CRO is like basketball

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Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the term for what marketers do to determine which versions of landing pages or sites yield the best conversion rate. The conversion itself depends on the specific goals in place, the call to action (CTA).

The conversion for an e-commerce site is usually completing a purchase. But it can also be just getting that customer to take the first step on the purchase journey. In such cases, the goal may just be having the prospective customer indicate some level of interest and establishing some kind of connection.

That’s why you have to be clear on your metrics for CRO. It can count as a conversion to have the customer sign up for a subscription to a company newsletter, put in a request for a quote, or even just sharing an email address by signing up for an account.

The way CRO works is like finding the techniques a basketball player can use to get more of the balls he throws into the basket. He’s not taking more throws but throwing more effectively to achieve his goal and score points for the team.

 
That doesn’t assure that they will win every game, but it will tilt the odds in their favor.

How to calculate CRO

You calculate the conversion rate by dividing the number of conversions generated by the number of visits to that page, whether it’s a home page, landing page, or blog post. That means that if you have 10,000 visits, out o f which you have 150 conversions, you have a1.5% conversion rate. If your optimization results in getting 200 conversions out of the same number of visits, you’ve achieved a 2% conversion rate.

Given that it is a percentage, a high conversion rate is not a function of a larger number of visits but of more of those visits translating into conversions. That’s what it means to optimize the rate, getting more value out of your existing traffic. It’s not about generating new visitors but out of getting more of the ones you draw to convert.

Phases of conversion rate optimization

CRO involves testing various attributes, from colors to picture placement, to button shapes, to the steps involved in checkout. The first phase in the process of CRO is the research and hypothesis phase, in which the particular attributes that are correlated with better conversions are identified. They are then subject to A/B testing to discover if the site with them does indeed perform better with a lower bounce rate than the one without them.

Why conversion rate optimization is important

Before CRO was adopted as a data-driven practice, the only way to discover if something was promoting or hindering conversion was to set up your site that way and wait a while until you had results. You would then have to guess what needed tweaking, and through trial-and-error may have finally arrived at an optimized site. So while you may have arrived at the same point in the end, it would have only been achieved at the cost of lost conversions for all those months of trying to figure out what are the bottlenecks in your conversion funnel. Now A/B testing tools make it possible to discover the most effective way to set up your website by working through different versions to get data on what works more quickly.

Conversion rate optimization best practices

In general, conversion rates improve when visitors have to do less work to find what they want. That means that sites designed according to CRO best practices typically include a clean look like that allows them to easily navigate to where they want to go, obviously placed and colored specific call to action buttons, and no jumping through hoops for the contact information that provides leads and builds connection, whether that is a phone number, email, or live chat. All those contribute to expediting the customer's buying decision.
Benefits of CRO

Applying CRO makes your sites work better to achieve your goals, and that brings several benefits:

Better bang for your marketing bucks
When your landing page delivers more conversions, you get better returns from your ad spend. CRO helps drive site visitors toward what they seek to complete the purchase journey. Having that in places on your site delivers a better return on all of your marketing investments, and you will see revenue growth as a result of more conversions.

Improved understanding of your visitor customer experience

Conversion research reveals both quantitative and qualitative data about visitor responses. It reveals which parts are sticking points that can prevent them from proceeding through their customer journey, as well as what they do find appealing in your site. Working off that information, you can better plan your content and layout going forward based on deeper insight into your target audience.

Getting a leg up on your competition

Better conversion rates indicate increased visitor engagement that can boost your traffic as well as reduce bounce rates. Because Google takes bounce rates into account in ranking, getting visitors to stick around a while on your site can improve your search engine ranking to achieve a leg up on your competition. That, in turn, allows your site to draw more visitors that will convert at a higher rate.

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7 ways to grab customer attention in subject lines

                                                  Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
 

If you don't capture your audience's attention in the subject line, they'll just hit delete without even opening the email. So choose a subject line that offers them a compelling reason to click. Here are seven types of appeals that can be very effective.

