A “conversion” in the marketing world is someone who becomes a customer. This person is buying your product or service, or generally taking any action that you want them to do. There are two main types of conversions: micro and macro. We’ll get into the definitions later, but it’s important to understand that in the early days of web design, a “successful” website was measured by the number of “hits” it had. But what we do know today is that you might have a million unique views a day, but when no one is convert or buy your product and – in a broader sense – you don’t know how to convert or buy your product or service then you are missing out on most of the puzzle.
But conversions aren’t always measured by big wins; There are steps to get there. Many markers know this as the “Buyer’s Journey” and it is only the final stages of the customer journey that customers “convert”, but the first two stages are equally important.
So why is it important for your business to understand the difference between micro and macro conversions? First, let’s find out the difference between micro and macro conversions.
- Micro conversions
- Macro conversions
- Why micro and macro conversions matter
- How you can improve
Micro conversions
A micro-conversion is exactly what it sounds like: it’s a small step or action that a user (prospect or former customer) takes to buy your product or service. Let’s just take eCommerce as an example because it’s a bit simpler (maybe more tangible?) Suppose you’re a clothing brand targeting 18-25 year old women. You have an Instagram, a Twitter, a Facebook, a website with a blog, you have a distinctive clothing brand, and you have built a good brand awareness. One of your target customers is subscribing to your Instagram account. This action is a small victory. It’s a micro-conversion. That potential customer has now agreed that you can promote them through this platform from Instagram. One day you might see the perfect dress you were looking for – then you did a macro conversion. But let’s stay in the micro range.
The whole concept of micro-conversions comes from Seth Godin’s idea of Approval marketingindicating that it is a “privilege” (not [a] Right) to deliver expected, personal, and relevant messages to people who actually wish to receive them. ‘
Create micro conversions brand Awareness. you are Brand awareness. It’s good customer service. It’s a good vibe about business. It’s people who want to be associated with your business, read your blog, like some photos, interact with your social media accounts. This is New Marketing and the start of a journey, friendship and not baiting – your door advertising practices desperately trying to sell to everyone.
Micro conversions can be categorized as follows.
- Navigation-based conversions
- Interaction-based conversions
- Interaction-based conversions
Navigation-based conversions
Only a fraction of the users will ever get macro conversions and that’s fine. Most ecommerce sites only see a macro conversion rate of around 3%. But the 97% can teach you a thing or two. Perhaps your website is not user-friendly. You may need to do some UX testing. Maybe you can do market research to see why customers are converting. But navigation-based conversions are easy when a user does something you want them to do. Maybe you send a marketing email and they click a link. This is navigation. Maybe they read one blog and click another. Navigation.
Overall, micro-conversions can help you see how your user experience improves and your conversions increase as you improve your website or business model. You can see how small improvements add up over time as you remove user barriers, add value to your business, or make your offerings more attractive.
Interaction-based conversions
These conversions are when a user is interacts with your product, service or brand – often via social media. So you can interact with your social accounts in any way by liking the content, commenting on posts or blogs. You can subscribe to your newsletter, sign up for notifications or updates. You keep your finger on the pulse of the times. That is good for you in the long term. They may be sharing your content, or they may have viewed a number of pages on your website. You may be following one of your topics or have watched several minutes of video. All of these conversions have value as they show you what you are doing well.
Interaction-based conversions
Engagement mainly has to do with the user journey. The bounce rate. How engaged the user is with your content. While this doesn’t result in a sale like the other two categories (and do you see how the lines blur between the three types?), It’s all valuable data that you need to collect and analyze in order to get you to macro’s bigger goal to perform conversions.
Macro conversions
Again, macro conversions are what they sound like. These are the conversions that people have completed buying: they bought this dress for their evening. (Then they might have tagged you on their Instagram photo.) Macro conversions, however, aren’t just Purchases. This could be people submitting lead forms or filling out registration forms to attend an event.
These are the types of conversions all marketers are already familiar with. How you convert these people into customers is the tricky part. Take a look at our blog post on the Bullseye Framework, How to Grow Your Business Organically, and Marketing Trends To Watch For This Year. Driving traffic and converting leads is the goal of the game – so whether you are running a successful email marketing campaign, have a blog that is driving traffic, or just have adequate word-of-mouth brand recognition to As the customers flock in, it is important that you know how to measure your conversion rates and where that traffic is being generated.
The three categories of macro conversions are as follows.
- Revenue-based conversions
- Conversion to lead member acquisition
- Query conversions
Revenue-based conversions
These conversions are the ones that bring the money. You sell a product, someone comes to your website and buys the product.
Conversion to lead member acquisition
These conversions happen as you acquire people in your database to market to later. These people may have completed your contact form and would like to know more about you. You have done their research and are probably at the end of the buyer’s journey – they are about to make the purchase if you play your cards right.
Query conversions
Here, too, these potential customers find out the final pieces of their sales puzzle like lead acquisition. For example, you want to know the exact step size and if the great high-waist trousers match your long legs, then you will be shopping soon.
All three of these categories are a type of lead generation that results in either larger sales conversions or valuable conversions that turn into sales over time.
Why micro and macro conversions matter
Why are these micro and macro conversions important? Ultimately, web conversion rates are one of a company’s key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the overall success of their website. Business owners and marketers can track key macro conversions that are directly related to sales. Micro-conversions lead customers along the buyer’s journey – hopefully – turn them into customers and cultivate them into lifelong customers. Overall, however, the more conversions you have, the more your business will grow, which you can then spend on further marketing to grow even more. You have to have customers in order to grow. (Just make sure that as you get larger, you also have a great user experience.)
How you can improve
When considering how to convert leads, there is one compound word to keep in mind: Purposeful. Every element on your website should have a purpose. The goal of every blog post should be to attract new traffic and promote your landing page. Your landing page aims to generate new leads. Every email in your drip campaign (workflow) should drive your leads towards a larger maco conversion. Each element should be presented on its way from micro conversions (the mini-steps) to macro conversions (usually what generates your sales).
Google Analytics has a feature that allows you to measure your micro and macro conversions. Your SEO or marketing agency can help you understand where you can make improvements to get more conversions.
Would you like to know how to turn more of your visitors into paying customers or donors?
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