When companies want to increase sales and get a higher conversion they often start off by focusing on how their website is constructed. This is a good place to start since you need to make sure the customer gets an easy buying process with as few clicks as possible. But this is also where it all ends. So, where do you really need to start?
Companies have difficulties catching the customer’s entire journey. Many times they look at customer interactions with an inside-out view and attitude, which is the company perspective. But customers rarely have the same agenda as the company, so let us turn it around. What do the customers see? Way too often they experience a company sending them different messages urging them to do several, sometimes conflicting things. This leads to confusion rather than conversion.
The last couple of years there has been a lot of focus on Customer Experience and Loyalty. These are also important strategies to develop and work with – but how do you know that you have succeeded? Longer customer lifecycles, higher revenue and more brand ambassadors are common measurements but rising conversion rates are also included here.
Here are three ideas to help you increase your conversion rates:
• Map your customer journey so that you get a clear picture of the buying process and how you communicate with your customers today. Not just the direct communications, review all interaction points, in all channels where the customer interacts with your company.
• Develop a communication and channel strategy. Then set a clear plan for how to sync the communication so the messages reinforce each other in all different channels.This applies to everything from email, sms, website, social media, retargeting, TV commercials and ads to how the customer is treated by sales and service staff. If the customer receives an email and clicks a link, the landing page on the site should reflect the message and if the customer then contacts customer service, they should also be able to convey the same message.
• Work with data-driven communication to convert faster. Analyze to find customer segments, create content tailored to these segments and get it in different formats so that the message works in all channels. Review how the content is received by the different segments, look at hard values such as opening and clicks, but also measure soft values by working with questionnaires. Use the information to find additional segments and generate new content. Continue testing and evaluating to optimize over time.
Mou Sheikh Senior Marketing Consultant