As time passes, the internet only expands. That being said, it’s understandable why some business owners are overwhelmed by the idea of opening up an e-commerce model. Forging your way into the vast unknown of the internet can feel a little scary, but luckily many came before you and established e-commerce best practices to make things a little easier.
If you’re already up and running an e-commerce platform, then you’re moving in the right direction. But perhaps you’re still considering making the jump to e-commerce, hesitant because you don’t know how to set yourself up for success.
One of the best practices in internet marketing and sales is called Conversion Rate Optimisation. Otherwise known as CRO, conversion rate optimisation defines the practice of testing and determining which conversion tactics and strategies produce the most results and increase ROI.
When used correctly, CRO is a game-changer for your online businesses. It will increase your daily sales significantly, leading to faster growth and more opportunities on the horizon.
That’s not even the best part.
So many of the practices within CRO are passive, meaning you don’t have to actively do anything for it to work. Instead of sending out individual questionnaires to prospects, you can sit back and gain super valuable information from your automated CRO processes.
With this kind of information on hand daily, you can completely transform your online sales model to work better for you and increase your company’s trajectory.
Ready to begin implementing these high-level CRO tactics into your business in just a few steps? Here’s how to get started.
Use CRO Training for Max Results
In this guide, we’re going to cover some introductory concepts for you to get familiar with. But for those that are ready to get serious about CRO, you can use a CRO training course online that will walk you through every step of the process.
For those new to internet marketing, this is the best way to quickly catch up and even get a leg up over the competition
Know the Terms
Before you start acting on any of these tactics, you need to know what you’re dealing with. Part of the essence of CRO is testing different strategies out to find what works, so here are some of the options to choose from:
A/B Testing
A/B testing is also called split testing. It compares the performance of two pages against each other with just one difference between them. By gauging how one performs over the other, the tester can determine which version (A or B) leads to the most conversions.
A/B testing is a nice way to test out different techniques until you find something that works without fully committing to any major changes. This kind of testing is usually recommended to business owners who already have their website up, and sales funnel in place. Individuals at this point in their e-commerce journey are typically looking to innovate and improve upon their already successful campaigns.
Those who are just getting started might want to start elsewhere, as comparing small elements against each other one-by-one can get tedious when you have other, bigger things to worry about.
Multivariate Testing
Multivariate testing, like A/B testing, compares different techniques to single out the very best results. Once that technique has been identified, you can expand it across the website.
Multivariate testing differs from A/B in that it tests multiple different combinations of web page aspects (imagery, text placement, CTAs, sales funnels) all at once to compare their performances over time.
Bounce Rates
Knowing your bounce rate is how you will learn which pages are leading to conversions and which are not. A page’s bounce rate defines how long a visitor is spending there, and it’s a good initial indicator of what your strongest techniques are for keeping visitors on the page.
Time on Site
Similar to the bounce rate, a visitor’s time spent on your site overall is a good way to gauge your website’s overall performance.
If you see that they’re spending a lot of time on your home page and services page, but quickly leave after reaching the contact page, you know the contact page could improve.
You can then use tactics from your home and service pages on the contact page to keep them around.
Identify What’s Successful
Base your decision on your most successful online pages. Find what makes them so successful, and then design each page similarly. To identify the winning aspects of your top web pages, assess them based on these guidelines:
- Practical – Is the page’s design over the top and unnecessary?
- Useful – Does your page get straight to the point and provide what the visitor is looking for?
- Desirable – How desirable and attractive are your pages? Is the user interface easy?
Hone in on what makes those winning pages win. Once you feel confident in those identifications, carry the tactics across your entire site and watch the conversion improvement begin.
Monitor Your Success
While no one truly gets excited over analytics, there would be very little success in business without the numbers. Just as with any other marketing strategy, CRO requires careful attention to the analytics. To identify your winning strategies and copy them across your site, you’ve got to look at the numbers:
- Identify the pages with the best conversion rates
- Determine the cause of those great rates
- Carry that strategy over to pages with less impressive rates
If you’re new to analytics, Google Analytics is a user-friendly starting point. As you move deeper into CRO strategies, you may find other analytics providers that work better to increase your conversion.
Trust the Process
Armed with CRO strategies and a clear mindset, it’s entirely possible to pull a struggling business out from the depths or help a flourishing one shine even more.
If you’re just dipping your toes into the world of e-commerce or are looking to improve your existing site, conversion rate optimisation is the digital marketing strategy you need today.