In this episode, Charles spoke with special guest Chris Dayley, a Neuromarketer, A/B Tester, CRO Speaker, and Evangelist. The following is a brief summary of the main points from the episode.
Conversion Rate Optimization is one of the pillars of internet marketing. Chris shares with us a few practices such as A/B website testing. Basically, this is the method of comparing two versions of a webpage/app against each other to determine which one performs better.
The low hanging fruit in order to jumpstart into this process is looking at your website traffic and search for the areas or pages that you want to focus on that derives the biggest impact. Typically, that would be the homepage or category page. You can actually look at your top traffic pages via Google Analytics just to get a sense of where people are going, what are the most popular categories on your website and then you can trickle down from there.
Chris explains that what most e-commerce website development team are totally missing out on is figuring out what they should have on their homepage. This is the most basic and fundamental question and yet this is where the common mistake is.
Pro Tips
- Your homepage is the gateway. When you have too much stuff in, people could get lost easily. That means the content is distracting people.
One of the first few tests that you can run on your website is the Existence Test. The idea of which, is to discover what content on your homepage is helping or hurting your conversion rates. Suggested tools for this are Optimizely and Visual Website Optimizer.
If you’re running a test on your homepage, your best success metric is the next step in the funnel, which is usually the Products or category page. Success in the homepage does not automatically translate to success later on in the funnel. Each stage in the funnel requires a different approach.
On mobile audience targeting, Chris explains, “The reason why so many people think that mobile version doesn’t convert is that their mobile site sucks.” A slow and arduous mobile website process for the audience will have the question, “If they didn’t give me a good enough mobile experience, why should I trust their product?”
- In both the website and mobile experience, each additional step in the process the audience feels they have to take, is decreasing the value of the product because the perceived effort comes out of the value of the product.
There is no one size fits all when it comes to the web. For example, some pop-ups can actually create a distraction whereas, in some other products, some people may need a lot of social proof. It all depends and these are vital questions during your test.
The key point to remember is, if you already have something on your site that is working, that is the best place to start improving on.
- Stop thinking of conversion rates in terms of “should.” Use your own data as your initial benchmark. Wherever you are, is your starting point.
Every traffic source converts very, very differently. It is important not to change traffic sources in the middle of the test. “The biggest mistake that new businesses that try AB testing make is, they want to capitalize on the impact as soon as they see it. You need to give it some time to calm down.” This is because when you are first starting a test, every single conversion is going to affect every conversion rates in a big way.
- Any time you got a decent amount of traffic to your site and you’re not running a test, you are missing out on an opportunity to learn with your traffic.
Website redesigns are a big deal nowadays. Chris says, “one big mistake they often make is they want to change the website so much but they don’t know the reason why.” Simply redesigning your website mainly for aesthetic reasons will not convert it into actual sales. The goal is to have a functional design that will cater to your existing and target audience. Sure, it might boost your branding image for a while but if you are willing to be patient with the process, there is a way to attain great web design and actual conversion. It may take a bit longer but it will save you time and money in the long run.
Tools Chris Recommends:
“Heat mapping is great to layer on top of your analytics. You see exactly where people are clicking and it helps you understand what people are not clicking on.”
When people are consistently just hovering around your top navigation bar, it means that you are not showing the content they want on that page. It’s not resonating.
Pro Tip #5: When people are clicking something on your website consistently, it means that they’re expecting something to happen in that area. Utilize it.
To listen to the whole episode and get first-hand expert discussion about CRO and Disruptive Advertising, click on this link.