What is conversion? "Conversions" are what everyone wants—from Amazon.com to General Motors to the Vatican to the RNC to Jim's Local Hardware on the corner. Everyone wants everyone else to make a commitment to sign up and buy in. "Conversion" is such an all-encompassing word that it becomes very hard to pin down what it means, especially when it is used by so many people in so many different ways. When deciding to commit dollars and resources to the improvement of your business online, it's really important to get clear on exactly what "conversion" is.
A Tale of Two Conversions
When we talk about online interactions, it is almost impossible to make a single definition of what a conversion is. Most websites are just too complex for such simplistic distillations. However, we can step back and summarize all important interactions on a website as being either a "main" objective or a "secondary" objective. Either way, in 99% of all cases the objective is something a visitor to your website does. It is based on an action they take.
The Main Event
The main thing you want people to do on your website is sometimes also called a "macro conversion" or a "primary metric." These are usually things that have a bottom-line effect and represent the best outcome for a visit to your website. If you have an online store, this is someone making a purchase. If you have a B2B product brochure site, this is someone requesting more information. If you have a news website, this is someone subscribing to your newsletter. Whatever the best use of your site is, your main event is the primary measure of success.
Real-world example: QVC tasked TNG with promoting its Bare Escentuals skin care line. TNG worked with QVC on narrowing the focus of the landing page to only what was needed with a strong, singular focus on buying. This commitment to the primary conversion helped push conversion rates over 200% vs. the benchmark and led to a clear understanding of what worked and where additional opportunities remained.
Secondarily Speaking
If you want to understand more about your visitors and how they are using your website, having a short list of other conversions that can count as your secondary performance items is very helpful. If you have an eCommerce site, the main objective is to sell, but it is also important to know how many new registrants you get. If you have a corporate lead gen website, it is also important to know how many people are downloading product descriptions. If you have a news website, you also may want to know what articles are shared the most. All of these could count as "secondary" objectives. They represent visitors to your site interacting with your site in important ways, even if they are not doing the "main" objective.
Summary
Asking "What is conversion?" is the first step. Planning your primary and secondary conversion items is of central importance whenever the time for a web re/build is coming up. And it is not limited to a website—understanding the specific goals and objectives of any interactive property can help you get a better grasp on how much value that item is providing to your organization. This goes for mobile apps, mobile sites, landing pages and site enhancements (like Flash demos). Take the time, ask what "conversion" means to your organization, plan your primary and secondary conversions, and understand performance better than ever before.
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