Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Strategies for Small Businesses

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As a business owner, digital marketer, or website operator, one of the biggest indicators that you’re effectively managing your digital assets is how high or low your conversion rate optimization numbers are.

It isn’t surprising that everyone wants to drive more value from the traffic and visitors that their site generates, but if you aren’t earning enough sales and revenue, you’re left wondering what you could – or should – do to improve your conversion rate optimization metrics.

While the premise of making a conversion (sale) from your site seems relatively straightforward, there are a lot of technical details that go into creating an effective conversion funnel. Just because you have a trendy website with products available for sale does not guarantee that fresh, hot leads and sales are going to pile up on “Autopilot.”

Factors including your site design, website load times, and “Calls To Action” on your site all impact the number of times one of your visitors complete a desired action – or a Conversion.

One thing to remember is that for the highest conversion rates, having your website pages targeted for your desired end-result is a surefire way to rev up your results. These are known as Landing Pages. Professional Landing Pages are effective and are commonly used to gather information for List Building, Lead Generation, and Direct Sales.

For the most part, Landing Pages are created with one specific “Goal” in mind. Often, extraneous navigation and unimportant links get eliminated from these type of pages so that that site visitors will complete the desired page action instead of ‘surfing’ your site and leaving without taking the action you seek. Someone who fills out the information you ask for is considered a successful conversion.

If your website or your individual pages are underperforming, it is worth your time to review the Conversion Goals you have in place. By using data, you can pinpoint where the problem exists and take proactive steps to fix the issue.

Don’t be afraid to test and analyze to recognize bottlenecks or other obstacles that stand in the way of a customer conversion. Sometimes one of the best methods to test your site is by having someone who is not familiar with your site use it. By observing their Click Paths through your Analytics Programs, you can get a better understanding of how people navigate your site. If you find that your site visitors are making the same navigational mistakes over and over, you can make adjustments to address these missteps.

Another invaluable resource for data concerning visitor behavior is Google Analytics. This robust platform gives you access to all of the data associated with your website, giving you clues to errors or flaws that affect your conversion rate.

Here are a few finer points to investigate when examining your Website Analytics:

Most Viewed Pages – Your most viewed (or visited pages) are likely to be your most profitable pages. If your conversion rate is low on your high traffic pages, invest some time to ensure that your page has adequate Calls To Action, so your visitors have an idea of what they’re supposed to do next.

Similarly, if your pages have a high “Bounce Rate” (People only visit one page and leave), you’ll want to make adjustments to reduce the overall Bounce and retain the visitor. The simple addition of an Email Opt-In Pop-Up could be the difference between letting a visitor slip away for forever or adding them to your ongoing Email Marketing List.

Traffic Sources – It’s critical to know where your website traffic is originating. A healthy site should have a variety of traffic sources including major Search Engines, Social Media Platforms, and Direct Links. Free organic traffic is increasingly harder to cultivate, so you want to be sure that your site is optimized to turn free website visitors into new leads or sales.

User Devices – Now more than ever, people are using more types of devices than ever before to access the Internet. A mobile-friendly or Responsive website design helps ensure that every site visitor gets an optimized version of your site for their viewing screen or display, regardless of whether they’re on a Samsung Smart Phone or a Smart TV.

Website Response Speed – Think about the last time you visited a really slow site. How willing were you to stick around while waiting for the site to load? If you answered ‘not very,’ you are among the many who would respond to this question the same way. Site speed matters – especially when working with Conversion Traffic. Any unexplained delays give your visitors reason to leave as quickly as they arrived, which is no good! In other words, the faster your site is, the better.

Test Multiple Versions Of Your Conversion Pages – A/B Testing is one way to determine which of your sales pages outperforms the other. After this initial testing, you can advertise and promote with more confidence that you’re leading with a winning offer.

Split Test Email Opt-In Forms and Pop-Up Boxes – The ultimate goal of Email Opt-Ins and Pop-Up Boxes is to collect information from your website visitors so that you can market to them again later. By Split Testing, you can determine which form or landing page works best for your site demographics.

Establish Your Conversion Goals In Google Analytics – This one is important because every Conversion Goal must be setup in Google Analytics to track them properly. If you haven’t setup conversion goal tracking, there is no truly accurate way to track your progress and conversions, which offers you no competitive advantage whatsoever!

Document Any Changes You’ve Made For Reference – Should you decide to make any significant changes to your site, be sure that you document them. By doing so, you’ll more easily be able to analyze whether the adjustments you made are working or not.

