First impressions matter. During the initial stages of the customer journey, they’re everything. Think of it as a job interview. How do you turn that first impression into a lasting one? Arrive on time, offer a firm handshake, and prepare your responses in advance, or you won’t get a second chance.
When it comes to your marketing strategy, you want to focus on how individuals interact with your brand across all touchpoints within your organization.
In a sea of competitors, how do you make the user experience more compelling for your customer? It’s all about improving the path to conversion from that very first interaction. That’s where CRO comes in.
What You’ll Learn:
- The definition of CRO
- The difference between CRO and SEO
- How to determine the actions you want visitors on your website to take
- How a conversion rate is calculated
- Why CRO is important for your website
- Best practices for a CRO campaign
What does CRO Mean?
In the days preceding the internet, you’d walk into a store and a salesperson would greet you with a warm smile and provide you with information about the products and services they offer, as well as any current and upcoming promotions.
These days, much of this two-way communication takes place on the web. When people shop online, CRO takes on the role of a virtual salesperson who focuses on continual improvement, testing new tactics to deliver the right data, at the right time, to the right people, and most importantly, urging customers to act.
In fact, CRO, an acronym for conversion rate optimization, is a science so precise, it borders on art. While it varies from business to business, it essentially involves increasing your conversion rate by encouraging users to visit your site to take specific actions like purchasing a product, downloading an eBook, or subscribing to a newsletter.
CRO encourages users to take specific actions (source)
It’s a key metric when determining how well your sales and marketing process is working. The proof is in the numbers:
- 68 percent of small businesses don’t have a documented CRO strategy.
- Using correct targeting methods can boost conversion rates by up to 300 percent.
- A one-second delay in page loading yields a 7 percent decrease in conversation rates.
- 63 percent of companies do not have a well-defined methodology when it comes to optimization.
- 81 percent of sales occur following seven or more interactions.
- 52 percent of companies that use landing pages test first to optimize and improve their quality.
- 40 percent of marketers cite having a conversion rate of less than 0.5 percent.
What’s the Difference Between CRO and SEO?
While CRO and SEO (search engine optimization) are related, they each have their own distinct goals. The main difference is that CRO focuses on how humans experience your website, and SEO is only concerned with how algorithms in search engines like Google interact with it.
CRO and SEO each play a role in different stages of your sales funnel. Optimization for search engines takes place early on in the funnel, inspiring visitors to find their way to your online store. CRO focuses on the latter part. Once visitors are on your site, it’s time to get them to scroll and click, and ultimately become loyal shoppers and subscribers.
Despite their differences, CRO and SEO do overlap at times. For example, if you optimize your email copy for specific keywords, you end up improving its readability for human readers as well.
What are You Trying to Measure?
To get your conversion strategy on the right track, you need to first figure out exactly what you’re looking to measure. What are the specific actions you want visitors to take on your website once they get there? Here are some ideas:
- Buy a product or service
- Submit a form
- Book a consultation
- Sign up for an email newsletter
- Download a mobile app
- Request a free trial
- Upgrade a service
- Ask for more information
By no means is this a comprehensive list. Rather, these are some of the basics that will help you get started. As you become more comfortable working with your conversion rate, you can aim higher and segment your data to give you the specific insight you need to grow your business.
What Determines Your Conversion Rate?
When it comes down to calculating conversion, it’s fairly simple. Just divide the number of conversions you receive within a given time period by the total number of people who visited your website or landing page. Then multiply that number by 100.
Conversion rate = (conversions ÷ total visitors) x 100
Conversion rate equation
For example, if your site had 19,232 visitors and 3,677 conversions last month, your conversion rate will be 19.12 percent. It’s that easy. You can even set up your tracking so that your online advertising or analytics platforms of choice can display your conversion rate in their interface.
Why is CRO Important?
CRO enables your website to work smarter, not harder. It gives you more control over how your customers engage with your website and the steps they have to take toward conversion. But what are the actual benefits? Here are some of the heavy hitters:
- Increases your traffic: Higher converting users devote more time to your site, add more positive reviews, and leave as happy, satisfied customers. More importantly, these positive experiences will encourage them to convince their friends and family to buy from you, resulting in more site traffic.
- Boosts your profits: When your conversion rates rise, so does your profitability. An increase in sales means that more of your customers are visiting your product pages, opening and reading your emails, subscribing to your service, and making purchases. Analyzing the data and making minor cost-effective changes will inevitably make your site more valuable.
- Puts the customer first: CRO ensures that your customer is always top-of-mind. Whenever you make major design changes to your website, taking a CRO approach allows you to view them through the lens of your customers, not your web designer. Customer-centric decisions regarding copy and ad placement are more likely to increase your conversion rate.
CRO Best Practices
While true optimization should be data-driven, there are a few best practices that should always be upheld to make sure your CRO campaign is a success:
- Optimize your page load times: In this case, slow and steady never wins the race. The faster your page loads, the better. The rage-inducing “spinning wheel of death” is more likely to make visitors abandon your site before you ever get the opportunity to convert them.
