Today’s soulpepper CEO strategy topic should be the number one concern for any ecommerce business: Increasing conversions. Let’s assume people are already on your website. So it’s not about driving traffic anymore. It’s about converting a desired action.

Here are our Top 3 strategies guaranteed to increase the conversion rates of your site.

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1. Decide what you want the conversion to be

What is the ultimate goal of your site? Is it to generate a phone call? A lead? An email subscription? Or is it to create an opportunity to buy something or go into one of your stores? Every page of your website needs to have an MDA (Main Desired Action). So what’s the Main Desired Action of your Homepage? Your Product Page? Your Contact Page? Too many times, CEOs lose focus on what the ultimate goal of their site is by not being clear about the MDA’s of each page.

2. Build a structured sales process into your site

Let’s say one goal on your homepage is to entice a prospect to view your product’s catalogue. The next goal should be for them to add something to the cart. Not to check it out. Just to add it to the cart. From there, you deftly move them to the checkout. Successfully converting prospects is a structured, step-by-step process. Yet many online businesses forget this and end up confusing prospects with Look at This, Over Here, Buy Now, Research This, See How It Works. Too many things going on actually decreases conversions because it confuses the prospect. Resist the more is better approach and focus on building a structured sales process as part of the user experience.

3. Quickly establish trust with new users

This is a big one. New people coming to your site will be asking is this is a reputable company? Is this a reputable website for me to purchase from? Do I trust you enough to give you my information? Before you even have a hope of converting them you need to gain their trust. One of best ways to make people feel comfortable is to publish reviews. Pulling in feeds from Google or Trip Advisor or RateMyTenant.com is one way. Secure checkout features are another. Having secure Visa Checkout or EasyPay and other security markers on checkout pages goes a long way. Another important feature is testimonials. Having people who bought your product talk about it is huge.

Think about employing User Generated Content (UGC). UGC pulls in pictures from around the web of people who have hashtagged your product, and automatically puts it on your product page. Let’s say you sell fashionable sunglasses. UGC will bring in pictures that customers posted at home wearing your fashionable shades and it will appear right there on your page. Prospects on your site will see how many people have these and how good your sunglasses look on everyday people, not just models. Live, raw footage goes a long way in establishing trust and aiding conversions.

While there are many ways to measure results, increasing conversions should take priority over everything else. Use these strategies to significantly increase your ROI. And start converting more sales before the end of the week.

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Written by Rik Klingle-Watt

About the author

Rik Klingle-Watt is a soulpepper and the writer of Not Business as Usual, an award-winning documentary about disrupting the business quo.

soulpepper is a digital marketing agency on a mission. We help companies that are up to something good, increase leads, attract more customers and drive more dollars to their bottom line. Check out our newsletter for more great ideas on how to build your ecommerce empire.