Are you looking for more ways to get people to pay attention to you?

To accept your offer, whatever it may be, from a PDF freebie to a paid product or service?

Me too.

Yet, I’ll be the first to admit I don’t do things on this website to increase conversions and get more people in the top of my funnel (see item #1 from the list below).

The other day I sat down and laid out 10 things I wasn’t doing (but you should be doing) on my website and decided to share them with you.

They’re tips to help you get more leads and, ideally, more customers.

But before we list them, there are couple of things I’d like to cover.

First, the four stages of the conversion marketing lifecycle and second, the “rules of the online universe”.

The conversion marketing lifecycle

When it comes to doing business online, there are four stages to the conversion marketing lifecycle:

Stage 1: Convert web browsers into website visitors
Stage 2: Convert visitors into leads
Stage 3: Convert leads into customers
Stage 4: Convert customers into promoters

Let’s start with Stage 1. If you own a blog or business website, you know you need visitors to your site to survive online.

But not just any kind of visitor – you want one that will be interested in what you have to offer.

However, attracting the right kind of visitor to your website is just the first part of the conversion lifecycle.

Once you have people on your site, you need to convert them from browsing customers to leads (Stage 2). Then nurture the leads until they (hopefully) become paying customers (Stage 3).

Then Stage 4 is designed to get you loyal and repeat customers by turning them into promoters of your product or service.

There’s a lot of detail, and specific tactics, within each of these phases that I won’t address in this post.

Rules of the online universe

Let’s move onto the second topic, the “rules of the online universe”.  It’s something you’ve got to keep in mind as you try the tips I’m about to share with you.

Those rules are:

1. Get the attention of your visitor
2. Keep your message simple
3. Maintain the momentum with your offer
4. Show that your offer solves their problem

Seems simple but like I said, even I screw it up 🙂

You’ve got to get the attention of your ideal customer, recognize the value in the attention they are giving you by keeping your message simple, maintaining momentum you have with your offer and, finally, showing how your offer (not your competitor’s) solves the problem they have.

10 things you’re probably not doing to increase conversions

Now that you understand the conversion marketing lifecycle and the rules of the online universe, let’s go over 10 ideas to help you move from Stage 1 to Stage 2 and then to Stage 3 of the conversion marketing lifecycle.

1. Write attention grabbing headlines – These are the standout, bite-sized pieces of information that immediately tell your website visitors what they need to know. If the headlines aren’t cutting it, the bounce rate of your website will be high. This means your visitors are landing on the page and navigating away without exploring your site further. Not great news, but it’s a quick fix with these 52 headline hacks
2. Improve copy – Quality copy sells. To increase conversion, pay attention to the copy on your website. Is it crisp, clean and persuasive? Does it use the same language of your ideal customer? If not, try the Amazon review hack.
3. Use A/B split testing – Use A/B testing software like Optimizely or Visual Website Optimizer.  Or use built-in A/B testing in one of your tools like Leadpages or OptinMonster and get familiar with it. Everything on your website should be tested from headlines, to button copy to page layout.
4. Get social media savvy – Social media is one of the best tools for amplifying Stage 1 and getting more people in the top of your funnel. Focus on the channels where your customers hang out. Are they on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter? Become an expert with the platform your customers are using and own it that channel.
5. Focus your focus – Are you casting your net too wide? When you try to attract everyone, you end up attracting no one. Narrow your focus, honing in on one specific market/niche and own it. Become a “go-to” resource and you’ll see an increase in quality leads.
6. Email marketing – Still one of the most profitable channels, email is still king. If you’re not using email marketing, I urge you to get started today. Start building an email list and communicate with your subscribers. Many bloggers and companies enjoy high conversion rate from well-written, persuasive emails. Email automation software like Drip is very powerful and easy to use and is free until you surpass 100 subscribers in your database. Get Drip today.
7. Make changes gradually – It’s tempting when you’ve analyzed the data from your analytics account to make mass changes to your website. To save you the grief and headache, it’s better, and more manageable, to gradually shift from where you are to where you need to be. Small steps allow you to measure what’s working and what’s not along the way a little easier, making for better change.
8. Create urgency – Often, low conversion rates can be increased by creating (authentic) urgency. For example, add a countdown timer to the shopping cart or highlight a limit on any offer you’re putting out there – your customers will be more likely to feel they don’t want to miss out and make that purchase quicker. See if you can answer the urgency question correctly in our quiz.
9. Directional cues – Sometimes prospects need a nudge in the right direction. Whether via copy or visual cues such as arrows or in images. Never be afraid to let prospects know they need your product or service and how to buy it.
10. Calls to action – Leading on from the last point, your calls to action (CTAs) need to be compelling. They form the cornerstone to successful online marketing. Simply put, if you’re not telling your customer what you want them to do – they aren’t likely to do it.

Conclusion

These tips are designed to help you keep website visitors moving through Stages 1-3 of the conversion marketing lifecycle (we’ll cover Stage 4 in another post) and to eventually get them from visitor to paying customer.

Start with a couple of the tips today and implement them on your website. Start gradually and then make more changes as you see the results come in.

Take our conversion marketing quiz

Bonus: think you’ve got the hang of Conversion Marketing for your own website? Then I challenge you to take our online quiz and beat the quizmaster!

The quiz consists of 12 questions and you can get a copy of your score emailed to you. Give it a shot, let’s see what you got 🙂