Visitors but No Sales?

It’s a kick to watch your business grow. Actually, it’s a joy to see new visitors flock your new website/online business. But since we focus a significant part of our marketing effort on generating traffic it’s no surprise it’s the first thing many achieve. Now, you got the traffic but can’t turn them into profits? Something is definitely not right, but where are you getting it wrong?  

Leveraging your website to turn visitors into sales is a daunting task. Your product and service might be the best on the market, but without a proper conversion strategy, there is no way you will make a profit. Here are some of the reasons your conversion rate is poor and the most effective remedy to each.  

Problem #1:  Acquiring the wrong traffic 

Website traffic is a fundamental pillar of the success of any online business. However, the traffic to your website is helpful only if it’s dominated by quality rather than volume. For your traffic to convert it should be the right type; one with problems that can be solved by your service or product, otherwise it will be an effort in futile.  

For this reason, it’s wise to understand the source of your quality traffic. This will help you to make an informed decision and focus your energy on driving traffic that will easily convert. Analyzing your traffic can be tough especially because there is no direct method to determine which traffic is from your ideal customer segment. However using the Google Analytics data, you can get a rough idea. Go through the Demographics & Geo reports and the acquisition channels reports to get a better understanding of your traffic source.  

Once you understand your visitors, it will be easy to tell whether your product/service and the traffic are lining up. If they are not, either the product or the traffic is at fault, but panic not, you have two options. 

• Change the acquisition strategy: you can acquire different traffic by changing your online advertising campaigns.  Focus your message on the audience that is actively looking for the products and services you are offering.  
• Change the product or service to match the traffic: although this option is limiting it’s a nice gateway to those who feel it’s harder to generate traffic than supply products/services.  

If you have a consistent stream of purchase primed visitors who are in harmony with your product/services, perhaps this not the problem with your conversion strategy.  

Problem #2: Poorly responsive website or a complex interface  

The landing page is the first point of interaction between your traffic and website. So have you optimized your landing page? Is the first impression really impressive? How is your entire website, complicated? Slow? There are a lot of things to consider here. 

If you populate your site with excessive fluff and adjectives, it will turn away traffic. Remember, visitors are fragile and hate hurdles, the more you add complexity to your site, the lower the conversion rate. A good website should be professionally designed to load quickly. In addition, your landing page should offer intuitive navigation and be good looking. Here are some aspects to consider when designing your website and landing page; 

• Optimize it for mobile devices 

Data has shown that approximately 52.7% of worldwide internet users use mobile devices. Besides, 80% of consumers shop via smartphones, according to Hosting Facts data. Using this data as the evidence, you can clearly see the importance of optimizing your site for mobile devices.  

• Don’t waste customers time:  

It has been shown that a page that takes more than 3 seconds to load costs the online store up to 40% of the visitors. Then from there on, an additionally second takes away 7% of the remaining traffic. For this reason, it’s wise to reduce the loading time of your site if you are serious about increasing the conversion rate.  

• Killer headline: 

Come up with a short, precise killer headline that will encourage your visitors to follow the call to action. 

• Call to action: 

A good call to action ensures the impressed visitors access the links to the right pages promptly. The CTA should be clear and prominent. Besides, the CTA button should only contain an action driving word that conveys urgency.  

• Image quality 

If you have a banner on the landing page, dominate it with high-quality images which blend seamlessly with your site theme.  

• A sense of trust: 

Trust is paramount, and depending on the degree it can break or make your conversion rate. Assure your visitors your online store is secure for all transaction, put in place proper refund, shipping, and return policies.  

• Break the landing page into categories: 

The best way is breaking your home page into categories based on the interest of your visitors.  

Online business is all about visual and word content. If you feel your website and the landing page are fully optimized, maybe this not the reason for poor profitability.  

Problem #3: your offer is not captivating  

Most new online stores operate by giving away something for free as a way of enticing visitors to leave their email address or continue with the purchase process. However, most small businesses fall short of the target by offering a giveaway that is not truly compelling.  

The problem may not be your product/service. Your product or service might be performing well locally but once it is fronted on the online platform the local convenience counts for less. Before adopting your next conversion strategy figure out the type of offer, you will give to new visitors.  How compelling the free offer is will depend on the target audience. For this reason, prior research is required to determine the best offer the will blow the mind of your audience.  

Everyone likes getting a special perk or saving money. Therefore, if you provide a highly visible special offer to your visitors, they will be obliged to reciprocate the favor. Additionally, do not primarily focus on the entry offers, exit offers also work magic and entice the visitor to stick around and complete the purchase process.  

Problem #4: your check out process is complex 

If your checkout process is complex, it makes it hard for visitors to convert into sales. Visitors demand convenience, speed, and efficiency.  A fully optimized check out process will not only ensure visitors complete the buying process with minimal effort but also build 100% trust. It makes sure your buyers leave the website happy and excited, thereby increasing chances of a repeat business.  

So how can you optimize the checkout process/ 

• Make it a multistage process: 

Consumers prefer a multi-step checkout process instead of a lengthy time-consuming process.  

• Provide a glimpse of the shopping cart:  

Visually indicate every product that your visitor adds to the shopping cart. Utilize hover effect to indicate the status of the cart on its icon. It makes it easier for the user to easily monitor the cart without having to visit the cart page consistently.  

• Allows the visitor to create an account willingly: 

As a new online store do not force your customer to create an account to complete the purchase.  If need be, ensure the visitor is redirected to the exact step of the purchase process where they left.  

• Optimize the cart page:  

Ensure there are no hurdles when the customer adds products to the shopping cart. Make the visitor feel confident by providing all the vital details like product image, quantity, size, etc. you should also give the customer the freedom to save, edit, or remove the selected products. In addition, display the total price and indicate the estimated delivery time.  

• Optimize the billing page; 

The billing page should offer flexibility in terms of the mode of payments. Besides, it should provide a short and precise input form. The billing page is where you show the confirmation of the order with important details like customer support contact and order tracking.  

So far so good, we have highlighted some of the most common mistakes that lead to poor conversion rate.  

Wrapping it up 

The basic rule is that more traffic translates to better conversion, but that’s never true. As a matter of fact, you are on this page because you got visitors but they never seem to convert. You cannot pin all your hopes on any specific conversion strategy. This is because conversion optimization is founded on general rules which work across a spectrum of websites.  

There are a plethora of methods to converts your traffic into sales. The best way to leverage these techniques is starting slowly with the simplest and advance as your volume grows. Also, you should know that the methods we have discussed are not the only one in the modern online marketing. It will take time and effort in research to identify the flip side of your strategy and get the perfect remedy for it. But once you hit the right button, it won’t take long before you start recording notable gains.