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The 6 Things You Need To Do Every Month To Boost Your Conversion Rates

Increase conversion rate hellobar digitalvidya

You have a sleek website design, are utilizing a variety of digital marketing tactics to drive traffic to your website, and are even impressed with the number of visitors you see each month – so why aren’t you seeing an improvement in conversion rate? That’s why we’re here. In this post we’ll uncover the 6 things you need to do every month to boost your conversation rates.

What is a Conversion Rate?

Defined as the ratio of the number of visitors who took the desired action on your website (made a purchase, for example) to the total number of website visitors, a conversion rate is a measure of your site’s ability to transform visitors into paying customers. Achieving a higher conversion rate often translates to an increase revenue, which is why so many businesses focus on this metric for their website.

How do You Calculate a Conversion Rate?

Conversion rate = (# of visitors who took a specific action/total # of site visitors)*100.

Let’s say that you receive 100 total site visitors. Of those, 10 decide to make a purchase. Your conversion rate would then be calculated like this: (10/100)*100 = 10%. This means that with the above numbers, the conversion rate is 10%.

Of course, the main factor in determining the conversion rate has to do with the desired business outcome. Example business outcomes can include the purchasing of an item, downloading of a conversion driver, subscribing to an eNewsletter, filling submitting a form, and many more. Since businesses have different goals, each will measure conversion rate differently.

Why should businesses focus on improving conversion rates? It’s simple. Increased conversion rates can lead to:

  • Increase in revenue
  • Increase in advertising money to drive more visitors
  • Visibility to a wider audience
  • Business growth

What is a Good Conversion Rate?

Honestly, the answer to this depends upon the industry and country. Typically, the average conversion rate is seen between 2% and 5%, with the majority being around 3%. The higher the better, of course.

We know what your next question will be: how hard is it to improve conversion rates? Of course, that answer also varies as it depends upon your audience and where they are in the buying process. But there is hope! Below are a variety of different tactics to use to help improve your conversion rate.

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What are Pop-ups? Why are they Important to Improve Conversions?

A website pop-up is an opt-in form that pops out of the normal design of your website to entice a visitor to take some sort of action (signing up for an email list, creating an account, etc.). Usually, pop-ups cover up a certain part of a page to draw the viewer’s attention. We’re guessing that if you’ve spent any time online, you’ve seen them before.

Good pop-ups will get viewers to read them, fill them out, or click on a button to take a certain action, which helps to increase conversion rate.

In terms of pop-up types, these are a few of the more effective ones:

  1. Exit pop-ups appear right before a viewer exits your site, when his or her mouse gravitates towards the url box at the top of the page. The most effective way to incorporate this pop-up is to include an offer about the product or service on the page they were viewing in a last ditch attempt to reel them back in, or at least collect their email address so that you can follow up with them later. These pop-ups are great for eCommerce sites and help minimize cart abandonment drastically.

We love this exit pop-up that Little Family Adventure incorporates.Little family adventure exit pop up

Alt text: Little Family Adventure uses their exit pop-up to entice viewers to download their ebook before leaving their site.

  1. Scroll pop-ups occur when a viewer has scrolled down the page by a certain percentage. Incorporating this more than 50% down on the page will help you to capture viewers who are more interested in your product, rather than those who are less likely to convert. These leads will be much more qualified, meaning that when you follow up via email, they’ll have a better chance of converting into paying customers.

As the largest online social media magazine, Social Media Examiner, utilizes this pop-up about 30% of the way down on any article someone reads.Social media examiner scroll pop up

Alt text: Social Media Examiner Scroll Pop-up

  1. Instead of popping off of the page, top bar pop-ups rest at the top of the web page where the best real estate is for gaining views on your site. By implementing these top bars, you can greet people when they come to your site or make an announcement. We’ve seen people use these in a range of ways, from announcing a site bug that’s got their system down, to announcing a sale and sharing a discount code right at the top of the page for all to see.Top bar pop up

Alt text: top bar pop-up example

  1. Another way to draw attention is through lightbox pop-ups. This type appears at the top of the page while the rest of the page content is inactivated and dimmed out. These pop-ups work well to focus attention to the pop-up, without alienating visitors from your site. Just be sure to set these so that they don’t appear right away – no one like a pop-up in their face right when they get to a website! For best results, wait 5 to 10 seconds at least before having a lightbox pop-up appear.Turntable lab lightbox pop up

Alt text: Turntable Lab Lightbox pop-up

Pop-ups, when used correctly, are an excellent conversion tool. How so? Pop-ups grab visitors’ attention, and when executed well, entice them to click on the offer, headline, and call-to-action so that they interact with your site and ultimately, sign up to be a part of your community.

