The conversion rate is a key metric to quantify the success of any brand or company. Since success is inseparable from sales, it also has a direct relationship with the effectiveness of the different strategies applied to the business.
In Marketing, conversion is nothing more than getting someone to perform a certain action desired by the brand. In the digital context, this may mean, for example, completing a contact form on a purpose-built landing page or closing an e-commerce sale.
Conversion and purchase journey
Before we see how to calculate the conversion rate, it is important to understand how a buying journey evolves. In order to identify the different stages in which the conversion can take place.
These steps, closely linked to the fundamentals of Inbound Marketing, show what, ideally, happens after a visitor starts interacting with an online channel of a certain brand or company.
1 – The new user is invited to fill in a form, where he gives his data.
→ Become a Lead.
↓
2 – This Lead is nourished by content related to the company in question.
→ Become a Qualified Marketing Lead (MQL).
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3 – This MQL believes that that company will give you the best solution to your problem, generating a business opportunity.
→ Become a Qualified Sales Lead (SQL)
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4 – SQL closes a deal or makes a purchase.
→ You effectively become a Customer.
Calculate the conversion rate
The conversion rate indicates how many of the visitors of a certain digital channel carried out the desired action by the company. Basically, it is the percentage of people who progressed from one stage to the next in the purchase process. Its calculation is very simple:
No of the people who performed
Conversion rate = desired action in a given step / total number of people at this stage x 100
For each phase, these are the elements involved in the calculation and what is obtained:
Leads / Visitors x 100 MQLs / Leads x 100 SQLs / MQLs x 100 MQLs
% of contacts obtained. % of qualified people nurtured. % of people who showed intention to purchase.
Customers / SQLs x 100
% of people who bought.
Considering that the company’s purpose is to generate sales, getting leads is not worth much if you can’t turn them into customers. The more effective the conversion rate at each of these steps, the closer the company will be to gaining new customers.
In this sense, having the support of a marketing agency makes all the difference! Here’s what she will focus on to increase the conversion rate in the different phases analyzed:
Convert Visitors to Leads
First, an agency will analyze the target audience of the business, establishing personas and understanding how their buying journey works. Thus, you can create content that is relevant to attract more visitors to the company’s digital channels.
As the number of visitors increases, they must continue to want to relate to the brand. This can be done by delivering rich materials (e-books, guides, infographics, webinars, etc.) in exchange for your contact details.
Convert Leads to MQLs
The next objective is to turn the contact into a Qualified Marketing Lead. For this, the lead must be qualified, maintaining the delivery of relevant content.
At this stage, email marketing is widely used and it may be relevant to introduce automated nutrition flows, to allow the delivery of value each time the person completes a certain action.
Convert MQLs to SQLs
Then, it is necessary to understand if the lead that has been fed has a real purchase intention or is just interested in the content that the brand/company offers.
Is it a business opportunity or not? To find out, it is necessary to contact the lead, find out what thought of the content received, and check availability to move on to the purchase phase.
Convert SQLs to Clients
If the lead is a Sales Qualified Lead, that is, if it is already prepared for the purchase, it is time to make it reach the sales team, which will take a more commercial approach, focused on closing the deal. However, the marketing and sales teams must maintain close communication, in order to prevent opportunities from “dying on the beach”.
10 Foolproof Tips to Improve Conversion Rate
Overall, these are the most relevant details that a marketing team will not overlook to boost conversion rates :
- Make browsing easy and appealing;
- Work the SEO of the various pages;
- Highlight the CTA (Call To Action) and distribute them through the website;
- Create and optimize specific landing pages to collect data;
- Use pop ups on the website;
- Insert conversion forms into content;
- Use contact forms on the services and products pages;
- Betting on assertive copywriting , both on pages and in ads;
- Test and adjust strategies on an ongoing basis;
- And above all: never do this in a numbers game, it’s people you’re communicating with!