- Cater your content to the customer: Always aim to “sell instead of tell.” Speak directly to your buyer personas. After all, these are the people you’re trying to connect with, so conduct plenty of research on them so that you can communicate your company’s message in the most effective way possible.
- Make sure your site is mobile-optimized: According to Google research, 52 percent of internet search queries now come from mobile devices. Even if you have the most user-friendly website, if it doesn’t translate across mobile devices, you’re going to miss out on converting a ton of visitors. It’s imperative that your website is adaptable to various screen sizes and is as straightforward to navigate as it would be on a desktop computer.
Final Thoughts
The reality is that businesses need CRO to survive nowadays.
Although CRO is often used to make minor, incremental enhancements to a website, it should be a key component in your marketing playbook.
CRO’s broader purpose is to optimize your entire marketing process from start to finish and make everything operate more efficiently. And the more optimized your marketing is, the better your conversion rate will be.
Now that you understand what conversion rate is, what it entails, and why it matters, it’s time to rethink your strategy and start putting your CRO data to work!
FAQs
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the practice of increasing the percentage of users who perform a desired action on a website. Desired actions can include purchasing a product, clicking 'add to cart', signing up for a service, filling out a form, or clicking on a link.
What is the goal of CRO? ›
The goal of CRO is to create as many conversions as possible for a specific CTA, such as making an online purchase or filling out an online form.
What is CRO process? ›
That's where conversion rate optimization (CRO) comes in. CRO is the process of optimizing your website so visitors are more likely to complete a desired action. It allows you to identify, test, and implement optimizations that will have the most impact for your business.
What are examples of CRO? ›
Here's an example of these formulas in action: If your website has 10,000 visitors per month that generate 100 leads — and subsequently, 10 customers each month — the website visitor-to-lead conversion rate would be 1%. What if you wanted to generate 20 customers each month?
What is CRO full name? ›
A Contract Research Organization (CRO) is a company that provides clinical trial services for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries.
What is CRO and its types? ›
Cathode Ray Oscilloscope (CRO) consists a set of blocks. Those are vertical amplifier, delay line, trigger circuit, time base generator, horizontal amplifier, Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) & power supply. The block diagram of CRO is shown in below figure. The function of each block of CRO is mentioned below.
What makes a good CRO? ›
Curious and empathetic. CRO, at its core, is based on adapting to people's behaviors and wants. The way people buy today has changed alongside their needs and wants. To succeed, you must have a strong sense of curiosity that pushes you to read, ask questions, research, and dig deep into what makes people tick.
What makes a successful CRO? ›
To make an impact on the growth of a company, a CRO needs to do 3 things well: Architect the go-to-market motion. Build the go-to-market team. Instill an operating mindset.
How many CRO are there? ›
Is there a limited supply of CRO? Yes, there is. There were originally 100 billion CRO, but around 70% of that has been burned, leaving a total supply of around 30 billion, of which 25.26 billion are currently circulating as of 18 February 2022.
Who is the biggest CRO? ›
As the largest CRO in the world, IQVIA operates in over 100 countries across the globe and brings together advances in data science, technology, and human science expertise, offering their clients an end-to-end clinical and commercial service.
On your organizational chart, the CRO will sit immediately below the CEO, with the VP of Sales, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and any other relevant department heads reporting directly to them.
What is CRO leadership? ›
The CRO Leadership Awards recognize top outsourcing partners, determined by feedback from sponsor companies who outsource clinical trials. The awards are presented by Clinical Leader, Life Science Leader, and Industry Standard Research.
What is a CRO employee? ›
A CRO is a Contract Research Organization. CROs provide sponsors (pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies) with research management services. Traditional CROs provide clinical trial management services, while laboratory CROs provide drug discovery, manufacturing, laboratory and bioanalytical services.
Where is CRO used? ›
The CRO's are used in huge applications like radio stations for observing the transmitting & receiving the properties of the signal. The CRO is used to measure the voltage, current, frequency, inductance, admittance, resistance, and power factor.
What is the structure of CRO? ›
A cathode ray oscilloscope (C.R.O.) is an instrument that converts electrical signals to a visual display. The main structure of the C.R.O. is a highly evacuated cathode ray tube (C.R.T.) which emits an electron beam known as cathode ray beam.
Why do you want to work in CRO? ›
Career progression and transferrable skills
CROs are large, structured organisations with many resources and multiple projects. Working on various projects, often with international exposure that is not as easily accessible within pharma, will help you to build a bank of experience rapidly.
How does CRO make money? ›
The great thing for investors is that the CRO makes money on the drug basically no matter what the outcome is. If a drug fails to live up to its expectations, the CRO still gets paid for conducting a trial.