But pop-ups aren’t just a set-up and walk away type of tool. They require a little maintenance and a good amount of forethought to be sure that they are optimized correctly.

We recommend that people log in to update their pop-ups once a month to ensure that they’re converting as well as possible.

6 Things You Need to do Every Month to Improve Your Conversion Rates

1.) Perform A/B Test to Increase Conversions

A/B testing is a common marketing experiment to find out what’s resonating with your audience and what’s not. This type of test is done with one variant at a time, which can include headline text, font size and style, or color and web page design, to name just a few.

In the below example, you can see that this company is testing different font sizes and messaging on their main header. Creating a captivating header that appeals to your audience’s problem or offers them a desired solution can result in two things: they will continue to scroll down or they will click on the CTA – both outcomes are great for your business.Split test

Alt text: split test example

By testing two different versions of this web page, marketers can see what performs better for their specific audience. This strategy can then be implemented throughout their site as they’ve “figured out” what their audience likes best.

2.) Every Month, Evaluate How Content Schedules Impact Conversion Tools

Most companies have some sort of content schedule – whether it’s a rigorous outline with multiple posts per day planned out, or a simple idea of when the next sale or blog post is coming up, it’s important to keep these in mind when optimizing your pop-ups.

Given that pop-ups are a way of placing your content in front of your audience, it’s important to consider the content that you are using. Is your content appealing to your audience? How long are visitors staying on your website to view said content? Are they going to multiple pages? How many forms are getting submitted when you offer a certain piece of content as a lead magnet?

These are all great questions to answer so that you can properly evaluate your content marketing strategy. If you notice that those numbers aren’t as high as you’d like, try swapping out the content for something else that’s been a big hit on your site lately.

Another great tactic to increase your conversion rate is to make use of lead magnets. A lead magnet is the perfect tool to entice viewers into taking action on your site, as it provides an offer that is relevant and useful to your site visitors. Since the person only has to provide an email in order to view this awesome offer, he or she oftentimes is more willing to make this minor commitment – this is especially helpful, as many people won’t be ready to make a purchase right way upon visiting your site.

Looking for downloadable content examples? Below are some awesome options that will catch interest and improve your site’s conversion rate:

a.) EBook

As digital publications, eBooks are image and word based downloadable PDFs that provide more information about a specific topic or industry. One aspect that makes these so popular is the ability to read them on just about any device and their ease of accessibility. Unlike regular books, eBooks don’t require expensive printing and shipping costs – they can be distributed at no cost.Pop up offering an ebook

b.) Cheat Sheets

These are perfect to use on a blog post, as they can provide extra value to the reader by helping to solve a specific problem that’s related to the blog’s content. In the below example, this pop-up is utilized on a blog post about starting a blog from scratch – see how this connects directly to that idea and builds upon the momentum the reader has gained on this topic?Quick sprout cheat sheet pop up

c.) Webinar

Webinars are online seminars conducted by an industry expert. These short videos are a unique way to leverage knowledge and educate your audience. Markiesha Ollison, one of HubSpot’s Inbound Professors, created a webinar series of 3 videos that explains the basics of social media marketing.Hubspot’s intro to social media marketing landing page

d.) Discount

A lot of online companies will use discounts or promotions to attract visitors, as usually this is a direct way to convert them into becoming a customer. Of course, offering a discount is just one example. You can also offer social media templates to help with their social media strategy, or even free shipping on their next order.J. Crew promo offer

3.) Plan and Create Popups for Special Occasions and Holidays to Improve Conversion Rates

There’s no time like the present to prepare your digital marketing strategy for upcoming holidays and promotions. In fact, viewers who see a website that has updated their lead capture tool design and adapted content to match the holiday or season tend to be more engaged. Why? These small and simple tactics show your audience that you pay attention to details.

If you’re a fabric store and swap out your usual 15% off promotion with a “fall in love” message promoting the same discount around Valentine’s Day, you not only improve your relevance, but it shows your end user that your focus is on creating the best online experience for them. People will be more willing to engage with a brand like this.

This is just one digital marketing strategy to use to improve conversion rates. DigitalVidya offers a digital marketing course which can give you great insight into more marketing tactics that can produce great results.

