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Aug 26, 2022
CRO and UX: A Match Made to Convert Traffic with Delightful Experiences
by Nicole Stiverson
As an Inbound marketing agency, we’re always trying to get results from our clients’ campaigns in the best ways possible; whether that be plain old traffic or leads, it all counts.
If you've adopted Inbound marketing as your go-to strategy then you know there are a lot of different tools and strategies to help you succeed.
One such strategy is the use of CRO (conversion rate optimization) and UX (user experience) together.
When you combine these two strategies, you can get beyond just plain ol' traffic, and start seeing conversion rates that are off the charts!
What is CRO in inbound marketing?
CRO is the art of getting people to . It stands for conversion rate optimization, and it's a way to improve your website's performance by figuring out what works and what doesn't.
It's important because it helps you make sure that you're getting the most out of your marketing efforts, which can be expensive. When you know what's working and what isn't, you can optimize your website so that it drives more traffic and gets more conversions—which means more revenue.
We're an inbound marketing agency that's focused on CRO. That means we use our expertise in SEO, content marketing, social media management, and more to help our clients achieve their goals through their websites.
How does CRO work?
The first step in the CRO process is determining which pages on your website have low conversion rates. You can use tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar to track how visitors interact with different pages on your site. You can also use surveys or polls to find out what your customers are looking for and what they think of your products/services.
Once you know which pages need improving, you can make changes to those pages using several different strategies:
- Change the copy on those pages so that it better matches what your customers want to see and read when they visit your site.
- Add more images and videos on those pages; this will make them more engaging and help convey information better than plain text alone can do so effectively.
- Use A/B testing software like or to test different versions of these same pages against each other (using one as a control group), then compare results from both groups over time so that you can see which version performs better overall across various metrics like bounce rate and conversion rate.
What is UX in inbound marketing?
UX, or User Experience, is the quality of a person's interaction with a product or service. It encompasses everything from ease of use to emotional response. The goal of UX is to reduce any friction that might come between a user and their desired outcome.
Inbound marketing is focused on creating a positive experience for potential customers, so it's important that your inbound marketing efforts are paired with great UX. The two go hand in hand: if you don't have good UX, it will be difficult for your inbound marketing efforts to be successful.
CRO and UX are intertwined.
UX and CRO go hand-in-hand in both B2B and B2C Inbound marketing.
While they're two different concepts, they require the same thing from your audience: attention.
UX is the user interface of a website, which is how visitors interact with it. It's also used to refer to the overall experience of using your website or app.
CRO is conversion rate optimization, which is all about getting people to do what you want them to do—whether that's buying something or signing up for your newsletter.
Inbound marketing is all about getting people who are interested in what you have to offer to take action—whether that's making a purchase or filling out a form. You can use both CRO and UX together to increase conversion rates and leads in your Inbound marketing strategy.
Here’s a scenario we’re all too familiar with:
If you've ever been shopping online, you know how frustrating it can be to find exactly what you want. You may click on a product, but then nothing happens! Or maybe the image doesn't load properly, or there's an error message that pops up before the page loads completely.This is not just bad for your customer experience—it's also bad for conversion rates and sales.To increase conversion rates and leads from your Inbound marketing campaigns, you must have an in-house team that can implement UX and CRO together.
If you don't have an in-house team to implement UX and CRO together, then it's time to call an inbound marketing agency!
Here's why:
- An inbound marketing agency has experience creating great user experiences that increase conversion rates and revenue. The best ones are experts at both UX design and CRO strategy because they understand how they work together and how they can help each other succeed.
- An inbound marketing agency knows how to combine all the elements of your inbound marketing campaign so that every piece works seamlessly together to drive more customers and leads into your business.
Both CRO and UX strategies must be on the same page
Imagine that you're in charge of a campaign that will bring in new leads for your B2B company. You want to use content marketing as your primary strategy. Still, if your website is challenging to navigate or the design elements are distracting, it won't matter how great your content is—you'll lose those leads by sending them off to another site because they can't find what they're looking for.
The solution?
A strong CRO strategy that works with UX components to help users find what they're looking for quickly and easily. By combining these two approaches, you can ensure that your users have a great experience on our website—and, therefore, an excellent chance of converting into customers.
