Webtrends Optimization

Quick, short term wins are possible with optimization, however the real value comes as it builds and evolves with your audience.   Because of this, I liken optimization to social media.

Here are 3 quick reasons why optimization and social media are similar:

1. Users tell you what’s wrong and you can respond
Your users are the most valuable resource you have. Not only do they give you their personal information, hard earned cash and/or attention, they give you feedback on how you can serve them better.

In social media this comes in a push/pull fashion, allowing you to alert users about your own actions, as well as respond directly to their immediate concerns. The same happens with optimization, except that it occurs naturally as users interact with your website. Their actions reveal flaws in your offers, messaging and design and you can use that information to build a better experience and new tests.

2. Time sensitive
You wouldn’t blog or tweet the same thing everyday, so why would you keep your website static?  Optimization allows your website to be  responsive to your users current needs.  Anything from a change in opinion to seasonality effects to new marketing campaigns can cause a need to adjust your website.

While some items don’t need to be changed for long periods, you should constantly question whether what you are using is also what’s best.

3. It is a competitive advantage
Social media has caught on, however few companies are using it to its full potential. Optimization is in a similar boat but it’s even earlier it its life. How many social media experts can you name versus optimization experts?

Starting an optimization program now means you’ll be that much further ahead once testing becomes mainstream.

In summary, optimization is rapidly becoming a basic part of the online marketing landscape.  With this new technology comes more opportunities to win new customers and retain current ones.  However, making the most out of it will be what separate the winners from the losers.  Optimization is a long term commitment, just like social media, so keep tweeting but don’t forget to keep testing too.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carrotcreative/ / CC BY 2.0

You and your competitor’s all have the same landing pages.  You have a hero shot of the product, a big call to action button and short, punchy copy.  Or maybe you’re already ahead of your competitors and have run a few tests on your page, picking up more conversions on the way.  In either situation, you’ll eventually hit a wall and struggle to get additional lift.  So how do you continue to improve?

Go for broke.  Try something you’ve never tried before.  It might end up being a total failure, but it also might give you the lift you want.

The gamble you make with optimization can end in 2 ways:

• You lose X amount of conversions over the week or two that the test is running
• You gain X amount of conversions for the effective lifetime of the page

The possible upside dwarfs the downside by a large margin and, either way, you learn something new and can optimize the next test more successfully based on what you learned.

Luckily, with skill and experience, the risks of testing are minimized, however beating a strong page is never easy or guaranteed.  But when you do find something new that works or see that your current page still is a champ, you can rest assured that you’re doing all you can to drive conversions.

Edit: I fixed all the links in this post.  Copy and pasting is getting the best of me!

I recently came across a few great posts that I enjoyed and wanted to pass onto you all. The first is from Tim Ash, who has written a great book on Landing Page Optimization. One of his more recent entries discusses how to write effective copy to increase conversions.

One of my favorite bloggers, Avinash Kaushik tells marketers to embarrass their managers in order to succeed at their campaigns. Testing tops that list of course, but his other techniques are great methods at “working the system.”

Lastly, Lenny de Rooy, wrote a guest post at SEO Scoop about 5 misconceptions of Google Web Optimizer. It goes slightly beyond just GWO itself and into testing methodology

“I only need to run my analytics for one month because it’s not going to be different next month.”

I think saying that would get any online marketer fired. So why do I encounter people that assume they only need to test pages once?

This is beginner level testing methodology. Every online business needs to have a testing culture. What do I mean by this? Go back to my example of web analytics. Analytics is continuous because you need to know how your pages are performing. Testing is the same way, once you stop testing, you stop the flow of information about what visitors like and dislike about your pages.

A testing culture is where you continuously test your pages and realize that anything you do or change, should be a candidate for testing.

Got a new web design? Do a split test to see if it actually performs. Want to update your banner? Test it! Your copywriter make a few product descriptions to choose from? Try them all out and see which works.

Even after you’re done with all of that, try to beat it.

There are times when a page can be left untested, but be aware of anything that may merit another test for a page. Everything from seasonality to changes in PPC ads could have a huge impact on your web site and therefore your previous test results might not be optimal anymore.

If your company is holding you back from testing, do what we recommend our customers. Get your feet wet by trying one or two tests and after you see the results start continual testing. Not only will you be able to optimize your pages more efficiently, but you’ll open up yourself to a lot of deeper testing techniques… that’s for another day though.