What’s the Best eCommerce Loyalty Program for Your Online Store?

The post What’s the Best eCommerce Loyalty Program for Your Online Store? appeared first on HostGator Blog.

eCommerce is an easy way for small businesses to reach more customers, as long as you don’t lose them to big players like Amazon and Walmart. Amazon alone took in 44% of the eCommerce sales in the US in 2017.

To compete with major retailers’ selection and price, you probably already know that your online business needs to stand out by offering unique items, expertise in product selection, and excellent service.

Another way to appeal to new customers and keep current ones coming back is with an eCommerce loyalty program.  

What Can an eCommerce Loyalty Program Do for Your Online Store?

We often think of loyalty programs as tools to get customers to come back, but that’s not all a loyalty plan can do. Here are five more benefits to eCommerce loyalty programs.

1. Get new customers on board.

Don’t make your customers wait until they’ve spent a certain dollar amount or placed several orders to start getting the benefits of loyalty program membership.

Offer your customers an immediate discount or bonus item for joining your loyalty program and they’re more likely to sign on and make a purchase.

2. Collect marketing data.

A good loyalty program will provide analytics on your members so you can see which products they prefer, when they buy, how much they spend, and other information you can use to refine your marketing efforts. Smarter offers can lead to more sales and higher order values.

3. Increase the lifetime value of your current customers.

With your customer loyalty program marketing data and targeted offers, your business should be able to not only retain customers but earn more from them. Exclusive product offers, previews, and upsells of related items are easier when you have accurate information and your customers’ trust.

That trust is valuable—Invesp found that established customers are 50% more likely to buy a new product from a business than new customers are, and those existing customers spend about 30% more when they buy.

4. Keep your customer acquisition costs in check.

By using your digital loyalty program to target offers to your existing customers, you can boost revenue from those shoppers and reduce the amount you need to spend on new-customer acquisition to keep your revenue stream flowing.

And when you do look for new customers, your customer loyalty program data can help you identify target audiences similar to your most loyal and lucrative customers.

5. Win back customers.

Sometimes an existing customer just stops shopping with you, and you don’t know why. Rather than write off that customer, you can use your eCommerce rewards program to craft a custom email offer to bring them back to your store.

Think about which of these goals is most important to your business. Then take stock of the channels that you use most often to reach current customers and new customers. Depending on your goals and customer habits, you may be able to do well with a straightforward points-for-purchase loyalty program, or you may need a program that includes social media reward options, tiered reward levels and other advanced features.

What Should Your Store’s eCommerce Loyalty Program Look Like?

OK, so you’re sold on the benefits a loyalty program can offer your business. Here are some things to consider as you plan your program:

Will customers earn points only for purchases, or also for activities like social sharing, writing reviews and uploading photos and videos?

Many eCommerce consultants recommend offering rewards points for activities that build your customer base, in addition to giving points for purchases. You might want to reward customers for specific actions like sharing one of your new handbags on Instagram or writing a review for one of your more expensive laptops. 

Another option is to offer rewards for referrals. If you’ve ever shared a store’s discount code with friends because you’d get a discount if they make a purchase, you know how compelling customer referral programs can be. 

How many points will your customers earn for each activity or dollar spent?

The key to assigning points to actions in your store is balance. You don’t want to give out so many points that you’re losing money on your rewards program. But you don’t want customers to feel like the rewards are too small to be worth pursuing.

It’s wise to start small, with a simple equation like “spend $10, earn 1 point”—or whatever ratio makes sense for your average ticket order. Then track your sales and points metrics and make adjustments from there.

What can points be redeemed for? 

For example, can customers use their points at any time to get discounts on purchases? Can they use points for free shipping, express shipping or special gifts? Decide ahead of time, make the options clear to loyalty program members and listen for feedback to decide if you need to add or change your redemption options.

Will the points ever expire? 

Or can your customers hold on to them indefinitely until they’re ready to use them?

On one hand, points that never expire create an easier customer experience. On the other hand, an ever-growing cache of points could create a cash flow problem if several people decide to redeem a lot of points around the same time. You’ll need to decide what your limits are for keeping unused points on the books.

What will be in your fine print?

Most of your customers will be happy to rack up points as they go about their normal shopping and sharing business, but there may be some who want to game your system in a way that causes you losses. 

For example, consider the infamous case of the Healthy Choice airline mile promotion, which offered people 500 air miles for every 10 product bar codes they mailed in. (It was 1999, after all.) The promotion focused on the brand’s frozen meals, but a clever civil engineer read the fine print on the offer and saw that there was no stipulation about what products counted. 

So, he went on a Healthy Choice discounted pudding cup buying spree, told the grocers he cleaned out that was stocking up for Y2K to avoid suspicion (!) and earned more than 1.2 million air miles for buying about $3,000 worth of pudding. It’s an amazing story, but not what Healthy Choice had in mind when they launched their promo. 

The moral: set limits to close loopholes in your rewards offers. 

How will you protect your loyalty program from fraud?

Sadly, rewards program fraud is a thing. You need to protect your customers and your revenue stream by preventing it.

Rewards account takeover fraud happens when outsiders hijack your customers’ loyalty accounts and use their points to go shopping. Stolen credentials, data breaches and easy to guess passwords all raise the risk of account takeovers. To reduce the risk and protect your customers:

• Require them to use a strong password on their account in your store.
• Consider offering two-factor authentication (like an SMS code) for customer logins.
• Give customers the option to get text or email alerts if there’s a purchase or point redemption over an amount they choose. They can then contact customer service if they don’t recognize the transaction.
• Choose a rewards program that has fraud protection built in.
• Protect your customers’ data as they enter it in your store with a SiteLock website security subscription.

As you design your program, remember that it’s going to be part of your customer experience—and customers like things to be simple, fast and hassle-free. Whatever your program offers, customers should find it easy to enroll, earn points, see their balance and use their points. 

Setting Up Your eCommerce Loyalty Program

There are several tools you can use to add an eCommerce loyalty program to your online store. Your options will depend on the eCommerce hosting platform you use and your budget as well as your goals and customer habits.

Here are a few options to show you what’s available and what you can expect to spend.

WordPress eCommerce Loyalty Program Plugins

If you have a WordPress store that uses the WooCommerce eCommerce plugin, there are several loyalty program extensions you can choose from.

1. WooCommerce Points and Rewards

WooCommerce Points and Rewards lets you set up a points-per-purchase loyalty program with customizable settings for point values and maximum discount amounts. You can make points retroactive for past purchases, use points as incentives for sign-ups and reviews, and more.

This plugin lets you fine-tune your points program so you can offer points 

• On all purchases in your store
• On purchases in the product categories you choose
• On purchases of selected products

That’s a handy feature to help drive traffic and sales to certain areas of your site, and you can tie it in with seasonal promotions, like extra points on computer purchases during back-to-college shopping season.

A one-year subscription for a single site is $129.

2. SUMO

SUMO is another option for WordPress/WooCommerce stores, one that offers rewards program tools as part of a larger toolkit that includes marketing popups, marketing email management, cart abandonment remarketing and email subscriber analytics. 

