How to increase website sales: A guide to conversion rate optimisation for Irish SMEs

Imagine your website is a shop. CRO is like rearranging the aisles, making products easier to find, and adding clear signs to the checkout. It’s about optimising your website to turn more visitors into paying customers (or achieving your desired action, like signing up for a newsletter).

One of the most impactful results of CRO is the ability to nurture and improve the customer experience. Imagine a potential customer walking into a physical shop. If they can’t find what they’re looking for, or the layout is confusing, they’ll likely leave frustrated. An online shop is no different.

To increase online sales, it’s important to understand your target audience, present a clear value proposition and invest in search engine optimisation (SEO).

A website riddled with broken links, unclear calls to action, or a slow loading time can mirror this experience. CRO helps Irish SMEs identify and rectify these issues, making it easier for potential customers to navigate their website and find the information or products they need.

This not only increases the likelihood of a conversion but also builds trust and satisfaction, leading to potentially loyal and returning customers.

Why CRO is crucial for Irish SMEs with websites:

• Increasing sales and leads: More website visitors converting means more sales and leads for your Irish business.
• Fix blockers on your site: CRO helps identify areas where website visitors might be dropping off during the buying process
• Stand out in a competitive market: A well-optimised website with a smooth user experience can give you an edge over competitors in Ireland.
• Get more from your marketing efforts: CRO helps you squeeze the most value out of your existing website traffic, potentially lowering your customer acquisition cost.

In short, CRO helps Irish SMEs get more bang for their buck online.

What is conversion rate optimisation (CRO)?

Conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action. In simpler terms, it’s the ratio of website visitors who convert into paying customers or achieve a specific goal you’ve set for them.

Let’s use an example relevant to Irish SMEs: Imagine you run an online store in Ireland selling handmade crafts. Your desired action for website visitors would be to complete a purchase. So, your conversion rate would be the number of visitors who actually buy something from your website divided by the total number of visitors who came to your site.

For instance, if your website had 1,000 visitors in a month and 50 of those visitors completed a purchase, your conversion rate would be 5%. This means that 5% of your website visitors converted into paying customers.

By improving your conversion rate, the impact on your revenue can be significant. Through CRO efforts, increasing the conversion rate by even 1 – 2% can result in a doubling of the number of customers you convert, leading to a potential revenue boost of 100%.

The beauty of CRO is that many improvements can be surprisingly simple. It could involve something as basic as making your “Add to Cart” button stand out more or rewriting your product descriptions to be clearer and more persuasive. By focusing on website elements like clear calls to action, a streamlined checkout process, and mobile-friendliness, you can remove roadblocks and make it easier for visitors to convert.

How to improve website conversion rate

The CRO process is an iterative cycle designed to continuously improve your website’s conversion rate. Here’s a simplified breakdown:

1. Identify areas for improvement: This stage involves analysing your website traffic and user behaviour. CRO tools help pinpoint areas where website visitors might be dropping off during the conversion funnel. Is there a high bounce rate on a particular product page? Are users abandoning their shopping carts before checkout? Do your competitors offer free shipping?
2. Implement changes: Based on your findings, you can make adjustments to your website. Maybe it’s adding clearer product descriptions or streamlining the checkout process. Think of it like rearranging furniture at your pub to improve traffic flow or adding signage to guide customers.
3. Test and analyse results: The key to successful CRO is testing. You can use A/B testing to compare different versions of a website element (like a headline or call to action button) and see which one performs better. This is similar to offering a new menu item alongside your existing dishes to see which one gets ordered more. By analysing the test results, you can determine what changes actually improve your conversion rate.
4. Refine and repeat: CRO is an ongoing process. Once you’ve implemented changes and analysed results, you can refine your strategy based on the data. You’ll continually identify new areas for improvement and test different approaches to maximise your website’s conversion potential.

Why is CRO important for Irish businesses?

The market value of e-commerce activity in Ireland is estimated between €4 billion and €7 billion. Fuelled by near-universal internet access (94%) and smartphone use (90%), Ireland’s e-commerce market is experiencing explosive growth, with online spending skyrocketing 30-40% in recent years. This boom is driven by mobile commerce, as Irish consumers readily embrace buying everything from groceries to travel on their smartphones.

