There’s nothing more frustrating than taking the time to build out your website and implement call to actions that aren’t getting you any opt-ins or conversions from your efforts. Don’t give up! Before you abandon your conversion strategy altogether though, it’s worth taking some time to figure out why your website isn’t converting. There could be a number of issues impacting your success. The flaw could be in your website design and marketing strategy. Both aspects will need a closer look to find out why this is happening.
Here are 7 reasons why your website isn’t converting, and what you can do to fix them. Follow these steps to boost conversions on your website:
1. Your Website Has Been All About YOU
Your website is not just about you. Truth! It’s mainly about your clients. They need to find your website and answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” You’ll want to focus on helping your customer. Take the spotlight off yourself. Understand a business website does not solely exist to fulfill orders.
After all, the main reason for having a company website is to attract visitors you can market to. Talk to them. Engagement can convert into a lead and eventually into a customer. Focus more on how you can overcome your customer’s challenges and put their needs over your own. Providing simple, real solutions can make a difference in their every day lives. Keep them tuned in to whatever else you have to say.
Yes, a website can establish your brand. But a website primarily helps in building relationships with your customers. So if you’re not using your website to connect with your prospects, then chances are you won’t be converting any into customers.
How to Fix:
Educate and qualify your leads over time until they are ready to buy. Create an effective content strategy utilizing blogs and ebooks. How-to’s for instance, can help solve a customer’s problem or ease one of their biggest pains. Remember, it’s less about you and more about your customer.
Then use lead generation to collect client information. Your business website is the primary tool to capturing a lead’s name and email. With these, you can begin an ongoing dialogue. Offer something meaningful to your reader in exchange for their information, and you’ll begin to see higher conversion rates.
Satisfy a need that makes life a little easier or better for your viewer. The more helpful you are, the more resourceful and likable you become. Be there for them. Customers who trust you are more inclined to say yes to an offer. If you continue to nurture your leads with content they like, people are more likely to share. Imagine becoming an expert in your field! You want your readers to view your brand’s product/service as a clear solution to their needs.
2. Not Having Goals and A Strategy
Be clear on your website’s primary goal. What action do you want customers to take on your website? If your strategy is vague, your website won’t be converting.
Please don’t say “to buy my products or services.” That’s wrong! You should know by now, this isn’t realistic and business doesn’t work that way. People won’t buy something after spending only a few seconds scanning through your website. Converting is NOT sales. Selling or pushing products is sales. Marketing with your website is different. Don’t just try to jump right into your sales pitch.
How to Fix:
Establish Goals and Form A Strategy. Step back and ask yourself, “What’s the real purpose of what I’m doing here?” “How can I help my customers?”
Capture contact information. Provide readers with amazing content quality to educate, entertain or assist your readers. Help them solve one of their problems. Let them learn from you so they will like you. When people appreciate you they will want to connect with you. If you can help them they will trust you. This is how you ultimately build customer relationships with your prospects. Send quality information through advice. Offer helpful tips or useful strategies. Do this and you increase the chance of converting leads into clients. Do you want your visitors to click for more info or to read your blog post? What about joining your email list? Want a reader to contact you to receive an offer? Keep it simple. Work through the steps if you want your website to start converting. Prioritize customer relationships and branding over making any sales.
3. Weak Content
Connecting with your readers and helping them get to know and trust you is the primary reason for marketing your website’s content. How else do you expect your website to get more conversions?
When your copy is more about you and less about your prospect, you’ll lose their interest quickly. Your website isn’t a place to spout out features or praise about yourself. People hate reading. Prospects won’t engage with your content. You won’t find conversions on your website. So, create content they will want to see. Content should be relevant. Keep articles informational not promotional. Remember don’t build copy to sell. Your goal is to create meaningful content that helps your customer, and establishes a relationship between you both.
I wrote more on the importance of why you should focus on content. You can find it here. It is crucial to place yourself in the shoes of your readers. Try to see the content that you’re creating through their eyes. If your copy sounds impersonal, like you’re just trying to sell to them, fix it. Tweak it a bit. You don’t want to come off as the business owner who’s always promoting.
