What is CRO? Meaning, Importance, and Strategies Explained

What is Conversion Rate Optimization?

To understand CRO or Conversion Rate Optimization, you need to first understand what a conversion rate is. 

Out of 100 people who visit your website or blog, how many actually show interest in your product or service? 

For example, out of 100 people who visit my beauty and pharmacy-related blog, if 10 people actually sign up for the newsletter, the conversion rate is 10%. 

Now, what is conversion rate optimization?

The process of improving that number of 10 conversions to maybe 11 or 12 is known as conversion rate optimization.

Platforms Where Conversion Rate Optimization can be Practised

People often confuse CRO and SEO for one and the same while the reality is slightly different. Conversion rate optimization strategies affect all aspects of digital marketing- SEO, SMM, SEM, Performance Marketing, Content Marketing, etc. 

Remember, the ultimate goal of all digital marketing campaigns is to improve the conversion rate so considering CRO while planning campaigns throughout all digital platforms is essential. 

Below given are some of the platforms where you can include CRO or optimization strategies to improve your conversion rate-

• Search Engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo)
• Google Ads
• Social Media Ads
• Email Marketing 
• SMS Marketing 
• Whatsapp Marketing 
• Chatbots
• Popups
• Telemarketing 

So, how does CRO work? 

(Source: Smart Insights)

Optimizing your company’s conversion rate is very methodical. It includes the process of gathering data, analyzing this data, and making conclusions. These insights can help with your overall marketing plans and also customer behavior. 

You’re probably wondering how conversion rate optimization works. Here’s how –

1. Gather all the data

Gather all the customer data and web analytics data. Know what your conversion rate and other related metrics are.

2. Make a Hypothesis

Keeping your goals in mind, understand how you can achieve them. Form a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a possible result for an untested statement. For example, if I optimize my landing page with a pop-up form, I will receive more customer data. Understand if they are the right metrics or if you need more metrics and add them to your hypothesis. 

3. Test

Run a test on your hypotheses. Track your data to know which side of the hypothesis it is moving it. 

4. Analyze

Analyze the findings of your test. Did something go wrong with the test? Were the findings correct? 

5. Repeat the Process

Gather new data and formulate a new hypothesis for you to test. It’ll help you understand what is working and what isn’t in the business.

Check out this Google Analytics short online course to be able to carry out your research better. 

6 Must-Use Strategies to Improve CRO 

Listed below are a few strategies that can help you improve your conversion rate optimization marketing –

• Avoid banner CTAs

Include text-based CTAs instead of banner CTAs. Banners are notorious for spamming the customers and hence, have a stigma attached to them. 

• Test your landing pages

Always test your landing pages before sending out any communication. You can even experiment with A/B testing on your landing pages to see which one helps you with CRO.

• Add chatbots to high-converting web pages

Adding chatbots to high-converting web pages will provide leads with information in real-time and help them convert faster. This also makes them feel very special. 

Check out this article on Artificial Intelligence in Digital Marketing.

• Invest in blog posts

Investing time and effort in high-performing blog posts can boost your SEO. This can really help with an increase in lead generation. 

Bonus Read – Lead Generation and how it works.  

• Use re-marketing techniques

By using tools like retargeting on Facebook you can remind your customers of your product or service. You will still need an engaging copy, appealing visuals, and an enticing offer to get a conversion. 

• Automation of tasks 

Newfound startups with revolutionary technology also often fail with CRO because they do not understand a lead’s journey from awareness to action. Hence, make use of automation tools that retarget, create awareness and even interact with the potential leads at odd hours so that the customer doesn’t feel unattended. Any second wasted and used by customers to rethink their actions will be a failure for the company. 

But before that, here are some of the best CRO practices that you can implement-

How Do You Know That Your CRO Strategies Worked?

Well, before we get onto the best practices for conversion rate optimization, let’s know how to measure the success of CRO campaigns. CRO’s success or failure is reflected directly in the change seen in a company’s conversion rate. 

The formula for Conversion Rate is- 

(Source: Wall Street Prep)

If the conversion rate optimization strategies have worked in the company’s favor, your conversion rate will be higher than normal and vice versa.

