Conversion Rate Optimization: The Complete Guide for Course Designers

Sep 15, 2022

Conversion Rate Optimization is an effective method of cutting through the sea of noise of the Internet and optimizing your digital footprint so that your website is easily discovered. As potential buyers arrive on your online property, that is: your website, all information should be presented at a manner that is valuable and helps move them forward in the customer journey.

  • The reality is that nearly 50 percent of landing pages are not adequately tested to enhance conversions.
  • Additionally, according to CrazyEgg which is a well-known analyzer of conversions, the majority of websites are prone to having bounce rates that range between 26-70 percent. This translates to most visitors abandoning the site without pressing the CTA button.
  • Positively, studies also show that the ROI of a site has the possibility of increasing by 30 percent if it is equipped with a conversion rate Optimization (CRO) budget to maximize conversions.

Glossary:

What is Conversion Rate Optimized (CRO)?

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), also known by its name of conversion optimization includes the range of methods that can be undertaken to improve the effectiveness of your website's visitors. Effectiveness here implies skillfully navigating website visitors for taking desired actions and converting them into qualified leads for your business/organization.

The conversion rate is the percentage of web visitors who convert into leads. Conversion Optimization will ensure that visitors to your website take action, usually through clicking on the call-to-action (CTA) option.

What is the reason why conversion rate play a role?

      So, in order for you to boost the results and return on investment of your combined marketing effort in terms of increasing leads while reducing cost of acquisition and achieving your goals for revenue, you must focus on funnel optimization by focusing on CRO aspects.    

A powerful conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategy

To increase your conversion rates you must first know what's happening in the mind of your website customers and the ways they use your site. The knowledge gained will place you in the position of advantage to know specific conversion bottlenecks, and address them using an effective CRO plan.

Strategies for Optimized Conversion Rate Optimization can increase the likelihood of web visitors turning into leads, which ultimately, into paying customers. Therefore, it's not a surprise that marketers are focused on improving conversion rates. In fact, the majority of them consider conversion rates for leads as their most important prioritization.

A Conversion Rate Optimization strategy will be effective if it's specific to the needs of your individual website pages. Intuitively, the goal of the "About" page is always distinct from that of"About" pages, or the "Courses" page or the "Blog" part. An approach that is based on cookie cutters, and in blindly copying the same method for all of your online course website pages, doesn't work.

  Here are a few steps to keep in mind prior to constructing your Conversion Rate Optimization strategy:  

  • First, identify the essential web pages on your website for your product of information.
      The homepage and web-based course landing pages are the ones that count for the majority of course designers. However, the services and blog pages generally perform pretty well too and should not be ignored.
  • Make use of a quality heat mapping tool to identify those specific spots on webpages where the majority of users are likely to click if there was an CTA button. Heat mapping tools generally represent a user's activities by visualizing the path they took to click, hovering, scrolling as well as eye tracking.
  • Plan and plug in Calls To Action (CTA) in the most efficient locations. Also, make sure to support your CTA buttons with the power of persuasive copywriting in combination with a website that delivers a good user experience.
  • Make use of the list of tools and Conversion Optimization strategies (more on these below) to monitor your conversion rates on a continuous basis.

3 Conversion Rate Optimization Formulas that you must know prior to implementing CRO strategies

The primary step to uncovering what is happening in the background before visitors hit the CTAs that you've embedded on your site is to establish a number of key performance indicators (KPIs). It helps you clearly define where you stand and what you'd like to get to by using the optimization plan.

A few KPIs you can track include the Conversion Rate, Number of Net New customers, and the Lead Goal.

1. Conversion Rate

Conversion can be defined as any desired activity that you would like your site customers to complete. This could include the amount of visitors who subscribe to your newsletter, buying your item, taking an online course, etc. It is essential to establish an established metric to measure conversion. If you've established the metric you are able to measure, then the process of calculating conversion rates is straightforward.

Simply identify the amount of people who visit your site. Then, take this figure and calculate the number of people that convert.

Next, divide the number of conversions by the total amount of visitors coming to your site.

Then, you can multiply this number by 100, to get the conversion percentage in terms of percentage.

  The equation of conversion Rate is [Total Conversions / Total website visitors] x 100  

Conversion Rate Formula

2. The number of Net New customers

This measure reveals your real potential for growth and is tied to your revenue goals. Therefore, if you want to have a precise representation of the Number of Net New Customers you need to identify the goal of your revenue prior to determining your revenue goal.

After you've got this, you can divide this figure by your current sales price to arrive at the amount of customers you've added to your list. You may use an average sales price if you're selling across different price points.

