The acronym CRO stands for Conversion Rate Optimization, the practice of improving the conversion rate of a web page, an ad, a social media post and so on. In other words, it looks at how many users, after viewing a web page, respond to the call to action it contains.
CRO in a nutshell
It is based on the ratio between the number of users who visit a page or website and the number of actions they take on that page.
Think about it: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies bring more users to your site, but to what end?
Every time you create a web page, you should ask yourself what your goal is and what action you want users to take once they land on it. It might be downloading a file, buying a product or signing up for a newsletter.
That’s where CRO comes in: it’s the metric to watch to make sure potential customers don’t leave after reaching your landing page, but go on to respond to your call to action.
How do you measure Conversion Rate Optimization?
To build an effective digital marketing plan, it isn’t enough to set a generic goal (“I want more users to buy my products”).
Try to also set a numeric target for the short or long term (“I want to sell 100 products in a week”, or “I want 30% of my users to download my brochure”).
Once your goals are set, move on to observing and analyzing your conversion data. What percentage of users open your email marketing messages? How many web visitors buy a product once they reach your online store?
The number you get from this analysis is your conversion rate, and improving it is what CRO is all about.
Strategies to apply
When you measure the CRO of your website (or your social media posts, or your paid search ads), keep these factors in mind and apply the right strategies to improve them.
- Usability: how fast and intuitive is your website?
- Customer experience: does your customer run into obstacles or friction when completing a purchase?
- Call to action: are the button or link that prompt users to act well positioned?
- Design: are the logo and font used in your email or on your landing page clear and recognizable?
- Content marketing: is the copy in your communications effective and engaging?
The answers to these questions will show you what needs fixing to improve your conversion rate.
Analyze your CRO
You can use plenty of tools to monitor Conversion Rate Optimization. One of the simplest is the A/B test. Create two versions of the same message (changing the image, the call to action or the copy) and see which one drives more conversions.
Surveys are useful too: there’s nothing better than asking your customers directly what they prefer. You can also use tools such as click tracking to find out what they click on most often.