You’ve finally launched your jewelry-making business/vintage hat resale shop/social media consultant job and your website is up and running! Congratulations! But, now that you’ve gotten people to your site, how do you get them to commit to what you’re selling? In other words, how do you convert visitors to customers?
Even if you’re not selling a product, per se, just getting people to complete a call to action (CTA) — like signing up for an email list or downloading a worksheet — can be tricky. This is called conversion, and we’ve got some great tricks for making the most of your website, so every one of your visitors has the opportunity to get fully on board with you and your brand.
When you build your site on Squarespace, so many of these conversion plans are made easy-peasy for you. You get to make your website all your own, while Squarespace’s powerful behind-the-scenes templates and features do the heavy lifting for you. With their wide array of gorgeous layouts and analytic tracking options, you’ll have no problem converting your visitors into customers.
Ready to share your vision or business with the world? Start your free Squarespace trial today (no credit card required) and use code ‘EVERYGIRL’ for 10% off when you’re ready to publish your website.
Keep Layout Simple and Engaging
How your website looks is super important to a potential customer — and to you, too, of course! Style is absolutely important; keeping a consistent brand across your whole site shows a sense of care for your product, as well as professionality. Squarespace makes this super easy for you, with a ton of gorgeous layouts to choose from. You pick your favorite colors and typography, then keep it consistent across all your pages.
An easy misstep lots of website owners make? Not using a layout that’s responsive to multiple platforms — aka, your mobile users are having a tough time navigating your website and are abandoning it waaay more than those on desktops. Once again, Squarespace is making this so easy for you: every single template has built-in mobile experience so that your content comes across beautifully on any platform.
Prove You’re Trustworthy
In the age of the internet, we’re more connected than ever. But, we’re also painfully aware that not everyone is who they say they are behind their screens. Since your visitors can’t meet your lovely self in person, use your website to convince them of your authenticity and trustworthiness.
One great way to do this is to highlight testimonials from previous users who loved their experience working with you or using your product. Reach out to some customers that you have a great relationship with and ask them for a few words about the joys of working with you. Visitors are more likely to trust — and eventually, convert to — products or services that others deem valuable and trustworthy.
Personal experience is a great way to prove trustworthiness, but numbers don’t lie. Trying to get new followers for your Facebook page? Include your current follower count and share count on your website — new visitors will want to join a tribe with numbers that speak for themselves. Luckily, Squarespace templates come with drag-and-drop tools to easily make a prominent space for these testimonials and statistics on your site.
Choose Your Words Carefully
Now that you’ve got visitors to your website and they’re buying into the vision you’re selling, the time has come for the actual call to action (CTA), and how you say it matters. The best calls to action have two stand-out qualities:
First, they have eye-catching headlines. Since Squarespace takes care of the aesthetic side — bold font, pop of color, anything engaging and noticeable — you’re freed up to create a headline that’s encouraging without being demanding.
Second, the best calls to action are loaded with action words: “Sign up now!” or “Connect with us!” or “Let’s work together!” Using words that are dynamic and concise will be more engaging to your visitor.
Beware of over-hyping, though; try to avoid digital commitments that are too much too fast, like “Sign up right now before this sale ends in five minutes!” While your visitor has the opportunity to convert with the CTA, whether or not they will is mostly determined by lots of other factors, not just what the CTA says.
Remove Distractions
Holy moly can websites be distracting! While you’re trying to make it through one blog post, another one catches your eye in the sidebar, or there are menus filled with either too much information or are so vague. While you’re trying to convince your visitor of your trustworthiness and professionality, it’s a smart move to make sure each page is as pointed and specific as possible; if a visitor feels like their time is being wasted, they’ll abandon the page. Squarespace’s modern templates rely on lots of white (empty) space, for that clean, uncluttered look that keeps visitors engaged.
When it comes down to the call to action, getting rid of all distractions is the best way to go; this is why you’ll see lots of email sign-ups appear in pop-up form — you have nothing else to pay attention to, and you’re more likely to hand over your information.
It’s also helpful to keep the amount of information you’re asking for to a minimum, especially right off the bat. Instead of asking for a first name, last name, email, and birthday in that initial sign up, try asking for just an email address. It’s the least amount of work for a visitor to convert to a consumer, and that’s really all the relevant information you need.
Test Everything. Then Test Again.
This is absolutely the most important thing you can do when it comes to maximizing your conversion rate on your website. Pay attention to your analytics — which every Squarespace commerce and business account has access to. How long are viewers on your website? How many pages do they visit? When do they start to abandon the site? When you’re not getting the conversion you want from your site, try something different.
Test what headlines, button placement, call to action, informational questions, page order, color schemes are working best — and worst — for your website. And the customer keeps changing, and you’ve got to keep up, so utilize those analytics frequently and keep a pulse on your site to make sure that the most people as possible are being converted from just visitors to actual users.
Ready to share your vision or business with the world? Start your free Squarespace trial today (no credit card required) and use code ‘EVERYGIRL’ for 10% off when you’re ready to publish your website.
This post was in partnership with Squarespace, but all of the opinions within are those of The Everygirl editorial board.
