How to make conversion rate optimization (CRO) work hand in hand with your digital marketing efforts for strategies that lead to success
Here, you’ll find:
- How to calculate conversion rate
- The benefits of CRO for digital marketing
- Ways to create better user experiences
- The importance of landing page and PPC ad optimization
When it comes to opportunities from digital marketing, your business can’t afford to fall behind. Doing so could mean your loss is a more digitally-savvy competitor’s gain.
Whether you think your sales numbers can be better, your customer engagement scores can be higher, or something in between, conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a tool to activate the digital marketing results you want.
Conversion rate optimization is a tool to activate the digital marketing results you want. (Image via Unsplash)
By setting a conversion goal and optimizing towards that goal through CRO tactics, you could see results like:
- An increase in purchases on your website
- A jump in the number of people using the calculator or survey on your site
- An increase in app downloads
- A boost in free trial signups
- An increase in the number of newsletter signups over the past quarter
Ready to master your digital marketing program’s CRO efforts? Let’s dig in.
What exactly can you optimize?
If you’re looking for where to begin, landing pages with poor conversion rates, paid search ads, and engagement on your mobile website are just a few things you can optimize.
Generally, conversion rate optimization efforts focus on converting visitors arriving to your site into qualified leads or paying customers. Conversion rate experts can plan actions aimed at optimizing specific digital marketing and sales results.
How to calculate conversion rate
The math is pretty straightforward. Simply divide the number of conversions over a defined time period by the total number of visitors over the same period, and multiply by 100.
For example, let’s say your website had 1,000 visitors and 200 conversions last week.
Conversion rate = (200/1000) x 100 = 20%
If 500 people signed up for a free trial of your software and, after using it for a month and in conjunction with your email drip campaign, 100 of them upgraded to a paid plan, your free trial to paying customer conversion rate will be 20%.
These are simple calculations. Analytics platforms such as Google Analytics can do the calculation for you and show your goal conversion rate as well.
Goal conversion rate = (Total goal completions / # of sessions) x 100
E-commerce conversion rate = (Total transactions / # of sessions) x 100
Benefits of digital marketing CRO
Let’s recap. So far, we’ve discussed the impact of CRO from a sales perspective. Optimization tactics can also be valuable for your digital marketing.
You can gain audience insights
The customer journey map illustrates all the touchpoints your customers engage with online or offline. A website is an online touchpoint — perhaps the most critical one along the customer journey.
CRO tools offer insight into how customers interact with your website.
- How do they navigate your site?
- Which pages interest them most?
- How do they engage with the various elements on your website, such as your form, call-to-action (CTA) buttons, or virtual assistant?
Understanding visitor behavior
An understanding of visitor behavior on your website allows you to improve on-page and website design elements. These improvements can have a positive impact on conversions. They also expand your knowledge of user behaviors.
A CRO expert may use heat maps to find out which links are most often used. Say most visitors click on the link that takes them to your pricing page, resources, or case studies section of your site. This insight can help you better understand the needs and wants of your audience.
You can validate or learn that your B2C or B2B customers are most interested in the one, two, or three things about your company that can help them make a decision to purchase or move forward to closing a deal. In response, you could create more compelling whitepapers or e-books around these specific topics, or make the more popular links/ pages more prominent.
Perhaps your price list loads slowly or it isn’t formatted clearly, causing prospects to drop off after showing initial interest in your product. CRO tools can uncover these types of issues so they can be corrected, thus improving conversions.
You can also use dynamic heat maps that visualize users’ mouse and finger movements as they navigate your website. This way, you’ll know if visitors are scrolling down your homepage or using the drop down menus to visit key pages of your website.
Your landing page or homepage sets the initial impression of quality for visitors. If they like what they see, they’re likely to feel encouraged to stay on your website longer.
A/B testing is a popular CRO tool to determine the right layout, colors and copy that can motivate visitors to make a purchase, fill out your form, or call you directly. (Image via Unsplash)
You can create better user experiences based on data
It may seem obvious that a strong website is essential to running a successful digital marketing campaign. But when it comes to CRO benefits for digital marketing, improving your website design can help create the right perceptions about your brand in visitors’ minds.
Apply the insights gained from CRO tools to iterate and enhance the specific website elements that need fixing. In a nutshell, you can make data-driven decisions on improving the user experience.
A/B testing is a popular CRO tool to determine the right layout, colors and copy that can motivate visitors to make a purchase, fill out your form, or call you directly.
For instance, if you’ve created multiple landing pages for your latest marketing campaign, a split test can be performed to further drive conversions on high-traffic pages. This supports your marketing campaign and keeps you striding towards targeted business results.
Landing page and PPC ad optimization
PPC ads can also benefit from CRO. Clickable, punchy PPC ads that are highly relevant to your audience’s search query can drive more quality leads to your website.
You also have the opportunity to target high-intent, long-tail keywords, helping you be found by people in the later stages of the buying cycle.
Prioritizing CRO can ensure relevance between your digital marketing ads and landing pages, taking prospects on a seamless, consistent journey that does justice to your marketing efforts while hitting your sales targets.
Pro tip: If your landing pages don’t fulfill the promise of your ad, your PPC investment will struggle to deliver the expected results.
The takeaway
Even incremental lifts matter. A 5% increase in the conversion rate can translate to significant additional revenue over a period of time. This is why it’s a good idea to align CRO strategies with your ongoing or most important digital marketing goals.
As you take data-backed actions, all of your CRO efforts will have meaning, purpose, and if successfully executed, deliver the value amplification you seek.
The post The CRO Benefits for Digital Marketing: A Primer appeared first on HawkSEM.