If your website isn’t optimised for action, you’re losing sales. Simple as that. Your potential customers need to be guided through the sales process, with every step made easy and obvious for them. Make it simple for them to find the answers to their burning questions and they’ll be more confident in going ahead with a purchase. Not optimising your website in this way could be costing you thousands in lost sales, but don’t worry, we’re here to help you fix that! Here are three things you’re doing that could be costing you as much as £10k a month in sales.
Not supporting customers through their buying journey
Lots of potential customers get lost on their buying journey. And that’s okay – not everyone will convert to a customer! However, you can increase the number of people who buy by ensuring you support them through their buying journey.
How do I do this, you may ask?
Well, people are a lot more likely to buy from companies they trust and feel positive about. You can build this trust by proving that your solution will solve their problem and by ensuring that all of their questions are answered. Your job is to essentially remove all doubt from your potential customers’ minds.
- Use testimonials to show that your solution has solved others’ problems in the past
- Have a comprehensive FAQ page that answers all your potential customers’ burning questions – and ones they didn’t even know they had
- Start a blog filled with helpful advice – this helps to prove that you’re knowledgeable about your industry
- Ensure your product/service pages are informative and explain in layman terms what it is that you offer
Not having an obvious call to action
A call-to-action refers to a stimulus that prompts an action from your website visitors. Often, this is a button the web visitor needs to click. Let’s say you’re a private chiropractor who wants people to schedule an appointment with you. A large button on your homepage saying “book appointment now” would make it obvious to the visitor that that’s the next step. If it’s not obvious, people are less likely to go through with that desired action.
Try to place the call-to-action right in front of the consumer, so it’s obvious as to what the next step is. I recommend testing different variations of your call-to-action. Maybe “buy now” would work better than “choose product” or perhaps CAPS LOCK would attract their attention better.
Not enough contact options
People usually go on to a business website to find more information about the business. Some will have further questions that they need answering before they go ahead with a purchase. Make sure it’s easy and convenient for your potential customers to contact you – it’s a good idea to have multiple contact options on your website. A large number of people notoriously hate speaking on the phone so ensure you’re catering to a larger market by having more than just a phone number.
Think about your customers. They may want to get in touch but hate speaking on the phone. Ensure they’re able to email you too, or, for more instant responses, try a live chat function. This will allow them to talk in real time, without the inconvenience of a phone call – live chat has been shown to increase conversions by as much as 300%!