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Website Conversion Types and Effective Strategies to Make Them Happen · Talk Copy to Me | Content + Copywriting Podcast

• 0:00
  Last week, we talked about the user experience, and I got so much great feedback from people who told me they hadn't ever even thought about user experience before, or people who talked about how they had a lot of conversations either with their designer or their copywriter or me, if they were my clients, about user experience, but they didn't know that that's what they were discussing when they were making these decisions about their websites.
• 0:30
  And they were also really interested in the fact that the reason that we're doing this user experience, of course, it's to give our website audience the best possible experience that they can have in seeing our website, but it's also because the Experience then dictates the types of leads and customers or clients that we have as businesses.
• 0:54
  So if we're not considering how to optimize our website for both user experience and conversions, we're missing out big time.
• 1:04
  We're going to take it a step further today by looking at what drives conversions.
• 1:10
  So no longer are we just discussing how, how to create a positive user experience, but we're going to go just a little bit more to talk about the types of conversions that you may want to have on your website.
• 1:22
  site, how you can go about getting those conversions to take place, and what types of marketing tips, tricks, tactics, and all of that can get you in that right position to get an audience that is on your site who could be known to you or unknown and make them an actual lead in your business or an actual paying client and customer.
• 1:56
  So, I talk a lot on this podcast about knowing what your actual marketing goals are, because you need to make decisions on what you'd like to happen before you strategize and plan on how you're going to get it to happen.
• 2:11
  The exact same thing goes when it comes to planning your website for conversions.
• 2:17
  That's because we want to understand first.
• 2:22
  For any website project I've ever worked on, what you actually want people to do when they get to your website.
• 2:30
  . You want to have different things happening on your website because obviously we have different types of buyers.
• 2:37
  We have a new audience that are maybe top of funnel, that are brand new to you, your business and they are not ready to become clients or customers yet.
• 2:48
  You have people that maybe have been following you for a long time and are excited to work with you and they're at the bottom of funnel.
• 2:55
  You have to prep your website to meet their different goals and to make the conversion happen when it's best for them and at their comfort level too, I should say.
• 3:07
  So we're going to.
• 3:08
  Start this episode today by talking about the different types of conversions that your website can have.
• 3:17
  For example, I think the easiest thing for anyone to understand , is on the contact page.
• 3:22
  Think of that form that is on almost any website's contact page, whether it's an e-commerce site, a SaaS site, a service provider's business.
• 3:33
  . It could be as simple as something like first name, last name, email, and message, where you can just put whatever you'd like within the message box and it will get sent to the business.
• 3:46
  Or, it could be more complicated by using an embeddable form for maybe their CRM I won't act as again, as if you don't understand what I'm talking about.
• 3:56
  Let's just think about those contact forms for an example.
• 3:59
  They're what help us capture the leads and inquiries we have in our business.
• 4:04
  So they really need to be placed prominently and designed so that they're easy to use.
• 4:12
  You do not want to have a ton of fields and you want to make sure that whatever instructions you give to your audience are very clear so that They can complete your form in the easiest way possible.
• 4:26
  So for example, instead of just asking for a ton of detailed information about their business, let's say you're a service provider.
• 4:33
  Maybe you're a coach, as an example, you don't need to know everything about their business before you determine whether you're their potential lead, if you want to send them your booking form or anything like that, just start with the essentials.
• 4:48
  And you can follow up with a more detailed form later, um, as part of your proposal or onboarding process, but keep your contact form easy for them to complete so they can ask you the questions they have or touch base in whatever way that they need to.
• 5:05
  Another type of conversion is a product purchase.
• 5:10
  So if you are a SaaS website, an e commerce website, or even if you are a small business or service provider that has a product suite, your website is, has to be set up correctly so that people can actually purchase those products on your site.
• 5:30
  So, Everything about this process should be streamlined.
• 5:35
  That means you're going to need clear product descriptions.
