Learn About Conversion Rate Optimization

Introduction to Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a method for increasing the percentage of users (potential customers) that take a desired action.

In online marketing, potential customer opportunities include website visitors, social profile viewers, email recipients, etc.

CRO can also be applied to offline marketing such as direct mail, radio ads, newspapers, television, and any other kind of traditional marketing channel/effort.

The desired action is typically converting an anonymous/unknown potential customer into a tangible contact -- a name, email, and phone number.

Note: the more information you can get, the easier it will be to communicate with and qualify leads.

CRO is a crucial element in marketing because it generates more sales out of the marketing you’re already doing.

Here’s a key formula to remember about CRO: 

Double your conversion rates and you cut your CPA (cost per acquisition) in half.

To generate a higher ROI from your marketing efforts, you can do two things:

1. You could spend more money on marketing and hope more leads and sales result from it.
2. You can focus on the effectiveness of your marketing by patching holes – fine tuning, testing, and tweaking it to get more business out of the marketing dollars you’re already spending.

For the same reason you wouldn’t run your air conditioner with the windows down, you don’t want to do any marketing without first optimizing to convert opportunities into customers at the highest rate possible.

Marketing without optimizing to convert leads is literally throwing money out the window. When’s the last time you sold something to a click?

The leadPops Team is here to help you stop the bleeding.

The good news is that in many cases, conversion optimization can be a relatively easy fix. The beauty of CRO is it helps you take advantage of low hanging fruit -- fruit that’s usually more prevalent and closer within reach than you might think.

 

Let's talk about how to get more leads from ALL of your marketing efforts through what's called: Conversion Rate Optimization.

Conversion rate optimization, also known as CRO, is a method for increasing the percentage of potential customers that take a desired action.

The desired action is typically converting from an anonymous potential customer into a tangible contact—a name, email, and phone number.

Keep in mind: the more information you can get about their wants, needs, and scenario, the easier it will be to communicate with and qualify leads.

CRO is a crucial element in marketing because it generates more sales out of the marketing you're ALREADY doing.

Here's a key formula to remember about CRO:

Double your conversion rates and you cut your CPA (cost per acquisition) in half.

That means if you spend $1,000 to close 2 loans, doubling your conversion rate gets you 4 loans for that same $1,000 spend.

In other words: you pay $250 to close a deal instead of $500.

To make more sales from your marketing efforts, you can do two things—

• Spend more money on marketing and hope more leads and sales result from it.

• Focus on the effectiveness of your marketing by testing, tweaking, and fine-tuning it to get more business out of the marketing dollars you're already investing.

For the same reason you wouldn't pour water into a bucket that's full of holes, you don't want to do any marketing without first optimizing to convert opportunities into customers at the highest rate possible.

Marketing without optimizing to convert leads is literally throwing money out the window.

When's the last time you sold a mortgage to a click?

The good news is that in many cases, getting better results through conversion rate optimization doesn't mean a total overhaul of your marketing.

You can often see drastic improvements from relatively simple changes.

The beauty of CRO is it helps you take advantage of low hanging fruit—and the opportunities to increase leads and sales are usually much more abundant than you think.

Understanding where to start and what to test can be difficult for those new to CRO, so I'll make it easy.

One of the most basic CRO questions that you can ask is, "What am I trying to get people to do here?"

Let's use a mortgage website as an example

Is the goal for people to—

Read a bunch of stuff?

Play with my calculators?

Fill out my application?

If the ultimate goal is to make sales—people reading stuff, playing with calculators, and a loan application—aren't going to do the trick. At least not by themselves.

Content is good for educating people, but if you haven't optimized the content to drive visitors into effective lead generation tools (landing pages), and people are just skimming through it and bouncing, what good is it?

Same with calculators; even fancy ones with charts and graphs. They might be fun to play with, but without CRO, what's the benefit of someone you're never going to speak to playing with your mortgage calculator?

How about a loan application?

Think about it: do people you've never spoken with typically just jump into a 1003 on their own?

How often do you receive a totally random, completed online loan application out of the blue?

Referrals aren't a slam dunk, either, so you need to have tools and systems in place that automatically engage these potential clients and help them transition from an anonymous viewer of a marketing piece, or online click, into a conversation.

The purpose of CRO is to evaluate your marketing efforts and come up with tests to implement in order to increase conversion rates/leads.

Meaningful improvements to your conversion rates can come from the most basic changes.

I've outlined several pages of ideas and strategies to help you optimize your marketing and increase your leads and sales below, so take full advantage.

To learn more about how we can help you implement these strategies in YOUR marketing, book a time with a leadPops Marketing Coach now!

There is no additional cost or obligation.

