So you’ve put in loads of time making your website look on point, your traffic is up and your social media looks great, but people aren’t converting? This is a common pitfall for many businesses, but it doesn’t have to be.
What is CRO?
Conversion rate optimisation, or CRO, is the process of enhancing your website to increase the number of leads & purchases you generate. CRO is achieved through A/B testing content enhancements, visual elements & user flows. It results in highly-qualified leads, leading to a whole range of benefits and increased in revenue.
How does CRO work?
CRO works by improving your website’s design and user experience to make it easier for visitors to take the desired action. For example, if you want visitors to fill out a form, CRO would aim to reduce the number of steps required to complete the form or make the form more visually appealing. By making it easier for visitors to take the desired action, CRO increases the likelihood that more visitors will take that action.
There are three main steps when forming a CRO strategy
1. Identify an opportunity & form a hypothesis
The first step in any CRO strategy is to identify an opportunity, which would refer to an area on your website where users are not converting due to certain pain points. A number of methods can be used to identify these pain-points, including; observational testing, click & scroll heatmaps, user recordings, data analysis, and competitor benchmarking. From this, a hypothesis is formed to summarise why people may not be converting.
For example, if you see that users are dropping-off your site on the pricing page, your hypothesis might be that the pricing is too high or that the pricing page is not clear.
2. Find a test a solution
The next step is to find a solution that will address your hypothesis. This solution can be anything from a change in design to a change in copy. A/B Testing is implemented over about four weeks to expose half of your users to the original page, and the other half to the updated version.
3. Analyse and action results
After the testing period, comparing and analysing the two data sets helps you to gain a deeper understanding into the user journey; from landing page to purchase confirmation, you can uncover the results of the proposed test. Successful tests can then be implemented permanently, to overall boost conversion rate.
What are the benefits of CRO for your company?
There are many benefits of CRO for your company, including:
1. Maximise marketing spend
Using data to leverage accurate information on consumer behaviour and their needs and wants, you can focus development efforts where they matter, leading to increased ROI.
2. Increased revenue
By making it easier for visitors to take the desired action, CRO increases the number of leads you generate, which leads to increased revenue.
3. Lower acquisition costs
CRO also lowers your acquisition costs by making it easier to convert leads into customers, as you’re putting your money in the specific areas that correlate with conversion.
4. Higher customer lifetime value
CRO can also lead to higher customer lifetime value, as satisfied customers are more likely to return and do business with you again in the future. It can also improve your brand awareness and reputation by making your website more user-friendly and efficient. This then leads to greater customer satisfaction as satisfied customers are more likely to return and do business with you again in the future.
5. Provides accurate and measurable results
CRO is easily trackable, with any significant indicator or result being apparent once tested. This means when choosing between two options and going through any chance, it is backed with credibility and data you can rely on.