In addition to points for purchases and reviews, SUMO’s loyalty program gives you the option to award points for referring new customers, sharing on social media, blogging, commenting, using coupons and making charitable donations. You can also set points to expire after a certain amount of time.

A regular license for a single store costs $49.

3. Liana by Beans

Beans is a suite of WooCommerce marketing plugins. One of those is Liana, a loyalty and rewards program that lets you choose from lots of reward options, including rewards for 

• customer birthdays
• social media likes and shares
• referrals
• reviews
• purchases
• taking part in special store events 

Liana also makes it easy to create and share time-limited offers for loyalty program members, customize your store’s rewards page, and set automatic point balance reminders to encourage customers to visit your store and buy from you again.

Liana’s pricing structure offers three tiers:

• The free plan is for brand-new small stores that have as many as 30 orders per month. It includes basic loyalty functionality and lets you award points for purchases.
• Pro plans range from $29 to $169 per month if you pay annually, and they let you award points for birthdays, shares and other specific customer actions.
• Once your store is handling more than 2,500 orders a month, Liana’s enterprise plan gives you custom control over reward rules and assigns your store an account manager.

Magento eCommerce Loyalty Program Extensions

Magento has several extensions that work with it. Because Magento ended support for its Magento 1 platform in June 2020, we’ll focus here on options for stores on Magento 2.

1. Amasty

Amasty’s loyalty program for stores on Magento 2 makes it easy to create multiple levels of benefits for your members based on their purchase histories, award free shipping to VIP members, and create customized promotions.

For example, Amasty lets store owners

• Create individual loyalty discounts based on customer attributes.
• Choose from 16 shopping cart rules to pick create offers based on what’s in customers’ carts.
• Display deal banners on product pages to loyalty program members. 
• Set up free shipping for reward program members at selected or all levels.

A one-time license for Amasty’s Magento 2 Community edition is $349, with free lifetime updates.

2. Aheadworks

Reward Points for Magento 2 by Aheadworks integrates with ConnectPOS to sync customer rewards across your online and in-store channels. Customers can see how their rewards apply to products on your site, and they can earn more points as they shop through social sharing. 

With this extension, you can also apply refund balances to loyalty program points to keep revenue within your store. You can also customize how points are earned and set different thresholds for different customers to give your most frequent shoppers even better perks. 

The price tag for this Aheadworks extension is $349.

More eCommerce Loyalty Program Apps

What if you’re not using WordPress, WooCommerce or Magento 2 for your online store? You can find loyalty program applications for other platforms, including Gator Website Builder. Two we like are ReferralCandy and Yotpo.

1. ReferralCandy

You can integrate ReferralCandy with virtually any eCommerce store to link referrals with rewards. Your customers can easily share their recommendations from your store with friends via social posts and email, and each referral earns them a reward.

ReferralCandy lets you choose how you want to reward your customers for their referrals—cash, discounts or special gifts. 

You can track the ROI on your program in the ReferralCandy dashboard, and the whole process is automated so you can focus on running your business.

ReferralCandy is free for the first 30 days. After that, the premium plan costs $49 per month plus a commission based on sales generated by your referrals. Use ReferralCandy’s calculator to estimate your ROI and the commissions you’ll pay. 

2. Yotpo

Yotpo also integrates with many eCommerce platforms, and it offers a suite of marketing tools that includes customer review collection and display, SMS marketing and customizable referral and reward features. 

Yotpo offers campaign templates you can adapt to encourage your customers to write product reviews, follow your social media or make purchases for points. 

For small businesses, Yotpo offers three tiers of loyalty and referral tools. All include customizable rewards.

• The free plan is available to stores with up to 100 orders per month.
• The silver plan starts at $29 per month and adds points-for-reviews and rewards pop-up features.
• The gold plan starts at $249 per month and adds a customizable rewards page template, email marketing integrations and other features. 

Choosing Your eCommerce Loyalty Program

Before you invest in an extension or a loyalty platform subscription, take the time to read the reviews, and double-check that it offers the features you want for your marketing program. Decide if you’ll want to purchase extended customer support as you set up and refine your loyalty program.

The better you get at rewarding your customers, the more rewarding your loyalty program will be for your business. Share your loyalty program experience below or browse our reliable cloud hosting and shared hosting plans.

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7 Best WordPress Review Plugins

The post 7 Best WordPress Review Plugins appeared first on HostGator Blog.

If your website is selling a product or service, then you need to have customer reviews integrated into your site. 

Customer reviews can help to push your visitors closer to that buy button. By adding customer reviews to your site the right way, you can add social proof and make it more likely your customers will buy.

Luckily, WordPress makes it easy to add reviews to your website via a WordPress review plugin. No matter your niche, or the type of review you want to add to your site, you’ll be able to find a plugin that’ll help you reach your goals. 

Below we dive deep into WordPress review plugins. You’ll learn what they are, why they’re valuable, and we’ll showcase the the top WordPress review plugins on the market today. 

What is a WordPress Review Plugin?

To make things simple, a WordPress review plugin is a plugin that lets you add and set up reviews on your WordPress website. 

The type of review plugin you’re looking for will be determined by the kind of site you’re running. 

For example, a small business website might want to integrate Yelp and Google Business reviews into their sites. On other hand, an eCommerce store owner would want a plugin that lets users submit their own product reviews. 

Still, no matter the type of WordPress review plugin you’re looking for, some of the foundational features will be the same.

Here are some of the core features you’ll want to look for in a WordPress review plugin:

• A star rating system for each review
• The ability for visitors to write their own reviews on your website
• A user dashboard that allows you to manage and publish certain reviews
• The ability to aggregate reviews from other sources like Yelp, Google, and more
• Built-in options for displaying your reviews on different locations across your site
• Design features to ensure the layout and color schemes of the reviews integrate with your existing design
• Lets your users upload other forms of media like photos, videos, and more. 

Best WordPress Review Plugins

There are a ton of different WordPress review plugins out there for you to sort through. Instead of having to spend hours browsing through the plugin repository, just spend a few minutes looking over the list below.

Here are seven of the best WordPress review plugins on the market today: 

1. Site Reviews

Site Reviews is a very simple and easy to use review plugin. This plugin offers you an easy and straightforward way to let users add reviews to your site. 

You can create a simple review form on your site and then choose where you’d like your reviews to display across your site. You can display reviews via widgets, shortcodes, and blocks.

You also have complete control over how you want your reviews to look and can choose which reviews to showcase at the top of the list. 

This plugin also integrates with Akismet for spam protection, and your reviews will show up as rich snippets in the search engines. 

2. Google Reviews Widget

If you have a ton of Google reviews that you want to integrate into your website, then the Google Reviews Widget plugin is for you. Instead of allowing users to submit reviews on the site, the plugin will aggregate any existing Google reviews and display them across your site.

This plugin uses a widget to display all of your reviews, so you can showcase your reviews across any widgetized section of your site.

The free version of the plugin is limited to five Google reviews and three Yelp reviews, so if you want to display more reviews you’ll want to upgrade to the premium version of the plugin.

