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Online Conversions for your Business

Every business has some objective it needs to have its customers complete to stay in business. This is true with brick and mortar stores and businesses who operate completely online. When a customer completes this objective, it is considered a conversion. In internet marketing, a conversion is when a customer completes a desired action online. It is very important to identify what a conversion is in your business model and what you need to do to create online conversions.

What is an online conversion for your business?

Every type of business will have a different answer to this question. If you sell products online and ship them to your customer’s front door, a conversion for your business would be when a customer completes an online order. Let's say every time a you sell a product you make $20. If four people convert, you make $80, so a conversion is worth $20 for your business. Why is this important? $20 allows you to survive another day in the buy low, sell high game. In a business like automotive sales, a conversion could be when a customer on the dealership’s website fills out a form for a quote or more information on a car. It also could be when a customer calls the dealership for more information to work on a phone deal. In an example like this, it is hard to put an exact number for conversion value because of trade-ins, professional negotiators, etc. In most cases, dealerships have an internet closing ratio. Let's say you get 10 form submissions and your internet closing ratio is 20%. You can estimate that you will sell two vehicles (everybody wishes it was that simple). Every form submission and phone call is an opportunity to get in front of a customer.

What do you need to get conversions online?

First and foremost, you need traffic. You need customers on your website, app, social media page, etc. before you can have an online conversion. After you have the customer on your website, you need to guide them towards your desired action. It is very important that your website be easy to navigate, so that your customers do not get lost on their online journey. Along with easy navigation, your website should have a strong call-to-action to guide customers toward your desired action. If this was a perfect science, everybody would have the same digital advertising strategy and website, but some customers simply create their own path. Some customers will follow all your online steps and proceed to print out the page (without filling out the form) and walk in to the dealership. Some customers may pick up the phone and call you about the offer. Some will dismiss your offer altogether. Your customers may have taken the road less traveled to get to your desired action, but without traffic and a call-to-action the journey never would have started.