The first month of the year is a good time to return to fundamentals in one’s field of endeavor, in my case, the world of conversion rate optimization. Towards the end of last year I started writing about CRO for SearchEngineWatch and my first topic, assigned by the editor, was the Google Instant Previews feature.
My article generated a number of comments from people who said they didn’t care for this feature. In response to these comments, I found myself saying: “Conversion isn’t about the features that you and I like, it’s about what clicks for the people that our sites are trying to convert.” Upon reflection, that struck me as a pretty important point that needed to be made about conversion. So I made it the subject of my second SearchEngineWatch article, reprinted here with a couple of minor edits:
Conversion Rate Optimization: It’s not about you, or me
You might have great taste, a good feel for your target market, and good gut instincts as a marketer, but you should not let all that cloud your judgement when it comes to conversion rate optimization. The point of CRO is to make data-driven decisions. Data beats personal preference. You might think the big red “Learn more” button on your website looks great, but if you test it against some alternatives and the data indicates a small blue button converts significantly better, what do you do? You use the small blue button!
If the CEO asks “What happened to that big red Learn More button I like so much?” you tell her the small blue one works better; then you show her the conversion numbers to prove it. Hopefully she is impressed because this is often how companies get started on the road to developing a culture of marketing optimization.
One Small Test For the Website, One Giant Leap for Optimization
Once you show people that one thing works better than another, and back it up with numbers, you have a chance to establish website testing as a standard operating procedure. That’s because “works better” typically means more customers, orders, revenues, profits, and so on.
When you use testing to decide what works better there should be no looking back. But note the use of the word “should” in the previous sentence. If you go down this data-driven path, you’ll have the truth on your side, but you must still be prepared to defend your findings against attacks from several quarters. Here’s a quick list of possible detractors.
Designers: Some people live for the latest in website design aesthetics and they may find it impossible to believe that an ugly old text link which says “click here” converts better than a subtle mouse-over design element. They may even try to fight adoption of test-winning design changes even though you can show those changes make the company more money.
Tip: Offer designers a chance to test elements they think will work better and have them help you design new tests.
C-level Experts: Some people feel that being in charge means calling all the shots, all the way down to the color scheme for the website. Even if you have just proved that a different color scheme for the site would generate $1 million more in annualized incremental revenue than the current scheme, you may still have to fight the fact that the boss just plain likes the old colors.
Tip: Have that incremental revenue number handy. It can often settle the discussion.
IT Constrainers: If each test you execute requires a favor from the IT department, you may find yourself running out of favors. Even worse, testing could get a bad rap from an IT department that is already over-worked.
Tip: Try to develop a testing process that is as “IT-free” as possible, and be ready with those numbers that show how testing can pay for itself, and more.
Resource Constrainers: Unless you work somewhere that I’ve never heard of, your company is tight on resources right now. Furthermore, there’s a good chance people are clinging to resources rather than offering to move them to the place they will do the most good. If you are advocating broader adoption of conversion rate optimization in your organization, and I hope you are, be ready to show how CRO returns more per dollar than other initiatives.
Tip: In my next column I present some numbers you can use. I will post that column here shortly. In the meantime, if you have war stories about overcoming constraints at your company why not share them here in a comment?
