Let’s start with an easy example. In a shoe store, there are many people who go through the entrance. Some just scroll along the shelves of shoes (we can call them “visitors”). Some may try some on (we can call them “potential customers”). And yet some will go to the cashier and buy a pair (these are the true “customers”). If we transform this into e-commerce terminology, the latter will be called “converted” visitors.
Conversion Rate Optimisation
The formal definition of conversion rate is the rate (percentage) of visitors who will do a specific action (buy shoes from your store). The action may be anything a website is focused on.
What the conversion rate really shows is how well your store or website is organized. The aim is to attract mostly potential customers and be successful in turning them into real customers, selling whatever we are selling. Hence it makes sense for any website to do as good a job in conversion, as possible. To achieve this conversion rate optimization (CRO in short) should be done to each site.
Why Bother?
CRO can bring great benefits to your business. Here are just a few:
- You will get to know your customers better. You will learn where they are, what they do, what they need, who they are.
- Develop your competitive advantage – if you know what customers really need, it is much easier to provide it for them, and grow your competitive advantage. Cro could actually become your competitive advantage in its own right;
- Grow your customers – if you are providing what is needed, customers will be flocking to you;
- Spend less on customer acquisition – if your conversion rate is improving, and your customer base is growing with marketing expenses staying the same, you are actually spending less in order to get a new customer, than you did before;
- Your marketing becomes more efficient. With cro you can easily determine how much you spent and what the achieved results were. Never has a marketing activity and its efficiency been so easily measurable.
Conversion Optimisation Services
OK. We are all certain of the benefit CRO brings to businesses. Now, how do we go about it?
The conversion rate optimization could be a DIY project. If you are in no hurry, if you are curious, if you have a lot of free time, if you are eager to learn a new trade, and, of course, if you have a lot of money – you could give it a shot. Come to think of it, and returning to our example, one could also make one’s own shoes.
Anyway, conversion optimization is no easy job. Hence, like all such, it is reasonable to hire a professional conversion rate optimisation agency.
What Will The CRO Agency Do?
Like with doctors, it all starts with a good diagnosis. The conversion rate optimisation agency will start with an e-commerce CRO audit. The conversion rate audit will show what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.
Some CRO agencies in Melbourne and Sydney are even offering this for free. Once the audit provides its results, your efforts can be channeled in improving what needs to be improved.
A reasonable second step is the draft of a conversion rate optimization strategy. You will need to identify in detail your target customers, their demographics, their physical location, their preferences. Your CRO agency will guide you in collecting thorough and comprehensive data on your target customers.
Many businesses work on “gut feeling”. Collecting the data and analysing it will provide you with knowledge on where your business needs to be. Now you will know your targets better and will be more able to have a precise aim.
Now you may put goals to your CRO. Unlike many other marketing initiatives, CRO allows for very specific goals to be set. You may define how much you are willing to spend on customer conversion, or with how many percent you would like to see your sales grow. Being specific will make you more efficient. In this step, you may set your website goals and specific KPIs to measure them.
Now it is time to act.
Popular CRO Initiatives
The CRO tactics are as many and diverse as there are businesses around. However, there are some who are used more often. Based on your goals, your CRO agency will most likely suggest some of the following:
- Be clear on your promise and deliver. A common mistake is overpromising and failing to deliver – both of which could be deal-breakers. Clarify your promise and be certain to deliver. In this way you will be attracting prospects who need exactly what you are promising;
- If you would like your targets to do anything it is only reasonable that you should create calls to action within your posts. These could be straightforward and invite your target customers to do what you want them to (convert) or they may be text-based calls to action, with links to a landing page, which more subtly lead your prospect along the sales funnel;
- Provide shortcuts for the customers who are ready to buy. It is not necessary (and may even be sometimes discouraging) to have all your prospect customers travel over the lengthy sales funnel. Some may be ready to buy initially. You will have to provide a short-cut for them to do just that;
- Create a sales funnel work-flow to combine the efforts of your sales team and your CRO website in order to provide a seamless and enjoyable customer experience for your targets;
- Manage the bounced and exited targets. Collect data on the visitors who bounced or exited without moving forward to your sales target. Analyze and understand what was driving them. These insights can be powerful tools for your CRO.
Whatever you try, make sure to carefully monitor the target KPIs and achieved results. Discard what does not work, or provides poor results and make use of the CRO initiatives which give good results for your specific customers.
