As a business owner, you would want to have more people in your store or business place. And once they’re already in, you would do your best for them not to leave empty-handed - that is, to leave without purchasing any kind of item from you. And in a physical store or a brick-and-mortar place of business, it is done by ensuring that your staff is friendly, products are displayed beautifully, and the whole place is designed to accommodate anyone who comes in. That’s also precisely what you want to achieve when you have an online store or an online business website. And that is exactly what we will talk about today: what is CRO, and how do you go about doing it.
What is Conversion rate Optimization (CRO)?
Conversion rate refers to the percentage of customers who have purchased, subscribed, followed, or signed up on your website. In much more simple terms, this is the number of people that have completed the desired action that you meant them to do. Compared to the physical stores, this refers to the customers you have talked into availing your services or your products. The “sales talk” equivalent in the online platform is conversion rate optimization or CRO. We’ll get into that more a bit later. First, you must know that a good conversion rate varies from business to business (so do not compare yourself with others). More often than not, it is you who sets the certain rate for a specified period. You can easily calculate this by getting the number of conversions (or the number of people who performed the action you want them to), divided by the number of the total visitors of your website, and multiplying it by 100. Take note that even businesses in the same industry oftentimes cannot be used as a baseline for whether this is good or bad. What is sure, though, is that this number gives you an idea of how you are performing. Don’t obsess over the number itself but, rather, use it as a starting point in understanding what your customers or visitors want from you and figuring out how you can satisfy exactly that.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
Now, while it is not advisable to focus on the number itself, you should still pay attention to it as it will quantitatively reflect the effectiveness of the practices you have been doing and improving. You improve this number (and your performance) by using CRO techniques. Conversion rate optimization is the process of changing and specifically modifying your website based on the behavior and reactions of your visitors. The main goal of which is to improve the probability of your visitors converting into customers. This process encompasses many different techniques, and it usually varies from business to business. But a good CRO campaign usually involves running different types of analytics tests, in-depth analysis of results, modifying your content, and coming up with varying growth strategies. Website conversion optimization techniques that are effective will largely depend on the kind of business you are dealing with.
Some terminologies that you might come across and should definitely know and learn about are listed below. Keep them in mind as you venture into the world of business websites:
- Click through rate - This is one of the words that you would read through a lot as you develop your own website conversion optimization campaign. Because it is another metric that is prevalent in the online business industry. This is the percentage of the people that clicked on the link to your website over the number of people saw the page, email, or advertisement containing the said link. One way to improve your click through rate is by adding a site description. This is the text that would appear right below the name of your website when it appears on search results.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
- Behavioural Target - This is another metric that is usually associated with CRO campaigns. This particular metric or data is information about the actions or reactions or inactions of the people who visit your website and see your content or your advertisements. It is used widely in coming up with marketing strategies that are specifically targeted at the behavior of the niche audience of a particular business.
- ROI - Return on investment or ROI measures how much you earn on your particular investment. It is usually calculated by dividing the benefit you received by the cost of your investment. It is usually mentioned in conversations about conversion rate optimization because a higher ROI is associated with and sometimes brought about by good CRO techniques.
Conversion Rate Optimization Best Practices
While hiring a CRO consultant can indeed be worth your time and investment, it is understandable for you to want to dip your toes in the water. And to help you do that, here are some of the best CRO practices that you can explore and use for your website conversion optimization.
1. Analytic Method
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This method refers more to a quantitative approach to conversion rate optimization. This method focuses more on the numerical data about the visitors of your website. Usually, this involves using different analytic tools like Google Analytics, etc. And despite its quantitative nature, this CRO method can still help you answer questions about the behavior of your site visitors. It will give you insight into where you should focus your efforts more and make some improvements. Specifically, it can answer the following questions:
- Where people land on your website
- Where they spend the most time on your website
- What referrer and channel brought them in
- What browser do they use to access your site
- Who your visitors are (demographics, interests, age, and so on)
- What they were doing before they left your website.
2. People Method
Image taken from Strikingly Product
After applying the quantitative method, of course, you should also take a gander on the qualitative method. Because while the analytic method helps you understand the areas that you need to focus on and/or improve, the people method of CRO will help you understand the explanation or rationale behind the behavior of your website visitors. You do this by engaging with them and asking questions. You can accomplish this further by using satisfaction surveys, user testing, on-site surveys, etc. These tools will help you understand:
- Why did they engage? Why did they visit your site or interact with a specific page? What product or page appeals to them?
- What do they think your website has that makes it different from your competitors? Do you offer a service or feature that makes it easy for them to purchase your products?
- How do they describe your services or products? How would they describe you to their friends and family?
Conversion rate optimization is best done by combining the website visitors’ quantitative and qualitative (the “what” and the “why”) actions. Doing so would allow you to improve parts of your website while understanding what would be best for your customers.
More specifically, here are other tricks and best practices (that might be a combination of both or done with the help of both techniques) that you can use for your website CRO:
- Place call to action buttons in a strategically smart position.
- Use a compelling color and font type for your CTA button.
- Make sure relevant paragraphs are easy to read. Bullet points come in handy most times.
- The tone of your blogs, advertisements, etc. should be appropriate to your target audience.
- Addressing your customers directly is a given for both marketing and CRO strategies.
- Ensure that the font type, font size, position, and color of your text are eye-catching and compatible with your overall color scheme and background.
- Website conversion optimization involves the layout and design of your website to be done in a way that can easily be navigated by your customers.
- It is smart to use urgent or time-sensitive promos to encourage sales.
- Fewer fields in your online forms is best for CRO.
- Testimonials and customer feedback should always be displayed on your website.
Take note that while you can take all of these CRO techniques into consideration, some of these truly work better than others and for others. Don’t be frustrated if you don’t immediately (or actually) see the effects or the positive help of these techniques. Depending on the kind of business you are operating, certain conversion rate optimization techniques will be most appropriate and effective for your business.
In the long run, what truly matters is understanding your business and your website visitors and customers. Conversion rate optimization techniques help you with that. And understanding and mastering the art of CRO can help you bring your business towards success. And with the right tools, like the Strikingly Website Builder, to help you design your website and optimize it for conversions, you can immediately start this journey. Sign up now and have some help in doing any of these conversion rate optimization best practices.
