Sales are predicated upon effective customer engagement. Connect with your target customers, build trust and they’ll reciprocate the favor in the form of sales. There are two important customer engagement building blocks in micro and macro conversions.
Here’s a quick look at micro vs. macro conversions and why these conversions are so important to businesses like yours.
Micro Conversions for Engagement
Micro conversions are defined as seemingly minor actions individuals take when using an app or website that show progress toward an overarching aim. Examples include downloading a free whitepaper, downloading an ebook, watching a video or entering an email address to receive a monthly emailed newsletter.
The micro conversion is a relatively minor action one takes toward the overarching goal of conversion into a paying and loyal customer. Micro conversions do not automatically create leads or revenue yet they reflect user actions that indicate there is a trend in the right direction.
The micro conversions that are most important to your business might not be that important to other enterprises. Some businesses find that users who watch a company video or add their email address to a signup form for a newsletter indicate users are highly receptive to the company’s outreach, message and value offering. Such individuals are referred to as hot leads, meaning they are highly inclined to convert from a member of the target audience into a paying customer.
Identify the most important micro conversions for your business and track them using high-tech tools such as Google Analytics. Detailed micro conversion tracking empowers businesses to gauge user engagement and monitor progress toward the overarching aim of developing leads and ensuing sales. Such goals are considered to be macro conversion goals.
Calculating micro conversions is easier than you might assume. Begin by identifying the target action you would like your online visitors to take, be it watching a video, downloading a brochure or subscribing to your email newsletter. Track the online visitors who follow through with the coveted action, adding them up for a sum in a specific interval of time.
The next step is to divide this sum by the aggregate number of online visitors to the site. The end result is the percentage of online visitors who followed through with your desired action.
Macro Conversions for Engagement
Alternatively, macro conversions are the business’s coveted aims for the target customer’s buying journey. As an example, macro conversions include making a purchase and filling out a registration form after buying a product. However, more macro conversions does not necessarily reflect business success.
If your business has a considerable number of macro conversions, the goal for your website will be somewhat opaque and undefined. For the most part, it is prudent to limit the business to a target of two or less macro conversions. Limit your macro conversions and you’ll be able to pay even closer attention to the subtleties of your value offering that ultimately strengthen marketing material and boost customer retention.
Above all, recognize that the macro conversions you establish must reflect your company’s desired outcome after a visitor spends time on the website. In contrast, a plethora of micro conversions is acceptable. There is no sense in putting an artificial and arguably arbitrary cap on your micro conversions as each of these conversions is essential to customer engagement and progression along the path toward an eventual purchase.
Track Both Conversions to Understand Engagement
Businesses of every size and type are encouraged to closely track both macro and micro conversions. Tracking such conversions provides insight into how people interact with services and products, setting the stage for effective campaign decision-making.
Analytical analysis combined with the tracking of user clicks, downloads and page views provides your business with the information necessary to understand what your target audience is most interested in and the ways in which they engage with the website. Such data is then used to develop targeted campaigns that steer customers toward the bottom of the sales funnel for conversions in the form of sales.
Macro and Micro Conversion Goals Differ by Business
No two businesses, niches or industries have the exact same macro and micro conversion requirements. Some businesses have short customer journeys while others have elongated journeys. If your customer journey is long, multiple micro conversions might be necessary throughout the process.
Use your macro and micro conversion data as relevant to your unique enterprise, niche and sector, strategically alter your marketing approach accordingly and you’ll find engagement increases thereafter.