Make the most of your website: 7 elements for driving more sales

by Kinga Odziemek

Running a website for a sales company is a challenging task. It’s not just an additional channel, which doesn’t influence the overall performance of your business - in an integrated part of it. That’s why creating a functional and robust online platform that is user friendly, is key to achieving sales goals. What matters at the end of the day is attracting leads and changing them into customers. And in this article, we will provide the reasons on why you should get a branding and SEO agency in optimizing your sales growth.

A few years ago, it was easier to stand out of the crowd, as users didn’t have expectations as high, as nowadays and brand awareness was lower. Also, fewer companies had access to tools, which could help them in building a concise platform. 75% of surveyed stated that they shop online at least once a month, so following this trend is crucial to being ahead of your competitors. Facing up users’ expectations can determine the overall success of your company.

And you should think not only of how to make a website, but also how to promote it and develop to drive more sales.

Why should you add sales elements on your website?

Remember this feeling you had when you were a child, passing through stores’ windows and watching beautifully arranged expositions? Some of them made you enter the showroom and explore their offer, making you forget about the outside world. But there were also these shops, which seemed unfriendly and dull - and those were bypassed without any notice.

Your homepage is exactly like your business card or a store window. For many people, it is a starting line that determines whether your relationship with a customer would bloom or not. As a salesperson, your aim is to attract leads to your website and change them into loyal customers, but that’s not going to happen if your website isn’t functional and appealing. Simply showing what you have to offer isn’t enough too, as people expect more dedication and personalisation in the contact. It's nothing wrong about asking for a helping hand - especially, if consultation is just a click away.

So, what can you do besides adding your products? Without further introduction, here are seven elements to help your sales growth online.

Best practices to implement to your website for sales growth

To build a page that converts, you need to combine appealing web design, user experience and search engine optimisation to reach great results. You may also need a branding agency. It takes time and effort to provide your customers with a truly integrated platform that would eventually be driving more sales. Although hard, it’s possible, if you take into account a few factors.

#1 The power of User Experience

User experience is an expression that became a buzzword over the last decade, but there’s the reason for that. The design of interactions between human and a computer is essential for creating intuitive, easy-to-use systems, which are attractive at the same time. UX goes beyond User Interface Design - it covers the entire process of acquiring and integrating a website (or an app), including branding, usability, visuals and function. It aims to create products that provide meaningful experiences to users - and that can make you stand out of the crowd.

To sell anything to a customer, you have to evoke a desire in him and keep your lead warm during the decision process. To spice it up and create a bond between your company and clients, you should make it a great experience to use your page. Don’t let your users hesitate which button to click to make a purchase or you’re going to lose them forever.

  • Combine eye-catching visuals with clarity. In UX design, it’s called aesthetic usability is something more than just a nice look. It can help with masking any usefulness problems if such would occur. According to the statistics, users are more tolerant of minor usability issues when they find an interface visually appealing.
  • Take care of breadcrumbs, which are responsible for navigating your users between particular sections. It’s crucial when creating a clear and enjoyable user path, that makes navigating within the page easily. The user experience, of course, goes far beyond these two points and is a topic worth exploring, as it affects almost all spheres of your page. If you struggle to deliver that, you may want to research the right software development company.

#2 A clear but outstanding copy

Usually, when we are aware of all the amazing features that our product offers, we can’t resist bragging about them wherever we can. But that’s exactly what we should stay away from. Instead of overloading your page with text, think about a core message - and deliver it most charmingly.

  • Speak the language of the target user base. When selling a product, you should know who precisely it is dedicated for. Customers want to feel like individuals when they enter your website, so if your clients are mostly teenagers, don’t be too official. Also, you can use words, which are popular only within a specific group. Not every product is a “one size fits all”.
  • Make personalised Call To Action messages. When you want your client to make a purchase, give it a special twist. Instead of a simple “buy a course” button, it can say “yes, I want to know all the ins and outs”. If your statements are interactive, they can increase the likelihood of engagement and sales growth. The same copy should appear in other channels, e.g. in your SMS marketing campaigns.
  • Bugs tend to occur unexpectedly, but you can have a secret weapon for such situations. Not many people know what 404 errors are, but it’s actually not important. What truly counts is to keep users on your page, when they don’t know how to manage a problem. Set a special announcement to apologise (ideally in an engaging way, that’s somehow coherent with your brand) and to explain what to do next to move back to the main site.

#3 Flexible design to match all devices

Mobile devices conquer the world, so that’s not a surprise that 49.2% of e-commerce sales were made through them. According to the same research, it has increased by nearly 15% over the last four years, and it is estimated that by 2021 53.9% of sales will be made via mobile phones, not only via phone numbers.

Looking at the stats, having a truly functional page requires developing two types of it to work both on the computer and mobile device. If you want to check whether your clients use your site on their phones, you should be provided with such information in the analytics tool you’re (hopefully) using. We assume that they probably do, so consider optimising your page to broaden your reach.

#4 Content strategy to make you (and your clients) content

Content strategy is what gives added value to your website both: for your clients and the Google bots. You need to make your communication concise. Having a blog section, where you publish quality articles, causes high spikes in page views and helps with your SEO rankings. While creating a plan, keep in mind that it doesn’t end on the written articles or featuring product reviews only. It includes all the visual and voice materials too, such as infographics and podcasts. You should also make the most of social media activities: social media scheduling tools can help you redistribute your content evenly, and with the right strategy for Facebook advertising you can take your brand places.

