The Practice of Turning Website Traffic Into Marketing and Sales Qualified Leads
What is conversion rate optimisation?
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is the practice of improving the effectiveness of your website and the tactics you employ to convert more visitors to your website into MQL’s (marketing qualified leads) or SQL’s
(sales qualified leads) by getting them to perform a desired action on your website.
How to calculate a conversion rate
A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action such as submitting a contact form or signing up to a webinar.
Working Example: If over a year you had 100,000 visitors to your website and 20 people submitted a contact form then your conversion rate is 0.02%
20 / 100,000 x 100 = 0.02
Conversion Rate = No of conversions / Total visitors x 100 = 0.02%
Uncover how to improve your CRO
Identify conversion opportunities
Most websites have countless opportunities to allow for conversions to take place from the homepage to a blog post. So conversion rate optimisation needs to be considered from a site wide perspective.
Identify conversion opportunities The right type or types of tactic to convert should be considered too and this will depend upon where the visitor has come from and where they have landed. The conversion opportunities should consider what stage a visitor might be at in the customer journey. Do they need to see a “buy now” button or a “more info” button or something else?
TOP TIP: You may find that certain pages you hadn’t considered draw a lot of traffic to your website (like an old blog post or article) and could be optimised for conversion with great results. So make sure you maximise the opportunity to convert website visitors into leads at each location.
Create pathways for conversions
Pathways to conversions will depend on the channel and activity a user has come from in the first place. A user that has typed into Google “divorce lawyer st albans” is likely to be at the consideration or decision stage of the customer journey. The user finds your google ad or finds you in the organic listings and clicks to come through to your website.
Define what action(s) you want a visitor to take (conversions)
Improving conversions
Here is where you have to be commercial and strategic. What can you do and what is needed to improve conversion optimisation? This will be niche and specific to each business and industry but here are some optimisation tips and food for thought.
Conversions (actions) could include;
- Filling out a form
- Sign up to webinar
- Contact form submission
- Guide download
- Listen to podcast
- Click to email
- Click to phone
- Add to cart
- Purchase
- Chat bot message
- Newsletter sign-up
- Follow social channels
Content Types
Have you as a business decided on what activities and content types you are going to engage in to convert people into leads? Is it downloadable guides, social media posts, videos, webinars, podcasts, newsletter sign ups, workshops, promotions, competitions?
Conversion Optimisation Considerations – top things to consider and evaluate
Aesthetics: Is your website modern & professional looking or is it simply outdated? It’s a digital world and your website is your shopfront. If it doesn’t perform and look how it should do for the 21st century, then it’s likely many visitors will simply click away.
Trust signals: Does your website and brand have the necessary trust signals? – types of trust signals will vary from business to business and industry to industry, but obvious ones are a list of:
- your clients
- client logos
- case studies
- testimonials
- certifications
- accreditations
- awards
User Experience: Does your website look up to scratch but it’s confusing – the UX isn’t intuitive. A visitor cannot find what they are looking for.
Content Marketing: Does your website contain the right content types (videos, blogs, articles, guides, product specifications?
Creatives & Messaging: All impressions are important and if your messaging isn’t resonating and connecting with you target audience then you wont pull them in. Likewise if creatives you are using are not professional and on-point then you won’t get the engagement
Website Copy: Is your content engaging and accurately describe what you do?
CTA’s (calls to action)- Incorrect or misplaced CTA’s can have a huge impact. A CTA must be considered based on the psychology of the interaction
- Where is my visitor (prospect) in their buying journey?
- Are they at the right stage for this conversion?
- Is what we are offering convenient/valuable enough?
- Does our offer align with the information we’re asking for?
- Does your website have the right pop up intent CTA’s?
- Does it have opportunities in the right places to convert a visitor into a lead – sign ups, chat bots, social follow links
A/B Testing: Have you tried A/B testing?
Trust signals: Does your website and brand have the necessary trust signals? – types of trust signals will vary from business to business and industry to industry, but obvious ones are a list of
- your clients
- client logos
- case studies
- testimonials
- certifications
- accreditations
- awards
A Final Word!
The secret to optimising your conversion rate is strategic and involves considering many elements and factors. Once mastered it allows you to lower your customer acquisition costs by getting more value from your website or business visitors.
By optimising your conversion rate, you have the power to acquire more leads and customers and ultimately, grow your business.
Other OnBrand Insight
Take a look at our guide on optimising the customer journey.