1. Desire for value

Coupons are especially effective, seeing higher open, click and purchase rates than emails without. That’s why major retailers regularly refer to coupon codes offering specific percentages off. Standard retailers frequently offer savings that range from 5% to 20% off, though clothing retailers will typically offer an even wider range of 10% to 60%, depending on what point in the season they’re at. Subject lines that let people know how much they can save are effective in attracting attention and getting your customers to click through to purchase.

Understandably, though, that’s not suitable for all businesses and overusing them can make your communication seem overly salesy, even spammy. So don't rely too much on this approach unless you're the type of retailer that automatically factors 30-50% discounts into pricing like department stores and Gap brands do.

Even if you are not inclined to cut prices, you can appeal to value by describing to your products’ quality. So you don’t have to say “Our jeans cost less than theirs” but can say “You’ll wear our jeans twice as long as other ones; they’re that durable.” In more general terms, you can say that they don’t need to break their budget to look good, eat well, or have a good time.


2. FOMO

Fear of missing out. To achieve that, you have to work in a sense of urgency. Possible applications include emails from mutual funds warning you that the deadline for this year's IRA contribution is approaching or an eyeglass seller saying “This year’s flex spending account: use it or lose it.” It can also work in conjunction with the desire for value when promoting a particular bonus or sale offered for just that day, say “Order before midnight when your 25% off turns into pumpkin.”


3. Curiosity

 The thrill of discovery that we sometimes experience stems from the wish we have to find the answer to the questions we have. Channeling that can be a powerful motivator for someone to open your email. This can be combined with FOMO or the incentive to save money with a “mystery offer” or that only reveals how much the customer will save after clicking through to the site. It can also work with a “mystery gift.” Even without a monetary incentive, you can work off curiosity with something like “See our 5 best-selling pieces” or “How to wear the color of the season.”

4.  Appeal to laziness

 People may not be proud of being lazy, but they do appreciate not having to exert themselves. Subject lines can target that when you refer to easy, one-click checkout, effortless outfit ideas, recipes that require just 4 ingredients, cleaning hacks, etc. that can even be used to market training for a particular skill like “Learn coding on your lunch breaks.” 

5. Appeal to vanity

We’re all vain about something, and that’s not necessarily limited to our looks. If you know what your customers are proud of, you can appeal to that in your subject. For example, women who pride themselves on looking young may respond to “Warning: once you use this, you may get carded at the liquor store.” Fashionistas may respond to something like “exclusive styles for those who know fashion.” For pet owners, you can have a message like “You can always spot the best loved pets by seeing our logo on their collars.” In more general terms, you can always refer to an offer to your “VIP customers” to give their vanity a boost.

6. Humor

 Even if you’re in a bad mood, seeing something funny can lighten it, even if it just coaxes a smile out of you, even more so if you laugh out loud. That’s the attraction of humor, and you can use it for email subject lines, drawing on the humor of breaking expectations. For example, an email seeking to market for Father’s Day shoppers can say, “Don’t get him another boring tie.” One aimed at graduates could say, “Remember how you complained about school? Prepare for something worse.”

7. Addressing pain points

 Drawing on what you know about your customer or contextual knowledge of what they would be experiencing or anticipating, you can use those in your subject lines. When marketers were sending out messages under lockdown, they had to consider what people would want under those circumstances to be comfortable and avoid boredom at home.


There are many seasonal opportunities to address pain points. For example, when a heatwave is in the forecast, your subject line can be “Keep your cool in these shorts.” or “All you need is air-conditioning and this ___” for drinks, warm weather clothes and accessories, or a summer line of beauty products. When cold weather hits, you can say, “Don’t go out in the cold; we deliver!”


Even when there is no particular occasion on the calendar, you can utilize empathy with a light touch by, say, emailing on a Monday with “Need a lift to carry you through the next 5 days? We have it here.” Or in situations in which weekend plans have to be shifted, “Weekend fun starts here.”

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CRO is Like Basketball