10 Essential Elements to Boost Consumer Conversions on Your Website

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Creating a website that effectively converts visitors into customers is a key objective for any business in the building industry. Whether you’re selling structures online or just generating leads, optimizing your website for conversions can significantly impact your bottom line. 

In this article, we are going to walk you through how we designed the IdeaRoom website, identifying ten essential elements to boost consumer conversions.

1. Clear Value Proposition

A clear and compelling value proposition tells visitors why they should choose your product or service over competitors. It should be prominently displayed on your homepage and throughout your site.

Tips:

• Be Concise: Use clear, straightforward language.
• Highlight Benefits: Focus on what sets your product or service apart.
• Use Visuals: Incorporate images or videos that reinforce your message.

Take a look at the IdeaRoom website. When you land on our homepage, we let you know exactly what we offer: The Best Experience for Your Customers. We follow up with some additional subtext to highlight some outcomes that you can expect from our 3D design software, including empowering your sales team and turning buyers into fans. 

2. Strong Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

CTAs guide visitors towards taking the desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or requesting more information.

Tips:

• Be Direct: Use action-oriented language (e.g., “Buy Now,” “Sign Up Today”).
• Stand Out: Use contrasting colors to make CTAs stand out from the rest of the content.
• Place Strategically: Position CTAs in a prominent position. Do not make customers scroll to find it, and make sure this is the case for both desktop and mobile!

On the IdeaRoom website, we give prospects in search of a 3D designer three immediate options for getting in touch to learn more about selling buildings online. 

We also make sure that our prompts to “get started” and “schedule a call” are not hidden when someone is viewing our site from a mobile device.

If you have a 3D configurator, make it one of your primary CTAs!

Your configurator will give prospects instant feedback and a beautiful, accurate copy of their building design. For maximum effectiveness, your configurator CTA should be on the homepage of your website and visible without having to scroll. 

Here are a few CTAs to get you started:

• Design Your Dream Building 
• Configure Your Storage Shed
• Create Your Own Carport
• Customize Your Pole Barn
• Personalize a Pre-Engineered Steel Building

3. User-Friendly Navigation

Easy-to-use navigation helps visitors find what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently. If users can’t find what they need, they’re likely to leave your site.

Tips:

• Simplify Menus: Keep navigation menus simple and intuitive.
• Use Descriptive Labels: Use clear, descriptive labels for menu items.
• Include a Search Bar: A search bar allows users to find specific content easily.

At IdeaRoom, we intentionally limit our menu for a clean, visually-appealing presentation, hiding relevant links in submenus. For example, IdeaRoom has four products for each of the industries we serve: carports, sheds, post frame and red iron. Instead of packing everything in one place, we link out to an offer for a 3D designer that suits each industry. 

4. Chat

Today’s consumers expect omni-channel communication! If you don’t have a chat widget on your website, and if you aren’t ingesting chats from other relevant platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, you are missing out on important opportunities to engage prospective customers in real time!

Tips:

• Embed Everywhere: Make sure that wherever they are on your website, customers can easily shoot you a message.
• Automated Prompts: Don’t be afraid to rig up a standard message that fires after a prospective customer has been on your site for a certain amount of time. 
• Showcase Your Team: Can you make customers feel more comfortable by showing them that they are talking to a real person, and not a bot? 

For example, the IdeaRoom website has a chat system that we use to help educate customers via direct messaging. We have a few automated questions to help route people to the right information, before a friendly salesperson dives in with details.

5. High-Quality Content

Content that provides value to your visitors can help build trust and authority, keeping them engaged and encouraging conversions.

Tips:

• Blog Posts: Regularly update your blog with informative and engaging posts.
• Product Descriptions: Write detailed and compelling product descriptions.
• Multimedia: Use videos, infographics, and high-quality images to enhance your content.

At IdeaRoom, we focus on a few areas of content production. First, we want to write articles like this one, that help both customers and prospects sell buildings effectively online. We also like to showcase our clients, which is a great option for businesses in the shed, carport, post frame and red iron industries. For example, if you’ve recently had a customer with a great experience, reach out to them and ask if you can interview them! Your prospects will be able to learn more about their buying journey, your business, and perhaps a few tips and tricks for designing and purchasing their own building.

