The future of conversions: AI reinvents the customer journey for your website

In the world of digital marketing, artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept. It is an essential element of your toolbox.

This new technology will help you build an AI-powered, comprehensive website. It excels in a specific marketing field: Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

Artificial intelligence can be the secret ingredient that will transform your "mediocre" business results into "astonishing" ones.

If you are ready to explore the huge AI potential to improve your conversion rate, you are in the right place. 👍🤖

Artificial intelligence and conversion rate optimization

As you may have seen, at SiteW, we are very enthusiastic about AI. And it's not just because we have a soft spot for robots.

It's because we know that artificial intelligence can help you communicate better, make your website creation automatic, optimize user experience automatically, boost your online sales with AI tools, and much more.

By submitting massive quantities of data to difficult algorithms, artificial intelligence can process and analyze information on a phenomenal scale and speed. It can identify trends, make predictions, and help bussiness owners make decisions with more confidence and precision.

Watch out

If AI can do a great part of work, it always needs human to interpret results and apply them in a creative way. Moreover, robots don't understand customers on the emotional plan.

The basis of conversion rate optimization

First of all, just a quick reminder about conversion rate and its optimization...

Imagine the situation: you have meticulously established a digital marketing strategy. Your content is viral, your product is wonderful, and your website is perfect.

Web traffic is regular, but just a few visitors buy, fill in forms or take any other action.

What's wrong? 🤔

Conversion rate optimization consists of improving the results of your marketing campaigns. It's not just generating traffic, but also making sure this traffic produces real results. CRO is the science that consists of persuading your visitors to move into action, by making them progress in your funnel.

What is conversion rate optimization (CRO)?

The word "conversion" will have a different meaning depending on who you ask. For example:

• For an online shopkeeper, this may be a purchase that has been made.
• For a specialist of content marketing, this may be a lead generated by the downloading of an ebook.
• In a B2B relationship, a person who fixes an appointment.

How to calculate your conversion rate?

Take your calculator. It's time to do math. 🧮

Definition

You can determine your conversion rate by dividing the number of conversions obtained by your campaign by the total number of visitors. Then multiply the result by 100 to obtain a percentage. And that's it!

So how can artificial intelligence help you with your CRO?

The revolution of artificial intelligence to improve your conversion rate

Conversion rate optimization using AI is exactly what you'd expect: using artificial intelligence to improve your conversion rates.

In general, AI-based CRO tools use advanced programs that are able to identify current trends, whether in terms of systematic visitor behaviour or subtle correlations between the various campaign touchpoints and your conversion rates.

AI-based CRO is so powerful because it is able to predict future performances. It means that marketing experts can proactively optimize their campaigns, depending on anticipated results, and not past performances. Pretty cool, isn't it?

Many AI-based tools can also implement dynamic optimizations on their own initiative, by adapting and refining continuously your campaign to maximize conversions.

Comparison between traditional CRO and AI-based CRO

Within the framework of traditional optimization, profesionales collect data manually, create hypotheses about what could improve conversions, implement these changes, and then test results.

It's a real job, isn't it? 😃

However, AI-based CRO makes a large part of the optimization process easier, by making decisions based on collected data quickly and massively.

AI and conversion rate optimization: 4 ways to use AI to boost your conversions

Nowadays, 80% of companies already use digital through data analysis and automatization.

But artificial intelligence enables to go beyond. AI tools analyze huge information volumes. Moreover, they always learn and adapt.

Here are some examples:

• AI is capable of identifying changes in consummers' behaviour. In the fashion sector, it enables to improve strategic monitoring to boost conversions, having trends at an early stage.
• AI also enables companies to customize their products to improve customers' engagement and sales. For example, Starbucks suggests cafe according to customer's previous purchases, weather forecast, time of day and taste preferences.
• Thanks to artificial intelligence, pharmaceutical companies can boost the creation process of new products that traditionally relies on a long path full of tests and errors.
• At the same time, manufacturers of fast moving consumer goods who are on the Alibaba platform also use AI tools to analyze consumers' data in order to create new products that adapt demand.

Here are a few points on which artificial intelligence will be able to play an important role to get the best conversion rate...

1. How AI upgrade customer experience?

Customer experience (CX) concept is a big challenge for many companies. A recent report published by Salesforce has shown that coherence is an essential element within this context. 70% of consumers believe that a good CX influences their purchasing decision.

Machine learning and AI can create a more optimized experience for each customer.

Let's take the example of FlyPolar. When the sales of this fashion brand fell by 400% in 4 months, companies owners opted for an AI-powered software to optimize the landing pages of their website.

2. The rise of hyperpersonalization

Consumers are more and more frustrated by companies that don't fit their needs.

One of the best examples of custom strategy is Starbucks. The company has registered a boost of 300% of their customers' expenses. As seen before, the customers of the famous cafe receive custom offers based on their data, as well as encouragement to win points to get a free drink.

Starbucks' AI-powered customization system sends about 500.000 different emails, nearly unique, for each recipient. That boost engagement, the frequency of purchases, and loyalty.

