Conversions Are All That Matter | And We Are Sticking To That

by Gabriella Sannino on August 13, 2012

Show Me The Money

Really, aren’t conversions what everything comes down to? Think about it. Even your social activities on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Google Plus and so on come down to the end sale. You’re making connections – why? To increase your business. – And what is the ultimate way to increase your business? Sales.

For online businesses, all the sales funnels end in the buying process on your website. Have you ever come across a process that’s missing a few things? I Really Want to Buy This From You… describes several situations where the shop owner has forgotten a few essential details that would greatly help the potential buyer. They’re real life situations, even though we’re sure the shop owners thought they had everything covered.

Remember, no matter how the funnels end or how good they are, there’s always room for improvement. For example, you could always:

Improve your buyer’s purchasing confidence

How confident are your visitors with your purchasing process?
How comfortable are your visitors with your shipping terms?
How easily can your visitors find your privacy policy?

Where is the reassurance for the buyer at the point of sale? Many buyers seek additional support from independent reviews, friends, or detailed specification sheets. Can you give them that support at the product page level? Of course you can.

Provide star rating abilities
Provide areas to add/read reviews from other buyers
Provide sharing buttons for people to recommend your products through social sites

Improve your product details

Have you provided clear images of your products?
Have you provided clear descriptions of your products?
Have you provided clear costs for the products?

Having product detail pages is more than just showing off a picture and a buy now button (although we’ve seen some of those). For example, if you have a product with several colors, do you clearly state that there are several colors? Does the visitor have to look hard to find them? Take pride in your productsand:

Take Pride in Your Work

Provide a good description
Provide detailed specifications
Provide attractive, informative pictures
Provide clearly labeled pricing and shipping policies
Consider offering a money-back guarantee

(Read a more in depth article about these product tips with “Presenting Your Product as a Masterpiece: You Can’t Market a Piece of Junk“.)

Improve your search functions

Your site is searchable, yes? Good. –But, how searchable is it? For instance, do you only allow your products to be filtered using various prerequisites ($5-$30, t-shirts, shoes, etc.)?

The problem with “prerequisite” search filtering is that the search engine is just a computer. It wouldn’t know, for instance, that $21 isn’t too far from $20 and could also be added to a $5-$20 filter.

When you offer search functions, make them as comprehensive and intuitive as possible. Remember that there is more than one type of search function and combine them to improve your site’s user experience.

Improve your analytics feedback

Website analytics don’t begin and end with Google (although the mega-corporation does provide a healthy dose of information to site owners). We talk about Google Analytics quite a bit here, but that’s mainly because thousands of business owners use GA.

There are many other analytics programs, such as KissMetrics and WebTrends. Bing Business Center provides analytics (although not, in our estimation, as comprehensive as Google’s). Then you have the data compilation programs, such as SEOMoz, RavenTools, SEMRush and others.

(Since analytics is such an intricate, extensive discipline, you might also want to bookmark Occam’s Razor, written by Google’s Digital Marketing Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik. His book, Web Analytics: An Hour a Day is highly recommended.)

Tweak, Test, Track, Rinse, Repeat

Are your improvements doing any good? You can always check your bottom line as a final indicator, but wouldn’t you like to know if something’s gone wrong before your wallet gets thin? Probably.

This is why SEMs, SEOs and PPC specialists practice the three t’s of optimization: tweak, test and track. As you make changes to your conversion process, improving pages, funnels, calls to action and content, make sure you track the changes. When you pinpoint an area that makes a big difference, repeat on other pages.

Remember – no matter what you’re doing online, it all comes down to the final conversion. It comes down to one question: Will they buy? Improving your conversion process helps make the answer to that question, “yes”.

Gabriella Sannino

I love writing about marketing, social, SEO, ruffling feathers and starting revolutions. What you read on this blog, will hopefully inspire you to continue the conversation. When I'm not multitasking around Level343 I sneak away and go sailing. I'm crazy about pistachios, and of course Nutella.