A high conversion rate is integral to your business — but how do you accomplish this? Maybe consumers aren't engaging with your content like you expected, or interest in your services is low.
Reinvigorate your brand reputation by experimenting with new ways to appeal to your audience. Digital marketing offers you a world of options for promoting your company, but some methods have shown tried-and-true effectiveness over others.
These are the techniques you want to employ when improving your advertising — better methods equal mindblowing results. Here are eight effective strategies to use for increasing your conversions and impressing your audience.
1. Well-Paced Sales Funnel
Your sales funnel guides users through your website until they hit the call-to-action, which encourages them to act on the information they've received. Avoid rushing them into a purchase before they're ready or waiting too long to introduce the selling point. They might navigate away from the page beforehand. A polished sales funnel leads them through the process at the perfect pace to ensure conversions.
Build relationships with your leads before marketing products or services. Many businesses do this through content marketing, which establishes the consumer-seller connection and develops company reputation. Provide consumers with valuable, educational content without immediately asking them to convert.
The internet offers many examples of how a funnel is supposed to look, but the general steps include awareness, interest, decision and sale. Increase awareness by advertising your brand through various avenues — ebooks, blog posts or search engine ads. Build interest among leads by offering content relevant to their habits and hobbies. They'll be ready to decide once they're invested — keep supplying relevant content, and retarget them for ads.
Once the lead is familiar with your brand and has shown keen interest, ask for a sale. Guide them to your purchase page through emails and ads, and offer discounts on products they've viewed but didn't purchase.
Recommended: How to Encourage Site Visitors Through the Sales Funnel
2. Marketing Segmentation
Marketing segmentation determines what demographics make up your target market. Research these users and identify trends in location, age, gender or education. Many businesses find this information by conducting surveys and polls and creating focus groups. Four common categories exist — demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral — though you can expand this list depending on your company's needs.
Once you have this information, target users by showing them relevant products. People in their teens and 20s won't be looking for financial investment services, but older adults will. Likewise, people in Florida won't be searching for winter parkas and long johns, while those in Alaska might. Studying your segments gets you in front of the appropriate customers rather than pushing your goods to uninterested people.
Google's Medic algorithm update in August 2018 implemented a similar strategy by returning more location-based search results. Searching for "donuts" or "oil change" will now yield more results from your local area than from multiple-location companies who provide the same services. Authority still has its place in how you rank, but consider marketing directly to your surrounding area.
3. Telemarketing
Telemarketing is still an effective way to gain leads, despite what others in digital marketing say. It gives you the chance to communicate with customers on a person-to-person basis. Live conversations bolster conversions because they allow human connections with the people you're targeting. Personal associations are still crucial to consumers, even in our digitized world — they don't want to encounter machines and robots.
Telemarketing is undeniably useful when you implement it effectively. Relatability and tone of voice are significant factors in converting people. Customers can't see your face, so they must rely on what you say and how you say it. A minor change in tone can convey patience, distress or boredom. Instruct your telemarketers on keeping a positive, warm voice and speaking slowly — but not too slow.
A balance between fast and slow is key. A rushed, loud salesperson will cause many ended calls, but taking too long to reach the point also will. Gear the language toward trust and empathy rather than making a quick sale.
4. A/B Testing
A/B testing enables you to develop two different versions of a webpage and analyze which receives more conversions. This technique is excellent for experimenting with new layouts, headlines or call-to-actions without committing to a design. Mitigate the risk of losing revenue and leads by running an A/B test first and settling on the best-performing option later. The software you use will direct 50% of users to one of the two webpages and record how they interact with the page elements.
Experiment with website components that are quantifiable and have a significant impact on conversions. Some businesses make the mistake of testing elements with little influence on conversions. Both the analyzed item and the test results should have tangible effects on the site's formatting and conversion rates.
Testing isn't only for startups and small companies. Big corporations do it often to refresh their content and continue appealing to their audience. A/B testing is one of several parts of user intent. What are potential leads searching for, and how can your company solve their problems?
5. Social Media Promotion
Social media is one of the most popular ways of promoting content. Platforms like YouTube, Twitter and Snapchat have consistently grown in recognition, and their messages reach people across the world.