The plugin also comes with a few different themes you can choose from, so you choose the theme that best matches the design of your site.  

3. WP Product Review

WP Product Review is a plugin that lets you add user reviews to your website. It’s a very versatile plugin and supports many different types of reviews.

For example, you can add pros and cons lists, user reviews, rich snippets (for search engine rankings), starred reviews, and more.

You can customize how you want your reviews to display, and can create stunning review tables with a lot of customizable options. 

This plugin is best suited for review-style websites that require detailed product breakdowns and comparison options. However, it can also be used to display customer testimonials with photos, quotes, and more. 

4. WP Review Pro

WP Review Pro is a feature-packed review plugin. It can support nearly every type of review out there. 

It’s equipped with 16 different pre-made review templates. So, if you’re posting review-style content on your own website, all you have to do is choose a template and customize it to your liking. 

There are also a ton of different integrations, like Yelp, Facebook, and Google Reviews. You can even integrate with WooCommerce, if you’re running an eCommerce store on WordPress.

If you need a very versatile review plugin and you don’t feel like installing more than one plugin, then let this plugin take care of nearly all your review needs.

5. Taqyeem

Taqyeem is a WordPress review plugin that offers you near unlimited customization options when it comes to displaying your reviews on your website. 

For example, you can add a bar rating system, a star rating system, a percentage rating system, add unlimited colors, fonts, and more. 

This is a great plugin for website owners who want to integrate reviews into their site, while also ensuring the branding of the reviews 100% matches the site’s design and style guide. 

This plugin currently has over 150 reviews on CodeCanyon, with an almost-perfect five-star rating. 

6. Customer Reviews for WooCommerce

Online reviews are a very common part of the online shopping experience for eCommerce stores. So, if you’re a WooCommerce store owner and you want to add user generated product reviews to your website, then you’ll want to check out the Customer Reviews for WooCommerce plugin.

The free version of this plugin has everything you need to gather and display reviews on your product pages. For example, you can setup automatic customer notifications for customers who recently bought something, but haven’t left a review yet. 

Plus, all of the reviews are authenticated, so your visitors know that the review was left by a real person. Finally, all of the reviews can include rich snippets, so your ratings will be shown on Google. 

The premium version of the plugin gives you access to premium support and even more features. 

7. Photo Reviews for WooCommerce

You might have come across a unique feature on Amazon where reviewers can upload images of themselves using the product. If you run a WooCommerce store and you want to make this same feature available to your users, then check out the Photo Reviews for WooCommerce plugin.

This plugin can help to improve social proof even further and even encourage more of your users to actually leave product reviews. 

There’s both a free and premium version of this plugin available. The free version is equipped with all kinds of advanced features like the ability to generate coupons for users who choose to leave photo reviews. 

You can also include a sorting option, so your visitors can sort product reviews via star ratings, verified purchases, and more. 

Why Use a WordPress Review Plugin?

Adding reviews to your website can be incredibly advantageous. No matter what kind of website you’re running, or what you’re selling, you can benefit from using a review plugin.

It’s very difficult to add reviews to your site without the help of a plugin. All you’ll really have access to is the WordPress post editor. This could work for things like testimonials that you’ve sourced. But, anything else and you’ll run into the limits of WordPress pretty quickly.

Luckily, WordPress has all kinds of review plugins you can use to add a variety of different review formats to your site. Whether you want to add product reviews, Yelp reviews, Google reviews, or something else entirely, the WordPress plugin ecosystem has you covered. 

Some review plugins even allow you to add user generated reviews to your site, so you can let the reviews stack up while you sleep. 

By using a WordPress review plugin you can experience all the benefits that come with adding reviews to your website. 

Benefits to Using a WordPress Review Plugin

Some users will want to add Amazon-like reviews to their product pages, while other people might want to embed their existing Facebook and Google reviews into their sites. 

Regardless of the type of website you’re running, or the products or services you sell, you can benefit from adding reviews to your site. 

Here are some of the biggest benefits to adding reviews to your WordPress site:

1. Reviews Add Credibility and Social Proof

Even if you have the best sales page in the world, your customers will be a little skeptical if you don’t have any testimonials. Customer reviews can help to reinforce what you say and make it more likely your customers will buy from you. 

Spend some time exploring the product pages on Amazon and you’ll find that the products that sell the best also tend to have the highest number of positive reviews. 

Having a high volume of positive reviews shows new buyers that you can be trusted and your product or service is high quality. 

2. Reviews Can Act as Free Advertising

Reviews are one of the biggest buying factors for online consumers. Think of it as a form of free advertising. 

Even reviews that aren’t on your website will influence a buyer’s decision making process.

For example, if they’re searching for a local business, they’ll probably end up going with the company that has the highest number of positive reviews. 

By incorporating existing reviews into your site and giving visitors an easy way to leave new reviews on your website, you can expect your reviews to start to stack up and work for you. 

3. Reviews Can Provide Valuable Product Feedback

Reviews can be a great source of feedback for your products and services. Maybe there’s a weak feature of your product, or the review points out a hidden benefit you never thought of?

Reviews can be a valuable way to hear what your customers think, both good and bad. Plus, by mining customer reviews you can find new phrases, pain points, and benefits to add to your product and service sales pages. 

If you do get a negative review, responding and engaging in a dialogue can often bring that customer over to your side. 

4. Reviews Can Round Out Your Product/Sales Pages

No product or sales page is perfect on its own. A lot of online shoppers will value reviews more than the copy you write yourself. 

How do they know you’re actually telling the truth about the products and services you sell? By reading honest and real customer reviews. 

So, by having a variety of reviews integrated into your website you strengthen your product pages, and make them more likely to convert your visitors into actual buyers. 

Put simply, no business website is complete without a handful of user reviews on your site.

Choosing the Best WordPress Review Plugin for Your Needs

By now you should have a better grasp on how valuable a WordPress review plugin can be. As you can see, WordPress review plugins are equipped with all kinds of features. 

You probably won’t need to install every plugin mentioned in the list above. Website owners who aren’t running an eCommerce store won’t have a need for product photo reviews, for example.

Instead, choose the best WordPress review plugin for your respective niche. We tried to cover nearly every type of site that could benefit from a review plugin above. 

Remember, when choosing a review plugin for your site you’ll want to ensure that it has all the features you require, integrates with your existing design, and is easy enough to use. 

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5 Easy Ways Small Local Businesses Can Drive More Website Traffic

The post 5 Easy Ways Small Local Businesses Can Drive More Website Traffic appeared first on HostGator Blog.

Managing a website for your small or local business is one of the best things you can do for your business. Not only is it affordable and easy to build a website, but it’s also one of the best ways to acquire customers.

Stats show that most Americans prefer to shop online, but websites aren’t just beneficial for eCommerce stores. Websites are also integral when it comes to driving local businesses to your brick-and-mortar location. 

In fact, there has been a 900% growth in “near me tonight/today” searches recently. Also, 72% of people who conduct a local search will visit a store within 5 miles. Not to mention, 78% of local mobile searches result in purchases.