Conversion Rate Optimization [infographic]

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Denese EakinsDenese is a lover of knowledge and puts her research skills and creative eye to good use with her infographics. When she’s not researching and designing visuals to present data, she spends time volunteering in her other passion–health education.

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Why Your Conversion Rate Matters and What You Can Do To Improve It

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When conducting business online, the more you understand about your website metrics and conversion rates, the more equipped you are to make improvements and adjustments to optimize your results.

One of the most relevant metrics to most website owners is their “Conversion Rate.” If you aren’t familiar with what this term means, simply put, it is the total number of visitors at your site who complete a desired action while on your pages

Classic examples of a successful “Conversion” include getting someone to sign up for your newsletter, buying products or services from your website, finishing a lead capture or generation form, or even sending a message via your Contact Page

Conversion rates are calculated by taking the total number of conversions and dividing it by the number of total clicks or website visits that logged a conversion during any given time frame.

The ultimate goal of every website owner and business person is to have as high of a conversion rate as possible – regardless of whether you are building a mailing list or selling items online

Conversion Rate Optimization Explained

Now that we’ve discussed what a Conversion Rate is, we’re going to discuss “Conversion Rate Optimization.”

While every Conversion is a ‘win’ for you, some Conversions are more valuable than others. For instance, getting someone to sign up for occasional newsletter updates may not have the immediate monetary return that a direct sale has. However, since your visitor opted into further marketing messages, you get the opportunity to connect with them via Email or SMS for future promos, special offers, or new product and service launches.

It goes without saying that setting up Conversion rate optimization strategies on your most lucrative pages is the most straightforward way to increase your conversion figures. Keep in mind how much differently your results will be, based on your offer. If you have a ‘free’ offer, the chances are good that you’ll have a higher Conversion rate than if you have a ‘paid’ offer that requires the visitor to buy something from you. Giving up an Email address is a lot less of a commitment than making a purchase.

The trick is to make sure that you’re tracking all of the different actions that are taking place on your pages.

Many web developers choose Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to establish Conversion Goals for their personal and client projects.

Setting up Conversion Tracking takes a bit of time and planning since each Goal must get setup separately. Once the Conversion Tracking is set up and properly installed on your website, any site visitor who completes the desired action for the conversion gets counted in your statistics. These statistics are helpful for conducting A/B Testing to establish which pages are most effective at creating a Conversion for you through Organic or Paid website traffic campaigns. By running a campaign for your A/B test, you’ll quickly find out which version of your web page is helping you meet your sales goals and objectives the fastest. In the interest of running very targeted marketing campaigns, choosing the best version of your conversion page returns the best Return On Investment for your campaign, which is always smart business! (If you are unsure of how to setup Conversion Tracking for yourself, the professionals at Colleen Eakins Design are happy to help!)

Double Check Your Website For Navigational Obstructions

No one likes to run into difficulties when they visit a website. In today’s day and age, site visitors can be fickle. Many seemingly small issues could be the difference in making a sale or losing the attention of your site visitors forever. Before proceeding with a Paid Advertising Campaign to increase your overall Conversion rate, it is always a smart idea to review your site with a ‘fine tooth comb’ to make sure that everything operates as expected.

Always make certain to double check that your CTA’s (Call to Action) are clearly visible to your site visitors. Think of your CTA’s like a Road Sign that direct your visitors to complete your desired action. If these ‘Road Signs’ aren’t present, you can’t be too surprised if people leave your site quickly and without taking any action whatsoever. (This is known as your “Bounce Rate.”)

If you are selling products or services, answering any questions and addressing concerns that would interest a potential customer is a shrewd business move. Not only does this help increase sales, but it also makes your company or Organization more efficient by removing the need for an employee or staff member to have to answer common questions as a part of the sales process.

Providing information regarding your Shipping Policies, Return Policies, Money Back Guarantees, or other Terms and Services helps protect both you and your customer. You want your client to feel comfortable in their decision to do business with you, so the more pertinent information you provide online, the better. You don’t want to take the chance that they’ll leave your site to search for a competitor who has taken the time and made the investment in providing a better User Experience. Responsive or Mobile-Friendly design facilitates a streamlined user experience regardless of whether the end user is surfing your site on a mobile device or a large flat-screen TV.

Credibility is critical, so all steps you take to establish trust and authority on your site are worth exploring. Don’t overlook how important TLS/SSL Security, Security Seals, Customer Reviews, and references from respected Organizations like your Local Chamber of Commerce or the Better Business Bureau are beneficial in building your credibility and consumer confidence.

Grow Your Business With The Right Marketing Strategy [infographic]

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Denese EakinsDenese is a lover of knowledge and puts her research skills and creative eye to good use with her infographics. When she’s not researching and designing visuals to present data, she spends time volunteering in her other passion–health education.

