Website Conversion Strategies for Small Businesses

Think about your company’s website as a 24/7, 365 virtual store for your products and services. Whether you are making and selling organic soaps or booking appointments for hair and beauty treatments or providing accounting services for local offices, many potential customers first interact with your business through your website. According to a study by AdWeek, over 80% of consumers research a product or service online before purchasing. That means that 8 out of 10 people who are looking for organic soap will visit at least one website before buying—and that website should be yours! Let’s look at how you can optimize your website conversion strategies as a small business.

Easy to use navigation that directs consumers to your products or services

Online consumers are bombarded with dozens of similar products offered for sale by literally thousands of retailers. From ads on social media to Amazon product offerings to email coupons, consumers have a lot of choices when it comes to buying a product. Your website’s navigation needs to make finding that product, on your website, as easy as possible.

An effective conversion strategy will have navigation labels and page names that clearly lead a consumer to the item they desire. If you sell organic soaps, you would want to consider key search terms or patterns to label your navigation (just Soaps isn’t going to cut it). Try using a general label such as Bath Products that contains more specific labels such as Organic Soaps, Vegan Soaps, Body Wash, Spa Collection etc. that way a consumer can go directly to their targeted item listing, say vegan soaps, with just one click from your homepage.

Simple and informative item pages

Once the consumer finds the type of item they want, they will typically check out at least 3 other items to ensure they are making the right decision. Especially for small businesses selling tangible items, this is a key moment. In a brick and mortar store, the consumer can see, touch, smell (maybe taste) your products, but online all they have to go on are the images and descriptions that you provide. Your conversion strategy needs to market the items in a way that gets consumers excited about the product.

For example, you might offer 20 different bars of soap under Vegan Soaps. That’s a lot of choices for the consumer and your strategy should be to avoid selection overload. Use clear product names and accurate (but fun!) descriptions to get consumers focused—Green Vegan Soap is ok, but Tea Tree Oil Vegan Soap is better. Same strategy goes with the description- don’t just tell the consumer what they can already see on the screen. A “green vegan soap, made with tea tree oil” is really bland. Instead, try “Our tea tree oil vegan soap offers skin clearing ingredients than can reduce acne and improve complexion”. A few more minutes writing the description can make a big difference in conversion strategies.

Lastly, give the consumer options

If 8 out of 10 people are researching products online before purchasing- they are taking their own time to do so. Don’t treat your product as the end-all-be-all of products. Including access to other product options is key to a successful conversion strategy. For example, add a small section below each product with a short description and link to another product on your site. You can say “If you like this soap, try our Lavender Body Wash” or “Other customers also liked…” This conversion strategy is golden! Now you have introduced another option or potentially even upsold an additional purchase!

Five Grey’s creative process is designed to learn your business, not just build your website. We talk through website conversion strategies to see what elements are the best fit and design your site to support those goals. Contact us today to learn more!