Tips to Engage & Convert Website Visitors
by Ben Wilson on July 4th, 2017
Of course you want your website to convert visitors to buyers. But saying that and making it happen are two different things.
Your website is your virtual storefront. Through it, you can reach the world, facilitate transactions with customers, and maintain customer engagement. However, first you have to get those customers to visit.
Just getting potential customers to visit requires advertising, marketing and an overall sense of your brand's presence. Once they visit, your site has to be great, giving them a worthwhile experience. Only if they visit and stay for more than a few seconds do you have a chance to communicate a relevant message that encourages action.
None of that happens automatically, however. Without a well-designed website, your potential customers can flit through your site and leave without a trace.
So how do you engage and convert your website visitors? Take a look at these tips that can help.
Offer Clear Value
Make sure your visitors see immediately what you're offering and how it benefits them. You have less than eight seconds to accomplish this, so all your graphics and copy must be clear, transmitting their message instantaneously.
Answer Questions Openly
When a visitor starts to explore your website, they're looking to establish a relationship of trust with you. Be authentic and transparent in answering questions before your visitors even think to ask them. By doing so, you remove the obstacles that keep visitors from converting.
Employ professional website design services
Your visitors can sense instinctively if your website looks amateurish. Help them to feel confident with a site that looks and functions like a professional website should.
Choose meaningful images
Stock photos all too often look like, well, stock photos, and it can be rare that they send the message you want to convey. Choose images that evoke the feeling you want your visitors to experience when they use your products or services. You may find it worthwhile to invest in having professional photos taken that show off the specifics of your business.
Include a clear call to action
To know whether your call to action works, you need to test it. Test your headlines as well, making sure their value propositions are clear and appealing.
Build a responsive site
Your visitors aren't necessarily sitting at their desks when they visit your site. Make sure your site is as easy to use on mobile devices (or easier!) than on a desktop or laptop, and ensure that it's built to work seamlessly with every major browser.
Keep Your Site Updated
Nothing sends a visitor away like a site that's clearly out of date, whether it's because you're advertising specials for a holiday that's already passed or because you haven't updated your blog in six months. If you don't care, why should they care?
Make Decision-Making Easy
When customers have too many options available to them, they often just slip away without making any choice at all. Use visuals and categories (Highest-Rated, Most Popular, etc.) to help steer customers toward making a decision to purchase.
Keep Your Forms Short
Visitors get turned off when you demand a lot from them, and a form with two dozen fields to fill out or multiple pages can be off-putting. In addition, avoid asking for personal information that you don't need, or make it optional, so visitors realise you care about their internet privacy.
Focus On What Makes You Unique
If you're one of 15 widget sellers in your area, highlight why your widgets are unique. Your selling point might be price, quality, personalisation, or amazing customer service. Whatever it is, it needs to stand out.
As you build or update your website with a focus on engaging and converting visitors, consider utilising Web Force 5's easy to use content management system that includes by default an array of other online tools and functions. Our content management system is intuitive and easy to use as it was designed from the ground up for people without any technical knowledge, and we upgrade it constantly.
We custom-design what you need, and we offer an e-commerce solution, CRM, and email marketing functionality by default within the website software. In addition, we provide you with a dedicated account manager to make sure your site is achieving your goals. Contact us today to learn how we can maximise your site's results.