In a digital age where the internet is oversaturated by websites for every niche, competition has never been fiercer. On the internet, your competition isn’t just local. Depending on your industry, you could be competing statewide, nationally, or even globally. With roadmaps leading consumers in every which direction, how do you specifically direct them to your website? It’s time to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and experience your website from their eyes by mapping your customer journey.
What is a Website Conversion Rate?
A website conversion is really just a fancy term for tracking how well you’re meeting your desired goal. If your mission is to generate sales leads by having visitors fill out forms on your website, each form intake is a conversion. Successful marketing and website design drive conversion rates, as the more appealing and accessible your goal, the more people will want what you’re offering. To see how you measure up to rivals, track your metrics via Google Analytics and compare them to industry benchmarks.
Map Your Customer Journey to Find What Generates Conversions
The customer journey is a storyline of your customer’s experience as they interact with your company. Defining the stages of this journey reveals the reason behind your conversion rate. You want to ensure each stage leads to the next. While customer journeys can vary in length, some common pitstops include:
Awareness
Is your website not receiving the traffic it deserves? Garner awareness for your website through sponsored ads, social media posts, testimonials, or free downloadable content (a.k.a. “lead magnets”). Stand out from the competition by leveraging your unique personality through creative differentiation. Use visuals and video to attract awareness via social media, and communicate values that resonate with your ideal client.
Findability
Are your customers able to find your website? To ensure your website is discoverable via search engines like Google, focus on your search engine optimization (SEO) and use keywords that coincide with your audience’s interests. Redirect your audience to your website through engaging social media posts, and promote your business using Facebook or Google Ads.
Consideration
Now that the customer has found your website, how can they trust that you’re their best option? Blogs, social posts, articles, and webinars are great at showing you have in-depth industry knowledge. Provide your audience with education and assure them that your product or service is the answer to their problem. This will generate engagement with your website and lead the customer to the conversion stage.
How to Maximize Your Conversions
We live in a world filled with distractions. If your conversion funnel – the flow through which a visitor lands on your site and completes your goal – is not quick and easy, your customer will lose interest. Here’s how to ensure you don’t lose your conversion at the tail end of their journey:
- Streamline Purchasing/Registration: Create short registration forms, and limit the input fields needed to complete a transaction. The more effort the consumer needs to put in, the more likely they’ll abandon their cart.
- Minimalize Your Website Design: Deprioritize anything that doesn’t have to do with the conversion funnel. The customer should be able to achieve their goal with as few distractions and clicks as possible.
- Create a Lead Capture Form: Even if the customer falls short of the conversion, make an effort to get their email address for email marketing. Oftentimes you can achieve this with a lead magnet, such as a free eBook.
Don’t overwhelm your audience with options. It’s better to have one really great call to action than a dozen mediocre ones. That’s where to spend your time and money.
Mapping your customer journey helps you identify the improvements needed to generate website leads. Whether the goal is to obtain sign-ups or sell your product or service, you’ll generate more opportunities for conversions by understanding your customers’ thought processes. At Vision, we lead consumers to our clients through expert social media management and design their websites to simplify the customer experience. For help generating more conversions, contact us.
