CRO? UX? You may have heard these terms in the past, but they are especially important now as companies with teams that operate on budgets are increasingly investing in these specialist roles to maximize their spend and improve their websites.
So, what is CRO?
Testing different versions of web pages to improve conversions and deploying the “winning” version is referred to as Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), also known as A/B or Multivariate testing and website optimization.
Most people are familiar with the term “A/B testing” which refers to tests that compare a variation to a control, but multivariate testing examines multiple variations at a given time. Both A/B and multivariate testing allow CRO strategists to find optimization opportunities that are backed by user behavior data. In other words, it’s statistically sound without any guesswork.
How does it work?
A CRO strategist will collect your website performance data and user feedback/behavior to form a hypothesis to test. In tandem with data analysis, a web page variation is created based on the hypothesis that this new variation will improve the web page’s performance. By testing against a control or against recorded data, the CRO strategist can attribute any measurable change in performance to the test.
CRO teams help companies save time and money. This is especially valuable for companies that operate on budgets, such as paid media teams, because CRO and testing do not require any additional paid media efforts. CRO teams can help to improve ROI since UX reduces user friction and subsequent wasted spend. Marketing teams spend time and money to drive users to their websites, so having an optimal website experience is imperative.
Why is CRO important?
It’s also important to note that a CRO team’s job is never done. Websites will never be fully “optimized” due to the ever-changing digital landscape and evolving industry best practices. A CRO team must follow the optimization process:
What about UX?
The term UX stands for user experience, meaning how a user interacts and emotionally responds to a website. But how does UX play a role in the world of a CRO team? UX is an important component of any optimization process because improving lead generation starts with improving the user’s experience on the site.
Think of it this way: Let’s say your website needs to have 100 sign-ups by the end of the month. Your buyer persona has a high-quality rate – meaning s/he is more likely to become a lead - but you notice halfway through the month that you’re not going to meet your sign-up minimum. What’s going on? Why aren’t your users signing up?
This is a great example of how the user’s experience directly impacts the conversion rate which, in this example, is the rate at which site traffic converts to a lead by signing up. Even with a good product or a great offer, the user is less likely to become a customer if they are left feeling frustrated after interacting with your site.
How you can leverage a CRO team?
If you’re interested in learning more about CRO and are considering adding a CRO strategist to your team, contact us today and our team of CRO strategists, UX experts and analytics leaders can outline the best approach to achieve your goals.
And please stay tuned to our blog because we will release a whitepaper on CRO and UX in the new year.
POV By Maria Vera, CRO Strategist, Analytics