A website will boost your business, but to get the most out of your website, it’s critical that you do everything you can to increase your online visibility. Here are five surefire ways you can drive more website traffic.

1. Optimize your website for local search

Did you know that nearly half of all searches on Google are local? This means people using Google are trying to find a product or service in their local area. Additionally, 88% of local business searches via a mobile device will call or visit the business within 24 hours.

However, if you haven’t optimized your website for local search and claimed your Google Business listing, it will be difficult for those active customers to find you. 

To claim your Google business, start by going to google.com/business and follow the steps to make a Google account for your business.

Once you have a Google business listing, local searchers will be able to quickly find your business information.

2. Invest in paid advertising on Google

One in ten SMBs doesn’t invest in any type of digital marketing. This means if you do invest in digital marketing—like paid search—you’re one step ahead of your competitors when it comes to driving traffic to your website.

As a quick review, paid ads take the top slots on the Google search engine results page (SERPs), and searchers know it’s an advertisement because Google places a small text reading “ad” before the search headline. 

Instead of relying on search engine optimization (SEO), SMBs can pay for a Google Ads advertisement, and the top bidder is rewarded with the highest paid listing slot. 

For example, let’s say you sell dog food. You can create an ad on Google Ads and bid on relevant keywords (e.g., “dog food). Google will rank your ads based on how much you pay in relation to other advertisers.

Paid search is an excellent way to boost traffic to your small business website. This is especially true if your website is relatively new since it often takes a few months for new websites to rank in organic listings (SEO). 

Paid search works, too. Seventy-five percent of internet users click on ads, and 49% of people are most likely to click on a text ad. Stats also show that paid search often results in higher conversions, as PPC (pay-per-click or paid search) visitors are 50% more likely to purchase something than organic visitors.

3. Drive traffic to your small business website through email marketing

Email marketing is one of the top marketing tools small businesses use to capture business. It makes sense that email marketing would be such a popular pick, considering email subscribers are among the most loyal followers, and a majority of consumers say permission-based email is the preferred way for you to communicate with them. Email marketing also has the highest ROI out of any other digital marketing strategy.

However, email marketing is most effective when used to drive traffic to your website. Some popular ways you can use email to drive people to your website include:

• Linking a special promotion or discount that redirects visitors to your website
• Providing an email link to free content (e.g., eBook, guide, etc.) on your website
• Sending a loyalty discount code 
• Providing a freebie consumers can add to their purchase
• Offering a chance to win a contest
• And more!

Remember, a top email service provider, like Constant Contact, allows you to capture email subscribers with a form you can put on your website, organize your lists, segment your subscribers, and even send triggered email promotions based on user activity.

4. Find an influencer that loves your small business

When is the last time you purchased a product, visited a website, or participated in a charity because your favorite Instagram influencer or YouTube personality recommended it to you?

Chances are, it wasn’t long ago considering 70% of teens trust influencers more than celebrities, 86% of women use social media for purchasing advice, and 49% of consumers rely on influencer recommendations.

If there is an influencer that you know loves your small business, try asking them or even paying them to create an ad for your website. 

Influencer marketing is becoming one of the fastest-growing marketing strategies and it produces desirable results. Influencer marketing campaigns earn $6.50 for every dollar spent, according to some studies.

Influencer marketing is also the most cost-effective marketing strategy according to 22% of marketers, making it a great option for SMBs with smaller budgets.

5. Optimize your website for SEO

While it’s true that paid search will help you see an immediate boost in traffic to your website, search engine optimization (SEO) efforts will provide long-term and ongoing traffic opportunities.

The first step in creating a website that Google will love is to make sure your website ticks all the SEO checkmarks from the get-go. You can either pay a programmer hundreds, or thousands, of dollars to do this or you can use a proven template from HostGator’s Gator Website Builder to build your website. 

All HostGator templates are mobile-responsive and designed with SEO goals in mind. The best part of using a HostGator template is you don’t have to do anything except pick the one you like best.

The next step is to engage in all SEO basics before you even pick your domain name. This is a slightly involved process and requires a small learning curve. However, taking the time to make sure your website is fully optimized for search will pay off in the long run. There are 15 main steps, and all of them are covered well in this article on SEO for new websites.

The best news is you don’t have to know anything about SEO to make sure you’re following all the website and blog post optimization rules. There are several resources (like the guide listed above) as well as plugins (Yoast SEO, for example) that will guide you through the SEO process every time you create a post. 

Additionally, HostGator has an added SEO service you can purchase if you don’t want to think about SEO at all. This is a good idea if don’t have the bandwidth to monitor your SEO, and would rather have a HostGator expert do it for you

Get your small business website up and running with HostGator today!

If you own a business and haven’t yet built a website for your small business, what are you waiting for? The time is now.

HostGator hosting is affordable, convenient, and every time you purchase a hosting package, you get a free domain name as well as access to hundreds of customizable, SEO-friendly, gorgeous website templates.

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6 Best WordPress Plugins for Freelance Consultants

The post 6 Best WordPress Plugins for Freelance Consultants appeared first on HostGator Blog.

Freelancing is more than just independently doing client work on a sunny beach as you listen to the waves crash. Freelance consultants actually own and operate small businesses that require project management skills, financial acumen, and marketing knowledge.

However, it’s impossible (and unreasonable) for freelancers to have expertise in every aspect of their business. That’s where WordPress plugins can step in to help freelancers with their invoicing, social media, and websites.

Ready to improve your business? Check out these six WordPress plugins for freelance consultants. 

1. WP Project Manager

Research shows that the majority of freelancers work on multiple projects at a time. As a freelance consultant, you’re juggling multiple tasks at once. You’re helping various clients design logos, write articles, and solve complex issues. So, it makes sense to organize your responsibilities with a project management tool. 

WP Project Manager helps you self-manage your clients and tasks without the hassle. It comes with a built-in time tracker for you to keep a log of when you start and stop projects. You can even calculate the hourly fee to invoice your clients. The interactive task calendar provides daily, weekly, and monthly views of your task timelines with a drag-and-drop feature.

With this plugin, you’ll work and deliver projects in a timely manner. No more missing deadlines because you forgot to add it to your to-do list. Instead, you can use WP Project Manager to create and assign tasks faster.

2. Yoast SEO

An online presence is essential for freelancers to attract new clients. So, you’ll want to build a website to educate potential clients about your small business. However, for your site to appear in Google or Bing results, you need to implement search engine optimization best practices.

Yoast SEO helps freelancers rank on the top pages of search engines. This plugin offers title tag and meta description templating, a content readability analysis, and complete control of your website’s breadcrumbs. You’ll know how to improve your site before you hit publish. 

3. Constant Contact Forms

A study found that over one-third of freelancers use an online portfolio to market themselves. Online portfolios are an effective tool for helping freelancers showcase their work. You can maximize your marketing efforts by adding a signup form to your site.  

