A sales funnel with a poor conversion rate fails to serve its purpose. People may be talking about your campaigns or visiting your website, however, if they are not purchasing your product you are missing the boat. So how can you increase your conversion rate? In this article, we try to answer this question. Take a look.
1.Create brand awareness: No matter how awesome your brand is, if your target audience doesn’t know about it, they won’t buy from you. To create awareness, register your presence across digital and social media platforms. Post creative and engaging content on your social media pages regularly. Design and implement pay-per-click strategies and offline PR campaigns. Send automated emails to your subscribers explaining them about your offerings.
2. Add value: When approached by a salesperson, the first question most prospects ask is what’s in it for them? To answer this question you need to understand their needs first. Communicate with your prospects regularly, explaining to them what your product can do for them. To build trust, share buyer success stories. When talking to your prospects, quantify value.
3. Work on your website: Your website must have a simple and clutter-free layout. When choosing color combinations, keep your target audience, and your brand identity in mind. Post useful content that addresses specific problems on your landing pages. Make sure your website doesn’t take an eternity to load. Every page must have a call to action section. When designing your landing page, dare to think out of the box. For example, in addition to providing a couple of options to your visitors (buy or get out), you can include a third option such as I’m interested but need more time to think.
4. Provide incentives to buy: Irrespective of whether you are an online or an offline business, you need to give your prospects reasons to buy. Conduct flash sales and provide limited offer discounts. Offer limited period promo codes. If possible, give them the opportunity to customize the product or service they are interested in.
5. Encourage your customers to provide referrals: Asking your customers for referrals is one of the most effective ways to get more potential customers. Have a referral program in place and offer incentives such as a discount or a freebie to customers who provide referrals.
6. Train your sales team: In this digital age where social media and other online platforms are changing the way business is conducted, your sales team is still relevant. To ensure your sales team is ready to face challenges head-on, conduct regular training sessions. Develop a sales culture. Get industry experts on board. Most importantly, consider sales training as an ongoing process, not a one time exercise.
7. Test everything: Having a good marketing strategy in place is only half the job done. The remaining half is evaluating it at regular intervals. Run tests on your website regularly. To map user activity, use tools such as scroll maps and heat maps. If a particular page is failing to get any engagement, consider restructuring it.
8. Do away with distractions: Get rid of anything that distracts your prospects from taking an action in the sales process. Keep it simple for your visitor by making sure they have to process minimum information. Do away with navigation links on landing pages. keep the headers short. Trim your menu and use only relevant images.
9. Communicate with your prospects: Use different channels to talk to your prospects. Ask meaningful questions. Address their pain points by answering their questions. When communicating with your prospects, adopt a humane and empathetic approach.
10. Provide guarantees: Everyone wants to steer clear of risks, your prospects are no different. In many cases, a prospect won’t buy if they perceive a risk. To reassure your prospects, offer service and money back guarantees.
11.Monitor keywords related to your brand: Identify keywords related to your brand and monitor them over the internet. Engage with prospects who look for these keywords and inquire about your products or services.
12.Set reminders: Set reminders to remind your prospects of an incomplete action. You can also inform them about important dates related to your products or services.
13. Work on your conversion rate optimization strategy: Use data generated by tools such as Google Analytics to design your CRO strategy. Optimize pages with a high bounce rate. To ensure visitors spend more time on your website, use the engaging and informational content.
14. Highlight your USPs: Compare your products or services with your competitors’ offerings. If your product is more expensive than that of your nearest competitor, give reasons for the price difference.
15.Downsell: Come up with downsell offers to appeal to prospects abandoning their cart. If for instance, a prospect drops the idea of subscribing to your newsletter after checking out the price (say $100) offer them a lower price before they exit.
16. Cross-sell: Often a prospect may not be inclined to buy a standalone product. However, they may change their mind as soon as you offer a complimentary product. You can cross-sell offers on your websites or through affiliates.
17.Work on your messaging: Make sure your messaging(be it language, pictures, or colour combinations) is an inconsistency with your brand’s identity and the aspirations of your target audience. If you find any inconsistencies, be quick to respond and tweak your strategy accordingly.
18. Use CRM software: A CRM or customer relationship management software helps you find where your prospects are in the sales funnel. You can use the data to determine the type of campaigns your prospects must receive.
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out ways to ensure that a high percentage of prospects who enter the sales funnel come out as customers. Just follow these simple yet effective tips and you will be amazed at the results.
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