What is Conversion Rate Optimization? 
For those not in the know, the skillset of Conversion Rate Optimization is highly sought after in the digital marketing community. Those that become really good at this are never looking for work, as a matter of fact, the top performers can’t even keep up with the demand.
This is for VERY good reason. You can send every person on Earth to your website or offer, but if it doesn’t convert it doesn’t turn into business. Conversion Optimization is the process of working on turning traffic into business or conversions whatever that means to your business or organization. The “If you build it they will come” mentality is no longer viable. It takes a discerning eye and a lot of data to make your website or digital property perform to its fullest potential.
Defining a Conversion.
Before getting ahead of ourselves we must define what a conversion is for our particular business. For some businesses, it may be a phone call, for others an online sale, and for others maybe just the simple collection of emails for future marketing use. Many have multiple conversion types depending on the complexity of the business.
How to define your conversion depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Of course, the end goal is usually more business, but this general definition is simply not enough. If at all possible, my recommendation is to work in with the concept of tiered conversions. Here is an example to best paint this picture.
Tier 1: Lead or Sale (Did the phone ring, did I get an email, did I sell something?Tier 2: Email Capture (If it didn’t convert in tier 1 did I get contact info?)
Tier 3: Audience Creation (If tier 1 or 2 didn’t work do I have a viable way to remarket to this traffic?) E.G. retargeting – push notifications – etc
3 Tips for Conversion Rate Optimization
Call To Action (CTA)
- Don't use generic CTAs – like “sign up for our newsletter” – it may convert but you are not getting the most out of your efforts.
Using “Onpage Retargeting” Correctly AKA Exit Pops
- Are you using any type of email capture?
- Are your Exit Pops visually appealing and easy to use?
- Are your exit pops integrated with an email platform?
Testing
- Are you testing copy or just setting and forgetting it?
- Are you testing different graphics or is everything static?
- Have you played with the layout of your existing landing page to see what happens if you move things around a bit?
- Are you sending all traffic directly to your website or landing page and your website?
While of course, these are only a few considerations this is a great place to start. This stuff can certainly be overwhelming, so take it one step at a time DO NOT TRY ALL THIS AT ONCE! I warned you :).
If you don’t implement anything else in this article pay special attention to the tier approach. There are so many ways to recapture lost traffic and convert it later and if you are not taking advantage of some sort of tier conversion process, this is low hanging fruit for you I promise!
Nick Bennett
858.924.2344