a brief history of optimisation and why you should be doing it

@gemmamacnaught

A brief history of optimisation (and why you should be doing it)

@gemmamacnaught

Gemma MacNaught Head of UX and Conversion Rate Optimisation

@gemmamacnaught

1.  Conversion Rate Optimisation today

2.  A brief history of optimisation 3.  Getting started

4.  What could you be missing out on?

@gemmamacnaught

Conversion rate optimisation today

1.

@gemmamacnaught

Psychology

Perception

Usability

Imagery

Colour

Behaviour Target Audience

Data

Analytics

Research

Testing

Multivariate A/B

Marketing

Goals

Heatmap

Clickmap Persuasion

Layout

Navigation

Feedback

Competitors

Competitors

Design

Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)

Content

@gemmamacnaught

Psychology

Perception

Usability

Imagery

Colour


Data

Analytics

Research

Testing

Multivariate A/B

Marketing

Goals

Heatmap

Clickmap Persuasion

Layout

Navigation

Feedback

Competitors

Competitors

Design

Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) User Experience (UX)

Content

@gemmamacnaught

Where does it apply to?

SEO

Social

PPC

Leave Forever

Complete Goal

Come Back Later

Your Content

@gemmamacnaught

SEO

Social

PPC

Leave Forever

Complete Goal

Come Back Later

Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) User Experience (UX)

Your Content

@gemmamacnaught

Your Content

SEO

Social

PPC

Leave Forever

Complete Goal

Come Back Later

Your New Content

Testing Software


@gemmamacnaught

Content

User Experience (UX)

Psychology

Perception

Usability

Imagery

Colour


Data

Analytics

Research

Testing

Multivariate A/B

Marketing

Goals

Heatmap

Clickmap Persuasion

Layout

Navigation

Feedback

Competitors

Competitors

Design


Do your research AND

test your solutions

@gemmamacnaught

A brief history of optimisation (learning from mistakes)

2.

@gemmamacnaught

Awesome Awful

Scale of optimisation

Pretty Good

Key Takeaway

ü  Do your research on your target audience.

@gemmamacnaught

Key Takeaway

Awesome Awful


Pretty Good

ü  Target Market: Low cost solution to combat jaundice in developing countries

ü  Ensure your content and the platform it sits on is straightforward. Don’t leave your users guessing!

@gemmamacnaught

Awesome Awful


Pretty Good

ü  Communicate persuasively to your audience or your content may fall at the last hurdle and be lost in translation

Key Takeaway

ü  Usability: Known, trusted, quality

ü  Target Market: Car owners with specific needs

Rolls Royce Silver Mist Toyota MR2

@gemmamacnaught

Key Takeaway

Awesome Awful


Pretty Good

ü  Optimisation is not a new concept – age old practices still apply across print and online marketing

1923

@gemmamacnaught

ü  Research your target audience ü  Make sure it’s user friendly

ü  Communicate clearly and persuasively

ü  Fix it, change it, rework it – most importantly test it!

Tick all the boxes

@gemmamacnaught

Getting started 3.

@gemmamacnaught

Essentials: ü  Set up your Goals ü  Map out your funnel ü  Check devices ü  New vs returning visitor rates ü  Demographics ü  Top traffic sources ü  Top landing pages ü  Top exit pages ü  Your goal conversion rate

Analytics Data

Goal Completions

Unique Visitors Your Conversion Rate 100 X

@gemmamacnaught

Essentials: ü  Follow the path you would expect users

to take before asking them to test your site

ü  Set the scene ü  Keep your questions and tasks open to

allow for natural user behaviour (i.e. ‘what elements do you find persuasive’ rather than ‘what do you think of the headline’)

ü  Use simple language ü  Target the test to your customer base ü  Ask users to compare you to a

competitor

User Testing

@gemmamacnaught

Essentials: ü  Where are your users clicking? ü  What is visible when they land on the

page? ü  How far are they scrolling? ü  What elements are attracting their

attention? ü  Is the next step obvious? ü  Is there anything they are confused by

or that they would like to change?

Page Analysis

@gemmamacnaught

Essentials: ü  Surveying your existing customers

builds a stronger understanding of where you need to improve

ü  Your customer services or sales staff can give valuable insights on common customer queries and problems

ü  Guerrilla user testing is very beneficial when you are researching mobile users

ü  Offer an incentive to users who participate in your research

Off-Site Methods

@gemmamacnaught

Thinking of skimping on your research?

7 TIMES more likely to achieve a positive result

Research driven tests are

@gemmamacnaught

Essentials: ü  Prioritise your testing ü  Even the smallest change can generate

a result ü  Check the estimated test duration ü  On low traffic pages – direct a higher

percentage of users to the new version for a faster result

ü  Segment by device ü  Segment by target user

Testing

@gemmamacnaught

Testing 59%

Not Testing 41%

1 out of 5 businesses surveyed last year said that CRO was in their top 3 list of priorities

The main reasons given for businesses who are not currently optimising or who have only achieved small ‘wins’ are: ü  Lack of resources ü  Lack of expertise ü  No concrete strategy for testing

@gemmamacnaught

Your Goals

The benefits

Your Marketing Spending

Your Market Share

Your Customer Base

Have an increased completion rate

Becomes more valuable

grab customers away from your competitors

Grows as you…

@gemmamacnaught

Here’s some examples of what you could be missing out on

4. And if you’re still not convinced…

@gemmamacnaught

Navigation

Category icons replacing the navigation links increased clicks on categories by 90.2%

Original New Variation

@gemmamacnaught

Pop-Ups

A few changes to this pop-up lifted newsletter sign-ups by 565%


@gemmamacnaught

Simplification

Simplifying this homepage led to a subscriptions increase of 225%


@gemmamacnaught

Prominent CTAs

Increasing the prominence/persuasiveness of the CTA improved conversions by 591%


@gemmamacnaught

Colour

These red CTAs increased clicks by 21% (test everything!)


@gemmamacnaught

In Summary ü  Optimisation is not new – but it is increasingly important ü  Make content understandable, easily accessed and user friendly ü  Do your research and let it guide you ü  Test everything!

ü  Can you really afford not to?

@gemmamacnaught

Gemma MacNaught Head of UX and Conversion Rate Optimisation