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If you want to increase your conversion rates, then you need to improve customer experience on your business website. Here are some ideas for doing that.

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Did you know that the average conversion rate for websites is 2.35%?

Of course, the number will vary depending on what industry you’re in. But some of the best sites out there have conversion rates of 11% or even more!

Does that have you reconsidering how your business website is structured? Well, it should.

If you want to increase your conversion rates, then you need to improve customer experience on your business website.

Interested in hearing more? Then read on. We’ll give you a quick guide on how to improve the customer experience.

Make Sure Your Website Isn’t Bloated with Features

When creating a website, it can be exciting exploring all the features it has, whether you’re creating it yourself or having someone do it for you. But there is such thing as too much of a good thing.

You want to make sure your website isn’t bogged down with every single feature you can put on it. Keeping it simple is actually the best practice for giving your customers a better experience.

For one, having too many features can cause your site to load very slowly. People are impatient and if your site doesn’t load quickly, they’ll click off and go somewhere else.

Also, too many features can make your site look crowded and users won’t know where to look. A simplistic website can keep users focused and make it a lot easier to find what they need.

Have Good Webpage Hierarchy for a Better Customer Experience

On that note, keeping it simple is only one step to making things easier for your customers and giving them an excellent experience. Having good webpage hierarchy is the next.

Put yourself in these consumers’ shoes and think about where they want to go after they view your homepage. Most likely, they’ll want to view your products and/or services, or they’ll want to get in touch with you.

For that reason, you want to make sure your products/services and contact pages are prominent and easy to find. If not, users might get frustrated and click off to give business to your competitors instead.

Optimize for Mobile Usage

Nowadays, most people have smartphones and do most of their browsing on there instead of on their desktop computers. Because of this, you want to make sure your website loads fine on smartphones too.

Your website might look perfect on a computer, but what happens if you try to load it on your phone? If it’s all distorted, then you’ll want to rethink things.

More specifically, you’ll want to have responsive web design. This ensures that whatever device a user is on, the site will load correctly.

Add a Chatbox

Today’s consumers want answers now. Many of them aren’t patient enough to go sifting through your webpages, so you want to provide them with something that’ll answer their questions promptly.

A chatbot can do the trick in many cases. But for others, you’ll need the touch of a live agent.

You can consider having a chatbot and live agent hybrid. First, questions will be routed through a chatbot that can find answers in a FAQ, thanks to its AI. And if the user’s question still isn’t answered after that preliminary search, then they can be routed to a live agent.

This leaves your agents freer to answer more complicated inquiries, and the chatbot can handle the simple ones. As a result, not only does this get customers quicker answers, but it also helps your agents not be overburdened with work.

If you really want to serve your customers well, consider outsourcing call center services. This ensures that there is a live agent waiting on the other side.

Ask for Feedback and Keep Improving Your Customers’ Experience

How can you be sure that you’re giving your customers what they want if you don’t ask them directly? The best way to get an idea of how you’re doing is to get it straight from the horse’s mouth, of course!

For example, you can add a survey to your website that is triggered when people leave your site. You can ask them how they liked your web design and what can be improved. Users will surely appreciate having a voice.

However, make sure the survey’s not long and complicated. The shorter and sweeter it is, the better. This increases the chance that users will fill out the entire thing and give you valuable data to work with.

You can also entice them with a small gift, such as 5% discount on their next purchase. This can help drastically drive survey responses up.

Always Test and Learn

Your customers’ digital experience isn’t a static one. Their needs and wants are constantly changing, as is technology.

This means that even if you find a fantastic way to improve the customer experience, you need to always be testing and learning. The most dangerous thing you can do for your conversion rate is to become static on your customer experience strategies.

So you need to keep an eye on your metrics and see what’s working and what’s not. If you do notice something’s not doing as well as you’d like it to, take a closer look at it.

Do you think tweaking something might help? Then try it out! Take advantage of things like A/B testing to see if your theory is correct.

