Article

 

Growing Online Business with Design

 

Driving traffic and boosting online sales with growth hacking tactics

 

Business design and growth hacking offers powerful tools for developing and growing online businesses by leveraging design methods, customer acquisition strategies, conversion optimization, and online sales tactics.

 
Growing Online Business with Design – Driving traffic and boosting online sales with growth hacking tactics
 

Introduction

 

With over ten years of experience growing online businesses through driving traffic, generating leads, and optimizing conversion and sales in digital channels, I've seen how these activities, traditionally handled by marketing or growth hacking teams, are increasingly influenced by business design. This article delves into proven methods, successful examples, and my personal experiences – so grab a notebook, and let's dive in!

 

Driving Sales with Design

 

Design plays a crucial role in driving online sales by uncovering customer desires, establishing a competitive edge through uniqueness, and fostering emotional connections with audiences through aesthetics and storytelling. It also offers effective methods and tactics to deepen engagement with both existing and potential customers.

 

Getting Started with a Design Review

 

A design review – inspired by Jakob Nielsen's Heuristic Evaluation – is an excellent starting point for projects aimed at improving sales through design. Below is an outline I often use when getting started:

 
  • Conduct market research including competitive analysis and customer research.
  • Analyze data from the existing customer base, usage patterns, and service analytics.
  • Identify target audiences and key use cases to create customer profiles that guide design and marketing efforts.
  • Map customer journeys and sales-related touchpoints, documenting their current states.
  • Ideate solutions to enhance the customer experience and support sales. Be bold and draw inspiration from outside the domain.
  • Develop concepts for stakeholder communication and management decision-making.
 

This approach has proven effective in many successful projects and is particularly useful in consulting, where the consultant may initially be unfamiliar with the client's business.

 

Data Analysis

 

As with any project, a sales-driven initiative should begin with a thorough analysis of the existing customer base, as well as service behavior and usage patterns. This deep data analysis serves as the foundation for subsequent activities, such as defining customer profiles and identifying opportunities to improve design, enhance customer experience, and support sales.

 

Here are some key areas to explore in the data:

 
  • Demographics: What are the average and median age, gender, and location of customers?
  • Behavior: What are the most popular access times and landing pages?
  • Technical: What devices, platforms, and browsers are customers primarily using?
  • Conversion: Which products, plans, locations, sources, devices, platforms, campaigns, and times convert best?
  • Source: How are customers arriving at the site, and what keywords are driving traffic?
 

These are just a few examples of how to mine valuable insights from existing customer data and service usage analytics. If your company has a data and analytics team, they can often uncover even more ways to extract meaningful value from the data.

 

Customer Profiles

 

After completing the design review and data analysis, the next step is to translate customer insights into actionable customer profiles. For startups without existing customers or data, begin by crafting hypotheses about your potential customers and refine these profiles later with real data.

 

I recommend creating a blend of need-based personas and segmentation-targeted profiles to guide design efforts and support marketing activities. Properly investing in these customer profiles is crucial, as they will frequently be referenced during debates and decision-making processes about how to improve and optimize the product and workflows.

 
An example of a data and research driven customer profile that integrates a common design approach with marketing segmentation.
 

An example of a data and research driven customer profile that integrates a common design approach with marketing segmentation.

 

Customer Journey and Touchpoints

 

Begin by mapping all relevant customer touchpoints and documenting their current states. Simultaneously, ideate ways to improve sales opportunities and enhance the overall customer experience. From my experience, simplicity is a powerful driver in almost any project. Over time, digital services often become cluttered with excessive content and features, while attention spans continue to shrink – now averaging just six seconds.

 

When it comes to driving sales, clarity and simplicity reign supreme. By designing an ideal customer journey and addressing all critical touchpoints, businesses can create cohesive brand experiences that seamlessly guide prospects toward sales events.

 
An example of a high-level, visualized end-to-end customer lifecycle, mapping primary touchpoints from suspect to loyal customer, and eventually to churn.
 

