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Why Most Web Site Marketing Doesn’t Convert Visitors To Buyers

Charlie Cook   |   © In Mind Communications, LLC, all rights reserved.

There are two ways to make more money with your web site. You can get more people to stop by and you can increase the conversion rate of your site.

Most web site owners are focused on the first, getting people to their web sites… when the bigger bottleneck is converting visitors to buyers and buyers into repeat buyers. Are you making this web site marketing mistake? Remember, it doesn’t matter how many people come to your site if hardly anyone buys.

Ever have your heart rate checked? People monitor their heart rates if they have health concerns about their heart beating too slow, dangerously fast or if they’re serious athletes who want to maximize their performance.

The conversion rate of your web site is the heart beat of your online business. Unless you know it your site could be in mortal danger or at a minimum not performing anywhere near its potential.

According to The e-tailing Group’s recent survey, retail web sites convert only 3% of site visitors to buyers on average. 3% may not seem like much, but it can be enough to be extremely profitable.

One of my clients, Tom, made over $150,000 last year through his niche info-product site selling a set of 3 audio cds. And Tom’s site only converts at 2 ½ percent. (This is a site he built and manages in his spare time after working his day job. Imagine what he could be making if he worked on the site full time and had a full compliment of products.)

It would be great if your site converted visitors to buyers at 20% or more as some of the best do, but to make your site profitable you only need to make it convert at a couple of percent or more. Once your site reaches the norm of 3% there are lots of ways to safely push it higher.

I bet you’re frustrated with your web site marketing, and you should be. Most web sites don’t convert visitors to buyers. Ready to finally discover the easy way to attract prospects and clients to your site so they buy, again and again >>

Do you know what your web site marketing conversion rate is? Is it high enough that your site is making a healthy profit? If it’s only a percent or two or less, you’re not alone.<

Most web sites conversion rates are low, so low that Google built a free Website Optimizer tool to help you improve your site. Google recognizes that unless business owners start seeing results from their Google Ads in terms of sales, they’re going to stop spending money on advertising.

The Google Optimizer is a good tool, and I recommend that every web site owner check it out but it has limitations. You know the saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.” Google’s tool can only test the elements and copy you presently have on your page. More frequently than not, it’s these basic elements which are the problem.

Improving Your Web Site’s Conversion Rate
The first step to improving your web sites profitability is to check it’s vital signs, to measure it’s current performance. Use the following indicators.

Web Marketing Success Indicators

  • Number of monthly unique site visitors
  • Number of monthly leads generates
  • Per lead generation cost
  • Number of sales per month
  • Average dollar amount of sales
  • Per customer acquisition cost
  • Gross dollar amount of sales
  • Net web sales

Once you know these, you can establish a base line for your web site and work each month to improve its performance by changing, tuning and testing the following key elements of your web site.

Web Site Marketing Elements

•The words in your headline and the body of your pages. The appeal of your marketing message and whether your copy strikes the right nerve in your prospects to generate the action you want.

  • The congruity of message and tone of your ads and your web pages.
  • The carrot you provide to generate a lead on your site.
  • Your use of upsell pages, exit pages, thankyou pages and follow up email autoresponders.
  • Use of interactive audio, video and flash.
  • The relationship between each of these elements.
  • The use of type style, size and color.
  • The selection of graphics and pictures on the page.
  • The organization of the page and placement of elements.

Getting all of these web site marketing elements working together to optimize your conversion rate takes expertise, time and work. To start – create a map of each part of your web marketing process from ad to landing page to site to sales page to upsell page to thank you page to repeat sale. And include in your flow chart how you use email and autoresponders.

Then add in the conversion numbers and you’ll have a snapshot of where your web marketing is leaking buyers. Increase your conversion rates at each step and soon you’ll have plugged the holes in your web marketing and have a healthy flow of sales and profits.

Want to discover how to use these website marketing measures and elements to make your site attract more prospects and convert more prospects into buyers? Ready to finally make your site into an outrageous success? Use this link >