Conversion Rate Optimization: Why a Long-Term, Iterative Strategy Is the Best Option

Building a successful eCommerce business is like raising a child. It’s a long process that takes a lot of dedication and requires doing the right things at the right stages. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the backbone of any successful eCommerce business strategy. It’s wildly important to long-term success, but it takes a lot of time to do it correctly.

You can’t just set it and forget it. People often think it’s something you do once, and then you’re done. However, that’s far from the case. It works best when you have a comprehensive, long-term conversion rate optimization strategy.

There are many different areas, stages, and tactics involved, many of which can be hugely difficult to undertake on your own. That’s why, when you want the best results, it’s better to work with a conversion rate optimization agency that has the expertise to execute the strategy effectively.

Let’s go over what conversion rate optimization is, what it entails, what the benefits of CRO are, and how we can help.

What Is Conversion Rate Optimization?

Conversion rate optimization is a strategy or list of tactics for increasing the percentage of website visitors who convert.

A conversion can be any desirable action, including:

• Downloading free content offers
• Joining your email list
• Clicking a product page link
• Putting an item in their cart

While these are all conversion types, the ultimate goal that they all (hopefully) lead to is making a purchase from your eCommerce store, so that’s the conversion we’ll focus on. To calculate your conversion rate, simply divide the number of conversions, in this case, eCommerce purchases, by the total number of visitors. Then, multiply that number by 100 to get the percentage.

What a Successful Conversion Rate Optimization Strategy Requires

A conversion rate optimization strategy that produces measurable, long-term results requires:

• Working on several areas of your eCommerce business
• Improving various systems and metrics
• Carefully measuring and analyzing
• Making changes to get better results

Once you see what a high-quality, comprehensive conversion rate optimization strategy entails, you’ll likely understand why working with the right conversion rate optimization agency is so vital.

A Well-Designed Website & Brand Identity

Your website and brand identity are foundational to future success. They are at the core of your eCommerce business. People are far too quick to dismiss these elements as shallow or superficial aesthetic components with little value. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. So, here are some things that fall under this umbrella and why they’re important.

• Easy Navigation: A good website has all the menu options and links that customers may need. They should also be easy to find and use. People will quickly leave a site that makes navigation difficult.
• Aesthetically Appealing: A well-designed site builds trust. Visitors will decide much of what they think of your brand within seconds of landing on your site. If it’s busy, visually unappealing, or poorly formatted, then they know the site likely isn’t very reputable. But trustworthy professionals take the time to set their site up correctly.
• Mobile-Friendly Design: Any well-designed site should be responsive and mobile-optimized. More shoppers use mobile every year, but they are the hardest to convert. So if you don’t meet their needs, they’ll bounce immediately.

A+ Development

The best eCommerce website will be built specifically for your business. Using templates and premade solutions to cobble together a site that works for you will always have gaps and require workarounds. The most efficient site will be the one developed with your eCommerce business in mind.

Working with a conversion rate optimization agency with a focus on web design and development like Future Holidays provides you benefits like:

• Shopify, Shopify Plus, or WordPress development, based on the platform you use so it will be most effective
• A custom theme that showcases your products in the best way possible rather than using the best premade option available
• Seamless app integration to streamline your workflow
• Subscription implementation to allow simple recurring charge options that bring in consistent income

A Solid Brand & Content Strategy

Your brand strategy matters, especially in a world where eCommerce shoppers are increasingly focused on buying from brands that have similar values. Your content also needs to be consistent, authoritative, and helpful. You need a conversion rate optimization strategy that includes a plan to:

• Create high-quality, accurate content and copy that resonates with your ideal customer/target audience.
• Keep your content up to date and make sure all facts and stats are accurate and current.
• Avoid spammy links or linking to unreputable sites.
• Utilize video content like explainer and tutorial videos to help shoppers understand your product and be confident enough to buy.
• Use dynamic content that shows users things related to the product they’re viewing, previous pages they visited and searched, or offers like coupons specific to what they’re looking for.

A Flawless Customer Experience

Creating an ideal customer experience takes a lot of skill and know-how. A conversion rate optimization agency like Future Holidays will understand how to:

• Reduce abandoned carts and lower bounce rates
• Decrease friction
• Use social proof to encourage conversions
• Match on-site offers to user interest
• Increase purchase confidence
• Accommodate mobile users

All these factors require a multi-step process and the right information to understand what tactics will work, for which customers, and when.

Great Marketing

At Future Holidays, SMS and email marketing and automation are areas of expertise. We use marketing emails to target the right customers at the right time. We know how to create dynamic marketing campaigns that offer eCommerce customers the deals they’ll be most interested in and recommend the products they’re most likely to buy.

The best deal or product means nothing to the wrong customer. You can make huge conversion rate improvements simply by matching customers to the right products. If it isn’t something they’d normally buy, it will be hard to convince them to do so. However, showing them items they’re already interested in massively reduces friction.

Vigilant Testing & Analysis

The ideal conversion rate optimization agency knows that measurement, conversion rate analysis, and testing should be constant. Some of the best tactics to include in a successful conversion rate optimization strategy are:

• Constant KPI Measurement: You should always know what all your most important KPIs are at any moment, and if there’s a change, determine why.
• Use Testing & Analysis Tools: Use tools like screen recordings, heat maps, user testing, surveys, and other tools to gather data on how visitors use your site.
• A/B Test Different Configurations: Test different colors, text, and placement of CTA buttons, images, copy, and more.

All the data then needs to be properly analyzed using a conversion rate analysis. It isn’t always obvious why one thing works better than another or what caused a major change. But an experienced conversion rate optimization agency like Future Holidays can draw on past situations and their understanding of customer behavior, industry statistics, and tactic effects.

Constant Improvement

The data helps us gain a fuller picture of what’s really happening to cause the changes you see. Once we have the data and analyze it to understand what circumstances, attitudes, and tactics are creating the numbers we see, we can then use that information to iterate your personalized strategy.

Knowing what’s going on, both on your eCommerce site and in customers’ minds, lets us understand exactly what to change to improve conversions. This long and detailed process lets us then create the ideal outcome for your eCommerce business.

Benefits of Conversion Rate Optimization

Just doing a few things considered to be best practices and checking up on things every so often or when things aren’t going as you’d hoped is a recipe for failure. But using a long-term conversion rate optimization strategy based on an iterative process of analysis and improvement instead has a lot of benefits.

Benefits of Conversion Rate Optimization:

• Gain a deeper understanding of your customers
• Get more high-quality leads
• Make more money
• Lower customer acquisition costs
• Leverage traffic more effectively
• Increase customer lifetime values
• Improve your brand reputation
• Rank higher in search engines
• Make data-driven decisions and eliminate uncertainty

A Serious Conversion Rate Optimization Strategy Creates Serious Results

Conversion rate optimization is something that should be taken very seriously. A long-term, iterative conversion rate optimization strategy is how you get the most extreme conversion rate optimization benefits. The easiest and most effective way to do this is to work with an experienced conversion rate optimization agency like Future Holidays.

Contact us today to learn how we can help you put an effective and comprehensive conversion rate optimization strategy into place.