How I Increased Revenue by $1M with these Website Optimization Tactics

Author
Josh Zhang
Published
December 21, 2023

I've been doing more Clubhouse sessions lately, and there is always one common question: What is the one thing I can do to better my revenue?

The answer is simple: increase the on-site conversion rate of your store.

Now, this does assume that your brand, product, storytelling, and value-props are already in order. If they're not, then I would focus on those elements first, and then continue reading this article.

I always say, "You have to treat your customer like they're Kim Kardashian on a red carpet, and you, as the brand, are the assistant with her. You need to have everything ready for your customer to read, understand, and learn about the brand. You can not expect them to navigate around the website and learn for themselves."

Is your site performing well?

Business owners can look at their website traffic and analytics to assess their website's performance. In addition, there are many qualitative ways to assess whether your online store is hitting or missing the mark:

  1. Have someone try to navigate your site after a couple of drinks in them. They should understand everything about what you're selling, and why they need it.
  2. Have someone with gray hair try to navigate your site and also understand everything from start to finish. "Gray-haired people" are also great for making your cart/checkout process flawless.

These exercises will help small business owners understand if their site is presenting their products in an effective way. If they realize that adjustments are needed, there are numerous cost-effective ways to improve their site and increase their bottom line.

How to increase revenue by optimizing your website

There are tons of things you can do for your website including making landing pages, running promotions, setting up an acquisition offer, and/or getting deep into the dev work of your site to make it more UX-friendly.

1. Share the why

The product's "why" is the easiest thing to add to your site. Simply explain, at a 5th-grade level, why someone needs the product you're selling in their life. You can use icons to make it even easier, but you can also just use a simple paragraph.

Here are some examples of how we have done it:

It's even better if you add testimonials from current customers to explain why your product added value in their lives. By managing good customer relationships, you can easily call on your customer base to share positive endorsements for your company.

2. Provide an acquisition offer

When you bring someone new to your site or brand, you want to think about how you can put them into the mindset of an In n Out customer. You should make it easy for them to get what they want, and get them on with their life.

On this purchase, you ideally give them a discount or coupon in exchange for sampling your product. However, at the same time, you should be getting a higher UPT (units per transaction) order than just a single product.

If you're a product that has high-consumption habits around it, then focus on including a variety of flavors, colors, scents, etc. so you give yourself the highest probability of getting that second purchase. This will also increase your average transaction size too.

You can also do this with a gift with purchase (GWP) as well.

3. Focus above the fold

Focus on your most important information being above the fold. This means that the most essential information is presented without a user having to scroll.

Whether it's your product pages, your landing pages, or even your homepage, if your information isn't front and center, and easy to digest, you're going to miss out on a lot of potential transactions.

Remember, it's not your potential customer's job to do the research. It's on you to make it easy for them to consume it.

4. Add an email/SMS Capture

This is the lowest-hanging fruit out there. If you use a platform like Klaviyo, it becomes really easy to "retarget" a user with a follow-up email based on what they were browsing.

Add an email pop-up from Klaviyo, and set up follow-up emails to hit them for PDP abandonment, cart abandonment, and checkout abandonment with discounts at different levels. You can do the same with SMS via PostScript.

5. Test different buttons

This goes back to making it easier for existing customers to shop your site. There is nothing like a fast shopping experience on a site when you know what you want. Optimizing your site doesn't always have to just serve new customers.

There are hundreds of tests you can do. The one I remember most was when we added "ADD TO CART" buttons on the Collections page (where all products are displayed) at Hint. Not only did our conversion rate skyrocket, but our average order value (AOV) per transaction also went up. We were able to increase forecasts by 7-figures.

6. Improve your website merchandising

Merchandising can be a complicated word that means a few different things:

  • Discounts: Running promotions
  • Bundles: Creating high AOV pre-made bundles to incentivize larger purchases, that also make sense to the consumer, usually because of convenience, variety, or a discount.
  • Up-Selling: Taking customers who add something to their cart, for example, and offering something that is more appetizing, or makes more sense.
  • Cross-Selling: Taking customers who've purchased a product, or added it to cart, and give them options for other products they'd like based on that choice.

By focusing on the way you present your products and new pricing, you will improve conversions and drive new revenue.

7. Set up landing pages

This is a no-brainer. Regardless of whether or not your site is great, it's never a bad idea to compete against yourself with a landing page.

You can get all the info on what a good landing page is by reading the Sharma Brands Landing Page Guide.

8. Add social proof

User-generated content (UGC), earned media (press), and customer reviews are all great examples of adding social proof to your site.

You can add a brag bar to your site to show where your brand has been talked about.

You can also add reviews that include outcomes of using your product:


By adding social proof in the form of a review or a testimonial, prospects will know about your product's benefits from an existing customer who found value in their purchase.

9. Include a competitor comparison

Compare your product or brand to what your customer might likely have as a reference point. You can feature similar businesses and even include competitor pricing. For the content, focus on the outcomes and not just the value props.

You can also see how we made this one a bit more fun and "on brand" to Cha Cha Matcha:

Increasing site conversions

There is nothing more aggravating than having a website that doesn't perform.

It doesn't matter if your ads are firing flawlessly or your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter game is amazing at driving traffic to your site. If your prospects aren't converting, your website doesn't have an effective strategy.

These tactics should help you increase conversions from new and loyal customers who are already in your CRM. By testing different ones and deploying them, you'll increase your sales pipeline and drive more revenue for your business.