The word “conversion” is everywhere on the interwebs these days. Everyone’s doing it – or trying to. Just in case you’re not quite sure what it actually means to convert a user (no, it doesn’t mean encouraging them to attend a Sunday sermon!), let’s take a quick look at this all-important term and why it matters to your marketing.
A conversion = making a potential prospect take an action!
People often use “conversion” interchangeably with “making a sale.” But the term is way broader than that. Basically, a conversion happens any time a user does the thing you want them to do. Some examples include:
- Clicking from social media through to your website
- Commenting on or sharing a post
- Tapping on an ad
- Following you on a particular social account
- Signing up for your newsletter
- Giving you their email in exchange for an ebook or piece of content
- And yes, making a sale
It all goes back to your goals and your outlined strategy to best determine your definition of a conversion.
Mo’ conversions mean mo’ marketing success
The word conversion gets thrown around a ton because it’s a helpful way of measuring whether your marketing campaigns are working. Your conversion rates reflect the number of people who actually do the thing you want them to do. High conversion rates mean that your campaign is going gangbusters. Low conversion rates mean that it’s time to revisit your campaign, your goals or your call-to-actions (CTAs). This is especially true if you’re spending $$$ on ads and pay-to-play opps.
But not all conversions have the same value. Facts. A social media follow is great, but a click through from social to your contact form or product page is even better. These are the conversions that can give your bottom line a serious boost – so make sure these are the ones that are pulling their weight.
How to get yourself a room full of converts
So, you’re ready to get converting, but how? There are a ton of best practices out there, but here are the basics:
Hyper-focus your audience.
Narrow down your focus to a specific target to encourage higher engagement and greater conversions. A bunch of campaigns each targeting a specific group will usually perform better than one generic campaign.
Try new ad funnels.
Experiment with your sales funnels to see what works best. Test different ads or CTAs in combination with different landing pages and measure the conversion rates for each.
Build amazing landing pages.
You’ve spent all that energy building an amazing social media campaign that gets the clicks. Don’t let your audience down with a ho-hum landing page. Build something targeted, relevant and click-worthy. Your conversion rates will thank you for it.
Expand your social empire.
An epic social presence puts a validated audience right at your fingertips. Give your social platform of choice some consistent content that maps to your offers!
Workshop your Calls-to-Action (CTAs).
Your call-to-action is your secret weapon. ALWAYS include a CTA in your social media, blog posts and profiles. Workshop them then A/B test to see what drives more clicks.
Replicate what works.
This is where you don your fanciest lab coat and dive into the science and numbers behind it all! Once you’ve landed on the sweet spot for conversions, keep doing it!
Let’s converse about conversions
To paraphrase Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross, “Always be converting!” Conversions are critical to your marketing campaign’s success, so do everything in your creative power to encourage users to do that thing you want them to do. Encourage them to take ACTION! Need some expert insight into converting like a boss? Drop me a line, and let’s talk conversions!