An example of a high-level, visualized end-to-end customer lifecycle, mapping primary touchpoints from suspect to loyal customer, and eventually to churn.

 

Streamlining the Brand

 

Streamlining the brand across all channels – visuals, design, marketing, and communication – is one of the most challenging yet essential tasks for a company. Achieving this ensures clarity, avoids customer confusion, and reduces sales barriers such as inconsistent messaging and decision overload caused by unnecessary distractions.

 

While this may seem obvious, in large companies with multiple departments managing marketing sites, webshops, self-service channels, and more, brand identity can easily diverge. I've encountered cases where a single product had multiple icons and marketing messages. From a customer's perspective, this is confusing and counterproductive.

 

In my strong opinion, there should always be one product icon and value proposition – no exceptions. Customers benefit from consistency across all touchpoints, whether it's an advertisement, product page, app store, self-service platform, invoice, or any other medium. Multiple icons or messages for the same product not only dilute the brand but also make it harder for customers to understand and trust. Consistency is key.

 

Emotional Connection

 

An effective strategy for driving sales is to prioritize delivering benefits over features by creating emotional connections. Focus on themes like family, friends, and loved ones, and use imagery and storytelling to highlight relatable scenarios – for example, enjoying time with friends at a cabin or spending a relaxing day with family on the beach. These approaches resonate more with mainstream audiences than technical specifications like memory size or camera megapixels.

 

For tech-savvy customers or returning prospects who are still hesitant about making a purchase, providing a detailed FAQ section can be an effective way to address their questions. This not only supports informed decision-making but also enhances SEO efforts by offering valuable, searchable content.

 

Compelling Visuals

 

Visual design should always align with the objective of driving sales. High-quality images that effectively guide customers toward marketing copy or call-to-action (CTA) are powerful tools. The direction of movement within images should naturally lead the viewer's attention to the value proposition or call-to-action, reinforcing the desired outcome.

 

Visuals must also be context-specific to better resonate with the target audience. For example, if the service is primarily used on Android devices, it would be ineffective to design marketing materials showcasing the service on Apple devices, even if aesthetically appealing. Instead, use visuals that reflect the reality of the majority of customers, fostering a more authentic and concrete emotional connection.

 

Persuasive Copywriting

 

Effective copywriting follows the same principles as designing exceptional experiences: identify and define your target audience to craft content that engages, connects, and converts. Leverage research to create compelling copy by incorporating a mix of trigger and sensory words that resonate with readers.

 

According to marketing strategist Gregory Ciotti, certain words – you, free, because, instantly and new – trigger subliminal reactions, often resulting in higher open rates for emails and blog posts. Sensory words, which appeal to the senses of touch, sound, sight, taste and smell, can further enhance engagement. For example, describing how a cookie crunches between teeth, how chocolate chips melt in the mouth, and the aftertaste of sweet honey with a hint of sea salt creates a vivid, mouth-watering experience. Hungry yet?

 

User Experience

 

Customers should always have a clear understanding of where they are on the site, where to go next, and what to expect after selecting a CTA. Main navigation should minimize distractions, either by staying out of the way or, in some cases, being fully hidden. Allowing and even encouraging movement between product items is important, as customers often enter the site from external sources like search engines, emails, SMS, or social media.

 

The architecture of the webshop and the structure of individual product pages must prioritize clarity, reducing distractions and visual clutter. According to Miller's Law, the average person can hold only 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory. In today's world, with constant distractions, this limitation is even more apparent. How often do we pick up our phone for a specific task, only to end up reading emails or browsing social media? Simplifying user experience is essential to keep customers focused and guide them seamlessly through their journey.

 

User Interface

 

A well-converting user interface strikes a balance between being visually appealing, engaging, and clear. Customers often associate aesthetically pleasing designs with better usability, but excessive visual elements can create clutter, detracting from the user experience. Simplicity is key, especially on dedicated landing pages focused on driving sales. Capture prospects' attention with a clear, concise headline and an actionable CTA, prominently placed above the fold. Use emotive and informative images, reduce text by crystallizing the value proposition, and include only the essential content needed for purchase decisions.

