Website Conversion: 6 Ways to Force the Issue

There are two things that almost every marketer doing business online is obsessed with these days: social media and conversion. And that's not in reference to social media's conversion/return on investment, because really, why be obsessed with something that's typically negative or flat in terms of contribution?

So in reality, the obsession should be all about website conversion, compensation and measuring what matters. Here are six surefire tips to help you measure site conversion:

1. Know who you are. A home delivery food service is going to have a very different ability to convert than, say, a B-to-B distributor of cranes. A company that specializes in diabetic medical supplies is going to have a much different ability to convert than one that sells clothing for pregnant women. A business that sells perennials is going to have a much different sales (and thus conversion) cycle than one that sells Christmas ornaments.

Determine how much, how often and when consumers need your products or services. To compare your business to others, benchmark yourself to someone similar in your category. When you get a good handle on who you are and how often customers need your product, you can develop appropriate conversion benchmarks.

2. Look at your conversion by source; then set reasonable expectations. Find out where your traffic is coming from. Companies that have all direct/no-referrer traffic will have very different conversion rates than companies with none.

Companies with big brand names (L.L.Bean or Lands' End, for example) are going to have very different conversion rates than a company like Bliss Living. Bliss Living does a lot of things right on its site, but this is a relatively new company that doesn't have a bunch of offline advertising (e.g., direct mail catalogs, solo mailers, TV and radio spots, space ads, etc.) to fuel sales.