What Is Conversion Rate Optimisation?
Conversion rate optimisation is the process of improving a website so that more of the people who are visiting it will convert into leads or customers. This might be through making changes to a website’s design, layout, copy or structure, with every change focusing on turning more of a site’s visitors into leads or sales.
CRO can be used in a number of ways. This includes A/B testing — where two versions of the same page are put in competition with each other to determine which has the best conversion rate — and multi-variant testing, which involves changing several parts of a page at the same time to determine which combination of design, imagery and copy work best together. Not to mention user testing through recording website visitor activity or asking visitors questions about their experiences.
Conversion rate optimisation is typically used for websites with a high number of visitors per week — like eCommerce stores — but it can also be applied to websites where the traffic totals are low, as traffic can be increased quickly using pay-per-click advertising.
In many cases, diagnosis of conversion rate issues can be made through Google Analytics. Many under-performing sites have such obvious conversion blockers that little analysis is needed to make the first round of recommendations.
What Are the Benefits of Conversion Rate Optimisation?
The main appeal of CRO is that it can increase your website’s customers without the need to increase traffic.
For example, if you’re getting 1,000 visitors a day and converting 1.5% of them, you will have 15 paying customers.
If conversion rate optimisation services were used to double your conversion rate to 3%, you would have 30 customers from the same amount of traffic. Your traffic cost has not increased, but your sales have doubled.
For a fraction of the price of increasing traffic, CRO services can increase a website’s contribution to the business’s bottom line. This profit can then be reinvested in increasing the website’s traffic now that the conversion rate is higher, causing a continual loop of business growth.
What Does a Conversion Rate Optimisation Service Include?
A conversion rate optimisation company’s services should focus on making the most profitable changes to a business’s website by using research and testing.
CRO should include auditing, user tracking and testing, competitor research, sales funnel analysis, call to action optimisation and website design changes among other important disciplines.
- CRO Auditing
Before making any changes to your website, I will first audit your current conversion rate to determine what’s working well for you already. I do this to understand your visitors’ behavior and avoid making any detrimental changes.
- User Tracking
I will install and use user tracking software on your website to monitor visitor behaviour. I will utilise heat mapping (software that follows how traffic interacts with a page) and click maps (software that tracks the links visitors are clicking) to determine what your customers like and what could be blocking conversions on your website.
- User Testing
I will use a combination of surveys and polls on your website to ask your website’s potential and current customers direct questions about their preferences and decision processes, resulting in improvements for your website.
- Usability Auditing
I will test each part of your website to check whether it is instinctively useful and easy-to-use, as not every customer thinks and uses the internet in the same way. Correcting these blockers can improve your conversion rate immediately.
- Competitor CRO Analysis
I will analyse your competitors’ websites to determine why they may (or may not) be converting well. I will determine what may be helping or hindering their conversion rates and optimise your website based on these valuable insights.
- Conversion Funnel Analysis
I will review the path visitors to your website have to take to complete your lead-capture form or checkout process. I will identify any steps that could be improved or removed to speed up the process and make it faster and easier to complete.
- Paid Traffic Testing
If traffic to your website is low or your business is new, I will run pay-per-click adverts (using Google Ads or Facebook Ads) to bring immediate traffic to your website. I will use this traffic to test your conversion rate or any CRO changes I have made to gather rapid results for our tests.
- CTA and Copy Optimisation
I’ll then review and optimise your calls to action and website copy to determine where conversion-rate improvements can be made. These improvements can range from changing the language and tone of voice to adding crucial missing information about your products or services.
- Analytics Analysis
I will review the path visitors to your website have to take to complete your lead-capture form or checkout process. I will identify any steps that could be improved or removed to speed up the process and make it faster and easier to complete.
- Form Analysis
Long forms or forms that are difficult to fill out on mobile devices can lead to high drop-off rates. Your CRO Specialist will review your forms to determine which parts are acting as blockers for your prospective customers and optimise them accordingly.
What’s Involved in a Conversion Rate Optimisation Campaign?
1. Analysing Your Website’s Current Conversion Rate
Before I dive in, I want to establish your goals and find the best way to achieve them. If you’re not sure yet, I’ll support you to set solid, ambitious growth goals.
2. Hypothesising Improvements
Once I have an understanding of how your website is and isn’t working, I will strategise changes I believe will improve your conversion rate. This will form the basis of all the improvements I make going forward and give me a frame of reference to compare the following results against.
2. Hypothesising Improvements
Once I have an understanding of how your website is and isn’t working, I will strategise changes I believe will improve your conversion rate. This will form the basis of all the improvements I make going forward and give me a frame of reference to compare the following results against.
3. Implementing Changes and Testing
I’ll make changes to your website’s calls to action, copy, design, forms and sales journey (i.e. how many pages are visited from the point a user arrives on your website to when they check out).
These changes may require the services of your website’s Developer or Development as well as my Copywriting, all of which I can help to craft any new content your website needs or amend existing content.
4. Analysing Results
Once a long enough period has passed (normally enough to reach a certain traffic total), I’ll analyse the results of your website’s conversion rate optimisation changes.
This analysis is likely to result in further hypothesising and testing to improve your website’s conversion rate even further.
4. Analysing Results
Once a long enough period has passed (normally enough to reach a certain traffic total), I’ll analyse the results of your website’s conversion rate optimisation changes.
This analysis is likely to result in further hypothesising and testing to improve your website’s conversion rate even further.
5. Keeping Changes or Back to Testing Again
As the conversion rate of your website continues to improve, the results of our CRO changes and testing should improve too.
For example, a 0.5% increase in conversion rate could be increased again with further tweaking and improvements. Over time, an initial conversion rate of 0.5% could be incrementally improved to 1%, 2.5%, 5% and beyond (depending on your industry).
Not Your Typical Conversion Rate Optimisation Agency
- No Complicated CRO Jargon
Conversion rate optimisation can be a complicated subject, but that doesn’t mean I have to talk in jargon that only one person in the conversation understands.
I use plain English when I talk about CRO for my clients so that everyone has a clear understanding of what has been agreed, what has been worked on and what the results are.
- No Boring Reports
Most digital marketing reports are either boring or just downloaded from the software the agency uses.
But, I create my own reports from scratch so that you see the most important information about your campaign without getting bogged down in sludge.
- No ‘Agency in London’ Premium
No ‘Agency in London’ Premium
Conversion rate optimisation agencies in London can be expensive. After all, they have costly London-based offices to pay for.
As an individual I’m a 100% remote agency, you pay for high-quality conversion rate optimisation services, rather than table football and toilet roll.
- No CRO Services Missing from Monthly Campaigns
No CRO Services Missing from Monthly Campaigns
Because CRO is so vital, I include essential CRO recommendations as standard in all my monthly marketing services. If additional work or analysis is required, I can easily switch planned Actions to include this.
- Just Increased Leads and Sales!
I’ve got no interest in being “gurus” or trying to impress you with jargon and charts. I want you to win because that makes your digital marketing with me more effective. And that’s a win for everyone.