How to Turn Web Traffic into Paying Customers

Having a new, shiny website for your business is great. It looks awesome. It’s on-brand. And users find it easy to navigate through. Vanity metrics are fab an’ all, especially when you want it to instantly impress, but what’s the point in all that web traffic if no one enquires about your services or buys your products?

It’s like casting a net and successfully catching fish, but your net has large holes in it, so the fish just swim away after taking the bait.

So how do you convert your website traffic? What is the secret formula for turning your website visitors into paying customers? 

How can YOU convince first-time visitors to purchase a product or service? 

…It’s all about having an effective customer journey on your website and nurturing those leads.

Your customers need to know, like and trust you before they’re willing to part with their money.

Ask yourself:

• Does your website make users trust you? 
• How can you build trust? 
• What unique value do you provide?

Curating the answers to these key questions can make for an effective strategy that will be critical to your success.

We hope through this guide you’re better able to learn how to leverage your website and turn a visitor into a profitable customer. The process can be overwhelming, particularly if you’re new to the process of online sales and marketing.

How can you turn web traffic into tangible sales?

• Know & communicate what makes YOUR BUSINESS stand out

What makes your business or product different from the competition? 

Why should customers choose you specifically? 

These are the questions you need to be asking, and then addressing through your website content and imagery. 

If your website doesn’t have content and visuals that clearly communicate your USP, then this is something you need to address immediately. It really makes the difference between a mere site visit and a tangible, real-life sale.

Remember, communicating less is more. Nobody will read pages and pages of content, even if it is well-written.

It’s best to communicate your product and/ or service concisely. Too much information can turn people off. Instead, hone your selling point quickly and effectively. To do this you can manipulate and adapt your branding, homepage content, short videos and intriguing images and/ or product descriptions.

• Build an INTERESTED email list

This may sound outdated, but hear us out – email is still a powerful tool to use for communicating with your customers. 

Especially as part of your lead nurturing. 

Yes, we know you have social media accounts (and presumably, countless followers) which can also help with lead nurturing and generation. But, email marketing isn’t dead and this marketing channel can still be used to your advantage.

An email list is vastly different from social media. Unlike a social feed, it is a direct line of communication with interested customers.

By collecting email addresses through your website, you can nurture users through a well-oiled email marketing conversion process. They might not be ready to make a purchase on their first visit to your site, but if you emailed them a discount code in the near future, they might suddenly convert. And then, if you email them again in a few weeks or months, with a refer a friend incentive or key sales items, then might just convert again.

• Segment your email list – divide and conquer!

You’ve built an email list. Now it’s time to divide and segment them. 

The biggest mistake you can make is leaving all those email addresses as one big list. This is because your users have vastly different interests, and they may be at different stages of their customer journey. Segment accordingly.

One great way to segment your list is by interest, although maybe more options are available. Essentially, the more you know your audience, the better.

An example of segmenting an email list is by dividing up customers based on whether they are ‘prospective leads’ or they have already ‘made a purchase’.

• Include social proof on your website

We’re social creatures, and often make decisions based on the opinions of others. That’s why testimonials, case studies and reviews are so important. 

By including lots of social proof on your website, you can help build trust, increase credibility and reaffirm your customers on why they should buy from you.

Increasingly, reviews are far more trusted than anything else. Think about the last time you brought a product or visited a restaurant, did you check the reviews first? I bet you had a sneak peek before you purchased or visited.

When adding social proof to your website, make sure reviews, testimonials and case studies are front and centre where they’re easy to browse through and see. 

• Improve your website design

When it comes to your website, first impressions matter. You could be losing customers before they even enter your customer journey due to poor web design. Think of it as the online equivalent to product packaging. If the packaging doesn’t encourage you to pick it up, you’re less likely to buy it. The same goes for websites. The better it looks and how user friendly it is, the more likely people will be to purchase from you.

Your website needs to be aesthetically pleasing and modern, but your website also needs to be user-based and built so it’s easy to navigate. It is best practice to avoid overstuffing with too much content and design – meet somewhere in the middle instead. 

• Create a blog

Blogs are great for your marketing content strategy. They’re a way to establish yourself as an industry expert, as well as communicate with your customers and help to build trust. 

A blog also allows you to answer questions that your customers have. Instead of having short answers on an FAQ page, you can provide in-depth answers as blog posts – and also have a better chance of increasing your conversion rate (and the chance of gaining featured snippets and answer boxes on Google!). The more information you give, the more value you offer and trust you build.

By blogging regularly, it makes your business seem active online, which is both welcoming and trustworthy. For potential customers, an active blog can communicate that you’re industry-leading, innovative and quick to respond.

• Work on your site speed

There’s nothing more frustrating than clicking onto a website and it takes what feels like a million years to load. This can be instantly off-putting, and for the impatient amongst us (which is the majority of us), the cause of a high bounce rate as users just leave and head somewhere a bit speedier to load. Time is precious.

Make sure your website loads quickly and properly: by this, we mean with no missing sections or outdated plugins. If users have a long wait for pages to load, they’re unlikely to stick around. 

People’s patience and attention aren’t strong these days (thank you, on-demand culture), so you have to bear that in mind too. Users expect your website to work quickly and when it doesn’t, they won’t be forgiving.

When your website doesn’t perform well and to the right speed, this comes across as unprofessional and increases doubt in a users mind. Take the time to invest in your website as you can’t afford to lose customers this way; there really is no excuse aside from laziness in this modern age.

• Create a fantastic landing page

An effective landing page will help you gather leads, which subsequently turn into customers. And that’s the aim, right?

Therefore, the ideal landing page includes effective content but it can also entail an enticing incentive or offer. For example, on your landing page, you can provide a free giveaway in exchange for an email address – such as a white paper, discount promotion, product demo, free trial, or free PDF. 

What you give away on your landing page very much depends on the audience your business is catering to, and what they appreciate and value. Again: know your audience and find something you’ll know they want and appreciate.

Your ultimate goal through an incentive or offer is to impress and intrigue your website visitors, choosing something you know they can’t resist or are looking for.

Contact Active Internet Marketing (UK)

At Active Internet Marketing (UK), our team is made up of experts in all things digital, from web design to content, to SEO, we’ve got your business covered.

If you need some help taking your website to the next level and helping increase conversions, get in touch with us today. You can give us a call on 01604 765 796, or fill in our online enquiry form and a member of the team will be in touch.