Exploreat Watermark!
A/B testing: A vital part of CRO strategy
Usability has to be a part of any Inbound marketing strategy for B2B companies.
Why?
Because the first step to improving your conversion rate is ensuring that your website's design effectively communicates your brand and information to users. When a visitor comes to your site and can't find what they're looking for—or worse, gets confused or frustrated by the experience—you've lost them forever.
You may have heard about A/B testing: it's an experimental method many companies use to test variations on their websites to improve conversion rates. But there's one major drawback: if you don't know how your visitors use your website, you can't test what will work best for them!
The solution?
User . By conducting user research and analyzing user behavior on your site, you can figure out what works (and doesn't) to make informed decisions when it comes time for A/B testing.
The best CRO practices make your website easier to navigate and use.
You can do many things to improve your conversion rate optimization strategy, but if you're not sure where to start, you can use these tips to get started.
First, make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices. People are using their phones more than ever before, and having a website that works well on mobile devices is essential for conversions.
Next, consider creating a landing page for your products or services. Landing pages (or squeeze pages) help you better understand what customers need when they come from different sources like social media or Google searches so that you can tailor your message accordingly.
Also, consider creating an automated lead generation campaign that sends emails with links to your site, allowing you to measure your ads' effectiveness in CTRs (Click-through-rates.) Constantly analyzing and understanding your data can help you adjust and bring leads back into the funnel repeatedly; without spending money on advertising campaigns every time something changes your product line or marketing strategy (which happens all the time).
Finally, ensure that everything on your site is easy to find—from shopping carts to checkouts and customer service contact information! Having easy-to-find links will help reduce drop-off rates and increase sales at every stage throughout the process.
The best CRO practices you need to implement for success:
- Start with a strong foundation. If you don't have a solid understanding of your customers, then it's impossible to create an experience that resonates with them. Make sure you've researched and have all the information necessary to create the right experience for them.
- Don't just focus on testing new ideas. It's easy to get excited about trying new ideas, but if you aren't improving upon the things already working, those improvements won't matter much in the long run. Focus on improving what you already know works by testing variations that make it even better than before.
- Don't try to do everything at once! It can be tempting to want to do as much as possible when it comes time to implement your CRO strategy, but this leads to burnout and, ultimately, less productivity overall. Make sure you take breaks throughout the process to focus on what matters most: results!
CRO tools to understand your website's usability:
- Use a heatmap tool to find where users are clicking on your site and where they're not. Heatmaps help you determine which areas need more attention and how you can improve them.
- We've discussed it before, but it's worth mentioning again because it works! Use A/B testing to see how different versions of pages perform against each other in terms of CTR and conversion rate.
- Set up tracking: This is easy with Google Analytics. You can set up goals and follow them over time to see how effective your changes are at driving results. Tracking data will also help give context when evaluating different approaches later in the process!
The first step in running some CRO tests is documenting your current tactics and goals.
It's easy to get caught up in a new campaign's excitement and forget that something might be wrong with an old one.
The first step in running some CRO tests is documenting your current tactics and goals. Why?
Well, If you don't know what's working, how will you know what needs to be changed?
If you don't have any data before starting your Inbound marketing campaign, how can you be sure that the changes are actually improving the results?
If you don't have this information, how will you know what is working and what is not if you don't have any data before you start your Inbound marketing campaign? You won't.
And without that knowledge, it's impossible to improve your current processes.
You'll also want to consider what metrics are essential for your business.
For example, let's say that one of your goals is reducing the cost per lead. But you can only measure this by looking at cost per lead over time, not just by the channel at the end of each month or quarter. You'll need to determine how many leads were generated through each channel to calculate the total cost per lead across all channels.
The most important thing when documenting your current tactics and goals is being honest with yourself about what has worked well for your business so far. If there's something that hasn't been effective, then it should be deleted from this list!
There's no secret, surefire way to ensure an increase in conversions 100 percent of the time, but keeping CRO and UX top of mind can help keep your website healthy while keeping your customers and usability at the center of every campaign you launch.
Dive into Inbound marketing with Watermark
Denver boutique marketing agency, Watermark, can conduct a deep dive into your B2B Inbound marketing needs, including an audit of your current CRM and workflows.
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