All these people visiting your website, yet very few buy anything or book an appointment. That’s a common complaint in corporate management and digital marketing departments. Let’s learn why most businesses are not happy with their CRO results. Then we’ll share a few conversion tips to increase your overall conversion rate.
Their Focus on SEO May Or May Not Improve CRO
Let’s be honest – most people visiting your website won’t buy your product. That is why increasing traffic is of limited value. In fact, creating a broader funnel to attract more visitors to the website will often reduce the conversion rate, resulting in flat or even declining sales. In these cases, the money you’ve spent to increase overall traffic is wasted.
That doesn’t mean SEO is not useful. Do a more detailed analysis. Which keywords bring likely prospects to the site instead of casual researchers? Which search terms bring people to the site that is almost certain to buy? Adjust your SEO to attract more of these likely prospects to the site. You’ll have a narrower sales funnel, but you’ll convert more of them and have more sales overall.
They Don’t Track the Conversion Rate through the Sales Funnel
A common mistake businesses make is calculating the overall conversion rate instead of doing it for each stage of the sales funnel and each step of the customer journey. What percentage of those visiting your social media page goes on to your website? What percentage of those on your home page or ecommerce page put something in the shopping cart? How many of those who put items on wish lists or in the shopping cart complete the transaction? How many of those who make a purchase repeat the transaction?
Knowing these specific conversion rates allows you to compare it to general conversion rates. Do you have a higher-than-average shopping cart abandonment rate? You may need to streamline the checkout process or remove stumbling blocks like pushing people to sign up for an account to check out.
They Invest Money without Knowing the Return on the Investment
Most customers follow a quantifiable journey from visitor to customer. They may follow social media links to your site or click on a banner ad. The customers may receive emailed newsletters and offers that they follow. While each of these routes lead some customers to your site, a common mistake is not knowing which channels have the highest conversion rate. Furthermore, businesses often spend money without knowing the return on the investment. Email marketing is one of the cheapest options. Social media marketing costs somewhat more but paying for PPC ads and banner ads is very expensive.
Businesses sometimes invest in the cheapest option or pour money into the most expensive option, but they don’t run a benefit analysis. What is the conversion rate for customers coming through these channels? And what is the value of each customer? It may be worth it to invest in personalized emails over more generic banner ads, if you have a 20 to 1 ROI.
And the channels that bring the highest value customers to the site may not be the mainstream ones. For example, it may be hobbyists desperate for the solution discussed on discussion boards who buy the most from your site instead of people following a link shared by your corporate Facebook page.