6. Social Proof

Social proof, such as customer reviews, testimonials, and case studies, can significantly influence a visitor’s decision to convert.

Tips:

• Display Reviews: Show customer reviews and ratings prominently on product pages.
• Use Testimonials: Include testimonials from satisfied customers.
• Highlight Case Studies: Share detailed case studies that showcase your success stories.

On the IdeaRoom site, we provide quotes from real salespeople who have saved time and money with one of our 3D configurators. By linking to a case study, other prospects can explore a real review from a customer in the shed industry. 

7. Style Pages

Now this isn’t something that we have on the IdeaRoom website because, well, we don’t sell buildings! But this is an important one for anyone in the shed, carport, red iron or post frame industries.

The addition of style pages enables your business to qualify and educate potential customers by allowing them to visualize the type of building they are interested in, and continue to expand on which style would work best for their specific needs. You can put the top 3 - 4 styles in a module like this beneath the main banner image on your home screen:

Tips:

• Produce Building Images With Your 3D Designer: You should be able to leverage your 3D configurator to design structures, save high-quality .png images of the designs, and save links back to the specific designs.
• Leverage Keywords: Next, link each of these cards to a corresponding style page for each building type you offer. Featuring a simple and concise phrase to express reasons why a customer would purchase this style of building, or title them with purpose-driven names that can help to increase your search engine ranking when those terms are searched.

8. Effective Landing Pages

Landing pages that are specifically designed for marketing campaigns can significantly boost conversions by providing targeted information and CTAs.

Tips:

• Focus on One Goal: Each landing page should focus on a single conversion goal.
• Match Ad Messaging: Ensure the landing page content matches the messaging of the ad or link that brought the visitor there.
• Simplify Forms: Keep forms short and only ask for essential information.

When IdeaRoom has an inquiry, we need to understand what that business wants to represent in their 3D designer in order to point them at the right product. One of our primary lead capture mechanisms that helps us immediately get customers to the right offer to meet their goals is a landing page with an interactive quiz:

It’s kind of like our own price quote configurator! Luckily for folks in the building industry, a 3D designer is an engaging, high-converting landing page that you can use to rapidly educate prospects. Because of this, your 3D designer should be the primary place you send leads, incorporating it as the primary CTA in emails, texts, digital ads, and even print QR codes. 

9. Links to Social & Options to Follow Along

Are you making sure that prospects can follow along with your business in the format that best suits their preferences? Make sure that you have multiple pathways for new visitors to stay on top of new products, announcements and updates from your company. This typically means providing access to your social media accounts, as well as an option to subscribe to a blog, promotional emails, or a newsletter.

Tips:

• Use Social Buttons: Link directly to the social media platforms where you regularly publish content.
• Add an Opt-In Form: Enable prospects to submit their contact information, allowing you to get in touch with relevant content and offers.

At IdeaRoom, we try to make sure that we are driving both prospects and customers to our various social accounts. It is a great way for us to engage with them in more of a fun, interactive environment. Social media is also a great place for people to get to know us with exposure to some of our behind the scenes activities like team gatherings, conferences, and more. 

10. FAQs, What’s Next & Why

Your customers likely have questions about your business. How long does it take for a shed to be delivered? How do I prep a site for a pre-engineered steel building? What is the process for pole barn installation? Adding a section with helpful answers such as “how we work” or “what you can expect from us” will set consumers up for success. 

Tips:

• FAQs: Answer the most common questions before they are asked. Point to this page as a resource in email and text follow ups.
• Outline a Process or Bullet the Highlights: Do you have a routine process from design to delivery? Or a handful of features that distinguish you from the competition? Outline them clearly as a standalone informational section on your homepage.

On our site, we focus on a section with key IdeaRoom features than help our customers sell more buildings online:

Conclusion

Incorporating these ten essential elements into your website can significantly boost consumer conversions and create a website that not only attracts visitors but also converts them into loyal customers.

Investing time and resources into optimizing your website for conversions is crucial in today’s digital marketplace. By ensuring that your site meets the needs and expectations of your visitors, you can improve user experience, build trust, and ultimately drive more sales and growth for your business.