5 Tips on How to choose the Best Conversion Rate Optimization Service

Almost all marketing teams today focus on driving traffic to their websites so that sales reps can convert these leads into qualified leads. However, that's only half the battle.

You can achieve long-term, sustainable growth by maximizing the traffic and leads already in place rather than adding new traffic. This is where conversion rate optimization service comes into play. 

This article aims to teach you how to choose the correct conversion rate optimization service and why you need it.

Conversion rate optimization, or CRO, aims to increase the number of leads generated by your website. Content enhancements, split tests, and workflow improvements are all methods for achieving CRO. 

The motive of conversion rate optimization is to generate highly qualified leads, increase revenue, and lower acquisition costs. Reading this might seem easy, but implementing it in the campaign can be challenging. 

That is why we should leave this to experts. But first, let's understand what CRO is all about.

Conversion Rate: What is it?

Conversion rate refers to the percentage of people who complete an action, including constructing a form, registering for a service, or purchasing something.

Conversion rates are often caused by slow load times, broken forms, or copy that doesn't convey the offer's value. When your website has a high conversion rate, it's well-designed, formatted effectively, and appealing to your target audience. On the other hand, several factors related to website performance and design can contribute to a low conversion rate.

How do you determine what is a good conversion rate?

Now that you are aware of what conversion rate is, how can you determine it's good? This "good" depends on your industry, niche, goals, traffic channel, and audience demographics, among other factors. 

Globally, eCommerce sites had an average conversion rate of 2.17% in the third quarter of 2020, down from 2.37% the previous year. However, US eCommerce conversion rates were higher at 2.57%.

There are differences in averages not only by year and country but also by niche. Food and beverage e-commerce sites convert at an average of 5.5%, while hair care e-commerce sites convert at 3.5%.

Conversion rate optimization is crucial if yours is below average - maybe it is lower than the industry average, lower than your top competitors, or simply underperforming your own goals.

There are many places on your website where conversions can take place, including your homepage, pricing page, blog, landing page, and so on. The key to converting website visitors into paying customers is to optimize each location on your website. This is why you will need a conversion rate optimization service.

What is conversion rate optimization?

In conversion rate optimization strategies, the goal is to increase the percentage of users who complete the desired action on a website. 

The desired action can include website visitors, purchasing a product, adding it to the cart, signing up for your service, filling out a form, or clicking on a link. Most online marketing campaigns include the same goals as well.

How do you calculate the conversion rate?

To calculate the conversion rate, divide the amount of conversions/leads (desired actions taken) by the total number of visitors and multiply the result by 100.

For example, if your web page had 20 sales and 500 visitors last month, your conversion rate is 20 divided by 500, multiplied by 100 = 4%.

When it comes to benchmarking, averages can be useful as a starting point. But what do they really imply for YOUR website?

It is impossible to rely on or compare yourself against an actual, ultimate industry figure with 100% confidence. When it comes to conversion rate optimization, obsessing over an average figure and trying to squeeze as many conversions as possible is not the best approach. 

It's best to develop an in-depth understanding of what matters to your audiences so that you can give it to them and then your conversions will naturally follow. An established conversion rate-optimized service can help you understand it much better.

Conversion Rate Optimization Services

What are they?

The conversion rate optimization process involves testing and iterating on the elements of your website to drive more users towards the desired action. 

These services study your website, your traffic, desktop and mobile visitors, and your design elements to make sure you leverage your website traffic better to reach your business and revenue goals, whether it's a CTA, submission form, sale, or demo booking.

What are the signs that you need professional CRO services?

• What is your conversion rate compared to the industry average? 

Unless you have a point of comparison, it's hard to determine what is a good conversion rate for your site. It might be a great idea to check your industry's average conversion rate if you aren't sure if yours is good enough.

A conversion rate is highly contextual. Different factors determine your conversion rates, including the types and costs of your products, where your traffic comes from, and the influence of technology. It's always a good idea to take industry averages with a grain of salt.

The online store you run is relatively unknown, so you can't expect it to perform as well as the brand giants. You can still learn a lot from their figures. To benchmark your performance, you can use the average conversion rates in your industry. 

It's a good idea to dig deeper if your website converts far below average. To help uncover the reasons for your website's underperformance, consider having a discussion with an expert or someone working in a similar field. If the crux of the matter is conversion issues, then it's time to hire a conversion rate optimization service for your business. 

• When people visit your website, do they almost immediately leave?

Another sign that you need some optimization help is an abnormally high bounce rate on your key pages.

If visitors land on your website and do nothing else before hitting the back or close buttons on their browsers, you are experiencing a high bounce rate. There are several reasons why this could be happening:

1. Unqualified traffic is coming to your site
2. Your site does not reflect visitor intent or has serious usability or user experience issues
3. Both A and B

Online visitors have their own needs and expectations when they visit your site. Unqualified traffic will immediately leave your site if they discover that your site is totally unrelated to their search. 

