CRO Expert tips to enhance your Conversion Rate Optimization

CRO also is known as Conversion Rate Optimization is a ratio based technique that turns your website visitors into qualified leads. CRO strategies focus on how to improve your landing pages so that most of your web visitors take certain actions or complete important goals on your website. These actions could be buying a product, Sign up to a newsletter, downloading eBooks, etc.

CRO helps businesses to maximize online marketing and advertising. Moreover CRO does not only increase conversions only it also saves optimizes advertising budget as well. In fact briefly you can say that it is about conversions and converting your visitors as much as you can.

Converting your visitors is not an easy task as you must have a user-friendly web platform, convincing content, and the best products or services with the unbeatable price. You have to clarify the reasons that your visitors have to take action from your website instead of your competitors’ store.

What is a Conversion Rate

A Conversion Rate briefly is a ratio especially in percentage that shows how people who interact with your business platform complete certain goals. For instance you may need to know how many people who have bought your products compared to the total number of visitors your website has accumulated in a specific period.

How to calculate CRO

Conversion Rate is a percentage of the total number of customers who completed a goal which is called conversions over the total number of your website visitors.

CRO Formula

Conversion Rate is calculated by taking the total number of conversions divided by the total number of people who visited a web platform. CR= (total conversions / Total Visitors) X 100

Example

Suppose that we sell books online and we have 100 web visitors per day but the visitors who bought books were only 15 on that day. CR= (15 / 100) x 100 = 15 % So our Conversion Rate on that day is 15 % So the objective of CRO is to increase the percentage of those people who bought the books to something above 15% by applying Conversions Rate Optimization techniques. CRO Requirements

• Platform
• Copy
• Products
• Audience
• Conversions
• Analytics

You may want every visitor to your web to perform something that benefits your business. To achieve this you have to be ready and prepared to:

• Target the right visitors
• Make it easy for them to navigate
• Write persuasive content
• Track their actions

Questions you have to ask yourself before your CRO

• Am I targeting the right audience
• Is my website user-friendly
• Are my copy and content good
• Are my analytics clear and accurate
• Are my conversions improving

Here are the main things you have to do during your CRO

• Optimize spending especially on marketing and advertising budget
• Analytics and Tracking by measuring your CRO performance
• User experience including the responsiveness of your business platforms and landing pages

Steps to improve your CRO

• Data Gathering: collect your web data so that you can understand your visitors
• Form Hypotheses: Test whether your CRO meet your expectations
• Analysis: Analyze and check the accuracy of your visitors with automation tools
• Repeat: Always repeat CRO strategies so that you can find the rooms to improve

CRO vs. Direct Response Marketing

Direct Response is an aggressive marketing technique that targets a specific audience for generating immediate conversions with quick performance analytics. Direct Marketing Response Marketing is a do it now strategy which means that no waiting time. It requires pushing the customers to take action with attractive offers that have a deadline.

Direct Response Marketing is hurry-up marketing that focuses on direct sales by interacting directly with the customers for influencing their purchase decisions. Compared to CRO which mostly focuses on online marketing DRM stresses on other marketing platforms such as TV, Radio, etc.

Even though CRO focuses also on increase the number of visitors who complete actions, Direct marketing Response offers irresistible promotions so that they can sell as much as they can. DRM is very aggressive compared to traditional marketing which in the most case raises brand awareness instead of selling directly the products.

Similarities between Conversion Rate Optimization and Direct Response Marketing

• Customers have to take action immediately
• Trackable and measurable
• Clear Call to action
• A well-studied target audience
• Aggressiveness
• Ease on taking actions even a toll-free

CRO vs. SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) focuses on increase website search ranking but both CRO and SEO have one word in common which is optimization. CRO increases Conversions whereas SEO increases Search Engine results.

To get the best out of the SEO web pages on SERP (Search Engine Results Page) you have to write clear and concise meta descriptions that explain exactly what you want and the convincing the reasons why a web user has to take action on your website. Therefore you have to double-check whether your meta titles also convey briefly your landing page messages.

Once your web search ranking is on top of the most useful search engines like Google’s first page, check the way your website’s pages, content, and characters appear. If the results are not what you wanted modify it till your message is clear. If it is well clarified your SEO will boost your CRO. Remember that you do not have enough time to convince Google surfers to catch them faster with your meta tags.

The difference between CRO and SEO

The main difference between CRO and SEO are:

• SEO increase traffics to your website through search engines whereas
• CRO converts those traffics brought by SEO

CRO vs. CTR (Click-through Rate)

CRO and CTR have different concepts even if both are used in performance marketing as ratios but their state such as the way they increase or decrease affects each other.

What is CTR

CTR means Click-through Rate. It is a web ratio that compares your website performance especially on views and clicks your website receives. CTR metrics show you how visitors who viewed your website and how many among the impressions you got have decided to click on the landing pages.

The drawback of Click-through Rate is that it doesn’t show you the reason why those people who saw your landing page didn’t click on it. So you are the one to find and fight for boosting the number of visitors who would click on your web pages.

