Recently I came across a person working in a non-profit who was struggling to convert website visitors to donors. They desperately wanted to improve their conversion rate but were stuck on what to do and where to start. Before jumping into your website and making changes my suggestion would be to take a step back and look at the big picture.
One way to do that is to create a simple user map. A user map is a simple diagram showing how people are interacting with your brand to get the outcome you want them to do. It helps us visualize all the steps a person might take to become a donor.
For example, perhaps one of your main donors are women who are students. So a user map might look like that this. We start with the actors on the left and the outcome on the right.
Student Woman -> [does something] -> [does something] -> donates
Now, what are the steps required to get someone to your website and to donate?
Perhaps they see an ad on social media asking them to sign a petition. Then they start receiving emails with information about your mission and campaigns and then one day they click to your website and donate.
So now — we have something like
Student Woman -> Clicks Facebook Ad -> Signs petition -> Reads emails -> Clicks Call to Action -> Visits Website -> Donates
Now we are more equipped with making informed decisions on why a person might not move to the next step. You can brainstorm what problems might cause this plan not to work.
If they don’t click through to your website from your emails, maybe the content is not resonating with them or it’s not clear enough how to take action. So you could reframe that with ‘How might we make our emails more powerful so that it motivates student women to take action’?
The point is just saying people don’t convert is part of the story and to figure out what the best course of action is that you need to understand your visitors’ entire story.
