Chapter 3
How do you know if your conversion rate is working for you? Does your conversion rate demonstrate that you’re connecting with visitors successfully... or does it mean you’re losing traffic and missing out on potential revenue?
We know you’re results-oriented, so you love metrics and numbers. You want a specific goal to hit. You want to see which conversion rates are good, which are great, and which need improvement.
We can give you some numbers, but the numbers alone don’t say enough.
A “good” conversion rate
Broadly speaking, a common conversion rate for an email opt-in landing page is between 5% and 15%. The companies with the most success tend to convert at around 20-25%. And the very cream of the crop achieves conversion rates of 30% or higher.
But, in a lot of respects, these numbers are arbitrary. You’ll get a lot of “expert advice” on the number that will show success or not. These numbers are, for the most part, too general to be helpful.
All in all, it’s up to you to decide the right conversion rate for your website.
Make your own “good” conversion rate
We think that the “best conversion rate” is any number higher than what you’re currently doing. Even a one percent bump in conversion will take your business to the next level.
Start with a baseline number. What is your current conversion rate for a specific page or action? What does this conversion rate mean for your business right now?
Then, consider what your ideal conversion rate would be for that action. 100% is everyone’s ideal, but keep it reasonable. What conversion rate percentage could completely change the way your business is currently run? How would your sales journey change if your conversion rate was bumped up?
For example, you currently have a 1% conversion rate of site visitors to leads. Of 100,000 viewers, you get 1,000 leads. Of those leads, 2% convert to sales later in the sales process. That’s 20 sales. Of 100,000 visitors, you get 20 sales.
But what if you brought your traffic-to-lead conversion rate up to even 4%? Now, of 100,000 viewers, you have 4,000 leads. With a 2% sales conversion, you get 80 sales. That’s 60 more sales than you otherwise would’ve gotten.
Then if you also boost your sales conversion to 4%, you’d have 160 total sales.
Small adjustments in your conversion rate optimization can start to show exponential growth.
You don’t need to overwhelm yourself. If your current conversion rate is 2%, you likely can’t get to 15% overnight. But with a few changes and an emphasis on optimization, you can improve your conversion rate and get more people to take the desired action.
Don’t forget the traffic
Let’s also take one more thing into account. Conversion rate doesn’t work on its own. It has a direct connection to the quality and quantity of your web traffic as well.
For example, let’s say you had a conversion rate of 100%. That may sound fantastic, but it may also signal very few website visitors. Two conversions from two visitors won’t take you very far. But a conversion rate of 5% with 10,000 viewers will give you 500 conversions.
Never look at the conversion rate in isolation. You want to evaluate your rate alongside traffic and total conversions.
Changing your conversion rate calculation
If you want to get more out of your sales page, then you’ll want a higher conversion rate. In the landing page example above, you’re only getting 300 emails for every 10,000 people that see your page. That’s not a huge return, and you may not be getting the biggest bang for your buck on the acquisition costs of pulling those 10,000 people in the door.
The higher the conversion rate, the more people are interacting with your business and taking those actions that bring your business to the next level. Plus, you’re getting a higher return on investment by converting more of the traffic that you’ve already attracted.
So it never hurts to work on boosting your conversion rate. Whether you’re at 1% or 10%, conversion optimization is about encouraging even more conversions, even more leads, and even more sales.
Calculating your baseline conversion rate helps you understand where you are versus where you want to be.
Now it’s time to make the changes to your page that will start to convert more. Click to the next chapter to learn how to improve your conversion rate.
