You’ve built an awesome website, you’re getting loads of traffic but for some reason or another, your conversion rates are still low. That’s bad news for your business and the worst thing is that you can’t seem to find the culprit. So where did you go wrong? What’s the missing piece of the puzzle? If these questions have been tormenting you for a while, don’t panic. A lot of people are in the exact same situation, asking the exact same questions, and while that might not be much consolation, you should know that the mystery can be solved and solutions always exist.
It’s true that no two businesses and websites are alike, so there are a lot of variables to be taken into account, but when you’re dealing with low conversion rates it usually comes down to the same root causes. Let’s take a look at some of the most common reasons behind low conversion rates and find out what you can do about it.
Wrong target audience
Starting with the basics, one of the most common mistakes that can impact conversion rates is targeting the wrong audience. It can be as simple as that: maybe you’ve just been talking to the wrong people all this time. You need to find a public that is interested in what you have to offer. Otherwise, even if the products and services you offer are superior, your words will fall on deaf ears and all your marketing efforts will be in vain.
This can happen when you haven’t taken the time to define your buyer persona or when you simply want to please everyone, which is literally impossible. Now you know what you have to do: create a detailed profile of your potential customers and build your marketing strategy around their needs and expectations.
Ineffective Calls to Action
When people visit your website, after a quick inspection of the page they expect to see a sign that will tell them what to do next. These signs are the ever-present Calls to Action (CTA) that help guide visitors through the website, so they better give clear and compelling direction. If they don’t, you’ll have a lot of confused visitors on your website, wandering aimlessly for a short while until finally deciding it’s not worth the trouble and taking their business elsewhere. And that’s why they never convert into customers.
As the experts at Salt & Fuessel point out, smooth and simple navigation and compelling CTAs have a direct influence on conversion rates. Make sure your CTAs are visible, they send out a clear message and don’t scare visitors away. Here are the basic rules on how to create effective Calls to Action:
- Avoid general CTAs
- Make sure users notice it immediately
- Keep it simple, so you don’t confuse people
- Don’t ask too much of your visitors
Crowded web pages
Closely related to the previous point, another important aspect that can affect conversion rates is the overall look of your website. No one likes a website that looks like a labyrinth or a mystery waiting to be solved. People expect a seamless and trouble-free experience and they want to find exactly what they are looking for with minimum effort.
Crowded websites are conversion killers. Having too many elements fighting for real estate on your web pages is a terrible idea. If your visitors are greeted by a plethora of images, videos, pop-ups and confusing CTAs when they click on your site, they’ll run away never to return again. The lesson here is to avoid making customers feel like they’re under attack. Learn about the best website design practices to elevate user experience and make sure the time they spend on your website is not wasted.
Poor quality content
Every piece of information you present on your pages makes up the content of your website. Needless to say, content can make or break your website and implicitly your conversion rates. If copywriting is not your strong suit and visitors are presented with mediocre content, no wonder they don’t convert into buying customers.
Copywriting is an art and you’ve got to learn how to master it if you want to improve sales. Good copy should be informative, original, compelling, well-written and capable of triggering an emotional response. So, there are a lot of boxes to check when writing a copy for your website. That’s why it’s better to hire a professional copywriter to do the job and ensure you get the best results.
Forgetting about mobile users
According to the latest statistics, there are more than three billion smartphone users worldwide today and figures are expected to increase with several hundred million in the near future. What does that tell us? That more people will be making purchases from their mobile devices than ever before. You can’t expect people to take their laptops or PCs with them wherever they go, so they’ll obviously access your website from their smartphones or tablets quite often. If the pages don’t display properly on mobile devices, making it difficult to navigate the website, you’ll lose a lot of customers. The obvious solution here is to build a mobile-friendly website that can ensure a pleasant experience for all visitors.
Unclear value proposition
Bragging about your products and services used to be an effective marketing technique back in the day, but times have changed. Now you have to work harder and smarter to stand out from the crowd. If you want customers to choose you over your competition, you have to make it clear why you’re the better option. It’s not enough to list your strong points. You’ve got to come with a unique value proposition (UVP). What does that mean? It means you must convince your potential customers that what you provide will bring value to their lives.
Creating a value proposition begins with answering a few important questions: what value do your products/services offer? How will these values benefit the customer? What can you offer and others can’t? The answers to these questions will help you shape your marketing strategy and ultimately increase your conversion rates.