The Irish e-commerce market is flourishing, projected to reach US$7.7 billion by 2024 and growing at a healthy 10% annually. This positions Ireland ahead of Belgium and contributes to the global e-commerce boom. Interestingly, hobbies and leisure lead the pack in online spending for Irish consumers, followed by electronics, fashion, furniture and homeware, care products, DIY and grocery.

While website aesthetics are important, Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) prioritises maximising the return on investment from existing website traffic. Through data analysis, Irish SMEs can pinpoint and address conversion funnel bottlenecks that cause visitor drop-off. These bottlenecks can range from a cumbersome checkout process to unclear calls to action.

CRO empowers SMEs to keep existing customers and acquire new customers without necessarily increasing their marketing spend.

Getting started with CRO: A step-by-step guide

1. Define your conversion goals:

The foundation of any successful CRO strategy is a clear understanding of your goals. Conversion goals are specific actions you want website visitors to take, such as:

• Online sales: For e-commerce businesses, the primary conversion goal is to convert visitors into paying customers.
• Lead generation: This is crucial for businesses that rely on building email lists or contact databases. The conversion goal could be signing up for a newsletter, downloading a whitepaper, or requesting a quote.
• Account creation: Some businesses may want visitors to create user accounts to access exclusive content or features.

2. Analyse your website traffic:

Website analytics are the cornerstone of CRO. These tools provide valuable insights into visitor behaviour, helping you identify areas for improvement. Here are some popular options for Irish SMEs:

• Free tools: Google Analytics offers a robust free version, providing data on website traffic, visitor demographics, and user behaviour.
• Paid tools: For more advanced analytics, platforms like Hotjar and Crazy Egg offer heatmaps, session recordings, and user surveys for in-depth analysis.

3. Identify areas for improvement:

By analysing your website traffic data, you can pinpoint bottlenecks in the conversion funnel. Here’s how:

• Average engagement time: Pages with a low average engagement time may indicate an issue. Investigate content relevance, page loading speed, and mobile-friendliness.
• Cart abandonment: Look for patterns in user behaviour during the checkout process. Complex forms, unclear shipping costs, or lack of trust signals could be culprits.
• Low click-through rates (CTRs): Analyse calls to action (CTAs). Are they clear, compelling, and strategically placed?

UX testing:

Beyond website analytics data, consider user experience (UX) testing:

• Usability testing: Observe real users navigating your website. Identify points of confusion or frustration.
• A/B testing: Test variations of website elements (like headlines or CTA buttons) to see which version performs better.

What does SEO do for your website?

While we hope SEO is already part of your digital strategy, here’s why it’s crucial for maximising your online presence.

SEO and CRO are two sides of the same coin for businesses aiming to thrive online. SEO attracts potential customers by ensuring your website ranks high in search results for relevant keywords.

CRO then takes those visitors and converts them into paying customers by optimising the user experience, website design, and calls to action.

Both strategies work together seamlessly: SEO brings the right audience to your door, and CRO convinces them to walk in and make a purchase.

By focusing on both SEO and CRO, you can create a website that not only attracts qualified traffic but also effectively converts that traffic into sales and loyal customers.

What is email marketing and how can it help increase my sales?

In today’s digital world, Irish businesses need a multi-pronged approach to grow. While CRO helps turn website visitors into buyers, email marketing campaigns can supercharge those efforts.

By leveraging targeted email sequences triggered by user actions on your website, you can nurture leads, showcase the value of your products through personalised messages, and ultimately convert them into loyal customers.

Social media integration further amplifies your reach, allowing you to showcase positive customer testimonials and build trust with potential buyers.

This combination of targeted email marketing and social proof can significantly increase online sales fast, giving your business a vital edge in the competitive marketplace.

Conclusion

CRO is your secret weapon to turn website traffic into profits. By defining clear conversion goals (e.g., 30% more online sales, leads, etc.) and analysing visitor behaviour using free tools like Google Analytics, you can identify roadblocks in your conversion funnel.

Is it a confusing checkout process or unclear calls to action? CRO helps you fix these issues, maximising the value from your existing website traffic.

Ready to unlock the full potential of your website? Contact us at Ebow Digital to discuss how our CRO services can help Irish businesses like yours achieve significant results