The elephant in the room
From 2021 to 2022, almost every industry saw an increase in cost-per-lead (+19%) and a decrease in conversion rate (-14%). Despite this, 62% of marketers told us they spend less than half of their time/budget on improving their conversion rate with a programmatic approach to Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).
Moving forward, this is not a problem you can ignore if you want to remain competitive and obtain scalable, profitable growth. Improving your conversion rate by a single percent can significantly impact your bottom line.
What is CRO? and why is it essential for your business?
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a critical digital marketing strategy of continually refining and testing various elements of your website, including landing pages, to get the most out of the prospects visiting specific areas of your website.
By focusing on the overall website experience, businesses can increase the number of visitors who take a desired action, such as filling out a form, making a purchase, or subscribing to a newsletter.
Improving your conversion rate and increasing the number of prospects that turn into leads/customers is one of the biggest levers any digital marketer has to drive overall performance across all channels and traffic sources without requiring a significant investment.
How CRO impacts the bottom line
Recent statistics also show the impact of CRO on the bottom line. According to a survey by Econsultancy, businesses that invest in CRO are twice as likely to see a significant increase in sales than those that don’t. In addition, a Venture Beat study found that companies prioritizing CRO are more likely to have a higher ROI from their digital marketing efforts than those that don’t.
What we commonly see
Here are the most common CRO problems we see:
- Web (landing) pages take longer than 2 seconds to load: web conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load time (Hubspot)
- Non-targeted pages: all visitors are sent to the home page or other page not optimized for that specific audience, segment, or channel
- Design (not demand) driven experiences: your pages look great, but they don’t lead with capture and conversion in mind
- Static performance: your pages are not continually tested to find new gains/insights
How can you improve your landing page conversion rates?
Improving your conversion rate requires constant testing and an acute knowledge of what dials to turn and when. Here are 5 steps to focus on CRO and improve your landing pages:
1. Conduct A/B testing to determine which elements of your landing page are working and which are not
2. Make sure your landing pages are visually appealing and easy to navigate; most users never scroll beyond the first 1 or 2 sections of your page, so you must deliver key messages & CTAs above the fold
3. Ensure your landing page copy is clear, concise, and communicates the value proposition of your product or service
4. Use trust & authority content, such as customer testimonials, awards, ratings, media mentions, etc., to build trust and credibility with your visitors and support your marketing claims
5. Simplify your form fields or checkout flows to make it easy for visitors to complete the desired action
LQ Digital’s CRO experts have over 17 years of experience designing our client’s web and mobile experiences, rapidly developing new ideas, and continuously testing and learning to convert more customers. We welcome and look forward to solving your unique CRO challenges.
Fill out the form below to discuss the possibilities of improving your website and landing pages with an LQ expert: