The world of business is filled with confusing acronyms you’ve never heard before. Odds are, CRO is one that you may have heard in passing but don’t actually understand. Thankfully, we have created this full guide to CRO so that you can understand and implement this strategy to the benefit of your business.
What Is Conversion Rate Optimization?
Before we talk about CRO (conversion rate optimization), we need to talk about conversion rates in general.
A conversion rate calculates the percentage of people who completed a desired action as it relates to your business. A “desired action” may be anything from clicking on your online advertisement to actually making a purchase. This rate is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the total number of visitors before multiplying that number by 100 to get the percentage.
Similarly, conversion rate optimization is the process of improving your conversion rate by making improvements to your website and overall purchasing process. CRO is a long-term strategy that you can’t achieve overnight. It will take time, resources, expertise, and patience to accomplish.
Why Is Conversion Rate Optimization Important?
Knowing that CRO isn’t easily achieved may make you wonder if it’s worth pursuing. Remember this: CRO is extremely important for businesses and can benefit your company in the following ways.
Improve Your Marketing Return on Investment
If you’re sick of spending money on marketing without seeing a return, you may want to try CRO.
Marketing costs are constantly increasing with no end in sight, so make sure that you’re spending your money wisely and actually seeing a return by focusing on CRO.
Boost Your Search Engine Optimization Strategy
Oftentimes, algorithms for search engines like Google analyze different components of your website to calculate your rank. Additionally, these factors are also taken into account when you’re bidding on paid search engine advertisements so that you can save money on your bids.
Focusing on CRO can earn you noticeable results within your SEO efforts.
Save You Money
While CRO may cost you money in some respects, it’s essentially free in that you’re not paying to reach new customers. Instead, you’re trying to convert the customers that are already visiting your site. This allows you to save money on customer acquisition costs that tend to be quite expensive depending on your industry.
Improve Customer Experience
No matter your industry, customer experience is everything. By investing in CRO, you can improve the overall customer experience on your website.
As a result, people are more likely to buy your products and return to buy them again and again.
While CRO can provide you tangible results in terms of conversions and other key metrics, it can also provide you with intangible results in terms of improving your overall brand image and reputation.
Compete With the Big Guys
Competition abounds online, and it can be difficult for newer or smaller businesses to compete with the big guys.
If you want to compete, you’re going to need a fast and simple website that can stand up to players like Amazon. If your website is taking too long or is too complicated, potential customers will simply go elsewhere!. So make the online shopping process simple and straightforward by working on CRO.
Different Components of a Conversion Rate Optimization
While there’s an endless amount of different components involved in conversion rate optimization, there are a few that you may want to focus on first. Here are some of the key components involved in conversion rate optimization:
Call to Action
Many people simply develop copy without much thought or effort. You need to make a clear “call to action” for customers to follow. There should be no question about what the customer should do next based on what’s in front of them.
For instance, do you want them to
- Join your email newsletter?
- Download your app?
- Check out your sale?
- Use a coupon code?
All of this should be clear and easy to figure out.
Graphics
Graphics is not the area to skimp on if you’re trying to run a successful business. Your graphics should be clear and eye-catching. You need to achieve the right balance between graphics and text.
Having too much of either one can easily become overwhelming and confusing. So instead, figure out the right ratio and develop clear, unique, and appealing graphics to entice customers.
Usability
If you want to improve your conversion rates, then you need to make sure that your website is user-friendly. For instance, customers should be able to search through your site easily and sort results based on their preferences. If you’re in eCommerce, then you need to make sure the checkout process includes as few clicks as possible. Finally, you need to make sure that your website is compatible with mobile devices.
Security
With data breaches happening on a regular basis, you need to make sure that your website is secure. Customers are being more and more careful with their personal information and won’t want to give it out to a company they don’t trust or on an insecure website. Display security badges to ensure customers that their information is safe and protected.
Proof
Finally, you need to include proof of your brand and your products within your website. While this can include basic written reviews, you may want to go a step further and display video testimonials or even tutorials to show the efficacy of your products.
Effective Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies
With all this in mind, it’s finally time to start building your CRO strategy. Here are some tips to boost your conversion rates and grow your business as a result:
Run Tests on Your Landing Pages
If your landing pages don’t work properly, then you’re definitely not going to convert. Avoid these issues by testing your landing pages to ensure that they work properly. A/B testing is a great way to do this.
Utilize Live Chat Software
Make the buying process easy for customers by utilizing live chat tools on your most popular web pages. This allows customers to get quick and easy support from customer representatives to answer their questions and help them make a purchase.
Implement Retargeting Measures
Just because someone didn’t complete the desired action the first time doesn’t necessarily mean that they never will. Sometimes they just need another push — this is what retargeting does.
Retargeting re-engages people who have previously visited your website without signing up or making a purchase.
Work With Experts
Handling all of these different aspects of CRO on your own can be overwhelming and seem impossible. However, you don’t have to do it all on your own with the help of experts like Greg Gillman. Greg Gillman specializes in omnichannel growth strategies for direct-to-consumer brands looking to optimize and improve their operations.
Final Thoughts on CRO
Although you won’t necessarily improve your conversion rates overnight, investing in CRO is a smart business decision that will allow you to grow your business in the long term. If you need help with CRO or other business growth strategies, be sure to reach out to Greg Gillman for tailored expertise and suggestions.
Sources:
How to Improve Customer Service on Your E-commerce Site | Business.com
How to Set Yourself Apart From the Competition | Entrepreneur
What Is A/B Testing? Learn How to Run One Here | Business2Community
