Hi there,
In today’s article, we will be discussing how to optimize your website to increase your chances of receiving more business.
Recent studies have shown that customers are more likely to use your website to make purchases rather than visiting your physical store. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that your website is easy to navigate and is updated regularly.
It’s clear that if your small business wants to capitalize on online sales, you need to pay attention to your website and make the purchasing process as easy as possible.
After all, you don’t want to be missing out on valuable sales because your website is poorly designed.
We have put together 8 simple steps that you can take to maximize your chances of engaging visitors and turning them into customers.
COMMON MISTAKES
Psychology plays an essential role in creating a positive experience for your website visitors.
It’s important that you understand what your visitors want and need, how they can access it, and ensure that they can access it in the easiest way possible.
The last thing you want to do is make someone work to find the information they need or try to figure out how to make a purchase.
One of the most common issues we see with small business websites is a need to want to talk about everything, every product, every service, and every opportunity to get involved.
Unfortunately, when you overload people with options, they are likely to choose none.
These next steps will walk you through how to overcome visitor overwhelm and ensure you’re maximizing your opportunities for converting traffic into sales.
IMPROVE & SIMPLIFY YOUR COPY
The clarity in your messaging is crucial for visitors to understand what your small business does and then feel compelled to buy your products or services.
Review the copy on your website and ask yourself, are you answering these questions:
What is your business’s mission?
Who are you helping?
What are you doing to help?
What impact have you created so far?
What makes you different from your competitors?
How can people buy your products or services?
If you’re not sure you’re clearly communicating the answers to these questions, it can be useful to ask someone outside of your organization to take a look at the website and then ask them:
do you know what the business is about and what it does? Do you understand what the business would like you to do and how you can be involved?
If they can’t answer these questions, then you should consider rewriting the text to ensure these questions are being answered clearly.
Secondly, even if you feel you are answering these questions, you need to consider how that information is being displayed on your website.
Make sure that the text is broken up into different sections and use call-outs and color blocking to emphasize some sections that will draw the attention of the eye.
Also, be sure to keep paragraphs short (2-3 sentences or 150 words), and keep sentences short (less than 20 words).
All of this will help the user to digest the information much more fluidly and subsequently retain more of that information.
UPGRADE & SIMPLIFY YOUR CALLS TO ACTION
Calls to action are crucial for small businesses’ websites as they prompt visitors to take action and support your business. Calls to action can range from signing up for a newsletter, booking an appointment, or purchasing a product or service. It’s important to have one clear call to action on each page of your website to avoid confusing visitors with multiple options.
Make sure your call to action stands out by using a contrasting color and a button. Testing your calls to action and ensuring that the links direct visitors to the right page are important too. A website that doesn’t load properly can turn off potential customers, so ensure that everything is running smoothly before going live.
OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE FOR MOBILE DEVICES
More than half of the global website traffic comes from mobile devices, and Google has made changes to its search engine algorithm to prioritize mobile-optimized websites. Small businesses need to make sure their website is mobile-friendly by testing it on various devices and ensuring that it’s easy to navigate, loads quickly, and displays correctly.
Creating different sections for mobile and desktop versions of your website can help improve the user experience. Simplify the mobile version by trimming unnecessary elements to provide a cleaner experience for users.
DISPLAY CLEAR BENEFITS
Small businesses need to be transparent about how they use donations or how their products or services benefit their customers. It’s important to communicate this information clearly on your website to build trust with potential customers. Show pictures of your products or services in action and share key data to demonstrate the impact of your business. Make your business’s annual reports available on your website to give visitors a deeper understanding of your business.
USE PAYMENT PROCESSING SOFTWARE
If you’re a small business, having a seamless payment processing system can increase your conversion rate. While PayPal may be sufficient for some, using your own branding and syncing your payment processing software with your CRM system can provide a more professional look and feel. It also allows you to automate a thank-you message and funnel customers into your CRM system for more precise marketing efforts in the future.
PERSONALIZE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Personalizing the customer experience can go a long way in increasing customer loyalty. Simply adding someone’s name to a thank-you email can make them feel valued and more likely to return in the future. You should also follow up with updates on your product or service to show customers how their purchase was used to further your mission. This can help build trust and solidify customer loyalty, potentially leading to recurring purchases.
CREATE ENGAGING CONTENT
Good quality, engaging content is essential to keep customers engaged with your business. If you don’t have one already, consider setting up a blog where you can post articles that tell the stories of your impact, be it from satisfied customers, from volunteers, or from your employees. Telling these real-life stories brings your work to life and provides a more in-depth look at the true impact you’re creating.
You should also consider creating value-led content like offering tips & advice for potential customers. For example, if you’re a fitness business, you could post an article with useful resources for people who are new to working out. This value-led content not only provides your audience with useful and engaging information but also allows you to demonstrate your expertise in the work you do.
LEAD MAGNETS
Finally, consider creating a lead magnet as a way to collect email addresses and contact details of your website visitors. These are incredibly effective at funneling people into your email marketing list, which on average yields a much higher conversion rate than social media marketing and search engine optimization. Lead magnets can be a ‘soft conversion’ that allows visitors to sign up to be on your communications list if they are not quite ready to make a purchase.
In conclusion, taking these steps can help you improve your small business website and make it more attractive to potential customers. By using payment processing software, personalizing the customer experience, creating engaging content, and using lead magnets, you can build a strong foundation for an effective website that can increase customer loyalty and drive sales.