3 Simple Conversion Strategies That Can Turn New Customers Into Repeat Customers

What is Conversion Strategy?

Conversion strategy is a type of marketing strategy that focuses on increasing the amount of customers taking a desired action such as purchasing on your site or booking a meeting.

In the case of many businesses, the conversion rate of existing customers is one of the most important key performance indicators of business growth, and getting those first-time purchasers to return can help your business dramatically.

According to the Adobe Digital Index, over 40% of a company’s revenue comes from returning customers, while they only comprise 8% of total visits. When developing your marketing strategy for your ecommerce business, the value of repeat purchases should be top of mind.

Conversion Strategies for Different Types of Businesses

Different businesses have a different target audience and the customer journey has its own unique flow.

For an ecommerce business, the direct-to-consumer model means that the customer journey may start on social media platforms through ads where a conversion is either made on that platform or all your incoming leads are driven back to your website.

For a B2B business, the sales funnel may start with generating leads through inbound and outbound efforts and pushing potential customers down the conversion funnel is longer of a journey.

Ecommerce Business Conversion Strategy

For an ecommerce site, conversion strategy is most often focused on purchasing of a product.

A customer can make that purchase either on an external source such as social media channels like Instagram and Facebook which have built-out shopping features or the customer arrives on your website through search engines.

Purchasing a product involves a lot of consideration from the buyer and many factors can deter the customer from finally clicking "pay now".

Focusing on ensuring there are no roadblocks along a customer's purchasing journey is the best conversion strategy for your business.

This involves checking the user experience flow of your external shopping markets and website as well as being ready to answer any incoming inquiries from your customers.

Conversion rate

Industry conversion rate metrics are important to benchmark your company's performance. The target audience is consumers with an average conversion rate of 3.65%, according to Adobe.

B2B Business Conversion Strategy

When thinking about conversion strategy for B2B businesses, the end of the conversion funnel could be a meeting with the sales team, signing up for a free trial, or purchasing of a product.

While many ecommerce purchases are personal, B2B is generally for one's work and involves a different purchasing journey.

There can be more parties involved from your customer's company which takes more time and the end goal could be a meeting with the sales team rather than a purchase depending on your metric of success.

The best conversion strategy for B2B businesses is to focus on your customer relationship. There is more consideration and parties involved and therefore the more trust you can build with your customer, the more likely you are to convert that lead.

Conversion rate

For B2B, the conversion rate is between 2%-5% and varies depending on the industry and the type of service you are providing.

Conversion Marketing Strategy

Conversion marketing strategies are the exact tactics you can take that can help you make sure that a first-time customer turns into a long-time customer.

There are many marketing channels that are part of funneling a user to take a desired action and keeping the following 3 points in any channel can help you boost conversions.

1) Make A Good First Impression

The average time spent on a website is approximately 53 seconds, which means you have less than a minute to make a memorable impression.

Website visitors are quick to determine whether your website is offering something they are looking for. The same goes when a customer is on your social media page or shopping platform. If the customer does not resonate with the product or content, they will leave.

Here are a few tips to help ensure your existing traffic onsite stays so you can maximize conversions.

Key Points:

Clean Website Design

A website that is user-friendly is an essential piece to a great conversion strategy.

If a customer is struggling to use your site or is having difficulty navigating through your website content, they will be quick to abandon before they understand your value.

And as a greater percentage of traffic is coming from mobile devices, it's important that your site is formatted for mobile users as well.

Clear CTAs

A clear, obvious call-to-action on your homepage is a surefire way to increase overall website conversions. The value proposition should be visible as soon as a customer lands on any of your site's landing pages.

Answer Customer Questions

When a customer enters a physical store, any question can be answered by a sales associate. With online stores, this process can be more difficult.

If a customer's question goes unanswered, whether it's about a style of shirt or shipping time, this can push them to abandon your site altogether.

But providing an email, phone number, or live chat function where you are able to answer those questions even the first time they land on your site, is vital to getting more conversions.

2) Prioritize Customer Experience

A happy customer leads to a successful business.

Providing a quality customer experience can lead to a smooth purchasing pathway, allow you to change from feedback, and increase conversions.

Key Points:

Dedicated Customer Service Channel

Having a customer service team that can help attend to any questions or concerns from customers is the process needed to convert leads.

Hesitations from a customer is what stops them from purchasing and having a clear channel to ease those concerns can push those customers to convert.

Email and phone are great channels but they often have much slower response times.

The best customer service channel is a live chat on your site where questions can be answered quickly and customers can finish their purchasing journey, all within a few minutes.

A great example of this is CosRX, a cosmetics brand that found success internationally even through COVID by focusing on the customer and even reviewing feedback from customers weekly with the CEO.

Listen & Act to Feedback

Opening a communication channel with customers not only benefits the customer but can greatly benefit the growth of your business.

Customers can offer insights such as thoughts on new styles or packaging issues. By listening and acting on this feedback collected through surveys and reviews, you can improve your product and customer experience which will, in turn, increase sales and increase conversions.

In addition, with positive feedback, you can receive customer testimonials and success cases that can help generate leads.

3) Stay in Touch

The customer relationship doesn’t stop after the first purchase - continued communication with your paying customers will help keep your brand top of mind.

Key Points:

Social Media Presence

Maintaining an active social media presence is a great method of staying in touch with your customers. The biggest reason? That's where your customers are.

It's not just about posting regular updates about your products or services, but also about humanizing your brand and engaging with your audience on a more personal level.

Here are some ways you can utilize social media:

• Share content such as product photos or highlight customers using your service
• Share user-generated content
• Share product updates
• Respond to customer inquiries

By staying actively engaged with your audience across various online channels, you foster lasting relationships that extend far beyond the point of sale.

Offline Communication

Maintaining an email marketing program through sending out a newsletter that informs your customer of new products and updates from your company is a great way to build loyal customers with relevant content.

There are many brands that are competing for your customer's attention and email marketing are great check-ins to ensure they don't forget about you.

Online Communication

With certain live chat tools, such as Channel Talk, you can send messages to a customer when they revisit your website. You can even segment your customers based on user behavior and send personalized messages based on user type.

For example, for a returning customer, you can send a message about a new product launch. And for a VIP customer, you can offer exclusive early-bird access to an upcoming sale.

Conclusion:

The life of any business is the customer whether you have a B2B or ecommerce business.

Having a better understanding of your customer will be the guaranteed way you can ensure they return resulting in the amount of paying customers and your business growing.

From the moment a customer lands on your page to when they click purchase or sign-up to the post-relationship, their experience should be the top priority. If conversions are your key metric in your marketing strategy, optimizing the customer experience is the best conversion strategy.