5 Excellent Ways to Optimize Your Conversion Rate

Your website’s conversion rate represents the total percentage of people who act on the calls to action on each page. A low conversion rate means a less efficient marketing engine. Every click you pay for, and every search you generate is less impactful if fewer people convert on your website. 

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) requires a customized approach based on your goals and resources. However, some popular and effective ways to succeed with CRO include: 

• Adding strong calls to action (CTA)
• Keeping your forms free of unnecessary fields
• Offering live chat on the site
• Including a pop-up window with an enticing perk
• Making it easy for people to take the necessary steps
• Publishing reviews or customer testimonials
• Removing aspects that could distract or frustrate people

Here are five ways to optimize your conversion rate sooner rather than later. 

1. Increase Engagement From Existing Customers

Higher conversion rates can decrease the cost of your marketing efforts by fully activating the value of existing customers. With research showing that existing clients purchase and try more new products than people buying from you for the first time, CRO can dramatically improve your return on investment. 

A well-designed, reliably functioning website naturally encourages people to linger. Perhaps someone initially only intended to buy one item at the site. However, if they’re enjoying their time there, they’re more likely to browse and potentially buy more. They might also take other actions that could lead to future purchases, such as signing up for a newsletter or agreeing to give their email addresses in exchange for an information-packed e-book. This kind of opt-in strategy captures contact information so you can continue to engage with people through marketing communications long after they have left the site. Abandoned cart reminders, special offers, referral requests, and sales can all be shared directly to their email (or phone) to recapture traffic in the future. 

2. Raise Interactions From a Global Audience

Publishing valuable content is an excellent way to optimize your conversion rate. Readers who find value in your content will conclude that your company is an authoritative source for whatever they need. 

However, if you’re aiming to reach people in other countries, part of a CRO strategy should include identifying high-value international markets and translating the best-performing content as your budget allows. 

A study of participants from 29 nations showed that people prefer content in their languages when visiting a website. The results revealed that 65% of visitors want to see information in their native tongues, even if it’s poor quality. Moreover, 40% of respondents said they would not buy items from sites in other languages. Making efforts to appeal to a non-English-speaking audience can grow your overall reach and conversions. 

3. Elevate the Likelihood of Recommendations 

People who have positive overall experiences with companies are more likely to recommend them to others. When a business has a helpful, relevant, and user-friendly site, there’s a good chance they’ll have impressive conversion rate data, too. Plus, when website owners do CRO well, the effects could span beyond the customers who initially make purchases. 

Statistics show an average 2.35% conversion rate for landing pages across all businesses. That doesn’t take into account, however, untracked conversions—the offline recommendations that occur between friends and family. 

A study found that personal recommendations are powerful drivers of eventual purchases — substantially more so than brand-only content found on social platforms. The data indicated that 61% of respondents trust recommendations from friends, family members, and influencers. However, only 31% of those polled feel they can count on such suggestions that come directly from brands. 

The strategies that drive conversions also help build trust in the brand with your target audience. For example, you could offer a digital coupon for people who subscribe to your newsletter. Someone might tell a friend that they loved the product they bought and appreciated saving money. These types of engagements increase the likelihood that someone not only recommends the purchase they just made, but the brand with which they just did business. Building those relationships should be a baked-in component of your conversion optimization strategy. 

4. Encourage Customer Discovery and Specificity

Ensuring people can find the information or products they want is a significant part of excelling at CRO. That’s one reason to strongly consider implementing robust search functionality to optimize your conversion rate. 

A study of e-commerce retailers showed that conversion rates for desktop device users were two times higher when sites had advanced search capabilities rather than basic ones. Additionally, 50% of respondents saw revenue boosts after making their site-search investments. Not surprisingly, the most beneficial changes to site searches offered increased relevance and personalization. 

Conversion rate optimization through improved site-search tools could help people find the exact items they need. Additionally, those improvements could urge them to browse for things they didn’t originally intend to buy. 

5. Solicit Positive Reviews and Build Social Proof

In-depth content can enable people to do all or most of their research at the primary site where they’ll buy. When shoppers have the information they need readily accessible, they’ll be more likely to feel comfortable and eager to purchase. Plus, if they navigate elsewhere, they may buy from competitors instead. 

Research shows that current reviews can be significant factors in increasing purchases. That suggests your efforts in conversion rate optimization should include letting people provide product feedback that can inform others. The study found a 296.2% conversion rate increase among shoppers exposed to at least 5,000 reviews. That’s 122.1% higher than people who see up to 100 reviews.

However, the overall amount doesn’t matter as much when the content is sufficiently recent. The results confirmed that 64% of people are more likely to buy products with fewer reviews published within the last three months. Think about how you could add an option to write reviews at your site. Visitors can then learn about your products and feel more excited about buying them when they read other people’s positive accounts. 

Reviews from high-value customers can teach new visitors to your site about your products and emphasize selling points in a trust-oriented format. That content could also interest people in similar products you carry. Consider a moderation process so you can screen the reviews for potential scammy or otherwise unreliable material.

Stay Committed to CRO

Conversion rate optimization is ongoing, even once you implement changes. However, choosing and tracking metrics can help verify whether you can boost conversions with the desired effects. With the right focus on conversion metrics, understanding why visitors engage with your content, and what they really want from their experience on your site, you can attract more people, keep them on your site longer, convert a higher percentage to leads or sales, and grow further with word of mouth. 

Article Written By: Eleanor Hecks is the Editor-in-Chief of Designerly Magazine, an online publication dedicated to providing in-depth content from the design and marketing industries.