Many businesses are consumed with the notion of driving targeted traffic to their website through Search Engines and Social Networks as though that was the goal. The goal is not traffic… the goal is conversion. Conversion of the traffic to take the actions you want, that is.
The term “traffic” is marketing jargon — they are people who visit your site. And while we’re thinking about those visitors, let’s acknowledge two facts that often get lost:
- Most people will only visit once.
- Almost none of them will take action on the first visit.
Inherent in keeping those two facts in front of you is the need for a plan to entice more visitors to become “regulars” on your site and subsequently convert. I think of it as a Conversion Runway. You need momentum to pull away from the boarding gate and successfully liftoff.
Momentum is achieved by offering visitors fresh, non-promotional content that is useful, engaging or entertaining. Hopefully, your website brings measures of each to the visitor’s experience.
It is also helpful to frame their experience to have as little friction as possible. Friction being any distraction that takes them off message or interrupts action you want them to take. Here are a couple of tips to help with that:
Internet Marketing Tips for a Smooth Conversion Runway:
- First, take a baseline reading on how many visitors come to your site, where they come from, how many return and convert. Google Analytics (GA) is a good tool for this and it’s free.
- Locate the “hot spots” on your website with high Bounce Rates. Improve those pages to make your visitors experience a better one. (Use GA)
- Make sure your site looks as it should in the top browsers — not just Internet Explorer. Try Browser Shots to check this out. Free.
- Is your “housekeeping” in order? No broken links and site maps that work for starters. A useful tool to help with this is Google’s Webmaster Tools This, too, is free.
- Do you offer site search to help your visitors out? It’s also a great tool to learn where you are frustrating them. Google offers a tool that is good — the free version carries adverting, though.
- Do you require visitors to fill out forms to get more information from you? What’s the abandonment rate on those forms?
Frequent updates to your website with well-optimized content will put you in front of a larger audience and build credibility. Reducing friction once they are there will improve the likelihood that they will take the action you want.
Improving your conversion runway with these tips will go a long way toward shortening the sales cycle and improving both the conversion rate and volume of conversions.
