Businesses all know that driving more visitors to their website is key to their marketing efforts. But, in many ways, that’s the easy part, as there are a wide range of ways which marketers can achieve that – including through social media posts and engaging content etc.
What really matters is reaping the benefits of these visits. This is where conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is key – the activity a company undertakes to increase the likelihood of a conversion.
CRO seeks to increase the percentage of website visitors that take a specific action by methodically testing alternate versions of a page or process. In doing so, businesses are able to generate more leads or sales without investing more money on website traffic, hence increasing their marketing return on investment and overall profitability.
A conversion rate is defined as the percentage of visitors who complete a goal, as set by the site owner. Some test methods, such as split testing or A/B testing enable one to monitor which headlines, copy, images, social media and content help convert visitors into customers.
Conversion is basically the process of increasing the percentage of visitors to a website who then undertake a specific action. This action can vary from business to business. It could be subscribing to a mailing list, filling out a form, registering for an event or simply buying something online. Put simply, CRO marketing is about converting website visitors into customers.
The initial process of getting visitors to engage with a brand in some way – perhaps by following on social media or signing up for a newsletter – is called a micro conversion. What really makes a difference is turning these micro conversions into macro conversions – a customer who buys a product or service that a business offers; turning visits into sales.
The key to achieving this is by having a CRO plan and, through this, by understanding the journey visitors take through a website before they make a sale. Then, make this journey easier for them – so they don’t fall out of the sales funnel before clicking ‘buy’. Ideally, you need to create the ‘ideal visit’, test it and establish the probability of more sales by making the journey easier.
As with any marketing plan nowadays, there are many strands. People don’t just buy because they’ve seen a Facebook post or received a newsletter, it’s usually a combination of approaches. This means that your digital marketing strategy should work in conjunction with your CRO plan. Neither can be done in isolation.
Using the tools available within Sitecore, marketers can create personas which represent a type of user and then map their experiences as they journey through the website – incorporating research and web analytics.
If you begin to understand your potential customers in this way, then it’s easier to create a sales experience that works for them. Solutions might then lie in making a visit more efficient, perhaps by changing the website layout or the number of steps they make before buying something.
The Sitecore Experience platform offers myriad digital marketing features which allow marketers to create compelling and highly personalised digital journeys. In addition, Sitecore encompasses a range of tools to run tests, analyse results and find ways of making changes. These, combined, will allow a business to optimise its conversion rates.
If you want to find out more about how Lake Solutions can help your organisation with its CRO strategy, then get in touch.