You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I dream of conversion rates that soar to the 30-40% mark. While not every industry can realize that level of success, we’ve actually seen those kinds of numbers with our customers. However, regardless of industry, you must be willing to invest in conversion optimization to attain substantial increases in conversion rates—and most businesses simply don’t yet see the value of such an investment. The truth is, there are few expenditures that can provide such an enormous, ongoing return.
One of the most common marketing objectives today is to increase website traffic with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of new customers (conversions). Millions of dollars are spent each day for that purpose. At the same time, relatively little is spent to increase the rate at which these websites convert.
Let’s look at a simple calculation that helps demonstrate how foolish this is.
Let’s assume that you currently have an average of 1,000 website visitors each month, and that they convert at a whopping 1%. So your current numbers look like this:
Total: 12,000 @ 1% = 120 new customers
If you spend an additional $1,000 per month to drive 500 additional visitors to your website ($2/visitor) through offline, online or search engine advertising, the results of the increase looks like this:
Total: 6,000 additional visitors @ 1% = 60 additional customers
Total Cost over 12 months: $12,000
Avg Customer Acquisition Cost: $200/additional customer.
That may be well worthwhile, if the lifetime value of a customer is $2,000. But the problem with focusing exclusively on increased traffic is that you must continue that ad spend in order to keep the cash register ringing.
However, if you spent the same $12,000 on improving your conversion rate, let’s say from 1% to $2%, here is what the numbers would look like, assuming you stay static at the original 1,000 visitors per month.
Total: 12,000 @ 2% = 240 (120 additional customers above original 120)
Total Cost over 12 months: $12,000
Avg Customer Acquisition Cost: $100/additional customer
And the good news is that unlike just driving traffic, conversion optimization is the gift that keeps on giving, as the following 12 months would also bear the fruit of the original $12,000 investment. Certainly, conversion optimization should be viewed as an ongoing investment too. But an investment in each successive year can bear similar results, and your customer acquisition costs can continue to decline. Then if you spend a little on driving increased traffic to your website, you can REALLY see some substantial increases in your bottom line. Just imagine the kind of return on investment you could realize if you invested in conversion optimization year-in, year-out. It really isn’t hard to do.
