In every interaction your company has with a potential or current client, your ultimate goal is to make a sale or convert them. In the case of potential customers, you want to make that first sale. In the case of current ones, you want to convert them into a repeat customer.
By providing an additional point of contact with your company, conversations over webchat take your website visitor one step further down the conversion funnel. With the right process, you can use those conversations to not only move through the conversion funnel but bring the customers to the end of the funnel—a conversion.
Why do conversion rates matter?
Increasing conversion rates is something every business wants to do. Every time you have a conversion, you have achieved one of your company’s goals. Remember that not all conversions lead to sales; your goal may be to generate leads. A conversion could mean anything from signing up for a newsletter to downloading an eBook or filling out a form on a landing page.
The bottom line is that by tracking your conversion rate, you get a clear idea of whether you are on track to achieve your goals. But that is not the only reason that conversion rates are important.
Conversion rates can let you know when changes are needed
A conversion rate can give you valuable information that tells you whether or not you’re on track to meet your goals. Noticing a low conversion rate may seem scary, but it’s the first step to improving. If your conversion rates are low, you can work on conversion optimization and get back on track to hit your goals.
Conversion rates let you know where to focus your efforts
Your conversion rates also let you know how to prioritize your budget. For example, if your live chat has a higher conversion rate than your chats over Facebook Messenger, you may want to prioritize that live chat on your website. Or, you could use the above point and make changes to your strategy on Messenger to make it more similar to that of your webchat.
Increasing your conversion rate can be more affordable than boosting traffic
Although not always the case, it is possible that working to improve your conversion rate will be a more affordable and effective strategy than trying to boost your targeted website traffic. This makes tracking your conversion rate cost-effective.
What is a good conversion rate?
Most websites have a conversion rate of just 1 to 3%. This average conversion rate is considered good in many industries, but it can vary slightly depending on your industry. Most marketers consider a good website conversion rate to be a little higher than this range, about 2 to 5%.
Research shows that the following are considered typical conversion rates for the specified industries:
- B2B: 2.23% to 11.70%
- Ecommerce: 1.84% to 6.25%
- Legal: 1.07% to 6.46%
- Finance: 5.01% to 24.48%
If your company is still far away from those ideal conversion rates, don’t worry. Even small changes to your conversion rate can generate significant returns. Don’t be afraid to test out new strategies to help you meet your goals. Conversion rate optimization can be a long process, but it will be worth the effort when you start to hit your goals.
How to increase conversion rate step-by-step
Using live chats plays a critical role in increasing your conversion rates, as it can greatly improve communication between you and your audience. There are many other basic steps you can take to increase conversions. The most simple steps include repairing broken links and ensuring your body copy is free from typos.
Once you’ve accomplished some of the simple tasks listed above, work on the following steps to increase website conversions.
Step 1 – Define your site’s goals
The first thing you need to do is define your goals for your website. Do you want to have more visitors coming to your site? Are there specific blog posts, landing pages, or other critical pages you want to direct incoming traffic to?
This is the time to define conversion goals and conversions as well. Is a conversion a new lead, a purchase, a newsletter signup, or something else? Think about your target audience and their pain points. Clearly define your value proposition. Make sure you have a clear call to action on any blog post or landing page you are using to increase your conversion rate.
As with any other goals you define for your business, make sure that they are as specific and measurable as possible. This will let you track your progress toward achieving them.
Step 2 – Collect and analyze visitor data
You can’t improve conversions without knowing your current conversion rate. So, your next step is to collect visitor data and analyze it. The simplest way to do this would be to integrate Google Analytics.
Remember that you will need to record your conversion rates before making changes so you have a point of comparison. You will then have to reevaluate this data regularly to track your progress toward achieving more conversions.
Step 3 – Run A/B tests
Now, it is time to test various methods of conversion rate optimization. The best way to get actionable information is to run A/B testing. Some ideas you might want to try include:
- Adjusting navigation to make the site easy to navigate
- Shortening or eliminating forms
- Adjusting the content on your landing pages
- Changing the layout of a page
- Switching up sales copy
- Trying a new offer or incentive
- Changing the placement of your call to action
- Trying different photos on your product pages
- Removing distractions
- Adding relevant content with strong calls to action
- Changing the appearance of your money back guarantees
Step 4 – Make data-backed decisions
Take the results from A/B testing and implement them to increase conversion rates.
After you have completed your A/B testing, look at the data—numbers don’t lie. Use this data to make informed decisions. In other words, see which elements of your A/B test delivered better results, then make those changes permanent. Using data from the various tests you’ve run is the best way to improve conversion rates.
Remember that once you make those changes, you can do other A/B tests to see if they improve conversions as well.
Step 5 – Build trust with reviews and testimonials
As you adjust your website, consider adding a section for reviews and testimonials if you don’t already have one. At the same time, make sure you have reviews on various third-party websites, such as Google.
If you don’t have reviews and testimonials, encourage satisfied customers to leave them. You can even offer a small incentive for a review, such as a discount on the next purchase or a free eBook. This is an excellent way to gather testimonials from current users quickly.
Reviews and testimonials are crucial because they build trust. They are an online variation of recommendations from friends and family, but they come from strangers. Think of it as social proof that will boost your website’s conversion rate.
Step 6 – Make sure your website has a webchat
If your website doesn’t already have a webchat, consider adding one. Put simply, webchat will increase conversion rates by giving new visitors and existing clients answers to their questions. It will also boost engagement with your customer base.
This step is so important that it deserves a more detailed explanation, so let’s go over the basics of how to turn conversations into conversions using webchat.
Turning conversations into conversions
As mentioned, a live chat feature is crucial. A chat tool lets your website visitors start a conversation with your business. Customers are more likely to buy from you if they can ask questions as they shop. Or maybe your webchat will help entice customers who are still at the early stages of the sales funnel and still considering various items, including those from competitors.
The best webchat can even move the conversation from your website into a text message. This keeps the conversation going and makes it more mobile-friendly. Most importantly, it lets customers talk to you via their preferred means of communication—text message. This is great for customer engagement and helps visitors convert.
Best practices for messaging customers
Simply adding a webchat to your website is not enough to drive conversions and boost your sales. You also need to follow the best practices for messaging customers. The following are some of the most important guidelines to follow.
Have a real person answering questions.
When possible, have a real person on your website answering questions. Chatbots can be tempting, especially since they are growing in popularity and let you handle other tasks, but it is proven that customers prefer to talk to real people. Chatbots have their place, but they cannot answer questions as well as the real people on your team.
Shoppers will have a better customer experience when talking to a human. This, in turn, translates into customer loyalty and higher customer lifetime values.
Have a reasonably quick response time.
You should aim to have a reasonably quick response time. Customers expect to see an answer within a few minutes. If they are going to have to wait more than a few minutes for an answer, they might expect an automated message of some sort, letting them know how long they will have to wait.
Manage the conversations to improve internal processes.
Make sure that you have a customer communication management system of some sort. You need to be able to track conversations across communication methods. This will also let you look back at chat history to glean insights or improve your customer service.
Determine if having an offsite conversation management firm is the best option for your business.
Because of the need for quick responses from a live person on the other end of the chat, you may want to consider an offsite conversation management firm. They can provide managed live chat for you. You simply provide them with the most common FAQs and basics they need to know to help customers, and they’ll take care of the rest.
Conclusion
By offering webchat, you give your customers a way to interact with your company as they move through the sales funnel. The presence of your live chat support agents can encourage customers to make a purchase or simply improve their opinion of your company. When combined with other methods, webchat lets you turn conversations into conversions.
