Conversion Rate Optimization Explained
You generate a lot of traffic to your website; often at significant expense. Conversion Rate Optimization, or CRO, is the process of getting the most conversions from that traffic.
Conversions are defined as events, such as phone calls, form fills, location visits, or other outcomes, that move prospects further in the sales process.
Having an intentional strategy to maximize these is as critical as having a plan to drive traffic in the first place.
Your Website & Phone System Are Causing Friction You Don’t Realize
Your website is probably putting potential customers through too many hoops to get to the information they really want, and it’s likely not seeking conversion in the right spots.
The same can often be said for your phone system. If you generate a lot of leads via incoming phone calls, It’s extremely important to use your phone system like a customer. You’ll often be shocked how clunky it is, and how often people just hang up.
CRO Strategy Actively Works to Remove Sales Friction
At it’s heart, CRO is simply an effort to identify aspects of customer interaction that can be potentially improved, and then A/B testing options to determine which performs best.
DIY tools like Optimizely can help you do your own CRO. In fact, they’ve got a great glossary of terms that can be helpful to understand the process better.
The most common problem we find is clutter. it takes customers too many clicks to get to the information they want in order to move to the next stage in the selling process.
These experiments allow you to compare different methods of gaining conversion actions from potential customers and determining which is better.
How To Know When Your Conversion Rate Is Optimized
Like SEO, Conversion Rate Optimization is an ongoing process that shouldn’t really ever end. Here is a great set of charts by Katie Holmes at Ruler Analytics.
First, you must know your conversion rates. Often, clients come to us not knowing the starting point.
Next, an evaluation of the user experience happens with focus on existing user flow. Where do customers tend to land? Is that the best spot? What information seems to trigger meaningful conversion actions? Where do prospects most commonly drop out of the process?
Only then can we begin to identify priorities for A/B testing to reduce the friction spots.
Increasing Conversion Has Direct Impact on Your Marketing ROI
One of the foundations of our approach for clients is visualizing your growth funnel and calculating your ongoing marketing ROI.
When you increase conversion, that almost always has a direct, tangible impact on revenue growth and ROI because it creates incremental revenue at no incremental marketing spend.
If you’d like to understand more about your existing conversion rates and discuss your own CRO strategy, contact us or request a free consultation. We invest in you before you invest in us, so there is no risk or obligation to you.