If you build it, they will come… but may not click: Marketing mistakes that might be messing up your conversion optimization.

A copywriter’s job is to make something easy to understand – an idea, a description, a feature, a direction – so that it’s easy for the reader to make a choice.

“Yes, I’ll click this link” is a choice. “No, I’ll keep scrolling” is also a choice.

“Yes, I’ll donate now” is a choice. “I need an answer to this question before I give” is also a choice.

“Yes, I’ll buy” is a choice. “No, I want something different” is also a choice.

The choice to act, rather than not act, is what we call in the biz a “conversion.” A sale is one kind of conversion, but not all conversions are sales. Every time we invite a customer or potential customer to click here, read more, book a call, donate now, add to cart, and they do it, that’s a conversion.

So one thing that makes skilled conversion copywriter shed tears that rain down into their whiskey is when we craft clear and clever copy that persuades the reader to take that next step, nudged toward the conversion you want to achieve, ready, willing and able to do the exact thing the copy is written to persuade them to do…

… and then doing the thing is too hard!

😢🥛😢🥛😢🥛😢🥛

At This is Marketing, the goal is – always – to make effective use of your marketing budget. It is our job to lead the horse to water, as it were, so they can drink. Part of that job is knowing when there’s something that we anticipate will get in the way of achieving that conversion. It’s like leading the horse to water, and finding out the oasis is fenced. Then we have a new job: to tell you kindly and gently how to take down the fence.

If your marketing efforts aren’t paying off, have a quick look to see if these common mistakes are killing your conversions. These are the most common ones we see, and make sure to fix before clients lose any leads.

The Digital Ad That Doesn’t Pay Off

There’s no point creating great ads that target specific search terms or market segments, invite people to “Learn More,” and then land them on a page that doesn’t serve up what the ad promised to reveal. Lots of clicks on the ads and an equal number of bounces off the landing page tell you that you’re eroding trust and wasting your ad spend. The fix is easy: build the landing page first. Make sure that page is clear, clever and ready to generate its own conversion. Then build digital ads that look the same, sound the same, and represent what the user is really going to find once they get there.

The Form That Demands TMI 

Long, intrusive forms turn people off. Asking for personal information, location details, and business specifics as a potential lead is faced with field after field to fill out is going to result-in form abandonment and reduced lead generation. Only ask for the info you need, at the stage that you need it. Then take advantage of the sales call, post-sales survey, or follow-up email sequence to find out more. This will make each small conversion quicker and easier for a new lead make, and will build trust incrementally, so you’ll have a stronger relationship and more leeway to request information down the line.

The Checkout That Never Ends

You bought it… or did you? There’s no pop up, no thank you, no email confirmation, no emptied cart, not even a spinning wheel that shows the transaction is still processing. Better to abandon cart than buy multiple 3L aubergine, enamel braisers, right? Complex, confusing, and unverified checkout processes are the unmanned cash counters of the online world. Before investing in glam-shots and product descriptions, please make sure you address website user optimization:  Set up an intuitive, transparent, online check out with confirmation, receipts and shipping info… one that works on desktop and mobile devices.

The Contact Us Form That Goes Nowhere 

Every website we build makes contacting “us” super easy. When a website does all this work to educate and invite visitors to take the next step, next steps need to be easy to take. We make sure to place various call-to-action buttons that provide intuitive “next steps” throughout the site, but you never know when someone will want to hop off their decision-fence and reach out to you in their own way. Maybe they don’t want to “add to cart,” or “read more;” maybe they want to decide for themselves what comes next. Don’t lose that free-thinking lead: make a “Contact Us” option easily accessible on every page, provide clear instructions and confirmation messages, and do whatever you have to on the back end to make sure your people get back to your next potential client quickly!

The Subscribe to Who Knows What Request

Subscribe to our newsletter. Is that the blandest sentence ever written? Why would I? What am I going to get? Are you going to drown my poor inbox? What makes you think I’m going to trade my precious email address before I know what’s coming at me? My experience with newsletter sign up copy is, you don’t have to say much but you have to say something. Manage expectations. Keep it simple. “Ideas and inspiration straight to your inbox every other week,” tells me what and how often. “Sign up to be the first to hear about new features,” tells me you might not email me regularly, but subscribing now saves me from having to remember to check in a few weeks to see what’s new.

What if you made your lead’s next step ridiculously easy? 

Changing someone’s mind is a complicated and delicate process. Good copywriters apply all the best practices to write copy that is both persuasive and respectful to the reader. We use language to nudge people to and over the tipping point, so they can apply your excellent solution to resolve their frustrating problem and move on to other things. 

If you build it, marketing will help them find and understand it. Marketing presents the right information at the right time to coax the conversion, urging people to get off the fence and choose. On the other side of that fence, new customers expect an obstacle-free process to get the solution you’ve invited them to use. And not another fence. 

If you think you have UX or optimization issues that are hindering conversions and losing new customers, give us a call. We’ll lead customers to your business, and make it easy and obvious to choose you.