Conversion Rate Optimization Tips to Drive Success in 2023

Conversion rate optimization (CRO), refers to the wide range of techniques that digital marketers use to optimize pages and strategies for facilitating online transactions. 

Conversion rate optimization testing techniques, like A/B testing, multivariate testing, and heuristics analysis, are hence essential to the success of your digital executions. These techniques in combination with creative ideation, and expert implementation, make up its process.

Its end-goal, being to ensure you’re implementing the most effective strategies for converting leads into customers.

If you’re totally new to the concept of CRO, and looking to implement a strategy today, here are a few expert tips you can try to improve lead generation on your sites.

READ ALSO: What is Conversion Optimization: A Primer for Online Marketers

Conversion rate optimization expert tips

There are a lot of bases that you need to cover when it comes to executing CRO well. From search engine optimization, to content marketing, and even to social media management, there’s a lot you can do to optimize and improve your rates for the long run.

If you’re just getting started on your CRO journey, then here are the top elements and metrics that you definitely need to test out when optimizing for conversions today:

1. Copy and content

Your website’s copy and content are some of the first elements your potential customers will see when they check out your brand online. If you find that your user traffic is lower on some web pages than others, then consider testing your page’s copy and content first. 

Is your copy written in the best tone possible for hooking in potential customers? Is your content brief but informative enough to garner user interest? 

All content should provide value, even when it’s as concise as a copy or as lengthy as an article. By analyzing your content, you stand a better chance at fixing your web page traffic for improved conversions. Optimizing your copies and content is an easy way to get started on your CO journey right away.

2. Forms and questionnaires

Forms and questionnaires are another element that you should check when improving upon your digital channels.

Simply put, if a form or questionnaire is too long or inconvenient to answer, then users will likely leave your landing page to avoid filling them out at all. This can be troubling for you if you’re trying to entice users onto your website, or if you’re looking for ways to optimize your landing pages through said forms.

Users should want to fill out your forms and not feel forced to do so. Start testing your questionnaires by seeing if they’re too long or bothersome for users to execute. Give users the choice to opt out of a form too, so that they aren’t forced to exit your site entirely. 

Then, you can utilize onsite survey tools like HotJar, Quarlaloo, and other triggered polls to expedite the survey process for your website or webpage.

3. UX design

When your website’s user experience (UX) design is intuitive, easy-to-use, and fast loading, then potential users are more likely to spend time on your website and web pages – leading to better opportunities for your brand’s CO. 

However, if your website is difficult to navigate, slow to load, or has unattractive and irrelevant visuals, then users are less likely to spend time on your site overall. This lowers your chances of achieving those coveted conversions for your business success.

Try conducting a thorough heuristics analysis of your UX design to see where you can improve upon your user’s experience online with your brand.

4. Incoming traffic

The next metric that you need to observe when testing hypotheses for CO is your site’s incoming user traffic. 

This data point is an important metric because it helps you understand how potential customers are behaving on your site. It shows you if your users are sticking around and exploring your site, or exiting your web page right away. That way, you can figure out what the next best steps are for the rest of your CO journey.

Tools that can help you track this crucial data point include Google Analytics and PageSense, both of which you’ll learn more about as you continue reading this guide.

5. Return on investment

As you figure out strategies for your CO journey, you’ll need to track your work in order to prioritize optimizations by effectiveness and urgency. Prioritizing the work you’ll need to do will help to ensure that your return on investment (ROI) is sustainable enough for the long optimization journey ahead.

ROI can come in many forms. It might refer to your financial ROI, as a result of your overall marketing efforts. It might also refer to your social media clicks in relation to a campaign. Time, costs, or resources spent on your CO are part of your ROI, as is the content you create, like websites, visuals, and other data-driven elements contributing to your impact. 

Some CO strategies may be more cost-effective than most. So always make sure to properly prioritize your website optimization executions. This will help you complete the most effective and urgent optimizations first, ensuring a good ROI that can sustain the rest of your CO journey ahead.

Recommended CRO tools and software

Now that you have an idea of the elements and metrics to consider for your CO work, it’s time for you to check out the best tools and software to run those essential optimization tests for your marketing executions:

• Google Optimize. This household name is a free testing tool that serves as a great starting point for analyzing your pages and content. You can utilize the platform’s free Google Analytics integrations to get started, or explore their A/B testing and limited multivariate testing tools as well.
• Nelio A/B Testing. This software, on the other hand, is a full-on A/B testing solution for websites and web pages hosted on WordPress. With Nelio A/B Testing, you can run tests on titles, content, widgets, and more, without needing an extensive background in web or app development.
• PageSpeed Insights. If you’re looking to optimize your page’s loading speed, then Google’s PageSpeed Insights is the one for you. This free tool helps you by analyzing your website or web page’s content, and then automatically generating suggestions for page speed improvement.
• PageSense. Last but not least is PageSense, one of the best tools for general CO and A/B testing. This tool provides you with integrated heatmap data and detailed analyses for your variants’ cumulative conversion rates, all to improve your website and web pages against other website challengers.

Whether you’re looking for holistic optimization services or specific testing plugins, these expert CO tools will help you get your journey started on the right foot today.

Key takeaways

CO is such a broad field of expertise that it might seem daunting to the novice digital marketer, so much so that you might be tempted to avoid it entirely. However, when you have the right tools and key takeaways in hand, you can start your CO journey on the right foot today. Here are some takeaways to keep in mind:

• CO is essential – no ifs or buts. Not only are you doing yourself a disservice by avoiding CO work in your digital marketing, but you’re also keeping your brand from garnering more conversions as time goes on.
• You can only optimize by running tests. The only way you’ll be able to tell if your optimizations are working is by running tests on them too. You can’t just shoot your shots in the dark – you need to shine a light on your optimizations to see if they hit your targets too.
• There are tools and expertise out there for you. If CO still seems pretty daunting to you, then try utilizing optimization tools and expert advice to guide you on your CO journey this year. 

Looking for the best digital marketing assistance for all your optimization needs? Then contact us at Propelrr and check out our newsletter for more friendly advice.