Tips for Engaging Customers Through Professional Websites

In the vast ocean of digital marketing, your landing page is the lighthouse guiding potential customers to your shores. We recently embarked on a journey with a client to revamp their landing page, and the results were nothing short of spectacular. We witnessed a whopping 143% increase in their conversion rate, soaring to 4.18%. So, how did we achieve this transformation? 1) Crystal Clear Headline: The first thing visitors see should instantly convey your value proposition. We crafted a headline that was not only compelling but also easy to read and understand. It's the digital equivalent of a firm, confident handshake. 2) Review Count Front and Center: Social proof is a powerful tool. By placing the review count high up, visible immediately on both mobile and PC, we leveraged the power of community validation. When potential customers see that others have benefited, they're more likely to trust your offering. 3) Above the Fold Magic: The "fold" is the point where users need to scroll to see more. Everything above this point should be your prime real estate. We ensured that the most crucial information, call-to-action buttons, and engaging visuals were positioned here for immediate impact. 4) Consistent and Intuitive Design: A cohesive color scheme, clear fonts, and intuitive navigation can make the difference between a bounce and a conversion. We streamlined the design to ensure a seamless and pleasant user experience. 5) Engaging Visuals with Context: While high-quality images and videos are essential, they need to be more than just eye candy. We selected visuals that not only resonated with the brand but also told a story, adding depth to the user's journey. 6) Trust Indicators: Beyond reviews, we incorporated trust badges, testimonials, and certifications. These elements further cemented the brand's credibility and made users feel secure in their decision to engage. A landing page is more than just a digital storefront; it's a narrative, a promise, and an invitation. By focusing on the user's experience and journey, we were able to transform clicks into conversions. If your landing page isn't delivering the results you desire, perhaps it's time for a makeover.

It's no secret: your website's homepage is like the handshake of the digital world. It sets the first impression, determines if visitors stay or flee, and ultimately impacts your bottom line. But with so much conflicting advice out there, crafting a homepage that truly converts can feel like navigating a design jungle. Yeah, don't worry! I'm here to share some battle-tested tips to transform your homepage into a conversion machine. 1. Know Your Audience: Before you start pixel-perfecting, get inside your ideal customer's head. What are their needs, desires, and pain points? Craft your message specifically for them, speaking their language and addressing their unique challenges. 2. Value Proposition Front and Center: Don't make visitors hunt for your "why." Clearly articulate the value you offer within the first few seconds. Think concise, benefit-driven messaging that instantly resonates. 3. Visual Storytelling: Humans are visual creatures. Use high-quality images, videos, or even illustrations to capture attention and tell your brand story in a compelling way. Remember, visuals should complement your message, not distract from it. 4. Call to Action Clarity: What do you want visitors to do next? Whether it's subscribing, purchasing, or contacting you, make your call to action (CTA) crystal clear, compelling, and impossible to miss. Use strong verbs, contrasting colors, and strategic placement to guide them towards conversion. 5. Mobile-First Optimization: Let's face it, most browsing happens on smartphones these days. Ensure your homepage is responsive and user-friendly on all devices, offering a seamless experience no matter the screen size. Bonus Tip: A/B testing is your best friend! Don't be afraid to experiment with different layouts, copy, and CTAs to see what resonates best with your audience. Data-driven decisions always win! Remember: Your homepage is a living, breathing entity. Continuously analyze, test, and refine based on user behavior and industry trends. By following these tips and tailoring them to your unique brand, you can create a homepage that not only looks stunning but also converts like a charm. ✨ Now it's your turn! Share your homepage design wins and challenges in the comments below. Let's build a community of conversion champions! P.S. Want a free homepage conversion checklist? Drop your email in the comments and I'll send it your way!

