What Does it Take to Convert Strangers Into Customers?
Have you thought about it? What impression does your prospect get when they visit your website for the first time. And what makes them consider buying your service or product? Which words influence and what induces trust in them?
Let’s find these answers and figure out how you can increase conversions through your website!
Create a Good First Impression
- Speed: Think about how you respond when you first arrive at a website. Do you get impatient if it takes ages to load? Studies have shown that if a site takes longer than 4 or 5 seconds to download then up to 40% of the visitors are likely to leave your site without even having seen the first page.
- Layout: Assuming the site does download in the required time, what’s the next thing you do? Normally, you’ll take a quick look around the page looking for some highly visible headline or bold statement that answers the question(s) you have or provides you with a statement that makes sense to you.
- Responsive Design: With responsive design, you make it easy for your visitors to view and interact with your website on multiple devices, and present as fewer obstacles as possible.
Build a Bridge Through Your Website Copy
Between a stranger and them using your service, there’s a huge gap. A bridge emotionally and logically connects your visitors to your product or service. If you have no idea how to make a strong bridge and are just guessing where to put your building blocks, the train won't make it over.
A good bridge isn't just a collection of bricks. The same way as a good copy isn't just a collection of words.
Bridges are usually the benefits (not features) that convince your prospects how your service or product can help them solve their problem.
Let's say you own a carpet cleaning company, and your landing page proudly says: "Flush Obstinate Stains Out of Your Carpet!"
But is it truly a benefit?
To find that out, ask yourself this question: Can you imagine your potential client lying awake at night thinking,_ "Man, I gotta flush some obstinate stains out of my carpet!"?_
If you think this is highly unlikely, congratulations, you’ve discovered a dummy benefit. To convert it into a real benefit, ask one simple question: "So what?". And keep asking it until there's no answer. Here's how.
_Flush obstinate stains out of your carpet! _
So what?
_So that your carpet is cleaned. _
So what?
So that your carpet feels fresh to touch, doesn’t smell like your cat’s urine, and you are in a better mood.
Bingo! You've just uncovered a real benefit and built the bridge that you can now include in your copy to make more people relate to it and sign up for your offer.
Induce Trust
A stranger looking like a homeless person walks up to you in the middle of the street and offers to sell you a brand new luxury car that they said they had just won in a lottery. All you had to do was to go and get $5000 in cash to give to them. Would you?
Just like is almost all situations, it matters how your business website appears at first look, how you position your offer, and whether you have credibility. How can you induce trust in your prospects who don’t know you well?
- Provide Value: Even though your end goal might be conversion, you’re also helping your customers achieve something. And it’s important for your prospects to feel that you really want to help them. Free values on your website, like informative articles, reports, ebooks, or educational videos are ways of conveying that you want to help your visitors even if your efforts might not result in sales. When the visitors notice that you have invested considerable time and effort into providing value, it’s easier for them to trust you.
- Use testimonials and case studies: Testimonials work because it’s easy for people to trust those who are appreciated by a third person. However, don’t create artificial testimonials and don’t put up brief one-liner testimonials that end in ‘signed - a Happy Customer’ – nothing loses credibility faster than a generic testimonial like that. A case study has even more power than a testimonial. It often requires a bit of research, but with the time spent on creating the case study, it should return you well with enhanced trust and credibility. A case study is like a story. Begin your case study with the ‘Before’ situation for the client, highlighting their problem or their issue, and the solution or the fix that you recommended, and then the ‘After’ which was after their issue or problem was rectified or fixed through implementing your recommended solution. To top the case study off, add the testimonial that you received from this client as a footnote.
- Include your physical address and phone number on your contact page: Many people like to do business with someone that they feel has a real physical presence somewhere.
- Share details on your ‘About Us’ page: On the ‘About Us’ page, you need to go into a great deal of detail on your vision, processes, what makes your different, and your team. In addition, you can go so far as to include personal information of your team and workplace. The reason behind this is because people like to do business with other people and not a website.
Romulus Dynamics is a Human-Centered Web Design Agency
We not only create elegant, responsive and mobile-friendly websites but websites that drive conversions and growth. Our design focuses on the end-user which bridges the gap between you and your visitors.
If you need help with a website or your digital strategy, go ahead and reach out to Romulus Dynamics today!
