You've spent a lot of time building and optimizing your website and investing in your digital marketing strategy, but your conversion rate is still abysmal. How can that be?
The culprits behind this problem are most likely conversion barriers. They are invisible but deadly enemies of your business that keep silently driving your customers away.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take (some of which are incredibly simple) to transform your website from a digital maze into a well-oiled conversion-generating machine.
Let's dive right in, identify these conversion saboteurs and discuss effective strategies to eliminate them and achieve a healthy conversion rate for your website.
Obstacle 1: Customers don't know what you are selling
One of the most common barriers to conversion is a lack of clear communication. If your customers don't understand what your product does and what benefits it brings them, they won't be motivated to buy it. It's as simple as that.
It's important to clearly communicate the value proposition of your product or service, focusing on the customer's needs and how your product fulfills them. In other words, potential customers don't want to read about how great your product or service is. They just want to know how it will improve their lives.
So when writing your website texts, put yourself in your customers' shoes and think about what they will get out of it.
Here are some tips that can help you.
Know your customers
You can't clearly communicate your value proposition if you don't call your target group by their first name.
This is where buyer personas help. These semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers help you to shape your marketing message, tone and style so that they resonate with your target group.
To create effective buyer personas, you need to research the following (and more):
- Who are your potential customers?
- What are their problems?
- What are your goals?
- What are your preferences?
- How do they make their decisions?
Put the customer benefit above the product function.
Another way to overcome this hurdle is to emphasize the benefits of your product and not just its features.
Features refer to the functionality of your product and show what your product can do, while benefits are what your product can do for your customers. Benefits give your audience a reason to buy by answering the question «What is it?» and showing how your product solves a problem or makes your customers' lives easier.
In other words: Your customer doesn't really care if your vacuum cleaner is powered by a 1200-watt motor, but you'll get their attention if you say it effortlessly sucks up even the most stubborn dirt in the smallest crevices.
Going, for example, has understood that its customers want to find the cheapest flights without having to search and compare many offers. The message on the «Find cheap flights» landing page is simple and customer-oriented: «You can find cheap flights at Going» or «Tired of searching? Have them delivered to you».
This message gets to the heart of the matter and addresses the most important problems of the target group. No features are listed on this landing page, the only thing that counts is the certainty that customers will not have to pay inflated prices for flight tickets or spend hours searching for the right offer.
Show your offer in action
Demonstrating how your product or service works can be an effective way to communicate its value and functionality. This tactic can also reduce uncertainty and skepticism by providing proof of concept and giving potential customers the opportunity to try out the product and see if it meets their needs.
This will make them more willing to buy from you. They are also less likely to return the product, complain or ask for a refund.
MarketBeat, a platform that provides market data and analysis for traders, offers a report that provides an overview of the 50 best dividend stocks in the stock market.
Instead of hiding the report behind a paywall and describing how good it is for generating leads, grant potential customers unlimited partial access and only charge for certain premium filters. This way, potential customers can see for themselves the value and usefulness of the report and are sure to pay for it.
Obstacle 2: Your conversion UX is too complex and confusing
The online market is highly saturated and competitive, so consumers have a variety of options to choose from. This is true regardless of whether your conversion is a purchase, generating a lead or booking a demo.
If it's not obvious how to register on your site and make a purchase, or if the process is frustratingly complicated with too many steps, it's much easier for a potential customer to find another product than to decipher your confusing UX.
This also includes things like asking for superfluous information and too many mandatory fields in web forms, so limit yourself to a maximum of three to five fields. The same applies to lead generation forms.
A heatmap tool with session recordings like Hotjar can help you see where people are dropping off in the conversion process and what steps are causing problems. Here are two more tips for improving the user experience (UX) of the conversion process.
Make the payment process super easy
A simple and straightforward checkout process goes a long way to improving your conversion rate. The trick is to reduce the cognitive load and friction for your customers and guide them smoothly to the final step of the purchase.
Some good examples of how to design a user-friendly checkout page are:
- Insert a progress bar or step indicator to show the customer how far they are from completing the purchase.
- Provide clear and concise instructions and labeling for each field and step
- Use autocomplete, drop-down menus and validation functions to simplify and speed up data entry.
- Customers can edit or remove items from the shopping cart without leaving the checkout page.
- Use of a minimalist layout and design that draws attention to the most important elements and avoids distractions.
Alphalite's checkout process covers all the basic elements and eliminates potential obstacles by implementing a highly visible progress bar. The design is clear and intuitive without distracting the customer at this critical moment. To complete the transaction, the brand also offers various alternative payment options such as PayPal and Google Pay for express checkout.
Activate guest checkout
24% of customers say they have abandoned a shopping cart because they were asked to create an account. It's clear that this practice can have a negative impact on your conversion rates, as some customers will abandon a purchase if they are required to register before buying.
To avoid this and reduce the abandonment rate, you should offer your customers the option to pay as a guest without creating an account or logging in. This saves time and hassle for those who don't want to disclose their personal details or remember another password.
