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Many businesses focus a lot of effort (and money!) on attracting new traffic to their websites. However, a huge portion of that traffic then simply leaves again, without ever converting into paying customers. If you are able to increase the rate at which you convert traffic to customers, you can vastly increase your profits without increasing the amount you pay for advertising.
Here are five ways to boost your website sales.
1. Hone Your Calls to Action
Many websites do a great job of making visitors want to buy their products or services, but a lousy job of actually letting them make a purchase. If you want to convert more of your traffic into paying customers, show them how to buy, and make it easy for them to do so. Some tips to creating better calls to action include:
- Make the calls to action clear and obvious.
- Test text, colour, and placement to see what works best.
- Place your calls above the fold.
2. Assume Nothing - Give Clear Instructions
Assuming that your customers know what you mean and where they should go are primary ways to lose interested visitors. Make everything clear and simple. Don't assume that people are reading your site carefully, or that they understand your terminology. The clearer your instructions are, the more likely that people will continue on your site.
3. Add User Reviews
When people are on the fence about whether or not they should buy a product, they expect your business to try to convince them to buy. The experience of other customers who have already used the product is far more impressive and persuasive. By enabling people to post user reviews of your products, you give people a powerful reason to believe what your company is telling them. Even reviews that are not positive are valuable, because they make your site seem believable and unafraid of criticism.
4. Make it Easy to Contact You
No matter how much time you spend putting information on your site, somewhere there will be a potential customer who has a question you didn't answer, or an answer they couldn't find or didn't understand. To help those people proceed through the buying process, make it easy for them to contact you and resolve their questions. Don't settle for just email communication, either - allow them to reach you by telephone, as well.
5. Reduce the Number of Clicks Required to Make a Sale
Every time you ask site visitors to click to proceed, you run the risk of losing them. In order to increase your conversion rate, find ways to consolidate information and eliminate unnecessary steps, reducing the total number of clicks needed to move from the entrance page to the completion of the buying process.
Increasing your conversion rate is the best way to boost profits without breaking the bank. Review your website to eliminate any barriers that may prevent your traffic from becoming satisfied customers. If you would like a no-obligation consultation to review the effectiveness of your website conversion, please call 01491 614121.
Online advertising is a balancing act. On one hand, you want to capture the attention of your viewers, which is especially difficult given the large number of ads that the average person sees every day. Studies predict that UK online ad spend will overtake television advertising by the end of 2009.
On the other hand, if you are too aggressive, you may aggravate your potential customers, leaving them with a bad feeling toward your company. Here are some tips on what to do and what to avoid when placing online ads.
Online Advertising Do's:
DO look for advertising on pages related to your business. Readers respond better to ads when they are on-topic.
DO take pains to stand out from the crowd. Your message has to be quick, catchy, and effective.
DO look for placement on websites where visitors are highly engaged and active. They are more likely to trust the advertisements when they trust the site where those ads appear than if they've just stopped by for the first time.
DO create custom ads for high-traffic websites. The more targeted your offer, the more successful it will be.
DO try to get your advertisements placed "above the fold" so that visitors don't have to scroll down to see them.
DO test different media, designs, and placements to find the ones with the best return on investment for each site where your advertisements appear.
Online Advertising Don'ts:
DON'T disrupt your potential customers by covering text or using annoying pop-up ads. Such approaches quickly create a negative opinion of your company.
DON'T focus solely on websites that have little advertising competition. There's probably a good reason why more people aren't clamouring for that ad space.
DON'T think that, just because an ad works, it's going to work forever. Test and revise as needed.
DON'T put a heavy emphasis on sites where people go to get quick information before leaving again.
DON'T get into a bidding war that causes you to buy advertisements that cost more than they are worth.
DON'T lead your visitor to a generic page of your site. Create a custom landing page that reflects the look, the feel, and the offers of your advertisements.
More and more people are going online every day. In the UK alone, 32.5 million people use the internet, and spend an average of 16 hours a week viewing websites. That's a huge potential audience for your business, so take the time to create ads that convert, then place them properly to drive traffic to your company. If you would like to discuss how online advertising can help your business, please call 01491 61412.
Most businesses know that it costs time and money to attract new customers. However, it takes less of an investment to promote a level of customer loyalty that keeps them coming back to your company. Your website can be a powerful tool for building loyalty and keeping your customers on board. Here are five ways that your website can help you reap more profit from the customers you already have.
1. Effective Communications
Your website gives you a powerful method for communicating with your users. Unlike a print ad or brochure, your website is always current and can change to reflect the needs of your customers. Furthermore, online communications like blogs, newsletters, and forums set up a dialogue with your customers; you can easily find out what they really want, which will help you to improve your business offerings.
2. Excellent Customer Service
Online tools help your company provide prompt, personalized, and helpful responses to technical problems whenever your customers have questions, day or night. Personalized mailing lists with special offers, a highly developed ticketing system to identify problems and make sure that none of them slip through the cracks, and an extensive online help system are just a few of the ways that your website can help you go "above and beyond" with customer service.
3. Well-Trained Employees & Employee Loyalty
Your website can be beneficial, not just to your customers but to your employees, as well. A company intranet with helpful tips and advice, training Webinars, and enhanced communication with co-workers through instant messaging are a few of the ways that your website can provide your employees with the tools they need in order to perform effectively.
