According to Business Insider, only 2-3% of your website visitors are actually there to buy. That is a horrible conversion rate by any standard. However, if you consider the fact that some websites get over a million unique visitors each month, then the math doesn’t seem so bleak.
But, just how many websites get millions of unique visitors each month? On average, your typical small business websites get about 1,000 unique visitors each month. That kind of ruins the numbers a little bit unless you find a way to increase that 2 – 3% conversion rate. One of the best ways to do that is to create content that converts. How do you do that?
Writing Actionable Content
Actionable content is the type of content that not only tells a story and educates your visitors, but it also prompts them to take a certain action. In most cases, that action is either:
- Signing up for a newsletter
- Buying an item on the website
- Sharing the content with friends
Sometimes it might be something as mundane as commenting on the article itself. The desired actions are as varied as the webmasters themselves, but they all have one thing in common- they foster reader engagement.
Unless your readers are engaged, they will not take the action you want them to. Actionable content, therefore, is persuasive content and creating these pieces is an art.
Tips on How to Create Actionable Content
As much as creating persuasive content is an art, there is also a certain scientific element to it as well. The most persuasive writers take certain elements of human behavior into account. Once such aspect is something known as “headline bias“. The headline you choose will lead the reader in a specific direction depending on the kind of excitement it conveys.
It is human nature. We only take a few seconds to come up with a bias on almost everything we see. That is why the very first thing you should work on when creating content that converts is the headline.
Craft an Attention-Grabbing Title
We can assure you that most people will probably just skim through your articles unless they find them particularly informative and they really want to educate themselves on the subject matter therein. What none of them will skim through, however, is the title. EVERYONE will read the title of your articles and immediately decide the level of importance and attention to give that article.
There are tools such as Headline Analyzer that make it much easier to come up with more enticing titles. These tools look at important title factors such as:
- Word balance
- Headline type
- Character length
All these are factors that search engines also take into account when scoring the readability level of your content. If your title does not excite your readers, there is a good chance that they will move right on. In fact, it is estimated that 8 out of 10 potential readers will immediately dismiss your content if they do not like the title.
Focus Your Content Around Pain Points
Apart from entertainment, there is one other major reason why people go online and run millions of searches every day: they are looking for solutions to certain person-centric problems. People buy from businesses that provide them with those solutions. Focusing your content on pain points will give them a much better chance of:
- Attracting readers who actually need your products or services
- Attracting readers who are ready to buy
Finding these pain points out is by far the most important bit of research you will ever do as a business owner. Once you know what solutions your customers need you can work to provide them with content that leads to that solution through your service. It is the same principle upon which keyword research is based, and we all know how important that is in today’s search engine algorithm changes.
Include a “Call-to-Action” in Your Content
Do not assume that people will automatically know what you want them to do after they have finished reading (skimming) your article. The internet is full of distractions, and you need to expressly tell people what you want them to do. That is why those huge “Buy Now” buttons tend to be very popular with e-commerce websites. People need to know what you want them to do. Always be closing.
Create Enticing Lead Magnets
There is a very good chance that you will not convert first-time readers no matter how persuasive your content. That is mostly because not everyone who ends up on your site is already at the “buy” stage of their journey. Plus, remember that whole 2-3% conversion rate we talked about?
However, the fact that you actually got them to your website is a win in itself; they could have gone to so many other landing pages. You now have to make sure that they keep coming back until they get to that whole important “buy” stage of their journey. The best way to do that is to offer them enticing lead magnets.
Lead magnets allow you to capture reader details such as:
- Their email
- Their phone number
- Whatever additional information you ask them to give you
Most importantly, however, it allows you to gauge just how interested the reader is in what you have to offer. These lead magnets can be things like free eBooks, case studies or templates that they can use in their day to day lives.
Once they agree to give you their contact information, you can then follow up by sending them additional content that is geared towards converting them into buyers. After all, they say the money is in the mailing list!
Include Other Media to Educate and Convert
We are a visual species. We like nice shiny things. You can take advantage of that fact by including images and videos as part of your content to help decimate whatever information you want to give your audience. Remember, they will not buy unless they feel as if what you are selling is going to solve a problem they have. However, the only way for them to know that you have the ideal solution for your problem is for you to educate them.
And in this regard, text doesn’t always cut it (it is often too boring and dull for most people). Using images and videos to pass the same basic message can help increase your conversion rate immensely.
It will take a great deal of creativity and learning what your clients want to increase your overall conversion rate. The tips shared above will get you started on the right path, but you must include some niche specific research and tactics as well.