Constant Contact Forms makes it simple to capture your potential clients’ contact information. You can customize the forms to collect details relevant to your industry. For instance, if you’re a freelance graphic designer, you may include form fields for the type of color, size, or design of an image.

This plugin optimizes forms to fit the mobile screens of your visitors. Plus, you can add all the new email addresses to your Constant Contact lists.

4. WordPress to Buffer

Social media still reigns as a powerful channel to market products and services. Major well-known brands like Wendy’s and Nike use their social media accounts to spread product messages and listen to customers. In a similar way, freelancers can get on Facebook to discuss their new services and learn from potential clients. 

“Having an authentic voice on social media is important, but not as easy as it sounds. It’s important because it humanizes your brand – whether that’s a company big or small, or a personal brand – and encourages people to respond and talk about you positively,” writes Mike Eckstein, a product marketer at Buffer.

With the WordPress to Buffer plugin, you can save a few hours in your work schedule. This tool automatically posts your social media content to your Buffer account for scheduled publishing to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you upgrade, you also get full image control and bulk publishing of old posts. 

5. Testimonials Slider

Word-of-mouth marketing is a key part of bringing new clients to your business. Nearly a third of freelancers find work through referrals. Once a referral lands on your site, the next step is to showcase your satisfied previous clients. 

Testimonials offer an honest perspective of how your work has made an impact on your clients. Your testimonials should provide a quote from the client and the person’s name and title. A pro tip is to use quotes that explicitly state how your product or service improved your client’s business or life. 

You can display your testimonials on your site using the Testimonials Slider plugin. Choose from multiple layouts, like columns, sliders, and grids, to arrange your testimonials. You also can select one of the six ready-to-use templates if you’re short on time. 

6. Sprout Invoices

Freelancers don’t have a regular payday, like salaried employees. They must invoice their clients for work to get paid. 

Sprout Invoices allows you to create invoices for your clients in minutes, rather than hours. In the plugin’s dashboard, you can customize the invoice template to match your brand by changing the logo and header background. You also can set pre-defined line items for each client. 

“There is no exact format that you should use for your invoice, but certain items are expected. By law, you must include your name, address and VAT number (if registered) plus the name and postal address of the client in question. It’s also helpful to add other items, such as your bank details and terms of payment,” states Katy Cowan, the editor of Creative Boom.

For some freelance consultants, it’s a frustrating process that takes up a lot of time in their day. This WordPress plugin is available to streamline your accounting approach. 

Essential WordPress Plugins for Freelancers

Not only do freelance consultants manage their client work, but they also must run every part of their small business. WordPress plugins make the process easier for freelancers by keeping track of their projects, adding testimonials to their websites, and posting social media content.

For more help building out your freelance website on WordPress, check out our review of the Best WordPress Themes for Freelancers.

Find the post on the HostGator Blog

source https://www.hostgator.com/blog/best-wordpress-plugins-freelance-consultants/

Best Practices for Conversion Rate Optimization

The post Best Practices for Conversion Rate Optimization appeared first on HostGator Blog.

How much have you spent on getting people to your website? Not just money on digital marketing—also think about how much work and time you’ve invested in earning website traffic. It’s a lot, right? 

All those dollars, all those hours—what are they worth to you if your visitors click away soon after their first visit and never come back?

The answer’s simple: nothing.

For your traffic to have any value, your website visitors have to do something beyond landing on your website. In marketing terms, they have to convert. 

Conversion rate optimization is how you make website traffic valuable. 

To turn website visitors into followers and, even better, customers, you need to make sure your website is designed to optimize conversions. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the practice of doing so. 

Developing a CRO strategy isn’t as straightforward as you might think. . Predicting how people will behave and what they’ll respond to is difficult. But by employing the right digital marketing tactics to get a higher conversion rate  on your website, you can ensure that the money you spend on marketing actually pays off not only in sales, but also in building long-term relationships with each and every website visitor. . 

13 Conversion Rate Optimization Best Practices

The CRO process is made up of a number of different tactics and strategies you can use to gain an understanding of what your audience responds to and improve your website based on data. Here are a few of the top tips to try for your website optimization. 

1. Focus on calls to action (CTAs).

CTAs are one of the basic building blocks of conversion optimization. . The concept behind them is simple: when someone lands on a page on your website, what do you want them to do next? Instead of hoping they’ll do it on their own, encourage them to take that desired action. 

Including a CTA on every page of your website is a good practice, but you’ll want to use different ones based on the specific goal you have for that page. For example, the CTAs on a product page will be focused on urging people to buy now or add the item to their cart. A blog post will be more likely to have CTAs pushing visitors to sign up for the email list or download an ebook.

Figuring out the right CTA for each page is important. But a big part of the CRO process is also figuring out how to word and present the CTA in the most effective way possible. A slight tweak in wording, or changing out the color of a CTA button can produce surprising results. 

One of the best ways to have a higher conversion rate  is to make sure you know the next step you want your visitors to take, and work on paying careful attention to how you ask each site visitor to do so. 

2. Simplify UX 

UX stands for user experience and it’s another big part of CRO. It’s also important on its own—it’s the practice of making sure your website visitors find your website intuitive and can easily do what they need to on it. When it comes to CRO, a big part of improving UX is considering how to reduce barriers.

People are impatient online. That’s not a criticism, just a natural part of how browsing the web works. Think about it, have you ever considered consuming a piece of content, downloading something, or making a purchase and then stopped when you realized it required a slightly higher time commitment than you expected? Or just a little bit more effort? This is how online user behavior works.

In practice, that may mean reducing the number of fields you require someone to fill in on a form. More people will complete a field asking for a name and email address, than one asking for those things plus age, gender, business title, and company size. 

It also extends to the checkout process. It may be surprising, but someone who wants an item enough to pay for it, may not want it enough to spend time filling in more information to complete the process. Making it as easy as possible for people to provide their shipping and payment information by, say, letting them create an account that auto-fills it in next time, or accepting a payment method their browser remembers, is a simple way to increase conversions. 

3. Use heatmaps and session recordings.

You can imagine how you think visitors will interact with your website as you’re building it. But at that stage it’s simple guesswork based more on your own behavior than that of your audience. Heatmaps and session recordings are CRO tools you can use to better understand how visitors to your website actually interact with it.

Heatmaps highlight where a visitor’s attention is drawn when on the page, how far they scroll, and where they click based on aggregate visitor data. They can help you understand whether an important CTA is getting overlooked, or if a less important part of the page is serving as a distraction. 

Session recordings allow website owners to view what specific user interactions on the website looked like—what actions they took, in what order, and after how long. They can supplement the data you get from heatmaps.

Both tools can be powerful for understanding how well your website is doing its job in general, and which specific parts of it are working or not. 

4. Consider and use micro conversions.

The word conversion can describe a wide range of actions. The most obvious and important for businesses are those that directly relate to profits—making a sale, choosing an upgrade, becoming a repeat customer. But few consumers make a purchase the first time they visit a website.

More often, that first visit is a chance to win them over and give them a reason to stick around for a while and come back again later. Micro conversions are all the smaller wins that help you achieve those goals in advance of a purchase. These include things like clicking on an internal link, following your brand on social media,signing up for your email list, and downloading an ebook.

