01-22-2015, 11:54 AM
What are Conversion Rates?
Conversion Rates are the percentage of prospective customers who take a specific action you want. For example, the following are specific conversion rates that an organization may track:
The percentage of website visitors who fill out a form, call your company, or purchase something from you online
The percentage of callers who are issued proposals
The percentage of proposals you win Etc.
How to Increase Conversion Rates
There are numerous ways to increase conversion rates. Below are several ways to improve your rates, broken into two main categories:
Increasing Online Conversion Rates
Social Proof: adding social proof, via customer testimonials and/or case studies, to your website virtually always increases conversions.
Clear Contact Information: clearly showing contact information, perhaps a phone number and/or live chat options, typically increases conversions by giving visitors confidence that your company is “real” and is there to answer any questions they have.
Credibility: Having “trust” seals, such as from the Better Business Bureau or from web security firms like Verisign, will nearly always conversions.
Guarantees: offering a guarantee gives customers more confidence in your offering and thus generally increases conversion rates. Likewise, having a longer guarantee (e.g., 365 days vs 30 days) will generally increase conversions even more.
Headlines: the headlines on your website pages are typically the first thing visitors read, and often compels them to read more or exit your site immediately. The right headline could dramatically increase your conversion rate. So test new headlines frequently.
Increasing Offline Conversion Rates
Much of the same strategies that improve online conversion rates should be used offline. For example, showing pictures and testimonials of other satisfied customers nearly always helps conversions. Likewise, offering more credibility and longer guarantees helps too.
A couple other ways to increase offline conversion rates are as follows:
Trial Closes: trial closes are questions you ask prospective customers that don’t ask for a final buying decision. For example, you might ask the question, “If we were able to offer you this for a price that works for you, is this something you’d like to move forward with?”
Get customers to invest time: For bigger purchases, the more time customers invest in the process, the more likely they often are to buy. So, rather than quickly giving customers a price, it’s often best to have a few conversations. Perhaps in the first conversation you learn about their needs. In a second conversation, you present some research/information you think they’d find helpful. And in a third conversation, you present a proposal to work together. Although this process might slightly lengthen your sales cycle, it gets prospective customers to invest more time in working with your company; this often prompts them to want to do business with you. With such a question, if the prospect says “yes,” you’ll know that price is the only potential thing standing in the way of them buying. Alternatively, if they say “no,” listen to find out what their objections are so you can overcome them before offering your price.
Conversion Rates are the percentage of prospective customers who take a specific action you want. For example, the following are specific conversion rates that an organization may track:
The percentage of website visitors who fill out a form, call your company, or purchase something from you online
The percentage of callers who are issued proposals
The percentage of proposals you win Etc.
How to Increase Conversion Rates
There are numerous ways to increase conversion rates. Below are several ways to improve your rates, broken into two main categories:
Increasing Online Conversion Rates
Social Proof: adding social proof, via customer testimonials and/or case studies, to your website virtually always increases conversions.
Clear Contact Information: clearly showing contact information, perhaps a phone number and/or live chat options, typically increases conversions by giving visitors confidence that your company is “real” and is there to answer any questions they have.
Credibility: Having “trust” seals, such as from the Better Business Bureau or from web security firms like Verisign, will nearly always conversions.
Guarantees: offering a guarantee gives customers more confidence in your offering and thus generally increases conversion rates. Likewise, having a longer guarantee (e.g., 365 days vs 30 days) will generally increase conversions even more.
Headlines: the headlines on your website pages are typically the first thing visitors read, and often compels them to read more or exit your site immediately. The right headline could dramatically increase your conversion rate. So test new headlines frequently.
Increasing Offline Conversion Rates
Much of the same strategies that improve online conversion rates should be used offline. For example, showing pictures and testimonials of other satisfied customers nearly always helps conversions. Likewise, offering more credibility and longer guarantees helps too.
A couple other ways to increase offline conversion rates are as follows:
Trial Closes: trial closes are questions you ask prospective customers that don’t ask for a final buying decision. For example, you might ask the question, “If we were able to offer you this for a price that works for you, is this something you’d like to move forward with?”
Get customers to invest time: For bigger purchases, the more time customers invest in the process, the more likely they often are to buy. So, rather than quickly giving customers a price, it’s often best to have a few conversations. Perhaps in the first conversation you learn about their needs. In a second conversation, you present some research/information you think they’d find helpful. And in a third conversation, you present a proposal to work together. Although this process might slightly lengthen your sales cycle, it gets prospective customers to invest more time in working with your company; this often prompts them to want to do business with you. With such a question, if the prospect says “yes,” you’ll know that price is the only potential thing standing in the way of them buying. Alternatively, if they say “no,” listen to find out what their objections are so you can overcome them before offering your price.
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