What is a good conversion rate? Well, it really depends on the nature of the industry, goals, location, and other audience demographics. For example, the average conversion rate in the F&B sector in Ecommerce is about 5.5%. 

Check your industry’s average rate before starting off. You can calculate the conversion rate by dividing the total number of conversions by the total number of visitors and multiplying by 100.

Secondly, your CPA or Cost Per Acquisition will be reduced over a long period of time with the correct conversion rate optimization strategies. If you witness a slight jump in ROI (Return on Investment), then your CRO strategies have worked. 

6 Essential Principles of CRO

Listed below are the main principles of conversion rate optimization- 

• Speed

It is of utmost importance that your website is speed optimized. Today, customers are much more impatient. 60% of customers will abandon a webpage if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. 

Hence, it is important to have pages that load fast.

• Less is More

Having singularity in your communication is important. In marketing, a single offer and CTA have more impact than multiple offers and CTAs on the same webpage. It confuses the reader.  

• Clutter-free

Keep your webpage clutter-free. Do not include confusing visuals and text. Keep your end goal in mind. If you want a user to subscribe to your newsletter, the communication should only be that. 

Do not unnecessarily include more information than necessary. 

• Have a solid USP

Why should a customer make a purchase only from you? What do you bring to the table that is different from the others? If it is quality or a unique feature, make sure to highlight it by having a section on your homepage. 

The quality of your pictures needs to be good to entice customers to make a purchase. 

• Eliminate Barriers to Conversion

Identify what the barriers are that are preventing your customer from converting. Some common barriers include – High prices, Lag in page loading, Hidden CTA buttons, Unnecessary pop-ups, No or low-quality product images, and product descriptions that don’t match the product.

• Make Your Customer Feel Comfortable

Make your customer feel as comfortable as possible. Use pop-ups for getting customers to subscribe but they can be annoying. Hence, be mindful of the pages you use them in and your end goal. 

Never let go of a customer’s trust for easy conversion. You need to build brand loyalty and that can only come with a good customer experience. 

Let’s have a look at the many benefits and importance of conversion rate optimization and understand why you need to invest time and effort in CRO marketing. 

Benefits & Importance of CRO 

There are several benefits of CRO marketing. Read on to know what they are –

1. Customer Journey

With customer rate optimization, you will need to understand the buying behavior of your customers much better. The aim is to know their demographics well. Who are they? How do they interact with your website? What are the bottlenecks in the journey that stop them from converting? 

The more your tailor this consumer experience according to the consumer’s need, the better. 

2. Attract More Customers

CRO is more about helping your visitors to get to the store, helping them find what they’re looking for, and speeding up the process of converting them into a customer. 

The better the customer experience, the more customer will you attract from the increased customer traffic. This also leads to a lower cost per acquisition (CPA).

3. Better SEO efforts

SEO and CRO can go hand-in-hand. Websites that offer a better customer experience have a higher ranking than those that don’t on Google. Therefore, it can help with better SEO rankings, helping customers discover your website on a SERP (search engine result page).

4. Retain More Customers

The tailored customer experience will retain your customers and create customer loyalty. You could look at sending them personalized newsletters, pop-ups, and coupons to turn a one-off purchaser into a loyal purchaser. 

Send them personalized product recommendations in the most bought category to make them feel special. 

Where can you learn about CRO?

If you are a professional looking for more knowledge about CRO then I suggest that you check out IIDE’s advanced online course on CRO. In just 4 hours, you will know about- 

• CRO for Google Search and Google Ads
• CRO for Social Media Ads
• CRO for Email, SMS, and WhatsApp
• CRO for Chatbots, Telecalling, and Popups
• Impact on Marketing Budgets 
• Best CRO Practices

This course by IIDE guarantees outcomes like higher Conversion Rate, ROI, and lead nurturing.

Conclusion

Now that you are aware of how conversion rate optimization works, let us know how you applied it to your own business to help it grow. Also, do tell us your favorite strategies in the comments below. 

We highly recommend this 4-month online comprehensive digital marketing course for a quick crash course on digital marketing. In case you’re on the lookout for an in-depth course that is accepted at an MBA Level, check out this MBA-Level Post Graduation in Digital Marketing.