Of course, you should still encourage your customers to sign up for your email list or loyalty program. But you can do this after they've completed their purchase, or you can offer them incentives like discounts or free shipping. You can also use social signup options or email verification to make account creation easier and faster.
The ordering process at Anytime Baseball Supply is very easy. Customers do not need to sign in or register. They can also speed up the purchase process even further by paying via PayPal, Amazon Pay and other digital payment methods.
Obstacle 3: The mobile experience is not optimized
Statistics show that in the first two quarters of 2023, almost 57 % of global website traffic came from mobile devices. This means that a mobile-friendly website is not just a nice-to-have, but a necessity for businesses that want to reach and convert their audience.
But people don't just use their mobile devices to surf and access information. They also use their smartphones for shopping.
M-commerce is on the rise and is predicted to account for 43 % of total retail e-commerce sales by 2023. Even B2B customers are using their phones in combination with desktop computers as part of the buying process.
If you still can't provide your visitors with a satisfactory mobile experience, you won't benefit from this trend. Issues such as slow loading times, difficult navigation and search, intrusive pop-ups and small or illegible fonts can lead to frustration and distrust among mobile users and ultimately higher bounce rates.
Design for mobile devices
Below are some best practices for mobile website design that you should consider:
- Keep it simple. Less is more here, so avoid too many elements, colors or animations that could clutter your design and distract or confuse the user. Concentrate on the most important content and functions that the user needs from your website. website. By using negative space, contrast and hierarchy, you can create a clear mobile interface.
- Create large buttons. Make sure that your buttons are large enough to be tapped easily. Don't place them too close together or at the edge of the screen. It is also important that users receive visual feedback when they tap the buttons. Clear and meaningful labels can avoid confusion and significantly improve the user experience.
- Avoid pop-ups. Pop-ups can be annoying and intrusive for mobile users, especially if they take up the entire screen or are difficult to close. They can also affect the loading speed and performance of your website.
- Use fonts that are easy to read. Choose fonts that are easy to read and are used consistently throughout the website. They should be at least 16 pixels in size so that users do not have to click on the screen to zoom in.
- Optimize your images. Images are important for the visual appeal and engagement of your website, but they can also slow down the website and put a strain on the user's data. To optimize your images for mobile devices, compress them and use a suitable format such as JPEG, PNG or SVG.
Warby Parker's mobile website meets all of these best practices and then some. It is easy to navigate and has clearly labeled buttons so that even people with fat fingers have no problems. The website also offers the opportunity to try out the glasses at home. This removes one of the biggest hurdles to online shopping - the inability to touch, smell and test the product. Instead of annoying pop-ups, Warby Parker uses a clever workaround and advertises a discount with a banner at the top of the homepage.
Barrier 4: Lack of trust signals
The lack of trust signals on your website is the ultimate conversion killer.
We all have concerns and doubts when we shop online, and if you can't convince your customers that you are reputable and their data is safe, they will find a better website to shop on.
Customer reviews, testimonials, ratings, social media mentions, awards, certifications and security badges show that your customers don't have to worry about the quality of your products or services and that they don't have to share their personal data with you.
Remember that basic trust signals may not be enough to convert your visitors into paying customers. Consumers have become more educated and skeptical, so generic or vague testimonials and reviews just won't cut it anymore.
That's why you need to improve your social proof and use stronger and more persuasive techniques to gain the trust of your audience. And there's nothing better than telling real customer stories to increase website visitors' trust in your brand.
Case studies differ from testimonials and reviews in that they are more detailed, specific and personal. They include the customer or client's background and the challenges they faced, followed by tangible and quantifiable evidence of how your offering helped them.
All this makes case studies likeable and contributes to their authenticity. Case studies are an important conversion driver for B2B websites.
Trustshoring provides a series of detailed case studies that illustrate what they have done for a client. This allows potential customers with similar challenges to see if the brand's services meet their needs and what they can expect. Being able to visualize the results, in turn, encourages new customers to choose the brand. The Workclub case study is a great example of how these complex trust signals can be presented in an accessible way - it tells the story of how Workclub helped the brand staff its technical team to meet a challenging deadline.
Recognizing the importance of social proof in the healthcare sector, GetSafe is doubling (or tripling) its customer experience by providing three videos of real calls to emergency call centers. This way, potential customers visiting the brand's product page for medical emergency call systems can better understand how the service works and be assured that they are in good hands when they need medical assistance.
Obstacle 5: No follow-up
98 % of visitors leave your website without making a transaction on their first visit - especially if their starting point is your blog or they're doing a lengthy B2B search. This means you only keep 2% of visitors who have taken action.
According to some sources, it takes no less than eight touchpoints before a potential customer decides to buy. If you let that 98% of your traffic disappear into oblivion and just hope they come back, you're leaving way too much money on the table.
To prevent your potential customers from falling through the cracks, you need to keep in touch with them and stay up to date.
In physical stores, customers can simply leave and never come back. Online, however, they have many more opportunities for a second chance.
