The typical conversion rate in any marketing campaign is between 3% to 5%. This works out to be profitable in most cases. However, for bootstrapped businesses or those operating with wafer-thin margins, this conversion rate is just about adequate to keep them in the green. One slip-up could destroy the profitability for the quarter.

Here is the thing. Your conversion rate does not have to be this low. At the top-end are businesses that consistently generate conversion rates of 10% or higher.

Here is a quick guide on what separates your campaigns from theirs – and how you can tweak your strategy to increase conversions.

Let’s start with the Landing Page

The landing page is by far the most important component of your marketing funnel. Its job is simply to capture the details of the visitor coming to your website for the first time. Regardless of whether you use advertising, or social media marketing to bring visitors in, landing pages make it possible for a visitor to officially become a prospect.

Here are some things that can go wrong with the landing page:

Lead magnet that adds no value –  You need to offer something very compelling to your visitors in order for them to give their email address away. Demonstrate this value upfront on your newsletter sign up page and also include social proof of the value that it provides to other subscribers.

Too much clutter – Keep your landing page minimalistic and make sure that the visitor’s focus is just on the one thing – to give their email address in exchange for the prize (an ebook, a quotation, or simply a call from your team).

Navigational elements – Do not give an opportunity for the visitor to navigate away from the landing page. Have everything they want to make a decision on the same page so that they do not get distracted.

Poor messaging – Keep your language simple and short. Too many words make it harder for the visitor to process. If there is a way to express your message in fewer words, do it. 

Messaging misalignment – No matter how good your landing page is, conversions are going to be poor if it is not in sync with the traffic source. For best results, keep the title of your ad and the landing page the same.

Move on to the nurturing

Once you have the emails captured, the next step is to nurture your leads. The objective of this process is simple – keep offering value to your leads day in and day out so that when you do include a Call-To-Action, it is taken seriously and your leads act on it. 

Here is what can go wrong during the nurturing process:

There is no value – The sole objective of the nurturing process is to engage your leads so that they start valuing what you say. Sending newsletters that have no value defeats the purpose of the nurturing process.

There is no goal alignment – Adding value is one thing. But the nurturing process should also focus on steering the customer closer to conversion.

Finally the conversion

Once you have adequately nurtured the lead, the final step in the puzzle is to push for conversion. This is make or break. All your efforts in acquiring users and nurturing them comes undone if you do not plan or execute your conversion strategy well.

Here is exactly what can go wrong:

Poor product page design: Like with the landing page, a poor product page can kill all your marketing dollars. There is a lot of science that goes into making the highest converting landing pages. Here are some things that a product page design must account for:

  • Your headline must be crisp and clearly convey all details about the product
  • Do not simply copy the product description from the vendor’s site. Take care of content formatting and enhancements so that a quick scan will give the visitor all the information they need
  • Include a lot of social proof in terms of customer reviews. People do not want to be the first to spend money on a product
  • Make it easy for a prospect to ask questions. Include AI chatbots to the product page – they really help with conversions

Unreliable payment gateway: No amount of marketing or UX analysis will save your conversion rate if the payment gateway is not reliable. Constantly monitor the transaction success rate on your PG in order to be sure that your marketing efforts are not undone by a PG that does not work on demand.