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Why Is Conversion Rate Optimisation So Important?
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is a marketing term and denotes a system for increasing the number of visitors to a website that are actually converted into paying customers. Put simply, if somebody visits your company’s website and buys something, they have upped your conversion rate. To optimise this, you have to devise a system whereby a much higher percentage of visitors will do just this. Yes, it’s a great start to attract more visitors to your website in the first place, but there has to be something there that encourages them to buy.
Here are just some of the reasons why you should put CRO at the top of your marketing priority list:
Staying Ahead: You can bet that if you aren’t thinking of a CRO strategy then your main competitors will be. So doing this is important if for no other reason than that you need to make sure you stay ahead of, or at least keep up with, the pack. When it comes to internet marketing, things are a little different in that you don’t need to be loads better than your competitors to stay in front. It’s called the ‘slight edge’ phenomenon, where just being perceived as slightly better than them is enough to win twice as many conversions. This also means designing your website in such a way as to get each visitor to spend as much money as possible (through special offers and so on). And don’t get complacent either: when you gain this elusive ‘edge’, you have to work to keep it.
More Customers For Free: It may sound obvious when you think about it, but it’s still worth saying. If you work on improving your conversion rates then you are essentially getting more customers without having to spend any more at all on advertising. This isn’t about getting customers to your website (you’ve already done this), it’s about persuading them to spend money once they’re there. So rather than paying for advertising and SEO, you should be re-designing your website to make people want to buy your products.
Frees Up Funds: Lastly, when your conversion rate increases you will suddenly find that more money has been freed up to advertise in other media, both online and offline. This makes your company stronger and gives you the ability to grow still further and take it to the next stage. Basically, it’s a cyclical thing: the better your conversion rates, the more money you have to bring even more customers to your website and so on.
How to Improve Your Conversion Rate: If you are advertising online and want to test your advertising conversion rates then setting up different landing pages with slightly different layouts and styles can test your advertising. But for many small business websites improving conversion rates can come down to how easy is it for your customers to buy what it is you do. Are your contact details clear? Is it clear about what it is you sell? Is it easy for customers to buy? Are there too many steps in your checkout? Are there signals to instil confidence to make a purchase? Negative signals can be no reviews, old and out dated news and blog pages. So look at your website as a visitor - which pages are visited most often - do these visited pages provide a strong marketing message? Remember website visitors are unlikely to visit every page on your website so if you have some little gems of information hidden away that you know about repeat these throughout your website. And if your conversions still don't improve then try something else, after all if nothing changes then nothing else will change.