How to Fix:
Create Content that Converts. Build trust and aim for amazing quality with blog articles, guides and videos on your website. Focus on having something meaningful to say in order to engage and grow your customer base. If you give people something they understand and want, they’re more likely to stick around. This could bump up your conversion rate.
4. Unclear or Lack of Communication
Focus on continuous contact through every means of communication available (by phone, email, live chat, etc.) Your contact information should be clearly available on your homepage before your prospect delves deeper elsewhere on your site.
How to Fix:
Make sure you’re clearly communicating who you are and what you do. The whole experience of your website should be a process. A simple and straightforward transition for your customers.
Also, don’t be a stranger. Staying in contact with your readers through regular interactions ensures you will be kept in mind.
Whether it’s through educating your reader with blog posts or responding to their comments and questions, these nurture your relationship. You’re creating opportunities to interact with customers. There’s so much truth behind “Take care of your customers and they will take care of you.” Providing relevant content to your reader increases the likelihood that those interactions will eventually lead to a sale.
Creating connections builds trust in you. Provide ways to help your readers solve their problems and they will value whatever your offer is. This is when you begin to see your website truly converting, when you’re turning prospects into clients.
5. Vague Calls-to-Action (CTA)
Is it clear what you want your viewer to do, once they arrive on your website? Or is it vague? When your readers finish consuming your content, are their thoughts “Ohhhhkay…well, what do I do now?”
For example, if you’re using your website to gain more clients, make it easy for people to:
- Contact you
- Sign up for a free trial
- Make an appointment
How to Fix:
Make your calls-to-action clear. Put yourself in your client’s shoes and take a walk through your website. There should be a clear path laid out for current and potential clients to take action. Be strategic about the placement of these CTA’s as well. Take for example, your average blog reader, if you want to send them to a related post elsewhere on your website, place that link at the end. If you want the reader to sign up for your newsletter, put a contact box at the far right side of your website page.
Getting that prospect to reach out to you may very well be the most challenging part of your marketing strategy. So make it easy for online visitors to contact your business. Your website must be designed and built around encouraging readers to take action.
6. Bad First Impressions
Although it takes an effective marketing strategy to drive customers to convert, websites are valuable to making a good first impression on customers.
It takes less than two-tenths of a second for an online visitor to form an opinion of your brand. People take less then a second to scan your company’s website. That’s why first impressions still matter. Reviewing your website’s design should be one of your first priorities.
People will always judge a book by its cover. Make that first impression positive. Don’t let clients see an amateurish website design, as though it was created by a child. The majority of online searchers expect to land on a professionally laid out website. Making a good first impression increases the rate of your site converting. A well-branded website is designed to convince people to contact you, whatever their interests may be.
How to Fix:
What do you think when you look at your website? It’s better to have someone look over your design as well. If they say it’s great, ask someone else. You want to hear honest feedback to give you something to improve upon. Your website’s design should reflect the qualities prospective clients are looking for. Online visitors won’t invest their time exploring a website that is designed poorly.
7. Do You Have Live Chat Bots?
Consider offering your online visitors a live chat option, integrated with a well-structured contact form on your page. This makes it easy for viewers to reach out to you with questions at any time, even after hours. It also helps narrow your audience into higher intent (quality) leads that you can convert later.
Some of the ways your small business website can utilize live chat bots are:
- Answering frequently asked questions
- Sending reminders to those who booked an appointment
- Offering a giveaway or discount that people can get after doing a certain task, like giving their email
- Signing up for a promotion, such as a free trial
..and much more!
Whatever you offer, live chat bots is a great tool that automates interactions with your prospect, saving you time and helping your website get better conversions.
Lastly
A website is a reflection of your brand, of who you are and how you operate. It exists to support your small business. It’s a place for you to communicate with your clients and grow your customer base.
If you can give your viewers real value, help them overcome a problem and reach their goal. You’ll build more engagement and commitment to your brand. Taking measures to achieve these will get your website on the right track to converting.
We’ve gone through a TON of information to help your website. And we understand a well executed conversion strategy can get complicated quickly. If you need help on your site’s design focus and content writing contact us. We can help increase your website’s conversion rates. Reach out to us here.
