Conversion rate optimization – a method to sell more, using micro-techniques

Definition: Conversion = "changing one value into another"

Online conversion is a tactic you use to turn your potential customers into regular customers. Conversions can be of 2 kinds: macro and micro-conversions.

EXAMPLES OF MACRO-CONVERSIONS:

• Purchase of a product
• Subscription to a service
• Obtaining a Prospect/Lead (potential sales opportunity).

EXAMPLES OF MICRO-CONVERSIONS:

• Subscribe to the newsletter
• Create an account
• Adding a product to the cart
• Viewing a product page
• Download a PDF brochure
• Watching a promotional video.

To make it easier to understand, let's give you some examples of typical conversions for an e-commerce site:

1. An online sale
2. A user who adds a product to the cart
3. A user who adds an item to the wishlist
4. Subscribe to the newsletter
5. Sharing on Social media
6. Any KPI (performance metric) that the company considers valuable.

Conversion rate statistics:

• Conversion rate - Quarterly e-commerce offers a figure of 3.85% for desktop and 2.03% for mobile.
• Conversion rates during shopping events such as Black Friday are higher. Desktop conversion was 5.5% on Black Friday, but only 3.2% the rest of the time.
• The average conversion rate from PPC traffic (pay-per-click campaigns) is 3.48% in the latest Google reference data. Some industries see an average of> 6% in this channel.

Now that we understand what a conversion is and what types of conversions there are, let's also clarify what a conversion rate is.

This is a metric of how many of your website visitors convert into actual buyers. For example, if your website has 2,000 visitors and 200 conversions, that would mean your conversion rate is 10%.

Calculation formula:
Conversion rate = no. of conversions / no. of visitors * 100.

What is conversion rate optimization?

It is the method that helps to increase the number of visitors to your web page, causing them to transform from simple users to customers. But at the same time, CRO is more about understanding what your web page users are looking for and providing them with solutions for their needs.

The CRO process involves:

• Understanding how users move around the site.
• What actions do they take on the website?
  What prevents them from performing certain actions on the site?
• Data collection: Google Analytics - Google Analytics shows you exactly how many visitors are on the homepage and product/service page, and how many convert. Knowing this, you can measure each step taken by the site's users and set a value for these pages. If 50% of visitors go from the homepage to the product/service page, but only 5% go to the checkout page, you need to determine how you can get more visitors to the checkout page!

How does conversion rate optimization take place?

1. Through analytical methods, such as answering the following questions:

• What page are people landing on from Google?
• Where do they spend time on a page or category of the site?
• What channel brought them?
• What devices and browsers are they using?
• Who are the customers (age, demographics, and interests)?
• Where do users leave the site, on which page?

This information will inform you where to focus your efforts. To collect this data, we suggest creating a heat map. This is a visual representation of data about what actions visitors take on your website. Site heatmaps use various colors to show the level of activity on certain sections of the site. We use hotjar.com to build heatmaps.

2. By the method of people. Ways to get this data:

• Surveys on the site
• Satisfaction surveys.

These are the questions you have to answer using the people method:

• Why did they initially decide to visit the site?
• Is there a feature or service offered by the company that provides a better experience compared to competitors?
• What do they think about the products or services offered?

Let's now understand how we can optimize the conversion rate. Several techniques and tricks can help you increase your conversion:

1. A / B testing is the process by which you set up 2-page variations and send 50/% of the traffic to variant A and 50% to variant B. Then you measure the number of conversions on each variant and choose the winning one. Think of these efforts as conducting a scientific research study.
2. Strong Customer Value Proposition - This can be a Headline and Subhead, which describes the added value you bring to your customers, which also differentiates you from your competitors. Here, it is more important to answer the question "Why should the customer buy from your company?"
3. Call to Action (User Guidance) - CTA - is an online marketing technique that aims to direct visitors to take an action considered by the beneficiary. Use words like Sign up, Shop, Order now, etc. Customers must be guided to take a specific action. For example: to add buttons to the website with links to services offered, to the portfolio, or with a phone number (Call now).
4. Creating a sense of urgency - You can create a block of time-limited offers (e.g., valid for 2-3 weeks).
5. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) - FAQs are a good opportunity to take care of potential customers, to convince them that the company offers a worthy service/product. It is necessary to explain what problems you solve, what the advantages of your product/service are, but also what the risks are.
6. 'Bullet style' text (lists) - use lists as they have an improved look, are easy to understand, and look more organized.
   Collect email addresses to do email marketing campaigns, through the following email address capture methods:

•  A „Hello bar” - the best part is that it remains permanently displayed on the site. This way, you can convey a specific message to your visitors without distracting them from the content they are reading.

• Slide on scroll - entering a subscription request when the visitor scrolls on the website page. For efficiency, it is recommended that this request appear after the user has seen about 70-80% of the respective page.

• Exit pop-ups - a pop-up capturing the email address that appears right when the user intends to leave the site. It is very effective in converting outgoing visitors into subscribers.
• Inserts in the content - subscription boxes that you can insert in the content of the texts and that will help you to increase the base of email addresses.

Ideas for optimizing the conversion rate on e-commerce:

❑      Use high-quality images and videos on product pages.

❑      Offers free shipping.

❑      Offer time-limited coupons.

❑      Use abandoned cart engagement software.

❑      Provides detailed product descriptions.

❑      Formulate a great product return policy.

❑      Optimize the site for mobile devices.

❑      Collect emails.

Good luck with your optimization! Any + 0.1% in your conversion rate can make you a lot of money over time!