This is where your site attracts a disproportionate amount of "junk" traffic. Usually, this happens when you don't take enough care to make sure your ads, links, and other messages are relevant and targeted to your intended audience because you have poor upstream messaging.

Sometimes the problem is not the audience but your web pages. It's likely that the problem with your website bounce rate is with the quality of your web pages when your audience is fairly targeted (i.e. you're getting traffic with the right intent). 

But your bounce rate continues to be high because of the web page quality. It is important to determine whether your pages have irrelevant or low-quality content, a lack of trust, usability issues, or a bad user experience.

• Does your site structure, content, and user experience need to be updated?

Comparing your website with other sites in your industry is often enough to determine if it has become outdated.

When your online visitors land on your site, there's no reason to make them feel like they've time-traveled back to the early 2000s (or even the 2010s). In case they feel it, you are in dire need of an updated website. 

5 Tips to choose the Best Conversion Rate Optimization Service 

Suppose you hire an agency to optimize your eCommerce site conversion rate; then, choosing the right company to invest in is essential. You need to make sure you get the precise audience through website traffic. 

Now that you understand the factors and reasons to hire a conversion rate optimization service let's look at how to get the right one onboard.

Still, trying to figure out where to begin? We will be guiding you to select the best conversion rate optimization agency. So that you don't waste money with the wrong CRO agency and ultimately regret your decision.

The following advice will help ensure you're working with a company that will deliver on its promises. Make sure that your agency complies with the parameters mentioned below:

1. A Proven Track Record of Conversion Rate Optimization Agency

You first need to learn about the track record of the conversion rate optimization firm you plan to work with. In addition to finding out how long the company has been offering web optimization services, you should also find out who their current and past clients are and if they are satisfied with their performance. 

You should be able to verify a CRO agency's claims by talking to customers who have worked with them.

It is also important to find out how long the CRO agency has been operating, as well as its depth and breadth of experience. 

This is crucial to determine their expertise. Moreover, it provides an idea of their capabilities when it comes to conducting testing programs, carrying out usability research, designing user experiences, and other activities necessary to optimize desktop or mobile websites.

Conversion rate optimization isn't a one-and-done process, so you should know early on if the agency is capable of handling simple as well as complex projects, so you won't have to switch agencies in the middle of your marketing campaign.

2. Adaptability to business needs

Once you've reviewed the agency's track record, the next important question is: "Do their practices comply with my business needs?"

The best way to improve conversion rate optimization is to establish a good working relationship with your CRO agency. It is, therefore, essential to ensure that your values and goals are aligned.

At SquidVision, for instance, we emphasize the importance of chemistry right from the start. Whenever we meet new clients, we screen them to see if we can build a relationship with them and understand their goals. 

As a result, we won't waste time and effort on an engagement that's doomed to fail.

Getting to know the framework and process of the CRO agency is crucial. Decide if you agree with how workflows and resources are managed in their agency. Check whether the CRO firm understands what you are trying to accomplish and if their approach and solution are satisfactory to you.

It is important to remember that you will be spending a considerable amount of time working with your chosen CRO agency. Be sure that your companies will be able to work harmoniously together before signing up for the final contract.

3. Transparency, Experience and Expertise

Transparency is an important characteristic of good conversion optimization services. Throughout the entire process, they will keep you updated, making sure you are included in every step. 

It is important to work with an agency with experience in this particular marketing area. Conversion optimization services take time to show results, which is why you need an experienced team with high-level expertise.

For instance, you have an eCommerce company. You will need an expert who has converted website traffic into sales for an eCommerce website previously. Hence you must ensure that they have niche expertise in their agency.

4. CRO Company Should Have Reliable Partners

A conversion rate optimization agency's partnerships are another way to gauge its quality. Most conversion rate optimization companies, especially established ones, are familiar with many tools. They may have strategic partnerships with other providers of web optimization services. 

These partnerships benefit your website conversion rates, mobile marketing and different marketing strategies.

The best optimization agencies are tool agnostic - they are not tied to a single tool despite their partnerships and are ready to use whatever works for the project. This is beneficial because it means they have access to tools and resources that could help you get more website traffic. 

Furthermore, you should check if their partners are well-established and their strategy fits well with yours.

5. Established Clientele 

No previous clients are a terrible sign for a conversion rate optimization agency. A nascent industry like conversion rate optimization is full of new companies. It is not necessarily bad, but they should at least have 2-3 well-established players as their clients. 

You should be wary when an agency needs to provide you with a single client reference. Or when none of its leadership team members has experience in a conversion rate optimization company. 

Ask the agency if any of its members have worked as in-house conversion optimization agency members for another company. You can also ask them for previous case studies in PDFs.

Invest in Conversion Rate Optimization: Choose SquidVision

Digital marketing success depends on conversion rate optimization. You'll always hire a CRO service if you follow our tips for weeding out the chaff from the gold.

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To ensure the success of your website conversion rates, you must choose the right firm, such as SquidVision. Your company can improve its bottom line by building customer loyalty and unlocking business growth with our help.