I have tested, improvised, and developed hypotheses in conversion rate optimization (CRO) for over a decade, focusing specifically on the cybersecurity, IT management, and home automation fields. The experience I gained over the 2,000 unique tests I have run with my team has taught me a lot, with the most important lesson being: always rely on data.
Everything a business needs comes down to leads and conversions. In the context of CRO, when I say “leads,” I refer to website visits, email recipients, etc. Conversions, on the other hand, are the rate at which these leads become the “expected engagers” (form fills, checkouts — you get the idea).
You may have all the traffic in the world, but without an ideal conversion rate, you are just never going to survive as a business. This is why understanding the importance of CRO becomes critical.
Understanding Conversion Rate Optimization
First, let’s start with what CRO is not, as, in my experience, businesses waste most of their time and money because of these misconceptions.
CRO is NOT:
- A better CTA
- Better content
- A lower bounce rate
- A faster website
- Optimized funnels
CRO is: optimizing all of the above for higher conversion rates, meaning that the rest might be meaningless unless approached holistically.
Key Principles of Effective CRO
I am all for gut feelings in many things in life. I really believe in their power and have witnessed their many benefits. But there are things in life where acting on gut feelings is just too risky, especially when it comes to data-oriented decisions in fields such as finance, medicine, or accounting. CRO is one of the areas where you need real-life metrics to make educated assumptions.
User experience (UX) is literally the foundation of CRO. As the business owner or CRO expert, you might have a beautiful experience in your web funnels, but this doesn’t mean that your website aligns with your potential buyers. Good design doesn’t necessarily mean good CRO.
Understanding the Existing Visitors
CRO is about getting the maximum benefit for your business from your visitors. Most businesses unknowingly make the end conversion difficult for their visitors. Use CRO as an enabler first, meaning that initially, your optimization doesn’t have to convince those who visit your website but don’t intend to buy from you. First, make sure that you optimize to seal the leaks for visitors who want to convert but get frustrated and leave without doing so.
Take a picture of “what it is” before working on “what it should be.”
Remember, if your conversion rates are not at the level you expect them to be, your initial goal should be to make incremental progress. Here are some tools you may utilize to take a snapshot of your existing CRO performance:
The tools below are for identifying your current CRO posture, not for implementing CRO. We will get there later.
Google Analytics 4: Validate your traffic and its sources. Where do your visitors come from? What percentage of your visits come from real people rather than bots?
Semrush: Which keywords bring visitors to your website, and which pages do they land on? (For the exact queries users type into the search box, cross-check with Google Search Console.) This is critical because the keywords your users search to land on your site are super valuable. When you group these keywords and apply them to the content of your landing pages, you will see an incredible impact — as I call it, a “breadcrumb” impact. When a user uses a keyword phrase, it gives away their current buying trance. When the buying trance (the keyword searched) matches what’s on your landing page, this minimizes friction and maximizes relevance; hence, further engagement is a likely outcome.
AI-based chatbot: This tool will enable you to start listening to what your visitors say and what concerns they have. Most of them work great. The one I used for my company is ChatSimple. An AI chatbot can be trained on your offerings as easily as adding your URLs and marketing/sales documentation. You can also train the bot to capture leads for you.
Thought Process in CRO
I will just go ahead and say it: text-based content should influence the visuals (not the other way around). When a user perceives a web page, the elements on the page should complement each other to minimize the average time the visitor spends comprehending the context (friction). Be mindful of how you use your visitors’ mental effort initially, because you are going to need it a few seconds later for conversions.
Think of it this way: your page loads with a $1 credit, and you lose 20 cents every second. How would you use these precious 5 seconds so that your user not only perceives your message but also decides to take action? You may ask, “I have so much content; how do I prioritize it to be consumed in 5 seconds?” Take a look at how AIDA works.
I believe there is no such thing as content that is too long or too short in the context of CRO. It’s just a matter of how you organize it within a planned thought process. Keeping the sections complementary to each other, yet giving each section the freedom for users to take action, will ensure that your website always gives users the option to become a customer.
Relevancy to the Buying Trance: Don’t Be Tone-Deaf
Imagine saying the perfect thing at the wrong time. You made a statement that was 100% accurate and kind, but it came across as tone-deaf. The best way to eliminate the risk of being tone-deaf is to know where to apply relevant value propositions. A value proposition is a broad term, and I will review it in this article in the context of CRO.
I categorize value propositions into three dimensions:
- Brand-Level Value Proposition
- Solution-Level Value Proposition
- Action-Level Value Proposition
Brand-Level Value Proposition: Your messaging emphasizes why your target market should choose you (as a brand) and not another brand offering the same or a similar solution. At this level, you don’t promote your solution’s specifics, features, or pricing. Ask yourself: why would anyone trust, respect, and buy your product because it’s you (the brand) selling it?
Example of a brand-level value proposition:
“At [Brand Name], we offer more than solutions – we offer a legacy of trust and innovation. With over a decade of industry expertise, our brand stands for quality and reliability. Choose [Brand Name] for a partner who understands your needs and drives your success.”
Emphasize credibility. Regardless of what you are selling, you build trustworthiness by showing you know what you are selling because you have been producing it for many years.
Here is an example: you work on a project with your team and make excellent progress by putting in extra hours and your weekends to make the deadline.
Your boss: “The deadline just moved up by five days. We need to move the needle to make this new deadline. I am aware that this might be challenging, but we must accommodate it.”
Your team member: “Everyone on the team has committed to doing a great job. We have a great team mindset, and the outputs are excellent.”
