A Beginner's Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Customer Satisfaction
Maria Correa
Aug 7, 2024
After spending hours designing a beautiful website and sales funnel, visitors leave without buying anything.
It can be frustrating and poses a problem for every marketer and product team. That's why conversion rate optimization (CRO) exists to optimally convert website traffic into paying customers. We'll be concentrating on the web side of things, but it's also possible to do more than that.
Before we get started, let's define conversion rate optimization, better known as CRO! The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who carry out a desired action on your website. This could be a purchase, registration or download conversion.
Why is conversion rate optimization important?
Conversion rate optimization helps you make the most of your existing traffic and get it to convert. It enables you to optimize the ratio between new and existing users, and the number of conversions achieved. It brings you:
More leads: By optimizing your website for conversions, you turn those casual visitors into potential customers interested in what you have to offer. This gives you more leads to convert into sales.
More sales: The equation is simple: the more conversions you get, the more sales you make.
Lower acquisition costs: It's not a secret that acquiring new visitors to a website can be costly. CRO helps you extract more value from your existing traffic, reducing the need for constant investment in attracting new visitors. This applies to both organic and paid campaigns. For example, you may have an excellent campaign on google ads (performance max, search...) but not be getting satisfactory results due to a lack of optimization of your landing pages.
A better user experience: Pages used to convert must be enhanced in terms of user experience. Remember to check the readability of your text, the accessibility of your links and buttons, and the overall structure of your page for optimal navigation (it include the mobile experience). For clear visibility, use a measurement tool like Hotjar and supplement the analysed data with a survey tool.
Understanding your conversion rate performance
As mentioned above, your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who perform a desired action on your website. This action can range from subscribing to your e-mail list to downloading a white paper or making a purchase. In general, you'll need an overview and several metrics to help you better understand your site's conversion performance.
Here's a short (non-exhaustive) list of indicators to monitor to get a clear view of performance, in addition to your conversion rate:
Before conversion:
Bounce rate:
Definition: This is the number of visitors who arrived on your page and left immediately afterwards.
Calculation: number of visitors to a single page/total number of visitors to the site x100
Average session duration:
Definition: this metric is usually calculated in your analytics tools and allows you to know the time spent on a page on average.
Calculation: we divide the duration of all sessions by their total number over a more or less long period.
Click-through rate:
Definition: Also abbreviated CTR, this metric lets you know the rate of people who have clicked on a button, a form submission or a link, and the ratio between the number of people and the actions performed.
Calculation: Clicks/Impressionsx100. Your CTR is evaluated in particular in relation to your objectives.
After conversion:
Net Promoter Score (NPS):
Definition: Indicates customer loyalty and propensity to recommend the company to others.
Calculation: Based on a survey question "How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?" with responses on a scale of 0 to 10.
Customer satisfaction - CSAT:
Definition: Measure of customer satisfaction with a product, service or interaction.
Calculation: Usually measured by post-interaction satisfaction surveys.
You can measure it using a tool like Told to collect data at the best time and on the most appropriate channel.
Customer retention rate:
Definition: Percentage of customers who return to buy your products or use your services over a given period.
Calculation: ((Number of customers at the end of the period - Number of new customers during the period) / Number of customers at the beginning of the period) * 100.
Also take into account the types of devices used by visitors. We know that around 64% of web sessions are carried out from a cell phone! (Source: Hubspot).
This will enable you to segment your analysis by device and observe the quality of sessions for each version of your site (mobile, web and tablet).
What is a "good" conversion rate?
Unfortunately, there's no magic answer. It depends on a range of factors specific to your business, such as your industry, your target audience and the type of conversion you're aiming for. However, some benchmarks can give you a general idea of your situation:
E-commerce: While industry averages are between 2% and 5%, the most successful e-commerce companies can achieve conversion rates of 10% or more.
Lead generation: Landing pages generally aim for a conversion rate of between 5% and 10%, while blog posts fall into a slightly lower range, between 1% and 2%.
Generally speaking, the right rate is the one that best matches your business (and marketing) objectives. That's why it's so important to be familiar with these variables, so you can easily read your performance and know which direction you need to go in.
The conversion space par excellence: Your website
Conversions can happen anywhere on your website: home page, landing page, product pages, blog posts and even the "About us" section. The key is to optimize each page for conversions by strategically placing elements such as CTAs or banners that entice visitors to take action, but also provide relevant, quality information based on what the user will need to find on the page.
To take the example of an "about us" page, you could include information about the company, the business, the team, but also the values that make up your organization. Think about how your brand is perceived and what the user can expect in each context when they browse a page on your site.
How to calculate your conversion rate
You don't need a sophisticated calculator to do this. The conversion rate formula is very simple: divide the number of conversions by the total number of visitors and multiply by 100 to obtain a percentage.
For example, if you received 1,000 visitors to your website over the course of a month and 50 people signed up for your newsletter, your conversion rate for newsletter sign-ups would be 5%.
How do CRO and SEO work together?
SEO is the magnet that attracts visitors to your website. SEO helps you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). It also enables you to better target what users are looking for from a given query, with search intent.
This increases the chances that people looking for products or services like yours will find your website and deem it relevant.
Once these visitors have arrived, that's when CRO takes over. It's all about convincing these visitors to stay on your site and take action, whether that's making a purchase, signing up for a free trial or downloading a useful guide. Essentially, SEO brings visitors to the party (your website), and relationship marketing convinces them to stay and take action (convert). Ultimately, SEO and relationship marketing work together to increase your sales and grow your business.
The CRO strategies you can use today
Here are some simple yet powerful relationship marketing strategies you can implement today:
1. Clear calls to action
Imagine a website without clear instructions - confusing, isn't it? Clear calls to action tell visitors exactly what you want them to do, whether it's "Sign up for free" or "Download our guide". Think of them as friendly invitations to take the next step.
Pro tip: don't be shy! Integrate powerful CTAs throughout your website, especially on blog posts and landing pages.
2. Capture leads with lead magnets
People love what's free! Use lead magnets, such as e-books, checklists or webinars, to gather visitor information in exchange for valuable content.
Pro tip: don't launch just any lead magnet. Tailor it to the needs and interests of your audience.
3. Test, test, test!
The beauty of CRO is that it's all about experimentation. Don't be afraid to test different headlines, layouts and CTAs to see what resonates best with your audience. There are free and paid tools to help you A/B test, which involves comparing two versions of a page to see which performs better.
Bonus: A/B Testing Tool for Wordpress
Split Hero: Split Hero is a simple, easy-to-use A/B testing platform on wordpress. It has been designed for small businesses and agencies. It offers a free version with limited functionality, but it's enough to get you started and do the basics!
Other paid tools such as VWO, Optimizely or A/B tasty can meet more demanding needs. Don't hesitate to compare them to get a clear view of the possibilities!
4. Make conversion easier
Simplify your registration forms and payment processes. The fewer steps visitors have to go through, the more likely they are to convert.
5. Personalize the experience
Personalization goes a long way. Present visitors with content that matches their interests and needs. This can be done through dynamic website content, targeted email campaigns or even live chat interactions.
The PIE framework
Feeling overwhelmed? The PIE framework offers a simple way to prioritize your CRO efforts. For each potential strategy, ask yourself the following questions
Potential: To what extent could this strategy improve your conversion rate?
Importance: What is the value of this improvement to your business?
Ease: How easy will this strategy be to implement?
Conclusion
In short, conversion rate optimization is an investment that pays off. By implementing a strategic approach to conversion rate optimization, you can transform your website into a powerful sales engine that fuels your company's growth. You'll offer your users a better experience while increasing the number of key actions they take. It's a win-win situation!
