Tips for Increasing Conversion + 12 Marketing Platform Recommendations

The more customers you convert, the more chances you have at increasing sales.

When you increase conversions, you increase your chance of creating loyal customers and making a sale. That’s why it’s so important to do everything you can to increase conversion rates across all of your marketing channels.

But first, what is considered a conversion? While the actual action that signifies someone has converted may vary, it’s essentially a way to track how many users have completed the action you’ve asked them to.

This could be downloading a whitepaper, signing up for your email newsletter, texting a keyword to join your SMS messages, or clicking an advertisement.

All of these things are important because they show user intent and can help you identify who is a serious lead and who may not be worth your time trying to market to.

In this article, we’ll share a few tips on how to improve your conversion rates and provide you with a few marketing platform recommendations to take your strategy to the next level.

Tips That are Sure to Help Improve Your Conversion Rates

When it comes to improving conversion rates, there are plenty of ideas out there. In this section, we’ll look at a few tips that are sure to help you achieve your conversion rate goals and set you up for continued success.

Make Converting Simple For the Customer

This first point is one of the most important things to consider when you’re trying to increase conversions. That’s because if you make it too complicated, they’re simply going to move on with their lives and may never think about the experience they had on your site again.

Making it easy for your audiences to convert is very important. This basic user flow shows you the exact number of steps the customer must take to complete their action. By keeping it short and to the point, you’re much more likely to see increased conversions. Image courtesy of Hubspot.

Luckily, there are many ways to make the conversion process simple, and it doesn’t require too much extra work on your teams. Here are just a few examples of how you can quickly and easily encourage users to convert:

• A pop-up form on your website that encourages people to subscribe to your email or text marketing channels
• Messages that drive current users to your site through product recommendations based on their previous purchasing habits
• In-store promotions that encourage shoppers to text a specific keyword to join your text marketing subscriber list
• Create a lead magnet that is gated and requires a user to share their email address to see the full content

It’s also essential to keep your forms and conversion steps short and to the point.

If someone wants to subscribe to your email newsletter, the form has ten questions — they’re most likely not going to convert successfully. You need to make sure that the effort and the reward align because people aren’t always willing to give up their personal information for just anything.

Don’t Ignore the Power of the CTA

The next tip we have for you — don’t ignore your call to action.

If you aren’t taking the time to craft unique and eye-grabbing CTAs, then you’re missing an ample conversion opportunity. A well-crafted CTA is often the final element someone needs to decide to convert.

Are you not spending enough time on your CTAs? You’re not alone. Marketers across the industry are simply choosing to ignore the power of the CTA. By taking the time to put a good CTA strategy in place, you’ll be setting yourself up for success and ahead of the competition. Image courtesy of ThumbVista.

By ignoring your CTAs, you’re creating marketing content that doesn’t provide a customer with a next step. You’ll never see an increase in conversion rates if you don’t offer the customer a simple, clear next step.

Simply put, ignoring the power of your CTAs will provide your customers with a dead-end experience and hinder your conversion efforts.

To help avoid this scenario, here are a few CTA best practices that will help to capture the attention of your audiences and improve your conversion rates:

• Make sure your CTA is front and center so that people know exactly where to click
• Use action-oriented text to tell the user what the action they are about to complete is
• Play around with the colors of your CTA buttons and make sure they stand out enough from the other content on the page
• Keep the text on your CTA short and to the point
• Add a little urgency to the copy to entice users to act quickly
• Ensure the primary action you want your customers to take is the most prevalent CTA on the page

By telling the user what the following action they should take, you’re moving them towards converting and through their purchasing journey with your brand. The CTA can often be the first step in a long relationship with your customers — and an opportunity you don’t want to miss.

Provide the Customer with Something of Value

To encourage someone to convert, you need to provide them with something of equal or greater value to what you’re asking them to do.

You need to find something of value to provide your customers in exchange for their personal information. There are many different ways to do this, but one highly effective way is to provide a coupon or incentive to purchase. Image courtesy of Tatango.

Many people are hesitant to provide their personal information. This is why if you’re not providing enough value, you’re going to see low conversion rates. When it comes to what is valuable enough to provide their contact information, it may vary from person to person.

You’ll find that people may be more willing to provide an email address over their cell phone number. Many people feel that giving their cell phone number out is more personal than just providing their email addresses.

So how do you provide your customers with the right amount of value to drive increased conversions? Here are a few examples of offers that many customers may find valuable enough to complete a conversion:

• Discount or coupon codes that a shopper can use on the items they’re interested in purchasing
• Lead magnets that provide valuable content your audiences might be interested in; just make sure only to gate high-quality content
• Participation in a particular program such as a loyalty or points-based savings

Creating value when you’re looking to reach new customers or increase sales will provide you with an increase in conversions and build stronger customer relationships. Your audiences will trust that your brand won’t waste their time with gimmicky, spammy content and will continue to stay more engaged.

