Balancing your website traffic is crucial, but what happens when visitors arrive at your site? If they’re not converting, all that traffic is, in a sense, potential that went to waste. This is where Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) can make an entry. CRO is about optimizing the percentage of your site’s visitors who carry out a desired action, whether that’s signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or completing a form.
In this blog we’ll delve into the principle benefits of CRO, and hope to show you why it’s an essential strategy for businesses looking to get the most out of their digital properties. Whether you run an online product store, SaaS business, or professional services company, being able to optimize your conversion is a game-changer.
What is CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)
So those are the benefits, but let’s define what conversion rate optimization actually is.
CRO is the act of optimizing your website or landing pages to get users to take specific actions. These are known as “conversions”, and they can mean different things depending on your business goals:
- In e-commerce, it might be an order.
- For software as a service, it may be a free trial.
- For businesses that offer a service, it might mean completing a contact form or asking for a quote.
At its most basic, CRO is the use of data, user insights, and testing (like A/B testing) to identify and make improvements that drive more conversions.
Now that we have the groundwork laid, here’s an exploration of the reasons why CRO is worth it.
Leverage Your Traffic Now
Get better ROI but not a bigger check.
One of the most attractive components of CRO is that it allows businesses to fully capitalize on the value of their present website traffic. Rather than increasing your spending on marketing efforts to bring in more visitors, CRO focuses on turning the visitors you already have into customers.
For instance, if your website converts 2% of visitors now and you attract 5,000 visitors in a month, you are getting 100 conversions. Through website optimization alone and by actually hitting the average conversion rate of 4%, that same 5,000 visits could yield 200 conversions. That’s a 100 per cent boost to your ads spend without spending another dime on ads!
CRO makes sure that the money you are spending on marketing goes further and provides a better ROI – in effect, you are spending less money on acquiring customers compared to traditional ecommerce models.
Case Study Spotlight
One of the most successful online retailers is a perfect example of CRO at work: Amazon. Through their efficient checkout interface, and fast loading site, they have been able to prevent cart abandonment to a huge degree, and sell more products. These small adjustments can lead to big jumps in income.
Enhance User Experience
The Relationship between CRO and UX
Conversions and user experience (UX) are interrelated. What CRO entails is all about scrutinizing how users interact with your site, spotting pain points and reducing friction in the buyer’s journey. The end result? A better experience that is more enjoyable for the visitor and drives conversion.
Example of UX Optimization
Consider when a prospect visits your online store only to slow page loads, confusing navigation, and a difficult checkout. Without CRO, they’ll probably leave your site and buy from someone else.
When you improve page load times, make navigation simple and get rid of unnecessary clicks in the checkout process, you make the entire experience more enjoyable, and that leads to more satisfaction and more conversions.
Leverage the Audience Insights You Need
Leverage Data and Testing
One of the underappreciated benefits of CRO is the insights it yields about your audience. Using tools such as Google Analytics, heatmaps and A/B testing, companies can learn exactly how people are using their site and what’s motivating them to take action.
Examples of CRO Insights Can Provide
- What are the most bounced pages?
- What call to action do you find works best for encouraging clicks?
- Are there sections of your site that are confusing or distracting?
- What do users like to see?
This data can be used not only to better optimize your website but also to power other marketing tactics such as email strategies or content creation.
Increase Revenue and Profits
Quality Over Quantity
Most marketing is about driving traffic, and CRO is about turning that traffic into the most valuable asset it can be. By turning more visitors into customers, you do more sales on the same traffic. What this means is that your margins get bigger and that your business is more profitable over time.
For instance, if you had an eCommerce site and you had a 5% conversion rate selling $50 products – you would need 100,000 visitors to make that $250,000. By lifting their conversion rate to 7%, they would have made the same amount of money with fewer visitors (more than 71,000), which saves money on operations and marketing.
Develop Long-term Customers
Capturing Their Hearts Re Personalization
CRO helps companies target their efforts, segmenting users according to their actions and behavior. Not only does it give a more custom feeling to your site, it can help to develop a closer, longer-term relationship with your customer.
For instance:
- Follow up with emails to customers who left something in their cart.
- Provide recommendations based on browsing history.
- Deals and promos are targeted at high-value leads.
And these techniques are not only successful for increasing conversions, but they also promote customer loyalty.
Reduce Bounce Rates
Keep Visitors Engaged
A high bounce rate is usually an indicator that something is not working on your website. CRO systematically minimizes bounce rates by making friendly, intuitive pages that prompt visitors to spend more time exploring.
Some of the ways CRO tackles bounce rates include:
- Speeding load time (a key way to keep visitors).
- Ensuring your site is mobile-friendly for users visiting from a smartphone or a tablet.
- Designing intuitive, actionable CTA buttons that steer users around your site.
Stay Ahead of Competitors
Edge over Competitors with Increased Efficiency
Companies that invest in CRO don’t just grow their conversion rates; they have a competitive edge. Given you have a well-optimized website, you’ll:
- Beat out competitors for user experience.
- Become a thought leader in your industry.
- Keep more customers—keeping more customers means you’ll lose fewer.
For instance, if two competing websites are both after the same audience and one website converts at 3% and the other at 6%, the latter competitor would be able to double the amount of conversions without increasing marketing spend. That’s an undeniable edge.
Start Optimizing Today
CRO isn’t a nice-to-have for companies in growth mode… It’s a must-have! Every business has something to gain from CRO, whether it’s increasing traffic value or enhancing usability on-site.
If you’ve been paying attention only to growing traffic and ignoring conversions, it’s time to change that. You will gain great audience insights, rise profitability numbers and build your business for long-term success.
Ready to start significantly increasing your conversion? It’s simpler than you think! Research CRO tools, study your own website data and try out solutions to get your optimization efforts off the ground. And baby steps are just that little bit simpler for a whole-body beginner, and with progress, you’ll get results that can speak for themselves.
