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How to get on the first page of Digg in less than 4 weeks. 
Last week I attended a webinar held by elastic path’s Jason Billingsley with guest speaker Mellissa Burdon of Future Now. The topic was 7 ways to boost your holiday conversion rate. It’s always nice to hear the guys at Future Now talking about conversion, and I thought that this webinar was particularly interesting.
The webinar’s main goal was to present 7 solutions that can be easily implemented to improve conversion rate. I will list the 7 points and elaborate on my thoughts of each:
1. Product Images Tell a Story
Your products need to elaborate more on their details and features within the photographs or images representing them.So basically, when I see the dress I want to be online through several different angles, and encourages me a hundred times more to buy the item. Of course this is not always a simple task. If you’re an ecommerce site, going through and changing all your images will be a challenge. You need to decide which images truly need to be elaborated upon. And really, depending on the product you may only need one really good image.
2. Headlines
We’ve said this over and over again: you need to hook your readers with a great headline. The webinar explained 3 different ways you can write the headline. Other sites such as copyblogger and Jacob Nielsen have great tips about how to write the perfect headline.
3. Calls To Action
Again, it’s true that calls to action throughout your document, placed in the right positions will significantly boost conversion. The correct placement of calls to action will help walk your visitors through the conversion funnel.
Visitors are coming at different stages in the buying process, ESPECIALLY during the holiday season. People tend to shop around to find the best deals, etc. So what you need to do meet the buyer at which ever stage he/she may be.
4. Point of Action Assurances
If you want your visitors to buy, make sure you help them feel at ease to give out their personal information. Nobody wants to give out information to insecure site.
5. Make Contact Info Obvious
Maximize on your conversions, if you have a call center, by placing your number somewhere visible (like the top left corner of the webpage). Sometimes your visitors want to call to get some type of clarification on an item. Little changes can truly go a long way.
6. Don’t make your visitors wait
Sometimes your site is all flashy and fancy, and quite attractive, but in order for your visitors to see your images, it takes 1 minute to load! In this day in age, people hate waiting, ESPECIALLY internet users. Pages should load in less than 3 seconds.
7.   Relevant Scent
Don’t let the visitor figure out your site, you need to figure out what stage of the buying process they are in. Okay, so what now your buyers are similar to dogs! No silly!! Let me explain: Let’s take me for an example: I have a toddler and an infant, I’m on the go all the time. I am looking for a simple, light, and easy to use double baby stroller. It also needs to be durable and comfortable for both children in the various stages of their growth. So, I go online to search for the term “double baby stroller”.
I know what features I want, but I don’t have a clue which stroller presented is the best for my particular needs, unless the information is clearly stated (the scent).
Well, when I land on the site, I don’t want a page full of jogging strollers, and heavy strollers! I want an easy way to find the light, simple to use strollers. The idea is your visitor needs to be able to SNIFF their way through the buying process. So if I land on a site that presents a functionality that helps me find the stroller with the features of my choice, that’s a site I will buy from. I also like to read reviews, so if I find a site that has everything easily displayed, they are guiding me through the conversion process by presenting all the information I am looking for, and I want right under my nose.
In a nutshell, those are the 7 points, which are great to help boost conversion. I don’t know if they are all “quick fixes,” it takes time to figure out your buyer, and that is done through understanding your market and the creation of personas. But if you’re a site with no Calls to Action for example, placing a few here and there can boost your sales significantly. If you’re a site with flash and slow loading times, that’s an easy fix. Your headlines and crucial, and that may help you see people stay a bit longer on your site rather than exiting immediately! Some other ideas I have for to boost your conversion rates this holiday season are:
8. A clean site design
When I visit a site that looks unprofessional, I’m outta there faster than you can say wait! Your site design can easily be cleaned up by removing unnecessary images, using normal and toned down colors, and making sure the copy is free of grammatical errors or slang.
9. Adding testimonials and reviews
Your visitors need the assurance that you are someone they can trust. What better way than what other clients have said about you! Give your visitors easy access to the testimonials so they can see what others have to say about you. Additionally, like the above examples, reviews are essential to help buyers make the plunge. If I read a bad review, it does not mean that I will not purchase the item. It just means that I am aware of this issue that may come up and I will continue reading other reviews until I am fully satisfied (or dissatisfied) with the product. If I see an item with 0 reviews, I almost NEVER purchase it. Elastic Path actually also had a webinar about the power of reviews on e-commerce sites.
10. Incentive Offers
Well you’re up against thousand of ecommerce and retailers out there. What can you offer your visitor that’s going to give them that extra encouragement to go with you over the 10 other sites they’ve visited? Free delivery? 25% off of their order? You have to stand out amongst the competition, so know who and what you are up against, as well as understand what your buyers want!
Any other ideas on some things you can do to boost conversion rates? Share your thoughts!!
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