, why should they choose you and not that other brand they already know and trust?
1. Keep it Simple
It’s easy to overcomplicate your user experience because you think that consumers want a really jazzy web experience. But let’s remember, when your customer is not browsing on your website, they are shopping for essentials on Amazon, Ocado, Ebay or other major retailers. None of these website are ‘sexy’ right? That’s because they are pure ‘UX’ plays and have spent millions analysing their vast volumes of customer data to work out how to convert customers.
There is a core “style” of e-commerce the average customer is accustom too.
At the agency, we saw a lot of clients want to try and re-invent the wheel in an attempt to stand out. More often than not, this would actually negatively impact the conversion rate as the novelty quickly wares off; customers subconsciously don’t want to have to re-learn a shopping process.
Much like if you shopped at the same supermarket weekly, and they suddenly moved all the products to different aisles. It would p*ss you off!
Keep the checkout process uniform. Your main shop page should be a grid system, 2 or 3 products across, with access to simple filters allowing users to move between product types, sizes and price ranges.
Your product page should show 3+ product images and the ‘add to cart’ button has to be easily visible in both mobile and desktop. Checkout needs to be possible within three steps from the point at which the product has been added to the cart.
There is room for individuality online, but ensure that your website user-flow is not messed with too much — let your visuals do the talking.
2. Limit Choice
Some of the most successful online brands are specialists at limiting choice. All Birds focused on their merino wool shoes. Away owns luggage. Suit Supply do… you guessed it!
What’s important about these three brands is that most their revenue comes from their core lines — and they only add to the range to test or show they are capable of innovating. Fundamentally, the blue regular fit suit is what keeps Suit Supply in business.
For new brands, too much choice can be damaging. You drive customers to your online store and they want to learn a little about you and start building that trust. But if they are presented with too much choice, it can seem a daunting task. Clean out your back catalogue of items that didn’t sell.
It’s tempting to keep them online but chances are that if they haven’t worked already, they are not going to now. Cut your losses.
You have to prioritise your best sellers because you know they are popular. Ensure that customers have the best chance of navigating through to these key products and thus, spend less times browsing your weaker lines. You will only have their attention for so long and it can’t be wasted on the mediocre stuff.
The homepage is often your moment to shine. Don’t try push dead stock here; make sure your hero products are visible within the first 5 seconds of browsing.
3. Invest In and Leverage Technology
Data is your best friend. Doesn’t matter if you have 2,000, 20,000 or 200,000 hits a month. The data means something. Google Analytics is a great starting point but there are tools out there that are very worth investing in. I appreciate that these services do come at a cost and it’s easy for it all to add up. So, make the most of the free trials on offer and test to see what works for you and your business.
Google Analytics (GA): Yep, obvious one. And yes it is free. The service provides insights into your traffic, demographic, location, referral info and more. It’s the cockpit of your proverbial space ship. You should be looking at this daily. Use their comparison tools to see how you are performing this week compared to last week or, the same week the year before. Try and dig into your referral sources. For example, you might have paid for a piece of PR that got you 200 hits day one and none since but you don’t notice the free bit of coverage you received that is getting you a more valuable and consistent 40 hits a week. This data helps you make educated decisions on where to spend your capital and where to allocate your time going forward.
Hot Jar: This awesome tool records your website visitors and allows you to play back a video of their whole website experience. You can watch the navigation, where they click, the mouse movements and more. It helps you see genuine humans interacting with your website. This software has helped us identify bottlenecks in the user flow and subsequently make sweeping changes to UX, product layout and even our content. I wish I had a referral plan with these guys as I’ve recommended it to lots of people. Give their 30 day free trial a go and thank me later.
Klarna: This is a new tool I am just about to start with. It allows customers the option to pay for their goods 30 days later or over 3 different instalments. The customer gets the item straight away and also pays no interest. The store owner gets paid straight away too but Klarna takes a 5% fee. The data suggests that average basket size can go up by over 40% if you offer instalment payments as an option so I’m willing to trial it out. It’s not cheap but if I it does increase our cart value it will be worth the investment. If it doesn’t, then we cut it and move on!
GTMetrix: Another very useful, and free tool! GTMetrix allows you to run speed tests on your website. Make sure you sign up for the (free) account as this will allow you to test from your local servers — it defaults to Canada if not. You can also alter the connection level to see what your website loading times are for a speedy home Wifi Vs a 3G mobile user who’s on the move. The tool spits out some useful tips on how you could improve that page’s web speed; like optimising images. You can also run tests on your competitors’ websites to see how you compare. Just take results with a pinch of salt as it’s not bullet proof but serves as a good guide.
[Let me know if there are any that you use or recommend I test ]
4. Content Is King
Good visuals, video content and copywriting — is what is going to do most of your selling. Invest in quality product imagery and campaign shoots — it is what will make you stand apart from the competition. It is sometimes hard to stomach another studio bill, but if you don’t invest in your products why would your potential customers?
On average, users will spend 4–6 seconds on each product page and you need to convince them that they should part with their hard earned cash in that timeframe.
A clean product page, strong product image and complementary photo of the product on a model will go a long way in doing the selling for you. If they want to dig deeper, they should be able to find a clear size guide and simple product description, all in record time. Make a special mention of the model’s height and the size they are wearing (i.e. the model is 178cm / 5ft 10" and is wearing a medium).
It is also up to you to make sure that content gets maximum value and coverage. It can be used across your social media feeds, in press releases and on your marketing channels. If it looks good people are more likely to share it or publish it on their own channels/media hubs.
We have done this in a big way at Manors, I’ll let you be the judge of that but I’d like to think our website and Instagram do a very good job at showing we truly care about our content.
If you are having trouble selling a particular range, why not tell your customers more about it in your website journal or blog? The narrative is key and it is easy to think your customers are mind readers. Surprise, they aren’t!
As an example, one of the best reactions we had at Manors was to a video we did on the factory where our products are made — people long for original content and it doesn’t have to cost huge money. Some of the best content is not product focused, it is brand led.
In my eyes, no one does this better than Nike. No “shop now”, “buy here” jargon. Yes it’s Nike, but this is basically a glorified powerpoint and they have still created impact because it is current and on point. Again, simplicity is key! (they achieved the same incredible impact with their Mamba Forever Video)
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It’s easy to let this all get the better of you. But it’s a hustle, competition and choice is at an all-time high right now.
Investment doesn’t always have to mean money; it can be your time and energy too. So don’t leave your data there to sit gathering dust, dig into it and start analysing. You’d be amazed at how few business owners spend time in the engine rooms.
Learn; read, implement and share. Repeat it all over again — every inch of progress counts.
