Conversion Rate Optimization focuses on an existing website and online presence, and the exact user paths that result in an inquiry, form submission or purchase. As a result, it’s more measurable and directly impactful to a website or online presence than alternate online marketing strategies. CRO more than any other strategy is custom-built around your existing online presence, meaning that the application of CRO strategies is often more straightforward than other strategies, and that these strategies cannot easily be copied by competitors. Lastly, the scope of a conversion rate optimization project can vary, which offers additional flexibility.

A conversion rate optimization project depends on the size of the existing online presence and the approximate amount of traffic that the online channels see on a consistent basis. Greater online traffic typically lends itself to faster performance insights, though a CRO project that focuses on multiple connected online presences can be more time-consuming. While each CRO project varies in scope and length, CRO projects can oftentimes be scheduled over a 2-3 month time period.

Conversion rate optimization strategies often look at the entire user path across an online presence, but they can also focus on individual online pages and social media profiles. CRO strategies look to push the user further towards a button click, form submission or purchase, and tactics vary depending on the length of the user path. However, an updated page design, the inclusion of graphics or animations across the page, the addition of copy or context to encourage an action, or the delivery of additional marketing content – such as through content marketing – are some of the tactics used within CRO strategies.

You can apply conversion rate optimization strategies and tactics across your online presence, and even across your other marketing channel. CRO is meant to improve your conversion process across the board, and that can be done through user experience updates, as well as the inclusion of new conversion points, new calls to action and new prompts and content. Oftentimes website and business owners will utilize these same new tactics elsewhere – particularly when it comes to a new call to action, content or prompt that proves successful, there’s no limit to where else this can be used.

Since conversion rate optimization strategies are unique to each website and online presence, CRO audit recommendations can vary significantly, and in some cases call for a larger-scale project like a website revamp, email marketing campaign, etc. Another potential drawback of CRO is that many CRO tactics require unique digital analytics tracking, whether that be hardcoded onto a website or through the use of tags, in order to evaluate performance data. This can be challenging to create and apply for a non-technical user, and incomplete analytics tracking can cloud the link between CRO updates and other unrelated changes in performance.