Have reasonably healthy website traffic but no one’s actually buying anything? Ask any web design agency and they’d advise you that your site is in need of optimisation. There’s an art to getting those all-important conversions, and it all starts with making life as easy as possible for the customer.
According to Mailchimp, getting visitors to your site is only half the battle:
“Attracting people to your website is important, but it’s only the beginning. Once they’ve arrived, you need to engage their interest, encourage them to explore your site, and ultimately, turn them into a customer. Ensuring this conversion will boost sales from new customers and increase repeat purchases from your existing audience.”
Where to start
Drawing on our expertise as a web design company, we’ve put together some helpful starting points for converting visitors into customers:
Rethink navigation
It should be as easy as possible for visitors to navigate your website and find the information they need. If your site is cluttered, confusing or there any unnecessary steps, you need to do some serious streamlining.
Map out the customer journey, and work out how they can get from A to B with as few clicks as possible. Use straightforward terms for products and categories, so that it’s easy for visitors to find what they want. Naming conventions are hugely important, as online shoppers expect consistency from the sites they visit.
Work on strengthening CTAs
With easy navigation in mind, you need to give your visitors plenty of opportunities to take the next step. This could be to buy a product, join a mailing list, contact your team, enter a competition or whatever else you’d like them to do.
Strong call to actions (CTAs) in strategic, eye-catching places should do the trick. Again, refer back to your customer journey map and identify the key points where your visitor may be ready to purchase.
Get the technical essentials right
Your website pages need to load fast and your links need to work. Your site’s search function should be easy to find, and your menus user-friendly.
Unless these basic functions are working well, you have no hope of improving those conversion figures. Frustrated customers will simply give up and click away to one of your competitor’s sites.
Inspire your audience
Your site should also make people want to buy, because they feel motivated and inspired by the way you showcase products. Tell a story with engaging video content, to help people connect with your brand. And make your product imagery as stunning as possible (without affecting page loading speeds, of course).
Does your website need an overhaul? Get more visitors, conversions and sales by working with our experts here at Nextgen Marketing. Our web design services are ideal for businesses of all sizes and in all sectors, especially e-commerce.
Get in touch to find out more – call us on 020 8064 0221 or email hello@nextgen-marketing.co.uk and we’ll get right back to you.