Never tell yourself, "Just because we're in this X mundane industry, it excuses us from a website that works in favor of our customer." Your website is your digital storefront, the most scalable way for people worldwide to interact with your brand. That means some principles of what works in-store, should translate to your screen. For example, we believe even government websites deserve great user experiences. Check out our website for Louisiana Entertainment, a division of state government that showcases our state's entertainment industry. Like your favorite store, it should interact with you when you're ready to shop, vs. interrupt you when you're in the middle of searching. That appears in the digital form of: ❤️ Persona Driven Experience - Think of how when you enter a store, you want to know exactly where to go (sometimes without interacting with someone). When you enter the website, you can choose your desired experience. Depending on if you're in the music, interactive, or film industry, the whole site's experience and content change to what you are looking for. Get your customers as fast as possible to what they are looking for vs. bombarding them with content they don't need. 😌 Simplifying Information- Think of how you would walk into a store and have a customer service representative work through numbers and information with you to make a decision. It sucks to do that by yourself without any guidance. Besides a persona-driven experience, the site features interactive tools to help show you the travel times between cities in Louisiana with a map showcasing key locations. This simplifies the process of searching and calculating as we know this is something that's on the mind of producers. We also collected all the deep resources in the film, interactive, and music industry in a way that's easy to navigate. 🐊 Showcasing Culture - When you walk into a store, you should feel the company's culture come through. When you enter the website, you feel Louisiana's swagger and penchant for creativity right away with bright colors and imagery that makes you go, "Wow, I can see my production here." Never skimp on original videos and photography that showcase your brand. Proud to showcase this site again as ThreeSixtyEight has been honored to see this site winning a Gold Award at the International Economic Development Council Awards as the nation’s best special purpose economic development website. This award was the cherry on top as the site won Best of Show at the Southern Economic Development Council’s 2023 Communication Awards and was the only site from Louisiana nominated for a Webby. Thank you Christopher Stelly and Monica Craig-Champagne for being great clients to help us deliver on the vision! See the site here: https://lnkd.in/gVs4nUf9 Case study here: https://lnkd.in/gj8VVcBN #website #marketing #customerexperience #uxstrategy #iedcawards

Forget about these 3 standard pieces of advice: 1) Post daily, no matter the quality. 2) Use complex language to impress. 3) Focus on quantity over quality. Instead, start doing these 5: 1) Connect through aspirational identity. → Tap into universal desires. ↪︎ Align your brand with customers' aspirations. 2) Answer your audience's burning questions. → Use AI tools for research and keywords. ↪︎ Create content that solves specific problems. 3) Manage your content strategically. → Categorize content by purpose. ↪︎ Divide content into demand creation, conversion, and loyalty. 4) Edit for clarity and simplicity. → Utilize AI and editing tools. ↪︎ Keep language at a 5th-grade level for accessibility. 5) Use powerful visuals and storytelling. → Incorporate graphics and videos. ↪︎ Visuals that let customers see themselves using your product Ditch the spray-and-pray content approach. Avoid overcomplicating your message. Run from the one-size-fits-all strategy.

PSA to new brands: fix your website bounce rate before investing in Paid Media. High bounce rates can be a signal that your website isn't meeting user expectations. So you're likely not ready to pay for more eyeballs yet. To reduce bounce rates and keep your audience engaged -- do the following. Provide High-Quality, Relevant Content 🌟 • Your content is king. Ensure it’s valuable, informative, and relevant to your audience’s needs. Improve Your Navigation 🧭 • Simplify your site nav to help users find things quickly & effortlessly. Ditch the Pop-Ups 🚫 • Keep pop-ups to a minimum (e.g. only to collect crucial info like email address) Speed Up Your Site ⚡ • Remember "Milliseconds Make Millions". Optimize site speed to keep users happy. Design for Mobile Users 📱 • With the vast majority of users accessing the web via mobile devices, responsive design is crucial. Too many web design projects are still done primarily with Desktop in mind. Improve Content Readability 📖 • Use clear headings, short paragraphs, and bullet points to make your content easy to read and digest. Use Eye-catching CTAs 🎯 • Well-designed, compelling calls to action can guide users to take the next step. Update Old Posts 📝 • Keep your content fresh and relevant by regularly updating older posts. Fix Broken Links 🔗 • Broken links frustrate users and can hurt your SEO. Regularly check and fix them to keep your site healthy. Add More Internal Links 🔗🔗 • Internal links can help guide users to related content, keeping them on your site longer. User Experience Personalization 🎨 • Tailor the user experience to individual visitors to make them feel valued and understood. Taking these steps will make a big difference in reducing bounce rates and improving user engagement. #DigitalMarketing #WebsiteOptimization #UserExperience #SEO #MarketingTips #WebDesign #ContentMarketing

I audited 20 high-traffic websites on Heatmap.com 🔥 and 75% of them got the same thing wrong. Their above-the-fold section. Some stats: - 7% of your customers on average make it to the bottom of your landing page. - Your customers are also on your site - no matter how many pages deep <1 minute. So focus your energy here if you really want to make an impact on your conversion numbers. Why? 100% of your traffic sees this section of your site. NO OTHER PART OF YOUR SITE CAN GUARANTEE YOU THIS. The problem? Most of the important information is past your above the fold and you are losing mindshare with those original customers with every inch they scroll down your landing experience. How to fix it? - Compress your images -> too many brands have massive images that have lots of negative space in their hero image - Design for mobile -> most designers look at their designs on desktop only and the experience for the consumer isn’t great once it optimizes for mobile. - Add Social Proof to your hero image in the form of a badge or a small quote. - Ensure you have a CTA that’s visible so your prospective customer can take action. Goal: this section can drive purchase conversion velocity. What else have you done to fix your above the fold? 