Tone-deaf. Why? Because although it’s kind and accurate, it dismisses the immediate concern (the stress that comes with the moved-up deadline). Don’t let your website come across as tone-deaf.
Let’s go with a web page example of being tone-deaf.
User searches: hire a fractional CMO for a B2B SaaS project.
The user clicks on a search result and lands on a globally known fractional CMO’s main page.
Headline: “Unlock Your Company’s Potential with My World-Class CMO Services.”
There is nothing factually incorrect about the headline — it even compliments the CMO as “world-class” — but the buying trance of the searcher is focused on the “B2B SaaS project.” The disconnect between the user’s search and the headline they are exposed to is called friction.
The CMO could have created specific pages showcasing case studies for each field, such as SaaS, e-commerce, etc. Imagine what the engagement would be if the page had this headline:
“Expert Fractional CMO Services for Your B2B SaaS Success.”
CTA: Call to Action and Using the Whole Content as a CTA
The famous “CTA.” Marketing and non-marketing people alike love using this term. “CTA” (call to action) is often used to refer to a button or clickable objects and, in some cases, the text content around the actionable items. When you approach the term CTA as the call to action for your business, you will see how each piece of your content can be part of it.
The CRO Process
1. Identifying the Goals
The same data might mean different things based on the perspective set per goal. Clearly define what you want to accomplish with testing. Depending on your current business model or long-term goals, you may have one of the following goals:
- Improved engagement
- More leads (form fills, calls)
- Sign-ups
- Transactions
2. Building Hypotheses
Once you identify your goal, it’s time for the most critical step: building your hypotheses. This is one of the most controversial steps in the CRO industry, as many confuse “gut feeling” with “educated, data-backed guesses.” The method of developing data-backed, educated hypotheses is principally the same: check the basics first. Let’s illustrate this with an example:
You want to increase the percentage of sales from your visitors. You have identified that you receive enough traffic to your product pages (minimum observed sample size met). You have also identified that you make sales, but not enough. (If you have traffic but no sales, you may need to look into technical glitches before you start testing — such as page speed, broken links or buttons, traffic source (bots vs. real people), and traffic location if you target a specific country.)
Checklist for an Optimized E-commerce Funnel
Below is a list of general industry standards. I cannot give you specific advice on a variable cluster without seeing your website.
- Trust: Security logos and badges to show users they can trust you with their personal data (such as credit cards), plus a physical address.
- Shipping transparency: Set the right expectations upfront so that visitors have an idea of when to expect the product once they buy from you.
- Credibility: How many times has the item been bought, and what are the reviews from buyers?
- Product feature transparency: Specs, features, compatibility, and so on. Leave no unanswered questions, and if possible, develop your content to the point that no visitor should have to contact you for clarification.
- Visuals: Use as many high-quality visuals as you possibly can. Never underestimate the power of visual buyers.
- Pricing: Make sure that your pricing is not significantly higher than your competition’s. If your product is better or different from the competition, your visitors may not be aware of this and may be comparing apples to oranges. Communicate clearly what sets you apart to justify your pricing.
Start with Incremental Testing
If you are missing or weak in one of the above, you have a super clear hypothesis to get started.
Incremental testing allows you to capture data on a specific variable (e.g., adding reviews from your buyers).
Don’t test it all at once, as this may give you confusing data about what contributed to the result. You will need this variable-cluster data when you move on to the factorial testing method (more on this later).
3. Testing Methodology
In the beginning, I am all for the A/B (split) testing methodology. With split testing, you show versions A and B 50% of the time each during the same testing period. I like this initial method because it eliminates external effects, such as seasonality or the day of the week, where buyers can make drastically different decisions regardless of your version of a page.
4. Gathering the Data
Raw data is just an unprocessed version of information. Processing the captured data into accurate, actionable information requires a completely different approach compared to gathering it. When it comes to CRO, there is no such thing as failing. If the version you develop from your hypothesis is defeated by the original version, then you have just gathered data telling you what to eliminate and how to alter your hypothesis.
5. Using the Data
Acting on the data is what makes it valuable. Have a process in place where you can store every single one of your test results (yes, including the ones where your version didn’t win).
Data gathered from winners: If your hypothesis delivered results that drive higher conversions, you may have a base principle you can apply — the same or similar improvements — to your other pages and categories and, depending on your test, maybe even to your email marketing.
Data gathered from losers: When you collect enough of this data, you may have a base for what doesn’t resonate with your target audience. Sometimes, removing variables can also mean victory in testing.
Storing your data now will give you a great advantage when AI is ready to take on CRO. You can use this data to train AI on your test results to better understand your visitors without waiting to reach a sufficient observed sample size.
The Future of CRO — My Predictions
Recent advancements in artificial intelligence have brought several practical uses to marketing. I discuss this in more depth in my article, “Adapting Your Marketing Department to AI.”
Trainable chatbots can now communicate with website visitors to provide technical support, capture leads, and even feed your funnel by providing relevant links. I predict that in the near future, these bots will be able not only to understand and analyze user behavior but also to develop hypotheses based on the past and current data they store and process. I also predict that in the near future, AI will be able to execute the hypotheses it develops in the form of content placement/replacement and design. This can get as serious as real-time content replacement, where AI can alter the destination page’s content based on user engagement on the page they are currently on, such as clicking a certain button or filling out a form.
Remember, technology will always evolve, and the industry will adopt it sooner or later. The key principle of CRO is to have a testing culture in place. Companies that understand the power of data will almost always be the ones that adopt innovations and new technology first.