• 5:39
  You're going to need excellent, high quality images that people can see what those products are.
• 5:46
  Make it clear and easy to understand what it is.
• 5:49
  Oh, and I almost forgot, I should mention pricing.
• 5:52
  If someone can make a product purchase or a subscription, let's say, directly from your website, it needs to be immediately clear how much they're paying for it and what any other particulars are.
• 6:08
  Another type of conversion, event which is definitely prominent in the small business, creative, or service provider world is the opportunity to book a discovery call.
• 6:18
  Because if your lead or your audience member, whoever is viewing your website, is going to take the step to book a call.
• 6:26
  Put their information in and actually get on your calendar.
• 6:30
  They are a lot more motivated to actually moving forward with a sale.
• 6:36
  So just like a contact form, you want your booking information to be as clear and straight forward as possible.
• 6:44
  , Thank you.
• 6:45
  Tools like Calendly, Acuity, TidyCal, or different CRMs can actually give you calendars built into your site that allows someone to book directly from the page, let's talk about.
• 7:00
  event registrations.
• 7:02
  So also within the business world there, we're doing things like webinars and workshops, online events that may be, you know, a one time thing . These are slightly different than your traditional product.
• 7:16
  For example, like you're not going to have like one image, , A title, a product description, a cost, and a buy now button.
• 7:24
  You're going to treat them more like mini sales pages or a little bit, , more in depth landing pages, but a lot of people tend to forget that these actions are a conversion based action, right?
• 7:38
  They're, they're taking an audience member.
• 7:41
  Whether they're known to you because maybe they're already on your list or something else and they're moving them to be an actual paying client or, , someone who is taking a more top of funnel event.
• 7:54
  We just had Jessica Lackey on the podcast and she talked about how she had free workshops and that's really what drove people into her business ecosystem.
• 8:03
  So.
• 8:04
  We need to remember that it's not just the products they can purchase, and it's just, it's not just the services that we offer, but things like events that we're offering within our business are a big conversion event.
• 8:18
  And we should count them , as potential conversion drivers for our business.
• 8:24
  The next two I'm going to list, I'm going to actually kind of lump together and those would be a download of resources or an email list sign up.
• 8:32
  The reason I'm lumping them together is because traditionally, if someone is downloading a resource from your website, you're also collecting their email information, which would then put them on your email list.
• 8:45
  So, Now, that doesn't always have to happen, but in order for us to consider a conversion, we need to actually have them take the action to do something that we could potentially measure.
• 8:57
  And we all know how important growing your email list is.
• 9:00
  You know, having an effective lead magnet.
• 9:03
  Whether it's something like e books, a discount code, whether it's sharing things like those case studies, reports that you've written, , or just standard invitation right on that email list, they're huge conversion events.
• 9:19
  You might not see the money, like, figure attached to these.
• 9:23
  Actions because they're signing up for something, right?
• 9:27
  It seems like there's no money coming into your business, but these are funnel related events and you can actually measure the amount of time it takes from someone who joined your email list or downloaded a resource until they became a paying client.
• 9:43
  . So overall a quick review the different types of conversion Related activities that you can expect on a website would be things such as a contact form, the opportunity to make purchases from your site or subscriptions, the ways that you can book a discovery call.
• 10:05
  Ways to get people on your email list and any type of event registration like activity.
• 10:12
  So now that we've covered some of those types of conversions, we need to actually discuss and figure out what type of elements will drive those conversions to actually happen.
• 10:25
  Obviously, you're listening to a copywriting podcast, so I'm going to recommend copywriting as being one of the main conversion related Uh, actions, tasks, opportunities, whatever words you want to put in there in order to drive those conversions.
• 10:41
  Um, so let's start when we, when we're looking at copywriting.
• 10:46
  Let's start with things like the headlines and the messaging.
• 10:49
  The importance of clear and compelling headlines really cannot be overstated.
