What is CRO and why your business should apply it
Written by Jamie Schelling
Digital Marketing & AI Automation
Optimising your website is important for converting new potential customers. An effective way to do this is by applying Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). We are happy to walk you through what CRO is, why it is important and how you can get started with it.
What is CRO?
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is the process of increasing the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on your website or mobile app. Think of actions such as filling in a contact form, making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. With CRO you identify which elements on your website can be improved and test these improvements to see which are the most effective.
Examples of conversion goals
- Media: pageviews, ad impressions, newsletter sign-ups, content engagement.
- E-commerce: product sales, add-to-carts, purchase completion rate.
- Travel: booking conversions, additional purchases, social shares.
- B2B: generated leads, closed deals, whitepaper downloads.
Conversion rate optimisation offers numerous benefits for businesses, including:
- Increased revenue: By converting more visitors, you can increase revenue without extra marketing costs.
- Improved customer satisfaction: An optimised website provides a better user experience, which leads to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Better ROI on marketing: By improving the conversion rate, you get more value out of ongoing campaigns or other online marketing efforts.
Why is CRO important?
What does this look like in practice?
CRO can be applied simply and effectively by following a few practical steps. Here are some examples to give a clear picture of how CRO can work in practice:
- Improving landing pages:
- Example: A local clothing shop discovered that their landing page received a lot of traffic but few purchases. By adjusting the product images and adding customer reviews, their conversion rate rose by 20%.
- User-friendly forms:
- Example: A contractor noticed that their contact form was often not completed. By making the form shorter and simpler, and only asking for the necessary information, the number of submissions doubled.
- Faster load times:
- Example: A small web shop had a slow load time, which put visitors off. After optimising the loading speed with the help of tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights, they saw a 15% increase in completed purchases.
- A/B testing:
- Example: A local gym ran A/B tests on its membership sign-up page. They tested different headings and images and discovered that a simple change in the text increased sign-ups by 25%.
- Using customer feedback:
- Improving landing pages:
- Example: A restaurant asked customers for feedback on its online ordering system. Based on this feedback, they made the ordering process simpler and clearer, which led to a 30% increase in online orders.
Practical tips for an effective CRO strategy
- Optimise landing pages and user experience
- Make sure you have a clear and attractive call-to-action (CTA).
- Use persuasive headings and visual elements.
- Use first-party data and customer feedback
- Collect data directly from your customers to gain insight into their behaviour and preferences.
- Use surveys and feedback forms to understand what holds visitors back and adjust your website based on the feedback.
- Collecting first-party data comes in handy when third-party data (cookies) is declined by the web user.
- Improve your website's load time
- A fast website provides a better user experience and higher conversion rates.
- Use tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights to analyse and improve performance.
Some tools for CRO
In Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), different types of tools are used to improve a website's performance. These tools help you gain insight into how visitors use your site and where improvements are possible. An important type of tool is an analytics tool such as Google Analytics, which helps you understand visitor behaviour and identify areas for improvement. There are also tools for testing different versions of your pages, such as Microsoft Clarity, which lets you view heatmaps and recordings to see how users interact with your site. Other useful tools are optimisation tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights, which analyses your website and gives recommendations to improve loading speed.
If you want to go a step further, there are also tools such as Klaviyo that help personalise the customer journey through insights into users' interactions on specific pages. And they let you show targeted pop-ups on specific pages when the customer is about to perform a certain action, such as clicking away from the website via the cross. By using the free tools, you can already gain valuable insights and optimise your website more effectively to achieve more conversions. But if you run campaigns with a larger media budget, it is often recommended to have your CRO properly in order so as not to miss out on conversions.
Boost the performance of your website
Conversion Rate Optimization is a powerful way to improve the performance of your website and get more value out of your marketing efforts. By following the right steps and continuously testing and adjusting your website, you can increase the conversion rate and boost the success of your business. We are curious what the CRO challenges are for your business. Request a free BE Digital scan now. With this scan we look together at where there are still opportunities for your website.