Introduction
How many people have visited your website recently? Even if you attract numerous website visitors regularly, you also have to consider whether or not your leads are converting into sales.
When it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO) in Singapore, a common issue you might encounter is having a large number of website visitors without a desired action, such as purchasing your products or contacting your business. After all, one of the primary goals of optimising your website for SEO is to convert visitors into customers.
If your website visitors are not making a purchase, signing up for an account, or clicking on your ads, perhaps the best solution is to conduct conversion rate optimisation (CRO). With CRO, you can completely reorganise your digital marketing strategy to persuade potential customers.
What exactly is conversion rate optimisation, and what role does it play in digital marketing? Let’s find out in this complete CRO guide.
The Definition Of Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
Conversion rate optimisation, also known as CRO, is the process of optimising specific website elements, such as call-to-action (CTA) buttons, content, web design, and performance, to convert visitors into customers. The goal of CRO is to increase your conversion rate by having website visitors take any desired action, such as buying a product or subscribing to your emails.
CRO works by factoring website variables such as user experience (UX) and user intent into your strategy. Optimising each of these vital elements is crucial to the success of your entire digital marketing process. Focus on optimising your conversion rate regularly so you can boost sales, increase SEO rankings, establish your credibility, and engage with more potential customers.
You may also find it difficult to distinguish CRO from SEO since their goals and strategies are oftentimes similar. However, in reality, conversion rate optimisation is different from search engine optimisation.
For instance, CRO focuses on enhancing your website to boost conversions, while SEO is about search engines and algorithms. These two digital marketing strategies go hand in hand and can help you improve your online presence to attract more customers.
Furthermore, there are two types of conversions: macro and micro.
Macro conversions are the primary objectives of CRO. These goals may include:
- Revenue-based actions (sales, purchases, etc.)
- Subscribing to a service
- Requesting a quote
On the other hand, micro conversions are secondary objectives that could help potential customers reach their final goal. Examples of micro conversions include:
- Adding products to a shopping cart
- Exploring product pages
- Creating an account
- Navigating through the website
With micro-conversion optimisation, you can increase your number of blog readers, email subscribers, and white paper downloads. In doing so, potential customers are more likely to accomplish their tasks on your website.
In summary, macro conversions usually result in sales and service queries, while micro conversions refer to certain actions that could eventually lead to a macro conversion action.
Also, macro conversions may be your primary objective, but that does not mean micro conversions are not as important. You must analyse your micro conversions to enhance your site’s usability and overall UX, thus improving the customer journey and enabling their desired action.
Why Is CRO Important?
CRO is essential for SEO and digital marketing because it allows you to increase your revenue per customer. By increasing your conversions monthly, you can significantly boost sales and acquire more customers over time.
Also, CRO affects return on investment (ROI). Your investments in SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can significantly benefit from your CRO strategy since a decrease in cost per conversion will lead to a higher ROI.
But most importantly, CRO is vital for your business because traffic does not always lead to conversions. Even if you acquire enough organic traffic to your website, your SEO efforts will almost become meaningless if you cannot convert your leads to sales. If that is the case for your business, then conversion rate optimisation should be something that you can explore.
Part I: The Role Of CRO In Digital Marketing
The purpose of setting up a digital marketing campaign is to generate leads, raise brand awareness, and grow an audience. You can achieve all of these goals by utilising a wide range of digital marketing services in Singapore, such as content marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), SEO, and, most importantly—CRO.
Conversion rate optimisation positively influences your digital marketing efforts by maximising your ROI and providing your customers with more value. The best part is that CRO can enhance your SEO strategy. SEO could help you attract website visitors, while CRO is for converting those visitors into customers.
The Relationship Between CRO And SEO
Some people mistake SEO and CRO services as the same thing. But in reality, they are different.
For instance, an element of SEO services is to optimise your site’s UX, which is also a part of the conversion rate optimisation process. Not to mention, SEO is all about driving traffic to your website, while CRO aims to increase your website’s conversions. These actions may be different, but they also complement each other, which is why SEO and CRO are the perfect pair.