 

Leverage color theory to influence customer behavior, but always test performance with real users. For instance, red can signify danger or arousal in Western cultures, good fortune in China, and mourning in South Africa. While maintaining brand identity is important, if a different color drives better conversions, prioritize results over brand rigidity.

 

Ensure CTAs are clear, prominent, and repeated in multiple sections of the page – top, middle and bottom – to maximize sales opportunities. Use affordances like visual clues (ex. three-dimensional buttons or arrows) to indicate interactivity and guide users toward key actions. Adhering to accessibility standards ensures text is readable and CTAs are visible. Customers can't buy what they can't see. For example, on mobile devices, use a floating action bar for CTAs at the bottom of the screen, and on desktops, consider a floating sidebar to keep CTAs consistently visible.

 

Findability and Discoverability

 

It's hard to buy something when you can't find what you're looking for. Too often, webshops fail to offer an effective search function. Customers who already know what they want rely on search functionality to quickly locate specific products.

 

Here are some key considerations for developing a seamless search experience:

 
  • Ensure the search bar is prominently visible, potentially as the central element on the homepage.
  • Provide suggestions instantly as the user begins typing to streamline the process.
  • Display a user's previous searches immediately when they focus on the search field. Test whether showing most-searched keywords or the last five searches yields better results.
  • Promote discoverability by displaying popular searches.
  • Make the search function flexible. Avoid requiring exact keyword matches and allow for typos. Use meta keywords to enhance accuracy and usability. For example, if a product is named "Anti-Virus", customers searching for "Digital Protection" should still find it.
 

By following these tactics, you can create a frictionless search experience that helps customers quickly find and purchase the products they need.

 

Form Handling

 

Keep forms as short as possible by limiting fields to those absolutely necessary for completing a purchase. If additional user data is needed, it can be collected during the aftercare phase. Ensure form fields have appropriate types to enable quick autofill, especially on mobile devices. If the customer is identified or logged in, prefill the form to streamline the process.

 

Design forms to prevent errors proactively by providing tooltips and contextual information for each field. Validate fields in real time, allowing users to correct errors immediately. On mobile devices, align the keyboard type with the input field – use a numeric keyboard for fields requiring numbers, for example. These practices help create a smoother, more user-friendly experience that encourages completion.

 

Mobile Devices

 

When designing for mobile apps, the guiding principle should be to focus on a single main action per screen. Overloading the design can make it chaotic and overwhelming for users. Simplicity is key. Additionally, the online service should be designed responsively or fluidly to accommodate mobile users seamlessly.

 

If data indicates that the majority of users access your service via mobile devices, adopt a mobile-first approach. Typical customer behavior often involves exploring a service or product on a mobile device – such as during a commute – but completing the purchase later on a laptop at home. In this scenario, focusing exclusively on mobile conversion would neglect the broader customer journey and decision-making process. To ensure success, take a comprehensive approach that considers the entire customer experience across devices.

 
Customers' purchase journeys are becoming increasingly omni-channel, with decision paths involving multiple touchpoints across various devices and locations throughout the day.
 

Customers' purchase journeys are becoming increasingly omni-channel, with decision paths involving multiple touchpoints across various devices and locations throughout the day.

 

Generating and Driving Traffic

 

While traffic is often regarded as a vanity metric in analytics, it remains a critical foundation for online sales – without traffic, sales simply cannot happen. However, generating traffic blindly is unwise. Traffic must be strategically directed to the key areas where sales events occur to maximize its impact.

 

SEO and SEM

 

Organic traffic from search engines often delivers the best conversion rates, as customers who find your site this way are already demonstrating proactive interest in your offerings. To capitalize on this, incorporate popular search keywords and familiar terminology into product page marketing copy. However, avoid overloading pages with text, as this can make content visually overwhelming and harder to digest.

