Primarily, the conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors who come to a website and perform a certain action. The action can include newsletter signups or email subscriptions. Small steps like these are referred to as micro conversions. Although the website visitor might not purchase the product, micro conversions move the customer ahead in the sales process. If you observe a visitor performing an action that signifies success, like purchasing a service or signing up for a newsletter, then the action is a macro conversion. Consequently, this is the ultimate goal of the sales process.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a way to increase the online sales of your company. Unlike SEO, the effects of CRO are immediate, because it doesn’t rely on attracting new clients. If you want to track conversion rates, you can do so in a few different ways:
- Using Google Analytics to track your website metrics, you can use Google Analytics‘ Goals feature to track specific conversions.
- If you have access to internal data like sales volume, site traffic, or sign-ups, it will help you determine whether people interacting with a certain page are more likely to convert.
Importance of CRO to your business
- The more you know about your clients’ behaviors, patterns, and needs, the more effectively you can market to them. This is done via conversion optimization.
- If you focus your marketing on factors that are within your control and that can be tracked, you can make sure that you are using the right resources to generate sales and that you are spending where it will have the most success.
- Website optimization helps your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPS) on Google.
- You can get an advantage over competitors who don’t use CRO as a way to increase sales.
- CRO makes the customer’s purchasing journey easier, keeping things simple and streamlined.
5 Ways to Improve your CRO
There are different CRO strategies you can follow, depending on your business and website. These are some ways to implement CRO on your site to gently push customers through the sales process and maximize your business:
1. Create more Content
A blog helps increase the conversion rate for online business websites. Many visitors will typically browse your website before deciding to opt-in or not. A well-written blog is the best way to educate your visitor, show you’re the right provider and build trust. It makes it easier to convert people into clients.
2. Optimize Website User Experience
A top-notch user experience (UX) will improve how your site performs. If your users have issues when they interact with your site, it will hurt your conversion rates, and that will hurt your sales. Slow-loading pages immediately have your visitors bounce back to Google. Information overload, too many ads and pop-ups, and not optimizing for mobile are other big mistakes you want to avoid.
Clarity and appeal are two important elements in user interface design. That’s why you should aim to create a website that entices users to explore your content.
3. Conduct Customer Surveys
Customer surveys are a good way to find out whether or not users are able to successfully navigate your website. By understanding how a customer perceives your product, you can re-evaluate your marketing to make it easier for them to become aware of it and buy from you.
The satisfaction of a customer survey after purchase matters, because if you’re looking to evaluate how a client felt about your sales process, you can add a small survey that pops up after a customer has purchased an item. Another way to understand why a customer left without purchasing is by creating a survey pop-up. You can create a more targeted email survey to help you see why they left and how to make it more likely they will return.
4. A/B test, then repeat the test
Since the purpose of marketing is to influence behavior, there is no such thing as a perfect formula. Every assumption should be tested. Since A/B testing allows you to find the most effective message, colors, placement, and copy that works best for your audience, it will help you increase conversions.
5. Prioritize Page Speed
In an increasingly digital world, customers are looking for more from websites. It’s so easy to purchase goods online that even the slightest annoyance can drive a customer to your competitor. When your company website takes a long time to load or is difficult to navigate, it negatively impacts the conversion rate of visitors to your site.
Your website is your most important marketing tool. Therefore, it’s essential that your site loads quickly and is easy for a customer to traverse. Also, if you don’t have a version of your site for mobile devices, it might be wise to set up the same as mobile users are increasing fast every day.
Conclusion
One of the most important aspects of a successful business is tapping into your resources. While SEO and other marketing initiatives can bring greater numbers of visitors to your website, you need to make sure those numbers translate into a goal.
Conversion rate optimization improves the competitiveness of your website in the rankings by increasing the number of leads or sales that your website generates. By applying CRO strategies to your website, you can employ effective methods to increase the number of leads or sales that your website generates. When we talk about increasing sales, we usually think about traffic and/or products. However, oftentimes there are other things you can do, like CRO, that are more cost-effective than traffic or products.