Like most business owners, you’re probably not very happy with the number of inbound leads coming from your website.
There’s two main reasons this could be happening, either lack of traffic (or quality traffic) or a website that doesn’t convert visitors into leads very well.
Today we’re going to discuss the latter. I’m going to give you seven actionable tips on how your website can be improved so it captures more leads for your business.
#1 – Include Photos of Actual People in Your Business
Sure, it’s easy to quickly license a few stock photos and throw them in your website, but did you know this can actually seriously hurt the number of leads your website brings in?
Here’s a quick example. Harrington Movers swapped a generic stock photo of a happy couple with a photo of some of their employees in front of one of their branded moving trucks. The result? About a 45% increase in conversions!
Some of you may be thinking, “what’s the big deal, what does this even mean?” Here’s why it’s a big deal.
Let’s say that prior to this photo change, two of every 100 visitors to the Harrington Mover’s website would make contact (a 2% conversion rate) and out of those two, one becomes a customer worth roughly $1000.
This means for every 100 website visitors, Harrington Movers could expect to make about $1000.
After changing the generic stock photo to a real photo, they could expect about a 3% conversion rate and to make roughly $1500 for every 100 website visitors.
This is only hypothetical as I don’t have Harrington Mover’s traffic numbers, conversion rates and average sale price, but according to this article, this change added about $10,000 a month to their bottom line.
#2 – Ask for Less Information
Does anyone actually like filling in forms?
It can be tempting to try to grab as much information as you can from website visitors, but the truth is that most website visitors aren’t willing to give up that much personal information, especially when they aren’t familiar with your business. Most people are also busy and have better things to do than fill out online forms.
So, why does keeping form fields to a minimum matter? Because, generally speaking, the less form fields, the better your conversions will be.
Graph from hubspot.com
So ask yourself what important information you really need for an initial conversation and what information can be captured later. You want to keep friction to an absolute minimum and make it easy for leads to enter the top of your sales funnel.
Less form fields don’t always lead to better conversions, but generally speaking, they do. So, it’s a good practice to start with as few form fields as possible.
#3 – Make Sure People are Leaving Reviews
You know how important referrals are. People ask their friends and family for advice on which service providers to choose because they trust their friends and family.
There are however lots of people that don’t look for word-of-mouth referrals, but they do look for reviews online. In fact, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations!
Here’s some more important statistics regarding customer behaviour:
- 72% say that positive online reviews make them trust a local business more.
- 72% will only take action after reading a positive review.
- 86% will hesitate to purchase from a business with negative reviews.
- 92% will use a local business if it has at least a 4 star rating.
- Customers are likely to spend 31% more at business with excellent reviews.
So, make sure all of your business listings are getting positive reviews! Yelp, Google My Business, Bing Places and so on.
#4 – Start Using Video
If you’re looking for the most effective online sales tool, look no further than video. They’re proven to boost conversion rates dramatically!
StacksAndStacks.com reported that customers who saw a product video were 144% more likely to make a purchase than those who didn’t.
This is why we began offering video production services, because videos helps our clients make more sales (and because we like producing videos).
#5 – Make Your Call-To-Action Clearer (or Bigger)
If your call-to-action on your website is “contact us,” ask yourself if it’s clear what this new lead can expect from you after they contact you.
Are they going to be on the receiving end of a high-pressure sales call? Are you going to provide a free consult? Are you going to email them to set up an appointment? Are you going to show up at their house?
It’s important that your call-to-action is clear, and that expectations are set. No one likes uncertainty.
So, if you offer a free consult, use a call-to-action that says “get your free consult,” or something similar, then send them to a page with an application form and some details on what they can expect from that free consult.
It’s also important to make sure that your call-to-action is big and visible!
SAP BusinessObjects initially used a blue link as it’s call-to-action. When they substituted it with a big orange button, their conversions increased 32%.
Before:
After:
#6 – Use Testimonials
If you don’t have testimonials on your website now, you need to include them ASAP! They’ve been proven time and time again to increase conversion rates.
Testimonials provide social proof and assurance that past clients and customers have had success with your products or services.
WikiJob had a few testimonials on their homepage, but it wasn’t clear that they were testimonials and they weren’t attributed to any customers.
They fixed this and moved the testimonials to the top of the page. The result, a 34% increase in conversions.
#7 – Consider Making Your Copy More Action Oriented
L’Axelle wanted more people to click their add to cart button.
Their original copy was more comfort oriented, while their test copy was more focused on solving a problem.
The Control:
The Test:
The result was a 93% increase in conversions.
Conclusion
Of course we’ve only scratched the surface today and didn’t even discuss website traffic, but I’m sure I’ve helped illuminate how following certain best-practices can help increase the number of incoming leads for your website.
If you’d like to learn more about how to improve your website and gain more customers and clients, click here to view our in-depth video on the subject.
Stratosphere Digital specializes in helping service based businesses in Victoria BC and abroad dominate their local market. Interested in how we can help? Click here to get your free website, SEO and online marketing video assessment now!
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