Data from the Startup Genome Project has revealed that one of the reasons startups fail is due to lack of funds and that most startups that fail spend over $15,000 monthly on customer acquisition without optimizing their funnel.
In other words, aside from companies that don’t have enough funds, one of the reasons why startups fail is d
ue to over reliance on marketing!
Marketing won’t solve all your problems and, if you’re not careful, it’s only a matter of time before you realize that “marketing” is just an excuse for flushing your money down the drain.
Without effectively
optimizing your marketing funnels, every single cent you spend on marketing your startup website is being wasted. That’s why this article will be sharing 5 website tweaks your startup should constantly make to help you get more conversions.
1. Split Test a Lot
While the rest of this article will be sharing individual tips and tweaks you can make on your website to improve sales, making the changes alone doesn’t guarantee anything; how your users will respond will differ depending on your niche, your offer and a lot of other factors.
One of the main tweaks you can make to your startup website to help you see what works and what doesn’t is to constantly split test various elements of your website.
Most startups don’t split test and this is costing them a significant portion of their revenue every day. Here are examples of startups that got significant results by split testing certain parts of their website:
- Server Density, a hosted server and website monitoring service, was able to increase revenue by 114% just by experimenting with a different pricing option on their website.
- Veeam Software, a virtual infrastructure management and data protection service, was able to increase the click through rate to their offer page by 161% by changing a single word.
- WriteWork was able to increase sales by 31%, just by changing a word on the payment button.
There are a lot more examples, but with consistent split testing you can be assured of getting significantly more results from your website without increasing your marketing budget.
2. Implement Social Proof
In a 2008 study by Robert Cialdini designed to test the effectiveness of placards placed in hotel rooms encouraging people to reuse towels, 4 main messages were displayed on different placards to see what gets people to act the most.
The 4 messages were:
- Help the hotel save energy
- Partner with us to help the environment
- Almost 75% of guests reuse towels
- 75% of the guests who stayed in this room reused towels
Surprisingly, the first message converted at 16% while the second one converted at 31%. The third and fourth message, however, converted at 44% and 49% respectively; in other words, people are more likely to act when they are encouraged to do what someone else like them is doing than when they are implored to save the environment.
This principle of social proof is universal and is very effective across all industries; as long as people can connect to other people like them doing a particular thing, they’re more likely to do that same thing.
Implementing social proof on your website will help you get people to take action compared to any other technique. Social proof can be implemented in various ways. For example, social proof could come in the form of:
- Testimonials; it could be text, audio or video. A combination will often be most effective
- Counters; this could be a counter showing the number of people using your startup, a counter showing the number of people online or any other kind of counter that communicates the fact that people are actively using your startup
- Logos; this is especially effective if you’ve been featured in the media. You can let people know that you’ve been featured on Techcrunch, Forbes etc. by including “As seen on…” logos above or below your website copy
3. Tweak Your Call to Actions
Sometimes, what you think will work isn’t necessarily what is going to work.
A great example that proves this is the WriteWork case study mentioned above, where they were able to increase sales by 31% just by changing the call to action on the payment form; most people would think that once a customer lands on your landing page, clicks your payment button and fills in their credit card details then they’re guaranteed to buy. No, unless they’ve authorized their payment they won’t necessarily buy.
In WriteWork’s case, by changing their call to action from “Create My Account” to “Create Account & Get Started” they were able to increase signups by 31%.
Make sure you’re able to tweak various aspects of your website; if you don’t have an option that allows you to modify your payment form, get a good payment processor. Also, make sure you’re able to tweak every part of your website; from your logo, to your headline and even the colors used on your website.
4. Use Security Seals and Logos to Assure Your Visitors
Most people are afraid to enter their details on just any website; from their email to their credit card details, they’re either afraid that they’ll be spammed and phished or they’ll be a victim of some kind of card fraud. Sometimes, they don’t even know it but this is often one of the reasons preventing people from buying.
By having authoritative seals and logos on your website – of your payment processor, SSL certificate or some kind of security assurance – you automatically remove some of the objections users will have on your website.
5. Tweak Your Signup Fields and Forms
There are countless examples of how tweaking a single form or field on a website has resulted in significant increase in revenue and leads.
One of the most notable examples is Expedia’s; just by removing a single field on their website payment form, Expedia was able to gain $12 million in lost annual revenue.
Another great example is popular blogger, Neil Patel’s. On this digital agency website, Neil was able to experience a 26% increase in conversion by removing just one field. That translates to additional six figures in annual revenue for his business.
You can increase sales to your website by constantly tweaking your signup fields and forms.
Joseph is a professional marketer and webmaster that helps people make a website.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.com
