3 Reasons Why Your Conversion Rates Suck (And What You Can Do About It)

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What a time to be alive. Seriously. No longer do intelligent, resourceful and imaginative people have to strain under the yoke of bland, unappealing corporate jobs that seem to lead nowhere no matter how much overtime you put in. In the digital age, there are more opportunities than ever for us to take our career, our future and our livelihood into our own hands. Today, all you need for a thriving business is a good idea, a laptop, a reliable internet connection and a strong work ethic. You don’t even necessarily need a product. There’s an equally strong market for the trading of online services, selling your skills, knowledge and expertise directly to the people who need them most. Isn’t that the dream of capitalism in a nutshell? Because of this digital goldrush, many are building lucrative side hustles through social media or website design alongside their day jobs, and even building their side businesses up to the point where they’re able to quit working for the man and devote themselves completely to the successful running of their enterprises.

The conversion game

For most of us, our enterprise starts with our online presence. Whether this is through a website, an app or a social media profile. Yesterday’s entrepreneurs had to grapple with the logistics of getting people to drive out of their way to visit their brick and mortar store, while today’s have a slightly different quandary. Sure, they have to draw as much traffic to their online presence as possible, but while it’s easier to get people to click on a link than to drive to a store, converting those leads is somewhat more of a challenge in the digital realm where users can drift away from your presence much more easily.

The trouble is that many nascent entrepreneurs look at their reach (the number of clicks you;re getting) and assume that the money is going to start rolling in any minute now. But reach is just a vanity metric, and if you let it dictate your digital strategy, you’ll find that your conversion rates get worse and worse every month. If you’re seeing a steady flow of traffic but shockingly poor conversion rates, it’s important to identify the reasons why and act on them as soon as you can. Here are a few reasons why your conversion rates may suck…

Poor website design

Unfortunately, it’s not 1998 anymore. It’s no longer enough to have a website. You need to make sure that your website is compelling and easy to navigate, subtly driving users to convert without making a nuisance of itself. This is a subtle art. Poor website design is one of the leading causes of poor conversion rates, so it’s a good idea to get a creative agency to give your online presence a once over. They’ll quickly pay for themselves by tweaking;

Your UX Copy- They’ll improve the user experience by revising your layout and introducing compelling calls to action to allow the user an easier and more enjoyable experience. Good user experiences are proven to boost conversion rates.
Branding- The user will get a stronger idea of what your business stands for and develop a better personal relationship with your brand.
SEO- They’ll help you to crawl up the search engine rankings organically by tweaking your content and design to be more search engine friendly. This will combe a boost in reach with strategies to ensure that reach stands a greater chance of conversion.

Your CTAs are too generic

Your Call To Action (CTA) is of course a part of UX copy, but it’s so important that it merits an entry all on its own. Many entrepreneurs underestimate the importance of a compelling Call To Action but look at this example in offering users a free e-book. Version A offers the CTA “Get It Now”, while Version B offers the alternative “Grab Yours Today”. This is a free e-book we’re talking about here, so you may not expect the CTA to matter all that much. Nonetheless Version B had a conversion 5% higher than Version A. Why? Because;

“Grab” is offer far more immediacy than “Get” and implies limited availability
“Yours” sets the e-book up as a free gift that’s just for you
“Today” again implies a limited window of availability.

Your users aren’t offered a reason to stay or return

Speaking of free e-books, many businesses understand the power of offering new users something for nothing. It’s what allowed Uber to become such an effective business model. How could your online presence offer something for nothing to new users to exponentially boost your conversion rates? You could offer them a free e-book of their own, or a special discount for new users, or a promotional code or their first product or service for free. Give them a taste, and they’ll keep coming back!