4. Customer Incentives
Your website can help you track your customers, and can provide them with attractive incentives for returning to your business. For example, your database can select customers who have purchased items from a particular brand in the past, and offer them discounts on that brand. Or you can send a coupon or free product to customers after a certain number of purchases, or after they buy a certain dollar amount from you.
5. Customer Product Training
If your customers don't realize how helpful your products can be to them, they are less likely to purchase from you. However, providing in-depth instruction to all of your customers is expensive, and even if you were able to meet with them all, face-to-face, it would be a huge time sink for your employees. Online training, however, is easy and inexpensive to set up, and is available to your customers whenever they need it, on their own schedules. Product demos, Webinar sessions, and how-to articles on your blog and forum can show your customers just how much they need your products, without wasting time or money.
Don't become so focused on attracting new customers that you neglect the ones that you already have. Put your website to work, building customer loyalty, and see your profits grow. If you would like to improve your customer loyalty, call 01491 614121 for a no-obligation consultation.
For many e-businesses, receiving a high search-engine ranking is the Holy Grail of free traffic and increased profitability. However, there's only so much that you can do on your site to improve your placement in the search engines. For many companies, the difference between top rankings and utter obscurity is inbound links.
What are Inbound Links – And Why Do Search Engines Care?
Inbound links are links to a specific page of your website from other pages, both on your domain and from other sites across the internet. Search engines use inbound links to determine how important a web page is. Their reasoning is that, if a page is really great and informative, other sites will be sure to link to it.
Not All Inbound Links are Created Equal
Search engines are smart enough not to rank all inbound links equally. The link from your cousin's personal website is not going to be given the same level of importance as a link from a major newspaper or university. The best links come from sites that are:
- Reputable
- Related to your page's topic
- Link Text is also Important
- If text that is used in the link reflects your keywords, your page will receive an additional boost for those keywords in the search engines. For example:
Mediocre Link:
For more information about inbound links, click here.
Good link:
Click for more information about inbound links.
Link-Building Strategies
How can you increase the number of inbound links that your business pages receive? Some great ideas include:
Writing great content. The best way to build reputation and encourage links is to create a lot of content that people will want to link to.
Joining the conversation. Post on other blogs and forums with useful comments and tips – and use a link back to your site in your signature.
Write about other experts in your field. The chances are high that the people you write about will link back to your articles.
Social networking. Writing catchy and informative articles will increase your chances of being featured in social networking sites like Digg, Delicious, and more. That's a big traffic driver, as well as a good source of links.
Give articles away. Write some useful information for article directories, and include supporting links to your pages. People will spread the word by using those articles in newsletters and on their websites.
Be helpful. Answer questions on sites like Yahoo!Answers. Include supporting links back to your site.
Don't forget internal linking. Make sure that you cross-link among the pages of your site wherever it makes sense to do so.
By following these tips, you can dramatically improve your likelihood of ranking well in search engines and driving lots of free traffic. Too much for you to do on your own? Let us help; call 01491 614121.
Should you use Flash animation on your company's website? That question has been hotly debated ever since Flash hit the market. Find out what Flash animation is, what its advantages and disadvantages are, and how to put it to good work for your business.
What is Flash Animation?
Flash is a programming technique developed by Macromedia which allows websites to display animated graphics, games, advertisements, product demos, and more. One of the compelling reasons to use Flash is that it is platform-independent, meaning that it runs just as well on Windows machines as on Macs, and as well on the Internet Explorer browser as on Firefox.
Many other animation techniques cannot function without a platform-dependent plug-in like the Real Player or QuickTime.
Additional Flash Advantages:
- Allows you to make an impressive visual presentation on your website.
- Lets you add interactive features like games, quizzes, and tutorials.
- When used for navigation, Flash looks showy and professional.
- Can be used to customize fonts on websites, without requiring that those fonts be installed on the viewers’ computers.
- Flash ads can be more compelling and engaging for your viewers.
Why is there Controversy?
With all of these advantages, why wouldn't you use Flash on your website? Unfortunately, there are some downsides to using Flash, as well.
Disadvantages of Flash:
- Pages load more slowly, increasing the chance that viewers will leave your site.
- Viewers still need to have Flash installed.
- Flash can distract users from the information they want.
- Flash is ignored or disfavoured by search engines, hurting your website's visibility.
- Flash can become outdated, requiring you to update your website frequently.
The Bottom Line
Flash is a powerful tool, but it's not the only one at your disposal. Here are some guidelines to follow when considering whether or not to use Flash on your company's website:
Use Flash when it provides a real benefit to your readers. An easy, step-by-step tutorial that shows how to utilise your product is a great use of Flash, but a large, processor-intensive animation that does nothing but look pretty will only frustrate your site visitors.
Don't go overboard; use Flash for subtle animations and small ads. Limit the amount of Flash you offer on any single page.
Provide alternatives for people with older computers and slower internet connections.
By following these simple rules, you can use Flash to enhance your website without alienating your viewers. If you would like a no-obligation consultation to explore how using Flash technology could improve your marketing message, please call 01491 614121.
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