Best Practices for Effective Website Testing & Optimization

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Best Practices for Effective

Website Testing & Optimization

#testingwins

May 10, 2012 • 2 pm ET

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Bryan Eisenberg

Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg & Associates

Carlos del Rio

Director of Conversion Analysis & Digital Strategy

Unbounce

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Adam Figueira

Product Marketing Manager

Monetate

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Bryan Eisenberg

Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg & Associates

@TheGrok

Best Practices for Effective

Website Testing & Optimization

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#testingwins

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Bryan Eisenberg

Professional Speaker, Best Selling Author, Online Marketing Authority

• Co-author of The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today and

New York Times bestselling books, Call to Action, Waiting for Your Cat

to Bark? and Always Be Testing.

• Keynote speaker for corporate events and conferences such as Search

Engine Strategies, Shop.org, Direct Marketing Association,

MarketingSherpa, Econsultancy & other leading marketing events.

• Board member of Search Engine Strategies, the eMetrics Marketing

Optimization Summit and several venture capital backed startup

companies, including Monetate.

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• 5 best practices in website optimization that your solution must support.

• Questions each stakeholder involved in the buying process can use to evaluate testing solutions.

• Profiles of introductory, landing page and

enterprise-level testing and targeting solutions, including my likes, dislikes, and judgment calls on what each solution does best.

• Bonus: An appendix with sample RFP questions that you can include in your buying process.

Make the vendor evaluation process easier!

http://pages.bryaneisenberg.com/buyers-guide

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1. Message consistency across channels

• Follow the scent trail (PPC, display, email, affiliate, social media, etc.).

• Use similar creative and messaging from inbound channels on your landing page and throughout the website experience.

• Ensure visitors don t feel they ve been taken off trail or you will lose them.

• Make sure your testing solution doesn t make your ability to target website visitors impractical.

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They Maintain Scent

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What is the Scent Quality?

Brand Image Offer Category Product

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Good Use of Scent

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Even Better Use of Scent

Brand Image Offer Category Product

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Landing Page Optimization Is Not Enough!

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You Need to Look At All Customer

Journeys & Processes

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2. There is no Finish Line in Optimization

• If you re aiming to get to a point where you re

finished with optimization, you re missing the point.

• Not uncommon for companies to feel this way since website testing and optimization is often viewed as very resource-intensive.

• Assure your costs aren t dependent on the number of server calls or tests launched in a month, or the

duration of your campaigns.

• Ask about: 1) Quick implementation; 2) Hidden charges; 3) Support from a team of experts.

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2. There is no Finish Line in Optimization

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Source: Econsultancy

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3. Targeting for the Real World

• Simple segmentation can move the needle: New versus returning, or U.S. versus international.

• Extend targeting to traffic sources, demographic profiles or real-time visitor behavior.

• Put customer segmentation in the hands of marketers and not in the control of IT experts. Avoid hearing:

We ll get to it when we can.

• Ask: How many concurrent testing and optimization campaigns are clients running?

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3. Targeting for the Real World

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Known Customer Attributes:

New Visitors

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3. Targeting for the Real World

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Geographic Targeting:

International Visitors

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3. Targeting for the Real World

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Location-based Targeting:

Spring Weather

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3. Targeting for the Real World

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Technographic Targeting:

iPhone Users

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3. Targeting for the Real World

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Inbound Marketing Channel:

Afﬁliates

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4. Increase Revenue Across Channels

• Customer experience often extends channels, i.e., email, search, affiliate, merchandising, advertising, brick-and-mortar and more.

• Promote growth across the organization by making sure testing isn t centralized in one department.

• Ask: How many users will be able to log in and use the tool?

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4. Increase Revenue Across Channels

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4 variables most strongly correlated

with improved overall conversion:

1. Perceived control over conversion costs.

2. A structured approach to Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

3. Having someone directly responsible for CRO.

4. Incentives for staff based on conversion rates.

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Perceived control over

conversion rates

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Do you have a structured approach

to improving conversion rates?

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Methods currently used for

improving conversion rates

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Number of staff responsible for

improving conversion rates

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5. A Culture of Testing Sparks Innovation

• Spending minutes rather than weeks on a simple test like which form fields are required during checkout will allow you to make data-driven decisions.

• When website testing and optimization is IT-light and easy, it becomes a habit within the organization that drives marketing strategy.