3. AI in A/B tests and conversion optimization

• Automatic generation hypothesis: AI can automatically generate hypotheses based on users' data and behaviour models. By suggesting improvements and potential variations, it helps to formulate effective A/B test strategies.
• Multivariable tests: AI algorithms analyze different data and identify optimal combinations. Thus, we can discover the most influential factors that affect conversions and make decisions based on figures to improve user experience.
• Continuous optimization and improvement: AI can continuously monitor users' interactions and conversion rates, provinding information for a constant optimization. By taking advantage of the analysis driven by AI, professionals can identify fields to improve and implement continuous changes.

Artificial intelligence can help to solve the three main problems of A/B tests: lack of time, misreading and the limited number of variables.

Instead of adopting a linear approach of tests, AI can simultaneously analyze multiple variables and compare results immediately to determine the best combination.

4. Provide quick customer service

An effective and fast customer service is at the center of any business.

The quicker the response to a customer, the better.

That's why the demand for direct chat increased by 8,5% last year. However, most companies can't operate their customer service 24/7, which means long waiting times for unhappy customers.

By automating support with AI-powered chatbots, companies can solve these satisfaction and deadline problems.     

A few years ago, a rail operator called Amtrak, had a customer service team that dealt with 30 million passengers each day. With such figures, it was difficult to answer quickly all demands. Amtrak decided to implement an AI-powered chatbot named "July".

Thanks to "July", most problems were solved using prefilled forms, planification tools and online bookings. The number of calls and emails dropped considerably. By the end of the year, July had answered more than 6 million requests and increased booking rates by 20%.

Regarding conversions, chatbots can solve the problems mentioned above and boost purchase chances. When customers receive a quick response, they are more likely to rebuy from the company.

AI-based chatbots can adapt their message according to FAQs, wording and customer responses. This process leads to more appropriate responses.

The best AI tools to get more conversions

To date, you've probably already used AI tools as part of your marketing activities. You may have worked on your copywriting with an AI such as ChatGPT or Gemini (Bard), created graphics with an image generator such as Ideogram, Midjourney, Firefly or Dall-e, written page content with an automatic writer.

But all artificial intelligences aren't equal, especially when you need to optimize conversion rates.

Some tools are designed for helping professionals to get the best results for their campaigns. They are trained in all conversion data.

How to evaluate CRO AI software?

AI marketing is quickly developing. With such available tools, including for CRO, it's really difficult to evaluate which ones will best fit your needs.

Here are some elements to take into consideration when you evaluate AI CRO tools:

• Is the tool generic or specialized? Marketing software are likely to get better results. Their models have been trained on specific data, and are capable of identifying relevant information for conversion performance.
• Where do the data come from? If the tool is specialized, carefully examine the origin and quality of the data on which it has been trained. There must be a large volume of data, and they must be reliable to enable AI to have a wide and precise comprehension of the behaviour it analyzes.
• What are its reporting capacities? Clear and detailed reports are essential to understand the impact of an AI tool on your conversion rates. A good software must precise information and precise analyses, not only raw data.
• How accurate is the model? An AI tool is only worth its megabits if it can make accurate predictions from the data - this is particularly true in the context of conversion rate optimization.
• Does the company make too many promises? With all the media hype about AI, some services may be promising more than they can deliver. Be careful of tools that claim to  revolutionize your way of working or replacing all your marketing department.
• Are there additional features to use? A high-performance AI platform can bring added value apart from conversion rate optimization. Consider if the tool has additional features that may streamline campaign development or optimize your workflow.

Our selection of the best AI tools for CRO

Now, let's see some examples of AI tools...

• Unbounce: automated conversion optimization

Unbounce is a powerful CRO platform that exploits AI to help you get the highest number of sales and subscriptions within the framework of your campaigns.

In addition to building and optimizing landing pages (an essential contact point in any campaign with a high conversion rate), Unbounce's Smart Traffic uses AI to automatically guide visitors through the page where they are likely to convert. This optimizes conversions by 30%.

Prices: between €89 and €579 / month

• Attention Insight: simulated attention heat maps

Attention Insight is an AI-powered software that enables professionals to validate their design concepts for ads, landing pages, applications, etc. before launching.

Thanks to these predictive attention heat maps, Attention Insight identifies potential performance problems and recommends methods to improve user experience, which enables an increase in conversion rates.

Prices: between €19 and €399 / month

• Pathmonk: path mapping and allocation

Pathmonk is a simple alternative to complex analysis platforms such as Google Analytics. Built to offer a complete understanding of the customer path, Pathmonk uses AI to automatically compile and analyze users' behaviour, in order to build intention models and generate information.

Prices : from $450 / month

• EvolvAI: business experience optimization

EvolvAI exploits the power of  AI to discover, customize and improve automatically users' paths, depending on their bahaviour. Its easy-to-implement platform and its proven methodology help companies to analyze visitors' behaviour on an unprecedented scale and speed, creating custom customer experiences that generate the desired results.

Prices: custom on demand. Contact company.

Release your conversion potential with AI

In a world where optimization is king, AI is the magician that helps professionals to interpret and exploit their data to make more impactful decisions.

Now you know everything about AI-based CRO. It's time to boost your conversions.

Create custom campaigns, optimize in real time and boost your return on investment, without stretching your budget. The future is AI-powered marketing, and it'is justone click away. 💪