 

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is an excellent opportunity to leverage customer profiles for targeted campaigns. Ensure traffic is consistently directed to the appropriate landing pages and optimized for sales events. A strong strategy involves gradually increasing both organic and paid traffic from multiple sources, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Yandex, and DuckDuckGo, to maximize sales.

 

It's also crucial to align your SEO and SEM efforts to avoid unnecessary competition between the two. These strategies should complement each other, creating a synergistic effect. For instance, there's no value in paying for traffic that could be acquired through well-optimized organic search results. Be smart and let SEO and SEM work together to amplify results.

 

Advertisement

 

Advertisement is a powerful driver of traffic, both offline and online. While offline advertisements are often overlooked as part of online activities, many direct prospective customers to online channels where purchases ultimately take place. Leverage banner placements on popular discussion boards, influencer blogs, and news sites to generate and drive traffic. Always direct ad traffic to a specific landing page or dedicated URL to improve tracking and measure campaign success. Additionally, ensure that campaign codes are properly configured for accurate performance analysis.

 

Although most advertisement campaigns are tactical, they also play a key role in raising awareness of the offering and the company behind it. Offline and online channels often complement each other effectively. For example, a customer might see an online ad and initially disregard it, but later encounter the same product in a store where a sales representative highlights its benefits. This prior exposure makes the customer more receptive compared to a situation with no prior interaction.

 

Affiliate and partner programs are valuable marketing strategies involving collaboration with external entities to promote a business. These programs can drive significant traffic, with some industries heavily relying on them. For instance, affiliates with trusted reputations, optimized content, and aggressive SEM tactics – like the Amazon Associates Program – can significantly enhance visibility. Partner programs may also involve joint advertisement campaigns that benefit both parties, such as Red Bull and GoPro's partnership for extreme sports events, which promoted the drink and camera as integral to an adventurous lifestyle.

 

Social Media

 

Leveraging multiple social media channels to drive traffic to landing or product pages can be an effective strategy. However, traffic from social media often converts poorly. In such cases, it may be wiser to focus on educating potential customers about the benefits of your offering rather than directly attempting to sell – a clear example of raising awareness in action, as discussed earlier.

 

While maintaining a social media presence is important, marketers sometimes make the mistake of directing traffic too aggressively toward social media platforms. The primary goal should always be to funnel traffic from social media to product pages and ultimately toward sales events – not the other way around. It's counterproductive to invest significant effort in driving traffic to the product pages only to redirect it to external platforms where purchases cannot occur.

 
Using multiple social media channels simultaneously can be a powerful driver of traffic to your product pages.
 

Using multiple social media channels simultaneously can be a powerful driver of traffic to your product pages.

 

Customer Relationship Management

 

In skilled hands, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can be a powerful marketing tool for driving traffic and conversions. Its direct nature often makes it one of the highest-converting channels. CRM strategies can direct traffic to product or landing pages, guiding customers toward sales events.

 

Creating engaging campaigns with special offers is an excellent way to attract and retain the attention of existing customers and newsletter subscribers. However, an effective CRM strategy goes beyond sales-focused content. By providing informative campaigns that deliver genuine value, businesses can strengthen customer relationships and foster loyalty over time.

 
An example of designing a CRM strategy using the REAN model to drive sales, increase activation rates, engage service usage, and prevent churn through customer nurturing.
 

An example of designing a CRM strategy using the REAN model to drive sales, increase activation rates, engage service usage, and prevent churn through customer nurturing.

 

Internal Channels

 

This builds upon customer journey mapping by accounting for all channels and touchpoints that interact with customers during the sales process. For instance, company blog articles should guide prospects toward product pages and sales events – not the other way around. The same principle applies to self-service and customer service channels, such as help centers and live chat, which should be designed to drive traffic toward upsell or cross-sell opportunities to maximize sales potential.

 

Sales representatives in physical brick-and-mortar stores should also encourage both existing and potential customers to explore online channels following in-store interactions. Always remember: every page is a sales page, and every encounter is a sales event.

