8 Website Conversion Barriers

You’ve spent a lot of time building and polishing your website, and investing in your digital marketing strategy, but your conversion rate is still abysmal. How could this be possible? 

The culprits behind this problem are most likely conversion barriers. They’re invisible-yet-deadly enemies of your business that keep silently driving your customers away. 

Luckily, there are actions you can take (some of which are incredibly easy) to transform your website from a digital maze into a well-oiled conversion-generation machine. 

Let’s dive right in, identify these conversion saboteurs, and discuss effective strategies for eliminating them and earning a healthy website conversion rate. 

Barrier 1: Customers Don’t Know What You’re Selling

One of the most common conversion barriers is a lack of communication clarity. If your customers don’t understand what your product does and how it benefits them, they won’t be motivated to buy it. It’s that simple. 

It’s essential to communicate your product or service’s value proposition clearly and concisely, focusing on the customer’s needs and how your product meets them. In other words, potential customers aren’t interested in reading about how your product or service is amazing. They only want to know how it will improve their lives. 

So, when creating your website copy, take the “what’s in it for me” approach and put yourself in your customers’ shoes. 

Here are some tips to help you do this. 

Know Your Customer

You won’t be able to clearly communicate your value proposition if you’re not on first-name terms with your target audience. 

That’s where buyer personas come in, to give you a sense of direction. These semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers will help you tailor your marketing message, tone of voice, and style that will resonate with your audience.    

In order to build effective buyer personas, you need to research the following (and more): 

• Who are your potential customers? 
• What are their pain points? 
• What are their goals? 
• What are their preferences? 
• How do they make decisions? 

Prioritize Customer Value over Product Function

Another way to overcome this barrier is to emphasize the benefits of your product – and not just its features. 

Features refer to your product’s functionality, and they are about what your product does, while benefits are what your product can do for your customers. Benefits give your audience a reason to buy by answering the question “So what?” and showing how your product solves a problem or makes their lives easier. 

In other words, your customers don’t really care if your vacuum cleaner is powered by a 1200W motor, but you’ll definitely get their attention if you say that it will easily pick up even the stubborn debris stuck in the smallest cracks.

For example, Going understands that its customers want to find the cheapest flights without having to search for and compare numerous deals. The messaging on their Find Cheap Flights landing page is simple and customer-centric: “At Going, cheap flights find you,” or “Tired of searching? Get it delivered.”

Such a narrative hits home and addresses their audience’s biggest pain points. There are no features listed on this landing page; the only thing that matters is reassuring customers that they won’t have to overpay for plane tickets or spend hours trying to find the right deal. 

Demonstrate Your Offering in Action

Demonstrating how your product or service works can be an effective way to communicate its value and functionality. This tactic can also reduce uncertainty and skepticism by providing proof of concept and allowing potential customers to take the product for a spin and see if it meets their needs. 

As a result, they will be more likely to purchase from you. Plus, the odds of them returning the product, complaining about it, or asking for a refund will be significantly lower. 

MarketBeat, a platform that provides market data and analysis for traders, sells a report that offers insights into the stock market’s top 50 dividend stocks.

Instead of hiding the report behind a paywall and describing how awesome it is to build leads, they give potential customers partial access indefinitely and only charge certain premium filters. This sneak peek allows potential customers to see for themselves how valuable and useful the report is, trusting that they will want to pay for it.