Top 7 Ways to Convert Visitors

What happens when your site visitor counter shows that you have plenty of visitors to your website, but they’re not purchasing your products and services? You’re obviously doing something right to get them to your site, but how can you convert them into someone who buys your products or services?

Not everyone who visits your site will become a customer or client. According to Wordstream, the average visitor conversion rate is only 2.35%. However, if you’re really successful, you might even convert 5.31% or more of your visitors. If your conversion rate is nowhere near that, or you want to convert even more visitors, it’s time to find a new strategy.

We’ll look at seven things that you can do to convert visitors to customers who will keep doing business with you and will bring their friends.

7 Ways to Convert Visitors to Customers

Here are seven areas that you can develop more to help with increasing your conversion rate.

1. Give Incentives for Doing Business With You

Getting a consumer to do business with you for the first time is often a result of giving them a tempting offer. There are several incentives you can offer to help convert visitors to customers:

• Free trials: 54% of consumers keep their subscriptions after their free trial ends.
• Offers, special deals, and discounts: 92% of U.S. online shoppers looked for offers or special deals before making a purchase.
• Free gifts or upgrades: Free gifts seem like better value, which increases conversion rates. Plus, 90% of consumers increase their brand loyalty when they get free gifts, and 65% are more likely to tell others about their purchase.
• Rewards Loyalty Programs: According to iVend’s global shopper survey, 83.3% of shoppers cite rewards programs as their most common shopping motivation.

2. Offer Live Chat

In an in-person store, being able to ask a salesperson questions about something you’re thinking about purchasing can sway you toward buying something if you’re on the fence. Live chat offers that same advantage for your online business. When you’re able to engage with potential customers who have questions, you’re more likely to capture more sales and close more deals.

31% of U.S. and U.K. online shoppers say they are more likely to make a purchase after a live chat session. While not everyone who stops by your site will take advantage of live chat, just having it available greatly increases your odds of converting web visitors to customers.

In fact, 73% of online consumers indicate that live chat is one of the most important features you can offer on your website when a potential customer is trying to make a decision about making a purchase. Live chats are convenient, can help your customers with their decision-making process, and leaves your potential customers feeling more positive about your product or service. Try a live chat program like Genesys, NICE CXOne, or Five9 Chatbox.

3. Instill Trust

Edelman has been studying trust for 20 years. The 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer includes some interesting findings related to the current state of the world’s trust, which can translate into increasing your conversion rate. Some ways to instill trust in your visitors include:

Promote Your Values

Edelman’s research shows that 58% of people are willing to buy from and promote brands that correlate with their personal beliefs and values.

Promote what you stand for on your website through your mission statement, promotions, and products. Then, not only will you find the customers you want, but they will be happy to tell their friends about you.

Just be careful not to go as extreme as Penzeys did in January of 2022, which resulted in a loss of 40,005 of their loyal email subscribers.

Create a Referral Program

Globally, 76% of people worry about fake news. Edelman’s findings show that the pandemic has decreased people’s trust in outsiders and social media.

Meanwhile, there has been a rise in people trusting those close to them, like co-workers and neighbors. A referral program is an excellent way to bring in visitors to your site that are more likely to buy your products or services.

According to research from Heinz/Influitive, 71% of companies with referral programs report higher conversion rates. They find that their sales efforts are 20% more effective with a referral program than without one.

Highlight Your Small-Business Status

Edelman’s research shows that people trust small businesses more than large ones. If you have a family-owned or privately-held business, be sure to mention this on your website. Don’t forget to provide a physical or virtual thank you for buying from your small business.

4. Create a Blog

Blogs get consumers to your website when they are interested in a blog topic related to your products or services. When potential customers research the good or service they need, they’ll cruise on to your site. When the visitors to your site are people who are already interested in what you have to offer, you will convert more of them into customers.

What if you’re not a good writer? Never fear. There are plenty of freelance writers and companies that produce quality blog content for companies like yours.

Use Better Keywords

To get the right visitors to your site in the first place, you want to use good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keywords. When you use more of the keywords that people are searching for, your website will come up higher in search results, which will bring in customers who are more likely to want exactly what you offer.

Create an Email List

Sure, creating an email list is great for telling previous customers about your new blog entry, products, services, deals, and promotions. However, people who visit your site without buying anything may still sign up to be on your email list because they want to keep your company in mind for future purchases.

And, if you include sharable content in your email newsletters (like your blog posts), current customers are more likely to share with friends. Remember what we said about the trust factor? When friends share your blog posts with friends, the friends are more likely to trust the products or services you provide, resulting in more conversions.

5. Provide a Contextual Call To Action

Any site content that customers read should include a contextual call to action. Build on what they’ve just read on the page, and then decide what you would like the reader to do as a result.

According to Rob White at the Blend HubSpot agency, “Vague CTAs have a lower click-through rate. It’s important to tell users exactly what they’ll get and what will happen when they click.”

So, what do you want your site visitors to do?

• Do you want them to buy a specific product or service?
• Do you want them to contact you for a free consultation?
• Do you want them to try a free trial?
• Do you want them to schedule a meeting to talk with someone in your company?
• Do you want them to start a live chat?

Once you’ve decided what you want them to do, you can provide a link calling them to take that specific action.

6. Make It Easy To Check Out

If checkout is complicated and doesn’t accommodate common types of payment types, customers are likely to click away from your site when they get to the checkout. If they have to fill out tons of forms rather than just clicking and paying, they’re often not going to stick around.

If you integrate a high-quality shopping cart into your website, like Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce, you’re more likely to have customers make it through the checkout process.

7. Add Exit Pop-Ups

Converting web visitors can actually happen as they are leaving your site. If you use exit pop-ups properly, you can increase your conversion rate.

Users trigger exit pop-ups when they move their cursors toward the screen. Then the pop-up invites them to do something simple, like:

• Sign up for your email list
• Follow you on social media
• Have a final chance at a discount
• Get something free

Some exit pop-up tools to explore include Sumo, ShareThis, and Wisepops.

According to Wisepops, exit pop-ups do 5+% better than traditional popups. Wisepops says their top 100 clients experience an average conversion rate of 3.93% solely through their exit pop-ups (which isn’t much different from their other clients).

Final Thoughts

If you want to convert visitors to customers, you have to get people to your site and engage them in the right way. We hope that our list has given you some good ideas about new layers you can add to your site to bring in people who are more likely to need what you have to offer.

iDevAffiliate has years of experience in the affiliate marketing software industry to help make website management easier. iDevAffiliate includes several popular tools that can help with converting web visitors, including SEO linking, custom keyword tracking, and coupon code commissioning. It also features affiliate tracking software for 177 types of checkout options that you can integrate into your website for products, services, memberships, and subscriptions.