While these actions aren’t as important to your bottom line as a purchase, they matter. And a good CRO strategy will include them as well. 

5. Understand the conversion funnel.

Effective CRO is more complicated than just tracking and testing as many different conversions as you can. You also want to understand how they all connect. 

If a certain blog post regularly drives conversions to your email list, but most of those later unsubscribe without ever taking another action, that blog post isn’t as valuable as the conversion numbers make it look. If another post drives fewer email sign ups, but more of them take further actions with your brand, that one’s more valuable. 

Understanding your conversion funnel both enables you to assign more accurate value to different conversions, and allows you to see larger trends in what’s working. Knowing the relationship between different actions helps you learn what series of choices is most likely to lead to a purchase. That helps you structure your marketing strategy more effectively.

6. Use color to your advantage.

Stop signs and stoplights are red for a reason. Many humans respond strongly to visual triggers. Using bright, attention-grabbing colors for your most important CTAs can make them more noticeable to visitors. Or, choosing colors that contrast and stand out from the rest of your site (without clashing) can do the trick. 

Try out different ways to use color to draw attention to the right places on a page to see what works best. 

7. Perform A/B testing.

A/B testing is publishing two different versions of something, to see which one performs better. You can use it to test out a variety of hypotheses. 

For example, which of two headlines will get the most clicks? Which color of CTA button leads to the most conversions? And how do conversion rates change if you add more required fields to a form?

A/B testing is a key CRO best practice for turning conjecture into data. Experts recommend only changing one part of a page at a time, so you get clear data about which element influences behavior. As you run an array of A/B tests over time, you’ll gain a number of takeaways about what your audience responds to that you can put into practice on your website. 

8. Try (ethical) price testing.

People make purchasing decisions for a lot of different reasons, but we all know a big one is price. Pricing is complicated. Too low and you’ll miss out on money you could be making, too high and you’ll get fewer sales. Finding the sweet spot where people are willing to pay in large numbers and you get as big a slice of profits as possible is key to running a successful business.

eCommerce price testing is trying out different tactics to see how they influence sales conversions. Does switching to a price that ends in 99 (e.g. $5.99 versus $6) make a difference in conversions? Does providing a discount for spending more lead to higher per order amounts? Sometimes small pricing changes lead to big results.

But you have to be careful with price testing. If you offer different prices for the same items to different audiences, or to the same audience at different times (without framing it as a discount or special offer), it can look dishonest or unethical. Make sure you keep your price testing above the board, so you don’t alienate customers. 

9. Promote coupons. 

Coupons are a tried-and-true tactic for increasing conversions. If someone’s on the fence about whether to make a purchase, a few dollars off can tip them over the edge. 

Pay close attention to the results each time you promote a coupon. How many new sales does it lead to? Do some channels lead to more coupon conversions than others (e.g. email versus social media)? Do some audiences take advantage of coupon offers more than others, such as those in your loyalty program versus those who have only made one purchase before? These types of questions lead to a better understanding of who your customers are.

10. Set up a sitewide sale.

If you want to bring in a lot of new sales at once, a sitewide sale is a good way to drive new purchases. Many eCommerce businesses use this tactic a few times a year to get all the discount hunters in their audience to cross the finish line. 

While this tactic comes with the tradeoff of lower profits per sale for a set period, the influx in new purchases can make it worthwhile. And if you promote it to new audiences, it can potentially bring in new customers that turn into long-term ones, making their purchases worth far more than the initial dollar amount.

11. Do user testing.

While you can gain a lot of information about what your visitors respond to with tools like heatmaps and A/B tests, nothing replaces talking to them directly. User testing involves recruiting a few people who fall into your target audience, and having them go through the process of taking different steps on your website. 

By monitoring what they do—what steps they take and any difficulties they have—and then asking them for feedback on their experience, you gain insights about the reasons behind the CRO data you’ve collected. 

12. Send user surveys. 

User testing will provide valuable information, but the scale of it is usually relatively small. The people you’ll hear from will make up a tiny portion of your overall audience. To fill in more of the gaps in your knowledge, send out user surveys. Any questions you have based on the data you’ve collected, send them to your customers and people on your email list.

Surveys that employ multiple choice answers can be turned into data points that help in your analysis. And by including spaces where people can provide comments, you also gain more detailed feedback on why your visitors behave the way they do. 

13. Analyze the data you have. 

So much of CRO is about collecting data. In order to turn that data into increased conversions, you need to devote time to analyzing it. Look for trends within the data. What can it tell you about the topics and products your audience cares about? Does it reveal insights into what drives their decisions? 

Learning which CTA color or headline works best on one page can help you improve conversion rates on that one page. But analyzing why is how you extrapolate that knowledge to how you design the rest of your website and run your marketing campaigns.

CRO Best Practices Drive Business Success

Having the best product and providing great customer service are crucial to running a successful business. And maybe that used to be enough. 

But in the competitive online space, applying savvy practices to encourage visitors to take specific actions when they visit your website can be the difference between a first-time website visitor never returning, or becoming a long-term customer of your brand.

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source https://www.hostgator.com/blog/best-practices-conversion-rate-optimization/

7 Tools That Make Mobile-Friendly Web Design Easy 

The post 7 Tools That Make Mobile-Friendly Web Design Easy  appeared first on HostGator Blog.

As of 2019, mobile website traffic (not including tablet traffic) generated over 52% of all global internet traffic. To capture and keep the attention of the growing number of mobile searchers, you need to invest in mobile-friendly site design.

While it’s true that mobile-friendly website design helps you provide excellent user experience, it also presents a slew of other benefits. A mobile-friendly website also translates to:

• Better Google search rankings
• Boosted mobile conversion rates
• Faster load speeds
• Cohesive user experience across devices
• Increased average visitor time on site
• Competitive edge over non-mobile sites in your niche
• More social media shares
• And more!

Now that you’re convinced of the power of a mobile-friendly website, let’s talk about seven of the top tools that will make your website more mobile-friendly.

1. Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test

If you don’t know whether or not your website is mobile-friendly, don’t despair. A lot of people are in the same boat. That’s why Google offers a free mobile-friendliness testing tool.

To check your site, click on Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test URL, input your website info, and click “test URL.”

Once you’ve submitted your website URL, Google will analyze it for mobile-friendliness.

Google will quickly return a report to you. The report is easy to read and provides additional resources to help you learn more about mobile-friendly websites.

In the event your test indicates that your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you know it’s time for a website overhaul.

2. Gator Website Builder

If you’re not interested in building your own website, consider Gator Website Builder. HostGator has over 200 templates that are already mobile-responsive, so you don’t have to worry about whether or not your website will pass Google’s mobile-friendliness test. It will.

With the Gator Website Builder, you can pick a template with the perfect design for your website. Then, all you have to do is customize the design with the drag and drop builder to create a gorgeous and fully responsive site.

3. WordPress Themes

WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world, powering over one-third of all websites on the internet.

