Do you have a great website that’s simply not creating as many conversions as you initially hoped? The error may be in the simple details.

Make sure you’re providing clear and obvious calls to action so that your visitors know what to do. Here are seven ways to get visitors to engage with your website.

1. Remember the basics: It may sound simple, but consider whether all of the important information is easily accessible. Is your phone number above the fold (top half of your website, without needing to scroll down the page)? Can visitors enquire via email if they prefer? Is there an FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) to answer their questions, so they are more likelier to take action?
2. Prioritise placement: What do you want your visitors to do when they land on your website? It might be joining your email list, asking for a quote or sharing your content. Make sure the required action is clear and obvious to visitors in the form of links and buttons, both in the text and on the page. If you have more than one call to action on each page, ensure the level of importance is clear to visitors. 
3. Offer alternatives: Visitors might not want to pick up the phone or come into your business to talk to you, so give them another option to find out more information such as ‘request a quote’, ‘chat online’ or ‘enquire now’.
4. Put your calls to action in your content text as well. Strategically placed in the middle, or clearly at the end to guide them in what the next step is. 
5. Make them stand out, with boldness, or different colours, or a button within a different shape eg. Oval if everything else in the design is square/straight.
6. Quick and easy: Potential customers don’t have time to waste, so make your navigation clean and clear. Stick to simple language to label links, buttons and pages. Consider the wants and needs of your customers and write the content from their perspective. Your website should be easy to use – that is the most important feature of a navigable site.
7. A/B Test: An excellent way to evaluate your website is to test different versions against one another. Send half of your traffic to version A, while the other half to version B. Which one performs better in terms of traffic, lead captures, clickthroughs and sign-ups?

Optimising your website is an ongoing process. What’s good for business now may be different in two years’ time. Business owners should be constantly evaluating their website’s success, but enhancing a website doesn’t always mean massive changes. Sometimes a change in placement, call to action or navigation can be the difference between good and great.

We seem to be squeezing more into our days than ever before. Time is one of our most precious resources – and users are quick to dismiss any website that doesn't understand this.  In a web world full of clutter, how do you get your website visitors to pay attention on your website?

1. Place important information at the top: Studies found that the dominant reading pattern of a website is an “F” shape. This means readers quickly skim from left to right across the top, down the left side and left to right again at the mid section of the page. Place important information where readers can easily find it and remember that if they can’t find it quickly they will probably click away.
2. Remember a call to action at the end: While attention decreases below the fold, viewing time increases significantly at the bottom of the page. Place an additional call to action at the end to create a natural click through flow.
3. Make your website easily searchable:You can’t put everything on the homepage, but you can ensure your website is easily searchable to increase the likelihood of sales and conversions. Customers in a rush tend to make decisions based on convenience over preference.
4. Keep it authentic: Heatmap studies have shown that readers tend to glaze over anything that looks like an ad. Keep your calls to action on brand and authentic to prevent users missing the point. 
5. Make it highly visual: People love pictures! Images of products and real people perform best, while generic stock photography tends to get ignored, according to a Nielsen Norman Group study.
6. Keep it clean: Try to avoid going overboard with your calls to action as it overwhelms people. Think about the most important action your potential customers could take. Prioritise that and remove distracting clutter.
7. Test and test again: It’s helpful to utilise research and results from other companies, but the reality is that there’s no cookie-cutter approach. Your website and product are unique, and the way users use your website will be unique. Closely monitor how your website performs, change things that aren’t doing well and test options against each other. It’s an iterative process. 

Remember the simple things – clean, clear and easy to use. Beautiful design is important, but most important is helping people find what they want on your website. Do this and you’ll be rewarded for your effort.

?To learn more on this important topic - watch one of our recent webinars on How to develop your USP and make your website stand out

Writing a regular blog takes time, effort and energy, so at first it might feel like a drain on resources. But there’s a good reason to do it. Blogging can contribute significantly to your bottom line.

Increase your touch points

Marketers often refer to the seven “touch points” needed before a sale is made. The idea is that potential customers have a chance to learn about you and trust you and your company before they become a customer. Weblogs offer an opportunity to attract and engage with customers in an informal way. They are a great source of information for potential customers. If you provide value to customers first, the sales will follow.

Make your personality work for you

As a small business, you have a distinct advantage in that you can easily let your personality into your communications with customers. Doing this separates you from the competition and allows people to connect with you. This is a deciding factor for customers when making a purchasing decision. A 2011 Accenture Survey found that service experience and brand awareness (including personality) are the top factors for customers when making a purchase.

Customer acquisition

Research has shown that customer acquisition grows directly in line with the frequency of blog posts. A 2012 State of Inbound Marketing report by HubSpotfound that 78 per cent of businesses that blogged daily attracted customers through their blog, while 92 per cent who blogged more than once a day won customers in this way.

Customer feedback

Blogs give your customers an opportunity to comment and interact with you, and a chance to provide feedback. If the feedback is positive – fantastic! If it’s negative, even better. It’s an opportunity for you to make things right and demonstrate that you’re listening and willing to take action. In most cases, customers who have taken the time to complain are looking to be delighted. Treat a complainant well and you could end up with a loyal customer for life.

Blogging provides an opportunity to educate, inspire, inform and entertain your customers. View it as a way to strengthen your relationship with them and witness the lift to your bottom line.

The power of 'word of mouth'

With the ease of viral sharing on Blogs, your message can be spread into new markets and be seen by totally new audiences.  If you are a Bloomtools client, ask your Consultant to show you how you can utilise your Blogs content to populate your own Social Media accounts, quickly, simply and effectively to spread their value even further.

Search engines will pick you up

Finally the all important SEO (Seach Engine Optimisation) benefits where the likes of Google sees that a website that has for ever changing content is worth more (ranked higher) than one that isn't.  Each blog entry is seen as a new page of content for them to reference, and give you extra points in their Algorithm

Have you noticed a difference after starting a blog? Share your experiences or comments below.

Other resources:  How Blogs work for everyday businesses - webinar recording; Five tips to make your blog stand out from the crowd - article

You already know the importance of being found on search engines, but how do you do it.  For many industries, just by following the simple steps we take you through in this webinar will get you up the top of the results.

In this webinar you will learn what the following are, and how to implement them:

• Authors within Blogs and Articles
• Google Webmaster Tools
• The role of social media with SEO
• Creating 'silos'
• and more

Join us on this day for this event, then start using the strategies the next day... and watch the results happen

Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (QLD time) AEST

Register now here

Latest NAB research has found that online retail sales rose to an estimated $13 billion in the year to January 2013.  

Growth remains strong, up 27% year-on-year-in January 2013, even though January is typically a slower month for the online sector.  "The increase in sales in January suggests the recent lift in consumer confidence has flowed through to some online retailers," Mr Oster said.

Households in the 30-40 age bracket remain the top spenders, although the biggest growth has been in the under 30 age bracket, attracted by the surge in companies offering free delivery with purchases.

And the even better news is that domestic retailers, rather than international websites, are winning the war. 75% of goods purchased were bought from Australian based companies at an average price of $60.  

Source:  http://business.nab.com.au/online-retail-sales-index-in-depth-report-january-2013-2880/