In strict definition terms a conversion rate is described as the number of people who take a desired action. In marketing terms, this translates to the number of people who receive or encounter a piece of your marketing collateral and then who take the action that you have prescribed within that piece of collateral.
For example, if you send out a leaflet that goes through 2000 people’s doors and that has a call to action of “Phone now to get your special offer price!” and then 10 people call your number asking for their special offer price, then your conversion rate for that particular piece of marketing would be: 0.5%. (This is actually under the odds for a piece of DM – or Direct Marketing – it is usually between 1 and 2%.)
• Marketing collateral is any type of marketing that you do for your business and includes (but is not limited to):
o Leaflets and flyers
o Brochures
o Website
o PR
o Networking
o Online article
o Advert
o Blog etc etc
• A call to action is a suggested, requested or required action that your prospective customer must take upon encountering your marketing collateral in order to get to the next step in your marketing and sales process. Call to actions include:
o Phone now to book your place
o Email us your answer now to win
o Sign up for our free newsletter to get regular updates
o Book your place to take advantage of this great offer!
• You can increase your conversion rate on a particular piece of collateral by being highly specific in your marketing objective for that piece and making the call to action very simple and clear.
• Other ways to increase or achieve the desired rate include: making the offer attractive, the ease with which the offer or call to action is obtained or achieved, and engaging a high level of interest from your prospect through uniqueness or limited availability.
• Lower cost products and services typically have a higher conversion rate than higher priced items or services that require a longer or more in-depth investment from your prospect.
• In order to see how effective your marketing is you must always track your results especially when you want to improve your conversion rate. This mean making one change at a time and tracking the resulting improvement or depreciation.
So the next time you send out a leaflet, put an advert in the paper or put a special offer on your website, track the amount of people who encounter it – this is usually done by the number of leaflets you send out, or the number of readers a publication has or the number of visitors to your site – then track how many people take your desired call to action and you have your conversion rate.
