This series of articles is about how to put your website to the best use in converting visitors into customers. Traditionally website conversion is very low, at about 1%, but there are many ways to increase this conversion. In this article we will focus on the right and wrong ways to collect data.
No matter how much you want to collect data, or encourage people to share your content, pop ups are very rarely a good way to go about it. Pop ups interfere with the whole flow of the website and the visitor journey and often slow down loading speed. If you want to collect email addresses you have to earn the trust of the visitor.
Consumers are becoming more and more wary of sharing their data with unknown sources. This means that you have to be offering something of real value to the consumer in order to gain their trust and get them to type their email address into a box. Receiving offers on your goods or services, prize draws and providing information that can\’t be found elsewhere are all good carrots to put on the end of your stick.
If you choose to provide information in the form of a newsletter or blog that can only be accessed by registered users then you will want to provide a good, regular service and something of real value. Unfortunately there is a lot of free information on the internet that you will have to compete with. Look to creating an ebook, a white paper, or unique research to use for data collection.
If you offer goods or services that aren\’t available on your website then you could encourage people to part with their email address with the offer of a voucher to be used offline. This will not only collect their data, but also persuade them to become a customer.
Many ecommerce sites make the mistake of over-complicating the booking process and trying to collect too much data. Ideally the checkout process should be as short as possible and only collect the data required for the transaction. A long checkout process often results in customers being discouraged.
A good example of this is too many rules relating to passwords. Most people have experienced being stuck in a system that requires a password that is more than 8 characters, then must contain at least 2 numbers, then a capital letter, then no symbols etc. By which point you are likely to be fed up and not want to continue with a sale.
Data collection is necessary for many marketing techniques and websites are an excellent tool for doing this, but it must be done correctly if you want to increase your conversion.
South Wales Web Solutions offers expert website design in Bridgend that focus on user-experience and conversion. Talk to us to find out how we can help you turn website visitors into customers.