Build Cross Channel Experiences for the Buyer’s Journey

Chances are good you’re already using various marketing channels to reach your audiences, but are you using those channels to their full potential?

If you’re not moving towards creating a seamless cross channel marketing experience, then the answer to that question is no. You have a world of opportunity at the tips of your fingers, and all you have to do is step back and look at all of your marketing channels holistically.

There are many touchpoints to consider when looking at the entire customer journey. By bringing all of these different elements together into one comprehensive experience, you can make the most out of each and every one of these interactions along the way and drive higher conversion rates. Image courtesy of SentiSum.

Knowing that it takes an average of 8 touch points with a prospect to land that initial conversion, you need to leverage all of the tools in your marketing toolbox.

By creating a cross channel experience you can make the most out of every touchpoint across all of your marketing channels. This streamlines the experience and can drive leads down the sales funnel more efficiently, resulting in higher conversions and more sales.

Not only will developing cross channel marketing campaigns help to drive increased conversions and sales, but they will also help build stronger brand awareness and expand your reach to attract new subscribers.

12 Marketing Platform Recommendations

When it comes to increasing conversions and managing customer interactions, there’s no better way to do it than by using a marketing automation platform. These tools can help you create, manage, analyze, and improve all of your marketing channels.

There are many different options when it comes to marketing platforms, and every business has its own specific needs. To help sort through the noise, we’ve broken out our platform recommendations into four groupings:

• All-in-One Digital Marketing Platforms
• Email Marketing Platforms
• Text Marketing Platforms
• Social Media Management Platforms

So feel free to jump to the section that best fits your company’s needs– or take notes on a few from each group to learn how they can help you achieve your goals.

All-in-One Digital Marketing Platforms

If you’re looking for a marketing tool that can help you do it all, then these are the platforms you’ll want to check out. Each of the following platforms will allow you to manage multiple marketing channels, customer data, and so much more.

1. Listrak

The Listrak platform is a great all-in-one digital marketing tool. It provides you with the capabilities you need to create content and manage customer relationships across various channels while making it easy to develop a comprehensive cross-channel experience.

Pricing: This platform offers a wide variety of services, so pricing is based on specific business needs. To find out more about what the pricing may look like for your business, you’ll want to contact a Listrak representative.

Highlighted Capabilities: 

• Manage numerous marketing channels including, email, SMS/MMS, social, mobile push, and more from one centralized platform
• Create cross channel marketing campaigns that seamlessly interact with customers from one channel to the next
• Capture a complete 360-degree profile of your customers and gain valuable insights to improve your marketing efforts
• Integrate predictive technology into your marketing campaigns to identify opportunities to engage with customers based on real-time and historical data

Listrak is a digital marketing platform that can grow with the needs of your business and provide you with additional resources to keep that momentum going.

2. Omnisend

This platform is an excellent option for businesses looking for an eCommerce-driven marketing tool. With the ability to automate your efforts on multiple channels, including email and SMS, you’ll be able to do more with your time while increasing customer engagement and conversions.

Pricing: Pricing for this platform is based on the number of contacts you have and includes four plans.

The following are the starting prices based on 500 contacts for each plan, the Free plan, the Standard plan starting at $16 per month, the Pro plan starting at $99 per month, and the Enterprise plan with customized pricing.

Highlighted Capabilities:

• Increase conversions with popups, landing pages, wheel of fortune games, and signup boxes
• Integrate eCommerce into your marketing channels to not only increase conversions but also drive revenue growth
• Create messages easily with prebuilt templates and a simple drag and drop content editor tool
• Automate workflows that keep your audiences engaged after converting and keep moving them through the sales funnel

Using the Omnisend platform will help you increase conversions and drive subscribers towards purchasing eCommerce integrations.

3. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation platform designed to elevate your email marketing and the entire customer experience. With tools ranging from marketing automation to CRM capabilities, this platform will help your business grow.

Pricing: ActiveCampaign has multiple plan options available that are designed to meet the needs of any business type including, B2C, B2B, and eCommerce. The pricing for plans varies based on the number of contacts you have.

The following are the plan prices based on 500 contacts, the Lite plan starting at $9 per month, the Plus plan starting at $49 per month, the Professional plan starting at $129 per month, the Enterprise plan starting at $229 per month.

Highlighted Capabilities:

• Manage and automate various marketing channels, including email, SMS, WhatsApp, and more
• Tap into machine learning and predictive analytics technology to improve the content your serving customers based on real insights
• Make creating messages simple with predesigned templates and a simple drag and drop editing tool
• Keep up on all of your sales communications to cut down wasted time and increase revenue potential

ActiveCampaign is a good solution for companies focused on improving the overall customer experience and automating various marketing and sales processes.