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Messing up Your Content Marketing Could Destroy Your Brand Forever

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There’s little doubt that many people who want to market products or services online are not careful with their content. Perhaps they have others to do the work for them, or they are in a hurry to push out more ideas fast. Either way, careless mistakes are common across the web.

Massive enterprises may be able to get away with a few ‘typos’ or grammatical troubles here and there. Smaller brands, though, cannot afford this same luxury. When they err, people don’t trust them anymore. It makes sense. When a consumer searches for a new provider of a service or product, they tend to be critical. Any issues of poor design, structure, or writing could turn them off to your company’s message forever.

Your Content Offerings Should Be In Line With Your Overall Branding

If your organization produces shoddy content, you’re telling the world that your brand just doesn’t care about quality. Why would people part with their hard-earned dollars to take the risk of dealing with your firm, then?

Even worse is if your company screws up and publishes something defamatory, insulting to a broad group of people, or that lacks context and causes misunderstandings. In that case, your entire brand may face a crisis. People can switch tastes overnight and might do so due to an errant post or miscommunication. One significant mistake is all it takes to wipe out years of goodwill.

By now you know the takeaway is: content errors make your organization look like amateurs. The problem here is that people don’t want to PAY amateurs. The fact you take payments makes you a professional by default, so show the world you have a commitment to professionalism by producing flawless content that drives impressive business results.

How Can I Solve This Potential Branding Problem?

By now you’re probably throwing your hands up in the air and exclaiming, “I can’t take any content errors! What do I do?”

Well, the good news is professional content marketers take pride in their craft and can perform perfect work for your brand, regardless of the scope of the project.

The advantage of using professional content marketers is that they understand how crucial it is to get things right on the first try with no warm up. Time is money so they cannot afford to go back and fix errors or to clean up an ugly mess from a social media faux pas.

Accuracy and Authenticity Always Sell

Brands need to convey authority and authenticity with every move they make. The best way to accomplish this goal is to push out stellar content that gets shares and engagement. People only engage with content they truly admire and enjoy, so the barrier to accomplishing this requirement is high. With so many competitors doing the same thing you can see why content consumers are so finicky. They don’t have to deal with weak companies or brands that don’t seem to care a bit about accuracy or doing the job right!

Make Content Errors a Thing of the Past

Once you decide to eliminate content errors from your life, you’ll need to make a plan. Whether you choose to keep the work in-house or hire freelancers or agencies doesn’t matter. What’s crucial is that you develop a thorough process of error checking before distribution. That way you’ll be able to discover errors early in the content product pipeline, instead of when an angry prospect notifies you!

Errors in content happen during the project management stage. Savvy administrators have systems in place to safeguard against mistakes making it in front of end users. Instead, perfect documents go into distribution. In the case of high volume content production, systems matter even more. If your organization is making mistakes, those problems will scale rapidly!

Delegate Tasks and Get Things Done!

Delegating content production to others makes sense if you don’t have the time or inclination to do it right. Whether you have an English-savvy person on your staff or you have to outsource doesn’t make a difference. All that matters is that your end product is professional and error free. That’s all your prospects have to judge your brand by, so give them what they expect regarding quality.

The Internet has grown so much that amateurish efforts rarely pay off these days. There’s a lot of competition out there so keep that in mind when you want to launch a new content distribution plan. You need to have the best possible unique content and a plan to get it in front of the right people.

Follow the Content Schedule

A primary reason mistakes happen with content is because of a rush mentality. A content schedule is the fastest way to mitigate this issue. Instead of rushing around past your deadline you can calmly create topics and web content way ahead of the publication date. Slowing down the process allows for more planning and better execution. Your team will not turn in material that’s mistake laden if they have enough time and resources to proofread and do final quality checks.

Make a Commitment to Quality

A commitment to quality is necessary for any organization that hopes to receive search engine and social media visitors. Without a professional presentation, you may find yourself facing an uphill battle to gain traction and credibility. Look around at the main players in your industry online. The ones that get the most traffic tend to have deep content that wins likes and shares.

There’s no time like the present to take your content to the next level and you can start by reviewing your existing content. Start with your most popular, visited, and clicked content. Review for errors and mistakes and if necessary, update to make sure the content is still relevant. If you need to delegate this task to someone on your team, do so! Moving forward, create and plan your content. Build a workflow and put a system in place to keep the content you push out, error free. Online businesses are only going to continue growing. If you want your piece of the pie, there’s no reason to settle for less.