 

Driving for Conversion

 

Conversion refers to any action a company wants customers to take, such as signing up for a newsletter, providing contact details (lead generation), or, most importantly, completing an order or purchase.

 

Familiarity and Certification

 

For startups or businesses new to the market, gaining trust can be challenging, as many potential customers may not be familiar with the company. To address this, businesses often display recognizable logos of partners, clients, or social media platforms to create a sense of familiarity and credibility.

 

Another proven tactic to build trust and highlight the company's expertise or the product's quality is showcasing well-known certifications. For example, HubSpot certifications showcase proficiency in inbound marketing, while Microsoft certifications highlight expertise in technology solutions. These certifications demonstrate competence and also reassure customers about the company's reliability. Ultimately, it's all about fostering confidence and assurance in the business.

 

Social Proof

 

One of the most effective ways to build trust with prospective customers is by showcasing real testimonials, customer feedback, reviews, and recommendations. Platforms like Trustpilot, customer feedback systems, and marketplace reviews are excellent sources for highlighting positive experiences. Another great tactic is presenting metrics like Net Promoter Scores (NPS) or app store ratings (ex. 4/5 stars) to indicate high customer satisfaction.

 

Social proof can also be achieved by identifying the most popular product or plan from your data and tagging it with a label like "Best Seller" or "Most Popular". Showcasing numbers is another powerful approach, leveraging the strength of the crowd with messages like "5 people just purchased this product" or "We've served over 10 000 happy customers". Additionally, cross-sell opportunities, like Amazon's approach of displaying "People who purchased this product were also interested in", can effectively guide customers toward complementary products.

 

Awards and Mentions

 

Showcasing awards that the company, provider, vendor, or product has won is a smart strategy to build credibility with consumers. An award-winning product is inherently more appealing, especially when paired with a compelling offer.

 

Another effective way to convince potential customers is by highlighting positive media mentions, such as product reviews or news articles. If the media outlet is well-recognized, this approach combines the benefits of familiarity and social proof, further enhancing the product's credibility and trustworthiness.

Trust and Transparency

 

Building trust with prospective customers begins with providing clear contact information, such as customer service details, a phone number, and an office address. Avoid overly aggressive conversion tactics, as they can deter prospects and make the site appear untrustworthy. Offering clear and transparent Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statements written in simple, understandable language further reinforces the legitimacy of your business.

 

Celebrity endorsements are another effective way to build trust, as the celebrity's reputation lends credibility to the product. However, for endorsements to feel authentic, the celebrity should have a natural connection to the product or brand they are promoting.

 

Maintaining an active presence on social media and engaging in two-way communication with customers demonstrates transparency. Social media provides a low-barrier channel for customers to contact the business publicly, adding accountability. Because these interactions are visible to all, businesses are under extra pressure to respond promptly and professionally to customer inquiries.

 

Content Prioritization

 

A good rule of thumb is to place the most critical information for a customer's purchase decision at the top and to the left of the page. This approach maximizes conversion in Western countries, where people read from left to right and top to bottom. In other regions, local reading habits should guide content placement for optimal results.

 

Landing page and product page content should align closely with the value proposition work discussed earlier. This foundational work fuels the marketing content by presenting the product and communicating its most compelling benefits and features. Ideally, the content should form a persuasive narrative that guides prospects toward the sales funnel and helps them make confident purchase decisions.

 

For instance, when offering three similar products, it's often better to focus on one initially to evaluate whether the designed tactics yield the desired results. Studies have shown that presenting too many options can negatively impact sales by overwhelming customers.

 

Load Times

 

Long load times have been shown to negatively impact conversion rates and can also hurt SEO performance, as search engines prioritize faster-loading websites in rankings. It's essential to optimize the load times of product, marketing, and sales pages to ensure a seamless customer experience and better search engine visibility.

