CRO Strategies and Tactics: Here’s What Really Matters

— March 22, 2017

Many marketers understand the tactics and “best practices” for optimizing conversion rates. Still, there’s plenty who struggle to transition that into an ongoing conversion strategy. That’s most likely from the hundreds of articles that use data to prove CRO tactics that claim quick fixes.


Searching through those marketing articles covering the newest CRO tactics will quickly make you dizzy though. There’s good reason why too. It’s always interesting and fun to test the small elements to see what works with your audience.


Remember though, there isn’t going to be a single or several tactics that will solve all your unique CRO problems. Optimizing conversion rates needs to be an ongoing project for you and your marketing team.


“Get 20% Better Conversions by Changing the Color of This + 100 More CRO Tactics”


CRO strategies aren’t the same as CRO tactics (or techniques, tips, best practices). The difference lies in how the tests are planned and deciphering the results.


Optimizing your conversions tactics means testing detailed, on-page elements like the color of a button or size of the form fields. These areas are very easy to test and fix but CRO tactics rarely produce any miracles.


Most often, you’re left without any marketing insight on why your CRO tactic did or didn’t work.


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Using small tips and tactics to optimize your conversion rates has its limits. If you only focus on altering small elements, how can you enhance your customer’s overall satisfaction and experience?


Additionally, just because one “best practice” worked for one or many companies, doesn’t mean it will work for you and your customers.


Big Wins and Valuable Insights


A long-term, big-picture strategy to optimize conversion rates with your target audiences is most effective. CRO strategies provide insight into your marketing effort as they strive for massive improvements and big wins.


Kissmetrics has perfectly laid out what a conversion strategy is all about:



  • The only conversion rates that matter are relative.
  • Conversion rate optimization is a means to an end—and the end is profit.
  • Learning from hypotheses means more than winning with every test.

CRO tactics are quick wins to boost conversions for the short-term. To optimize conversions create an ongoing, outlined process. Run tests to show what the customer needs and why.


Your CRO strategy will be a valuable source for learning and making improvements to meet business goals.


Steps to Constructing Your Own CRO Strategy:



  1. Set your goals based on current ROI and analytics. Consider how your audience is responding and interacting to specific marketing elements.
  2. Develop a hypothesis, or possible solutions, for those goals.
  3. Analyze, don’t guess why your visitors aren’t converting. Look at their intentions and experience getting their needs met.
  4. Find the tools you need to run tests, create pages, and make the overall process easier. Do your research and find what will fit your needs.
  5. Create and design your CRO strategy based on research and priorities.
  6. Run multiple usability tests before launching to ensure it’s more user-friendly and engaging.
  7. Start collecting data and running regular A/B tests on your marketing channels.
  8. Finally, use that data and take actions with the results!

 


 

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