Business strategies have come a long way throughout the years. There are many avenues that a business can take to reach its customer base, drive sales and traffic, and even hire workers. More and more businesses are engaging hybrid teams of full-time and part-time employees or independent talent to lead them to success.
These hybrid teams need to be well versed in the channels available to them and their organization to enhance their marketing tactics. However, these channels are available to compete with businesses, as well. That means competition among businesses is happening simultaneously across multiple platforms.
Your hybrid team needs to maximize its resources using strong marketing tools and practices with proven success rates to achieve your business’s desired outcome, whether sales, new customer sign-ups or contact submissions.
Utilizing conversion rate optimization (CRO) marketing tactics can transform your marketing efforts and help you accomplish your business’s goals. A “conversion” refers to any time that a customer follows through with the intended action on your website. CRO marketing allows you to identify what those conversions should be, resolve any barriers that may stand in a customer’s way, and analyze results to increase the conversion’s effectiveness.
Not sure where to start? Keep reading to learn how to make the most of your marketing budget and reap the business benefits of CRO marketing.
What is conversion rate optimization (CRO) marketing?
So, what is CRO marketing? As mentioned, a conversion is when someone follows through with a specific action that you meant for them to do on your website. It’s essentially getting the desired result that will benefit your business. Examples of this include getting someone to subscribe to an email list or newsletter, sign up for a membership, input their information to inquire about a service or request a quote, purchase an item, register for a webinar or event, or click through to other pages to increase website ratings and traffic.
When we talk about CRO, we refer to the act of optimizing—or making something as effective as possible—the rate of conversions happening. Simply put, CRO marketing is the practice of utilizing the best tools and methods to turn website viewers into actual customers for your business.
This type of marketing can be used across all digital marketing channels, including social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. There are marketing agencies and independent professionals who are experts in CRO marketing who can help create and execute this technique for your business.
When you use Upwork to engage an independent professional to implement CRO marketing into your business strategy, they can design and plan your business’s marketing based on actual data rather than instinct or conventional wisdom, which may not always work in your favor. With real analytics to draw from, your marketing performance can, and will, thrive.
Defining conversion rate
A “rate” refers to the percentage of something, so a conversion rate translates to the percentage of people who follow through with the conversion, the action of which you want them to do.
How do we calculate a conversion rate? The formula is simple: the number of conversions divided by the number of website visitors, multiplied by 100.
For example, let’s say you are a social media marketing company hosting a webinar and want to figure out the conversion rate for sign-ups to participate. Say 500 website visitors looked at the landing page where registration information was posted, and 275 signed up. You would divide 275 by 500 and then multiply the total by 100. The conversion rate would be 55%.
Make sense? Now, let’s discuss the benefits of implementing a CRO marketing plan.
CRO benefits
By using Upwork to hire an agency or independent professional who is an expert in CRO marketing, you can take your business to the next level.
Here are some advantages of having CRO marketing set in place:
- Makes the most of your marketing budget: CRO marketing allows you to acquire more customers and clients without increasing your budget. You’ll end up stretching your budget because the cost per acquisition will decrease.
- Increases your overall profits: Rather than paying for advertisements to get business, your CRO marketing tactics’ profit goes directly to your organization.
- Allows you to get to know your customer and clients: CRO analytics help you understand your customers’ and clients’ preferences. When you know the type of content they are most engaged with, you can design with their likes and dislikes in mind.
- Increases website traffic and creates long-lasting relationships: If your conversion rates are increasing, it means more people have made it to your website and understand how to navigate the pages to complete the desired conversion. Easy-to-navigate websites mean happy visitors, which means they’ll continue to come back.
CRO marketing: Core concepts and methods
Some concepts and methods will enhance your CRO marketing on multiple channels. The right CRO marketing specialist will have the experience and skills to implement those best suited for your business.
Here are some concepts and methods a professional can handle for you:
Eliminate distractions
You want it to be as easy as possible for potential customers to navigate from point A to point B and complete the conversion. Eliminate unnecessary click-throughs, incessant pop-ups, or other on-page barriers that could get in the way and distract the user from the main purpose of their visit. The goal is to keep their attention so that they are more likely to proceed with the conversion.
Use A/B testing to see what works better
A/B testing refers to testing two versions of something among two groups of people. You can utilize A/B testing for logos, taglines, emails, advertisements, fonts, and color schemes. This technique is especially helpful when you are going through a company rebrand. You can find A/B testing specialists through Upwork to help gather intel as you test new assets to see what works best.
Create SEO-driven blog articles
Having blog content on your website is great for search engine optimization (SEO), driving traffic to the site. What’s even better is when these blogs also include a call to action (CTA) that results in readers completing a conversion. Look for independent talent with SEO writing experience on Upwork to help create this content for your company.
Offer live chat options
Live chat offers immediate assistance to someone who needs customer service. This is convenient for the customer, increasing their satisfaction with the company and their likelihood of returning to the website. It also allows the business to plug the desired conversion.
Drive traffic through social media
The chances are that the majority of your customers and clients are on social media. Utilizing various social media platforms to leverage your business is one of the top online marketing strategies. When you hire the right CRO marketing specialist on Upwork, they will be able to implement a CRO marketing plan for all of your social media content.
Don’t let them get away
Not sure which platform to focus on? That’s the great thing about CRO—it’ll help you zero in on which social media platform results in the most conversions, and then you will know which channel to put the most effort into.
There will be times when someone visits your website, yet does not take any action. Don’t worry—you haven’t lost them yet! You can use marketing automation to send personalized messages to guide them through the conversion process. It takes experience to know how to put together an effective schedule of marketing automation prompts, so hiring an independent consultant through Upwork can be helpful.
Increase conversions with independent talent
Having a strong presence in the digital marketing world is a great place to start, but having strong CRO marketing is what will end up driving your business’s success. It may sound like a lot of strategic planning and implementation, but that’s why a remote talent platform like Upwork can be a huge help to your company or organization.
By utilizing Upwork, you’ll gain access to the top CRO marketing experts worldwide. These independent professionals will work alongside your team to design the right CRO marketing plan to help your business profit and achieve its goals.