 

Server-intensive tasks, such as maintenance runs and cron jobs, should be scheduled during the quietest hours – typically nighttime – to avoid disrupting performance during peak customer activity. Customers don't care about the technical details of your service provider's tech stack; what matters to them is that the service is always available, responsive, and ready to meet their needs.

 

A/B Testing

 

A/B testing, also known as split testing or multivariate testing, is often regarded as the king of conversion optimization. It is most effective when the site has a substantial amount of traffic. In A/B testing, the current live version is referred to as version A (the control), while version B (the challenger) introduces changes for comparison. Traffic is typically split equally between the two versions, though a lower allocation (ex. 5 % to version B) may be used for high-risk tests. However, smaller traffic allocations require a significant number of visitors to achieve statistically valid results. Running smaller, simpler tests continuously, rather than occasional larger, complex ones, is a practical approach to incremental growth.

 

A/B testing allows experimentation with various elements, including value propositions, terminology, phrasing, CTA colors and labels, visuals, and media formats like images versus videos. While videos are often said to convert better, only testing can confirm what works best for your specific audience. Though brand consistency is important, conversion results should take precedence. For example, if your brand color is red but blue drives higher conversions for CTA buttons, it's logical to prioritize blue.

 

Let Thomas Edison's words of failure give you inspiration for A/B testing:

 

“I've not failed. I've just found 10 000 ways that won't work.”

 

Online Sales Tactics

 

Online sales tactics focus specifically on selling items through digital channels. Conversion optimization and online sales are deeply interconnected, as the most critical conversion metric for many companies is often the online sales event.

 

Sales Funnel

 

The sales funnel is one of the most critical components of a webshop, and its construction should be as streamlined as possible to minimize distractions. Guide customers through the purchasing process with clear visual cues, such as arrows, tooltips, step markers, and microcopy. This is not the ideal stage to promote upgrades or cross-sell other products, as the sales funnel itself is best kept free of distractions to ensure a smooth purchasing process.

 

Additionally, ensure proper tracking is set up for the sales funnel to accurately analyze where prospects drop off. However, data analysis often reveals what is happening but not why. This is where experts, like business designers, step in to interpret behavioral insights and understand the underlying causes.

 
 
An example of funnel analysis for pre-sales validation of a proof-of-concept. As shown, the dropout rate is relatively high compared to the volume entering the funnel and the results exiting it.
 

An example of funnel analysis for pre-sales validation of a proof-of-concept. As shown, the dropout rate is relatively high compared to the volume entering the funnel and the results exiting it.

 

Aftercare

 

The aftercare phase is an effective stage for upsell and cross-sell tactics. Examples include the Thank You page immediately following an order, self-service channels, CRM messages, or even sales calls framed as support calls that subtly introduce additional offerings. This phase also provides an excellent opportunity to encourage newsletter sign-ups or promote social media engagement. Aftercare strategies are essential for improving customer retention, reducing churn, and enhancing loyalty. Taking care of the company's most valuable asset – its customers – is simply good business.

 

Retaining shopping cart data and sending email reminders to customers is another effective aftercare tactic to keep prospects engaged and encourage order completion. For instance, I once spent a month considering a purchase while keeping items in my shopping cart. During that time, I received occasional email reminders about my incomplete order. Eventually, I completed the purchase and was satisfied with the items. This kind of persistent yet unobtrusive engagement can gently nudge customers toward completing their orders while leaving them with a positive impression.

 

Cancellation tactics also fall under the aftercare phase and focus on preventing churn rather than driving sales. While cancellations should remain straightforward, it's wise to confirm the customer's intent to avoid accidental cancellations. A common strategy is to remind customers of the service's benefits and highlight what they will miss by canceling. If the customer still proceeds, the moment immediately afterward is an ideal time for a win-back offer. This offer should be simple to accept – preferably with a one-click option – to maximize its impact.

 

Value Proposition

 

Some designers may approach discussions about crafting value propositions with hesitation or even resistance. However, identifying the genuine value customers derive from a product and aligning communication with these insights is indispensable. It bridges the gap between what a business offers and what its customers truly need and desire.

