Websites promote you 24/7: No employee will do that Paul Cookson
Imagine this for a second: You buy a 50-inch Ultra HD (4K) Smart TV. After taking great pains and doing the necessary song and dance about installing updates, you finally get it connected to the Internet. It’s time for Netflix and chill. But to your horror, you don’t hear any sound. The visuals seem stuck, and the images are grainy. To top it off, the text is barely visible. And worse, the TV seems to freeze every 5 mins.
Now, it doesn’t take a genius to know that this entire exercise is a colossal waste of money, time, resources, and effort on both the user and the company’s part.
Well, guess what? This is EXACTLY what users feel when they log onto a static website, filled with undecipherable and out-of-scale content, and inserted with grainy, or worse, no images. In short, the website belongs to the “Stone Age.”
Now that we’ve set some context as to what kind of websites need a serious revamp (for lack of a better term), let’s look at why your website needs to undergo a sea change.
A lot has been spoken about the increasing number of smartphone users who access your website on their mobiles, laptops, tabs; you name it.
But not many know the side-effects of having an under-performing website, especially when viewed on a smartphone. Let’s look at some data from sweor to get a little perspective into the current state of the user’s mind:
- It takes only 50 milliseconds for users to decide whether they wish to stay or leave your website.
- Around 57% of Internet users will refrain from recommending a website if it is poorly-designed.
- Approximately 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience.
- Finally, around 75% of consumers admit to making judgements on a company’s credibility based on the company’s website design.
After looking at these mind-boggling numbers, need we convince more? It’s time you moved on from the good to the great side of the web designing spectrum which can be summarized as follows:
- A good website gets customers to the screen; a great one keeps them hooked.
- A good website offers everything a customer demands; a great one exceeds their expectations.
- A good website focuses on aesthetic beauty; a great one combines crisp content, relevant design, insight-driven analytics, and user-friendliness in equal measure.
So, if you feel you’re stuck in a virtual rut and are losing out on customers, fret not. Here are seven handy tips that can up your website game and ensure that people voluntarily keep coming back to your website for more.
7 Web Design Elements That Work Overtime to Get Your Conversion Rates Up
Call-to-Action Is Your Website’s “True Calling”
Inserting a CTA to your website is the equivalent of having a digital compass for your customers. Or to put it in another way, it acts as your website’s Northern Star.
How so? Basically, it helps users to navigate better and clearly informs them about how and where to take action if the need arises.
Let’s look at an example: The brand, “Nature Air,” effectively utilized the CTA feature to dramatically improve their conversions by 591%. Imagine that by simply adding CTA to the website in a prominent position, they reaped huge benefits.
Key takeaways:
- Consider adding a CTA button(s) on your product/service landing pages for maximum visibility, greater clarity on user action, and an increased conversion rate. The CTA button could be an image, text, video, or a simple button. As long as you steer away from “aggressive marketing,” you’ll do just fine.
Real-Time Support will Go a Long Way
Live Chat is no longer a secret tool. Businesses across industries use this multi-purpose feature to engage with customers, address their queries in real-time and in a swift manner, offer added and personalized support by way of co-browsing, etc.
Let’s let the numbers do the talking. In the case of “Intuit,” the brand added Live Chat features to the checkout process and the average order value boosted by 43%; whereas, by using proactive chat on a product comparison page, its sales increased by 211%.
Key takeaways:
- Real-time communication support grabs user attention unlike any other marketing tactic.
- Live chat and chatbot features offer instant support to the customer and thereby, enhance the chances of conversion by thousands.
- Companies need to focus on successful and seamless integration of live chat tool with their existing infrastructure so that the chances of customer churn will cease to exist.
Responsible Designing, Responsive Designs
Did You Know?
85% of viewers think that a company’s website, when viewed on a mobile device, should be as good or better than its desktop website. Plus, around 39% of people will stop engaging with a website if images won’t load or take too long to load.
First things first, when we talk about responsive websites, we’re not referring to the customer care department. Responsive in this context refers to the platform- and gadget-compatibility and technologically-sound implementation.
Gone are the days when people had to pinch and zoom websites when they were viewing it on their mobile. Today, the “basic” expectation is that all websites should seamlessly adapt to any platform on which they are being viewed so that the user doesn’t get hassled and enjoys a compelling, legible, and user-friendly viewing experience.
Key takeaways:
- Responsive design that offers ease of access and smooth navigation capabilities is a must for increasing user engagement and enhancing conversion rates.
- Businesses need to prioritize making their website as functional, comfortable, and responsive as possible so that they can offer an optimized experience across devices – from desktops to mobiles.
