How to Increase Conversion Rates: Business Best Practices

In this hyper-connected world, businesses need to consider many aspects when ramping up their digital presence. The most common mistake beginners make is focusing only on driving traffic to their websites and boosting engagement across social media platforms.

The truth is that conversion rates are the ultimate measure of success when it comes to digital marketing and sales efforts.

Learning how to increase conversion rates effectively helps businesses gain the competitive edge they need while maximizing their return on investment (ROI).

Effective lead generation strategies can contribute directly to customer acquisition and the growth of your contact list. Follow these best practices to boost sales conversions quickly.

Looking for a proven partner to help your business grow? Connect with the leading conversion rate optimization companies on Clutch.

Create Irresistible Offers

What offers to get an enthusiastic "yes" from your prospects every time? Promoting the right deal in exchange for contact information — such as a free service or a hefty discount — can accelerate lead generation and sales. Rather than sticking with one-pagers and worksheets, brainstorm lead magnets that drive prospects closer to a buy.

“The easiest way to increase conversion rate outside of the alignment of sales and marketing is to give unique offers that speak more to the customers' pain points,” said Justin Rashidi, Co-Founder of SeedX, Inc, a digital marketing agency. “If you are only testing one offer, mixing case studies, white papers, guides, unique demos, etc is the easiest thing to do.”

Setting a limited time frame for your offer can further encourage your leads to take action. Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a proven marketing and sales tactic that creates a sense of urgency to drive purchases.

Another way to catch your customers' attention is through personalized offers. Personalization is great at building emotional connections with customers. Tailored offers give a sense of exclusivity, showing your customers how much you value and understand their needs or preferences. 

Focus on Trust Signals

Trust is valuable for businesses. 93% of executives agree building and maintaining it leads to bottom-line improvement. You can convince customers to buy by displaying evidence that builds customer confidence in your business — known as trust signals — throughout your website.

Trust signals can include:

• Social proof, like customer reviews and testimonials
• Money-back guarantees or free returns
• Badges displaying your partnership, awards, and professional memberships

When visitors feel secure, they are more likely to take the desired action, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or submitting contact information.

One industry that depends on trust signals is e-commerce. Consumers are constantly worried about buying online and receiving subpar products. Incorporating features like customer review sections, security badges, and money-back guarantee policies helps bolster the odds of converting.

Trust signals impact customer behavior, helping alleviate worries and give them confidence to make a purchase decision or complete an intended action. They help build credibility and establish emotional comfort for the consumer.

Capture the Right Lead Information

Information is an invaluable asset for any business. When you generate a lead, you can capture more than a name and contact information. Consider what details could help you qualify prospects, distinguishing the casual shoppers from the leads actively looking to buy.

For business-to-business (B2B) brands, this could mean asking for company names, job titles, and industries. For consumer-facing companies, this could mean capturing information about their location and product preferences.

Gathering crucial information allows you to plan actionable tactics to nurture leads properly. These details can help your sales team prioritize leads and personalize their outreach. However, be careful about asking for too much information, as this can dissuade potential customers from filling out forms.

Here are proven strategies used by companies to collect important lead information:

• Leveraging simple lead forms to ask for valuable yet relevant data such as names and email addresses.
• Applying a progressive profiling approach rather than asking a lot of information simultaneously.
• Using contextual call-to-actions (CTAs) to gain insights into what audiences are more interested in.
• Emphasizing how much your business values privacy and transparency encourages customers to fill in lead forms and build trust.

Align Sales with Marketing Resources

The teamwork between sales and marketing is crucial for your increasing conversion rates.

Every customer relationship starts and ends on the same sales pipeline. That means alignment between the marketing and sales teams is key to a cohesive buyer experience in which communications and workflows are effective and productive.

As you build your next lead generation campaign, regularly meet with sales leaders to:

• Determine the core messaging of the campaign, including value propositions.
• Craft a seamless handoff process to ensure all leads get follow-ups.
• Align clear objectives and a target audience for the campaign.

Documenting every touchpoint and updating contact notes in a shared customer relationship management (CRM) tool or database can further strengthen your joint initiatives.

Aligning the two departments helps drive better results and creates a powerful feedback loop to help your business have a unified voice. 

Maximize the Power of Conversion Rate Optimization

Traffic and engagement alone aren’t enough to advance your bottom line. Prioritizing conversion rate optimization can help your businesses achieve transformational growth.

The tactics mentioned in this piece are just some of the many ways businesses can increase their conversion rate; remember, taking a step back to understand which aspect of your business needs improving is crucial to maximizing the results.

Read more on lead generation best practices as told by experts in the field. 

About the Author

Anna Peck Content Writer & Editor

Anna is responsible for editing and formatting reviews for Clutch, along with supporting content marketing, contributed content, and other marketing efforts for The Manifest.

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