10 Ways To Improve Conversions Rates For Your Business

Spongebob on converting leadsDoes your conversion funnel have more holes in it than Spongebob Squarepants?

You may have finally figured out how to drive leads to your business, but now you can't seem to seal the deal.  Finding and driving qualified leads to your business is only one part of the puzzle, figuring out how to turn them into paying customers is the other.

Whether we're talking about website conversions, phone calls, or walk in traffic, the principals of converting leads into customers is essentially the same.  Below are 10 ways your business can improve its conversion rates….and bottom line.

Make Conversions Part Of Your Marketing Budget

Does your business spend all of its budget trying to get the phone to ring?  Your initial touch-point marketing materials need to be top notch to grab attention, but your conversion materials (middle of the funnel) also need to be equally awesome.  Many businesses have zero marketing collateral to help convert potential customers, only for initially attracting them.  Think of all of the steps in your conversion funnel and what supporting materials and communications you'll need to move prospects to the next stage.

Respond to Inquiries Immediately

People have little patience these days. Pretend your customer has ADHD and if you don't respond to them almost immediately, they will forget they ever contacted you.  It's likely that lead has also contacted your competitors, first movers usually have an advantage.  You may initially get away with an auto-responder email if it's a website inquiry, or voicemail if it's the phone, but people want to talk to a person.  Remember, people like to buy from people, not faceless corporations.

Qualify Your Prospects

If you're finding many of your leads are turning into dead ends because they had no business contacting you in the first place, look at your qualifying process.  Make sure your marketing materials are clear enough to ward off people who would never convert in the first place.  Don't give off a “discount” image when you're offering high-end services.  Having a good FAQ page on your website and educational collateral like whitepapers, will not only weed out unqualified people, it'll save you lots of time to focus on your high value leads.

Use Offer Specific Landing Pages

Do you drive marketing efforts to the homepage of your website?  That's what most small businesses do and it can be conversion disaster.  It's the equivalent of a customer walking into your store, asking you where the shoe section is, and you (instead of taking them to the shoe section) take them to the middle of the store, leaving them to finding the shoes section on their own.  Sounds stupid?  It is, but that's what most people do with their website.  Create dedicated landing pages tailored to the needs of the audience you're speaking to.

Let me give you an example.  My oldest daughter has Celiac Disease (can't eat wheat/gluten).  While on vacation recently I searched online for a Gluten Free pizza shop near our hotel.  The first advert result in Google was a regional chain announcing they have the best Gluten Free pizza.  Jackpot I thought, until I clicked on the ad and went to their website.  The ad dumped me onto the homepage of their website, nothing Gluten Free in sight.  It took me over 5 minutes of searching to find their Gluten Free section, which wasn't even a dedicated page, but a section of their allergy page. I was so annoyed (as a marketer and consumer) that I opted for Mexican instead.  It would have been a different outcome if the pizza joint had sent me to their dedicated Gluten Free page, if they had one.

Deliver More Than They Expect

Give potential customers a taste of what it's going to be like to do business with you.  You're in a courting period, they are looking for a reason to say “yes”, give them a reason.  Now's your chance to over-deliver, to show them doing business with you is going to be great.  If the norm is 3 days, do it in 2.  If they expect an email, give them a phone call.  Look for ways to “one-up” the competition.  Give them so much valuable information that they'll feel bad if they don't do business with you.

Conversion funnel small business

Test, Test, Test

You should be testing all aspects of your conversion funnel, from the initial contact, to when they swipe their credit card.  Where are the prospects falling out of the funnel?  Where are the weak points?  Are there too many steps in the process?  Analyzing and testing will continually move you towards plugging those holes and leaving more customers at the end of your funnel.  Fix the leaky pipe before you mop up the floor.

Tailor Your Offerings To The Prospect

At the start of your marketing efforts, even with proper segmenting, you're reaching out to people en mass.  But once prospects enter your funnel and you learn more about their needs, ditch the cookie cutter dialogue and start tailoring your message directly at their needs.  The more questions you ask, the more you'll learn about them.  Take that information and create an offering that seems like it was created just for them.  The actual product or service may not change, but the way you communicate the benefits will.  Sounds like too much work?  You're right, tell them to call your competitor, I'm sure they'll be happy to take this hot lead off your hands.

Streamline The Customer Experience

Call centers suck.  You call and you're immediately placed on hold for no less than 10 minutes.  I'm talking to you telecom industry.  When you do finally get a live person, you spend 5 minutes explaining your plight, until they transfer you to another department, where you have to explain your plight all over again.  No continuity of information.  A poor customer service experience.

In the case of calls centers, it's sometimes done on purpose to try and get rid of you, like a game of “hot potato”.  For your business, you may inadvertently be doing the same thing.  Use some sort of CRM where customer information/communications are stored centrally.  A prospect may speak to several employees during the conversion process, but they should never have to repeat themselves to anyone at your business.

Learn To Score Your Leads

If you treat all of your leads the same, your going to shortchange your business.  Not all leads are created equal.  Focus on your best prospects first.  You should know who your best prospects are by looking at your conversion history and seeing what your high value leads look like.  Maybe your high value prospect get 7 conversion efforts, while a lower value prospect only gets 3, then they're unloaded into your auto-responder sequence.  If you spend equal time on your low value prospects, you're taking time away from better converting, higher valued business.

Determine The Prospect's BANT

After some rapport has been established between you and the prospect, you will need to start asking deeper qualifying questions.  Determining BANT (budget, authority, need and timing) will help you to prepare a solid closing pitch, or it will let you know that you may be wasting your time with the prospect.  Based on their answers, you can tailor your communications to be consistent with their level of interest.

Plug The Conversion Leaks

So here are 10 ways you can help plug the leaks in your conversion funnel.  Tailoring your communications and testing your conversion methods will go a long way into turning that funnel shape into more of a cylinder.  What are your suggestions for creating a better conversion process?  Leave them in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter!

 

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Gary

CEO at 3Bug Media
Gary Shouldis is the founder of 3Bug Media, a web marketing company that helps businesses create 360 Marketing Strategies to dominate their market. His blog is read by over 20 thousand small business owners a month and has been featured in the N.Y. Times Small Business, Business Insider and Yahoo Small Business.
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