You’re watching your website analytics tell you that you have good traffic coming through, there are users visiting your webpages and there are users clicking on buttons… so how come it’s not translating into sales? This is a frustrating yet common experience for small businesses.
However, it can often be about more than whether or not your customers like your product or service. Closely assessing the website experience for your users, the information they receive beforehand about you, and the little incentives along the way can help you discover why your website might not be operating as planned.
Below we detail 8 reasons why your website might not be converting traffic to sales and what to do about it.
You’re not in enough places
It’s impossible to stay front of mind when you’re not visible across social media or in search engines. A very common mistake small businesses make is focusing all of their energy on one platform, whether that be a social media profile, their website or other. By doing this, you might be missing out on a much more receptive audience elsewhere!
What to do?
Ensure you’re positioned in audience relevant places to help drive engaged traffic to your website or profile, not cold leads. Always be thinking about where your audience might and look to position yourself on those channels. It is important to have the basics covered – at least one social media profile (several if you do not have a website), directories, etc.
You haven’t reached your audience
You might have led people to your website, but they’re the wrong people. This takes a little more practice, but think about what type of person you want to help with your product or service, paired with who has actually previously purchased your product or service.
What to do?
Invest in developing high quality and relevant traffic streams with great social media posts or targeted advertising. Targeted advertising is easy to set up on social media, which allows you to target extremely specific audiences.
If you’d like professional guidance on this, EmpowerUp offers advertising recommendations sessions where you can spend time with a marketer to walk you through utilising targeted advertising for your business.
Your offering is hard to find or use
The right person is on your website, but the user journey isn’t leading them to find your product or service. What information has the user seen before entering your website? What information are they seeing when they first land on their website? Users need to have a clear place to go to seek out more information about you or your product.
What to do?
Consider if the page depth is too deep on your website or if the calls to action are too subtle. When in doubt, be obvious – explicitly guide users to where they might want to go. Be sure to use language that relates to your audience. Check every page for mobile – mobile traffic accounts for half or more traffic these days, so the length of your pages are crucial to the user experience. No one wants to be scrolling for days on a website page!
Your conversion funnel isn’t trustworthy
This is a big one. If your payment gateway or overall website security isn’t at the industry standard, people may feel uncomfortable submitting their details, which can lead to both a loss of leads and sales. Cyber security is a huge threat, and with the intricacy of scams occurring in current times, users are more nervous to trust unrecognisable payment gateways. Whilst new or small payment gateway services may be appealing in price, you could be sacrificing gaining the trust of new customers.
What to do?
Try to stick to well-known payment gateways that you know your user will recognise. Always include appropriate links to services, and conduct your own Google Search of your service to be across what a user might find.
You aren’t gathering reviews
Reviews. Are. Everything.
When engaging with a new brand, people are much more likely to convert when they can see the positive buzz of previous customers. It helps to build the trust in your brand, particularly for smaller businesses. Remember that whilst displaying reviews in written copy or your own branding style is aesthetically pleasing on your website, reviews on reputable platforms like Google or Facebook help a new customer authenticate the feedback.
What to do?
Sink time into gaining reviews on platforms like Google to show prospective customers that you’re legitimate. And whatever you do, don’t ever write your own reviews!
You’re not nurturing your leads
You’re getting people to your website or social media page, but not doing anything to encourage them to return. How are you going to keep in their mind? It’s rare that a new customer who has no previous experience with your business is going to purchase immediately, unless they are fuelled by a personal recommendation or a deal too good to refuse. By focusing effort on nurturing your leads, you can get those on-the-fence customers to leap over the barrier and eventually speed-walk towards your offering, confident in their purchasing decision.
What to do?
Try using a newsletter or retargeting advertising to engage with customers still making their minds up.
Your offering isn’t very effective
People wait for sales and promotions before committing to transactions or signing up for services. In an increasingly competitive world, sales and promotions are the norm. Timed offers that provide genuine value are a great way to get people over the line. Remember that 10% off isn’t that much these days (unless your product or service is $1000!)
What to do?
If conversion rates are low, try offering a discount code or limited time offer to create urgency and incentivise people to convert.
You’re stagnant
It might be a hard pill to swallow but sometimes a late night brushing up on what’s the latest in your space is necessary. Growing and evolving with changes to the digital space is the way to stay ahead of competitors and trends, not falling behind.
What to do?
Test and try! To get a better idea of what your customers respond to, try a range of different things. Create different content or update your website. When things work, invest time and resources into doing more of it. Don’t forget to record important data on what worked, what didn’t and why.
If you aren’t sure where to start, it’s wise to get advice from a professional on exactly where to improve in your sales funnel. Websites can be tricky, and user experience can be the make or break of converting a new customer. Chat to us about how we can help you with your business.
