Most digital marketers are worried about making any changes to their current website. If things are going okay, they are often anxious about change as those tweaks might hamper the conversion rate further. Or, they might end up investing in a lot of design changes and notice no resultant improvement in the conversion rate. So, the process of conversion rate optimization is often ignored or only minor or “safe” changes are made to the website. This makes the website stale and marketers don’t get the opportunity to understand how they can increase conversion rate on a consistent basis.
What is conversion rate optimization (CRO)?
Typically, conversion is termed as events when the visitors take the action that you want them to take on your website. These could be actions like signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, creating an account, requesting for trial, downloading certain content, downloading the mobile app, clicking on certain links, and so on. So, in order to increase the number of people taking the action that you desire, you have to implement strategies to boost the chances of conversion. This is where the practice of conversion rate optimization comes in.
Conversion rate optimization is not a one-time activity
Digital marketers must first understand that conversion rate optimization is an ongoing process where they must take some calculated risks, test, analyze, and optimize at each stage. CRO is a well-planned and systematic process to enhance the website performance. It utilizes analytical insights and user feedback to implement ideas and strategies so that the visitors follow the conversion path. Another key factor to note is that CRO is not a one-size-fits-all approach; it is designed specifically for your website and your KPIs are kept in mind to devise the best strategy.
CRO is based on facts and not hunches
CRO is a step-by-step process where ideas and best practices are hypothesized, tested, results are gathered and analyzed over a period of time, and then the optimization decisions are made. The path to conversion is studied in great detail and problem areas are identified. These are the issues that your customers might face with your website (for instance, it might be as small as the wordings used to present your privacy policy link or the color of the buttons). These barriers to conversion are identified, diagnosed, tested with various options and the best course of action is selected for every case.
Testing is a key part of CRO
Your design team will always have multiple ideas of how a page should be presented to a visitor but how would you know which one gives maximum conversion and how it can be improved further? A/B testing and Multivariate testing are integral for conversion rate optimization. You must test if your call to action is easy to find? Is it unique? Are there distracting elements on your landing page? Is the graphics rightly-placed and clean? Is your website usable or are there areas where visitors are finding it difficult to get information? Test your website navigation, conversion path, check-out process, page layout, landing pages, and so on. There are so many barriers to conversion in the funnel that need to be identified, tested and rectified in order to improve the conversion rate.
CRO is not only about conversions
Conversion Rate Optimization practice is a fine balancing act, which expects from the Marketers, UXD Experts, and Content Developers to maintain a fine balance between CPA, Engagement, and Conversions.
The success of a website can be easily calculated through the conversion numbers, but there are many other key indicators that define the success of a website. These include bounce rate, exit rate, average time on site, average page views, and so on. You might have low conversion rate, but if the overall website engagement rate is high and the bounce rate is low, then you can be sure that you are on the right path. CRO is also about reducing website friction in terms of an excess number of pages, wasted clicks, slow load times, wrong landing pages, too much information on the same page, and so on.
Hundreds of CRO best practices to be tested and implemented
There are many tried and tested conversion rate optimization best practices that have proven their worth time and again. But all those best practices might not be suitable for every business. For instance, a report by Hubspot states that, companies with 10+ landing pages generate 55% more leads than companies with 5 fewer landing pages. But that does not mean that you create hundreds of landing pages with different designs. The approach needs to be systemized with well-planned and personalized landing pages that are different from each other. There are many such strategies that need to be implemented carefully and intelligently, based on your requirements and not just because they worked for other websites.
Why should you take CRO seriously?
Despite of having the most engaging online storefront or an app, your online visitors can exit from any of the multiple checkpoints. So, it’s imperative for the in-house optimization team to consistently optimize the various exit checkpoints and facilitate an engaging and motivating experience to the online visitors. If you have an in-house optimization team, then that is an ideal situation. But that is hardly ever the case. Often, the task of optimization is given to the digital marketing team or the web developers, who are ill-equipped to do complete justice. Even if you are getting good results from your website; there is always room for improvement. You can simplify the process further for your visitors, there are steps that you can eliminate, there are ways you can personalize a level deeper, and so on. All the website enhancement activities you do will ultimately impact the conversion rate. Moreover, CRO is about getting the most out of the people who are already visiting your website and so your cost of acquisition will remain low. And the key factor is that CRO directly translates to profits. It makes you aware of each and every aspect of your website and you start paying attention to how even subtle changes can have an impact on the bottom-line.
There is no one right answer
CRO is about knowing that your audience is different and the triggers that might entice them to convert are also different. Moreover, CRO is a highly customized activity that must be designed keeping your KPIs, website design, conversion requirements, marketing objectives, target audience, testing tools, and analytics tools in mind. Nabler has been offering advanced conversion rate optimization solutions to businesses across the globe and over these years we have helped companies improve conversion rates on a consistent basis. Our solutions are highly customized for your requirements and we can help you in delivering an engaging and memorable experience to the online visitors on your website.