How to calculate CTR

Click-through Rate or CTR is the total number of clicks your website has got divided by the total number of impressions.

CTR Formula

CTR= (Total clicks / Impressions) x 100

Example

Assume that your website has 500 clicks on 10 000 impressions. So let us calculate your Click-through Rate. CTR= (500 / 10 000) X 100 = 5%

Note

• CTR is mostly used to measure the success of your website visits or your Email Marketing Campaigns
• A high CTR is a good sign of copywriting
• Once your CTR is higher more your marketing becomes more effective

Benefits of CTR (Conversion Rate Optimization)

• Increasing your conversions Rate Affects your SEO even though it is not a big ranking factor
• In paid campaigns such as Google ads, a good CTR increase your quality Score which lowers your PPC
• A good CTR enhance your CRO
• Improves your customer insights
• A higher ROI (Return On Investment)
• Marketing scalability
• Increasing customers trust

How CTR affects CRO

A high CTR is a sign of an increase in the number of your web traffics which affects your CRO positively. So CRO is like a trap waiting to catch visitors from your digital platform channels. You can check how your CTR increases because it affects the number of conversions you might get.

Always a CRO expert has to check whether his CTR rises to increase the conversions from new and existing visitors.

What is a Good CTR

The type of industry and customers you serve may affect the Click-through Rate you get, but the following numbers explain in general what a good CTR should be.

• An average CTR for Google Search Network campaigns is 1.9 %
• An average CTR for Google Display Network Campaigns is 0.35
• A good CTR for Search Network Campaigns is 4 - 5 % or plus
• A good CTR for Google Display Network Campaigns is 0.5 - 1% or plus

CRO vs. Bounce Rate

Bounce Rate is a ratio in the percentage of visitors who quit your website after only viewing a single page. A Bounce Rate shows you how people are interested in your website and content.

How to calculate the Bounce Rate

The Bounce Rate is calculated by taking the number of single-page visits divided by the number of your website total visits.

Bounce Rate Formula

Bounce Rate = (Single page visits / Total website visits) * 100

What is a Good Bounce Rate

In general there is no good Bounce Rate, it depends on your business industry. For instance an eCommerce and news website may not have a good Bounce Rate because many web users will visit their landing pages targeting only certain products or topics and leave after that page only. So these facts may affect the bounce rate.

A good Bounce Rate has to be between 16 - 40. Consequently a Bounce Rate between 56 - 70 is called average but above 70 BR is a bad sign for your website and you have to review your web pages and content to improve it. Most of the time a high Bounce Rate is caused by bad user experience and irrelevant content.

How Bounce Rate Affect CRO

The status of your Bounce Rate influences your CRO. In addition a good or bad BR affects the performance of your CRO. Suppose that you offer more than one product or service so if visitors take action on different pages it increases the chances of acquiring many conversions. Thus interlink your related pages so that you can catch the visitors who complete actions on a single page.

A good Bounce Rate helps business to accumulate multiple conversions from a single visitor. A good BR is a good sign for both CRO, CTR, and SEO performance.

Tricks and tips to boost your Bounce Rate for a better CRO

• Interlink your related web pages
• Speed up your website
• Write useful content
• Add a video to your website

Note

• Strange note about Bounce Rate is that more it increases more it affects your business negatively contrary more your Bounce Rate decreases more it affects your website positively.
• A high Bounce Rate is not always a bad sign it depends on your business industry.

Social Media Marketing CRO

Social Media CRO is the main objective of every business. Your social media pages have a huge impact on your Conversion Rate. Social Media Marketing campaigns target users who want most of the time to relax. So you have to target your niche wisely with entertaining content followed by fancy graphics and photos.

Your message has to be positive and brief with a clear CTA. To boost your Social media CRO you have to think about the way the users would react on your copy by briefly grabbing their attention. Remember that you have to set up the necessary tools to track, and collect your social media conversions.

Note

• Target specific audience that meats your niches
• Think about your social media marketing scope

Email Marketing CRO

Email marketing CRO is among the most sophisticated conversion techniques. So to increase email marketing conversions from your new and existing subscribers you have to think out of the box.

The most important points you have to think about during your email marketing are Subject Lines, Pretext, user experience, content, CTA, Urgency, and analytics tools to track the Open Rate and Conversions. Therefore your emails have to be relevant, personalized, and customer-centric. Components of a good CRO

• CTA: Clear call to action
• Conversions funnel: sales funnel and customer lifecycle insights
• A/B testing: test different versions of your landing pages
• Multivariate testing: test multiple variables and elements of your web pages
• Usability: test your user experience and friendliness
• Customers: you must have a customer-centric approach
• Data Analytics: Measure your web data metrics thoroughly and accurately
• Heat Maps: Records your users’ interactions and clicks on your websites

Areas of your website that boost your CRO

• Your Homepage
• Landing pages
• Pricing page
• blog

Homepage CRO

Your homepage is the most important page of your website. Do as much as you can to catch the visitors who land to your front page. Your homepage is the entrance gate of your business. So make it easy for your web visitors so that they can reach you and find the content that will convince the customers to complete important actions.

