With nearly 2 billion websites populating the World Wide Web at the beginning of 2019, the struggle to ensure that your site stands out among the rest becomes more and more crucial as you aim for more sales and higher conversion rates.
Luckily, we have some good news—this task isn’t as hopeless as it might seem! Despite your web page’s existence in a vast sea of competitors, it’s not impossible to boost your conversion rates and watch your site bustle with success. All you need is a little personalization.
Personalization—Proven to Work
Website personalization is a must if you’re hoping to transform your site’s hits to conversions. This means you’ll need to take steps in order to ensure that every visitor is receiving an experience tailored just for them each time they visit your site.
Today’s technology makes it much easier for you to accomplish these goals by helping you to gather information about each of your site’s visitors. Even the most basic information gathered from your consumers such as name, location, birthday, purchase history, and browsing habits will enable you to craft a unique experience for each user.
Still skeptical? A State of Personalization Report released by Segment in 2017 provides some statistics that will have you jumping to action. 44% of online shoppers indicated that they would be more likely to make another purchase in the future after one personalized shopping experience, and nearly half of customers said that personalized recommendations resulted in making a purchase they did not originally plan.
Making the Move Toward Personalization
Personalizing your site utilizes many of the same tenants as creating the site itself—ease of navigation, user experience, and creativity are equally important when bolstering your site with experiences tailored to each visitor. This means that your opportunities for powerful personalization are practically endless, but we’ve taken the liberty of listing some personalization strategies which will help you lay a foundation for success.
1. Assume the role of a customer. What would you want to see?
Before we delve into specific strategies you can use to fill your website with personalization, let’s think more broadly for a moment. Take some time to brainstorm with your team, and step back. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who will be visiting your site—customers, clients, and any other members of your target audience.
Consider the sites you’ve visited recently, particularly pages that have led you to make a purchase or sign up for a newsletter. What about the site grabbed you and kept you engaged? Chances are that, if it worked for you, it will work for others, too.
2. Get on a first-name basis.
No matter the type of conversions you’re looking for, there’s no denying the power of using a visitor’s first name. A straightforward but friendly greeting added to the header of your homepage will make each of your site’s members feel valued and unique, putting them in a better mood and priming them to move forward with purchases, downloads, registrations, and other conversions.
3. Don’t let customers forget about you. Save the cart!
We all lead busy lives, and distractions abound. Ensure that you don’t lose sales by saving the cart of visitors who leave your site with a full cart before making a purchase. This simple personalization technique is not only convenient for your potential customers, but it increases the chance that site visitors will follow through with their purchases and keep your conversion rates on the rise.
4. Recommend similar items.
With the help of a user’s browsing habits, further, personalize your visitors’ experience with suggested content. We’re going to go out on a limb and say that this suggestion is one of the most important. In fact, 36% (on average—some categories registered as much as 50%) of polled consumers indicated interest in personalized services and product suggestions. Even more, users said that they’d be willing to pay more and wait longer for the delivery of these customized products.
5. Increase urgency with a personalized call to action.
If you’re hoping to increase your site’s conversion rates, having visitors close your web page won’t get you very far. Program a friendly pop-up offering an additional discount or one last pitch when a user attempts to navigate away from the page.
Better yet, further personalize your website by combining this strategy with first name utilization. This will directly encourage those browsing your site to remain on the page a little longer, and seeing their name will ensure that they take pause.
6. Location, location, location.
Create a unique experience for your visitors based on their location by acknowledging their country or state of residence, having your site load in a language appropriate for that location, then displaying products relevant to seasonal trends including national holidays or gear that’s fitting for the weather.
Take this technique to the next level by providing unique graphics or product recommendations based on the daily weather in a given location—recommend eBook downloads or umbrellas for a rainy day, for example.
Not only will this geographic personalization make your site’s visitors feel at home while browsing, but it can do a lot to attract international visitors, too.
7. Fill your calendar with birthdays.
By collecting visitors’ birthdays during registration, you set yourself up for an easy opportunity to send personalized emails on their special day. These emails can contain a link to your site with a special banner (including the customer’s name) offering a birthday discount code or an exclusive freebie. While the gesture itself is simple, the impact can be huge.
8. Keep track of past purchases and reward loyalty.
Another valuable advantage of tracking your customers’ spending habits is the opportunity to reward them for their patronage and keep them coming back for more. By offering particular rewards to customers who spend the most money, you’ll make your most loyal users feel valued. Consider implementing a VIP program or other rewards program, increasing the value of benefits for those who spend the most money and shop regularly.
Customers who know that they have special discounts, early access to new releases, or exclusive rights to some merchandise will be more likely to maintain their purchasing habits. You’ll make your best customers happy and keep raking in those conversions.
As we said, this is only the tip of the iceberg. As artificial intelligence marketing continues to evolve, so will further opportunities for website personalization. For now, get started with the suggestions we’ve made above, and it won’t be long before you see your conversion rates on the up and up.