Blog Post

CRO Tool: VWO The All-in-One CRO Software

by: John Saunders December 8, 2016

Table of Contents

CRO marketing, or conversion rate optimization, has become quite the buzzword these days. And for good reason. Although many brands who have spent countless hours, time, and money into creating the perfect website may not like to hear it, there is always room for improvement. The perfect website or landing page does not exist – but you can get close to perfect if you are continuously testing and optimizing using the proper CRO tools.

“What CRO tools?” you may ask. Well, with all of the buzz around CRO right now, it seems like there is a new tool claiming to be the best every day. Well, after testing and playing around with a few of these tools and spending my days knee-deep in CRO over the past few years, I think I’ve finally stumbled upon a CRO software winner – VWO, or Visual Website Optimizer.

What Is VWO?

Although VWO is now recognized as one of the leading conversion optimization tools, it didn’t start out that way. In fact, VWO wasn’t even trying to get into the CRO industry when it was founded seven years ago.

VWO was originally created in order to make marketers’ lives simpler. The VWO team realized that not everybody has the time to code alternate webpages in order to A/B test one version against another… or even knows how to code in general. With VWO’s user-friendly visual editor, marketers can create high-quality webpages for testing, without having to file a ticket with their IT team to get an A/B test running.

Fast forward seven years later and now VWO has evolved into a powerful conversion rate optimization platform, used by some of the biggest brands in the world in their efforts to increase conversion rates or sales.

VWO Features

Competing against well-known CRO tools such as Optimizely and Crazy Egg, VWO has a variety of features that will provide you with everything you need to increase conversions and maximize profits. These include:

Testing: Using VWO, you can easily conduct A/B tests, multivariate tests, and split URL tests to ensure that your website is entering the marketplace with its best foot forward.

Editing: No coding required here! VWO uses a point-and-click visual editor to make the process of building a campaign quick and easy.

Reporting: As marketers, a big part of our job is reporting on the results of our campaigns to clients. VWO makes reporting efficient and clear with intuitive reports and revenue tracking software. Next time your client or boss asks why you’re running a CRO test, just show them the report and they will understand.

Visitor Behavior Tracking: Using heatmaps and click analytics, you’ll be able to see exactly where your site visitors are clicking on and looking at on your website. Not only will this information help with your CRO tests, but it is also just really interesting (in a sort of creepy way) information to see.

…These are just a few of my favorite VWO features. Of course, there are many more that may appeal to you. Make sure you check them out here when you have a minute.

Why You Should Run CRO Tests

By now you’re probably thinking – Great, VWO sounds pretty cool. But why should I care? My answer: If you want to increase sales, get more customers, or see more leads coming through, then you better be keeping CRO top of mind. Like I said earlier, CRO is important because there is always room for improvement. Even if you are seeing incredible numbers across the board, there is always something you can do to further improve.

Still not convinced? Here’s a few other reasons why you should run CRO tests on a tool like VWO:

It’s pretty much free

Sure, you have to pay for a tool like VWO to ensure that you are getting the most out of your CRO campaigns. But, investing in a tool is much more cost-effective than simply continuing to pour thousands of dollars into paid ads.

With CRO, you are capitalizing on traffic you already have. In other words, with CRO you aren’t spending more money trying to get visitors to come to your site – you’re just doing a better job converting them once they’re there.

CRO helps maximize profits

…Need I say more? Who doesn’t want to see an improvement to their bottom line? Your profits are directly tied to your conversion rates. If you see conversion rates amongst existing traffic increase, you reap the benefits of increased revenue and decreased spend.

It gives site visitors exactly what they’re looking for

The modern consumer has a very limited attention span. I think it’s something crazy like 8.25 seconds. Therefore, even though your copywriting and design team spent hours crafting the perfect copy and visuals for your webpage, the likelihood that a website visitor will get through all of it is slim to none.

Through CRO, you can circumvent this phenomenon and set yourself (and your website) up for success by giving potential customers the information they are looking for sooner. By doing this, you decrease the risk of those prospects finding the information somewhere else and increase your chances at conversion.

CRO gives you an edge over the competition

Think of it this way: all you need to do to win over a potential customer from a competitor is to be slightly better than them. If your products or services are virtually the same and you both offer killer customer service, then you have to outperform them somewhere else. Why not deliver a better online experience?

Using CRO tests, you can determine what resonates with most customers and provide with necessary information more quickly and directly. Therefore, if you use CRO to optimize your site to deliver a slightly better user experience, you increase the likelihood that more prospects go with you over the competition.

Tips For Starting CRO With VWO

Finally convinced that CRO is the most effective, cost-efficient way to go to maximize conversions and increase sales? Good! Here’s a few simple things you can do to get started:

Don’t ask for too much

Rule #1 – eliminate any unnecessary form fields on your landing pages. Not only is it time consuming and can feel invasive for the prospect, but it will decrease your chances at getting conversions. You may think you’re making your life easier by adding in those extra fields to be filled in by your customers when, in reality, you’re just setting yourself up for failure.

So next time you are about to publish an 11-field form on your site, ask yourself: Do I really need to know this person’s zip code, middle name, and phone number? Probably not. Reduce your form fields and see how it affects conversion rates. I have a feeling you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Make your CTA buttons pop

Regardless of how many “best practice” blog posts or case studies you’ve read that tell you that green buttons work better than red or orange better than blue, you won’t really know for sure unless you test it out on your own site.

After all, those case studies weren’t referring to your website with your unique customer base. Don’t let their word be the end all be all. When it comes to CTA button color, the key is to choose a color that stands out on the page. Try using a color that you haven’t used anywhere else on the page. Sure, it may not be “on brand”, but the results may make your reconsider whether that should be your main priority when designing a landing page.

Create a sense of urgency

Give site visitors a reason to convert now rather than later. Communicate your offer or message in a way that makes the prospect see no other alternative than to give them your email address now or purchase your product now. Sure, you can retarget them with search ads or social media ads, but when you do that, you’re still giving them the chance to purchase from your competitors.

Use timely copy to create a sense of urgency in your prospects. Or, even try using a timer on your landing page. Nothing gets the heart racing quite like a countdown clock.

Boycott cheesy stock photos

Consumers are savvier than ever and can spot BS a mile away. Resonate with your customers by exuding authenticity and proving that there is an actual face behind the website. Stock photos exude phoniness. So do yourself a favor and say goodbye to them forever.

Use pictures of real people on your website instead of stock photos or models. Hire a photographer for a day and have them take pictures of your team, location, facilities, or products. By doing this, you will help people related to you and, in turn, make them more willing to do business with you.

Make sure you’re running CRO tests long enough to get statistically significant results

Don’t run your A/B or multivariate test for a day and expect to have a clear answer on which version of your web page is your champion. It takes time to generate enough data in order to pick a winner. So, how long should you run your A/B test? It depends on a few factors, including:

Estimated existing conversion rate
Minimum improvement in conversions you want to see
Number of variations
Average number of daily visitors
% of visitors included in the test

In order to calculate just how long you should run your A/B test for, use this helpful tool from VWO. It doesn’t have to be a guessing game.

Wrapping Up

So, if you are convinced that the use of CRO is the key to online success for your website, give VWO a try! After vetting countless CRO tools, this is by far the most efficient, user-friendly, and powerful tool I’ve come across. Contact us today to learn more about our CRO services.