“Every aspect of marketing is entirely useless unless it produces conversions.” – Jeremy Smith, entrepreneur and conversion expert
What do people set up businesses for? Why are thousands of man-hours put in by tens or hundreds of people consistently to run a business?
The answer to these and other similar questions lies in the end goal of any business; bringing a product or service to the consumers and delivering it to them in return for consideration or payment.
When businesses offer potential customers the opportunity to buy services or products from their websites, a certain crucial variable at play is the conversion rate. The conversion rate is the number of website visitors who completed desirable actions such as buying a product against the total number of users who accessed the website.
READ: Learn Cost-Effective Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website
What is Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)?
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) refers to the efforts of a business to get more website users to complete a desired action or simply to increase conversion rates.
The conversion rate can be expressed in percentage form by dividing the number of desirable user actions by the total number of website visitors and multiplying it by 100. And CRO efforts are ought to improve this conversion rate.
However, the approach is somewhat restrictive because it places too much focus on numbers, percentages, and statistics. An alternative is to view it as a concerted effort by a business to better understand its users and their needs. Thereby, improving the website user experience which, in turn, eventually leads to improved conversion rates.
Irrespective of how you choose to view CRO, there is no doubt that any business needs to incorporate CRO efforts into their action plan. Research studies have indicated that 50% of businesses view CRO as an integral part of their digital marketing efforts. But only 23% of these businesses are partly or fully satisfied with their conversion rates. This indicates a massive room for growth and improvement.
How is CRO Related to SEO?
CRO and SEO are separate concepts. But they are, in many ways, related to each other. The best approach for any business is not to view one of them in isolation from the other.
Although SEO focuses on driving up website traffic (that CRO later seeks to convert into sales), a plan with how to do SEO must also include creating content that improves the overall website experience.
Therefore, there is a significant overlap between SEO and CRO to ensure that a website and its content is accessible and easy to navigate. That, later on, drives quality traffic and conversions to your business.
How CRO Benefits Your Business
While the average landing page conversion rate is around 2.35 percent, the ones in the top 10 percent usually have a significantly high conversion rate, 11.45 percent on average.
This indicates that there’s a lot of opportunities for businesses to boost their sales and conversion rates through an effective CRO strategy. Here are four ways how:
1. Optimise for user intention
User intent or desire is the primary factor that will determine your conversions. CRO lets you understand the behaviour of your visitors. With this, you can ensure that your website seeks to capitalise on user intent with smart and intuitive content and design.
READ: 8 Design Essentials Your Website Needs to Have
2. Reduce user friction and frustration
Several reasons that cause user frustration or friction, such as poor website navigation, slow loading times, etc. CRO lets you identify these failures and why your visitors are not completing a certain action, helping you improve your website’s overall user experience.
3. Improve returns on advertising expenses
Although it goes without saying, CRO drives up conversion rates. Therefore, significantly improves the return on investment (ROI) of a business in terms of advertising and online marketing.
4. Increase goodwill and improve reputation
With optimised landing pages and websites that cater to user needs and expectations, a business will generate greater goodwill from its customers. This translates to a better reputation and improved reach through word of mouth and, eventually, more sales.
Bolster up your conversion rate
CRO efforts have plenty of benefits for businesses of any size. By implementing effective strategies and paying attention to user experience indicators, any business can optimise its website to capture potential customers and drive up sales.
In today’s highly competitive online market, a business needs to employ several digital tools and solutions to stay ahead and improve performance continuously – and CRO is one that you shouldn’t ignore.