When you set up a WordPress website, you don’t have to do any website coding yourself (although, you can). WordPress offers a wide range of free and paid themes. 

WordPress themes are getting more beautiful and easier to customize every day. Additionally, like HostGator’s templates, nearly all WordPress website templates are mobile-friendly.

When browsing through the templates, WordPress will allow you to install various free templates and conduct a live preview. 

When you press “live preview,” WordPress will show you exactly what your website would look like dressed up in that particular theme.

To double-check for mobile responsiveness, read the theme description. The description will usually tell you the WordPress team designed it using a “mobile-first approach.” This means it’s mobile-friendly.

3. FitVids

Video content goes a long way when it comes to increasing time spent on your site, boosting conversion rates, and increasing customer engagement levels. But, this only applies if your video actually fits on your visitors’ mobile screens. 

FitVids is an easy-to-use JQuery plugin that makes all your video embeds mobile-responsive. In other words, this tool ensures that when a mobile viewer visits your website, the video’s aspect ratio will automatically adapt to the screen size of the viewer, no matter what mobile device someone is using. 

4. Adaptive Images

Images are another powerful mobile-design tool you can use to capture the eye of your visitors. If you’re a novice website builder with no previous design experience, it can be difficult to size your images correctly. 

Enter Adaptive Images.

Adaptive Images is a tool that detects your visitor’s screen size and does the hard resizing work for you. The tool will automatically create, cache, and deliver the re-scaled versions of your HTML images to match the viewer’s device size. Additionally, Adaptive Images speeds up the load time of images, decreasing UI lag.

The tool will work on your existing site, and all you have to do to set the tool up is add .htaccess and adaptive-images.php to your document-root folder. Then, add one line of JavaScript into the <head> of your site. Finally, add your CSS Media Query values into $resolutions in the PHP file.

5. FitText

When it comes to website copywriting and design trends, there are a few widely-accepted and standard rules. These rules include:

• Headlines and company names will appear first and be the largest.
• Subheadlines and slogans will appear second and be slightly smaller.
• Paragraph text will appear under the subheadlines and will be standard paragraph size.

FitText is a tool that makes large text font-sizes flexible. In other words, you can design your headlines and subheadlines to appear larger than paragraph text but still count on a fluid and responsive layout.

Here is an example of how your headlines would scale appropriately across different devices when using FitText.

6. Resizer

Once you’ve used tools like FitVids, Adaptive Images, and FitText, how do you test whether or not everything is working correctly and looks good? It’s true you could pull out a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, and your mobile phone, and test on each device, but that’s not exactly practical or efficient.

Instead, check out Resizer by Material Design. Resizer is a free mobile-friendly design tool that will show you how your website looks across various devices. The tool fleshes out the screens quickly and displays your website on the main screen sizes next to each other. Here’s what it looks like.

If you want to take a deeper look into how your website will look on devices of different sizes, you can click on either the desktop or the mobile icon on the top right side of the screen.

Then, look at the bar on the top of the screen. You’ll see an adjustable slide that allows you to view how your website looks on different sized tablet, mobile, and desktop screens in horizontal and landscape views.

This functionality is a quick way to ensure all your design elements look good across all devices, be they mobile or desktop.

7. Bootstrap

Do you have experience designing websites and want to put your own creativity into the process? If so, you can look into a tool like Bootstrap.

Bootstrap is one of the most popular front-end open toolkits for designing mobile-first websites. Bootstrap features SaaS variables and mixins, includes a responsive grid system, and provides extensive prebuilt components to help you create your website quickly.

Quickly Build a Mobile-Responsive Website with HostGator

There are several responsive design tools on the market that will help you with DIY mobile-friendly website building. However, if you’re new to building websites, you’ll want to do everything to ensure your website’s design is outstanding and mobile-responsive.

For novices, it makes sense to purchase an affordable hosting package from HostGator, and then select a free, customizable Gator Website Builder theme or a WordPress theme.

Both HostGator and WordPress themes are easy to customize, mobile-responsive, and robust in their functionality. To get started with HostGator, check out Gator Website Builder now.

Find the post on the HostGator Blog

source https://www.hostgator.com/blog/tools-mobile-friendly-web-design/

Everything You Need to Know About CRO

The post Everything You Need to Know About CRO appeared first on HostGator Blog.

The world of online marketing is full of acronyms. For anyone still learning the lay of the land, all those letters can be confusing. But one acronym that every website owner can benefit from learning is CRO.

What is CRO?

CRO stands for conversion rate optimization. It’s the marketing discipline devoted to ensuring that more of the people who land on your site take the actions you want them to.

Every website owner learns fast that getting traffic is hard. And all the work (and money) you put into getting people onto your website is worth little if most of those visitors click away and never come back. CRO marketing is about increasing the number of site visitors that stick around, start a relationship with your brand, and make purchases—rather than leaving the site and forgetting you.   

CRO is a complicated practice though. Both because what a conversion means will vary depending on your business and goals, and because people are hard to predict. Figuring out what they’ll respond to—what will encourage them to take specific actions—isn’t a clear science. It requires guesswork, testing, analysis, and a strong digital marketing strategy. 

But getting it right yields dividends. By making the traffic you worked so hard to earn more valuable to your business, you make all your marketing efforts go further. And you ensure your traffic numbers actually lead to purchases—the only way for those site visitors to turn into profits for your business. 

What is a conversion?

A conversion is any action a website visitor takes that helps you meet your business goals. For every business, a purchase is one of the main conversions you seek. But there are a lot of other related actions that also count as conversions.

Some of the metrics you may want to track as conversions for your digital marketing campaign include:

A click 

The first step to sticking around your site is making the choice to visit a second page. Anytime a website visitor clicks on a link, it’s a meaningful conversion. It’s a smaller one than many of the other conversions we’ll describe, so some CRO marketing experts refer to small conversions like this as micro conversions. But they still matter. And a click is especially meaningful when it’s for a page that suggests an interest in making a bigger conversion, such as a landing page or product page. 

Product video view

If your eCommerce website includes product videos, a view is a good indicator of someone’s interest in the product. A product video view would still be considered a micro conversion for most businesses, but it’s a compelling one that helps you determine how many of the visitors to the product page show a real interest in learning more about your products. 

An email sign up

An email subscriber may not be as directly profitable as a new customer, but someone choosing to actively hear from you regularly is a big deal! As such, gaining new email sign ups is an important conversion to track for any business that does email marketing. 

Webinar and online event attendance

If you host webinars or online events as a marketing practice, each person that chooses to register and show up is demonstrating a willingness to spend time with you and an interest in the topics you cover. Since most businesses also require attendees to provide information to attend, such as a name email address, it shows they value your information enough to give up personal details as well. All of that points to someone likely to be a warm lead for your business, which makes event attendance another important conversion metric. 

Downloading an ebook or report

Similar to webinars, anyone that chooses to download a piece of high-value content behind a form, like an ebook or report, is showing a serious interest in the topics you cover. That makes it highly likely they’re in your target audience and interested in your products.

