There are different motivations for organisations engaging with Webtrends Optimize and a variety of reasons for deploying a CRO strategy, with different goals in mind. The measurement of success can vary, but the intention is the same; learn something from your testing and make decisions based on this.
Not all tests have a monetary return (and by this we mean the goal of the test is not always more sales/ increased AOV) but all companies utilising CRO will have an area of their website or user journey they are trying to improve. So, whilst this might not have an instant impact on money made, fostering trust between a business and its users is just as important, and ultimately can support the long-term success of your brand.
The goals of the business can change too, and part of our role is to support your brand on this journey and provide different testing ideas to accompany this.
Testing new functionality
We recently worked with a client who were making changes to their website, which consisted mainlyof new product releases and improved functionality. When we started working with them, they wanted to validate some of the product releases they were working on before pushing it live to a larger audience.
One of the first things they wanted to test was the validity and useability of an enhanced search bar. This was a big project they were working on, and their development team had spent lots of time refining it with what they thought their users would want. A large part of the project was focused on the idea that improving areas like the searchbar would help to reach their conversion goals.
Therefore, this was one of the first things we tested. The client wanted to know if it had any more engagement than previously. After just 1 week, the number of interactions were so low they decided to end the test early. Whilst this did not have the desired effect, the team still learnt things about their users and also did not waste more time and resource on a hypothesis that was not accurate.
The resource spent on this could now be delegated elsewhere, so we focused on other areas of the website to improve.
Implementing Exit Intent Pop-Ups
Through analysing user behaviour and learning more about our client’s website, we identified they had high traffic on the resource and blog page, but not much interaction on any Call To Actions or decision-making pages. Our team identified that users wanted to browse and consume content without much intention of signing up to the service. We hypothesised that offering a monetary incentive (a discount) would encourage people to sign up and get started with their experience.
We tested adding a pop-up on the Resources page, which had a high number of traffic to it. The pop-up appeared after a certain amount of time (when the user looked like they were going to exit) to offer a discount on the service. On the pop-up, there was the option to 'Get Started' with the discount applied, and it had the goal of of increasing the number of clicks and completing the conversion funnel.
There were some positives regarding this test as interactions did increase, however not to the level we hoped. We believe that if this test had been run on the Homepage rather than the Resources Page there would have been more interactions with the pop-up, but the intentions of the users were different, and they had less desire to purchase.
Adding Testimonials
Testimonials are an important way to social proof your website and show the validity of your product through other users’ experience. Our client already had some testimonials on their website, but research showed these were not very well interacted with. These were previously displayed only on the homepage of the website and were positioned quite low down with small images used and lot’s of white space around them. This was not utilising the full potential of these testimonials, and we found they did not have much impact on whether users purchased.
We hypothesised that adding a testimonial carousel below the Call To Action on the product page would increase trust, engagement and purchase intent. We also improved the design of the testimonials carousel to showcase more personality and highlight key features. This was added to the Homepage and the Product Page.
The goal was to increase the number of clicks on the Call To Action, Enquire or Learn more. The significant results came from the test on the Product Page, with not much improvement on the homepage.
On the Product Page, there was a +156% uplift on users completing the Conversion Funnel, resulting in a significant increase in the overall number of purchases. There was also a +97% uplift on users booking whilst on the product page, an increase our clients were really pleased with.
On the homepage, there was a slight increase in users entering the funnel. Despite a low result, it still provided the opportunity to learn more about users and their browsing habits. This can help with future tests and to iterate on results.
What Next?
These examples demonstrate how testing can be key to highlight what doesn’t work, as much as what does.
There are other areas of the website which we are excited to work on with our client and optimise for maximum success. Now we know more about the users and what sort of experience they want to have on their website, we can continue to tailor a CRO strategy to fit this.
