Like everything in marketing, micro conversions represent a process that gets visitors from point A to point B, from looking to buying. They are essential steps that lead up to macro conversions, a.k.a. actual purchases on site. Micro conversions can show marketing teams what actions users take before moving on to the actual purchases and can greatly influence future cash flow. With this said, companies can tailor their content and strategies to their targeted audiences, prospering and securing more macro conversions down the line.

A short intro

Before getting into the intricacies of micro conversions, it is important to know what kinds of conversions exist. Essentially, there will always be two types: those that lead to an actual purchase and those that provide data for future projects. Both of these have immense value because they either directly or indirectly provide income in the long-term. Common types of micro conversions include newsletter signups, video views, comments on products etc. Think of conversions as the general buzz around a site, whichever user activity is considered beneficial is deemed a micro conversion – because it guides people to the checkout button.

What’s the point?

Simply put – because it matters. Tracking micro conversions provides feedback and helps indicate which methods work on which demographics. This information can be further utilized to create a sort of pattern and figure out how many steps it usually takes an average Joe to move from browsing to buying. Think of it as checking for leaks, you patch up each hole until you make it watertight. Marketing really is hit or miss, something that worked last week may not work during the next, but it still makes a world of difference to be aware of these things.

What to measure?

Expanding on the previously mentioned common culprits, there are a couple that should definitely make any company’s priority list. The RSS feed is one, even though considered in decline, it is still a prominent figure with over 12 million users worldwide. No harm in covering one's bases and that includes RSS feeds. The other two will be mentioned in tandem simply because they usually go hand in hand: newsletter subscriptions and account creation. Usually, users sub to newsletters after creating accounts, both of which provide metrics detailing areas of interest as well as responsiveness to certain types of stimuli.

Their importance

Other than getting a complete idea of what’s going on a website, nothing major to mention. Aside from providing feedback, micro conversions directly help optimize sites with low traffic, enabling them to perfectly tune their user experience consequently increasing their user base. It is worth noting that this can take time due to small sample size. By knowing the current buying phase potential customers are at, targeted content can be created and sent to the appropriate individuals in hopes of pushing them one step closer to making a purchase.

How to track them

As we’ve addressed most of the questions, what’s left is just the small matter of actually tracking these values across larger time spans. One of the simpler solutions is to just use Google’s very own “Google Analytics”. The way this works is that an owner can track conversions as events and goals, the former helping in comparisons with other metrics, while the latter measures the steps taken towards a purchase. Other good options include software like SiteSpect and VWO.
In case you’d want to perform small business website design changes, it is recommended to go with smaller A/B tests at first and track the effects. However, in some cases (implementing mobile design) a complete redesign is inevitable. When that happens the amount of data that has to be processed and tracked is daunting. Especially if a drop in traffic occurs, it is much harder to pinpoint the exact issue just because of the number of elements that were changed.

To sum up

Tracking these events/micro conversions is a great asset in today’s evolving marketplace. With media almost completely migrating to the internet, competition is fierce and people are becoming more and more difficult to sway. Thankfully, these provide real-time data and give at least some semblance of an idea of what’s hitting the right proverbial buttons on a particular customer. Whatever their forte, careful analytics has proven itself as a unique tool that will single it out and let marketers adapt to their customer base much faster and more efficiently than ever before.