Email Marketing Platforms

Not sure you need that all-in-one platform yet? If you’re simply looking for a tool to help manage your email marketing, then this is the section you’ll want to tune into. The following recommended platforms will provide you with the capabilities you’ll need to reach and exceed your email marketing goals.

1. ConvertKit

If you’re a small business or individual creator working to build your brand, ConvertKit is a great option to consider. It’s designed to help grow your audience, build a community, and increase sales and revenue with eCommerce.

Pricing: Plan pricing is based on the number of subscribers you have, and there are three plan options available.

The following prices are based on 1,000 subscribers, the Free plan, the Creator plan $29 per month, and the Creator Pro plan $59 per month.

Highlighted Capabilities:

• Reach new customers and increase conversions with custom landing pages and lead magnets that are automatically downloaded
• Send personalized emails to your audiences to start nurturing them and building stronger relationships
• Simplify email creation with email templates that are ready for you to populate your content into
• Automate emails to send messages to your audiences at the right time and help move them through the sales funnel

As mentioned, ConvertKit is a great resource for individual creators and small businesses looking to get their feet off the ground. If you fit into this niche, then you’ll want to consider this platform.

2. AWeber

AWeber is a marketing automation platform that focuses on email, landing page development, and web push notifications. That means you’ll get a little more than just email marketing but won’t have to feel overwhelmed with the idea of managing too many channels in one place — allowing you to focus on the area you’re most interested in.

Pricing: There are two pricing tracks available, the standard pricing and high volume pricing.

The standard pricing includes the Pro plan, $16.15 per month, and the Free plan. While the high volume pricing is customized based on specific business needs.

Highlighted Capabilities: 

• Build stronger customer relationships by sending targeted emails that engage users based on real-insights such as welcome campaigns and celebrating special occasions
• Increase sales by developing an abandoned cart email series or identify opportunities to upsell relevant products
• Automate email sending to make connecting with your audiences at the right time simple
• Use pre-built campaigns to get started quickly and avoid recreating the wheel for every campaign you launch

AWeber will provide you with the email marketing tools you need to get started creating and sending successful campaigns to your customers.

3. GetResponse

GetResponse is an inbound marketing platform that will help you increase conversion by growing your audiences and engaging with customers at the right moment. This tool has a solution for you whether you’re just starting your own business or part of a large corporation.

Pricing: This platform has four plan options available, and pricing varies based on your contact list’s size.

The following prices are based on 1,000 contacts, the Basic plan $15 per month, the Plus plan $49 per month, the Professional plan $99 per month, and the Max plan customized based on business needs.

Highlighted Capabilities:

• Develop autoresponders that follow up and nurture your subscribers without the need for manual intervention
• Ensure your emails are delivered at the right time with their Perfect Timing and Time Travel delivery tools
• Make email creation a breeze with intuitive design tools that allow you to create eye-catching messages every time
• Integrate personalization into your email strategy with custom segments, dynamic content, and more

This tool will allow you to do everything you need to create engaging emails that turn new subscribers into loyal customers. From simplifying the development process to ensuring the most accurate delivery, it’s all covered.

Text Marketing Platforms

So you’ve already got your email marketing under control, but are interested in jumping on the text marketing bandwagon. The tools in this section will be exactly what you’re looking for — whether you’re brand new to the world of SMS marketing or are a seasoned expert.

1. EZTexting

EZTexting is a text marketing platform that provides businesses with everything they need to create, manage, and track their SMS marketing campaigns. Whether you’re looking to increase conversions, drive people to your website, or improve your customer service — it’s all possible with this tool.

Pricing: There are four plan options including, the Value plan starting at $19 per month, the Essentials plan starting at $29 per month, the Premium plan starting at $49 per month, and the Custom plan starting at $299 per month.

Highlighted Capabilities: 

• Engage your audiences and provide them with the value they’re looking for with the help of sales and promotion messages
• Keep audiences up-to-date and in the know with alerts and notifications such as appointment reminders and emergency alerts
• Improve your customer service by improving the scheduling and confirmation process and provide faster response times
• Continue to grow your subscriber base, convert more leads, and better understand your marketing attribution

EZTexting is a great tool for creating one-on-one conversations between your brand and your customers.

2. Birdeye

Birdeye is a text marketing platform with solutions for businesses of all sizes — whether you’re a small business or an enterprise. While this tool is listed in our text marketing section, it does provide a few additional services, including reviews, referrals, surveys, listings, and more.

Pricing: Pricing for this platform is customized based on specific business needs. You’ll need to connect with a Birdeye representative to learn more about pricing based on your needs.