A hot trend right now is hosting webinars, which can help your website make more conversions - and that’s exactly what you need to drive more leads to your page. There are some tools that can help you with making an outstanding live stream and thus - enchant new customers, who might be willing to check your offer. You can save it for later an embed it to your website to vary your content and build a concise brand image. Platforms such as LiveWebinar enable you to create leads form, capture new clients and gather important data in one place to help your sales.

SEO optimisation can boost online sales growth

There are many reasons to be familiar with the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), even if you outsource it to a professional company or a marketing consultant. The solutions which are provided can help with the visibility of your website and the place that it takes in the browser. Let’s list a few that can turn out to be game-changers.

#1 Mind the timing

Time is key for all of us, so in this fast-paced world, so clients won’t wait for your page to load. The study shows that users are already thinking of the next step in the transaction stream while waiting for the computer reply. Surely, you want to avoid any negative reactions, but page speed influences much more than the client’s reactions.

The timing that it takes to load the website affects overall SEO. This influences the rank pages algorithm directly in Google and thus - discards your position in the search engine. To attract more customers, try boosting your page speed to pop up higher.

#2 Ask for feedback and make a FAQ

The best clients are the loyal ones. To make sure that you meet their expectations - simply ask them about their feelings towards your website. Thanks to that you would be able to see what needs to be polished. But gathering questions that keep repeating in the DMs gives you more possibilities.

The most powerful is creating a FAQ section, which might answer your clients’ doubts while keeping it short and sweet. It shows that you’re trying to give them a helping hand and get ahead with potential problems. What’s equally important is that FAQ section helps leverage your SEO rankings because Google values that your page provides users with all the information they need to make an aware decision on your product. To make it properly, you will need to create a great copy to sell and make a selection of the top questions to answer - to avoid chaos and use keywords that convert. Use it strategically to help reduce purchase anxiety.

#3 Again about mobile devices

As we’ve already stated, - mobile devices take the lead in the IT world. That’s why setting your page to work both on the desktop and smartphone is crucial to get satisfying results in the browsers. For example, look at Upmenu site - it's well-optimized for mobile devices.

Since 2014, Google began to award higher search rankings to sites that are mobile-optimized. So if Google bots would recognise that our page isn’t friendly for smartphone visitors, it might not be displayed as a legitimate search result.

Drive more website sales with Harmonizely

Although combining SEO-friendly actions with great user experience can give your page a boost, try to think beyond the obvious. If you want to make them come back to you, add to your site special tools, which can make their customer path a breeze.

Often, using tools becomes a scheme for us, as we do it on a daily basis. Look again through its features and think about how you can make the most of them to make a sales growth online. It’s also a part of building user experience. For example, Harmonizely lets you schedule appointments easily and sends helpful reminders, so you can be sure that no one would omit the meeting - but it can do much more. It offers many integrations to become an omnichannel system. You can use the live chat feature to reply quickly on the messages - and we all know how important fast responding is. But nothing is better than presenting your offer in person and if you have to do it remotely - support might be needed. Using Harmonizely for scheduling a demo lifts your website potential to another level.

Building a bigger picture of a brand by having one-on-one meetings which are easy to schedule helps in creating the exceptional user experience. By adding external tools, which provide robust and complex solutions, you can leverage the sales potential of your website.

Enter new solutions to increase your sales growth

A small or middle businessman might have a limited budget to redesign and continuously upgrade their websites. However, estimate your budget and see how much you can invest. Making your website, a great experience might make it drive more sales and thus - give you a satisfying ROI.

There are seven takeaways to take into account in a nutshell:

  • Make sure that the overall website design matches your offer and brand identity to give a consistent image of your business.
  • Be aware of the importance of user experience. Think of the customer’s path - make it simple and clear, with engaging copy.
  • Keep in mind that your website is also a source for existing customers to provide them with useful information about products before and after purchase. Create an SEO-friendly content plan to support them on every stage of the funnel.
  • Ask your clients for feedback about using your page and create a FAQ tab.
  • Add integrations with external omnichannel tools (e.g. live chat) to fully take care of your clients. New options and features on your landing page can make customer’s navigation even smoother and more integrated, which might result in boosting sales.
  • Go beyond digital - propose a meeting to talk about the product’s features or to show how it works by running a live demonstration. Here you can see how exactly Harmonizely can help you boost your sales with appointment scheduling. Work with software that will have your back when planning any type of interaction with clients and other salespeople.
  • Keep customers in the loop, if you decide to make any changes on your website - make a succinct onboarding tutorial so that your users won’t hesitate where the “buy” button is.
  • Plus: don't forget of... taking some breaks as a salesperson. Playing a solitaire is a great way to take a break to recharge to improve productivity. Then, you may be even more efficient when it comes to sales!

Most importantly - before implementing any solution, think if you make the most of the tools you’re already using. When you decide to make changes or develop a new website from scratch, it could be necessary to delegate this task to a professional and make an audit. Nevertheless, it’s you who decide which integrations to implement to the final page. To fill the waiting time, instead of scanning through magazine pages, you can check the features of useful omnichannel software systems, like ours and connect business with pleasure.