• 10:54
  They are what draw a viewer's eyes to the page and they Capture their attention.
• 11:02
  So the visual design, elements like sizing, color, font, is what will make your headlines stand out.
• 11:11
  But you also need compelling headlines to keep people want, wanting to read.
• 11:18
  And that's what copywriting can really do.
• 11:21
  So think first about how can I capture their attention?
• 11:24
  And then what happens after the headlines or the subheads is the messaging.
• 11:30
  It's what you actually say within the copy of your website.
• 11:34
  This can definitely.
• 11:36
  Make or Break Conversions.
• 11:38
  If you are not being clear, if you are not being precise, if your messaging feels off to the way that you're presenting your business and your brand to your audience, it's going to cause a friction that makes people not want to take any of those conversion related events.
• 11:54
  So, I say this and it might feel like, Oh no, like how do I even know what my entire messaging and headlines, are they working for me or not?
• 12:03
  I don't know.
• 12:05
  Take a deep breath because these are some of the quickest and easiest things to change if you already have an established website.
• 12:13
  If you do a review or you hire someone like me to do a content audit, let's say of your website and you find that there are some key messaging things that are just really standing out as those friction touch points.
• 12:25
  You can go and easily adjust a sentence, right?
• 12:28
  Like no one has it that easy.
• 12:31
  When you do an entire copy project, you are starting and building from the ground up.
• 12:35
  But when you're reviewing and making these conversion related changes, it could be as simple as just changing one heading so that it's clear that something is like a step by step process, as an example, or changing like a, , a Supporting paragraph when you're really calling out pain points or something to that effect So that way it feels more authentic and it feels let's say less salesy or less forced Once that's done and someone starts to read it later and the improvements have been made the conversion is so much more likely to be to happen because the Improvements that were made are making it easier to go from Capturing interest to driving a sale or, you know, in the case of email, to driving the lead to take a further action.
• 13:24
  In addition though, to the headlines and the overall messaging, calls to action are another copywriting related thing that really can make a huge difference on whether or not a button gets clicked.
• 13:36
  So.
• 13:37
  We want to look at where we're first placing our calls to action.
• 13:41
  And while I did say button, many calls to actions are actual buttons on our sites.
• 13:46
  Not all of them are.
• 13:49
  And that's important to consider as well.
• 13:51
  A call to action could be an image where maybe you're advertising something and someone has to click that image in order to get to the, let's say, an events page.
• 14:00
  , and so, Another way that people do images a lot as calls to action are in blog posts.
• 14:05
  So if you're doing a blog post and you happen to have a standard like webinar that you invite people to that are related to that blog post and in the middle of the blog post you have that little bar that comes in with the image and it says like interested in learning more like you know watch our webinar whatever let's say it's a replay People would click that image and then it would bring them to the event registration page.
• 14:28
  So the image itself is a call to action and a conversion related click.
• 14:34
  Moving on from images, we did buttons, we did images, hyperlinks are different ways to do calls to action that are strategic on most websites.
• 14:44
  There are multiple different types, but my key Point that I want to make here is that you really need to strategically place them in the right places, and it could be as simple as moving the button or the image to a different place on the site in order to make it more powerful.
• 15:03
  When I do website audits, one of the the biggest things that I see on service pages and sales pages is that the conversion opportunities are missed.
• 15:13
  So, Often because the button to buy, let's say, will be all the way at the bottom of an extremely long and scrolling page where people would have clicked and purchased way at the top of the page had they just been asked to make a purchase.
• 15:29
  Similarly, for a services page, no, we're not treating them like sales pages, but one of the mistakes I'm seeing is that we're not giving people a chance to book that call again, let's say till the end of the page, or we're instead of having a button or having an image or having headlines built in throughout, that's really like reinforcing.
• 15:51
  Why someone would hire you as a service provider.
• 15:54
  They have one little hyperlinked.
• 15:56
  Like sentence that says like, book your call now, or, hire me for a VIP day now.