There are several effective conversion optimization strategies that can turn the tide:
- Retargeting based on pixels. This tactic is a lifesaver, even if you don't have the contact details of your website visitors. It involves inserting a pixel (a tiny piece of code in the backend of your website) into each visitor's browser. The pixel sits in the visitor's browser, tracks their behavior and launches timely targeted ad campaigns as they browse the web.
- Email marketing. If you have your visitors' contact information, you can retarget them with personalized email campaigns. You can offer discounts, incentives and special offers to keep your customers coming back and buying.
- Resuming abandoned purchases. If visitors suddenly abandon in the middle of the checkout process, you should optimize your shopping cart. Identify the abandoners and then correct the checkout process. Tactics to recover abandoned purchases include offering free shipping, implementing pop-up windows with the intent to abandon the purchase, displaying trust signals, having a clear return policy, and offering multiple payment options.
Barrier 6: Unrealistic promises
Never make promises to your customers that you know you cannot keep.
Many brands get carried away and make exaggerated claims about their products and services in order to attract potential customers. However, this ultimately pays off in the form of lost sales and a damaged reputation.
Storytelling is an effective and desirable marketing method that can significantly increase conversion rates, but companies in industries such as finance and healthcare should always be more cautious when it comes to telling tall tales. Consumers are aware of the risk of being deceived and are therefore vigilant.
You can bet they'll see right through any exaggerated marketing or adulation and your chances of closing the deal will decrease.
The trick is to find the right balance between sales and expectation management. Stick to facts and achievable goals. It is better to under-promise and over-deliver than the other way around.
FOCL sells products for people who want to relieve pain and anxiety. It would be tempting to make outrageous claims on the product pages and overstate the benefits of the product. Fortunately, the brand is too clever to fall into this trap. Take a look at their Premium CBD Gummies page to see how they manage to describe their product while meeting customer expectations.
The product descriptions and the texts in general, especially the FAQs, are scientifically sound. They make it clear that their supplements do not work miracles. Such a sober approach makes their message more credible.
Barrier 7: No sense of urgency
95% of purchasing decisions are made emotionally. So don't try to appeal to the logical thinking of your customers, but make sure you strike a balance between logic and emotion.
Try to grab the attention of your website visitors immediately by conveying a sense of urgency or scarcity. This tactic plays on loss aversion, a cognitive bias that causes people to feel the pain of a loss twice as strongly as the joy of a gain. This makes them highly susceptible to FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), a powerful catalyst for conversion.
If people believe that they are getting a special offer or that the product is hot and will sell out quickly, they are tempted to act immediately and grab it «while stocks last».
Here you will find tips on how to integrate urgency into your website texts:
- Use time-limited offers. When you set a deadline, your potential customers are under pressure to make a purchase decision before time runs out. Use this tactic by reminding your customers that time is running out with a countdown timer.
- Take advantage of scarcity. Show your potential customers that the product or offer they are currently looking at is very popular and will soon no longer be available. For example, it's a good idea to indicate that an item is sold out or how many are still in stock.
- Use action-oriented words and phrases. Use words such as «limited», «sale», «last sale», «now», «urgent», «don't miss out» and similar to further unsettle your customers.
- Offer an incentive. This can be free shipping, a discount or a perk such as faster delivery, installment payments or access to premium features.
Best Buy uses some of these strategies on its website - see the «Deal of the Day» page. Customers can see exactly how much they can save and that there is free shipping and fast delivery. Look out for the countdown timer, which indicates that the offer is about to expire.
Barrier 8: Lack of human contact
93 % of consumers are more likely to shop again with companies that provide excellent customer service. While chatbots on every website and the ability to contact prospects and customers via email are essential, great customer service (and a great customer experience) goes far beyond these channels.
Some of your customers will want to speak to you directly to ask questions or initiate the conversion process offline, especially B2B customers. If your product appeals to an audience where this is likely to be the case, you need to give the impression that you have a sales and support team available to these customers.
The flip side of the coin is that your potential customers will feel that they will be better looked after after the purchase if you are available in person. Such an approach adds a human touch to your brand and minimizes the risk of being perceived as a cold, faceless company.
Freshworks« contact page says, »We'd love to hear from you," and they mean it. The company has landline phone numbers for several countries, email addresses for various departments and a web form to send a message or inquiry.
Social media has become an important channel for customer service that potential new customers can see. Therefore, make sure that you respond to your customers' feedback, even if it is negative. This shows that your customers' opinions are important to you and that you want to help them.
Zappos has an excellent reputation for its customer service and its Twitter account is proof of this. The brand takes a friendly approach to any complaints and reviews from its customers, turning a potential problem into an opportunity to demonstrate its quality of service and engage with its audience.
Conclusion
Sometimes it's just little things like a few extra fields in your web form or your CTA text that make the difference between winning or losing a customer. That's why you should take every element of your website seriously and optimize it for conversion.
The above hurdles can help you figure out what annoys your visitors and makes them bounce. Analyze everything and run A/B tests to create a smooth process - from the moment your prospects land on your website to the moment they become paying customers.