• If your idea of testing is evaluating a red versus a blue button, think again. Think bigger than buttons.

Way Bigger.

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"Sometimes when you innovate,

you make mistakes. It is best to

admit them quickly, and get on

with improving your other

innovations."

5. A Culture of Testing Sparks Innovation

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Built for the enterprise ¦ Built for the marketer ¦ Built for scale

Tools for the Enterprise

• Adobe Test & Target

• Autonomy Optimost

• Maxymiser

• SiteSpect

Landing Page Tools

• LiveBall

Buyer s Guide Vendor Proﬁles

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*

* Recommended

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thank you

Bryan Eisenberg

Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg & Associates

@TheGrok

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Carlos del Rio

Director of Conversion Analysis & Digital Strategy

@unbounce

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"Unbounce allows us to regularly experiment with concepts and

strategies that would be far too time consuming and costly if we had to involve our development team. They have struck a great balance between ease of use and features that you rarely see in a tool this affordable. Unbounce helped us develop PPC landing pages that converted 20% higher."

Craig Barrett, Director of Search Marketing

Sparefoot.com

Who is Carlos del Rio?

• Co-Author of User Driven Change: Give Them What They Want and A Strategic Framework For Emerging Media

Follow @inﬂatemouse on Twitter

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1. The benefits of starting with one landing page

• Controlled hypothesis

• Small chance for mis-step

2. Using a self-service tool

• Ease

• Control

• Speed

3. HootSuite Case Study

• Pricing Test

4 Knovio Case Study

• Headline Test

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1. The beneﬁts of starting with one landing page

• Controlled hypothesis

• Small chance for mis-step

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2. Using a self-service tool

• Ease

• Control

• Speed

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Requirements for a Great Landing Page

1. Headline 2. Demonstration 3. Value 4. Support 5. Action

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HootSuite Case Study: Price Test

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12% Lift

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Knovio Case Study: Headline Test

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thank you

Carlos del Rio

Director of Conversion Analysis & Digital Strategy

@unbounce

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Adam Figueira

Product Marketing Manager

@monetate

Best Practices for Effective

Website Testing & Optimization

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Best Practices

1. Message Consistency

2. Total Experience Optimization

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Message Consistency

• Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Leon Festinger, 1957)

- People desire harmony and seek to avoid inconsistencies

- Inconsistencies create confusion and occur when expectations and reality differ

• Marketers must focus on consistency and reinforcement whenever

the landing page and conversion page differ.

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• Applies to

- Message, offer, look and feel - Any offsite campaign

• Doesn t always mean repetition

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20% Off Email Promotion

Homepage

Product Detail

Checkout

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Move Beyond the Landing Page

• Consistency is still key, but graduating to a new level

• Additional actions and tactics

• Total Experience Optimization

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Total Experience Optimization

• Deﬁnition:

One or more campaigns that seek to optimize the visitor s experience

across each stage of the buying process.

• 3 Pillars of Online Success

1. Guide

: Ensure your product/offering is easy to ﬁnd.

2. Curate

: Ensure that a purchase decision is easy to make.

3. Expedite

: Ensure that checkout is fast and frictionless.

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Guide

• Goal:

Get the visitor to the right page as quick as possible.

• Tip:

Get in front of the results page.

• Predictive, type-ahead results including:

- Image thumbnails

- Names and descriptions

• Target based on:

- Inventory - Ratings

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Curate

• Goal:

Present the information visitors need to make a purchase decision.

• Tip:

Less is more.

• Badging:

- On Category and Product Detail Pages

• Target based on:

- New versus Returning

- Consumer Preferences

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Curate

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Expedite

• Goal:

Deliver a fast, intuitive checkout process.

• Tip:

Run tests against new visitors ﬁrst.

• Offer Codes:

- Automatically apply codes for eligible visitors

- Test hiding the coupon code box

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Expedite

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Deconstructing

Full Service versus Self Service

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The False Dichotomy

• Either/or deliberately eliminates the middle ground.

• Tool must be easy enough for you to use, but also provide for:

- Extension of resources

- Strategic guidance and prioritization - Knowledge of best practices

- Experience with testing

- Complete website agility that doesn t exist inside any tool

• Great cars require great drivers (you or the testing tool).

• Success involves more than just who s behind the wheel.

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thank you

Adam Figueira

Product Marketing Manager

@monetate

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Best Practices for Effective