Most business owners and executives who come to us for web design and internet marketing already know about SEO and PPC. That’s because the majority of companies, no matter how small or large, use search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising to drive targeted customers to their websites.
However, we often find there is another acronym – and one that’s just important – they aren’t familiar with: CRO.
If you weren’t already aware, CRO stands for conversion rate optimization. It isn’t about bringing more visitors to your website, but converting more of the visits you get into sales, leads, or subscriptions. It’s about squeezing more juice out of the orange, so to speak.
It has been our experience that marketers at every level consistently over-emphasize web traffic generation strategies like SEO and PPC without ever trying to figure out whether they are getting as much revenue as they could be from the visits they are already getting. So today, I want to share a few CRO basics you can put to work in your online marketing campaigns right away…
CRO is an Analytics-Driven Process
To turn more visitors into buyers, you have to understand how they are arriving at your website, what steps they are taking once they find your pages, and at which points they are deciding to either continue forward, or leave your site. These are the kinds of insights you can only get from a detailed review of your web analytics package.
Whether it’s on your own or with the help of a web designer, you should be looking through your web statistics early and often. They’ll show you how you can find more revenue from the traffic you’re already getting.
Good CRO Requires Testing
Of course, all the information the world isn’t useful if you don’t act on it. Once you start to get insights from your analytics, it’s time to begin testing some new ideas. This might involve building fresh landing pages, changing your PPC ads to align more closely with the offers on your website, or even creating some new calls to action.
Some of these efforts will be more successful than others, but they all help you figure out what does and doesn’t work with your market and make your website more efficient over time.
Sometimes CRO is the Efficient Option
Never forget that efficiency is what CRO is all about. Think about it this way: if you could double the traffic to your website, you might double your sales; however, it could cost you two or three times your existing budget to do so. If you could double your sales without needing more traffic, on the other hand, you would get a much bigger payout without spending more cash.
SEO and PPC are important, because it’s nearly impossible to consistently generate leads and sales over the internet if you don’t have new visitors finding your website regularly. However, don’t focus so tightly on your search position or ad spending, that you miss an easy chance to double or triple your sales capacity. With higher conversion rates, everything you do is more profitable, so make CRO your new favorite marketing acronym.
Looking for experienced and personalized internet marketing advice? Contact Biondo Creative in Philadelphia today to set up a free consultation.