SEO and, to a lesser extent, PPC are commonly used by companies with an active online marketing plan. Conversion rate optimisation (CRO), or conversion optimisation, on the other hand doesn’t often get the attention it deserves. CRO is the process of converting more of your visitors into customers. It involves identifying what your website users are looking for and providing it to them. The infographic above illustrates this point by giving an example of an e-commerce site, which heavily relies upon CRO to increase conversions. From a business perspective, the reason CRO is essential is obvious, it maximises sales or leads from an existing pool of visitors.
The focus on getting more traffic is fine, but there are always issues on websites that limit conversions. There are a number of reasons why CRO should be part of an online marketing plan. The ones I think make the best case for it are listed below:
- It reduces the cost of acquiring a new customer because you get more from your existing expenditure
- It allows you to find and improve customer experience issues which will leave a positive impact on customer satisfaction
I am of the opinion that CRO should come before any traffic generating work is started. The reason is simple, there is no benefit in getting a lot of traffic when you cannot convert it. Online giants like Amazon, eBay and Airbnb focus greatly upon this and their success is testament to effective CRO. I would just leave it at that.
