If you are selling products or services directly from your website, it is imperative to formulate a strategy around persuading visitors to become customers. Ignoring this simple concept will result in poor conversion rates, lost revenue opportunities and a complete failure in online marketing effectiveness.

What is a conversion rate?

A conversion rate is the percentage of consumers that perform a specific task while visiting a website. A task can include making a purchase, filling out a form, downloading a white paper, or any other action that a webmaster or marketer deems important. A 2006 study by Intermarket Online states that the average online conversion rate for consumer related products is 2.7%. Additionally, a Forrester Research study of 41 online merchants found that conversion rates typically varied from 1% - 4%. Amazon boasts conversion rates of 6% to 8%.

Online Purchase Behavior

Any marketer knows that website traffic is essential for success; but persuading those visitors to perform a specific action is no easy task. Website traffic without goals, objectives and a specific strategy to persuade visitors to buy is just a wasted revenue opportunity.

It has been proven that when customers are shopping online, they go through a series of stages throughout what is called the buying cycle: want, need, and validation.

I WANT IT

The fact is that the majority of visitors to your website will never buy your product or service. And, unless your hire professionals and constantly optimize your shopping cart experience, you will never be able to boast a 6 to 10% conversion rate for your products or services, as Amazon does. Nonetheless, reinforcing the 'want' factor of the buying cycle will only help your online conversion rates; and possibly seize the attention of those who are just browsing your website.

Persuading a visitor to want your product can be done by using creative imagery throughout your website. The imagery can show the product being used by a celebrity, and really nice product shots can also compliment the web experience. Several big brand companies like T-Mobile, Lexus, and Calvin Klein follow this strategy. Having a celebrity (or any person) in the creative helps your web visitors relate more to your value proposition because it creates more of a personal experience.

A minimal amount of content coupled with the imagery is also good practice. The messaging should focus on the benefits of the product; and not necessarily just the features.

The basic reasons for wanting something can often be stated in very brief, yet powerful phrases: look sexy (Abercrombie), be creative (HP Printers), be a hero (Ford), safety (Volvo), etc. Longer, more descriptive statements address the 'need' factor of the buying cycle.

I NEED IT

Now that you have tapped into the ‘want’ emotion, it's time to focus on the creating the need. Obviously, your product or service must be able to satisfy a particular consumer need (more convenient, saves money, easy to use, etc.) from the beginning. Creating need may seem unethical to some, but this is exactly what "out of the box" marketing must do to tap into the need emotion. Popular author, Seth Godin, makes a similar point in his book, All Marketers Are Liars. He states that good marketing tells a story and reinforces the lies that consumers tell themselves everyday (i.e. I look so sexy in these Abercrombie jeans; more so than the ones at Gap).