Nonetheless, both SEO and CRO share a similar end goal: to drive sales. Here is a Venn diagram to help you understand how search engine optimisation and conversion rate optimisation work together perfectly.
In the end, combining SEO and CRO is the best way to increase both your rankings and conversions. These factors will eventually leave a notable impact on your overall online presence, so it is essential to ensure both your SEO and CRO strategies work harmoniously.
The Benefits Of CRO For SEO
1. Gain A Higher Return On Investment (ROI)
Utilising SEO alone is not sufficient to increase your conversion rate. The main goal of SEO services is driving traffic to your website, so you have to utilise other marketing strategies like CRO to convert your website visitors. CRO focuses on the elements that directly contribute to the ROI, such as lead generation and enquiries.
2. Improve The User Experience (UX)
UX has been an increasingly important factor for SEO services these days. By optimising your site’s UX, you can increase dwell time on your website, thus reducing your bounce rate and encouraging visitors to explore other web pages. The overall positive experience should leave your website visitors happy and looking for more quality content.
CRO plays a vital role in UX because of their shared goals. CRO aims to convert visitors, while UX focuses on enhancing your website to make sure it leads customers to a conversion action easily. When combined, CRO and UX can drive conversions and increase your ROI.
3. Gain Trust
Trust is a vital factor of SEO since it affects your site’s credibility and authority. Potential customers are more likely to trust your website if they know your brand is reliable. In that case, utilise conversion rate optimisation.
With CRO, you can focus on showcasing the reliability of your company on your website. The best way to do so is by adding social proof to your website. This effective digital marketing tactic utilises forms of social proof such as reviews, testimonials, and case studies to build your reputation. In doing so, it will be much easier to gain your customer’s trust once they see that your business is recommended by other customers.
4. Complement Your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Performance
SEO and PPC advertising also share a similar goal: to drive traffic to your website. The only issue with PPC advertising is that it can be expensive, especially if your clicks are not converting to sales.
The solution is CRO, which complements your PPC performance by increasing the opportunities of clicks turning into sales. You can create a landing page for your paid ads to increase your conversions. Those who click on your paid ads will land on your landing page first. Use this opportunity to convert clicks into sales by optimising your landing page.
A well-designed landing page can be the most effective tool for CRO. Try creating a high-converting landing page for your PPC campaign, and optimise its conversion rate to improve your PPC performance.
Also, you can ensure that your website visitors will get the best version of your landing pages by running A/B tests, which is something we shall discuss later in the article.
5. Increase Your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Your customer lifetime value (CLV) is how much value your customer is contributing to your business. Existing customers spend around 67% more compared to new customers. Because of this, you must focus on retaining existing customers as much as possible to profit your business more efficiently.
An effective way to increase your CLV is through combining SEO and CRO. Aside from ensuring your website is SEO-friendly, you can improve your site’s UX by providing your visitors with excellent customer service.
You can install a chatbot to communicate with your customers, set up a blog to share valuable information, and design a high-quality landing page to help your website visitors take the necessary steps to achieve their desired action.
Part II: How To Optimise Your Conversion Rate?
Before you start optimising your conversion rate, the first thing you would want to do is collect data. Research is a crucial first step in not only CRO but digital marketing and SEO as well.
Start with knowing where your conversions are the weakest. You can use Google Analytics to find out the performance of your conversions.
LEARN MORE: How To Set Up Conversion Tracking Goals In Google Analytics?
For example, check out this illustration of a typical ecommerce sales funnel. Each part of the sales funnel represents a stage of the customer journey on your website. If your online store has lost too many customers lately, try using Google Analytics to discover the root cause.
With Google Analytics, you can identify the part of your ecommerce sales funnel where most of your customers tend to leave your website. From there, you can start testing your CRO strategy to increase your conversions.
But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
After doing some research, there are many conversion rate optimisation strategies that you could try to see if your conversions increase in the long run.
Here are some of the most effective CRO practices you can utilise for digital marketing.
