Why is Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) important?

Why is Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) important?

CRO (conversion rate optimisation) has created a storm in the world of eCommerce and B2C, but what is CRO, and how can it help you drive sales?

What is conversion rate optimisation (CRO)?

Conversion rate optimisation is the process of increasing your conversion percentage across your website or app. This is done in a variety of ways, from improved CTAs to live chat.

Essentially, it’s making sure you are optimising the whole customer journey so that you maximise sales.

Yet, it isn’t just the likes of ASOS and Amazon that can benefit from this strategy, as it is massively under-utilised in B2B interactions.

In B2B sales, there is generally less website traffic and typically the sales process is more complex than a simple click to purchase – they require proposals, meetings and negotiations.

The importance of every lead is magnified and, frustratingly, there are more opportunities to lose out on sales along the way. B2B businesses need to maximise their CRO efforts at every touchpoint in their sales pipeline.

Read our blog on how you can effectively build your pipeline here.

The essence of CRO is often seen as quality over quantity, when in fact it’s both in equal measure.

Firstly, it allows you to make the most from the visitors and users you already have to lower your lead and customer acquisition costs.

Secondly, you can apply the learnings and experience to your future marketing efforts. If increasing the volume of customers is something your business needs, there are elements of CRO, such as online search, that can help you out.

No matter which elements of CRO your business needs the most, implementing this strategy will ultimately help to grow your business.

But how does it help, and what can you do to improve your CRO?

It can increase your budget

Onboarding CRO into your strategy will make your advertising and marketing budget go further.

It is all well and good sending out marketing content and investing in adverts for your business, but if you aren’t reaching or engaging your audience then you’re effectively burning money.

Some things to consider:

  • Engagement on different types of content
  • What channels you are using distribute your content
  • Which content is not only driving traffic to your website, but is also driving conversions

You know the industry is right, you know the size of business is right, but you’re just not getting the engagement you imagined. Could it be you are not reaching the right decision maker? The targeting may be off just a fraction.

CRO is about making sure you are reaching those leads that are going to actually convert into sales, and ensuring that you repeatedly capture their interest.

Doing so will increase your ROI and reduce your cost per acquisition, effectively increasing your budget.

Get more out of what you already have

You most likely already have a website, some social media presence, and have developed networks purely from working in the industry. If you don’t, then you should definitely arrange a call with us!

All of this will be invaluable in making your business presence known in the industry, but only once they have been optimised will you be able to really generate the most valuable opportunities out of them while reducing overall costs.

Something as simple as making sure the social media channels you are on are relevant to your company will enhance their ability to help you excel.

Keep regular contact with individuals in your network. By having meaningful conversations, you really never know what might come your way.

CRO doesn’t mean an upheaval of everything you may already have in place but rather tweaking, testing and editing to get the most out of your efforts.

How can you start?

Making any change to your business strategy can be daunting and does take time.

It’s easy to become frustrated when we don’t see the changes we want straight away. It is, however, essential that with any plan you make to begin the optimisation process, you stick with it!

Often the most difficult part is knowing where to start.

Here are some ideas for your first steps.

A/B testing

Find out which elements of your current strategy are letting you down.

A/B testing involves making adjustments to your strategy to see where you are succeeding and what isn’t quite working for you right now.

You can chop and change small aspects of your strategy a bit at a time to see what has the most impact on your sales conversions and resonates most with your target audience.

For example, you may want to experiment with different CTAs (call to actions). You can use each one for a period of time and see which one is the most effective.

This does require a little patience, as you need to be able to give each aspect of your strategy time before you can carry out a fair assessment.

Or, with the right tools, such as HubSpot, you can implement an A/B test function to load different CTAs which rotate on load, achieving the same objective while saving time.

Heat mapping

If you have a website already, heat mapping is an excellent way to analyse its strengths and weaknesses.

Heat mapping creates a visual tool that shows where users click and hover on the website’s pages. This will show you which aspects are capturing the attention of customers, whether that be the content or layout of the webpage.

If one particular webpage is performing well and users are following the desired flow of the pages, then this structure could be implemented across the whole site to increase sales conversions.

It will also show you how far users scroll – they may be missing out on your strongest content by only sticking around the above-the-fold.

Analytics

There is no way of knowing if the changes you have made are working if you have no tangible way of measuring their impact.

Using analytics will allow you to look at how users reach your site and what they do while they are there.

Everything from bounce rates to Google ranking is important in determining what tactics you should use.

If you know where your traffic is coming from and what they are interested in, you can target your marketing to reflect this and reduce associated costs.

More importantly, you can set up lead tracking and source. This is the key as it takes away from vanity metrics and puts the focus on tangible results. It will highlight what changes not only get more clicks, but drive more leads – this is the core of CRO.

What should you do next?

Hopefully this has answered a number of your questions around conversion rate optimisation, however it is only a starting point.

If you want a more detailed plan on how CRO can help your business, then our guide is the best place to start. You can download it using the link below.

Your CRO needs to be consistent in the long term in order to be beneficial. At Catalyst, we help our clients to get more out of their current marketing, while implementing new, lead generative strategies.

We continually optimise to drive down costs while driving up leads and sales.

We are always on hand to help, so arrange a call with us to see what we could do for your business.

Alternatively, get in touch using the below details:

E: hello@wearecatalyst.co.uk

P: 0121 296 5275

Want to read more? Download our guide to CRO by clicking below:

CONVERSION RATE OPTIMISATION BANNER GUIDE DOWNLOAD-1