In marketing, we communicate through acronyms—PPC, SEO, SMM, CPC, etc. Anyone who doesn’t speak our lingo, generally finds themselves most confused with the acronym CRO. Most will ask (understandably so) if we are referring to a Chief Revenue Officer. However, CRO in digital marketing actually stands for conversion rate optimization. What is conversion rate optimization you might ask? Don’t worry we have you covered!
Conversion Rate Optimization or CRO is the practice of increasing the percentage of users who perform a desired action on a website. This action can be submitting a lead form, adding an item to your cart, calling the business number, or purchasing a product.
The best way to increase website conversion rates is to understand your visitors and customers. Once you understand your users, the only thing left is to give them what they need. Which may be a loaded question…
There are many different items on any web page to test to begin your conversion rate optimization efforts. So where do you begin? Allow us to share our tips.
#1 Mobile Device Compatibility
Before you begin testing, you should always make sure that your website and landing pages are compatible with mobile devices. 45% of users will be exploring your website on their cell phones. A website only compatible with desktops will deter almost half of your customers from purchasing your products or submitting their information on your lead forms.
#2 Test your Website Copy
The way you articulate your message plays into whether a website visitor will convert or not. There are quite a few pieces of copy on your website that you can A/B test.
- Page Heading Copy
- Subheading Copy
- Paragraph Copy
- Product Description Copy
- Call-to-Action Statements
- Copy in Your Navigation Menus
For example, imagine you are selling a blow dryer, and you wanted to test what call to action converts best. Try performing a test comparing a call to action that says “Order Today” to one that says “Shop Now.” Customers might be more inclined to purchase simply by the phrasing of your call to action.
Similar tests can be performed on any of the items listed above. For more information about A/B testing or split testing check out this article.
#3 Test Social Proof
Research has shown that including proof that there is customer satisfaction with your products or services on your website, builds trust with potential customers.
Some things you can add as social proof are the total number of customers who have purchased from you, product reviews, or customer testimonials.
But how can you do this? Try adding a customer testimonial on your homepage or landing page or add a review section to your product page. This may be the very thing standing in front of getting more conversions.
On the other hand, we’ve actually seen customer reviews take up an entire product page—therefore hindering conversions. We ran an A/B test where Page A was the original page, and Page B was an almost identical page, but with the review section minimized by 75%. Page B outperformed Page A by a longshot. Social proof is extremely important to a website, landing pages, and product pages. But make sure that your social proof is working in your favor. When in doubt, test it out with CRO.
#4 Test Call-to-Action
As mentioned above, your call to action is a great place to start A/B testing. Not only should you test the phrasing of the call to action, but you can test the button placement and color.
On your landing page or product page, button placement is very important. You want your button to be easy to find. This placement may look different on any given web page, which is why testing the placement is standard practice when it comes to CRO. Try running a test with the call to action button at the top of the page and another version of the page with the call to action button in the middle.
Another way to test your call-to-action button is to change the color. Make sure the colors you choose stand out from the page. Contrast to the background and other aspects of the page is key. You want your website visitors to be able to easily find the button in order to encourage lead form submissions or purchases.
For more suggestions about testing call-to-action buttons, head to this link.
#5 Test the Media
The images or videos on your web page can help encourage visitors to convert. Make sure the media you are testing is appropriate to your brand and of high quality. This will help the professionality of your website.
Try testing 2 different images on your landing page. Or even an image on one version of your test and a video on the other.
You can even try playing around with image size. Maybe a larger image is better than a smaller one. Just make sure things are not too big or too small. You want your page to look clean and have reasonable-sized visuals.
#6 Test a Simplified Checkout Experience
Have you wondered why you are seeing so many adds to cart on your website but the conversion rate is not up-to-par? The most likely reason is that your checkout experience is too complex. Launch a CRO test with a more simplified experience.
- Remove website navigation when a user begins their checkout. This can help to keep your user focused on completing the checkout process.
- Offer users to checkout as a guest. Have you ever gone to checkout and been required to sign up to continue to the checkout page? Giving users the option to check out as a guest is a great way to reduce the number of incomplete checkouts. If you do want to encourage users to enter their email and other information to your website, give them an incentive to do so. Maybe offer a discount if you sign up and subscribe to the newsletter.
- Reduce the number of steps in the checkout process. Too many steps can create a long checkout process. You want your user to get through this process quickly. Create a checkout experience that is easy to navigate.
It is important to note that each of these suggestions should be performed one at a time. Testing too many aspects at a time makes it very difficult to determine which test is working best. Keep in mind that conversion rate optimization or CRO is a process. Collecting enough data takes time and each test should be performed in isolation. However, once the data is collected, you will begin to see great strides in your site’s success.
If you’d prefer to leave things to the experts, schedule free consultation with our Set Fire Creative team!
Raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California, Juliana left the golden state to attend Utah Valley University and completed a bachelor’s of science in psychology. After graduating, she began pursuing a career in digital marketing and client relations, which led her to Set Fire Creative. Juliana has a knack for all things creative, in and out of the office. In her free time, you can find her working out, traveling, studying interior design, or hosting dinner parties (of course, with charcuterie.)
