How to make your website content convert

Editor's Notes

• #10: Your marketing strategy revolves around getting traffic to your website, using multi channel marketing, promoting posting content on a regular basis. All to drive leads to your website. But once its there what do you do with it? If its not converting, theres 0 point creating all that noise on all your different channels. It all lies in the call to action. Lets take a look at how you can get your content converting
• #11: Before you put anything in place its important to look at what a conversion is to you. Not just marketing but sales too. You all need to agree on what a conversion is. Is it a download, a click, form fill, web score, purchase, comment, share, video watched, registered for an event. Which channels will you be using to drive traffic back to your website? Where you will be promoting which content, and when – times of day, times of months, months of year etc Then you need to decide what you will be doing to your conversions – at what point will they be passed to sales?
• #12: A conversion is about hitting the sweet spot at the right time, the right way. And understanding your potential customers wants and needs. Its about connecting with your website visitors. 4 ways to do this: Put your visitors at ease – guarentees, no risk no obligation, relevant to them Trust – use testimonials, reviews, case studies so they trust in you, be honest, relate to their every day pain points, make them feel safeBelong – part of a community, why you want them to be part of it Benefits – connect with them, rather than you – what are the benefits for them – not just because you want more conversions, why they should convert – how it will help or benefit them
• #13: Its paramount to stick to these 3 steps to track your conversion process – do your research on your target audience, demographics – gather relevant information from multiple sources, whats working whats not, what are your competitors doing and not doing – so you can do it better. The application – implement, split test, track everything all the way. Analyse – bounce rate, conversion rate, exit rate, time spent
• #14: You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Your landing page is the most crucial part to the process – wherever you are directing your traffic too, from whichever channels, needs to be the hook and needs to entice visitors to move through your website the way you want. Its important to ensure your visitors know why they have been directed to that specific page – what they are supposed to do next and what you want them to do on that page. Create specific landing pages for your content.
• #15: Its obvious that gating your content is one sure way to get your content to convert. All high quality content should be gated, particularly with a double opt-in capture behind it. But ask for multiple fields of info and you immediately put people off. We removed all fields and just left the email address, because at the end of the day that is all we really care about, and we saw a 30% increase on form fills. People want simplicity and ease, so cutting out anything that takes too much time will ensure you see as much increase as possible
• #16: The rate of the conversion lies in the CTA, it’s the thing that is going to either make people do whatever it is you want, or put them off. Try using language that is gonna make people take action – some of the best words to use. Make the CTA bold and bright – spot it straight away, use buttons, the funnel strategy (draw the eye down to the CTA)
• #17: The average attention span is less than 18 seconds from first interaction. So its important to bear this in mind with your cta. Don’t make your readers work hard for something you want them to do. Only 20% of people read below the fold (Nielson)
• #18: Use your customer testimonials, case studies and reviews on landing pages, product pages or even your resource pages – how has that piece of content helped other readers. 92% of consumers will listen to family and friend recommendations – good or bad. We are influenced by real life stories and reviews. We want someone else to have tried before we buy. They provide proof of success and reduce the risk of people not knowing what they are signing up for
• #19: Your headline is probably the single most important part of your landing page. Only 20% of people read below the headline (Nielson) so its important to get it right to intrigue readers enough to continue – split test, brainstorm a few, circulate them within the business to see which one performs better. Use key benefits in the headline – why your content is going to help your readers, why they need to continue reading. Clear, relevant, lean, exciting,
• #20: We live in a tech savvy generation. People don’t want to read loads and loads of text – use video to get your point across. Website visitors are around 70% more likely to purchase after watching a product related video. Humanise your brand with videos – use employees in your video so people can relate and connect to your product more. Google loves video – it now owns youtube. 1.84% ctr on video
• #21: Recommend related products or resources so readers continue through the website journey. Include links so readers continue to engage. Push your readers through the journey using your content – you might also like, take a look at this on the same topic…. Where do you want them to go next, where do you want them to end up? Every page, piece of content should have links to heavier pages where your visitors can find more information about your product and service – think about lead nurturing across your website
• #22: Don’t just create content for the sake of having content. The key to making your content convert is the relatability. Are you writing about stuff that happens in day to day work life, that’s relevant to your readers? Who are you marketing too? Make sure the content you are creating and directing your traffic too is relevant to your personas, that’s the end goal to getting them to convert – if its relevant enough they will convert and the hard work is done for you. It doesn’t matter how pretty your landing page is, how many fields are on your form, what else you have on the page. As long as the content is relevant enough then people will convert!
• #23: Don’t just stop at the conversion, you’ve put all that work in to get them to your website and then to convert, now its time to turn them into a sale! It may not necessarily be a phone call straight away, if they are downloading your content send them through a nurture programme to warm them up ready for a sales call. Until they reach a high level of buying intent and are 100% ready for a sales call