Why Your Business Should Spend More Time Thinking About Conversion Rate Optimization
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a relatively new science. But it is fast becoming one of the most integral components of a successful online marketing strategy. So, what is CRO?
It’s all about gaining more out of the existing traffic to your website. It’s about converting leads, helping new visitors feel comfortable when completing an action, and helping existing customers repurchase.
CRO is not just a nice-to-have strategy anymore. It has become a necessity for businesses that want to stay competitive on the web. Besides, 65 percent of companies recently researched by HubSpot consider traffic and lead generation their top marketing challenge. In addition, only about 22 percent of companies are satisfied with their conversion rates, according to marketing community Econsultancy.
You Are Leaving Money On The Table
Businesses spend a lot of time perfecting their products or services as well as making sure their website and offerings are top-notch. This is definitely essential. But if you do not pay attention to optimizing your website for conversions, you are potentially leaving money on the table. This is money that your competitors will gladly snatch up for themselves.
A good CRO strategy increases ROI and makes every dollar work smarter. In fact, CRO helps your visitors find what they are looking for quicker, and helps remove common frictions which motivates your visitor to take action. The faster visitors can get their hands on what they want, the more likely they are to become leads, converts, and repeat purchasers.
For example, let’s say you spent a lot of money creating copy and have a beautiful website design that generates leads. Are you sure that is the best you can do? If you are not testing different layouts, copy styles, calls to action, and the motivations of your visitors you won’t know what works and what doesn’t. Essentially you are just hoping for the best outcome.
Are your visitors happy with your website? Are they responding to you? Could they respond better? If you can’t answer these questions, you are leaving money on the table.
Your Competitors Are Doing It
Don’t get left behind. Remember, conversion rate optimization is needed for businesses who want to stay current and competitive.
Walmart understands this. A few years ago, Walmart Canada unveiled a responsive website design; the first enterprise ecommerce site in the country to make the change. As a result, they experienced a 20 percent increase in conversion rates. Most likely Walmart gathered insights by testing and taking the time to understand what their visitors wanted. They then implemented their findings, resulting in these results. CRO is a patient discipline and takes some time to discover behavior patterns from your visitors, but once you gain that knowledge you can use it to give your customers want they want.
You’re Wasting Money On Traffic
This is another reason why you could be wasting money by not paying attention to CRO. You don’t just need traffic; you need traffic that will convert. What you really want are visitors and prospects that become customers. If the people who are coming to your website are not converting, they are just visitors and getting more people won’t help your bottom line.
What you want to do is optimize your landing page to draw in visitors that will convert without spending more money on traffic. This is how you make every dollar work smarter. Yet you don’t necessarily need to increase any of your traffic. Converting your existing traffic at a higher rate you more money with less effort.
You Will Understand Your Visitors’ Behavior Better
In this inbound marketing-focused landscape, one key to success is understanding the people who are buying from you. Online marketing is customer-focused. With your website, you are not putting up a billboard on Santa Monica Boulevard. It’s not about telling your audience to buy a product or service without offering a meaningful way to connect. The better you know and understand your customers, the better chance of making a meaningful and lasting relationship with them.
Online marketing involves using your content to build a relationship with your customers and offer them personalized value. This helps them arrive at their own decision to work with you and to feel comfortable with your brand. You need to get inside their heads and figure out what motivates them to trust you or what makes them feel uneasy.
CRO allows you to understand your customers’ behaviors. Through testing, you will learn what your customers love, like, dislike, and find inspirational enough to help them take action.
You now have plenty of reasons to spend time thinking about conversion rate optimization. Keep in mind that the core of CRO is your customers. Do all that you can to understand them better so you can connect with them and offer them value. Want more on this topic? Read this: CRO Testing: Fewer Form Fields Reduces User Friction.
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