By Tim Shier on 2008/06/25
Conversion Optimisation, whether successful or not, can have a profound effect on your business. We thought it would be a good idea to discuss a simple case study and provide some practical examples of how it works in the real world.
Unfortunately, as this service is both highly strategic and sensitive none of our Conversion Optimisation clients wanted to share their data. So, in true Quirk fashion, we're going to take the plunge and run the tests on our own website (www.quirk.biz). Once the changes have been made and the tests run, we will report back and share our statistics and successes with you.
First, it's confession time: Quirk has been doing Conversion Optimisation for our clients for upwards of 8 years with great success, but as the age old saying goes: "cobbler's children have the worst shoes in the village". Truth be told, Quirk, despite our awesomeness, isn't above this common short-falling. We have never executed Conversion Optimisation on our own site. So there: we said it and there's no taking it back.
After accepting this, we sat down to put a plan together to make the best use of the traffic which we've worked so hard to get. So, where did we start?
We Defined our Objectives
Quirk has three objectives on the site:
- Enquiry or contact from a client
- Newsletter signup
- Install SearchStatus
We Then Identified Our Problems
As mentioned, the Quirk sites aren't currently optimised for conversions. As such, we took a general look at the website and identified the following main problems:
- Less than 0.5% of users on the individual services pages convert.
- 0.15% of all visitors complete the contact us form.
- 1.17% of all users complete the quick newsletter signup form on the homepage.
Given that our site volume is relatively high, we hadn't previously prioritised the need for Conversion Optimisation on our site. This is for two simple reasons: our sales team can only handle a certain number of contacts a day (and has been working at full capacity) and our Conversion Optimisation experts have been very short on time. In the last couple of months, the company has grown considerably and as a consequence, the teams now have the increased capacity to handle interactions and implement these much needed changes.
Solving the Problems
The solution exists on two levels: firstly, from a general macro site perspective (to increase overall conversion) and secondly from a micro page-level perspective (for particularly important pages). Over the next 3 months, we will be implementing a range of tests. Following each test we will report back on their impact and illustrate how minor changes can (hopefully) result in significant improvements in conversion rates.
All changes look to either reduce the barrier of entry (in terms of thought and time), or push a user to do a particular activity (be it staying on a page longer, clicking to a particular page or any other on page objective).
Homepage
There are a number of small changes which we believe could have a positive impact on our conversions. That said, Conversion Optimisation is largely about making a change and testing the impacts that the change has.
The first element that we want to test is whether we can improve the number of "newsletter signup" interactions that take place by modifying the call to action on the homepage. If this is found to be successful, then the same change will be rolled out across the entire site.
The change is rather subtle but should provide good feedback and provide you with a good idea of the process and considerations.
The Test Variable
In order to have a successful test it is important that only one variable is tested at a time. As such we will only be testing the call to action copy in the newsletter box field.
Currently it's "eMarketing News - Subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter which is packed with interesting eMarketing news, views and other quirky titbits." We have changed it to "Interested in eMarketing? - Subscribe below for Quirk's fortnightly newsletter and get the latest eMarketing news and views to ensure your online success."
Theoretically, the new version will convert better as it introduces a question-answer response ("Interested in eMarketing?") as the sub-conscious mind responds "Yes, actually I am interested".
Secondly, the use of "below" directs the user to the field that they need to complete in order for it to count as a conversion. The terms of the agreement, to receive the fortnightly newsletter, are offered in exchange for the "latest eMarketing news and views". Finally, the deal is closed with a promise of better things - "ensure your online success".
In theory this should result in increased newsletter signups - which is exactly what we want.
The Belly of the Beast
Page A (home-a):
Page B snippet (home-b):
Conversion Optimisation is a finely tuned practice of statistical testing. In this case we are implementing a simple A/B test but a wide range of tests are available.
An A/B split test requires that all users who go to a page are randomly assigned to one of two pages. These pages are identical in every way with the exception of the variable that is being tested. So, for the duration of the test you can expect to land on one of two homepages.
In this case we have "home-a" and "home-b" and have installed Google Analytics on both. We can then use the tools inside Google Analytics to determine which page provides the highest click throughs.
We can then compare the amount of traffic and conversions on each page via a Chi-squared distribution (online calculator). This determines the confidence interval (how certain you can be that the result is correct).
We can then determine a winner and make a site-wide change.
Other Variables to Watch
There are other variables to watch and track.
Firstly, what does the user do following the submission of the newsletter field? Currently the user has the opportunity to share additional information with us after completing the essential information. We can therefore see if there are any "carry over" effects to the variable change.
We can also track information such as bounce rates of the newsletter signup page (comparatively between the variables). This will provide us with information such as whether our call to action is being interpreted by users correctly etc.
The Future
Following this exercise, we will embark on a slew of clever little tests ranging from site wide changes to sneaky on page tweaks. So, keep an eye on our newsletter for feedback on what is (or isn't) working.
