What Is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Methodology?
For anyone who runs an e-commerce business, the measure of success is their conversion rate. This is easier said than done because it may seem like all one needs to do is set up a store, run a few advertisements and automatically, customers come pouring in. However, that’s only the bigger picture viewers see when looking at a successful business from afar.
In essence, conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is improving different elements of your website to transform visitors into returning customers, thereby boosting your conversion rate.
You need to consider all aspects of your website, from its structure to its design, ensuring that at every stage of a user’s journey interacting with your website, they do not face any obstacles, as this experience could make or break a sale. More importantly, their User experience could determine if they return and make referrals or bounce to your competitors.
If you are getting your CRO all wrong, recall that customers are the heart of every business. In this article, we will delve into the CRO methodology, understanding how it works and how you can take advantage of it to attract customers and drive sales.
What is Conversion Rate Optimisation?
Conversion rate optimisation is about improving your website to increase the percentage of visitors who transform into customers, meaning they’ve taken the desired action.
This brings us to the “C” in CRO; these desired actions refer to conversions. From the top of the funnel (e.g., subscribing to a newsletter) to the bottom (purchasing a product), conversion goals vary, and you have to decide what yours is, considering what you want to achieve.
In the end, how do you know if your optimisation efforts are working? Your conversion rate, the “CR” in CRO, increases. Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who visit your website and perform a desired action before leaving.
Let’s do some quick math to calculate the conversion rate.
Divide the number of conversions by the number of visitors, then multiply the result by one hundred to get your conversion rate.
For example, you had 5,000 visitors to your website last month and 150 converted.
Following the formula:
(Number of conversions/number of visitors) x 100
(150/5,000) x 100 = 3%
Therefore, your conversion rate for last month was 3%.
You may be wondering what a reasonable conversion rate is to have every month. Generally, research has shown that most companies average 3%, meaning that 97% of visitors leave their site without taking the desired action. Outliers total 4 -5 times more than that, with some brands maxing at 1%
Don’t beat yourself up because there’s no rigid standard for measuring a good conversion rate. In every industry, the idea of a “good conversion rate” varies. What is important is that you keep improving and not remain stagnant. That is why optimisation is crucial for the growth of your brand.
Key Website Elements to Consider
Taking a customer-centric approach to your CRO is ideal because you view the need for improvement through their lenses. Let’s look at some elements of your website that you should focus on to give your customers a satisfactory experience that will compel them to take action.
Design
It’s all fun and games when designing your website till it becomes the reason why visitors hop out of your website instantly without making a purchase. Imagine you come across an attractive advert for a product you want, but upon getting to the landing page, the designs are so cluttered that you can’t even find the cart to checkout.
When optimising, ensure that your call to action (CTA) buttons stand out with bright colours and prominent visuals to enable visitors to identify them quickly. Utilise spacing to separate products and their descriptions, and use headers to create a clear structure.
Avoid using only texts on your product pages, as users feel more at ease looking at visual representations of your product. Make sure to use clear images, as blurry and poor designs could induce mistrust.
Don’t complicate the navigation process for visitors to your website; they should be able to easily journey around your website and purchase the items they want. Ultimately, let your designs align perfectly, and the result will be evidence of your efforts.
Copy
The text on your website, whether product descriptions or articles, should be persuasive and comprehensive. Don’t use unnecessary jargon; you are not trying to impress Albert Einstein. Simply ensure your visitors find your text easily readable and scannable, use bullet points or white spaces to separate ideas and avoid verbosity but maintain relevance.
Take, for example, this article. You are still reading because it is optimised for readability and provides relevant information.
Optimise for search engines by using keywords that resonate with your target audience. That way, when users search for your products, your website will rank high, and they (users) will find you easily.
Analytics
Several platforms offer analytics, a numerical representation of your monthly performance. Analytics help you understand users’ behaviours and preferences as well. You need to monitor and improve your analytics by conducting A/B tests to know what is working and what isn’t.
You can access information on the performance of your products/services, bounce rates, and performance of your website pages through the insights given. All this information will help you improve your conversion rate if you take strategic action.
How to Go About CRO
As you might have gathered, the idea is to take a holistic approach—having an in-depth understanding of your customers and considering insights. We will discuss what CRO strategy can help you achieve your conversion goals. Let’s break it into five steps:
1. Identify Your Conversion Goal
The first step is to decide what your conversion goal is. Don’t confuse yourself by setting different goals; focusing on one aspect is best. You can decide based on what your brand hopes to achieve from its marketing efforts. Making purchases will be their goal for a fashion brand like Victoria’s Secret, while for Netflix, it is a user subscription.
You have to be clear about the actions you want visitors to take on your site to measure your conversion rate. Once that is completed, you can proceed.
2. Conduct Funnel Analysis
Your conversion funnel accounts for every step of the customer journey. A funnel analysis lets you identify at what stages of the journey a customer exits or leaves without making a purchase. It could be when they come across your advertisement, and the link to your landing page doesn’t work due to technical issues.
On the other hand, a user could be on your website but find it hard to navigate. Perhaps customers can’t find your CTA buttons or identify your product pages. Sometimes, they might get as far as making it to the checkout point but bounce off because the payment options do not suit them.
Conducting a funnel analysis helps you figure out “at what point” things go wrong, which enables you to concentrate your optimisation efforts on the right places.
3. Gather User Data
After conducting a funnel analysis, the next step is to gather the data you’ve gotten. This step is crucial because it’s the part where you get to understand your customers better. In a way, you are in their shoes and viewing the situation from their lenses.
It is at this point that you discover that the little things matter. The image you use for your advertisement can compel or repel a potential customer, though you might not think it’s important. Not using strong hooks that intrigue or evoke emotion could be the reason why you are not making sales. So, you’ll find that not every conversion blocker is clear-cut.
Don’t rely solely on insights when you can get direct customer feedback. This way, you can compare the analytics data with what they say. You can also get information on what persuaded them to convert in contrast to blockers.
4. Create and Test Hypotheses
Based on the gathered data, you can draw certain conclusions and test them. A hypothesis is a tool that helps you know when to add, adjust or remove elements from your website based on the result.
You can hypothesise that the reason for your website’s high bounce rate is the light blue colour of the CTA button. To test it, you can use a solid colour like red or black to determine if your hypothesis is correct. If your bounce rate reduces, you know that your hypothesis is correct but it doesn’t; it’s wrong, so you try a different hypothesis.
5. Review and Repeat
All your effort will go to waste if you remain satisfied with your accomplishment. Optimisation is a continuous process that bears fruits when there is constant effort to improve. So, when you complete the steps, ensure you critically review your progress and record all the changes you made.
Results don’t happen overnight, but with consistency and hard work, you can expect an improvement in your conversion rate. So keep monitoring your conversion funnel and make changes where needed.
Conversion rate optimisation is a necessity for any business that wants to succeed. However, defining what conversion means for your business to proceed with your optimisation efforts is pertinent. The critical aspects of your website that you need to focus on are its design, copy, and analytics.
To be successful in CRO, you must take a holistic approach, considering your customers and analytics. Once you figure out where your customers encounter issues with your site, test out your hypothesis, review the progress you’ve made and continue optimising.