• 16:03
  If you can't see the call to action as a user, you're not going to take that conversion related step.
• 16:08
  So those three are, are definitely related to copywriting.
• 16:12
  And they're also really easy things that you can change once you review and know what you need to change so.
• 16:20
  Let's move over to talk about trust signals and social proof.
• 16:24
  Some of my favorite things.
• 16:25
  they're crucial really when it comes to decision making from your user.
• 16:29
  If you're inserting them in the right places, you know, for example, placing your testimonials, your reviews, your case studies prominently throughout the site in ways that they're not distracting, you're going to build trust so that way people feel so much more confident about making the sale when it comes time to offer.
• 16:50
  The call to action.
• 16:51
  So the best thing I can say here is to be authentic.
• 16:55
  It's almost always very clear when inauthentic trust signals and social proof is shared.
• 17:02
  So think about where you want to have those logo strips that have, you know, badges of your expertise or the logos of the businesses that trust you as a service provider.
• 17:13
  Anything like that.
• 17:14
  Where will you place them on the site?
• 17:16
  And how many testimonials is too many testimonials?
• 17:20
  Are you using the right?
• 17:22
  Phrasing of testimonial on the right page.
• 17:27
  Let's move on to talk about something that is not so copy specific, and that's the user flow and the navigation.
• 17:34
  And Annie and I talked about this last week, and I think we did a really good job of covering it, but if you haven't heard last week's episode yet, I'll do a quick review for you.
• 17:45
  One thing that highly.
• 17:46
  How it affects the conversion of a site is how a user, like, walks their way through your site and what you're doing from a navigation standpoint.
• 17:56
  So, if you can simplify your navigation with a clear menu, Um, maybe you have search functionality, especially if you're like an e commerce store, not so much a service provider.
• 18:09
  But if you have these tools built into your site where it's easier for people to navigate through your site and make a decision on their own, they're much more likely going to be apt to purchase from you.
• 18:21
  So.
• 18:22
  One way to ensure the conversion is to minimize distractions, to keep the path from, like, to conversion very clear and frictionless.
• 18:32
  And what I mean is you're not asking your end user to take two clicks to make a purchase when you can simply ask them to like, do one click to make a purchase.
• 18:42
  You're not asking someone to fill out a form, then they get to another page and then they have to book something, but they can't actually do the booking until they go into their email.
• 18:51
  No.
• 18:52
  You don't want to do that.
• 18:53
  So.
• 18:54
  One way you can make sure that this is all set, again, a website audit is a great opportunity, but you can also do heat maps to analyze user behavior and see how they're clicking through your site.
• 19:05
  , this is something I love to do before we even do a website rewrite for My clients who already have established businesses with websites that I can review and check what their previous like data and previous user interaction is like, but it's super helpful.
• 19:20
  Even if you don't plan to do a brand new site, you can use a heat map to show you how people are using your website and then make those small, tiny changes to things like.
• 19:41
  So I know I just threw a lot out there for you.
• 19:46
  I was really hoping this episode would be short to kind of break it down.
• 19:49
  Fill in the blanks on some of the things we either discussed last week and, , maybe touched on or to mention some of the things that we didn't get to discuss.
• 19:57
  But I think if I could really wrap this up in any way, it's that I want you to understand that there are ways that you can make adjustments to your site without having to do an entire website rebrand that could be extremely beneficial to getting a conversion.
• 20:16
  Whether the conversion in this instance is to convert a random audience member into an actual lead or to move a lead into a client or customer status.
• 20:27
  So the best way to do that is to know what type of conversions you want for each page.
• 20:34
  Again, do you want them to book a call with you?
• 20:37
  Do you want them to complete a form and then you can reach back out with them?
• 20:41
  Do you want them to make a purchase on the site?
• 20:44
  Do you want them to sign up for something, like in the example of a webinar?
• 20:50
  Do you want them to simply just join your email list?
