Conversion rates can be 400% higher or more when running a marketing campaign. This means there is more to website conversion rate improvement than conventional conversion rate practices such as landing page optimisation, and tweaking website design factors.
Offline and offsite marketing factors such as better advertising, better offers, better products etc are equally as effective.
The fact that marketing/ advertising campaigns can increase conversion rates by four or even eight fold seems obvious in hindsight. It’s really just marketing 101: If you’re marketing is any good it should be driving more highly qualified customers to your website who are more likely to convert at a higher rate. (If that isn’t happening then review your marketing and your landing pages.)
But the effect of good marketing brings up a number of key points that aren’t usually part of the current conversion rate improvement conversation.
They Came. They Saw. They Bought.
If conversion rates are many times higher during a marketing campaign, then arguably onsite design factors may not be as big a barrier to successful conversion as we’ve been led to believe. After all, during the campaign when looking at what the customers did: “They came. They saw. They bought,” and at a much higher rate than normal.
The conversion rate improvement specialists would argue that if the website was fully optimised for conversions then the rate would be even higher. While that may be true, the point I’m making is that the effect of marketing is not always included in the conversion rate improvement process, and yet it has a huge effect on it.
Never Stop Swinging
Taking this further, it then follows that if we want consistently high conversion rates then we need to be in a perpetual state of marketing. Look at the offline world and think of all the things supermarkets and department stores do to get you to their stores. You can’t go more than a few days without being exposed to some form of their marketing. It’s all designed to get you to the store so that you can get something you think you want.
As I said before, these people are coming into the stores highly pre-qualified: Ready to buy. And that’s exactly the type of people you want coming to your website.
Hit ‘em With Everything You Got!
And the marketing doesn’t stop once you’ve got them in the store. Again, take the offline example of supermarkets and department stores. Once you’re inside the doors you’re continually exposed to all sorts of marketing and sales tricks to make you spend more money.
The online retail world is yet to get to anywhere near the sophistication level of offline stores.
Historically most websites just present “information” to the prospect and let the customer do the rest. It’s a very passive form of selling as far as the seller is concerned.
Introducing more of the offline world’s extensive list of marketing and selling tools and techniques to the online world will undoubtedly increase your conversion rates.
This may seem like a “no brainer,” except not many online stores are doing it and it’s certainly not part of the mainstream conversion rate improvement discussion, or even the online marketing discussion.
Old Skule Rools
It’s another example of how old school offline marketing rules still apply to the online world. Ever since we started going online many “gurus” were quick to tell us that “the old rules no longer apply” and every day the evidence mounts that “not only do the old rules still apply, but they are more relevant than ever.”
Note: The conversion rate improvement figures I used at the start come from actual results of my own clients, and have proved consistent over time. If you’ve experienced similar results, then please let me know.
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