What Is CRO: An Overview Of Conversion Rate Optimization

So, what is CRO? If you had to analyze your website or an eCommerce business, what parameter would you count as a success?

Imagine your retail store where customers visit regularly but the conversion rate is a low one. Now, that must be frustrating and you need a solid tactic to increase customer acquisition.

That’s how the online business works! 

Even if you are a month old in the field of internet marketing, CRO would be a cliche for you now.  

But what does CRO or Conversion Rate Optimization mean? 

According to Wikipedia, CRO or Conversion Rate Optimization is a system for increasing the percentage of visitors to a website that converts into customers, or more generally, takes any desired action on a webpage. 

I guess this is the clearest definition of CRO. However, there is more to CRO than the simple definition. 

In this article, we will tell you what is CRO and what are the benefits of it. 👇

What Is CRO?

Conversion Rate Optimization or CRO is a process of improving the various elements of your website or landing page that may increase the ratio of sales to the number of visitors on your website.

CRO in digital marketing may help businesses boost sales by improving the website’s elements and effectiveness with the amount of traffic you are receiving. 

In other words, it is the process of converting the visitors into leads and leads into customers. 

Now, the definition of CRO might sound like it is a technical term but it can be understood in two ways: Firstly, you must know what your buyers like, and secondly, let your buyers do what they really want to. 

Now, conversion does not necessarily mean selling your products. It is focused on what you want to achieve. It might focus on subscribing to the email list, giving feedback, or whatever you want your customers to do. 

How Do You Calculate Conversion Rate?

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) can be calculated by using the formulas that you studied in your primary schools. 

By formula, CRO % = ( Goal Achieved / Total Visitors ) * 100

For example, CRO can be defined and calculated by considering your online store that has 100,000 visitors. Let’s say, 2,000 visitors were actually converted into leads. 

Then, the CRO is just 2%. 

What if you want this rate to shoot up by 4% or by 10%? The right approach is to focus on your existing customer rather than acquiring new ones.

This can be achieved by optimizing the elements of your website and landing page. And, do not forget A/B testing.  

As I mentioned earlier, Conversion doesn’t mean only sales. It is what you want your customers to do. You may calculate your conversion rates either by using the macro-goals or by setting up the micro-goals. 

The macro goals or primary goals may include: 

• Completing a purchase
• Demo request
• Filling out the form
• Asking visitors to subscribe to the email list
• Clicking an Ad

Micro goals are the small steps to complete the goal. This may include objectives such as social media sharing, adding products to the list, downloading resources and materials, and other objectives. 

But, what’s the hype about Conversion Rate Optimization? Why does it even matter? 

Why Is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Important For Business?

I didn’t believe in Conversion Rate Optimization much until I read this amazing case study on CRO. 

CRO is one of the cornerstones for increasing your website traffic. In fact, CRO, when combined with SEO, can help you boost sales; preferably for eCommerce. 

CRO is of utter importance in recognizing your customer’s behavior. We have listed a few benefits of CRO in digital marketing:

Improving Business ROI:

Now, that is every marketer's dream. Improving the ROI of your business takes a lot of effort. You would need an impeccable strategy to draw your visitors to your website and then convert them into sales. 

CRO takes into consideration various elements of your website and if you know the hack, take your trophy home. 

Less Expenditure On PPC 

Google Ads are expensive to run and you need to convert by hook or crook if it’s a client. An ideal revenue-to-ad ratio is 5:1. And, CRO is indeed one of the reasons to increase this ratio. 

CRO can effectively move your bid range into the sweet spot by dropping your acquisition cost at the same time. So, it’s a two-way deal for you. 

Improved Experience for your visitors

One of the most important benefits in the long term is that your visitors will have a memorable experience. If you optimize your website elements correctly and be able to identify your customer’s needs, it can work as a gold mine for you. 

It costs nothing

The best part about CRO is that it doesn't cost you anything. No need to hire a professional if you can do it yourself. Moreover, if you are working on optimizing your organic traffic, you wouldn’t need to rely much on paid advertisements. 

Gives You Higher Profits 

If you are willing to raise the profits of your website, you need to make tweaks to increase the customer presence. CRO can help improve email rates, website clicks, and various factors. 

Adds Value To Your Site

It costs nothing but adds more in return. CRO can add more value to your site and bring more customers. 

Even if you are making a small tweak to make your CTA catchy, it can boost your sales immensely. 

But, the real deal is acquiring the customers and creating a powerful CRO campaign. I have further given a detailed insight into CRO strategies and the working of CRO. 

How To Improve CRO For Your Business?

The most important thing is to design a CRO campaign for your business if you are looking to create the strategies. 

That said, I have shared some strategies below to improve the CRO of your business. It would become less challenging if we divide our CRO campaigns into phases. 

1. A/B Testing

A/B Testing or Split testing is one of the most significant factors in online businesses. And, it is vital for your Conversion rates. 

It’s like dividing your traffic into two parts and seeing which one converts better. You can make changes to the various sections of the website and compare them. 

