Understanding what Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is, and 5 key components to look at.
The goal of this post is to help you better understand what Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is, and what the key components that experts play with to improve website performances are. Conversion Rate Optimization is the process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who make a desired action on your website. This could be the number of purchases, add to carts, sales or even clicking on a link.
Let’s take a retail store for example. Lots of people might enter and browse your store, but most people will leave right away if the aisles are messy or unorganized. What if there was a way to track how everyone acted inside your store and aggregate the data gathered? You could then analyze this data and reorganize the aisles in order to test different hypotheses. Depending on how your clients react to the new changes, you could either keep or discard them before moving on to another section of the store. This is basically what CRO experts do when A/B testing new hypotheses for a website!
At ODM World, we usually get approached for CRO mandates when a company is already generating good revenues and now wants to work on its incremental sales.
The CRO mandate usually focuses on two key areas:
- Reducing friction in your sales funnel
- Enhancing the value of your offer
5 Key components to look at
To understand how experts are able to get consistent results that bring substantial revenues for their clients, we need to look at 5 aspects that work in most cases.
1. Test new Call-to-actions (CTA): Telling your visitors precisely what to do next and what to expect can often do the trick. CTA optimization is often overlooked, but can definitely increase conversion rates.
2. Focus on your sales funnel: A sales funnel is a series of steps that someone has to take on your website in order to complete the primary goals of your site. For e-commerces, those steps are often “browse products, add to carts, checkout steps and place an order”. Make sure to make each step as seamless as possible and reduce friction whenever possible.
3. Focus on the user-friendliness: There is a series of best practices for making sure your website is user-friendly. Don’t forget about your mobile experience!
4. Define your audiences: Understanding your customers, their needs & what drives them will do wonder for your business. When you truly “get” your customers, it’s a whole lot easier to design a website that resonates with them.
5. Analytics: Measurement is the centerpiece of improving conversion rates. It’s important to have the right tools properly installed if you want to measure and understand your user behavior. Make sure you have enough data for the results to be statistically significant before making any decision!
Do you have questions about CRO? Are you looking for an agency to help you reach your business goals? Get in touch with us! It will be our pleasure to look at your specific situation!