Are you looking to increase conversion rate on your e-commerce website? Conversion rate, depends on two factors:
- Website Traffic
- Opt-in rate/sales page
Website owners think that just by increasing traffic they will gain more sales. However, it is both traffic and opt-in rate which will determine your conversions. If you don’t have an opt-in form on your website you should have one. Opt-in forms allow you to collect your website visitors email and continue to sell to them over the long term.
If you are simply selling from your website directly, the opt-in rate doesn’t apply. In this case it is your sales page which does the converting. Changing the format of this page then is what you need to experiment with. Test and measure different sales page formats to see which works best.
Website Traffic And Targeted Website Traffic
So let’s look at traffic first. There’s two basic kinds of traffic, targeted and random traffic. Random traffic can come to your site in masses and never convert. Targeted traffic should convert much more frequently because they want what you have.
So when you either create content for your website or paid adverts, you should keep this in mind. Write specific convent which will bring in the right people to your site. Similarly, paid advertising should be very specific. Eliminate potential time wasters by getting the most relevant people to your site. In the case of Google’s Adwords program this might mean being very specific with the keyword selection you use to bring people to your site. It’s also about knowing your target audience very well. See why is target market important.
You can read more about paid advertising in my ebook The Ultimate Guide To Online Marketing. And you can learn about targeting the right articles for your website in my ebook Niche Blogging For Profit.
Opt-In Rate
The other metric in increasing conversions is your opt-in rate. Don’t focus too much on traffic and neglect your opt-in rate. Opt-in rate is a large factor in your sales generation. I’m assuming your website is geared to take your visitors email address at the earliest opportunity. If not, it is your sales page which you can alter to test your sales.
Like I mentioned earlier you should always have an email opt-in form on your main website landing page. That’s the page where people generally land. A landing page should be entirely that. It is specifically for getting your subscribers information, in exchange for some kind of ‘freebie’. Don’t give your visitors too many options. They will choose none of the them when faced with a multitude of possibilities. Instead, give them two choices: click away or opt-in. That’s a landing page. See below:
Testing And Measuring
You might already have a lot of traffic coming to your website. But is that traffic converting into subscribers? Getting your website traffic into your sales funnel should be you main focus. Once they are in your sales funnel, you have many more opportunities to sell to them.
More people will buy if you email them regularly and deliver information and value. By building a relationship with your potential customers through email, you have a larger chance of selling to them than in the short time they are on your website. You can sell months, years or even decades later down the road, once you have someone’s email address.
The various elements of your landing page will determine your opt-in rate:
- Your ‘giveaway’ offer
- Your landing page video (if you have one)
- Your text and colouring on your landing page
- The pretext – how your visitors found you in the first place
Multiple Opt-in Offers
Pop-up/Drop-downs
You can also increase your opt-in rate by having a variety of ways for your subscribers to opt-in to your email newsletter/giveaway. Drop downs and pop-ups are two simple ways to gain subscribers to your email series. However, Google is cracking down on pop-ups because is spoils the user experience. A lot of people (me included) are getting very annoyed with popups!
They are especially annoying if you can’t close them down on your mobile device for instance. Drop downs are less annoying and less intrusive so are a good alternative to pop-ups. A drop down box at the top or bottom of your website can alert visitors to your website of your offer.
Links To Landing Pages
You can also link your content to landing pages where your visitors can opt-in to your offer. This is good if you have a variety of different landing pages which you can select according to the type of content you are creating.
Appointment Generators
You can also add appointment generating software to your website to arrange appointments with website visitors if appropriate.
Banner Adverts
Using simple banner adverts can also give your website visitors another opportunity to link through to a landing page and exchange their details for your freebie offer.
Landing Page Alterations
Small changes in your landing page can make a massive difference in your opt-in rate. Ask yourself a number of questions to help increase opt-in rate and build your opt-in page accordingly:
- Is your offer clear and obvious for everyone visiting your website?
- Is your offer compelling to most of your website visitors?
- Is there a single, obvious call to action on every page of your website?
Too many options can confuse your visitors into inaction. Having a clear and compelling option which is the main focus of your landing page, directs visitors into your sales funnel. Changing a few small things about your landing page offer can have a massive impact. Change a small thing at a time and measure your results over 1000 visitors. By doing this for a variety of small changes, you will develop a better landing page experience, a more compelling offer and more opt-ins.
Increase Conversion Rate E-commerce Website
To increase conversions on your e-commerce website there are various details you need to get right:
- Website traffic – Must be targeted to the right audience – Have you got this right?
- Landing page – Must offer a compelling reason for your subscriber to opt-in.
- Email series – Your follow up emails must give value a build trust.
- Sales Pages – Your products must be a good fit for your target audience.Â
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