  The formula of Net New Customers = Revenue Goal (Road Goal) / Average Cost of Sales  

Net New Customers Formula

3. Lead Goals

Lead goals, also known as "lag goals", are your every day success stories, which act as a bridge to the larger goals of revenue. Based on your current performance in terms of conversions, there are two methods to increase conversion rates.

The first is increasing the number of customers you have converted, as per your existing traction. The other is maintaining your conversion rate, but drawing more visitors and, therefore, greater results. This is the first option, which is the most effective and efficient method.

  The formula for the Lead Goal is [Number of New Customers / Lead-to-Customer Rate]  

  where Lead-to-Customer Rate = [Total Leads / Total Customers]  

Lead Goals Formula

We'll now head over to learning about the strategies to optimize conversion.

Four essential Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies

1. A/B Testing -

A/B testing allows you to compare different versions of web pages to determine which performs better. The web page is shown to a random group, and another version to another random control group. In the end, the efficiency of the two web pages are measured between two groups.

2. Lead Flow

Lead Flow is the process of encouraging your leads through the sales funnel and helping them convert in an organized way. It's an essential part of an organized lead management plan and helps to guide users to click your CTA button.

Lead flow may differ depending on your web traffic source as well as the CTA buttons that your customers must click. A key element in lead flow assigning the leads with value scores. When you've identified which leads are the most valuable to you will be, you'll have the opportunity to allocate more resources to help them convert. In this way, you can allocate your resources to converting high-potential customers without having to waste resources on people who're not likely to be converted.

If leads that are valuable are not converting it is possible to address any loopholes that you're able to identify. There are a variety of qualitative methods to address such issues below. Tools that are qualitative can help you gain a the inside scoop on your visitors to your site and what they feel and think about your services and products.

3. Testing of landing pages -

A landing page is every website whose primary and only purpose is to turn visitors into customers. Your visitors may land on your landing pages by following links from ads that are paid, on social media sites, and more.

However it is true that not all landing pages are created equal and may not convert well. So, conducting the above A/B test is vital for optimizing landing pages.

For example, you can try and replace web forms with chatbots to determine which is more effective in A/B tests. Chatbots with AI are generally more effective than traditional web forms in most landing page tests.

It is also possible to enhance your landing page by identifying the most important elements you need to evaluate. They could include convincingly written sales copy, a crisp headline, and pricing strategies for your course levels for online course creators. It is also possible to evaluate your landing page's pictures and videos, the font and style, as well as the design and layout of the page.

4. Copywriting Conversion Conversion Copywriting

Conversion copywriting essentially rests on studying your audience's preferences and their behaviour. This depends on auditing existing web pages, conducting A/B testing on website copy, and taking customer feedback seriously. Just like in other processes for optimizing conversions using the power of heat mapping and click tracking to determine which versions of your copy fare the best with regard to conversion rates.

For the purpose of implementing conversion copywriting for your website for your online course Make sure you write different versions of copy and test the copywriting with your intended audience. At the end of the day you will be able to select the version that is most likely to generate the most clicks for your CTA. Keep editing and make changes to the copy whenever new data becomes readily available.

Which tools are best to implement a Conversion Rate Optimization plan?

There are a variety of different tools, both quantitative and qualitative, you could use to implement your strategy for optimizing conversion rates. The following list contains five of the most important tools in each category that should be sufficient for creating a comprehensive CRO plan to scale your online courses.

These are five quantifiable tools for implementing an effective CRO plan

Numbers have always been a reliable measure of the performance. Tools that measure performance help you comprehend the mathematical reasoning behind how many visitors use your website in terms of numbers, making them an integral part of CRO.

  1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics forms the gold standard when it comes to mining out details on your website performance and customer behaviour using it. Setting it up for your website is quite simple. Once set up, it's an excellent platform for understanding your customers regardless of the gadget they're using to measure the metrics of bounce rates, how long they stay on the page and many more.

The information gathered by Google Analytics enable an understanding of how users react to the information that you have added to your site. It also generates machine-learning-enabled reports to reveal better and deeper insight. It also allows you to export sharesable reports which are beneficial to send to any specialist you might be working with in order to boost the performance of your website like SEO conversion.

  2. KISSMetrics

KISSMetrics is an improved tool designed for the user which helps you learn the behavior of your visitors on the internet.

In addition to bounce rate as well as time-on-site data In addition, you will be able to gain detailed insights about actual user behaviors on it. It empowers you to tie your data and reports to actual people. This makes it excellent to integrate with the CRM software if you are using the tools to market your courses.