Let’s say, you have an eCommerce business and you want to test out your audience. 

Now, using various conversion optimizers, you can make changes to every element of your website. 

For an eCommerce website, you can make changes to the Homepage, sitewide changes, CTAs, Category pages, Products and Images, and changes to the checkout cart.

By running an effective A/B test, you can increase your revenue and conversions by 3%. But, the A/B test is not only the end to your CRO campaign. I have shared some of the best A/B testing tips and tools for eCommerce in one of my articles. 

2. Mobile-Friendly Optimization

70% of your customers buy things or convert using mobile devices. If you are looking to optimize your conversion rates, it is really important to design a mobile-friendly site. 

Most of the businesses lack an excellent mobile interface and hence they can’t convert better. Make use of the AMP tools to improve the performance of your mobile website.

Optimize your CTAs and themes to make your site more natural and mobile-friendly. Finally, use compressed images so that your website doesn't slow down.

And, keep track of the page speed from time to time. 

3.  Rule of Three

The Rule of three works everywhere. In fact, people embrace the rule of three. 

Be it storytelling, music, entertainment, or creating engaging content for your business, it works almost everywhere. 

You can use the rule of three to create a compelling design and content for your website. Just as you follow the rule of three in optimizing your web pages, embrace this rule in lead generation as well. 

Divide your customers into three parts: 

• Practical:  You can use logic and impress these types of customers by using the right approach. Send an impressive cold email, use CTAs with a success rate of 85%, use pop-ups only when required. 
• Actionable: The best way to convert such types of customers is by using the adrenaline rush. Use a sense of urgency to create sales. Phrases such as ‘Time is running out', ‘Limited Stocks Available’ can bring sales. 
• Social: For this type of buyer, you would need testimonials and social proof. Show them what customers think about you and ask them to take action afterward. 

4. Keep Your Design Simple

One of the reasons that most people bounce back even before checking out the products is the lack of a simple design. Your complex website design may ruin the whole sales funnel for you. 

Take inspiration from the competitors and keep your design as simple as you can. Use light colors, simple fonts to keep your UI more customer-friendly. 

Focus more on enhancing your UX. Remember that, your visitors are too impatient and they need only fewer clicks and simple navigation to reach the product page. Keep your page sections personalized, and use website heatmap tools such as Hotjar to analyze the user’s behavior. 

Pro tip: If you have a multi-niche website, personalise your homepage as according to the customers’ browser history and behaviour. You will notice a significant surge in customer retention. 

5. Understand Your Customer

According to a survey, 10 seconds are just enough to create a brand impression. Hence, you should know the intent of your brand before you start designing.

Before creating a CRO campaign for your business, understand the customer’s intent, and set up a target or a goal. Know about your customer’s likes and dislikes. 

The best way to know about the customer’s behavior is by creating a survey that matches your goals. Now, this serves as a two-way purpose. One, you would be able to understand your customer's needs and secondly, you can capture the email address to create an email list. 

Who Is Conversion Rate Optimization Useful For?

 I would say, CRO is for everyone. Every business has a demand and they set up goals for conversion. Conversion Rate Optimizations are most useful for: 

• For SaaS companies:  SaaS companies and B2B use CRO to know about the customer’s intent, capture their interest, and convert the customers into sales. 
• ECommerce Businesses: Poor designs lead to abandoned carts and less revenue. CRO is one of the most important factors in creating a strategy for your eCommerce business. Right from the homepage to the checkout page, you need to optimize every section of the website to create a memorable customer experience. 
• Agencies: Agencies employ CRO campaigns to boost their ROI and acquire new customers. Be it the digital marketing, web agency, or travel agency, CROs can be a game-changer for each one of them. 

Best Conversion Rate Optimization Tools

Besides the simple tweaks, you would need some great tools to keep track of your CRO campaigns. Also, these tools can be of great use in understanding the customer’s demands. 

I have shared the best CRO tools for your business here.  

• Optimizely: This tool helps companies to improve and personalize the sections of the website, mobile apps to make it more user-friendly.
• Unbounce: Create quick and robust landing pages, add pop-ups and sections, and perform A/B tests to improve your conversions.
• VWO: It is a great optimization tool that works on your entire journey; from insights to engagement and sales. 
• CrazyEgg: Crazyegg gives you a suite of heatmaps and click-behavior to check out the layout of your pages. It is a great tool to change the layout of your page and track your customer’s behavior. 
• Howuku: Howuku is a full-package suite that is intuitive and easy to use and helps you increase your business revenue with A/B testing, heatmap, and automated customer engagement.

Conclusion

You must have realized now how important CRO is to your business. If you know your customer’s demands, and their behavior, it’s going to be vital for your CRO strategy. 

There are a lot of other CRO tools for increasing the conversions of your business. If you are able to get more leads with the same number of customers, it will improve your revenue. 

CRO doesn’t only boost your site’s performance but also makes you stand out from your competitors and create a brand identity.