If you have recently found out that your site is not getting the sales you expect, no one’s signing up for your mailing list, or the number of clicks has decreased compared to the massive amount of website traffic; then it may be time to think about conversion rate optimization. This ultimate guide to CRO and hiring a CRO agency is the right article that provides you with all the information you need to know in this field. Please read this guide to the end and leave out the agencies that do not comply with it.
What are the main elements of CRO?
The main elements of CRO help you reach your goals, such as increasing your online sales or email subscription. However, even if you want to outsource it, knowing the following elements is good for tracking your conversion rate optimization.
That is why we recommend you benefit from the following four overlapping elements of CRO:
1. Conversion Research:
Conversion research is an inseparable element of CRO; it uses behavioral analytics tools to gather ideas for improving conversion rates.
A list of the most powerful tools used to identify pain points of your website from the viewpoint of your customers are mentioned as follows:
- Web analytics,
- Heat maps,
- Session recordings,
- Surveys,
- User testing,
- Expert CRO reviews.
2. Website Persuasion:
Running a website doesn’t guarantee converting a huge number of visitors to loyal customers. To convert more potential visitors, you should use persuasive copywriting that emphasizes the values of your services or products to encourage users to stay on your website, as well as the six principles of influence:
- Reciprocity,
- Commitment/consistency,
- Social proof,
- Authority,
- Liking,
- Scarcity.
3. User Experience (UX):
If your website has a poor layout and navigating through it is confusing for visitors, we call it a bad user experience. By improving your website user experience (UX), visitors find it easy to stay longer on your website, and your chance of having them as customers will consequently increase.
4. A/B Testing & Personalization:
A/B testing or split testing can optimize your website’s conversion rate. Through A/B testing, two variants of the same web page are shown to different audience segments simultaneously to conclude which of them leads to more conversions.
Conversion Rate Optimization Agencies How Much Charged?
The cost of Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) services provided by agencies can vary depending on a number of factors, including the size and reputation of the agency, the level of expertise and skills of their CRO team, the scope of the project, the duration of the engagement, and the complexity of the optimisation process.
For ongoing CRO services, agencies typically charge hourly rates, project fees, or retainer fees. Depending on the agency’s location and level of experience, hourly charges might range from $75 to $300 or more. For a single optimization job, project prices can range from $1000 to $10,000 or more. Retainer fees are typically charged for continuous optimisation efforts and are determined by the amount of service and duration of the contract. To attract clients, some small CRO agencies or freelancers may offer reduced costs, although the degree of service may vary.
Although it is necessary to select a CRO Agency to help increase your conversion rate, it’s hard to choose the right one out of the vast options available; moreover, choosing the wrong CRO agency can cause excessive waste of investment.
What Characteristics Make a Great CRO Agency?
Here are the four characteristics that make a great CRO agency:
- Dedicated CRO Services
- Budget and Pricing
- Transparency
- Experience and Expertise
1. Dedicated CRO Services
Many marketing agencies deliver various services at once; however, you need to hire a marketing agency that specializes mainly in the skills you need for your e-commerce business and maximizes results by applying the best strategies.
For instance, if you want to increase your conversion rate, you should hire a CRO agency, but if you want to increase the website traffic, you should choose an SEO agency instead.
2. Budget and Pricing
Hiring a CRO agency is less expensive than building an in-house team, but you should consider paying for three months of services in advance. Therefore, if an agency clarifies that the charge is about $30.000 a month, you would better doubt it as the best choice. A good CRO firm can be extremely profitable, but it is the wrong choice if it isn’t affordable for you.
3. Transparency
A great CRO agency embraces transparency as a crucial part of leading to success. It begins at the first meeting just before the beginning of the optimization process. To trust a CRO agency, you need to know their optimization roadmap. Moreover, if a CRO firm promises to increase the conversion rate in less than a month, don’t choose it for your partnership because conversion rate optimization takes time to reach desired results. Here, a transparent CRO agency’s activities for its clients are listed.
What does a transparent CRO agency do for its clients?
