Conversion rate optimization or CRO is an excellent opportunity to grow your business at an enormous pace. If you find a lot of people talking about CRO, then it shouldn’t surprise you because it can make your business shine like nothing else. Before you get into more details, it is essential that you first learn the basics of conversion rate optimization.
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This would help you understand the whole concept and enable you to make critical strategic decisions for your business. Now take a pause and think about the action that you take once you are on a webpage. Conversion rate optimization in digital marketing is now becoming a backbone because you make choices on the webpage and CRO helps develop the strategies so you can make those choices.
Strictly speaking, it is an efficient practice of increasing the percentage of users that make a desired action on the web. There can be a lot that can fall under the banner of actions. For example, clicking a particular link, signing up with an email, filling out a form, purchasing a product, writing reviews, etc.
If you were having any ambiguity related to CRO it should be cleared by now. Don’t worry if it is still too hard to grasp the concepts, you can continue reading because the details below cover it all.
User-Centric Definition of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Conversion rate optimization or CRO is the numerical approach that focuses on conversion percentages, averages and benchmarks. With all the results and excellent outcomes, there’s still a downside of the whole process because the more you look at the data full of conversion rates and actions the little you pay attention to the user or individual behind it.
Don’t worry, there’s an alternative way of definition that would open up your mind so you can see the user side more clearly. You can think of the whole CRO process as focusing and understanding what motivates or prevents or persuade users to take a certain action. This would help you understand the user from a whole new perspective and you’d be able to make choices to improve the user experience. Consequently, it would make them convert and take the conversion rate of your website to the next level.
Evidently, the user-centric definition works better and the whole process makes more sense. Conversion Rate Optimization in digital marketing is important for sure but there’s a lot more that happens before that. You might find yourself stuck with Drivers that bring people to your website, Barriers that make them leave your website and not but the least Hooks that make them convert.
When you are working to improve the conversion rate and are in search of proper answers to the query what is CRO in digital marketing, not every problem is related to CRO because sometimes a simple website bug is responsible for poor results. If not that and data isn’t helping either, then you need to go even deeper to understand why the user is not converting. An efficient way of coming over such a challenging situation is by “putting yourself in their shoes”. For example, if you want to sell some product, then try buying it yourself and see what stops you.
How to Calculate Conversion Rate Optimization in Digital Marketing
Now that you’ve read quite a bit about conversion rate and how it works, it is time you find out how you convert it. Before you do that make sure you have an expert at your disposal and if not, then you can hire an external resource to do it for you. The conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of conversions or actions taken by the total number of visitors and later you multiply it by 100 to get a percentage.
For example, if you sold 50 items last month and 1000 people visited your people, then your conversion rate is 50 and if you divide it by 1000, you’d get 0.05 and by multiplying it by 100 would give you 5%. A percentage is still a number if you don’t have efficiency measures. If you don’t know how to control various parameters an expert can be hired for help.
What is the Average Conversion Rate?
The average conversion usually stands between 1 to 5%, but the experts say that it is a meaningless measure because:
- Conversion rate optimization in digital marketing can differ greatly depending on the goal. Goals can be ad clicks, newsletter signups, etc. its performance is questionable unless you can measure it.
- A comparison is meaningless because every website is different and so does the audience.
- Most people don’t really share their conversion data publicly because the completion takes advantage of that and there can be other reasons as well.
It is safe to assume that the average gives you a starting point that can be used for benchmarking but it’s nothing more than that. You can’t rely on that completely and eventually; you’d realize that you need an in-depth understanding of the user if you want to touch newer heights. Because if understood what your user is looking for, then you can help them find it.
Otherwise, people would simply come and go to the website and no conversion at all. Giving users what they need has long-term benefits and is closely associated with customer loyalty.
Conversion Optimization Best Practices— Are They Dangerous?
A common belief in the digital world is that best practices guarantee an increase in the conversion rate. For example, look at the following practices:
- Use a strong color for all CTA (call-to-action) buttons
- Place CTAs above the fold
- Use urgency (e.g., time-limited offers) to drive sales
- Always display testimonials
- Use fewer form fields on your forms
Now all these practices are good but if you are under the impression that there are assurances, the facts suggest otherwise. Because every good practice doesn’t fit in all scenarios and hence doesn’t promise an increase in conversion rate optimization in digital marketing. A tool is a tool but how you use it makes the difference. If it is coherent with all your strategies, then the chances are that it would work, but you would need extended analysis to get it done.
For long-term and better results working blindly doesn’t cut out and that’s why learning and randomly applying practices is a completely wrong approach. You can use the following tools to successfully implement a CRO program:
- Quantitative tools to find out what is happening
- Qualitative tools to find why things happen
- Tools to test changes and measure improvements
It is said that the best tools are the tools that are available for use for free. Otherwise, it would need a considerable collection of tools and investment. If you don’t know what would work for you, then hiring an expert is your best shot at increasing the conversion rate.
The digital world has grown intensively over the last two decades and since the giants have realized the full potential of digital marketing continuous growth is still expected. With old marketing techniques it was never possible to increase the reach beyond a certain point, but thanks to digital marketing it is now possible.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is an emerging practice that helps businesses understand why people do what they do. Because a business that can answer it is going to rule and wipe out the competition in the way. Remember never to go for CRO if you are half-prepared because it would cause more harm than good.