- Another important consideration should be to deliver similar if not the same cross-device experiences. Only then do they stand the chance of boosting conversions.
- A lot of websites integrate videos on the homepage and it works well as a strategy since it can improve conversions by 247%. However, to avoid “sluggish pages,” here are some facts to keep in mind when considering the video route include short video content, thumbnail for the video, length, and quality. Plus, it is necessary to ensure that the video should not take time to load or buffer at all. An impatient customer is worse than having no customer.
Clients Have the First & Final Word
If data is anything to go by, websites built around credibility and an intent to ease buyer anxiety/concern can increase conversion rates by 48%.
This is exactly what Express Watches achieved. By including a customer review widget on the product page, sales increased by 58%!
Key takeaways:
- Placement of client testimonials & user reviews acts as a symbol of trust or social proof and assures visitors of your business’s authenticity.
- Strategic placement of reviews will enhance credibility among users when they will hover around product pages.
Venture into Uncharted Waters with A/B Testing
A/B testing is the process of comparing two versions of a webpage to see which one is performing better. And it is increasingly becoming the preferred method for determining the efficiency of a website layout, design, content, etc.
As complex as it may sound, A/B testing is deceptively simple to implement. Users are selected at random and focused questions are asked to the users. Depending on their inputs, statistical analysis is used to understand which variation is outperforming the other. By taking the guesswork out of the website efficiency, it offers brands to take more insight-driven and informed decisions.
Key takeaways:
- The trick lies in engaging in continuous A/B testing for all new features or existing ones to make the necessary changes and also gather critical data while these dynamic changes transpire.
- Apart from focusing on elements such as headline, visuals, form fields, CTA, and page layout, testing should be conducted on different landing page versions to find the “missing,” elements as well as new ones. This helps to shift the focus and view things from a fresh perspective.
Rethink Your UI/UX Interface
Did You Know?
Around 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive. And first impressions are 94% of the time design-related.
A website with a rock-solid UI/UX offers three key advantages:
- Higher user engagement.
- Increased usability.
- Off-the-chart Key Performance Indicators.
With hundreds of websites floating in the digital space, stunning visuals and on-point copy complemented by simple-yet-seamless navigation can save your website from getting lost in the virtual crowd. A cleaner and compelling website design requires more effort than most anticipate. In sum, it should:
- Be interactive, yet not in-your-face.
- Have clickable CTAs that are strategically placed so as to not make the website look messy.
- Be visually-driven with images of happy, human faces if the brand positioning allows it. Why? Because data suggest that 90% of information that the brain transmits is visual in nature and humans tend to process images 60,000x faster than text.
- Follow a pattern when it comes to the placement of content. Most users start reading from the top-left side of the webpage, so care must be taken to insert important content accordingly.
- Allow for some breathing space also known as “negative space” which believe it or not, has a positive effect on users.
Key takeaways
- In order to deliver a UI/UX-friendly website, businesses need to first rework on their background color scheme.
- A visually-appealing color combination works like a charm in drawing the readers in. Dropbox has an excellent layout in terms of user-friendliness and design aesthetics so make sure to check it out.
- Other considerations to keep track of include: a consistent font usage, a simple website layout, different typography, appropriate font sizes, and complementary color schemes.
Analytic Tools for the Web...err Win
Working towards increasing conversion rates without understanding user behavior on the website is like shooting arrows in the dark and hoping to score a Gold in the Olympics. Let’s make one thing crystal clear: it is by insights and insights only that you can boost conversions and truly give the users what they want. An analytical tool worth its salt helps to:
- Track Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS) & the Voice Of Customer (VOC).
- Allow Product Managers to view Session Recordings and see how people are using the product.
- Empower designers to witness where the users are getting stuck in the website and make changes accordingly.
- Offers user-friendly and intuitive features that deliver results.
Key takeaways:
- Implementing analytics tools and action plans in real-time is a smart business investment.
- Using tools such as Hotjar can help organizations to find actionable insights related to the user and get their feedback through heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys. Businesses can get real-time information on critical factors such as includes the “Most Viewed” section on the page, “Most Clicked” button etc. As you may have guessed, this helps to create an optimum landing page that delights, engages, and informs users, all at the same time.
The Writing is on the Screen
Website without visitors is like a ship lost in the horizon.Dr Christopher Dayagdag
The moral of the story? If you’re witnessing lowering-than-ever conversion rates, you need to remove the cobwebs surrounding your web designing strategy.
Stock up on good-quality coffee beans, go back to the drawing board, and brainstorm as to how best you can integrate these foolproof ideas into your digital toolbox.
Be assured that by making a few changes, you can enjoy high conversions and best of all, the experience of on boarding happier and loyal customers.
