Part of What Your Website Should Say, the guide this sits under.
I recently had the opportunity to present ideas on conversion strategy for the American Society of Appraisers. Thank you to Bharat Kanodia for asking me to be a part of an incredible lineup that included Leo Manzione, Rebekah Wildman, and Robert Gillette.
Change 1: Target a Single Customer
This goes back to the basics of business — know yourself and know your customer. Stop trying to talk to everybody. Be something special to a specific set of people.
If you need help identifying your target customer, I put together this nifty little form. It has 30 questions you should be able to answer about your customer.
Change 2: Legibility
Don’t sacrifice legibility for design. I get that the image you have on your site looks amazing, but if people can’t read the text on top of it, all you do is cause anxiety. Anxiety increases friction. Friction is what causes people to not work with you.
Change 3: Use the Right Call-to-Action
The best piece of sales advice I’ve ever received was “sell to the next step.” Your site needs to do this same thing. Maybe the call-to-action shouldn’t be “Buy” or “Get Started.”
Maybe it’s “schedule a call” or “download this guide.”
After you’ve identified your target customer you should learn more about their intent. To understand what they want to do when they arrive at your site. Then use your call-to-action to help them do that thing.
Change 4: Communicate What You Do
Make it easy for someone to understand exactly what you do. Avoid starting your site with witty tag lines or rhetorical questions. Instead, start with one sentence that tells someone what you do and why they should work with you.
If you’re having a hard time listing out reasons someone wants to work with you, we should probably talk.
Change 5: Write for sales
Stop starting sentences with “we”, “our”, or your company name in the third person. Instead, start those sentences with the word “you.” By doing this, you frame the sentence for the reader. Now, you’re telling them what they get.
And that…that’s why they are on your site to begin with. They don’t want to hear about your past or your accomplishments. They want to know “what’s in it for me?”
Change 6: Have empathy
Remember that it’s a real person on the other end of your marketing efforts. Writing for search engines is absolutely recommended but not at the expense of mis-communicating with the people we’re trying to convert.
If you’re interested in having this presentation at your group, you can email me@hijoemartin.com to coordinate details and a time. To learn more about the concepts presented in this video, check out my article about using trust & personalization to improve your website.
Common questions
How can I increase website conversions without more traffic
Change what the page says. Target one customer, make the copy legible, use a call to action that names the outcome, and state clearly what you do near the top.
What makes a good call to action
One that names what happens next rather than describing a click. See Dates tells you what is on the other side. Learn More does not.
Does website design affect conversion rate
Less than the words do. Design buys you the few seconds in which someone decides, and the words are what they spend those seconds reading.