7 Conversion Rate Optimization Experts Answer the Questions You Were Too Afraid to Ask

Chris Goward - WiderFunnel

“Conversion optimization, which I prefer to think of as ‘Marketing Optimization'is a fundamental mindset shift in itself.

It’s a shift from so-called ‘best practices’ to ‘test practices’ – from 'seeking tips and tricks' to 'asking powerful questions' – from speculating to hypothesizing.

A big mistake marketers make is relegating marketing optimization to a tactical department rather than approaching it as a strategy.

You can only win if you move from tweaking and tuning landing pages to posing important hypotheses to understand your audience segments.”

Recommended Reading:

In this guide, the team at Qualaroo gives you a really solid primer on what conversion rate optimization is, how to build a plan, and some tools for the job.

This guide by Peep Laja speaks frankly about CRO misconceptions, and is filled with candid advice that will challenge how you think about how you make money online. There’s also plenty laugh out loud moments, as Peep shows us how absurd some of our reasoning behind how we design truly can be.

John Ekman - Conversionista

"We analyze the ecommerce funnel and break it down to four steps.

So from a conversion/persuasion point of view you have four points of influence:

1. Getting people to stay (reduce bounce rate)
2. Increase product views (now available in GA enhanced ecom tracking)
3. Increase add to carts
4. Increase checkout rate

So our major take on ecommerce optimization is that “Overall Conversion rate is meaningless, if you don't know in which commerce step you have your biggest problem!?"

So, make sure you don’t waste your time optimizing in the wrong place. First figure out where in your ecommerce funnel you have your biggest problems - then create your AB-testing hypothesis."

Matt Gershoff - Conductrics

"One of the main benefits of analytics is that it provides a framework for impartially evaluating decisions, regardless of the position of the decision maker.

Not surprisingly this can lead to enormous internal pressure to skew results so that they are favorable to the ideas and suggestions championed by the 'higher-ups'. Because of this, it is extremely important that your testing/analytics program be granted some degree of independence so that it can be insulated from the politics of the organization.

Otherwise you can wind up with Testing and Optimization Theater - it's all just for show and a total waste of time."

Recommended Reading:

This is a must read for anyone just starting out with understanding analytics, as it will help you focus on the metrics that truly matter for increasing your revenue.

这是关于数字意义与real human behavior. Bryan, Jeffery and Anthony understand that each one of the numbers in your analytics represents a real person, experiencing their own narrative as they navigate your site. They use examples from Amazon, AirBnB and more to help you bridge the gap between real people and cold numbers.

Brian Massey - Conversion Sciences

"If you expect someone to behave logically, they will let you down. If you ask them what they want, they will lie. If you ask them why they did something, they will invent a story.

If you ask them to spend money, they will be become very truthful. Watching people in the act of loosening their grip on their pocketbook is the most reliable data you can collect."

Recommended Reading:

This is a huge list of resources that will give you averysolid foundation to help you select, interview, and work with potential customers and find out exactly what they want/need from a site like yours. This will give you no shortage of ideas of things you can test to drive more revenue.

This round up of expert interviews on ConversionXL will show you where you can get customer data from, but more importantly, understand the thought process behind what your customers are saying to help you make

Peep Laja - ConversionXL

"If you stop the test early, your results will be invalid.You can't test faster just because you/your boss/VCs want to move faster - that's not how math works.

You need to have the right sample size (pre-calculated before you start the test) and test duration (2 business cycles, so 3-4 weeks for most). If you pick the wrong variation as the winner, you render the whole testing process useless."

Judah Phillips - Smart Current

"CRO requires a different mindset than other marketing activities. You can't simply "test faster" or confidently make quick decisions based on preliminary data.

Like fine wine, CRO takes some time to mature.

A winning test today could invert results tomorrow and become a losing test, just like a losing test now could shift to become a winning test later.

It takes considerable planning, patience, and customers exposed to tests across business cycles to make CRO work. People must understand this fundamental mindset when approaching CRO for their business."

Recommended Reading:

Very smart people from TestingDicipline.com, Monetate, VWO and more, chime in on the things you need to consider before calling a winner on an A/B test.

Sometimes A/B Testing isn’t the answer. Peep gives you plenty of alternative methods to A/B testing that can still help you to improve conversions without waiting 3 years for a result.

Oli Gardner - Unbounce

"When it’s clear that you’ve hit a local maxima (you can’t move the needle anymore), it’s typically time for a radical redesign.

Or you can explore channel segmentation. For example, the Unbounce webinar registration landing page converts like this:

• Our email list: 72%
• Partner email lists: 50%
• Organic search: 30%
• PPC: 17%
• Social 7%

We’ve hit the local maxima for our own email list, but there is a completely different level of context/trust associated with the other channels, which opens them up as a bigger opportunity for optimization."

Recommended Reading:

Chris Goward talks about how many Fortune 500 websites have scrapped entire redesign projects in favor of what he calls Evolutionary Site Redesign. This is where continuous improvements are made over time in a way that allows your site to evolve in a slow but steady pace.