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Digital Marketing
I recommend having all of your digital marketing examined by a conversion rate optimization expert, with CRO consulting for all of your digital marketing, including but not limited to:

• Banner ads
• Blogging efforts
• Email autoresponders & eNewsletters
• Landing pages
• PPC campaigns
• SEO efforts
• Social media
• Videos
• Websites

 

Traditional Marketing
I also recommend having all of your traditional marketing examined by a conversion rate optimization expert, with CRO consulting for all of your traditional marketing, including but not limited to:

• Billboards
• Direct Mail
• Events
• Flyers
• Newspapers
• Postcards
• Radio Ads
• Signage
• TV Ads

 

Here are several tests/ideas that are easy to implement and can help boost your sales pipeline quickly:

• Implement call-to-action (CTA) headlines on your website homepage and subpages
• Use CTA buttons to drive consumers into lead generation landing pages and engagement tools like live chat and online calendar appointment scheduling tools
• Use arrows pointing to CTA buttons and offers
• Placement of CTA headlines, buttons, and offers—make them prominent by positioning them "above the fold" and throughout your content
• Use guarantees
• Enhance your sales copy
• Test copy length—sometimes longer works better and vice versa
• Change form fields from fill-in-the-blanks to drop down menus, radio buttons, and sliders so users can point and click/tap instead of having to type
• Ask for contact information last on your forms, not first
• Add reviews with images instead of just text
• Improve the layout and design of your marketing pieces—always include a CTA and web address
• Test different images
• Remove unnecessary menu items and navigation from pages
• Remove clutter and useless content
• Change button color—use contrasting colors to make buttons stand out instead of blending in
• Change button CTA text—try testing first person and second person copy ("Get your free quote!" vs. "Get my free quote!")
• Offer bonuses like a free eBooks, complimentary consultations, credit evaluations, discounts on mortgage related services, etc.
• Replace industry jargon with plain English that non-mortgage people will understand

 

Take a look at what the biggest, most successful companies in the mortgage and real estate industries are doing with their websites, marketing, landing pages, banner ads, emails, etc. to get an idea of what's working and what isn't. Once again, there's no reason to reinvent the wheel.

Here's a search engine that shows you display/banner ad creatives and ad copy for just about any company running ads online:

www.Moat.com

Once there, search for the following companies to see the ads being run by some of the big dogs in the mortgage and real estate industries:

• Guaranteed Rate
• LendingTree
• LowerMyBills
• Quicken Loans
• Ratemarketplace
• Rocket Mortgage
• Trulia
• Veterans United Home Loans
• Zillow

 

Researching ad campaigns of marketing juggernauts is an excellent way to get an idea of what the biggest companies out there are doing with their CTA messaging, banners, headlines, offers, color schemes, button copy, etc.

They've spent a lot of money and time testing these ads, and that site will show you exactly what they're running, so use their research to your advantage.

Bottom line: once you implement conversion rate optimization into your marketing efforts, you'll truly know what's working and what isn't, allowing you to scale your successful campaigns for maximum ROI and eliminate stuff that's not profitable.

Until you do, you're missing out on opportunities that are right in front of you.

 Using Calls-to-Action to Get More Leads

A call-to-action, or CTA, is an instruction designed to provoke an immediate response and persuade your audience to take action.

Calls-to-action should be integrated into all of your marketing efforts, both online and offline.

When marketing a service or product, you need to give consumers specific direction. You can't assume people will know what to do on their own. That's where a strong CTA comes into play.

Verbiage, fonts, font sizes, colors, text placement, and imagery all have an impact on the effectiveness of your calls-to-action and should be tested.

Some CTA guidelines include:

Make your call-to-action clearly visible.

The goal of marketing is to get consumers to respond, so you need to make sure the CTA and offer don't get lost in the shuffle.

With websites, landing pages, emails, etc., always position your main CTA above the fold, meaning, positioned in the upper half of the webpage so it's visible without scrolling down the page.

Figure 6-1: a website showing the call-to-action headline and CTA button above the fold

Consumer engagement usually peaks while visitors are above the fold, so by placing important elements such as your main headline, form, and call-to-action buttons at the top of the page, you'll increase the rate at which your potential clients take action.

If your page has a lot content and scrolls down a bit, include additional CTA buttons below the fold as well.

With offline marketing such as mailers, flyers, publication ads, etc.—also make sure your headline and call-to-action/offer are prominent, ideally at the top of the page and not hidden in the rest of the content.

To maximize response rates on offline marketing, always couple your CTA with a web address that drives potential clients to a lead generation landing page (or website) that's designed to convert leads.

Remember: these days, consumers don't like to just pick up the phone and call salespeople. They want to do their research and remain anonymous for as long as possible.

I know you would prefer a phone call, but unfortunately, people don't care about what you want.

That's why a good call-to-action directing potential clients to a web address with a page that's designed to convert leads will get you a much higher R.O.I. on your offline advertising efforts than if you just promote a phone number.

Use a call-to-action button to guide people into your lead capture forms or other engagement tools.

