Greeting a visitor to your website at the right time and place seems like just another manifestation of friendly communication with a

potential client. But, as often happens, we underestimate such details and it is these “manifestations” that can become real and effective tools for improving conversions on your website.

After observing hundreds and thousands of chats, we can confidently say that on-site greetings are one of the most effective ways to increase conversions and increase the engagement of your audience. Timely and relevant greetings can help save an almost lost shopping cart, accompany a customer from a question to the purchase itself, and show them the way around the site at the most opportune moment.

Tips:

1. Consider the context of the message, depending on the stage at which your site visitor is currently at. When the greeting is set up correctly, based on the context, it reaches the visitor at the exact moment when he or she is most likely to be interested in it. That’s why so-called “contextual greetings” have proven to be more effective than greetings aimed at the number of chat invitations. Generic greetings without context and personalization lead to lower conversions, on average no more than 8%. Yes, such greetings lead to chats and potentially further leads, but the quality of these leads will be lower and there is a risk of missing out on more valuable leads that are more likely to lead to a purchase and active customer loyalty in the future.

2. The second secret is personalization of greetings. As in any other form of communication, an individual approach allows you to build a more “real” and emotional relationship, so a potential buyer will be more likely to respond to your greeting. Based on observations of the effectiveness of greetings, we can say that more personalized greetings attract visitors on a personal level because they are much more organic and targeted.

3. To create the illusion of real, human communication, companies add anthropomorphic features to their bots, such as a name, picture, or photo of a fictitious “agent.” More informal wording and emojis can also be used. Also, companies personalize their greetings based on the content of the page where the visitor is. This helps create the illusion of a real conversation on the topic and encourages people to respond. A question, a phrase, an addition, or even a joke about what a person sees in front of them at the moment stimulates engagement. Therefore, the likelihood of ignoring such a greeting is much lower.

4. The next component is the right timing. An overly abrupt and quick greeting can even scare off a site visitor, because they have just come to your landing page, not having had time to delve into its content, they already want something from it. Remember your feeling in the salesroom when a consultant comes up to you out of nowhere and starts offering you one option after another, and you have just entered and have not even had time to find out in which part of the store you need. Do not think that something has changed in the context of digital commerce, but rather that it has become more complicated, it is much easier to ignore the greeting on the site, and the opportunity to start communication will be missed.

Timing is also closely related to context, so different times may be more effective for different content on different pages on the site. For example, on a blog page with a large amount of text, it makes sense to give more time to read the information and take your time with the greeting. Whereas on a page with a small number of offers/products and a price, the greeting can appear much faster. This is because there is less information to read and there is a higher probability that questions may arise.

5. When a visitor spends a lot of time on one particular page, the likelihood that they are stuck and need your help is much higher. This is where a contextual greeting can be of great service and lead to conversion. Every 7th greeting in case of problems with checkout leads to a conversion, meaning that the conversion rate of such a message is about 14%. Since any action of a site visitor requires sufficient effort and motivation on his part, every facilitation and simplification of this process increases the likelihood of a purchase. Returning a shopping cart that got lost on the site is the best example of this. You offer communication to someone who has almost decided to buy or order something, the main thing is to reduce all obstacles on their way. The shopping cart is the last moment when you can lose a new customer, and a contextual greeting can help you avoid this.

6. Positive attitude: Start the dialog with positive words and wishes. This will help create a friendly atmosphere. For example, “Hello! I hope you have a great day!”. You can also use Emoji to accurately convey the mood of your message. A list of Emoji to copy.

Of course, there is no single set of greetings that will definitely and unambiguously lead to a conversion, so it’s important to study your audience and note any patterns in their reactions. It’s helpful to create a large number of contextual and targeted greetings so that you have the most appropriate message for each scenario. You can always segment your audience into several groups by website page, product, number and frequency of visits, etc.