Look at Duolingo, for example. Since its inception, they’ve run over 3,000 A/B tests. They’re the leading language learning app and have maintained this position by continuously testing and tweaking their app; their job is never done.

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Improve Customer Experience on Your Website with Our Tips

Now you have a better idea of how to improve customer experience on your website. Remember that one of the most important things is to test and learn. If you let your site stagnate and remain unchanged, that’s a sure way to alienate consumers and drive them away.

So stay innovative and open to change. This will ensure that you keep up with the ever-changing and demanding world of business.

If you found this post on customer experience strategy useful, then make sure to check out our other articles too!

The post How to Improve Customer Experience on Your Business Website appeared first on Business Opportunities.

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Advertising opportunities are everywhere, but which ones are worth your time and effort? Technically, any advertising opportunity that reaches your target market is worth pursuing. However, when you have multiple options it's best to start with the avenue that will make the biggest impact.

For most businesses, advertising on the internet is the most obvious choice. You can reach just about any target market through PPC advertising through Google, Instagram, and Facebook. Even PPC ads embedded in mobile apps are largely successful. 

While PPC ads are the first and most obvious place to advertise, there are several additional advertising opportunities you may want to consider.

Are You Taking Advantage of These 3 Hidden Advertising Opportunities?

1. Podcast Advertising

Podcasting is the new radio. People listen to podcasts perhaps even more than they listen to the radio. Since podcasts tend to focus on a niche, the ads also tend to be related to that niche. That means podcast advertisers reach a more targeted audience than they'd reach using radio ads.

There are hundreds of thousands of podcasts that regularly produce millions of episodes. No matter what industry you're in, you'll find at least one podcast with an audience matching your market. 

Benefits of Podcast Advertising

Podcast audiences are different from radio audiences. People tune into the radio when they don't have anything better to do, or when they want some background noise in the car or at home. 

On the other hand, a podcast audience will often plan ahead to listen to live shows. When they miss a live show they'll carve out time to listen to the replay without any distractions. When a podcast audience intentionally carves out time to listen to a show, they're going to pay more attention to the content, including the ads. This is a perfect advertising opportunity to take advantage of.

For an ad to be successful, you need to grab your audience's attention. An engaging podcast will already have your audience's attention. When the ad segment comes on, the audience will already be in listening mode. This makes podcasting advertising one of the best ways to advertise your business.

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2. Grocery Store Shopping Carts

Most chain grocery stores affix a plastic frame to the inside of each shopping cart designed to hold a print ad. Most businesses that take advantage of the advertising opportunity on shopping carts are local businesses like mail centers, handyman services, and flower shops. 

Usually, local businesses choose this type of advertising because they don't know where else to advertise. You don't have to be a local brick-and-mortar business to advertise on grocery carts.

Benefits of Shopping Cart Advertising

The biggest benefit of shopping cart advertising opportunities is repetitive influence. Most of these ads won't generate immediate sales, and people may not even be able to recall the message from your ad. Although some people say an inability to recall messages makes shopping cart ads useless, research proves messages that cannot be recalled still influence our decisions. 

The key is to have a professionally designed ad that works on a subconscious level, elicits an emotional response, and influences people over time through repetition. While all of these elements are important, eliciting an emotion is the most important.

For example, a simple video ad of a gorilla drumming to a Phil Collins song increased Cadbury milk sales by 9% and increased brand favorability by 20%. How is that possible?

The advertisement used music to elicit an emotional response from viewers. When people experience a positive emotional reaction, everything associated with that reaction gets remembered positively and gets stored in the subconscious mind.

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3. Create a Partnership

Creating a partnership is one of the best ways to advertise your business and support another business at the same time. 

The best partnerships are formed between two businesses with products or services that complement one another. That way, cross-promotion won't look out of place.

Maybe you just want to cross-promote through each others' email lists, or you may want to combine your efforts and form a new company together. The possibilities of a partnership are only limited by the ideas you can conceive.

