Katie has hands on marketing experience and creating all-inclusive marketing campaigns for clients utilizing traditional media, new media, and event marketing. She has worked with media agencies and clients of various sizes, in all different industries. She has been on the sales side of operations as a salesperson and Sales Manager for a group of radio stations. Katie loves creating, building, and maintaining relationships with clients, media, and teaching, so being able to teach media to sales teams is the best of both worlds.
I am so passionate about conversions that when I talk aboutthem, I have this image of Madonna signing “Con-ver-sions” into a microphonewith her white gloves on, to the same tune and beat as “Like a Virgin”- Anyoneelse? No? Well, you should!
Conversions can take a mediocre digital campaign and make it a stellar digital campaign. Why all the hype when it comes to conversions? Conversions are going to allow business owners a peak behind the curtain so they can see what consumers are doing on their website once they get there. Are they looking for more information? Are they showing interest and trying to gather more information by initiating a conversation via a live chat box, or clicking on a phone number listed to be connected to the business right then and there? As a business owner, you want to know that people are engaging with your website, and conversions are a great way to show that.
The name of the game when it comes to any form of marketingand advertising is not just about getting more leads, but more qualified leads.It’s easy enough to see how many hits you get on your website, but what good isit if people aren’t doing anything once they get there? By tracking conversionsand being able to see what people are doing once they get to the website, youare guiding people further down into the sales funnel in hopes that they willconvert, and go from being a potential customer, to a paid customer. The peoplethat are engaging with the website are the ones that are more likely toconvert.
One thing business owners need to consider when it comes to determining conversions, is what is it that they want their potential customers to do AFTER they land on the website? Do they want more phone calls coming in? Do they want them to make a purchase? Do they want people to schedule appointments/consultations online? Are they running a current special that they want people sign up for? The goals of the advertiser will help determine what kind of conversions they will want to track.
Some people might think that when it comes to getting peopleto convert on a website, it’s a little like the old saying “you can lead ahorse to water, but you can’t make it drink”. If people land on your website, it’s up to them what they donext. While there is some truth in that, there are things as a business ownerthat you can do to help the consumer take that next step. For example, if youvisit a website and the form they are looking for you to fill out is 13 fieldslong, the chances of you filling it out are slim. Also, we live in an instantgratification society; we want things yesterday. As consumers, we don’t want tohave to search around for something on a website, so make it as easy aspossible for the consumer to take that next step. If they have to scroll multipletimes to find a place to click in order to bring them further along in theirsearch, game over.
Something else for business owners to consider when they are thinking about getting people to take that next step once they are on the website is the bounce rate of their website. Bounce rate is the percentage of total visitor sessions that leave the website after visiting just one page. One of the main reasons for a high bounce rate can be the amount of time it takes for a website to load. In recent research done by Google, it was found that sites that loads within 1-3 seconds have a possible 32% increase in bounce rate, and a site that loads in 1-5 seconds will possibly have a 90% increase in the bounce rate. Now, one or three, or even five seconds might not sound like a long time, but grab your phone, click on a website, wait for it load, and count how long it takes to you to hit the back button- go ahead, I’ll wait…
By the time you were at “two Mississippi”, you were hitting that back button like a maniac. Google has a fun little tool for business owners to use that can show them how fast their mobile website is loading: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite/
Now that you have a better understanding of what aconversion is, the next time that you’re on a website, look and see what yourown consumer behavior is. Are you willing to fill out a super long form, or areyou more likely to fill out just a few fields? Are you looking for answers nowand will start a live chat or call the business? Did you find what you werelooking for all on one page? Use these relatable examples to help businessowners get a better understanding of what their potential customers are alsolooking for to get them to convert and over that “Borderline” (get it? …It’sanother song by Madonna).
