By Helen Cartwright

5 Tweaks to Your Website That Will Increase Sales

Having a website is imperative in today’s competitive market. Thankfully, most companies have a website that they utilise. However, few are using them to their full potential. A website should not be window dressing for the company, rather, it should be used to drive sales and revenues. These sites are a major investment of time and effort, and they can be a lot to maintain. If you are not maximising the return on investment that your site can bring, then you are missing out on a huge potential in your revenues. In general, there are five common areas that websites need to improve. It’s not just about SEO anymore. To boost revenue, implementing some of the following tools can really help.

Add Video Content

People love videos, and it is one of the most engaging ways that a business can connect with their clientele. Why is the society so hung up on videos? Well, it is because the brain processes visual information a great deal faster than it can text. In fact, it can process it 60,000 faster. Forget about those long and drawn out product descriptions that are boring and nobody reads. Opt for dynamic video content that allows the customers to engage with the site.

Putting a video on the main page of the site has been proven to increase conversion rates by up to 86 percent, and more than 44 percent of customers will purchase more products based on those videos than text alone. It gives customers a reason to stay longer on your page, and they have a reason to come back for more. Confused on what kind of product videos you need? Why not add some customer testimonials or tours of your work facility? Companies like Leanplum push notification platform can help increase customer interaction too. Anyway possible that you can engage with the customers, the better your sales will be.

Diversify And Become Multicultural

Does your site offer content in English only? You could be missing out on global economic potential. Surprisingly, those who market to one dialect are missing two-thirds of the market’s potential. Websites need to be not only multilingual but also multicultural. These international audience members can help your company get a bigger slice of the pie. Adding diversity can improve your overall marketing potential by up to 200 percent.

If you are unsure of how to handle such a feat, you need a translation management system. It integrates into your site. Forget using manual translation, they are time consuming and ineffective. Also, you must be sensitive to the various cultural norms in each country. Remember when Pepsi switched to the bright blue and they alienated an entire market? People thought that the colour meant death so they didn’t buy the product. By expanding your horizons, you can open new doors for your company, literally. But, you must be careful in these uncharted waters.

Prevent Downtime

Remember the Cyber Monday rush last year? Well, Amazon had more than 36 million items sold during on this day. Can you imagine what downtime would have cost this company? The same analogy can be used for your site. If your page is slow and not loading properly, then you can lose customers. These customers will leave before they even get a chance to view what you truly have to offer. Did you know that more than 57 percent of visitors will leave your site if it takes more than three seconds for the page to load? It’s true, and more than 24 percent of customers say that the number one reason why they abandon their “full shopping cart” is because the transaction is taking too long.

By improving your site’s scalability, it will prevent the slow loading times. You want to keep your customers on your site and looking at your products. You should test your speed periodically on sites like Google, just to make sure things are running smoothly.

Incorporate Responsive Design

Consumers use smartphones, laptops, tablets, watches, and other devices to access your site. Because of the host of products connecting, you need to have a responsive design. This ensures that no matter what the customer is using to surf your products, it is optimised for their viewing. It is estimated that in 2017, more than 29 percent of all transactions will take place on a tablet or cell phone. You can take advantage of those sales potentials by having a responsive design. Having a responsive design will also ease management of the back-end site and increase your SEO. The best platforms to use to enable responsive design is WordPress or Drupal. It’s not just about screen sizes, but it is about the digital experience.

Add Customer Reviews

The company Angie’s List is very successful for many reasons. One of the first being they have become a source of information. People go there because they know that if they get a plumber or HVAC recommendation, they can count on this site to steer them in the right direction. The same thing can be said about your site. You need to post customer reviews about your products. People pay attention to what others are saying. In fact, most people will watch product reviews before buying a product. These video blurbs or text can really have the potential to increase sales.

Forrester Research conducted a study on recommendations on a website. They found that sites that utilised the person review made 18 percent more in sales than those that did not. It’s worth the extra effort to add a few reviews. They also found that 70 percent of consumers will trust recommendations from a friend or family member.

Making A Change

While this may seem like a daunting task, these are just things you can implement and experiment with. If you want to get ahead, you need to stay up with the competition. Bigger and better website is the key to unlocking your true sales potential. Remember, today’s customer expects you to advertise on a whole different level.

About the Author
Helen Cartwright is a passionate blogger, who excels in the Digital Marketing and Technology niche. When not wired in marketing strategies she ghost-write for a variety of authors who have their work published on leading online media channels such as The Huffington Post and Entrepreneur.com.