A hit rate, also known as a conversion rate, is an important marketing analysis tool for businesses of all sizes. It’s a measure of how marketing tactics translate into actual sales, usually expressed as a percentage. In other words, it’s the number of potential customers who ultimately end up buying your products or services. The higher your conversion rate, the more effective your marketing strategies.
There’s a lot more to conversion rates than simple numbers. Unfortunately, most people don’t fully understand how these rates work, let alone how to improve them.
Let’s say you’re running an email campaign, and your call to action is having people fill out a web form in order to receive a quote. In this scenario, you can actually measure two conversion rates:
The first conversion rate gauges the effectiveness of your email campaign—is it engaging enough for the majority of targets to take the next step and request a quote? If your conversion rate here is low, there could be any number of reasons, from demographics to poor wording or insufficient value.
The second, and perhaps more important, conversion rate is a reflection of your business. Are your quotes competitive? Do you offer enough value to make customers jump at the chance to do business with you?
Understanding how your conversions happen—and how they don’t—is the first and most important step in increasing your conversion rates. In some cases, analysis can be fairly straightforward. For example, it’s easy to count how many sales calls end in purchases and then derive a percentage from the numbers. Landing pages are also pretty simple to calculate, especially if they’re set up so that all incoming traffic is a direct result of a marketing campaign.
Other conversions, however, are often difficult or complicated to analyze. One way to wrestle useful data from piles of statistics is to use free tools like Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, and Yahoo! Site Explorer, which track how and where visitors are finding your website, which pages they visit, and other vital information.
While increasing your hit rates will depend in part on your website or marketing analysis, there are a number of general steps you can take to improve online conversions.informatix_target_marketing
If you’re struggling to make sense of your conversions, we’re here to help. We can provide detailed analysis of your website traffic, online marketing campaigns, and performance, and help you pinpoint which areas are working and which need improvement.
We’ll also work with you to enhance your website design, with tips and advice that will help you refresh or revamp your site. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.
