Converting Visitors Into Customers

Bright Launch’s clients are engaged across a broad spectrum of industries, yet when it comes to their websites they all want the same: converting visitors into customers.

While there is nothing wrong with this notion, I am all too often surprised how non-experts confuse Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with optimizing their Conversion Rate. I would argue SEO must be an integral component of any campaign to improve the conversion rate. But let’s backtrack: What really is conversion rate?

What is conversion rate?

“In Internet marketing the conversion rate is the percentage of unique visitors who take a desired action upon visiting the website. The desired action may be submitting a sales lead, making a purchase, viewing a key page of the site, downloading a whitepaper, or some other measureable action.” (Wikipedia)

Why does conversion rate matter so much?

By increasing your conversion rate, a marketer can lower the cost per acquisition without changing the cost paid for traffic. Even a small increase in conversion rate can have a dramatic profit impact. Let’s say a program has a 25% return on investment (ROI). For every $1.00 spent on buying traffic, $0.25 in profit is created.

• Value – $1.25
• Cost – $1.00
• Profit – $0.25

Assuming an increase in conversion rate of 20%, what would be the impact on profits?

• Value – $1.50 ($1.25 x 120%)
• Cost – $1.00 (Unchanged – same marketing activities)
• Profit – $0.50

In this example, a 20% increase in conversion rate has doubled profits.

How Can You Improve Your Conversion Rate?

I came across a site touting the benefits of Google Website Optimizer – and while I haven’t tested the tool myself, I still very much liked their 101 simple surefire techniques for doubling one’s web business.

Read the full article and scroll down the page to where the list starts…

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