If you're someone for whom the concept of quantitative tools is intimidating, KISSMetrics can make it very easy to grasp the significance behind the figures.

  3. Clicky

For course creators If the audience you create is comprised of people who live in particular regions like countries in the European Union, you are required to adhere to requirements of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines in the collection of information from users.

Clicky is a GDPR-compliant analytical tool that not only ensures your privacy for website visitors, but also produces valuable reports for webmasters to boost your conversion rate. Clicky can be a fantastic tool to gain accurate insights about page views, JavaScript events, actions taken while on the website, and so on.

  4. Adobe Analytics

Adobe Analytics is powered by predictive analytics. This makes it simpler for you to know the reason behind every conversion. This allows you to tweak the marketing strategies you already have and make investments in the right direction. While most tools provide valuable data on the activity of users visiting websites, Adobe Analytics reveals what occurs just prior to when a user is converted.

Pre-conversion behaviour is an essential and valuable insight that can help to understand the reasons why customers decide to click your CTA buttons.

  5. MixPanel

Understanding your power users is essential to generate higher sales and building revenues. The majority of online courses require subscriptions as well as repeat purchases of modules and learning materials. Therefore, it's important to identify who your top users are and what makes they stay on your web pages for a longer period of time. MixPanel helps you to tie website visitors' behaviours to retention strategies and create ongoing customer nurture initiatives.

There are five quality instruments to implement the CRO strategy

Tools that are qualitative are significant as they offer crucial insight into the reasons why people act the way they do. In contrast to tools for quantitative analysis, which give reports or numbers using various indicators Qualitative tools allow you to understand user behaviour patterns using a descriptive way.

Please note that it is essential that both quantitative and qualitative tools complement each other.

  1. Qualaroo

Additionally, it does not slow down your website - a factor which can derail conversions for several. The best way to make use of Qualaroo to request your users for their feedback about your website as well as gain insight into what they think of investing in your online courses. Plugging in this feedback, you are able to implement changes so that you're better ready for success.

  2. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is an ideal tool to build questionnaires and surveys to get answers directly from users.

If you've got your website contacts, you can easily email them a link your SurveyMonkey survey form along with the questions you have. Once they participate in your survey, you will have your responses recorded on a delightfully-designed form. As a tool, SurveyMonkey is also able to be integrated into your site, making data and feedback collection quick and effortless.

  3. CrazyEgg

CrazyEgg is perfect to know where visitors go to and the places they don't.

The application on the web takes a snapshot of your website and provides five reports among which the Heatmap Report is the most sought-after. The report reveals which web pages are displaying the highest rate of clicks. This will help you place your CTA button on the best locations. Other reports provided by it contain information about where you should put your CTA based on scrolling behaviour as well as colour-coded data of specific clicks, also known in the Confetti Report.

  4. UserTesting

Your visitors on your website can be your most reliable source of information regarding what they think of your site. UserTesting offers you videos of actual people speaking out about their experiences regarding your site as they use it. This helps you get a quantitative and subjective assessment of the performance of your site. For instance, if your online course is challenging to navigate, the videos created via UserTesting could reveal that data.

  5. Olark

Olark is an application for live chat which allows you to interact with your clients and answer their queries in real-time. This tool comes with live chat insights that help you better understand how customers evaluate your online and website course. You can also keep notes on your live chats, and utilize user feedback to help improve your courses online and on your website.

A quick recap of Conversion Optimization Methodologies for Creators of Online Courses

Each website and course may be different, there are a few common rules to optimize websites that offer online courses.

  1. Have a smooth functioning web site that includes all of the necessary pages like Homepage, About Us, Products and Services, Blog as well as Contact.
  2. Identify the audience for your online course and put an effective digital marketing plan in place. This can include both the use of social media for marketing as well as paid advertisements.
  3. Clearly define who your primary target audience is , and continue making changes to your site based on ongoing A/B tests and user-generated feedback.
  4. Utilize both quantitative as well as qualitative tools in order to simplify and streamline your CRO strategies. This will help you to gain a deeper understanding of what your potential customers are, and what you need to make to help them stay on your website over a longer period of time.

Conversion rate optimization is an effective practice to help your leads move efficiently through your sales funnel. However, it requires patience and time, and is an ongoing process. For course designers you may find it overwhelming to manage numerous aspects.

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Plus also gives you access to an exclusive customer Success team, whose primary goal is helping you make the growth of your online course. If you're looking to set yourself up for successful selling online courses Plus is the ideal option.