If you’re running a small
business, odds are your website already includes the basics,
including easy site navigation, mobile-friendly design and fast
loading time.
But
you’ll need more than that to stand out from the crowd.
Implementing these expert strategies will help your website attract
and convert more clients:
Clearly show
the “what” and “why” of your product or service
The
headline, tagline and hero shot (the main image on the page) need to
work together to show what you’re offering and why clients should
choose your product or service, said Theresa Farr, a
conversion
rate
optimization
specialist.
“The hero shot is an area that can usually be improved,” she said. Make sure your hero shot resonates with potential clients. For
example, if you offer fitness services, instead of showing people
with perfect physiques on the page, show images of regular people
enjoying their workouts, said Farr.
Include
images of faces throughout your website
“Starting
when we are infants, humans have a natural cognitive bias to look at
faces,” said Andy Crestodina, chief
marketing
officer
and co-founder
of Orbit Media Studios,
a web design and development company. Where you should include them:
- Calls to action. “Any time a face appears on a website page, it acts as a magnet for attention, so adding one to a request to sign up for a newsletter, free consultation or product demo, or to get more information, will help increase the likelihood of your prospects taking those actions,” said Crestodina.
- Team photos. Website visitors want to see the faces of people they might be doing business with. “Based on Google Analytics, the ‘Team’ page is often the top or second-most-visited website page for an organization,” said Crestodina.
- Testimonials. Including the faces of your clients who are giving testimonials makes this social proof of your business excellence more powerful.
Exit overlays are a last-ditch effort to get visitors to take action before they leave a page on your site.
Brian Massey, conversion scientist at Conversion Sciences
Hire someone outside your team
to rewrite your website copy
Chances
are that you or one of your team members wrote the original copy for
your website. That’s a mistake, said Brian Massey, conversion
scientist
at Conversion Sciences, a
conversion optimization and website redesign company. “When you
know your product or service offerings inside and out, you
automatically make assumptions about what an intelligent website
visitor will know,” he said. “We’re full of biases, and our
brains are designed to take shortcuts.” An external copywriter can
start with a clean slate and write website copy from the viewpoint
of what a new visitor needs to know. You can use A/B tests to
determine what wording works best, as well as getting feedback from
current clients or paid testers through sites such as UsabilityHub.
Use
thank-you pages for every action
“The
easiest way to track what visitors do when they go to your website is
to set up a thank-you page for each action,” said Crestodina.
Thank-you pages provide a destination, or landing page, for each
activity, which can be tracked as “goals” in Google Analytics. In
addition, thank-you pages are
underutilized ways to deepen your relationship with clients and
provide additional selling opportunities through offers listed on the
page.
Add
exit overlays
“Exit overlays are a last-ditch effort to get visitors to take action before they leave a page on your site,” said Massey. These pop-up windows can send visitors to another part of your site for more information, or ask them to take action, such as inputting their contact information to gain access to discounts or special offers. “Exit overlays provide some of the highest conversion rates of all the calls to action on our client websites,” said Massey.
CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.
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