When someone wants to buy new shoes, they'll visit the seller's site and check reviews on eCommerce sites, but they'll also head to social media. Searching relevant keywords on Twitter or Facebook allows them to see what others think of the product and whether they recommend it.
Many companies pay Instagram and YouTube influencers to do reviews for their goods, especially if those influencers are authoritative in their industries. Makeup gurus review eyeshadow palettes, while self-taught chefs give their opinions on cookware. Advertising on your company's social media accounts is only half of the process. Influencers and celebrities have a notable sway over public opinion, and businesses are using this to their advantage.
Your company's accounts should always remain near the forefront, however. Establishing a platform lets you see what customers are saying about you. Contact them if they have concerns or interact with them through genuine banter. Consumers appreciate companies making efforts to relate to their audience and offer feasible solutions.
6. Blogging
Blogging comprises one of many facets of content marketing. Many organizations run blogs where they post industry insights and educational information. A lighting company might make a blog post about why CFL and LED lightbulbs are more energy-saving than fluorescent. A company specializing in instant cameras might post an article on the history of film cameras leading up to today's digital cameras. Anything likely to be relevant and compelling to the user is fair game.
Update your blog regularly if you choose this avenue of content marketing. Avoid starting this commitment if you don't have enough time to write or enough topics to discuss. Long-form performs best with consumers, and you'll need time to flesh out your posts. You also don't want to post multiple times a day and overwhelm your audience — though this technique does work for some sites. Your posting schedule depends mostly on what your marketing goals are and how your audience interacts with your blog.
Consider having experts in your field write guest posts. Your audience will trust bloggers who show evidence of their knowledge, which boosts your company's reputation in turn.
7. Pay-Per-Click Ads
Try a cheaper way of marketing through PPC ads. You only pay for these when a user clicks them — bid for affordable keywords to start and work your way up. Host them on relevant industry websites or SERPs. The ad will lead the user to your landing page where they can perform a conversion. PPC ads often appear as sponsored links on top of Google SERPs, though they also come as display ads.
Google decides which sites to rank for each keyword based on their adherence to SEO practices and their E-A-T. Both of these should be the focus of any marketing campaign, though using PPC requires you to establish new goals. How will you make your messages attention-grabbing if you choose display ads? Does your brand have recognizable imagery, or is this something to develop? What will your landing page look like, and what is your definition of a successful conversion?
Track your keywords and substitute low-performing ones for better options. Aim for long-tail keywords to make the most of your marketing campaign. Consumers searching for specific terms — such as "red oak grandfather clock" — are usually at a point where they're ready to complete a purchase. When they're about to buy, you want to be in the perfect position for them to choose your business.
8. Optimized Forms
Few consumers enjoy filling out lengthy forms or surrendering information to a site they're unfamiliar with. Be inventive about how you implement them. Turn tedious forms into checkboxes or autofill-compatible entries to eliminate the need for excessive typing. Experiment with placement and the number of fields. You'll find forms at the bottom of the webpage on many sites, but A/B testing may reveal users navigate away before ever reaching them.
Give users incentives to fill out forms. What can they receive in exchange for volunteering their email? A newsletter, an ebook or a short educational course? People love free things, but they also love free things that make their lives better. Emphasize the benefits of taking your offer. An ebook for a cookware company might consist of quick dinner recipes for lengthy workdays. An email course can teach users how to write engaging blog posts.
Lightbox pop-ups are an eye-catching way to get visitors on your email list. Implement witty slogans and fun images, but don't forget to mention how your offer provides a vital solution. Your users will be less enthusiastic about your content if it gives no tangible benefits.
Practical Digital Marketing Benefits Every Brand
Using the best marketing techniques will enhance your business's revenue and earn you a long list of leads. By combining a variety of strategies, you can boost your site to the top of search engines and build authority within your industry.
Kayla Matthews is a MarTech journalist and writer, whose work has been featured on Marketing Dive, Contently, Outbrain and Convince and Convert. To read more posts from Kayla, please visit her personal tech blog, Productivity Bytes.