Advertising Principles Remain the Same Across Any Channel

You may find some advertising opportunities easier than others. For example, it might be easier to elicit an emotional response from your audience via video. However, when you hire the right marketing agency to design your ads, you can generate the same emotional response from print.

When you decide to explore new advertising channels, remember that basic marketing principles always apply. You'll need to tailor your ads for your chosen ad formats, but marketing is marketing.

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The post 3 Big Advertising Opportunities You Don't Want to Skip appeared first on Business Opportunities.

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Even though cryptocurrencies have been around for over a decade, they are still new, exciting, and full of growth and opportunity. With so much space and flexibility provided by crypto, now is the best time to explore any ideas you may have about starting a cryptocurrency business. In an exploding digital economy, digital currencies will become more significant than ever.

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Many businesses that deal with traditional fiat currency can also be adapted to deal with cryptocurrency. With that in mind, let us take a look at nine different cryptocurrency business ideas that take advantage of the current needs in a digital currency economy.

1.  Start a Cryptocurrency Exchange Business

A cryptocurrency exchange is a business where people can buy and sell various cryptocurrencies in a safe and secure environment. The owner of the exchange charges fees for users to deposit, withdraw, and transfer their cryptocurrencies.

There are several different types of exchanges in the market. Therefore, do your research on what kind you want to run before you launch. The types of exchanges are:

• Centralized exchange
• Decentralized exchange
• Hybrid exchange
• Order book exchange
• Ads-based exchange
• Binary options exchange

Once you have made your choice, you will want to make sure you have proper legal counsel. You will also need funding, a cryptocurrency exchange software supplier, and a payment processor. Additionally, you will need the means to perform all the testing, marketing, and support you will need to run a successful company.

2.  Provide Cryptocurrency Payment Gateway Solutions for Other Businesses

Another cryptocurrency business idea is to start up a crypto payment gateway. Cryptocurrency payment gateways are how businesses can accept payment online via various cryptocurrencies. A strong focus on security is needed, as this is the core value that crypto payment gateways provide. Coinbase Commerce is currently the leading payment gateway provider to multiple online stores.

When a customer makes a payment using a digital currency through a business that uses a cryptocurrency payment gateway, the gateway usually converts the crypto to fiat currency to stabilize its value. Then it routes the transaction details from the merchant to the issuing bank. Once the bank approves the transaction, it can settle the amount with the gateway, and the gateway does the same with the merchant.

So how does the payment gateway make money? They do this through transaction discounting rates, transaction charges, support costs, setup fees, and various other services that make their clients' lives easier.

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3.  Start a Crypto Payroll Service

Like a traditional payroll service, a crypto payroll service allows businesses to pay their employees. They can enable a company to fund their payroll account with both cryptocurrencies and fiat currency, thus giving employers the option to pay their employees in either type of currency.

A crypto payroll service makes its money by charging businesses fees per employee paid monthly or annually. Additionally, charging fees for the various ways businesses want to fund their payroll and different wage distribution methods are other income sources.

4.  Start a Bitcoin Mining Business

Mining Bitcoin can be a profitable cryptocurrency business if approached the right way. However, gone are the days when Bitcoin mining could be profitable with just a home computer. At present, specific mining rigs costing $12,000 and up are required to solve most Bitcoin calculations. You can pool resources to get into mining for less, or even mine through the cloud, though these are much less profitable enterprises.

Along with hardware costs are the costs to house and power said hardware. Electricity plays a large role in the profitability of mining. So does heat reduction for the application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) needed to mine effectively. An estimate on electricity usage alone puts each Bitcoin transaction computed at 215 kilowatts.

The way Bitcoin mining earns you money is by computing hashes to verify Bitcoin transactions. The first miner to correctly audit a transaction earns Bitcoin as well as a transaction fee. If you can make enough money through this to still earn a profit after paying your hardware and electricity fees, then you are in business.

Of course, that is the primary concern. Profit is tied directly to the value of Bitcoin and the cost of electricity. The less Bitcoin is worth, the less it is worth to mine it. If your business is to mine and provide mining services for others, you can charge your customers to offset your costs.

