How to Avoid the Cardinal Sin of Online Marketing – 12 Tried and Tested Golden Rules for Converting Your Internet Traffic into Customers

12 Tried and Tested Golden Rules for Converting Your Internet Traffic into Customers
Imagine that thing you’ve most wanted to buy……

You’ve seen the adverts, read the reviews and write ups, talked to all your friends about it and heard loads of stuff that’s got you so excited.

You’ve seen it in the window and now you’re there, seeing, feeling, touching and trying it. You’re all ready to part with your money and it’s yours. But then….. the Sales Person scare you off, or you can’t find any sales people to take your order, or they close the checkout, or the queue is around half an hour, or they make you complete a three page form before you’re even considered worthy of becoming a customer, or …. Well I’m sure you’ve got your own examples.

We’ve all been there – we’re sold, we want to buy, all we need is….. And the stupid retailer puts a barrier before us.

How frustrated do we feel? How annoyed do we get? Will we ever go back there again? And what about the retailer? What a chump? To get that close? And to have wasted all that effort and expense on a customer who will NEVER come back?

This happens every day in shops throughout the world but it also happens all the time online and, in my opinion, is the cardinal sin of online marketing.

Companies make great efforts to get people to their website and lose them before they even get past the landing page, because they don’t properly engage them and convert them from browsers to visitors?

Website owners set an objective like getting people to sign up for something or request an appointment and then don’t properly consider how it works and what they are actually asking people to do.

So here are our 12, tried and tested, golden rules for converting internet traffic into customers:-

1. Set Clear Objectives, i.e. Conversion Targets.

Sounds simple but you’d be surprised how many site owners just want to get people to visit their website and think everything else will follow. What do you want people to do:-

• Buy Something?
• Request a telephone call?
• Book an appointment?
• View a specific information page
• Download something?
• Sign up for newsletter, mailing list, subscription, etc?

2. Design Your Site/Page Around Those Objectives

If you want people to book a follow up call or visit, make sure your visitors understand that and are clearly requested to do that. My old uncle (who was professional salesman) used to tell me that the biggest mistake most salespeople made was not to ask for the order. And this is the same with a lot of websites. You’ve got a visitor who has found the site, wants what you’ve got, has read all about your company and wants to do business but they don’t know what to do next because it hasn’t been spelled out.

3. Make It As Easy As Possible For Your Visitors To Complete Your Objective

If you want someone to sign up to a newsletter all you need is their name and email address, you don’t need them to complete a 10 item form. If you want someone to buy something don’t put obstacles in the way. Ask for the minimum amount of information you need to complete their request and make it as simple and easy to complete as possible.

4. Keep It Short, Sweet And Simple

Minimise the content on each and every conversion page. Do not fill your page with words and complications; just keep it very simple with straightforward bullet points telling them what they need to know and what they need to do next

5. Finish Every Page With A Strong Call To Action

Whether you want them to submit a form, send a payment, give you their email address or just view another page, issue a strong, compelling call to action, telling them what you want them to do and how it will benefit them when they do it.

6. Make Everything As Simple, Straightforward And Obvious As Possible

Look at your website with your customers eyes. Understand how they think and try to imagine every conceivable scenario that may make them confused or unsure. Don’t use jargon, acronyms or long words where simple English is possible. Try to keep everything to a minimum of clicks, think of Amazon & Apple’s 1-click shopping.

7. Test Everything… Repeatedly

Think of every possible scenario and test it. Get your friends and staff to test it in every conceivable way. Once your site or pages are live, monitor it! If you can see issues which you think may be hindering conversions, test out different alternatives and monitor them closely.

8. Know Your Site & Conversion Process Inside Out

I’m often staggered when I find companies that don’t regularly test their check out process, sign up form, or other conversion processes. When we take on a client we get to know the conversion processes backwards and test them out from all different scenarios;- using different types of internet user, different browsers, different operating systems and computers, different internet connections, different network locations, different times of day and so on. Then we monitor the process closely using analytics to see if there are common drop out points that we haven’t spotted. Then we try to replicate and get the site developer to fix the issues.

9. Build Trust And Establish Empathy

You want your visitors/customers to empathise and bond with you, you also need them to trust you. If you want them to give you their email address tell them all about how you protect their data and privacy, how you will not sell their information and how much you hate spam. If you want their credit card details, make sure you have top notch security procedures and SSLs in place and you back it up with security & privacy policies. Lack of trust is one of the biggest causes of conversion failure and customers bailing out of a transaction

10. Don’t Sting Them With Extras

A Great Headline Price, a Free Offer or Subscription can often bring people in and get them so far, but if you then sting them with extra charges or additional requirements expect your conversion rates to plummet. Extra charges, conditions and the like have traditionally been the number 1 obstacle to converting a transaction.

11. Make Sure Your Site And Pages Are Quick To Load

Your pages need to load quickly, if not instantly. People are impatient and will not hang around for your tardy site when there are plenty of others who do what you do. Research shows that anything up to 60% of your visitors will exit your page if it takes more than 6 to 8 seconds to load (and you can bet your bottom dollar they will NEVER return).

12. Did I Mention Testing?

Yes I know it’s boring but you need to test everything. Retail is detail as the saying goes and online it’s just as, if not more important. If you website crashes, page fails to load, if your SSL is out of date, if there’s a spelling mistake, or a broken link, your visitors will find it and they’ll leave, never to return! Make sure everything works and then test it again.

And the bonus rule, Don’t spend time and money marketing your website until you have fully understood and implemented the above. If you do, not only will you be wasting your time and money but you’ll be alienating your potential new customers in the process!

Peter van Zelst is the Founder of SpecialistOnlineMarketing.com , a practical online marketing agency, providing practical online marketing help and support to businesses. If you want practical help to make your business, website or e-commerce venture fly visit or call http://www.specialistonlinemarketing.com/