Many people think of a “conversion” as a confirmed sale. It is, but that’s not the only thing that actually qualifies as a conversion. Every business is different. When it comes right down to it, a “conversion” can be almost anything:
- lead
- transaction
- download
- phone call
- form completion
- information request
- an email
- etc.
Of course, we are speaking strictly about web conversions here. To a business, a lead is just a lead that still needs to be “converted” into a customer. But for the purposes of tracking website metrics, that lead is considered a micro conversion. You enticed the visitor to take the specific action of providing you their contact information for the purposes of selling them on your product or services, which is the macro conversion. The Big Kahuna!
Most websites will have more than one conversion point, and each of these should be tracked. If you’re only tracking the macro conversion, then you’re missing out completely on the methods that are most effective at getting those customers.
You might find that you get better sales out of visitors who have first downloaded a brochure. Or perhaps once someone calls you then you have a higher chance of converting them over the phone. By tracking these micro conversions you learn to direct your visitors to either your downloads or to your phone number. Or both.
It’s also important that you have a good understanding of the value of each conversion point. Maybe phone calls produce more “sales” but the amount per sale is less than from those who get the download. In that case, you know to push visitors toward the download more than the phone number. But you also know that the phone call is better than nothing, so you don’t want to cut that out altogether. Balance each accordingly.
Measuring conversions isn’t as simple as counting the number of times each goal has been reached. While we all want the big sale, there are many avenues to get that sale, each of those being a conversion in it’s own right. If those micro conversion points are ignored, chances are the macro conversions will suffer.
But understanding the purpose and value of each micro site conversion can help you steer your visitors to those that produce greater rewards. Not only will you get more sales, but you just might increase the value of each sale on top of that.