What is working at a CRO like? ›
Long Days – Days at a CRO can be very busy and on average employees work longer hours than in pharmaceutical organizations. This can result in a stressful environment. With the focus on client satisfaction and accountability, speed and efficiency are a priority due to tight deadlines.
Is CRO a coin or token? ›
Cronos (CRO) is a utility token designed by Crypto.com to facilitate transactions within its blockchain and financial ecosystem.
Will CRO coin go up? ›
According to Coindataflow's prediction, CRO's price may move from an average of $0.12 in 2022 to $0.36 in 2025. Price Prediction's CRO/USD forecast for 2030 is that the coin may reach $2.46.
Cronos's price today is US$0.116, with a 24-hour trading volume of $65.12 M. CRO is +2.63% in the last 24 hours. It is currently -1.13% from its 7-day all-time high of $0.1173, and 11.50% from its 7-day all-time low of $0.104. CRO has a circulating supply of 25.26 B CRO and a max supply of 30.26 B CRO.
How many CRO are in the US? ›
There are 2,722 Contract Research Organizations businesses in the US as of 2022, an increase of 0.3% from 2021.
How big is the CRO market? ›
What CRO does Pfizer use? ›
After Icon, PPD and Syneos, Pfizer pens updated Parexel deal, a clean sweep of re-upped CRO deals. Pfizer has signed a new three-year deal with contract research organization Parexel, adding to its decade-long collab.
Who does a CRO report to? ›
The chief risk officer (CRO) is a senior executive officer that reports to the CEO and/or the board of directors.
Who is CRO on my bank statement? ›
Chief Risk Officer (CRO) – Banking.
What will CRO coin be worth? ›
CRO Price Prediction 2030
Our Cronos coin price prediction for 2020 is a maximum of $1.29. The minimum price the coin will have by the end of 2026 will be $1.25, while its average trading price is expected to be $1.29.
Is CRO coin a good investment? ›
Cronos (CRO) Price in 2022
According to Trader's Union 2022 CRO/USD forecast, the coin may be a bad long-term investment. It's predicted that the average price will reach $0.0136 by the end of 2022, $0.006096 by the end of 2025, and $0.00118 by the end of 2027.
What is the price of CRO today? ›
Cronos's price today is US$0.06842, with a 24-hour trading volume of $21.05 M. CRO is +2.49% in the last 24 hours. It is currently -5.58% from its 7-day all-time high of $0.07246, and 10.15% from its 7-day all-time low of $0.06211. CRO has a circulating supply of 25.26 B CRO and a max supply of 30.26 B CRO.
Is CRO card debit or credit? ›
The Crypto.com Rewards Visa Card is a prepaid debit card, so you don't have to worry about most common credit card fees. That means you won't pay interest on your purchases or an annual fee.
You can easily find your CRO wallet address in Freewallet. Click on the “Receive” button and choose Crypto.com Chain. There you'll find your wallet address and you'll be able to deposit funds on your balance.
How long is CRO transaction? ›
With the help of its decentralized protocol for transaction processing, the target confirmation time on the Crypto.com Chain is set at being less than one second, while the platform promises to support 50,000 transactions per second.
Is Cro a real coin? ›
What exactly is CRO? CRO is the native cryptocurrency (technically a crypto token) of “Crypto.com Chain”, a blockchain developed by Crypto.com.
Will CRO go to a dollar? ›
According to DigitalCoinPrice's CRO/USD prediction, the average price in 2022 could be $0.11, $0.17 in 2023 and $0.23 in 2024. Its CRO/USD forecast for 2025 suggested that the price could rise to $0.28 in 2025, $0.47 in 2029 and $0.58 in 2030.
Can CRO coin reach $10? ›
Very unlikely that it will happen soon. CRO has a 30,263,013,692 maximum supply, by $10 price, it will give CRO a market cap of 250 Billion, which is almost 1/3 of BTC's Market Cap.
How many CRO coins are left? ›
How many cronos tokens are left? The maximum and total supply of CRO tokens stands at a little over 30 billion coins. As of 18 November 2022, 25 billion tokens are in circulation meaning that there around 5 billion tokens left to come into circulation.
Can CRO coin reach $100? ›
Yes CRO coin can reach $100. The current price of CRO coin is $0.7335.
Why is Cro so low? ›
The number of exchanges that offer a CRO trading pair is low. Furthermore, outside of staking, and using it for discounts on the crypto.com exchange, there is not much of a use case. Therefore we give CRO a low liquidity rating.
Will Cro reach 3$? ›
The price of the CRO tokens is around $0.1,193, with a bright future, making investors buy or sell them. Based on our CRO price prediction, a long-term increase is expected; the price is expected to be around $3.43 by 2026. With a 5-year investment, the revenue is expected to be around +732.2%.
Will Cro coin recover? ›
CRO price prediction
Another bearish forecast can be found from Gov Capital, where the Cronos price prediction for 2022 suggests the coin will not recover.
CRO was launched in 2018 as a product of the Crypto.com company, which was launched two years earlier.