- Conducting weekly status meetings
- Updating clients with occasional data report
- Responding to clients’ questions about the CRO program
- Discussing different testing plans
- Receiving feedback on their work
- Accepting mistakes and being honest with clients
4. Experience and Expertise
Experience and expertise are essential factors for a great CRO agency. Hiring an agency with years of experience and many achievements in optimizing conversion rates increases your chance of fulfilling your goals. You should know that developing expertise in the field of CRO doesn’t happen overnight, so you should look at the firm’s achievements in the last five years or even more. Besides, a highly experienced agency can predict possible issues and the true way to deal with them. They easily recognize your website’s pain points and use a special CRO program to solve the problem faster. To figure out if a CRO agency has enough experience and expertise, examine their:
- Testimonials
- Reviews
- Case studies
- The current condition of the CRO agency’s website regarding CRO implementation
- The current condition of the previous clients’ websites regarding the effectiveness of CRO applied by the agency
Top 5 CRO Agencies in the World
While we are neither running a CRO agency nor advertising any CRO agency, we have decided to introduce some of the top-ranked CRO agencies, based on ranks represented on www.clutch.co, to help you make a wise decision in this field. The best CRO agencies globally have years of experience and expertise, have helped many e-commerce businesses reach their desired goals, and have a team of the best researchers, designers, strategists, etc. Here, a collection of five of the best CRO agencies who are real professionals in this industry are mentioned as follows:
goinflow
It is one of the marketing agencies that offer multi-service e-commerce options and is fortunately affordable. Inflow gives clients direct access to its marketing experts who work on the projects.
sitetuners
SiteTuners is an agency that offers conversion-focused web design, CRO, and conversion audits. Over its years of professional activity, it has worked with over a thousand clients in different industries. They know how to grow their clients’ revenue through the CRO program. They are famous for helping start-ups optimize their conversions, so this choice will fit you if you are a start-up.
trinity
It is a well-known e-Commerce agency specializing in SEO, CRO, and email marketing; it works exclusively with e-Commerce companies. Their services are expensive, but they will generate great results for you. So, if you can afford it, go for it.
invespcro
Invesp specializes in CRO. Their total concentration is on CRO, so their cost might be too much for your company. However, if you can pay its price, you are strongly advised to look at their services.
webmechanix
Webmechanix is a large company. It has separate teams that offer a wide range of services, including SEO, paid ads, CRO, etc. Therefore, if you are looking for all-in-one services, it is the best choice.
How to Choose the Right CRO Agency for You?
As discussed earlier in this article, marketing agencies specialize in different marketing skills such as SMM, SEO, PPC, etc. Therefore, before hiring a CRO agency, you must know your goals, desired outcomes, and your exact needs based on which you represent a business brief to the CRO agency. Although you are about to hire a CRO agency to optimize the conversion rate of your company, it would be better to give them a complete brief that:
- Presents all the relevant considerations to help the agency fully understand the situation,
- Defines the company’s needs and goals,
- Clarifies what parameters you want to track,
- Determines what parts of your website need conversion rate optimization, e.g., the home page, a special landing page, a product page, etc.
Otherwise, the CRO agency has to test different methods to discover the problem you might already know, increasing the cost of services. Then, you can choose the company that suits your situation and specializes in your desired services. It is better to choose a CRO agency that has previously worked with clients whose businesses were similar to yours.
Additional Checks Before Choosing the Right CRO Agency
At this point, you have learned about important factors helping you to make a wise decision and choose the right CRO agency.
According to the following top tips, you can check all the factors to narrow down your list of possibly great CRO agencies and choose the best CRO agency out of them.
- Ensure the agency specializes in CRO
- Ensure the agency knows your goals and desired results
- Read their website content and discover their years of experience
- Read Customer testimonials to find out customers’ degree of satisfaction
- Look for reviews and case studies
- Check budget and pricing
- Ensure the company has transparency and communication skills
- Ensure the agency asks for your business brief to save you time and money
- Ensure the agency represents periodical reports and receives clients’ feedback
Questions before choosing a CRO agency:
Since you are looking for a long-term partnership, you should take your time and ask yourself the following questions before making a brief and choosing a CRO agency:
- What part of my business doesn’t work well?
- What is the solution for reaching more website traffic?
- What do our clients say in comments or reviews on YouTube, Facebook, etc.?
- What activity is the most profitable one for our company right now?
- How much monthly budget can I allocate for this work?
So answering the above questions helps you determine what should be optimized. Therefore, you know what services you need and then look for CRO agencies specializing in those special areas.
