What to Ask Before Hiring a CRO Agency
For me, 2019 started with an unusual phone call. The office phone rang, I picked up the receiver, and a voice began speaking at a hundred miles-per-hour.
How much would it cost for me to double my conversions? … and how long will that take?
The caller ran a successful eCommerce business, selling jewellery online. Wanting to improve his conversion rate, he took the obvious step of phoning a CRO agency. The problem was, he did not seem to have any idea of what CRO agencies do…
Conversion Rate Optimization
The situation is not that surprising; CRO is one of the most misunderstood forms of marketing. Despite the extravagant claims made on its behalf (average ROI is often reported as over 200% and some agencies claim they can “double, triple, or 10X your results”) surveys suggest that only one in five companies are satisfied with the CRO service they receive.
So, what do you need to know before deciding whether or not to hire CRO experts? More importantly, how can you tell if a CRO agency is offering you value or simply moving your traffic around?
I decided to put together a list of questions that anyone should ask a CRO agency before deciding whether to hire them. The following is a list of 5 of the most important ones.
Questions to Ask a CRO Agency Before Hiring Them
Question 1: What do you need to know about my company?
If the agent you are talking to does not immediately ask about your company, they are more interested in taking your money than helping your business. Alarm bells should already be ringing. If you only receive re-assurance about the agency’s ability to do “whatever you want,” it may be time to move to the next agency on your list.
Question 2: Are you data-driven?
Forget hunches and gut-instinct; when it comes to CRO, data is king. A trustworthy agency should perform rigorous tests and complex analysis to justify their activities. If you meet an “expert” who dismisses the value of historical data and ignores performance indicators, excuse yourself politely and find someone else.
Question 3: What shapes consumer choices?
CRO requires more than simply pricing your products strategically. You need a team of experts who understand consumer psychology. Mention Robert Cialdini’s The Psychology of Persuasion, Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast & Slow, or Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational. If you don’t get a good reaction, move on.
Question 4: What is the least successful CRO project you have worked on?
Average figures for ROI are impressive, but keep in mind the fact that CRO agencies work for companies with vastly different resources (including website traffic). Successful examples of international eCommerce businesses achieving a remarkable ROI are not that helpful for the average client.
Far more instructive are examples of failed CRO projects. An agency that has been practicing optimization for a long time should be able to talk about difficult projects.Any form of consulting business experiences unsuccessful projects (even large consulting firms such as McKinsey.) If an agency claims never to have experienced setbacks, it is either very new to CRO or it is lying.
Question 5: How will you decide on a strategy to follow?
Strategy is the process of analysing, prioritising and planning. In order to conduct a successful CRO project, your agency must think strategically.
To put it another way, there are countless ways of adjusting a website. Without strategy, an agency might simply try each of them in turn. This would be inefficient and disruptive. If the team you are talking to gives you their “top tips” and “best practices,” but do not describe a structured process, you are talking to the wrong people.
Conclusion
It is important to be aware of your goals before committing to Conversion Rate Optimization. This does not mean that any project which does not produce a dramatic change in your Conversion Rate is a failure; there are other ways to evaluate a CRO project:
- The transfer of skills to your team
- Completion of a structured process
- An increase in your business’s sustainability
- The probability of long-term improvements in your Conversion Rate
Whilst CRO is an increasingly significant practice in the world of eCommerce, it is also possible to conduct optimization on an eCommerce website without hiring an agency. Some of the most impressive results are produced by internal optimization teams.
