Billy's Blog: Multivariate Testing & Optimization

I just received a link to an amazing resource from MarketingExperiments, it’s a compilation of great webinar summaries and case studies that they have done. They cover topics from landing page optimization to price testing to PPC and more. While not everything is about testing specifically, all their advice and ideas can be tested, which is why I think you all will find it valuable.

All testing should be carefully designed; it should be focused on best practices and tactics that are predicted to connect with the audience. You should take risks when testing, but they should be calculated risks.

Check it out and soak up some knowledge on optimization and get ideas to test on your site.

Would you believe that? And if it were true, would it really mean anything to you? It shouldn’t.

I get asked this question fairly often and at first glance it seems like a logical question to ask, but really the focus should be elsewhere.

From my experience, conversion rates range from less than a percent all the way up to 30% or more. Does knowing that help me optimize my clients’ pages? No. Every page has so many variables internally and externally that it is very difficult and nonsensical to worry about the average conversion rate.

The goal of your page, differences between your product/service against your competition, target you’re trying to reach, avenues you advertise and numerous other factors all effect your conversion rates. A competitor having a higher conversion rate than you, does not mean you’re doing something wrong. Set the baseline for yourself and keep improving it. That’s how marketers should approach their conversion rate.

If you’re testing, you’ll find out if you’re campaign is performing suboptimal and find out what the optimal is at the same time.

Pretty amazing huh?

I don’t tell clients I’m going to get their conversion rates above industry averages, I tell them that I’m going to make their campaign as successful as possible. Do that and you’ll be ahead of competition and ahead of where you were when you first started.

I love web designers and creative people. They create beautiful things out of words and ideas we give them, yet still have to deal with people judging every little thing they put out into the world. Working on company websites is especially an ordeal. Everyone has an opinion, from CEO to marketer, but really who knows what will work?

Do you go by experience, seniority or even… best debating skills? Usually seniority wins out and one person makes all the defining decisions.

So why test? At its core, testing is about finding out what works best, without any of the politics. If I put up two versions of a page and one gets more sales than another, its hard to argue with that. My job ends up proving people right or wrong, judged by what real visitors are telling us.

Test to:

• Know the impact of redesigns (quantitative)
• Figure out what your customers are and are not looking for (qualitative)
• Find the truth
  

As a marketer, our goals are to speak to our audience and get them interested in our business. With testing, marketers have a way to directly listen to what visitors want, to find out their language. So start testing to start listening.

Make sure you come back for more, I will be writing more on reading messaging through testing. This is just the beginning!