Pricing page

Creating a pricing page is a great opportunity to show your visitors how your package and plans are affordable compared to the benefits your customers will get from your offers. To facilitate your visitors to access and navigate your price with the option of contacting you in case they need additional information. You can also use this page to offer some giveaways to retain them.

Blog page

Your web blog page is a powerful tool that will help you to convince your customers. Take advantage of content marketing to mention your products and services in your blog. Then find the relevant and interesting topics that can create a positive image and emotions to trigger your web visitors to take action.

Landing pages

Create a robust landing page with a convincing copy that will push your visitors to take action. Speed up your landing page and test it on various web speed testing tools. Therefore make your landing page user-friendly as much as you can. You can try to create different landing pages and test them to see the ones that boost your CRO.

CRO tools

CRO is a complex task that you cannot perform manually. You will always need the best Conversion Rate Optimization tools that will automate your digital marketing tasks. In this article we can take a glance at types of CRO tools used in Conversions. In the future I will prepare a detailed article on the top Tools that most CRO experts and digital marketing agencies use.

Various tools that allow you to track your conversions funnel to have deeper insights into your CRO. These tools are divide into different sections depending on your purpose and marketing goals. Here are the types of CRO tools available in the digital advertising industry:

• Funnel analytics tools
• A/B Testing tools
• Page speed tools
• Survey tools
• Landing page tools
• User analysis tools

Note Keep in mind that having CRO tools does not guarantee you to maximize your CRO. Enhancing your conversion Rate count on different factors rather than relying only on having the top CRO tools. Your CRO Strategies matter a lot and may affect your CRO results than anything else you can apply. So concentrate on good strategies and techniques more than spending much money on Conversion Rate Optimization tools.

CRO and Landing Page Testing techniques

To understand better your CRO performance you have to run different tests of your landing pages to have a deep understanding of your marketing results. Some CRO testing can be done manually whereas others need advanced testing tools.

There are two types of landing page testing

• A/B Testing also known as split testing
• Multivariate testing

A/B Testing

A/B testing also known as split testing is the landing page testing technique that focuses on comparing two or many pages that fully look similar. A/B Testing elements

• Headlines
• Landing pages
• Themes
• Videos
• CTA
• Credit Cards
• Graphic images
• Homepages

A/B Testing example

Changing the colors of a button for a landing page

Multivariate Testing

Multivariate testing is the landing page testing that involves multiple variables and elements of a web page. Multivariate testing is used to test the different versions of a landing page with few similarities.

Example of Multivariate Testing

• Testing different versions of layouts, copies, and colors to compare the performance of the landing pages
• Text and Visuals
• Text and CTA colors
• Number of text fields and Call to action texts

A/B Testing vs. Multivariate Testing

A/B testing compares the very similar landing pages whereas Multivariate Testing compares many variables of the landing pages. Multivariate tests combine many variations of a page compared to A/B testing that compares few elements of a web page. Most MVT Landing page tester uses Optimizely as it is a popular multivariate testing tool. Moreover A/B Testing is easy compared to Multivariate Testing that requires having enough traffics and elements.

Similarities between A/B testing and Multivariate Testing

The similarities between A/B and Multivariate Testing is that conducting many Split Testing on a single landing page are also called Multivariate Testing

Quantitative and Qualitative Methods usage in CRO

Quantitative Methods

Quantitative methods are numeric data implication in CRO Data Analytics for measuring sales funnel tracking. These methods involve mathematical metrics and tools.

Qualitative Methods

Qualitative methods are the non-numeric methods used to improve CRO. These methods could be interviews, Surveys, User testing, Feedbacks, Polls, and Reviews. Both quantitative and qualitative methods help you to understand your business to make decisions.

CRO Customer surveys

To get the feedback from your customers and web visitors you can use some automation tools to understand what your customers think about your business. Tips to get the best answers from your customers

• Ask a few questions
• Make it easy to answer
• Offer a giveaway and gifts

CRO Marketing Channels

To enhance your Conversion Rate you need the following channels

• Search ads
• Visual ads
• SEO
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Business Portals

CRO Mistakes to avoid

• Heavy loading website
• Irrelevant copywriting and content
• None responsive web platform
• Guessing on your data analytics

Conclusion

CRO is the most important armor of digital advertising. If you want to transform your conversions apply these tips. Keep in mind that a CRO Expert will boost your Conversions up to 30%. The best CRO Strategies will increase your profit and save you money.

Remember that CRO is not a one time job. Repeat and do it continuously and strive to make as many conversions as you can. To conclude I encourage you to grow your business and make much money with the power of CRO. The advantages and objectives of CRO are to generate more qualified leads and sales without investing much money to increase the ROI and the company’s profit.