• 20:53
  Knowing that for each of the pages is going to give you, , The information you need to then dictate how you treat those headings, how you treat those calls to action, where things belong on the flow of the pages, and, you know, if I could reiterate any of those tips and tricks and ways to accomplish that, is to say that copy and design play a significant factor on the user experience and a significant factor in how people convert on your website.
• 21:27
  Again, whether it's leads or actual clients.
• 21:31
  So, , looking at your site and determining if it's too cluttered, what can be removed, if there's anything that needs to be added, how you can streamline the information you're sharing.
• 21:42
  If you're overdoing your usage of headlines and subheads or big fancy fonts and things like that, having that review can save you a huge amount of money.
• 21:54
  Instead of redoing your entire website, you know, it's a lot more flashy and easy to think, well, I'll just do an entire website rebrand, but that comes with a very high Price Ticket.
• 22:04
  When you're hiring a website copywriter, you're doing SEO, you're potentially doing brand messaging, and then you're transferring all of that into a web designer's hands who have just as big of a price tag to working for them, working with them.
• 22:20
  So looking at what you have right now, Auditing what's working, making some key decisions based on how people are moving through your site, the user experience, and then converting and how you're focusing on those conversion related activities can really take your site and your business from the ground up.
• 22:40
  Substandard in the sense of, like, you're doing what you can to actually have a business on the internet to actually make it clear to your audience that you're able to work with them and you're encouraging people to take these conversion related actions.
• 22:57
  Speaking of conversions for a second, I want to talk more about booking forms because I When my clients are trying to decide, like, do I want to give people the opportunity to book a discovery call directly on my website?
• 23:11
  Or maybe do I want to encourage them to complete the form and then I will like personally send them an invite to book with me or personally send them my scheduler?
• 23:20
  There's a lot of decision making that goes into that.
• 23:23
  Such as, you know, how are your discovery calls already?
• 23:26
  Are people primed and ready to buy?
• 23:29
  Are you taking too many calls?
• 23:31
  Um, worse, are you taking calls for people who you have to do a lot of education instead of sales because you haven't done that work on your site?
• 23:40
  And.
• 23:41
  While I'm not going to go too far into that, the reason I'm bringing this up today, in relation to conversion, is because I want you to think about how you pose a discovery call on your website.
• 23:53
  Next week, I'm having Nikki Rausch on the podcast, and she's going to go over discovery calls kind of from start to finish, or even before start to finish.
• 24:03
  We're going to talk about all of that.
• 24:05
  Forms and how people always overwrite in their forms and ask way too many questions that are unnecessary before a discovery call.
• 24:13
  And then we'll talk about obviously how to fix that.
• 24:15
  We're not gonna leave you hanging.
• 24:16
  And then we'll move from Once a form is completed into how to run a discovery call so that you're giving your lead the best information and you're kind of maintaining the control of the call to make the sale , with a lot less friction, a lot more clear and to kind of build that trust and make your client or customer feel much more confident in the decisions that they're making.
• 24:43
  And that all starts with the website.
• 24:45
  So if all arrows are pointing towards a discovery call on your website, you want to make them feel good about filling out that form.
• 24:53
  Because if you can see what a weight this plays in a business owner's marketing and sales toolbox, you'll know that if you're not pointing them to the contact form or the booking form, people won't fill it out.
• 25:06
  And if you are pointing to them to this discovery booking form, but then you're asking like extremely personal questions, or you're making them complete like an entire questionnaire instead of just booking that call, how easy it is to lose people.
• 25:22
  So think about what I said today and how all these little tiny edits and adjustments can make a big difference for your website.
• 25:29
  And then come back again next week when we do talk about this idea of like how to best present a booking form or like the discovery call on your site and then how to actually do it so you feel more comfortable and everyone feels more confident with you.
• 25:44
  That's it for today's episode.
• 25:45
  I'll see you back here next week.