CRO, or conversion rate optimization, defined as a marketing process of turning your website visitors into customers, is one of the most effective ways to bring rapid growth to your company. Let’s dig into details and find out what is CRO anyway.
CRO: test and learn
The “test and learn” approach is defining for CRO: after making small adjustments to a website, you can start tracking the changes in your website performance. CRO implies constantly analyzing various elements of your website to find out measurable solutions that will improve your conversion rate. The important part of CRO process is to understand how users are moving around while visiting your website, what actions they take and what stops them from becoming your customer.
How to calculate CRO
The way to calculate CRO is unique for each specific business, however, the main formula looks like this:
Conversion rate = (conversions / total visitors) x 100%
Since there are a couple of definitions of CRO, you can either calculate Conversion per Visit or Conversion per unique visitor.
For example, some of the visitors might be simply browsing your website for other reasons: searching for necessary information, job opportunities in your company or filling the contact form to get some info, which means that not every visit is an opportunity to convert.
That’s why the best way to calculate your CRO is to calculate it basing on some qualified segment, rather than basing on your whole traffic.
There are numerous online CRO calculators helping you find out your conversion rates, though they cannot create a fulfilling CRO strategy for your specific business, as there is no one-size-fits-all approach here.
Why CRO is important for your business?
According to Rand Fishkin, a founder of Moz, CRO is a must have for a company seeking rapid growth, because it makes every visitor exponentially more valuable.
So what are the benefits of CRO for your business and why you should pay more attention and finances to it?
- CRO gives you an opportunity to make use of existing traffic without spending money on advertising;
- You will understand the needs and requirements of your customers better and, as a result, you will serve them better by creating high quality product/service;
- CRO stimulates customer retention which leads to repeat purchases, and, as you know, repeat customers bring more revenue than the new ones;
- Conversion rate optimization helps reduce customer acquisition costs;
- CRO increases the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, as a result of directing your web traffic to target audience;
- Since you provide the right content to your target audience, the users experience is improved, and you build customer loyalty.
How to increase your conversion rate?
There are a couple of strategies to improve your conversion rate and maximize the chances of getting more paying customers. Here are some of them:
- Effective data analysis. It’s absolutely necessary that you collect the right data about your potential and actual customers and conduct an effective data analysis. The three main components of a successful data analysis are: customer data analysis, audience segmentation and A/B test data analysis. The regular testing will help you set a benchmark to improve your CRO, improve your website pages, control the users traffic and flow. Together, these methods help you understand better what motivates your website users, what shapes their behavior and what turns them into your customers. However, do not stick to the same methods, and try to refine your strategies whenever possible.
- Driving the right audience to your website. Limit your scope: as you are more likely to convert those web users, who are closer to a point-of-purchase, try to use more specific long tail keywords. The PPC advertisements you make on your website should be not only clickable and attractive, but also highly relevant to the search query and your target audience. What’s more, your call to action should be relevant to your landing page, making it easy for a visitor to complete an action of any kind: signing up for a newsletter, downloading your e-magazine or buying a product.
- High speed page load. Make sure to get your page load time down, as if it takes ages for a page to fully appear on the screen, your potential customers get impatient and leave your website. What’s more, you lose out not only on conversions, but on search engine optimization as well (as the page speed is one of Google ranking factors). This testing is especially vital for mobile users, who are even more impatient than desktop users:according to Google, 53% of them leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load.
- Content that converts. Besides using the right keywords to make your website highly ranked by search engines, you should create engaging content designed for human beings. Even though it is important to use keywords for SEO, do not overload your texts with terms, because it can scare away your potential customers.
- Personalization. Website personalization means giving one-of-a-kind and masterly tailored real time experience for each individual user browsing your website. Build your personalization strategy basing on audience segmentation and data analysis. Firstly, you will understand better your target audience needs and learn what you can undertake to improve your conversion rate. Secondly, you will be able to rank your segments and actions – it gives you an understanding of what message to deliver to this exact type of visitor in priority, to convert them into customers.
- Product Recommendations. This is a must have feature for you, if you want to drive sales and increase your conversion rate. It helps users, browsing your website, compare the products or services you offer, find out what fits their needs best and, as a result, converts them into customers. Be a guide for your potential buyers, provide them with the relevant solutions and help them make the right choice by saving their precious time. Displaying feature products, bestsellers, sales, offers and deals help the visitors navigate your website much easier and helps you serve the right products to the right people, which significantly improves your CRO.
- User Generated Content. Your customers writing about your product is one the greatest ways to build your brand advocacy and improve your CRO rates. Word-of-a-mouth marketing works great – unpaid users sharing pictures, videos, blog posts, tweets about your product or service are the greatest advocates of your business. Let your customers share their own unique experience on your website or create a special marketing campaign that empowers them to share their thoughts on your product. Using users generated content is one of the examples how the Cialdini’s principles of persuasion work in nowadays marketing, as this is a great way to generate users social proof, and persuade others to purchase from you.
- Reviews by other Customers. The trust immensely improves your CRO rates. On the contrary, the horror stories about certain products or services make the visitors leave the page straightaway. The reviews left by real buyers is one of the best ways to convince your website visitors that they are at the right place. You have to find out how to integrate your reviews in the best possible way: by choosing the most beneficial website pages for placing reviews, doing a split test to measure the impact of integrated reviews on your CRO and displaying your gains and awards to those who visit your website. The genuine reviews, left by real customers, can show that you are delivering an excellent experience, which will lead your visitors straight to the basket button.
- High quality landing pages. Wordstream states that the quality of your landing page has a dramatic effect on your CRO. That’s why you should focus on the key elements of a successful individual landing page, such as engaging headline, a clickable and attractive call-to-action, a targeted content, user-friendly forms with all the needed fields, and also eye-catching overall design.
Talking about the last one, rely on visuals: avoid a huge walls of text and break it up by visual elements. Experiment with the photos: some content can serve you better, if it’s presented as an image. If you want people to purchase your product, you should design a website that makes your product or service looking irresistible.
CRO is a tricky field, full of applications, platforms, analytics and other tools, that, still, cannot replace the real people, doing conversion rate optimization for your specific business. This process requires dedication and thinking in a long term.
StackTome helps you create user generated content and gives you unique product recommendations, both significantly helpful in driving more conversions. We help you make the most out of each visitor.