 

A strong value proposition answers essential questions: What problem does the product solve? How is it different from competitors? Why should the customer choose it? This clarity serves as the foundation for content planning, communication, and customer engagement. It promotes consistency in design, reduces cognitive load, and becomes a key part of the brand identity. Great value proposition immediately conveys benefits and resonates with the target audience, guiding both marketing and design decisions.

 

Tiered Pricing

 

Building on the foundation of a well-crafted value proposition, tiered pricing model ensures that your offerings are clearly communicated and tailored to meet customer needs. Draw inspiration from competitors' branding, marketing, value propositions, plans, and pricing to create product plans that resonate with your target audience. A practical approach is to use prioritized bullet points with concise sentences to highlight the most valuable features from the customer's perspective.

 

For example, SaaS companies have mastered the Good, Better, Best pricing strategy, offering a range of features and price points to target various customer segments. On the consumer side, this might include plans tailored for individuals, couples, and families, while on the corporate side, options could target freelancers, small-to-medium businesses, and enterprises. This strategy ensures that the audience can identify the version best suited to their needs at an appropriate price. Ultimately, effective pricing is about finding the perfect fit between supply and demand.

 

Promotions

 

Customers love great offers and often expect to see discounts and promotions when shopping online. High-Low pricing is a bold strategy that sets higher base prices to enable consistent, attractive discounts that appeal to buyers.

 

Here are some common promotional tactics:

 
  • Free Shipping: Encourage larger orders by offering free shipping on purchases over a certain amount, ex. Order today and enjoy free shipping on orders over 100 €.
  • Incentivize Action: Provide discounts in exchange for specific actions, such as signing up for a newsletter, ex. Get 20 % off your next order by subscribing to our newsletter.
  • Create Scarcity: Drive urgency by highlighting limited availability, ex. Only 10 tickets left, secure your spot now!
  • Promote Urgency: Use time-limited deals to encourage immediate purchases, ex. Get 50 % off today only!
 

Promotions like these tap into customer psychology, creating a sense of value and urgency that drives conversions.

 

Live Chat

 

Live chat can significantly improve online sales by providing real-time, personalized assistance that directly enhances the customer journey. It reduces friction at critical decision-making moments by addressing customer questions immediately. Without quick answers, customers may abandon their purchase, but live chat bridges this gap by connecting them with customer service representatives who can provide instant clarification – often resulting in completed transactions.

 

Beyond sales, live chat also drives higher customer satisfaction. Its convenience makes it a preferred channel for many consumers, offering an easy way to ask questions or share contact information. By addressing customer needs effectively, live chat not only improves satisfaction but also deepens loyalty. These benefits contribute to better customer retention and reduced churn. Serving customers well through live chat is more than good business – it's essential to delivering a positive customer experience.

 

Sales Popups

 

Popups can be a divisive topic, as some people find them intrusive. However, when designed thoughtfully to be non-intrusive and deliver clear value, popups can perform exceptionally well. They can be triggered in various ways, such as when a customer enters the site, spends a specific amount of time on a page, or scrolls to a certain point.

 

Popups serve multiple purposes, including:

 
  • Lead Generation: Collect customer details for future engagement.
  • Newsletter Sign-Ups: Encourage visitors to subscribe to stay informed.
  • Contests and Giveaways: Boost engagement by inviting participation.
  • Discounts and Special Offers: Present hard-to-resist deals to drive conversions.
  • Campaign Traffic: Direct users to specific landing or campaign pages.
 

When implemented strategically, popups can enhance customer engagement and support key business goals without disrupting the browsing experience.

 

Landing Pages

 

The attention rate for a specific CTA on landing pages is significantly higher than on a main website, which often contains an abundance of content, information, and products competing for the customer's focus. Attention rate refers to the ratio of all CTAs on a page to one – for example, 47:1. Landing pages, however, typically focus on a single topic, resulting in an attention ratio of 1:1 and much higher conversion rates. This singular focus also allows for clean design with effective use of whitespace, giving the layout room to breathe.