Design High-Converting Landing Pages
Your landing page is one of the best marketing assets when it comes to conversion rate optimisation. Landing pages are designed with conversion objectives in mind, with direct call-to-actions and minimal distractions.
LEARN MORE: 5 Tips For Creating A Better Landing Page
To create a high-converting landing page, here are some tips you might want to consider.
1. Create Compelling Call To Actions (CTA)
Shown above: an example of a landing page with a unique CTA from GiftRocket. (Source: WordStream)
A compelling call to action (CTA) is what you need to make sure your landing page converts website visitors into customers. One simple trick to enhance your CTA is using benefit-oriented CTAs instead of typical marketing phrases like “Buy Now!” or “Sign Up Today”.
2. Insert Social Proof
As mentioned earlier, utilising social proof is a method of gaining trust. When it comes to landing pages, the same logic applies. You can insert social proof into your landing page to make your brand seem more approachable and trustworthy.
Shown above: an example of social proof. Notice how it displays logos of reputable companies where their graduates work, along with a testimonial from a graduate. (Source: Instapage)
Examples of social proof that you can use for your landing page include:
- Testimonials
- Reviews
- Brand logos of your clientele
- Links to your social media page
- Social share buttons
- Trust seals
3. Write Clear And Specific Headlines
Sometimes, a catchy headline does not have to be fancy or wordy. All you need to do is write a clear and specific headline that is direct and straight to the point so your landing page can capture attention and lead to a conversion action.
For example, check out this landing page from Clean Care, a leading cleaning company in Singapore. The headline is simple: it tells you all about the company’s services in just a few words. Plus, the CTA is benefit-oriented as well.
Run A/B Tests
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is an aspect of conversion rate optimisation services that allows you to experiment with website variables to identify the segment that drives your metrics.
58% of companies already use A/B testing for CRO. You should probably do the same to increase your conversion rate more efficiently with better tactics.
Why exactly is A/B testing essential for CRO?
A/B testing lets you make a single variable change to your site’s UX to identify the variable that leads to higher conversions. This method helps you create better CRO strategies and identify certain website elements that leave the most significant impact on user behaviour.
You can run A/B tests on almost any variable such as your web pages, emails, and landing pages to know which version generates the best results.
For example, you could do split testing on your landing page to experiment with different elements without affecting quality. To see if your landing page can improve even further, try including additional white space, high-quality images, or videos.
LEARN MORE: SEO Split Testing: What You Need to Know
Because of its ability to help you generate more qualified leads, A/B testing is a remarkable component of conversion rate optimisation. Also, there are tons of advanced A/B testing software that you can use for CRO. Choose one that meets your needs the most so you can improve your conversions in the best way possible.
Set Up A Digital Marketing Sales Funnel
It would be challenging to optimise your conversion rate without understanding how the customer journey works. In that case, try to set up a digital marketing sales funnel.
With a properly designed sales funnel, you can pinpoint your customer’s wants and needs, depending on the current stage of their journey.
The success of your conversion rate optimisation strategy will depend on your ability to place conversions strategically on various stages of the sales funnel.
For example, if many of your visitors leave your website during the Awareness stage, perhaps your homepage might need improvement. Do initial research to discover where your conversions are failing by using your sales funnel as a guide.
Optimise Your Website
Since one of the goals of conversion rate optimisation services is providing customers with an excellent digital experience, you should enhance your site’s design and performance above all else. Doing so should improve the overall UX of your website and help customers reach their desired goals.
Having an SEO-friendly and well-designed website is the first step to increasing your rankings and conversions. Here are some tips for optimising your website.
- Enhance your site’s mobile responsiveness
- Improve your page speed
- Display creative infographics and videos when necessary
- Utilise readable texts
- Leave a CTA on every web page
Part III: How Does CRO Work For Ecommerce?
Studies show that the shopping cart abandonment rate ranges from 57.60% to 84.27%. That means there is a high chance customers will abandon their shopping cart before finalising their purchase.
The truth is, most people do not buy a product upon seeing it for the first time. It is a common issue that most online retailers face in this day and age. What can you do to avoid this?
