Attracting someone to your website doesn’t mean a lot if the site isn’t optimized in a way that ensures conversion. This is why marketers use conversion rate optimization. CRO is used to describe the process of improving certain elements of your website so you can get more leads.
You might be under the impression that retailers don’t have to do much to get leads to convert to customers because, since they’re already on the website, they intend to purchase something. However, that is a big misconception because for most websites the average conversion rate is only 2.35%.
It’s not enough to get people through the door. Rather, you need to do everything in your power to turn their “maybe” into a “yes”, and reduce bounce rates. And to do that, you need to know conversion rate optimization best strategies to apply to your website.
What is Conversion Rate?
Before we get into how to improve your conversion rate, we’ll explain exactly what conversion rates are and why they’re so important.
The conversion rate on a website shows the number of visitors who perform an action by clicking on a CTA (call to action). This action can be anything, from subscribing to your newsletter to purchasing a product and anything in between.
The conversion rate is presented in percentages and calculated based on how many of your visitors performed the desired action. If your website received 100 visitors in one day and four of those visitors clicked on your call-to-action buttons, your conversion rate would be 4%.
If you have lower conversion rates than you’d like, it’s time to apply conversion rate optimization best practices to your website. It can always get better, and if you’re willing to put in the time and effort required to get amazing conversion rates, you will see positive results.
Why Is Conversion Rate Optimization Important?
Businesses are always on the lookout for ways to increase their conversion rates and a lot of them are using conversion rate optimization tools.
There are many reasons why you would want to focus on CRO and why it’s so important. Let’s go through some of them.
It increases your profit
The most important reason why you need CRO and why most people choose to focus on conversion rate optimization is to make their business more profitable. If you optimize your website well, you will get more customers while also spending less than you would on a regular marketing strategy.
You will have a better understanding of your customers
As you apply more CRO strategies to your website, you will notice how your customers behave when they see the little details you put on your site. You will have a better understanding of their wants and needs, why they come to your website, and will be able to analyze their user behavior.
It allows for decisions based on real data
In the world of business, second-guessing or leaving anything to chance is never a smart choice. Rather, you should collect available data that will back up everything you do.
This is where CRO enters the stage. It helps you get data about your customers and make informed decisions based on it. For instance, you can use CRO to achieve better profitability and performance by adjusting different elements on your website.
It lowers your customer acquisition costs
Did you know that it’s more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one? Acquiring a new customer can cost up to 7 times more than selling to an existing customer.
One of the areas CRO focuses on is increasing customer lifetime value, which means that your customer retention is going to increase. That way, you will have to spend less on customer acquisition and, in turn, have an increase in revenue.
5 Conversion Rate Optimization Best Practices
Now that we’ve explained what CRO is and why it’s so important, it’s time to get into the conversion rate optimization best practices you can apply to make your website the best it can be. Here are some conversion rate optimization tips you might find useful.
1. Focus on the big picture
When it comes to conversion rate optimization, everyone is always looking for a quick and easy fix they can implement on their website and achieve an uplift in conversions. But optimization doesn’t happen overnight. If you want to see positive results, you need to realize this is an ongoing process.
The best conversion rate optimization practices take time and are different for every business, depending on what problems you need to focus on.
After conducting qualitative and quantitative research, you will be able to identify problem areas and come up with the best experiment ideas to try out. This will allow you to see the big picture and take a more systematic, well-defined approach to CRO.
It’s also very important to be realistic with your expectations and not hope for some drastic increases. Know that you will have to put in a lot of effort, patience, and dedication, but also realize what are realistic goals. For example, reaching a 30% conversion uplift after a year of CRO is realistic.
2. Have a good understanding of the buyer’s journey
The customer journey modern buyers go through isn’t as linear as it used to be. It can’t be understood as easily as it could back in the day when making a sale was more straightforward. In today’s business world, if you want to know why a customer converts, you need to know how they experience this journey.
The key to understanding the journey is to focus on the two so-called “moments of truth” that happen throughout the buyer’s journey.
When a consumer realizes they are facing a problem and need to find a solution for it in the form of a product or service, they reach the zero moment of truth. At this moment, the consumer has high expectations and is willing to go in search of the solution to their problem.
And in the first moment of truth, the potential customer learns about your brand and product and has their first impression. Based on that impression, they will decide whether or not they want to buy from you.
3. Target the right people
We can talk about conversion rate optimization best practices all day long, but if you’re targeting people who aren’t interested in what you’re selling, it will all be for nothing. For your conversions to increase, you need to have people who are likely to buy your products or services coming to your website.
This is what is known as a target demographic or target audience, and if you want to figure out who your target demographic consists of, you need to take a look at your previous customers. Take a look at their demographics, occupation, hobbies and interests, as well as income.
When you figure out who your target audience consists of and what they would want to see, you’ll be able to create customer personas. These personas represent the customers you are hoping to attract and will help you understand what will make them want to convert.
Additionally, when you know who to target, you will also have a better understanding of what your market wants. Your job isn’t to guess only what they want to see or buy. Instead, you need to completely understand their wants and needs and find a way to satisfy them.
4. Insert text-based CTAs into blog posts
One of the conversion rate optimization best practices is to include CTAs in your blog posts, especially if your blog has high traffic. However, these CTAs very rarely intrigue visitors to perform the action you want them to.
There is a phenomenon that marketers are familiar with and it’s known as “banner blindness”. It refers to the habit of modern consumers who have gotten accustomed to ignoring information that looks like a banner on websites.
But this lack of attention caused by banner blindness as well as the habit of today’s internet users to only skim through content doesn’t mean you have to get rid of CTAs in blog posts. Rather, it means you need to have a different approach to conversion opportunities in your blog posts.
This is where text-based CTAs come into the picture. These CTAs are standalone lines that are linked to something, usually a landing page. They usually work well with readers. When a CTA is part of a text yet still stands out, it’s bound to draw the attention of the reader.
5. Always keep on testing
When you’re trying to improve your website’s conversion rates, you will soon realize that it takes a lot of trial and error before you can get it right. Testing is a great way to ensure you’ve landed on the best possible choice through your optimization efforts.
There are multiple types of tests you can conduct, but one of the most common ones is A/B testing, also known as split testing. If you want to learn more about this type of testing, you can get a lot of information from this complete guide to A/B testing.
But for now, let’s explain the basics. For instance, let’s say you’re thinking about which copy you should use for your CTA. The best way to ensure you’ve picked the right one is to use them both at different times and see which one performed better. This type of head-to-head testing will help you be sure that you’ve made the right choice.
But don’t just stop after one test since businesses that successfully boost conversion rates perform 50% more tests. Make sure you’re running A/B tests and multivariate tests wherever you think there is room for improvement.
It’s not as scary as you may think
If your conversion rate is less than optimal for your industry or your personal goals, it’s time to think about why this is the case. While conversion rate optimization seems daunting and hard at first, if you give it the attention it deserves, you will soon realize that it’s not as scary as you may think.
If your ultimate goal is to increase your conversion rate, getting expert CRO services is the best way to do it. Don’t be afraid to take the first step, remember what you read about here, and start improving your website so you can see more conversions than ever before.
