Are you struggling with extremely low conversion rates? Do you want to reduce the Customer Acquisition Cost and boost your revenues? Is generating more qualified leads and meaningful engagement with the audience your pain point?
The answer to all of the above lies in implementing a strong Conversion Rate Optimization or CRO strategy. In fact, the companies that have experienced a surge in conversion rates are using, on average, 47% more methods to improve conversion.
But CRO is not just about putting together ad hoc methods. It involves conducting meaningful tests backed by proper conversion research and supported by a well thought out framework. So let’s understand why this tool can be a game-changer for digital marketers.
How does CRO benefit?
In simple terms, CRO is the science of persuading the audience to follow through the call-to-action. This could be purchasing the product from an e-commerce platform or signing up for a newsletter subscription. It is also important to remember that CRO is more than analyzing an enormous amount of data about customer behaviour or detecting the leaks in the sales funnel. It’s about developing the ability to understand how your customers make decisions and catering to their needs.
Since CRO involves appealing to your customers at an emotional level, marketers must steer the customers’ purchasing decisions where the emotions are. Digital marketers who want to make CRO part of their strategy need to start asking themselves how the product can cater to the customer’s needs. Unfortunately, several digital marketers shy away from implementing CRO practices, given that 40% of marketers have reported a conversion rate lower than 0.5%. It is a pity given that results delivered by CRO far exceed the efforts required to use it for optimizing your website.
It is time that digital marketers shift their focus from solely concentrating on getting more traffic to the website or only investing in paid advertising campaigns. CRO’s advantage is that it can get you results from the current traffic to your website since it makes every visit count. You can then keep tweaking it further till you maximize the ROI.
Best practices for mastering CRO
Developing the best practices for CRO involves combining specific tools and tricks that play to your audience’s psychology. As a result, imagery and language are vital to master CRO. Let’s look at some of the common ways in which you can achieve better CRO.
To start, if your audience struggles to navigate through the website, you have already lost out on conversion. Make use of sitemaps and a logical hierarchy while designing the website. Use navigation tabs and align them vertically as users prefer to start looking from the left. The next trick in the book is to remember that the headline copy should reflect the USP of the brand. A memorable copy can give the brand a unique identity. Use clever wordplay to communicate the critical attributes of the product.
You also cannot afford to ignore headlines. Headlines on the website are the first few words that your audience will read. So make sure to create a powerful impact. Craft it, keeping the SEO practices in mind, and state the key features of the product or service that the brand offers. A headline that forces the audience to act can increase conversions.
It is always a good idea to aim for the low hanging fruit by including compelling content. The user is on the website because there is a need. The best way to address the needs of the audience is by having targeted and benefit-oriented content. This helps to capture their attention right off the bat. A related point while creating your content is adding a clear call to action to boost CRO. You can include persuasive text that motivates the customer. Instead of saying get a quote on your website, write get a personalized quote based on your requirements.
Are you investing enough time thinking about the layout of your content? The layout of the content is as important as quality. F-shaped patterns are great for increasing conversion rates. It creates a visual hierarchy that is easy on the eyes of the reader.
Finally, the audience should be able to trust the website. Ensure that your website is attractive, error-free, and loads fast. These factors are crucial for enhancing the credibility of your website and establishing the identity of the business. Unless the user trusts the business, conversion rates will not increase.
Conclusion
Simply put, if you want to increase the website’s value for your visitors, you cannot ignore CRO. It is the most critical marketing strategy to convert prospects to paying customers. It even helps you identify what is stopping your audience from taking the actions you want them to. So it is imperative that you start learning about CRO and put it into practice if you want to boost your profits.
Authored by Inderjit Singh Matharu – Founder & Director of White Digital.