Been working with a prominent surf brand this year to reset their digital playbook. Here's 3 things we've seen work really well which has resulted in a 55% increase in revenue YTD vs. last year. 1. Traffic x Conversion Rate x AOV = Revenue This can't be overstated enough. If your site conversion rate is below 1.5% you have to invest in improving it. A good converting website is usually not sexy, and that's ok (see no. 3 below for more on this). Start with the site experience and look at it on mobile through the lens of a new customer. Remove points of friction, quickly answer customer questions, and make getting to checkout easy. Focus first on home page, collection page, PDP, navigation, and cart/checkout. Then move to customer service pages, return/exchange process, etc. It sounds trivial, but you'll be amazed at how easily you can gain a quick .25% in conversion rate with minimal effort. 2. Performance Max Google's Performance Max is loathed by many as a black box (which it is) and therefore untrustworthy, but we've found two key ways to make it work incredibly successfully: Product feed optimization and setting focus on new customer acquisition. By leveraging all the product data points available from Shopify, you can juice a product feed to make Google very happy and reward you with high-performing shopping ads. It's a bit of effort up front, but once complete starts to pay dividends. There's also a somewhat hidden setting to turn on new customer acquisition focus. This can help avoid save on ad costs from people who may have purchased anyways and just clicked the first ad they saw. Before enabling this, provide the account with a list of current customers to exclude (use Klaviyo's integration to keep the list up to date in realtime). Last month we turned it on for one client and we saw Google Ads conversions from new customers increase 62% vs. prior month. 3. Premium Photography Such an important yet often overlooked component to a winning strategy is high quality product imagery. Going back to site UX - if your product photography is not high quality, does a good job showing the detail of the product, or on-model, it will take a toll on conversion rate, especially if you have a high AOV. A website doesn't need to be custom or flashy if the photography is high quality. You can grow a brand online to $20m+ annually with a Shopify theme like Prestige and let the product photography do the heavy lifting. With a channel like Meta ads, there's no greater lever you can pull than testing creatives. Lately we've been seeing that tight crops on product features and text overlay has been working well, but we're always testing and refining. Use Advantage Plus campaigns to test lots of creative types at once to find what works, then double down on that.

Digital experiences that earn customer loyalty – and actually convert – answer questions before your customers even have to ask them. You don’t want to fill product pages with every micro-detail of the product or service you offer, but you do want to make sure the important information is front and center. That means you have to find out what your customers actually need to know in order to make a purchasing decision. The good thing is, you don’t have to wonder what that might be – they’ve likely already told you. Take a look at the reviews to see what details past customers hone in on. If you see a lot of comments about a dress being true to size, praise for high-quality materials, frustrations that the product was too big for their space or excitement over customization options on your digital platform – those are all things that you should hone in on. When you highlight those features or answer questions up front, you have a better chance of showing your customer that yes, this really is what you’re looking for (and if it isn’t, where to find what they actually need.) Don’t just assume they’ll find those answers in the reviews, because there’s no guarantee they’re even going to make it that far down the page.

Quick tip to everyone out there looking to get some new content ideas that actually move the needle: Your Customer Success (CS) team is a goldmine. Why? They talk to your ACTUAL customers all the time!! So how do you leverage their knowledge? - Start by creating a dynamic FAQ document and feedback loop with the marketing team. Have your CS team regularly add real customer questions to it as well as the answers they give. Every time the same question is asked, have them track that. This will help you to understand what the most popular questions are. Check to make sure it’s updated monthly. - Use those FAQs to craft content that answers those questions. It's about turning real problems into valuable content for your audience. Why do some questions occur so often? Is sales missing the boat, or does marketing have an opportunity to educate more. That’s it! Keep updating and optimizing, but you will find a wealth of content this way that helps different stages in the funnel. The more you can match customer expectations early on, the less likely they will churn. So what are you waiting for? #lifecyclemarketing #contentstrategy #marketingtips #customersuccess Need help getting this off the ground? Shoot me a DM. Comment, Message Me, or Repost ♻️ if you find it useful Follow me, hit the 🔔 Michael Dillon (https://lnkd.in/eCScbvEH) You'll get notified on my next post.