Why is CRO important?

If you want the quick version: CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation) is important because the better yours is, the lower your cost per new customer.

What is CRO?

As we’ve highlighted previously, CRO is the proud partner of SEO – working hard at home while your search engine optimisation is attracting traffic.

When these new people land on your site, CRO’s job is to make sure they enjoy it so they can tell all their friends what a great time they had.

But CRO marketing is more than making your page smell of home baked bread – it’s a data-driven, methodical approach built on trust and user experience.

It’s also critical to Paid Media and Search – we’re actively spend money here; competition only drives the costs up, so the conversion rate has to be on point.

When a user on your page has a better overall experience, they’re far more likely to purchase, hit a signup button, request more info and so on.

Several factors determine a user’s experience (or UX) on a landing page, such as:

• Website credibility (trustworthiness, social proof, partner endorsements and so on)
• Speed (page loading, image rendering, video buffering – every second taken = many customers lost)
• Design (how your site looks and feels, plus how user-friendly the on-page elements are)
• Copy (do the words on page support the customer journey and are they relevant to the initial search enquiry?)

Plus many more – all ‘testable’ with different variables to create clear conclusions in your website’s analytics data.

A credible conversion rate optimisation agency can work with you to methodically test all relevant elements to determine what your customers want.

Why do I need CRO?

Because once you know what your potential customers like best, you can give more of it to them without wasting resource on ‘guessing’.

This is particularly true if you’re spending significantly on Paid Social or PPC campaigns – each click and ad only guarantees traffic, not ROI.

So, without investing as diligently in CRO, your only ‘guarantee’ is that you’ll spend more – everything else is ‘fingers crossed’.

Rising PPC costs, reduced paid social visibility and online marketplaces becoming more competitive by the day all mean one thing – traffic is expensive.

By working to increase your website conversions, you’ll start to remove doubt and rely on data to drive down your cost per acquisition (CPA).

Key considerations to increase conversion rates

Among the million things to think about when aiming to up conversion rates are some integrals that your CRO agency can support with.

• Establishing goals (agreeing realistic targets and measures of success with key stakeholders, based on factors like budget, existing baselines, competitor performance etc)
• A/B tests (directing high volume traffic to multiple versions of a landing page with a key variable changed, to gain a clear data picture of which version users prefer)
• Heatmaps (tracking which areas on a page draw the eye, are focused on first and attract the most attention, in order to optimise design and layout)
• Kill your darlings (you may love the logo where it is, or the wording on a button – a meticulous and unbiased analysis by specialists will determine objectively whether it’s the right decision)
• Analytics (using sales funnel data to conclusively illustrate what’s working, what isn’t and where the needles need moving)

By paying attention to these areas and many more, you’ll start to see the two things you want the most.

1. A higher percentage of your current traffic numbers carrying out the action you want them to when they land on your page.
2. An increase in new, better quality traffic with similar goals in mind – signing up with/learning more about/buying from you.

Want to get started with CRO?

Keen to improve your website conversion rates and reduce spend on changing prospects from leads into paying customers?

Get in touch today, or if you know someone who might be interested, share this content and spread the love.

Photo by Pickawood on Unsplash