Highlighted Capabilities:

• Send mass text messages to your entire audience or select segments to get the word out about upcoming sales and events
• Engage in one-to-one conversations with customers, even if they’re responding to a mass email sent to everyone
• Integrate personalization into each message with personalized text templates
• Add imagery or attach PDFs to your texts to add an extra layer of content to your messages

Birdeye provides businesses of all sizes with the tools they need to reach their audiences through SMS marketing and still provides companies with the ability to grow and expand.

3. Textedly

Textedly is an SMS and MMS marketing platform that provides businesses with a range of powerful features to elevate their text marketing strategy. This tool provides you with everything you need to create successful text marketing campaigns and connect with your audiences via smartphones.

Pricing: This platform provides customers with a wide range of plan options including, the free Starter plan, the Bronze plan $24 per month, the Plus plan $39 per month, the Enterprise plan $50 per month, the Elite plan $70 per month, the Business plan $140 per month, the Silver plan $210 per month, the Premium plan $350 per month, the Pro plan $500 per month, the Gold plan $700 per month, the Platinum plan $1,400 per month, the Diamond plan $2,100 per month, and the Champion plan $2,800 per month.

Highlighted Capabilities:

• Make it easy for your customers to subscribe to your SMS marketing campaigns with customized text keywords
• Schedule and automate message sending to ensure you never miss an opportunity to engage with your subscribers
• Engage in two way SMS messaging to connect with users on a more personalized level
• Gain insights into campaign analytics and reporting to understand how your text messages are performing

If you’re looking for a text marketing platform that provides you with the tools you need to increase customer engagement, and that provides flexibility in pricing and plan options — this is the perfect tool for you.

Social Media Management Platforms

Last but not least, we’ll provide you with a few marketing platforms that can help you manage and increase conversions on your social media channels. Each of these tools will empower you to make the most out of every social interaction you have with your customers.

1. Buffer

Buffer is a social media marketing platform that allows you to track and manage your social engagements from one central location. By responding and interacting with your social followers quickly and straightforwardly, you can easily build an engaged following.

Pricing: There are two plan tracks available, one specifically for publishing and the other focuses on analytics.

The plans available for the publishing track include, the Free plan, the Pro plan $15 per month, the Premium plan $65 per month, and the Business plan $99 per month. The plans available for the analytics track include the Pro plan $35 per month and the Premium plan $50 per month.

Highlighted Capabilities:

• Make engaging with your audiences across your social channels simple and quickly respond to new comments and interactions
• Prioritize your work with the help of smart alerts that use machine learning to let you know if a post has questions, negative sentiment, or comment about a purchase
• Track and report on the performance of your social channels from one centralized dashboard
• Improve collaboration across your team to create the most relevant, high-quality content to share on your social channels

Buffer is a great option for businesses looking for a social sharing tool that will also help to improve the internal content creation collaboration process.

2. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that will provide you with the ability to do more on the social channels you’re active on in less time. Whether you’re looking to automate message scheduling, improve social listening, or better understand how your efforts are performing — this platform can do it all.

Pricing: There are four plan options including, the Professional plan $49 per month, the Team plan $129 per month, the Business plan $599 per month, and the Enterprise plan that provides customized pricing based on business needs.

Highlighted Capabilities:

• Grow your social following by creating quality content and integrating it into the Hootsuite dashboard to make posting it simple
• Automate and schedule messages to launch on all of your social channels to save yourself time in the long run
• Stay ahead of social conversations, stay ahead of industry trends, and better understand what your customers are saying about your brand
• Track and analyze your current social campaigns and messages to learn what works and what doesn’t, then adjust for future efforts

Hootsuite is an excellent tool for businesses that want to manage various social channels from one centralized platform and save time through automating processes.

3. Social Pilot

SocialPilot is a cost-effective social media marketing tool that will help you achieve all of your social goals. Providing you everything you need from connecting accounts, scheduling posts, and analyzing campaigns — this is a great solution for businesses of all sizes.

Pricing: There are multiple plan options available including, the Agency plan $127.50 per month, the Studio plan $85 per month, the Small Team plan $42.50 per month, the Professional plan $25.50 per month, and customized plans are available.

Highlighted Capabilities:

• Connect and manage 50+ social profiles from one location to create a unified social scheduling process
• Understand how your social posts are performing with detailed analytics and reporting
• Keep track and respond to all the conversations happening with your brand across channels
• Improve collaboration across your team, assign tasks, and review posts for approval before they post

If you’re looking for a social marketing tool that provides you with all the capabilities you need at a lower price, this is a platform you’ll want to check out.

Increase Conversions and Find the Right Platform for Your Needs

If you’re looking to increase conversions and find the right platform to help manage all of your marketing needs — this article should have provided you with a great starting point. Now it’s on you to take these tips and platform recommendations and put them to work for your business.