How to Improve your Conversion Rates: 5 Questions to help you get more sales

Hands up who wants to improve their conversion rates and sell more stuff, get more email list signups or book more discovery calls.

You have an offer you want people to take up but for some reason they just aren’t doing it. Or not enough are.

Maybe when you first came up with your business idea, you got a tonne of feedback saying how amazing it is and “you should so do that!”.

So you’ve put in the work.

You’ve spent hours weeks coming up with the perfect business name and logo.

You’ve created the most beautiful website.

You’ve started all the social media accounts and have been posting Every. Single. Day.

You’ve doubted and debated over your pricing endlessly.

You’ve asked in countless Facebook groups “How should I promote my business?”, and then just get overwhelmed with the answers you received.

But have you stopped and looked back at the basics? The stuff that really makes a difference.

In this article, I’m not going to tell you about all the promotional tactics you can be using to get those extra sales.

Because I’ll be honest with you: If you are getting people to your website and they are not buying then the solution isn’t more people. The solution is taking a good look at what you are offering and making it so that your website visitors can’t help but click that buy now button.

Here are 5 questions you should be asking yourself about your offers to increase that all-important conversion rate

 

Question #1: Are you focusing on the features or are you focusing on the benefits?

Yes, it is important to know what size and colour a product is. Or how many hours of 1:1 coaching. Or how many modules are in your online program.

But that isn’t what people are buying.

They are buying the results. The outcomes.

They are buying how they feel when they put on the dress you made.

They are buying the convenience of not having to do something themselves.

They are buying knowledge that will help them to create a life they desire.

They are upskilling to provide better value to their clients.

This is the stuff you need to focus on. Yet so many of us get caught up in adding more and more bells & whistles to our offers instead of focusing on communicating the true value of what we offer to our target audience.

Now this doesn’t mean you have to have a 2000 word sales page for your virtual assistant services. You can do this with just a few really connected, well-crafted sentences and some great imagery.

If you are struggling to figure out the real, underlying reason why someone would want your offer, then it’s time to go back to your target market and figure it out. If this is you, make sure to check out this blog post: The Ultimate Guide to Finding & Defining your Target Market

 

Question #2:  Have you made it easy for someone to buy?

This sounds really obvious, yet we still manage to find ways to make our website visitors jump through all sorts of hoops before they get to the thank you page.

And often we don’t see it because we are so close to our website that it seems easy to us because we have done it 100 times.

So, if you are struggling to convert those website visitors, here’s a simple check: Find a friend or relative who isn’t too familiar with your website and ask them to go through the whole checkout process while you sit there next to them, silently watching.

A few things you want to look at:

• Is your website easy to navigate? Can they find your offers easily?
• Is the call to action / buy now button really obvious? Is it just in the same font and colour as the rest of your webpage or does it stand out?
• Do all your links work? (No matter how many times I do this, I still always seem to find links that don’t work)
• Do you ask too many questions or have them go through too many hoops to checkout?
• Do you have enough payment options?

In addition, do you answer your frequently asked questions?

Yes I mentioned in the previous point that you want to focus on the benefit or outcome, but once you have your prospect interested, you need to answer those questions that they have:

• What will the process look like?
• How are my items shipped? And how long will it take?
• What colours can I choose?
• Do you customise?
• What is your refund policy?

These can be on the sales page or linked prominently on your site. The important part is to make it easily available so that they don’t have to stop their checkout process because they need to go to the contact page instead to ask an obvious question.

Question #3: Are you making a connection?

One of the biggest benefits of being a small business is that we can connect with people on a personal level.

People buy from people.

If someone likes you or connect with you as a person, they will be more likely to buy from you.

This is the advantage we have over big corporates.

So don’t try to be like the big corporates with this image of polished perfection.

Instead, show your personality. Share why you do what you do.

This stuff about yourself and your business is what will make you memorable.

You can do this in a number of ways:

• Show yourself: Don’t be scared to use a picture of yourself and a bio. This is especially important for service based businesses.
• Utilise your About Page: Your about page will be one of the most visited pages on your site and one that people generally visit when they are in the consideration page of the buying process.
• Weave personality into your copy: use humour or straight-talking. Share your passion. Don’t try to fit a mould here – just be you.
• Share stories: story-telling is one of the most powerful ways to connect. So share your experiences.

Question #4: Are you following up?

News flash: the chances of someone buying from you the first time they visit your website is slim.

This is even more true if you have a more expensive offer, it involves a time commitment or is more complex to understand.

Or maybe they just aren’t ready – yet.

So we need to find ways to continue to build on that initial interest.

Like a sales person we need to follow up. And follow up. And follow up.

Sometimes this could take just a couple of interactions. Sometimes it takes a couple of years.

It still surprises me sometimes how someone emails me after being on my list for 2 years and wants to work with me.

There are two main ways in which you can do this:

1. Offer an easier first step.This can be inviting them to join your email list in exchange for a free download. Or it can be offering a complementary 30 minute discovery call. Or it can be a low-priced point / entry level offer.Anything that gives them an easy yes and then opens the door for you to connect with them further.
2.  RetargetWith modern technology, you can also retarget your website visitors in other ways. Facebook Ads and Google Adwords, for example, both have retargeting options where you can run ads to those who have viewed certain content or products on your website. Or, if you have many people abandoning checkout before they enter their credit card details with the right email software you can send automated abandoned cart emails to recover some of those lost orders.

It is much easier to convert someone who has already shown some interest in your offers to buy than it is to continuously find new website visitors and hope you get the sale the first time around.

 

Question #5: Do you know your numbers?

I know at the top of this article that I said this isn’t about listing off 50 different ways in which to promote your business (that’s a whole separate blog post which you can read here).

But this is still worth mentioning – as sometimes it is about getting more numbers.

Average conversion rates for websites (speaking very broadly) is about 2%. That means to get 20 sales you need 1000 visits.

This is important for you to know because so often we set unrealistic expectations on what our conversion rates should be when in fact you might be doing quite well.

If your conversion rate sits around that percent or more and you’ve had a look at the previous 4 questions and are happy with where you stand, then it’s time to look at ways in which you can get more traffic.

And we can’t just rely on having hit publish on our website for the word to get out there. We need to be showing up consistently and telling people about our offers and what benefits they have.

And the more you do that, the more you will learn, and the better you will get at it.

 

Which of these 5 questions are you going to take action on today? Let me know in the comments.