The answer is simple:
Utilise conversion rate optimisation to ensure most of your customers will eventually purchase your products. In the world of ecommerce, CRO is one of the most effective ways to improve the customer’s experience, gain their trust, and increase conversions.
The average conversion rate for e-commerce websites is 2.86%. Having a conversion rate around this number is a good sign.
However, there is always room for improvement. If you want to increase your conversion rate, here are some of the best strategies you could use for ecommerce.
4 Best CRO Strategies For Ecommerce
1. Optimise Your Ecommerce Website For Mobile
Ecommerce websites on mobile have a higher shopping cart abandonment rate of 85.65%. Most mobile users abandon an ecommerce website for a few reasons, such as:
- Small screen size
- Slow loading times
- Unorganised layout
- Outdated design
All of these technical issues are the result of not optimising your ecommerce website for mobile. Prevent this problem from occurring by ensuring your website is mobile-friendly. There are a couple of ways you can make this happen.
For example, you can utilise responsive design for your ecommerce website. Responsive design will enhance your website to render and perform smoothly on any device, be it a laptop, tablet or smartphone. Your customers can explore your ecommerce website conveniently, no matter what type of device they are using.
LEARN MORE: Responsive Vs Adaptive Web Design: What Is The Difference?
2. Enhance The Checkout Process
Another common cause of shopping cart abandonment is poorly optimised checkout forms. If your site’s checkout form is confusing and messy, there’s a high chance your customers will abandon their purchase completely.
A well-designed checkout form is brief, simple, and straightforward. Try not to use any unnecessary distractions, including pop-up ads, so customers can concentrate on finalising their purchase. Also, minimise checkout steps to shorten the entire process.
While designing your checkout form, think about the checkout process and how you can improve it. First things first, make sure your checkout form is mobile-friendly. Many online shoppers use mobile phones when checking out, so keep that in mind.
Also, present various payment methods to provide customers with more options. Remember to add noticeable contact details near your checkout form so customers can get in touch with you if they need support.
3. Show Reviews On Your Product Pages
Testimonials and reviews are valuable assets for conversion rate optimisation. They add social proof to your credibility, allowing you to build your reputation and trustworthiness.
Whenever customers plan to purchase your product, they will usually do a background check first. That includes learning more about the qualities and attributes related to your product. To help them out, try displaying some testimonials and reviews on your product pages.
Shown above: an example of a positive customer review on Shopee.
A positive review of your product can quickly make it look more appealing and reliable. You can give customers the option to send a review of your product, similar to the customer feedback system provided by online marketplaces, such as Lazada and Shopee.
4. Use Chatbots Or Live Chat Software
New customers usually ask questions whenever they look for something worth buying. You can create a FAQ page that provides them with answers to their frequently asked questions.
What if some of your customers’ questions are unavailable on your FAQ page?
For that circumstance, the ideal solution is to use chatbots or live chat software that helps you communicate with customers 24/7.
Chatbots use artificial intelligence (AI) to search for the most accurate answer to the receiver’s questions. Customers can easily access your site’s chatbot whenever they need something. This tool is perfect for when customer service representatives are unavailable after work hours, customers can still obtain answers to their questions.
On the other hand, you could also use live chat software. It is a tool that offers real-time services that let you and your customers chat with each other online. Live chat software is an excellent tool for conversion rate optimisation, as long as you have live chat agents ready to provide customers with answers.
Whether you choose chatbots or live chat software is up to you. Chatbots are great since they can run 24/7, while live chat software adds a human touch to you and your customer’s interaction. Consider using both chatbots and live chat software to get the best of both worlds.
Consider Hiring A CRO Agency
CRO is often challenging and time-consuming, especially if you need to monitor other aspects of your business. If you want to save a lot of time and effort, consider hiring a conversion rate optimisation agency.
Conversion rate optimisation agencies are more than capable of increasing conversions. They can make sure your website is free from technical errors so you can convert more qualified leads to sales. Try to look for a conversion rate optimisation agency that can meet your needs, depending on your goals, objectives, and direction.
Contact OOm today to learn more about the benefits of CRO for your business!
