Guest post about Lead Conversion by Patrick Foster, eCommerce entrepreneur & writer

Let’s Talk eCommerce Lead Conversion.

E-commerce lead conversion can be very complex. With many different stages of lead conversion, you must ensure that your online store ticks all of the boxes to assist in the process from start to finish. Whether you’re looking to generate more cold leads, nourish existing warm leads, or encourage leads to become buyers, this article will have actionable tips that you can employ for your online business. It’s all about convenience: your store needs to be streamlined and contain all the information and persuasive language that your leads need to make a purchase. Let’s explore how you can boost your conversion rates.

Boss that information flow

Your customers need to see you and your brand as experts in your field. This will help you to cultivate trust and boost your conversion rate because people will view your online store as a reliable source of information and products. If you can gain this coveted ‘expert’ status, then when something happens in your industry, your audience will come to you to find out more.

For an eCommerce store, the types of content you should include on your site are:

• Fantastic product descriptions, perfectly explaining how each product works in great detail. If your products are techy, avoid overusing jargon. If you struggle with this, consider employing professional copywriters to do the job for you. Colibri Digital Marketing offers copywriting services, which could be a great solution
• Customer reviews – positive and negative (if you cut out the critical reviews, then you will look less legitimate)
• Product demonstrations with infographics, images, or video content
• Blog posts with industry/product news and useful information for your customers
• Buying guides and how-to guides – these will really help you to appear an expert in your industry. MacRumors.com does this really well; the affiliate site employs a neutral voice to accurately describe the different types of products in every category and recommends which ones to buy. Your customers want quality content, full of information, in return for their time spent viewing your site

eCommerce Content Benefits

All of these pieces of informative content can be tailored to meet your leads’ needs at any point in the conversion funnel. For example, if you are looking to turn cold leads into warm ones, it would be best practice not to be too pushy and sales-focused with your content – you want to introduce them gradually to what you have on offer. Warm and qualified leads are closer to the buying stage of the sales cycle: you have more of a license to plug your product or service into them to generate a sale.

Regular content is a great way to boost your site’s SEO rankings. Create content with plenty of prime keywords, correct use of formatting (such as H1s, H2s, and bulleted lists), and ensure that you answer questions your potential customers would likely ask. Of course, the higher your site ranks on search engines, the higher your chances will be of generating traffic and leads for your online store. For further guidance, check out this article on best practice for writing buyer’s guides.

By ensuring that you have a clear call-to-action on each page, you can convert more cold leads into warm ones and capture their contact details. If you’re looking for more ways to produce lead-generating content that incorporates a compelling call-to-action, think about how you can use more emotive language and urgency when talking to users. Try to awaken their innermost desires and fears.

Smooth sailing for mobile devices

Shopping cart abandonment is a real problem for eCommerce merchants, with 69% of online carts being abandoned. That’s a lot of unconverted leads. There are several ways to overcome and recover from this, particularly regarding your store’s mobile device performance.

Let’s explore some of them:

• The transaction process must be optimized for mobile users, including payment options. Your customers don’t want to spend time inputting all of their personal details and creating an account to make a purchase – allow them to check out as a guest and provide one-click payment options like PayPal. This will seriously increase the chances of them making that purchase
• Your store needs to translate well onto the screen and have a high level of usability. With mobile devices fast becoming the chief purchasing medium, the importance of m-commerce is very clear. Large fonts, clever use of white space, and a grid design used for product images are just a few of the things you can do to ensure your site is user-friendly, regardless of the device. Using an out-of-the-box platform like the Shopify website builder can help you get up and running with a mobile-optimized theme in no time. Take a look at Neil Patel’s in-depth mobile optimization guide for more help
• Your leads should be able to easily pick up where they left off with an online transaction on their device. For example, suppose a shopping cart is abandoned or saved for later on a desktop. In that case, your shopping cart abandonment email should enable them to continue with the process and make a transaction on their mobile device (and vice versa). Read more about session regeneration here

With a little care and attention, you can improve the mobile UX of your store a great deal. Investing in the mobile design of your store will provide plenty of ROI and help to boost your conversion rates.

Proactive customer support

Proactive and helpful customer support can assist you with leads at all stages, from lead capture to brand recommendation.

According to Forrester Research, 44% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live person is the most important feature that a website can offer. Your live chat could send an automated message to each visitor to your page, and if the visitor asks any questions about products or services, this task could be forwarded and picked up by a virtual assistant. Offering your customers the chance to ask questions about potential solutions to their problems is a surefire way to boost your chances of selling to them.

Post-purchase customer support is also extremely important – you don’t want to leave your customers feeling abandoned just because you have received their money. If they have any problems with your product, they should receive expert advice, especially with high-ticket items. With their live chat, Nikon offers excellent customer service, enabling their customers to troubleshoot their cameras. On top of this, post-purchase support (by email, phone, or live chat) will make your customers more likely to recommend your store to others. Recommendations are a fantastic way to gain new leads and nourish and convert existing ones.

Key Takeaways

E-commerce lead conversion is an art form. However, your lead conversion funnel can become a well-oiled machine with a bit of TLC. Your store needs to be super convenient, with everything your potential customer needs in one easily accessible place – regardless of device.

Which of these tips will you implement to improve your eCommerce lead conversion? Let us know in the comments.

Patrick Foster, eCommerce entrepreneur & writer
Writing is my forté: I cover a variety of subjects, from eCommerce to social media. I love sharing my knowledge and opinions with others in the industry. Got something to share with me? Please do get in touch.

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