If you’re running an online marketing campaign for your business, or are planning to run one, then your website’s/blog’s conversion rate is a key component of your marketing metrics.

Your website’s conversion rate has direct impact on the profitability of your marketing campaign.

Now, if you’re not too familiar with these online marketing terms, you shouldn’t have to beat your mind so hard.

Your website’s conversion rate simply tells you how many people are performing the desirable actions you want them to perform from your website or blog, comparing these with the overall traffic you’re receiving. This action could be buying something, signing up for updates, downloading a freebie, and so on.

What efforts are you putting to convert those casual content views or website visits into desired actions? If you’re receiving thousands of visitors but none of them is performing your intended actions then obviously your marketing campaign is at a loss.

You can double the number of sales or subscriptions without even increasing the traffic numbers by just increasing the number of people you convert from your current traffic.

Don’t forget: How to stay in Google’s good books Set Clear Goals

It’s amazing how goals are always crucial to any business. You cannot escape the fact that your online business success is closely tied to the goals you set for your business, or for any activity that directly contributes to your success for that matter.

Goals will always vary from one marketing campaign to another. What one business might consider a successful conversion might be different to another business.
If for example you’re using content marketing, a successful conversion may refer to a membership registration, newsletter subscription, eBook download or a software download. If you run a sales website then a successful conversion would be when a prospective buyer makes that purchase.

By setting clear goals, you can be able to gauge success by looking at how your goals are being achieved. For example, you might ask yourself how many visitors are actually downloading your report as compared to the number of page views you’re receiving.

Improve Your Targeting

If visitors are not performing your desired actions then it might be because you are not targeting the right audience. It might be that your targeting is too general.

You’ll get a low conversion rate if the majority of people viewing your weight loss newsletter subscription offer are not looking to lose weight as much as they’re interested in reading your advice on proper nutrition. They might be having nutrition issues but are not related to their weight.

That’s why it’s important that you only put your offer on pages with content that is DIRECTLY tied to what you’re offering. If you’re going to put your offer on a homepage with lots of different information about your company or business, then the visitor might just be overwhelmed, never to perform your action. “For Today Only” – Use a Strong Call to Action

A well crafted call to action encourages your site visitors to perform the most desired action while clearly guiding them how to perform that action.

In other words, you’re simply telling your prospect what to do and how to do it.

Write a clear, strong call to action that triggers an emotional reaction by making the prospect understand that they need to take your offer if they want their problems to disappear.

Here are things you may consider in your call to action:

Create a sense of urgency. For example you may say “50% off on the first 10 Sales” or “50% off Today”. That will make a potential buyer want to take action immediately so as not to lose out on the offer.

Use action words like Discover, Approved, Proven, etc. Let’s say you use a phrase like “Discover 10 ways to double your widget sales”, or “16 Proven ways to double your sales”. These words are more compelling than words such as Learn, Know, etc.

State solutions or benefits that the prospect will get by signing up or by giving you their contacts. Most people will not take action unless they know what benefits are in store for them.

Use incentives to propel your conversions. You can achieve this by including lucrative bonuses that they simply cannot refuse. Incentives can make your offer unbeatable.

Clearly state what the prospect needs to do. Tell them to ‘Sign Up’ or ‘Register Now’ or ‘Click Here’ so it becomes easy for them to take the necessary action.

Don’t be too Pushy. You don’t want to appear as if you’re so desperate or you’re just full of hype. That might make your offer lose value or even its credibility.

Use Social Proof

Social Proof is powerful in marketing and can have a great impact on your conversion rate. There’s a psychological explanation behind this; that if you can show that people have previously had a great experience with your products, services or whatever offering, then more others will be willing to buy from you.

In simpler terms, it increases your credibility or authority or even the trust that people have in your.

Testimonials are best to use as a social proof. They show that other people have experienced and even liked the offer.

If you can display how many people have subscribed to your newsletter, or your product’s five star reviews, then that’s a major plus.

Generally, we normally do not always want to be the first ones to do things that we’re not 100% sure of.