Another avenue is to research and mine other currencies that may have a lower entry barrier when it comes to costs. In the end, mining cryptocurrencies is a risky business that brings with it hefty rewards if you are successful.

5.  Provide Crypto Asset Management Services

With a healthy interest and knowledge of cryptocurrencies, another great cryptocurrency business you can get into is asset management. By taking a long-standing business like financial management and turning its eye on the world of cryptocurrency, you can make a living by helping others make the most of their digital investments.

Services you can offer would be similar to ones that any fiat financial advisor provides their clients, including:

• Financial planning
• Investment advice
• Cryptocurrency coaching
• Financial analysis

You could travel to a client's location or provide your services remotely. By doing so, you would be cutting the overhead of having a physical office space with all the costs associated with it. All you would need to do to get started is register your agency, market yourself, and use your cryptocurrency knowledge to your advantage.

6.  Provide Legal or Accounting Services to Crypto Investors

Like providing asset management services to cryptocurrency clients, providing legal and accounting services to digital investors would be almost parallel to how you would offer those services to fiat customers. Something many heavily invested in cryptocurrencies need is tax services.

As a CPA for crypto, you could help clients navigate the continually changing legal waters of virtual currency. Helping individuals and businesses that routinely transact or invest in crypto with their bookkeeping and tax filings is an invaluable service.

7.  Start Cryptocurrency Lending Services

As an alternative investment firm, you could lend either fiat money or cryptocurrencies to others in exchange for interest. As a lender, you would choose an interest rate, give a borrower assets in exchange for bonds, receive bonds as interest, and then return the bonds when the contract is complete to get crypto in return.

There are multiple crypto exchanges out there that can assist in a cryptocurrency lending contract. Platforms such as Binance or Coinbase act as a middleman in an easy-to-use service that offers both you and the borrower various protections. This protection means that all currency must pass through them and remain in their control until withdrawn.

There is always the option of using Decentralized Finance (DeFi) to lend without going through someone else. Using a smart contract allows transactions to occur automatically with predefined conditions. A smart contract's security comes from public audit so that everyone can verify it manually. Because DeFi is limited to a single blockchain, options available for crypto lending are limited.

8.  Provide Bitcoin Escrow Services

A cryptocurrency business idea that uses the same blockchain technology that powers virtual currencies is starting a Bitcoin escrow service. Currencies whose value is continuously growing are great for escrow services, so it is only natural to get into the crypto escrow industry.

Escrow services act as unbiased middlemen for crypto transactions between two parties. An escrow protects sellers from fraudulent buyers by requiring the purchasing party to place an upfront crypto deposit. It also protects buyers if a seller does not hold up their end by providing their goods or services.

An escrow company makes its money on the fees they charge for their service, making for a relatively straightforward business for those who have the means to make it happen.

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9.  Offer Freelance Writing Services for the Crypto Industry

What better way to put your cryptocurrency knowledge to use than by sharing it with the world? Freelancers who can write about crypto for blogs, online research, content marketing, SEO, and more are in popular demand across industries.

A good freelance writer can help a company build a reputable brand by writing quality, well-informed copy. Specialized writers who know how to meet their clients' needs can increase a company's brand awareness, search engine rankings, and help with more technical writing such as whitepapers or tutorials.

As a freelancer, you can set your own rates and market yourself quickly on many freelance boards such as Upwork. Current freelance rates for cryptocurrency writing range from $35 an hour to $200 an hour, depending on the expertise and breadth of knowledge the writer has.

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Concluding Thoughts About Cryptocurrency Businesses

Knowing the cryptocurrency industry's ins and outs allows those in the know to apply that knowledge to other industries in new and exciting ways. As you can see from the information presented above, there is no shortage of cryptocurrency business ideas.

You can adapt just about any business that revolves around fiat currency to work with crypto, sometimes in more profitable ways. All it takes is a solid understanding of how virtual currencies work and how to use that knowledge to your advantage. Whether you currently own any crypto or not, you can start a business around it.

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