E-commerce is competitive. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling digital services or physical goods. It doesn’t matter if you’re a B2B or B2C company. Websites are a dime a dozen. Scratch that, they’re actually a dime a million — yes, a million. According to PipeCandy, there are at least 1.3 million e-commerce companies in the United States, and the majority of them earn less than $1 million in web sales. Nonetheless, eCommerce retail sales pulled in $3.5 trillion globally in 2019 — and that’s just retail.
In other words, people are spending a lot of money online at a lot of different businesses, and it’s not easy to stand out from the pack. Data from WordStream found that the average business across any industry has a 2.35% landing page conversion rate, but the top 25% of landing pages have about a 5.31% conversion rate or higher. The sweet spot is in the top 10% of landing pages, which have an average conversion rate of nearly 12%. So, how do you get there? There are certain additions you can make to your website that are proven to drive conversions.
Call To Action Buttons
CTA buttons are a fool-proof way to drive up click-through rates, and thus conversions, especially when paired with a video. According to some estimates, a CTA button within a video gets 380% more clicks than a CTA button in a sidebar. HubSpot found that even a simple anchor text CTA can increase conversion rates by 121% — but conversion rates vary based on where your CTAs are. For example, research has shown that:
- Sidebar or generic, end-of-post CTAs get an average conversion rate of 0.5% to 1.5%
- Pop-up CTAs can garner an average conversion rate of as much as 8%
- CTAs in sliders and bars have about a 1% to 5% CTA.
- Welcome gate CTAs have an average conversion rate of 10% to 25%
- Feature box CTAs have an average conversion rate of 3% to 9%
Regardless of where your buttons are placed, you should choose your CTAs wisely. In truth, people don’t generally do well with an abundance of choices, buttons, and (for lack of better words) online chaos. This theory was tested by The Sims 3, the best-selling computer game franchise who increased conversions by 128% after revamping their website to include just one CTA button instead of four. In short: keep it simple. Drive the most conversions by making a single CTA button for your primary goal — whether that’s asking consumers to register, purchase, schedule a demo, or learn more.
Chatbots
Customers who feel welcomed into a store are generally more apt to make a purchase. The same thing goes for a digital store, which is why people love chatbots. Artificial Intelligence is the customer service of the future, and adding a pop-up chatbot to your website is a surprisingly good way to drive more conversions.
Surveys have shown that about half of all people would rather speak to a company through messaging than via email or phone calls, and chatbots can be particularly effective in this regard. For example, when the B2B software company RewardStream began using a Leadbot chatbot, it accounted for 30% of their converted leads in the first 45 days of use. Similarly, when AA Ireland implemented a chatbot in 2018 to help them make insurance quotes and personalized recommendations, the century-old company saw an 11% increase in sales conversions.
Even if your website isn’t fully optimized, a great chatbot can still increase conversions.
FAQ Sections
In many regards, a FAQ page is one of the most important aspects of a conversion funnel. Why? This is where people who are on the fence about making a purchase go to learn more about your products and services. Still, not all kinds of FAQ pages work. They need to be purposeful, easy to navigate and answer real questions that real consumers have. The latter takes a little marketing research, but it’s worth it in the end.
Remember, users are looking for efficiency with a FAQ page, and questions should be lumped into like-minded categories with bold text, so they’re easy to find. Often, poorly converting FAQ pages have a lot of information, it’s just the wrong information. Nix any prose about where your company founded, your employees, or your story. Save that for the About Us page. People are coming here to learn about your products not about you.
Product Video
Video is a lot more impactful than most people might think. For example, in 2020, 80% of video marketers surveyed by UK-based video marketing firm Wyzowl believed that video directly helped them increase sales. That’s the goal, right? Nonetheless, traditional marketers have been slow to adopt the format with 17% claiming they don’t think it’s needed. Newsflash: it is needed, at least if you’re trying to increase conversions.
The truth is that most people are online to watch videos. Cisco has estimated that video traffic will make up the majority of consumer internet traffic by 2022, and it’s not that surprising when you think about it. HubSpot found that a whopping 72% of consumers would rather learn about a product or service through a video than by other means. In what’s essentially an online mall where we can’t feel products or test them out in real life, a video is the next best thing.
In-Page Demo Scheduling — Or Just The Demos Themselves
There’s a lot of controversy on the best way to generate conversions through demos. Do you allow for in-page demo scheduling or do you just craft a landing page for the demos themselves? There’s research that speaks to both points. Some shows that pointing leads towards a pre-recorded demo can improve conversions by 114%. Other research has shown that about 40% of leads that scheduled a demo converted within a month.
Either way, demos are important — no matter how you get around to the process, but this process must be smooth. Complications in scheduling, arranging, and conducting online product demos can cause companies to lose as much as 50% of their leads, so keep it simple. Add in-page demo scheduling to your website, have a chatbot guide consumers through the process, or add a video demo anyone can easily view at any time to get the best results.
By Ryan Gould
Vice President of Strategy and Marketing Services at Elevation Marketing
From legacy Fortune 100 institutions to inventive start-ups, Ryan brings extensive experience with a wide range of B2B clients. He skillfully architects and manages the delivery of integrated marketing programs, and believes strongly in strategy, not just tactics, that effectively aligns sales and marketing teams within organizations.
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