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4.) Constantly Check Google Analytics to Make Sure All Website Pages are Covered

Data doesn’t lie. In order to see if your digital strategy is resonating with your audience, you need to check Google Analytics often. If you see a dip in numbers, that’s a good indication that it might be time to update your pop-ups and CTAs.

How to Check Your Conversion Rates On Google Analytics

Checking Google Analytics (GA) is pretty simple if you follow the below steps:

  • By default, GA will calculate the conversion rate on all goals. In order to make sure you have the most accurate analytic picture, you should create separate GA goals for each campaign you want to analyze.
    • Sign in to GA
    • Go to the standard GA reports
    • Click on ‘admin’ in the top right
    • Click on ‘goals’
    • From one of the goal sets (groups of goals), click on the ‘+ goal’
      • Examples goals can include visitors to the newsletter page, visits to the about us page, etc.
  • To see an individual GA goal, login in to your GA account. Click on the ‘goals overview’ report’. From the ‘all goals’ drop down, select the goal you want to seeFinding google analytics goal conversion rate
  • After that, it’s important to analyze each goal by traffic source:
    • Go to ‘all traffic’ > source / medium report, and select the goal you desire to viewGa goal analytics by traffic source

By doing this, you can see which goals are converting, and which goals need improvement. You can even go so far as to analyze goals by a specific geographic region too. Basically, the more data you have, the more accurate decisions you can make about what you audience likes and doesn’t like.

5.) Investigate Changes in Your Sales Funnel to Highly Improve Conversion Rates

The best way to improve your conversion rate is to create the right content, with the right message, for the right person, at the right time. You can do this by leveraging the sales funnel.

This method of thinking is used to visualize where your prospects are in the buying process. The sale funnel is wide at the top, as you’ll be attracting a wide variety of people and lots of them. The most engaged ones (a percentage of those who enter into the funnel) will become more responsive and end up becoming customers and repeat customers.

What is the power behind this tool? It allows for a streamlined approach to improving conversion rates as you’ll be able to see where there are holes which ultimately results in the loss of leads. Pop-ups can help! They will allow you to fill in these holes to make sure all the traffic that you’re driving to your website pays off.Marketing sales funnel

To craft the right content to push visitors through your sales funnel, we recommend the following:

  1. Attract a community that is unfamiliar with your business, but has use for the product or services that you offer. You can do this by blogging and using SEO techniques, developing a social media strategy, or using AdWords. At this stage, it’s all about creating awareness of your brand.
  2. Engage those who now know you exist. When someone new comes to your site, you’ll want to either sell to them, or connect with them to ensure that you can follow up with them later on to secure a sale down the line. This is where pop-ups really shine.
  3. Educate those whose email address you have collected by making use of email campaigns. Once you have someone’s email, you can send them more specific information about your product offerings and brand – this is a great time to build trust between you and your new subscriber.
  4. Convert customers who are ready to buy. Whether it’s through a retargeting ad or email campaign, utilizing a specific message with a special promotion will get those people to convert. In this stage, you’re asking for the “sell” in a non-direct way. Try offering a special discount or free shipping code.
  5. Re-engage your core fans who have already made a purchase. Sending a thank you email, recommending similar products or services that complement their purchase, and offering a referral program with an incentive allows your brand to stay top-of-mind for those who’ve already purchased. It will even entice them to become a repeat customer.

Nutrition Secrets used the above sales funnel techniques to optimize their lead capture efforts and increase sales. By incorporating a pop-up strategy, Nutrition Secrets received a 56% increase in sales and an increase in conversion rate through the use of an exit intent pop-up along with a pop-up featuring a quiz as its lead magnet.Nutrition secrets screenshot

While pop-ups may seem like a small addition to your site, they are an easy solution that can produce major results for your bottom line.

Conclusion

Now you know the top things to do every month to boost your conversion rate: focus on creating the most relevant and engaging content, a/b test, and check Google Analytics to ensure your strategy is continuously improved and optimized. We know that you’ll not only see an improved conversion rate but you might even see an increase in revenue.

Should you choose to give pop-ups a try, here’s a FREE 30 day trial of Hello Bar. Just for the DigitalVidya community!

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Mike Kamo
Mike Kamo is the CEO and co-founder, alongside Neil Patel, of Hello Bar and Neil Patel Digital. He is a renowned digital marketing and conversion optimization expert.

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