Creating the right environment for success is a key consideration for organizations looking either to launch a website optimization program or improve upon their current efforts. After some initial conversations around how the amount of traffic (i.e., visits) plays into how fast learnings can be uncovered, a common practice for Monetate is to share some standard business cases from our published case studies.

For instance, there are the improved conversion rates of 5%-20% for consistency campaigns that “echo” the message and creative from an inbound marketing channel throughout the website experience. We’ll also get email channel managers excited when we tell them new name acquisition has improved as high as 1,000%.

One prospective client recently asked us for three “dos” that we recommend all users carry out to help achieve success, as well as three “don’ts” that could delay their seeing a return on investment.

First and foremost, we love being challenged by our prospects and clients. Making us better will make them more successful! Our response to this particular question resulted in some great feedback from them, including the idea that we should share these dos and don’ts.

Dos:

1. Listen to the experts—or in Monetate’s case, your Client Success Team—and lean on them, especially early on. Start with the basic campaigns they suggest, and follow their methodology and program recommendations to build sophistication over time.

2. Make sure there’s an internal champion who is placed at a cross-functional point within your organization. A main goal for this person should be to spread learnings from the experts and solutions being used throughout the company—for instance, all inbound channels and merchandising opportunities—as well as being able to get creative resources necessary to feed future campaigns and test variations. This individual also should have the ambition and drive to make a name for himself or herself.

3. ROI is incredibly important, but don’t underestimate the value of what can be applied to future campaigns and other customer segments. One goal should be to learn something from every campaign. That knowledge can improve your entire business if harnessed correctly.

Dont’s

1. Don’t assume that if a campaign doesn’t show immediate significance across your general population that there was no impact. Take a deep dive within your results, and see if there are pockets of significance that may be hidden in the general population.

2. Don’t be afraid to test the BIG idea. Since you can throttle the percentage of a segment that sees a campaign, throw it out there and listen to your customers.

3. Don’t be satisfied with a winning campaign. Consider ways to continually optimize and test variants on winners to gain even better performance and ROI.

Regardless of where your website optimization efforts are, I hope these dos and don’ts help. I’d love to hear yours! And remember, all Monetate clients have access to Monetate University, where you can ask questions of our entire services team and post your own ideas.

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down image courtesy of Shutterstock.