People surfing the web look for buttons, so creating CTA buttons with a contrasting color schemes that stand out can help you get more leads, if that CTA button drives people to a good landing page, form, or some sort of other engagement tool, like a lead magnet, live chat, or online appointment scheduling tool.

Figure 6-2: a banner ad with a prominent CTA button

If your advertisement is offline and doesn't allow for a CTA button, make sure that the CTA text is larger and bolder than the rest of the ad copy so that it stands out.

Bonus: to download 700+ mortgage and real estate call-to-action buttons that you can use on your website, blog, email blasts, banner ads, etc. for free, go to:

www.leadPops.com/manifesto-bonus

Make the call-to-action concise.

When it comes to making an offer with a call-to-action, you need to make your point as quickly and clearly as possible.

Attention spans are very short, especially online, so if you don't make your point quickly, you risk potential clients missing (or ignoring) your CTA.

For example: if your goal is to drive traffic to a landing page, make sure the language you're using supports that objective.

Figure 6-3: snapshot of a website homepage offering a clear, concise primary CTA headline along with a supportive secondary headline guiding users to 2 call-to-action buttons—1 for each type of borrower, purchase and refinance.

Incentivize consumers by focusing on what's in it for them.

Also, be sure to always deliver on your offer by driving potential clients to a destination that directly coincides with your CTA.

This is called maintaining a consistent "ad-scent" or "message match", which I'll be getting into more shortly.

Add a sense of urgency to your call-to-action.

Make it clear in your copy that the offer won't be available forever.

Let them know "now" is that time to act! Because for you... "Later" really means "never".

Figure 6-4: banner with a strong refinance CTA urging potential clients to take action on an offer that wont be around for long.

You can boost your response rates simply adding an imperative verb, for example: "Start Saving Now", which often results in higher click-through and conversions.

Using time-sensitive language like "Last Chance" or "Only 24 Hours Left," along with a deadline can also make a big difference.

Boost Conversions with Consistent Ad-Scent

In marketing, a consistent "ad-scent", also known as "message match", means maintaining a connection between your ad (call-to-action in a banner, email, blog post, etc.) and your destination page (landing page or website).

Strong ad-scent ensures that visitors reach your destination page and find exactly what they expect, which can increase conversions dramatically.

Consumers follow items of interest in their web searches similar to animals tracking scent in their search for food—if the scent is strong, they'll stay on the trail...

If they lose the scent, they'll quickly lose interest and head elsewhere. The same idea applies in marketing.

When it comes to your campaigns—emails, banner ads, pay-per-click, retargeting, social media posts, direct mail, radio ads, signage, etc.—always keep the ad-scent aligned from start to finish.

To accomplish this, pay attention to three main components when putting together your ad:

• Design
• Benefit
• Offer

Let's break these down individually so you have a better idea how to implement each aspect in your campaigns.

 

The Design

 When creating your ad and destination page, be sure to keep the design cohesive.

Taking consumers to a destination that matches the ad they clicked or the mailer they received reminds people they've arrived where they intended.

Things to keep in mind while developing your campaign:

• Keep your ad colors the same as those on your destination page
• Keep the layout of your ad similar to that of the destination page
• If you're using imagery in your ad, keep it similar (if not exactly the same) as imagery on your destination page
• Make sure the font styling and coloring are the same on both the ad and the destination page

 

The Benefit
Why should consumers click your ad? What are they going to get out of it?

A click on your ad means there was interest in your offer, so the content on the destination page should be consistent with the ad.

Take a look at this display ad from the PPC gurus at WordStream.com:

Figure 6-5: the banner on the left works well with the destination landing page on the right, offering a matching design, benefit, and offer.

The banner ad does a great job piquing interest, focusing on the main benefit—"what's in it for you"—in this case, a free guide.

They do an excellent job of making it prominent on both the ad and destination page, while keeping a consistent headline, imagery, messaging, and colors.

When developing your campaign benefits:

• Include text in your ad outlining the major benefit(s) for the consumer, and be sure to include those benefits on the destination page.
• Always focus on, "What's in it for them?" when crafting your benefits.

 

The Offer

Your offer is the most important part of your ad. it's the ultimate reason people will convert. You can say "adios" to your chances of traffic converting into business if you blow it here, so make sure to:

• Use the exact same language you used in your ad to get the click in the first place.
• Make your offer clear and use call-to-action language directing potential clients where and how to take action.

 

To summarize: ALL of your marketing needs to be optimized for conversion.

There are many simple tests/updates you can implement that can have big results on your bottom line, so don't just spend more money on advertising without first optimizing your current efforts to get the best results possible.

You might find that you can squeeze more than enough business out of your current ad spend and efforts by improving your conversion rates instead of just spending more money on marketing.

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To learn more about how we can help you implement these strategies in YOUR marketing, book a time with a leadPops Marketing Coach now!

There is no additional cost or obligation.