Companies See Room For Improvement In Conversion Rate Optimization Best Practices

November 2, 2012

This article is included in these additional categories:

Analytics, Automated & MarTech | Data-driven | Digital

Most companies are employing a variety of conversion optimization best practices but are dissatisfied with their proficiency in them, finds an [download page] October 2012 report from Econsultancy and RedEye. Asked to identify which best practices they carry out from a list provided, at least 6 in 10 have an approach for each, but most of those believe they can improve on their approach.

For the fourth consecutive year of the “Conversion Rate Optimization Report,” respondents (chiefly based in Europe) see themselves as most proficient in identifying key performance indicators (KPIs), which 33% believe they do well and 56% believe they could do better. Of that third that claimed proficiency in identifying KPIs, 68% claimed to have improved sales.

Just 18% of companies believe they do well at benchmarking against competitors, and 18% also believe they are good at ongoing performance benchmarking. 17% claim to be good at integrating email and web analytics, and 17% at aligning keywords, calls to action and landing pages.

The best practices that see the least adoption are mining of internal search data (63%), integration of user testing and analytics (also 63%) and testing of multiple landing pages (65%), which is considered an advanced and difficult methodology.

Understanding The Customer A Priority

Respondents are bullish on improving their conversion rates, and plan to use a variety of methods to do it. Testing looms large, and the first-named among methods for improving conversion rates is A/B testing (66%), with usability testing (48%) and multivariate testing (44%) also figuring prominently into plans.

But understanding the customer is just as high a priority. 60% plan to do use customer journey analysis to improve their online conversion rates, while 48% will look to online surveys and customer feedback, and 40% to cart abandonment analysis. Retailers, for one, are struggling to get a solid view of their customer bases: according to an RSR Research report released in September, only 56% of retailers believe their company knows who their best shoppers are ”“ and that’s down significantly from 73% the previous year.

Other Findings:

  • The most common areas tested by companies responding to the Econsultancy study are websites (74%), emails (59%), and landing pages (57%).
  • For the fourth consecutive year, lack of resources (54%) and lack of budget (35%) are the leading barriers respondents named to improving conversion rates.

About the Data: This is Econsultancy’s fourth Conversion Rate Optimization Report carried out in association with RedEye. There were almost 900 respondents to the research request, which took the form of an online survey in July and August 2012. Respondents included both client-side (in-house) organizations who want to improve their conversion rates (59%), and agencies, vendors or consultancies (supply-side) who are involved in trying to improve conversion rates for their clients (41%). This article covers responses from the client-side only.

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