Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) relies on improving the user experience and removing any obstacles that prevent customers from taking the action you want them to take. Whether that’s making a purchase, filling in a form or getting in touch.

Getting your website to convert traffic into potential customers is a crucial measurable goal for any website; removing barriers and making things easy and obvious to your visitors is the key. In this article Julio Taylor, Creative Director at digital marketing agency Hallam Internet, shares six simple tips to improve your website conversions and improve the success of your website.

Use Active Language on Buttons

Call to actions appear on most pages, and will always be a vital part of the buying journey. You should aim to maximise the clicks on your main calls to action, getting it right is the most basic but important and quickest ways to optimise and increase a website’s conversion rates.

You should try to use active language instead of passive or generic language on buttons. This can greatly improve engagement rates, and lead to more sales and conversions. For example:

• Change “Read more” to “View product details”
• From “Store Finder” to “Where to buy”
• “Discover more products” instead of “Product categories”
• Avoid using generic words like “Submit’ or “Send” – try “Send my message”

By giving your user a snippet of what to expect when they click, they’re more likely to interact with a button.

Ask for Smaller Commitments

Whilst interested in your product, a customer may not be ready to buy or make a decision. Asking for a smaller commitment from them can be a useful exercise, especially in consultative situations., where more information is needed. Bigger or more expensive products will, of course, need more consideration from consumers.

When taking this into account alongside using active language, you should try to create a less intimidating proposition for website visitors, you can either offer a softer alternative to a purchase, or simply ask for slightly less commitment.

For example, you could “Buy now” to “Speak to an advisor”, which reassures the potential customer that the next step before a decision will be a conversation, not a transaction.

Expose Your Key Navigation

It is important to always provide clickable options that customers can quickly and easily understand. Customers should avoid guesswork or confusion, and we need to make life as easy as possible for them.

For example, if you sell products online, your website should display as many product categories directly in the main navigation, instead of putting in a “shop” drop–down menu. If you have key services, promote them to the main navigation and give them as much exposure as possible, as they are likely to be instantly recognisable to your target audience. You don’t want to play hide and seek with your services, if it takes more clicks than it needs to, you will lose customers.

This also applies to mobile, where space and location are even more important. Although it’s inevitable you’ll need to hide some navigation, it’s good practice to expose your primary actions at all times.

Focus on Where You Convert Best

For eCommerce businesses, buying online is your main aim, but for some businesses sometimes the best route is to get your customer face to face, or physically in front of your product. For example, whilst you can buy a bed online, many consumers prefer to physically see the product before purchasing.

In a recent project for a client who manufactures high-end furniture, we identified that they had an 80% conversion rate of all customers who visited their showroom to try their products. So, we changed the website’s conversion strategy to focus more on driving customers towards making an appointment to visit the showroom, and to use contact forms as a secondary method.

Every business is different, and has different strengths, but it may be worth considering, as in this example resulted in a sharp increase in visits to the showroom, which has led to a big increase in footfall to the physical store, and a higher number of sales as a direct result.

Contact Forms Should Set Expectations

For many businesses that offer a service, a contact form is your primary route for leads. Filling out a contact form can sometimes be perceived as a chore for a prospective customer, so it’s important to remove as many barriers as possible. I think you should do this by providing reassurance of what’s going to happen next.

For example, on our own website we included a promise of what will happen after you contact us – “We’ll set up a friendly call with a senior member of our team”. By clearly setting out these expectations from the start, the customer knows what is next and we removed a potential ‘what if’ barrier. This resulted in higher quality of leads, as we gained clearly defined messages from the enquiry.

Using natural, almost conversational tone in your contact forms can lead to an increase in conversion. This needs to fit with your brand values and tone of voice, but this type of form can appear friendlier, and seems less intimidating even though it’s asking for five separate pieces of information.

This approach can remove some of the barriers associated with forms. It also provides a slightly different approach that can spark curiosity and interest in your potential customer.

Be warned, it doesn’t always work and isn’t for every business, make sure it’s right for you.

About the Author: Julio Taylor is Creative Director at Hallam Internet, specializing in User Experience (UX), design and strategy, providing strategic leadership across the design and development teams to deliver outstanding digital products.