Introduction and Basics of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of increasing the possibility of a website visitor to take a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, complete a lead form or download a digital product.
Variety of techniques are available and can be used to improve conversion rates, here are the most common:
- A/B testing: A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of a website or landing page to see which one performs better. It can be done with or without help software. Several things can be replaced -changing the headline, the text content, the images, or the layout of the page and all other elements like lead forms.
- Heatmaps: Heatmaps are tracking where visitors are looking and clicking on your webpage. Discovering the “cold” and “hotspots” in a website can help you to improve layout or show where visitor leave forms incomeplete. It is not recommended to keep those for long time.
- User surveys: User surveys can help you understand why visitors are not converting, though it is a long shot. This can not only help you with website design or lead form optimization, but might help you take different business decision and offer new product or service.
- Landing page optimization: Landing pages are the pages on your website that visitors land on after clicking on a link in an ad or email. Landing pages should be specifically designed to convert visitors into customers or leads.
- Call to action (CTA) optimization: CTAs are the buttons or links on your website that tell visitors what you want them to do. Clear call-to-action is essential and ideally you should not use multiple CTAs.
How to Increase Online Sales or Leads with CRO
CRO can be a very effective way to increase online sales or leads. Discovering the areas of improvement with correct actions and technique can bring more sales with the same amount of traffic to your websites.
Here are some tips for increasing online sales or leads with CRO:
- Start by understanding your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your website? Why they landed on your page and what they want? Understanding your audience is essential and tuning up your marketing message, market segmentation or even pricing can be a game changer.
- Make it easy for visitors to take the desired action. Tell them what they want to hear, paint the picture they want to see. Visitors should know exactly what you want them to do and how to do it.
- Use A/B testing to optimize your website. A/B testing is a great way to see what works and what doesn’t on your website. Different page version or different element version can help, but if this doesn’t work, then you can proceed with multi-variate testing.
- Track, analyze and make changes. Once you’ve implemented some CRO techniques, it’s important to track your results and make changes as needed. This will help you ensure that you’re getting the most out of your efforts.
Conclusion
It may sounds a bit too complex, but in essence CRO is based on pure logic and in most cases is data driven, it can be a very effective way to improve your website’s performance and ROI on digital advertising campaign. By following the tips in this article, you can start to increase your online sales or leads today.
If you are interested in CRO services, please do not hesitate to contact us.