Filling out a lead form

Filling out a lead form is the first conversion on our list that demonstrates a direct intention to buy, or at least learn more about a product. For any website that includes lead forms, this is an important conversion to track. 

Adding an item to a wishlist or registry

If your eCommerce website offers the functionality to build a wishlist or registry, someone adding a product to their list clearly demonstrates their interest in that product. It means they either intend to come back and buy it themselves, or hope a loved one will do so for them. 

Adding an item to their cart

A visitor that clicks that Add to Cart button is definitely interested in buying your product. It’s not  a sure sale yet at that point—cart abandonment is an all too common issue for eCommerce websites. But any visitor that takes that step is close to the act of buying, making it an important conversion.

A purchase

The most obvious conversion action to track is a purchase. As the main goal you have for new visitors to your site, this is a crucial conversion metric to pay attention to.

An upgrade or add-on to a purchase

As good as a purchase is, there are conversion metrics that can improve upon it. If you offer product upgrades or push for a product add-on during the checkout process, that’s another important conversion. And one that can increase profits without having to increase customer numbers. 

Setting up a call

For products that require a longer sales process, the decision to set up a call with a representative of your company to learn more is a big step toward purchasing. 

Setting up a demo or trial

For software products, it’s common for customers to want to see the product in action, or even try it out before making a decision. Demos and trials are some of the most important conversion actions for companies in this category.

Scheduling an appointment

Many service-based businesses are based on selling time or expertise. In these cases, a new customer setting up an appointment for your services is the most important conversion.  And an appointment for an initial consultation to learn more is a close second. 

Making a reservation

For small businesses like restaurants, a reservation is a promise to show up and spend money at a set time. That makes it a key conversion to pay attention to. 

Creating an account

As nice as purchases are, when a customer chooses to make an account on your website, they’re signaling an interest in coming back and doing business with you again. And for many eCommerce sites, creating an account is a step that makes it possible to use features like the wishlist function and to leave reviews. 

Signing up for a rewards program

New customers are a big deal, but any business that’s been in it for the long term knows that loyal customers are the most important ingredient to success. When a customer makes the choice to sign up for a rewards program, they’re showing an interest in continuing to purchase from you in the future. That’s a big deal, and thus one of the most important conversions to monitor. 

Why CRO is Important

Developing a CRO strategy can be crucial for your business. You probably found it obvious while reading through that list that every item on it that’s relevant to your business is valuable. But just in case you need some further convincing that conversion rate optimization is worth focusing on, there are a few main reasons it’s important.

Traffic is worthless without conversions.

Gaining traffic is hard. The only way to get traffic fast is with paid ads. The traffic you don’t pay for directly—the type that comes from channels like organic search and email marketing—requires playing the long game and making a long-term investment. For both types of traffic, you’re spending a lot in terms of time, money, and effort.

High traffic numbers may look nice on the surface. But on its own, traffic is a vanity metric. If thousands of people visit your website each month, but few of them ever take action or come back around, what are those visits really worth? 

For website traffic to have any value for your business, it has to lead to conversions. And the more visitors that take an action, the better off your business will be. Conversion rate optimization is how you get those numbers up and make the traffic you earned actually mean something.  

Conversions are how you move visitors down the funnel.

If you’re new to marketing terminology, the sales funnel is the image used to describe the full purchasing process of a customer. 

Top-of-the-funnel activities are those that relate to awareness—when a customer’s first learning about your brand. When they’re in the middle of the funnel, they already know who you are, but are taking actions that show more of an interest. And when at the bottom of the funnel, they’re close to making that purchasing decision.

While some customers make impulse purchases, many more go through a longer process when making a purchasing decision that includes doing research and considering different options. That’s especially true for high-cost items, but also often the case for smaller purchases. In order to capture those customers and get them from the point of first learning about your brand to actually making a purchase, you have to move them through the funnel.

Each conversion is a step in that process. When a new visitor clicks to see another page on your website, that’s a top-of-the-funnel conversion. When they download an ebook, that is a middle-of-the-funnel one. And when they add an item to their cart, set up a call to learn more, or make a reservation, that’s a bottom-of-the-funnel activity that shows they’re very close to handing you their payment info.  

All of these conversions matter and understanding the ways they’re connected can help you take actions that increase sales and profits. 

Business profits are directly related to conversions. 

Even the micro conversions that occur at the top of the funnel have a role to play in helping your brand increase profits. Interactions with your website are how customers get to know more about your brand. It’s how they learn who you are, what you sell, and why you’re trustworthy. 

And even if an email signup doesn’t immediately translate into money, it means that person will see you in their inbox regularly. That keeps you on their mind, and ensures they’ll hear about all your sales and specials. 

A purchase is the ultimate conversion, but even before it gets to that point, every conversion plays a role. Any money your business makes is directly tied to conversions. Improving conversion rates is how you increase profits. 

What Does CRO Entail? 

Conversion rate optimization includes a number of different best practices, but each of them can be divided into a few main categories.

Understanding your audience.

In order to improve conversion rates, you need to get inside the heads of the people that you want to convert. Unfortunately the field of conversion rate optimization doesn’t have a lot of fast and hard rules you can follow. One business might find that making all the call-to-action buttons red increases conversions, while another sees a drop when they do the same thing. 

That’s because you’re dealing with different audiences, or sometimes the same audience at different moments in their lives when they’re in different headspace. The only way to increase conversions on your website is to learn to understand your specific audience, their typical behavior, and the reasons behind it. 

Analyzing the buyer’s journey.

The buyer’s journey is essentially another way to refer to the funnel we talked about before. It describes the series of steps a customer takes to reach the point of sale. It will be different for each customer, but reviewing your analytics to see what some of the common journeys are will help you understand what your customers care about and the type of actions that most commonly lead to a sale.

Reducing friction.

A little bit of friction can make a big difference in conversion rates. Including additional fields a visitor must fill out for a download can make them decide the extra effort isn’t worth it. A check-out process that includes extra steps or takes more time than customers are used to can lead to cart abandonment. Steps that take mere seconds can feel like enough of an impediment to cause consumers to give up on an action they were about to take.

A key part of the CRO process is recognizing things that create friction and removing them from the process, as much as possible.  

Testing out hypotheses.

While human behavior is hard to quantify, to the degree possible, a good CRO strategy is based on data. In practice, that usually means coming up with a hypothesis and then running a test to see how it changes user behavior. 

You can set up A/B tests on a blog headline to see which one drives the most readers. You can see how changing the color of a CTA button influences clicks or downloads. And if you suspect shipping fees contribute to cart abandonment, you can test out shipping deals to see how reduced or free shipping changes the check out rate. 

Every test you run produces data you can use to better understand what your target audience responds to. You can then apply the insights you gain to your web design and marketing efforts moving forward.

CRO Gets Results

Conversion rate optimization isn’t simple, but it’s a field worth investing in to make sure your website is doing its job effectively. Once you learn a number of different CRO techniques, you’ll be able to better attract potential customers and improve your existing traffic. When you get conversions up, you increase the return on investment for all your marketing efforts, and see a rise in profits as a result. 

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