CRO in 5 Words:
Research, Hypothesis, Testing, Refinement, Confidence
If you’re not in the online marketing industry it’s unlikely you’ve heard of Conversion Rate Optimisation. I’ve been asked to explain it whenever I meet non-online people (that’s the majority).
Here’s the definition from our Conversion Rate Optimisation Glossary.
Conversion Rate Optimisation
“The process of creating an experience or best practice for a website (or landing page) visitor with the goal of increasing the number of visitors that convert into paying customers or leads.”
How do “Convert” More Visitors into Sales?
At the core of Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is the testing of one web page against another (A/B Page testing). You send a proportion of your traffic to a control page (your current page) and to a second page. On the second page, you try something you have reasoned will make a difference to the visitors and make them more likely to convert to a sale.
What else helps Conversion?
All manner of tools can help conversion. By finding out about your visitors, who they are and what they are doing or not doing on your site.
Read about heatmap software Crazyegg.
The Danger of Conversion Tools
There is a multitude of wonderful tools that can teach you about your site and how your visitors are using it. The danger is throwing them at your site in an inconsistent manner and therefore failing to capitalize on these findings.
We believe in a “Virtuous Circle” methodology. Read the Digital Growth Methodology Overview.
CRO Refinement
Once the research for a site and its visitors have been carried out a deduction can be made as to what would help improve the site’s conversion, a hypothesis as to what to test.
Every business should have an annual plan for improving their Website conversion. A plan that is realistic in terms of resources (people, time and money) and with achievable milestones.
All the best,
Do you want to know more about Conversion? Read the Conversion Detectives CRO FAQ here (it’s jargon-free).