Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a great tool for businesses interested in improving their internet presence. Once a tool only used by the most audacious businesses, CRO is now a staple tool for those seeking to improve their productivity online.
A/B testing your marketing efforts is a great way to identify ways your business can increase reader response. Used effectively, CRO can help you verify an assumption, reduce risk and increase revenue. According to Gabe Shaoolian, CEO of Blue Fountain Media, “in the past, the appearance of the site and how the content was written were decisions made by the top ranking person. CRO allows businesses to test ideas before making them public. These strategies help businesses save money by allowing them to find out about poor site-related decisions before rolling out the changes to the public.”
What to Test
There truly is no limit to what can be done with CRO. Every conceivable element, including color, navigation, visuals, structure and message, can be dissected to discover the combinations that prompt the best reader response. CRO can be used on email campaigns and social media posts as well as websites.
How to Test
There are many options for CRO testing, including Visual Website Optimizer, Optimizely and Maxymiser. Simply select an element to test and the type of test to run. There are different kinds of tests to choose from. A simple A/B test runs a single aspect at a time. A multivariate test allows you to combine multiple elements into a page and test them against the original page. Next the business might try tweaking the wording of their content or making their calls to action more prominent. Each test will lead to new information, and the CRO tester will know just what kind of difference each change is responsible for.
It is generally preferable to test one element at a time. Otherwise, it can be difficult or impossible to tell how each element affects the reader. However, a multivariate test allows comparison of two completely contrasting pages.
Conversion Rate Optimization in Action
Let’s take a look at a hypothetical situation to see how CRO works in the real world. A client has a good solid homepage, but the business owner suspects it could be even more effective. Rather than just making a bunch of changes, the CRO team would take time to test each potential change to see how it compares to the original page.
By switching the layout of the content on the homepage, the business realizes a significant increase in conversions. Without testing that one element, the business owner would never have known that one simple adjustment would make such a huge difference. Likewise, if the conversion rate decreased, then the business owner would know, without committing to a full site redesign, that the change was a bad idea.
Key Takeaways
If you haven’t already tried conversion rate optimization for your business, what are you waiting for? Minor changes can make a surprising difference in your conversion rate. There are plenty of CRO tools that makes testing easy. Don’t spend time wondering if your website could be more effective, put your ideas to the test and uncover ways to get the most out of your online presence.
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