The importance of a well-designed website cannot be overstated. When creating or optimizing a site for appeal, it is important not to lose sight of its core purpose; to drive traffic and make you money. A site needs to take visitors and convert them into qualified leads, and eventually customers, in order to be a success. All of the traffic in the world can’t save your business if your website cannot convert.
Most companies who fail to drive an acceptable number of sales think that the answer is to drive more traffic to the site through popular modalities such as SEO, content creation, social media marketing, and other awareness growth tactics. In many cases, however, traffic is not the issue; conversion optimization is.
If your site is not acquiring the number of leads or sales needed to prosper and is looking for web page hacks that will increase revenue, adopt these 5 web design elements that will drive your conversion rate to the max.
#1: Simplicity Trumps Complexity
As most people might remember, older versions of websites were extremely busy and noisy, loaded with animations and design elements that looked like the inside of Gary Busey’s brain.
Many sites today still leverage a lot of these features in a cleaner way, but still distract from the journey you want your visitors to take. Forget about all of this and keep things simple.
Today’s consumers want a well-formatted layout that is intuitive and easy to navigate. Aim to impress visitors with your content offerings and the solutions your brand offers; not some neat animation that they will spend three minutes playing with and then leave. In a world of sensory overload, simplicity is king.
#2: Make it Easy to Contact Your Company
Zappos.com is a multimillion dollar corporation that has become downright legendary for their customer service. Part of why the company has become such a success is that they make it super easy for their customers to contact them and place an order.
In a Harvard Business Review article written by Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, the company’s ringleader stated:
“On many websites the contact information is buried at least five links deep, because the company doesn’t really want to hear from you. And when you find it, it’s a form or an e-mail address. We take the exact opposite approach. We put our phone number at the top of every single page of our website, because we actually want to talk to our customers.”
If your contact information fits the description that Tony portrayed, you are sending signals to your visitors that you don’t want them to contact you. To make sure that visitors feel welcomed to ask questions or make purchases, keep your company’s phone number and email address at the top of each page where it is always visible and accessible.
Email contact forms should take no longer than 30 seconds to fill out. If you are asking for a visitor’s first and last name, email, location, occupation, and other details, they are far more likely to skip it and move on to another site.
#3: Prominently Place Reviews and Testimonials
Trust is not given, it is earned. When a potential customer visits your site to see what your company offers, they are looking for reasons to trust you. If there is no sort of assurance to be found, they are not very likely to convert.
By prominently displaying reviews and/or testimonials on the homepage of your site, you are providing the social proof needed to help quell a consumer’s concerns. If you have any connections with influencers or authorities that have worked with your brand, it is best to try to obtain words from these sources as they will be more well-known and reputable.
#4: Incorporate Visual Demonstrations
The power of video is undeniable. People crave online video more than ever. When a consumer is considering buying a product from a site, most would love to see a video of the merchandise in action to get a better feel for if it is right for them.
If your company deals in intangible products like software or marketing services, create a video presentation of how the software works or a successful case study showcasing what your brand can accomplish. There is always a way to generate a video about what you offer, and video helps to drive sales.
There are plenty of other design elements that your site should be including such as strategically placed CTAs, a well-written blog, and clean navigations features, but this should give your site one heck of a boost on its own.
If your brand needs help in generating qualified leads and raking up sales, let us know, and we can forge a marketing campaign that will drive more conversions than you know what to do with.
