How Can Businesses Integrate Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and AB Testing in Their Digital Marketing Efforts?

How can a business implement conversion rate optimization?

Brooks Running Shoes

For this example, we will be looking at Brooks Running, a performance footwear company that would like to increase its online sales. Implementing conversion rate optimization must begin by understanding that conversion rate optimization is a continuous process that will focus on making it easier for visitors to achieve the website's primary goal (Brooks’ goal is to get people to buy shoes).

Finding Brooks' Current Conversion Rate. Formula & Segmenting Traffic

How do we make it easier for visitors to buy more shoes? First, we can calculate the current conversion rate using the formula: number of conversions divided by the number of visitors, multiplied by 100. For Brooks, if 500 out of the 10,000 monthly visitors made a purchase, their conversion rate would be 5%. However, CRO is a continuous process, so they should not stop at this overall percentage. We must keep in mind that effective CRO needs segmentation of traffic by conversion rate to identify what the specific problems are. For example, Brooks may discover that their overall conversion rate is 5%, but iPhone users convert only at 2% while compared to Android users who convert at 7%. Segmenting our traffic reveals where we must focus our optimization efforts. Brooks can then find solutions to cater more to iPhone users. Also, a good conversion rate depends on what industry you are in and what the specific conversion goal is. Since Brooks sells relatively high involvement purchases like running shoes, their conversion rates will naturally be lower than a company selling low involvement products, such as a grocery store selling food. Although conversion rates depend on the industry, most conversion rates fall between 2% and 5%, and you should always focus on having continuous improvement as your goal.

Market Research

To further improve their conversion rate, Brooks should conduct tons of market research, and we can start by getting the customers' opinion about the “user experience” (UX) of our website to find where the customers got lost or confused. We can review the FAQ pages questions to figure out what common problems visitors have, use heat maps to determine which of our content on our website engages visitors and whether they are clicking “call to action” (CTA) buttons, And analyze our scroll depth reports to see when and where visitors are leaving the site (such as what web pages and where in the webpage). Additionally, Brooks should routinely review their back-end/technical setup to fix slow-loading pages, broken links, and poor mobile experiences for all kinds of different devices.

The Benefits of CRO and AB Testing for Businesses.

Benefits Of Conversion Rate Optimization

 Conversion rate optimization offers huge benefits by allowing businesses to take advantage of data instead of guessing which decisions to make. Conversion rate optimization is a great tool to implement while being exposed to web analytics. CRO is important because what makes sense to web designers may not make sense to actual visitors of the website. Through CRO, companies can study and understand what drives, contradicts, and encourages users to navigate their website. The main goal of CRO is to provide the best and easiest user experience (UX) possible (which leads to more conversions!).

 Conversion rate optimization is all about catering to customers, because businesses can gain valuable insights from customer behavior that shows exactly where visitors are losing interest. This allows companies to address these specific problems by using customer insight. Instead of needing to change the entire website and risking customer dissatisfaction, businesses can test changes on small samples of visitors to lower the risk of customer dissatisfaction and discover what works and what doesn't. This approach helps with customer satisfaction because a retained customer is a satisfied customer, which then creates profit. The increase in conversion percentages, called “lift,” directly translates to more conversions without the need to increase traffic to the website.

Benefits Of AB Testing

 Now let's get into AB Testing, a powerful technique that supports CRO efforts. AB Testing is a randomized controlled trial that allows businesses to assign test subjects to randomized conditions and can measure with confidence what causes changes in key performance indicators (KPI's). Experimentation from AB Testing lowers risk 4 digital marketers because they can use testing information to decide what changes to make and what changes to avoid when moving forward with their digital marketing campaigns.

 The purpose of these AB Tests is to create multiple versions of marketing campaigns to determine which performs better and leads to more conversions. Businesses can test many different elements, such as the amount of text on the page, the number of form fields the visitor must fill out, specific images, headlines or subject lines, and the size, color, and/or text of the “call to action” (CTA) buttons. By testing these elements, businesses can discover concrete ways to achieve conversion goals on the website, and then digital marketers can decide what changes to prioritize that will raise their “Return On Investment” (ROI). This data-driven approach allows businesses to be more efficient and more customer-focused, which will, in turn, make the business more successful. Businesses focusing on testing allow customers to drive change, which is quite important since a business must give customers what they want. The more the company tests, the better their digital marketing efforts will become.

Hypothetical AB Tests for email marketing and eCommerce.

How Sweet As Waffles can use AB Testing for Email Marketing Messages

 For this example, I will use the restaurant “Sweet As Waffles”, since I am the marketing intern for the shop. Sweet As Waffles wants to improve its current monthly newsletter campaign so that more people will open our email. Version A would be sent from newsletter@sweetaswaffles.com, in standard newsletter format, with formal paragraphs and promotions presented in a traditional corporate newsletter style. Version B, on the other hand, will have a different approach by sending the e-mail from max@sweetaswaffles.com, and written from the personal perspective of the marketing intern at Sweet As Waffles. This version would be conversational-sounding and will focus on writing text that feels like a real person is writing it and trying to connect with you, versus just using corporate newsletter style. The e-mail sender is a person's name rather than “newsletter”. The goal of this test is to see how Sweet As Waffles can get higher opening rates from the customers who agreed to sign up for the monthly newsletter.

 After designing the tests, Sweet As Waffles would distribute Version A to 25% of their e-mail list and Version B to another 25%, saving the remaining 50% of the newsletter receivers for whichever version achieves the higher click-through rate by the end of the test. Since we would be sending emails rather than waiting for traffic to our website, this AB Test can be completed in just a couple of hours. Once our e-mail marketing software gives us the “highest-performing test” based on the overall evaluation criteria of the click-through rate. It will then automatically send the higher-performing version to the remaining 50% of the recipients. This test would be used to find out whether a more personable, human approach resonates better with our audience rather than using traditional corporate messaging for our newsletter.

How Brooks Running Can Use AB Testing to Optimize Its eCommerce Checkout Pages

 For their e-commerce checkout page, Brooks Running could test the impact of “social proofing” on visitors who are close to the conversion (buying a shoe) but still have not decided to go through with their purchase. We can design an AB Test where “Version A” would display the standard checkout page with product details, price, and a “Complete Purchase” button, but with no customer feedback. Version B would then incorporate customer comments and reviews strategically placed near the final conversion point, just above the “Complete Purchase” button. We can show visitors five-star reviews where customers had great experiences when buying that certain shoe, to get these customers who may be on the fence to convert (buy the shoe).