 

To maximize sales and track campaign success, all campaign traffic should ideally be directed to dedicated landing pages. For instance, running an offline advertisement with a unique landing page URL enables precise tracking, as visitors to the page are directly linked to the campaign. This approach mirrors the classic use of unique phone numbers in offline campaigns, where calls to specific numbers were used to measure campaign success.

 

Landing pages can also be tailored to specific target groups, enhancing the customer experience by presenting content that resonates directly with their interests and needs. When used strategically, landing pages offer nearly limitless opportunities to drive engagement and achieve business goals.

 

Lead Generation

 

Lead generation is the cornerstone of business growth. Any business aiming to scale should implement a robust lead generation program. Lead generation activities can be divided into two categories: inbound and outbound.

 
  • Inbound Lead Generation focuses on nurturing prospects by providing value and staying top-of-mind through content marketing. The more value you offer, the more prospects are drawn to learn about your business and offerings.
  • Outbound Lead Generation method is more proactive, targeting prospects directly through strategies like cold calls and emails. While effective, outbound lead generation can feel intrusive without a well-planned strategy.
 

However, generating leads is only as valuable as a business's ability to convert them into paying customers. To successfully convert leads, respond promptly – ideally within five minutes – and focus on qualified prospects most likely to purchase. Personalize communication to address specific needs, nurture relationships through valuable content and follow-ups, and leverage tools like callback automation for immediate engagement. These strategies build trust, sustain interest, and guide leads seamlessly toward a purchasing decision.

 

Feedback Loop

 

Conversion and sales tactics can only go so far without integrating a feedback loop into the product development process. Customer pains and needs identified through customer research and market analysis related to sales optimization should be effectively addressed by the product team to align with market dynamics and customer expectations.

 

At times, there may be resistance from product teams toward insights provided by external sources, as they often feel they understand their product and customers best. However, cross-functional collaboration is essential for developing exceptional products, delivering delightful experiences, and ultimately driving online sales.

 

Being Ethical

 

When implementing these tactics, it's crucial to remain ethical. Digital service providers must prioritize the ethical dimensions of their business practices. Techniques like split tests and aggressive sales tactics often resemble psychological experiments aimed at increasing engagement and maximizing conversion. However, just because something is technically possible doesn't mean it should be done.

 

At times, it seems the tech industry overlooks the core purpose of creating desirable products that bring joy and satisfaction to customers. Ethical practices ensure that everyone benefits: customers enjoy delightful and valuable experiences, while businesses achieve sustainable success. When a product is both desirable to customers and performs well in the market, it creates a win-win situation, allowing the business to reinvest in product development that further elevates the customer experience.

Summary

 

Generating and driving traffic, optimizing conversions, and increasing online sales often blur the lines between design, marketing, and sales, as growth hacking draws tactics from all these disciplines. Ultimately, what matters is that these efforts aim to grow the business and enhance the customer experience. Many of the tactics discussed in this article not only drive online sales but also contribute to better overall design and customer experiences. However, designing for online business growth requires a sales and marketing oriented mindset. Always be selling!

 

By listening to customers, monitoring market dynamics, and systematically identifying, analyzing, and designing every online traffic and sales-related touchpoint, we've achieved significant increases in traffic, conversion, and customer satisfaction. Ideally, proven practices, tactics, and strategies can be productized for reuse in future projects, improving efficiency and leaving room for innovation and experimentation.

 

Highlighting the value that business design brings to growing a digital business – by generating traffic, optimizing conversion, and increasing online sales – has been both rewarding and insightful. The essence of business design lies in gathering insights from diverse sources to achieve a holistic understanding, maximizing customer satisfaction, and minimizing business risks. Stay tuned for more insights! ▪

 

Author

 

Perttu Talasniemi has over 15 years of experience in concepting, designing and productizing digital services across multiple industries.

 

Published on Janury 23, 2025