When is Done Really Done? Marketing Optimization is the Key! You finally bit the bullet and took your business online: it was every bit as much of a pain as you had envisioned. First, the design: those pesky developers sent wireframe after wireframe, and to add insult to injury, they then added several color schemes for each one! Geez, you weren’t after the Mona Lisa. Grudgingly you admit they had a point when you see the thing partway developed (Galaxy doesn’t just get your OK on the wireframes, work for weeks, and deliver. Oh no! YOU are involved every step of the way, thanks to our handy-dandy client feedback system. Sure it takes time to look at something not only halfway done but filled with Latin to boot – but you have to admit you were a genius when you told them to change the light blue capital S in your logo to a ferocious orange, and to kindly add LinkedIn registration to your site.) Alright, if forced, you’ll admit that part was actually fun. The rest? Sheer drudgery, as far as you’re concerned. Who gives a damn what the contact form says? People are using it, isn’t that good enough? Evidently not, you’re told by a sultry-sounding woman. It’s very important that the tab order is correct. Privately you think this woman has gone off the deep end: the only tabs you care about are the ones removed from the beer you intend to have the instant you’re off the phone.
The rest? Sheer drudgery, as far as you’re concerned. Who gives a damn what the contact form says? People are using it, isn’t that good enough? Evidently not, you’re told by a sultry-sounding woman. It’s very important that the tab order is correct. Privately you think this woman has gone off the deep end: the only tabs you care about are the ones removed from the beer you intend to have the instant you’re off the phone. Galaxy | WEBLINKS LTD Call at: 888.666.4316 http://www.galaxyweblinks.com/
The rest? Sheer drudgery, as far as you’re concerned. Who gives a damn what the contact form says? People are using it, isn’t that good enough? Evidently not, you’re told by a sultry-sounding woman. It’s very important that the tab order is correct. Privately you think this woman has gone off the deep end: the only tabs you care about are the ones removed from the beer you intend to have the instant you’re off the phone. Finally the day comes with that all-important call: your site has been tested to specs, functions perfectly and is ready for use. Oh happy day! It’s over, it’s done. Money now will pour in: The End. Uhhh, maybe not. A few months down the line when your product/site is live, stats begin pouring in. Loads of them. You need someone to interpret those stats: interpret customer behavior, and fill in any blanks. Note: someONE, not someTHING. No automated process can correctly run and analyze these tests: only a team of experts well-trained in marketing optimization. Your business is rolling along: but imagine… making twice the sales in half the time, for instance. Doubling your conversions by bringing in the right traffic: in short, getting the MOST with the LEAST effort. Not only will customers buy your products or services, they will also (unknowingly) tell you which messages and experiences were the best for them: all due to masses of statistics collected by your site. To begin, you need to test various types of content and see which flies the best amongst your particular customers. You get this: if they’re interested, they hit your site and revenue rises. If the content/product isn’t relevant to their actual needs – you have a problem. Market optimization is the key! Of course you’ve read DIY Parts 1 and 2 and you fully understand SEO and its purpose, even how to accomplish it. Over the next few months, you’ve been religious about using the SEO that Galaxy optimized and showed you how to use: at first, up went your rank and traffic. But it’s a mystery: now that dang chart has hit a plateau or worse, is heading in a southern direction.
Galaxy | WEBLINKS LTD Call at: 888.666.4316 http://www.galaxyweblinks.com/
Why is this happening? You’re indignant. Galaxy is known, WELL known, to be the best at SEO optimization. Yet your traffic is falling faster than one of those id–, ah, men who jump out of planes. What’s the game? Yes we’re good – but we do have a very major problem. VERY major. It’s simple: we can’t read minds, even after we hired 5 psychics and a naked guy with tattoos somewhere you can’t even imagine a needle going – not to mention the handful of chicken bones he’s slinging across your office door. God knows there has to be a better way – Galaxy still insists intuition is vital, but you have your doubts. What’s the answer then? Business is up, for sure: ROI has increased. It’s just not moving the way it should. So you take logical steps to drive that business forward… checking your competition, ensuring your SEO is correct… Stop looking elsewhere (at your competitors, for instance) and start taking stock of your own conversion rates.
Lean Startup and Conversion Optimization are similar IDEAS: Brainstorming, based on data and analysis. You use analytics to measure, then usability testing, gather more data and repeat, repeat, repeat… BUILD – ideas and research lead to initial build, of course.. leading to a PRODUCT - Now you spend time delving into your stats. Product working? LEARN - either yes or no. If no, why not? Oh hell, it’s back to IDEAS… This is the height of inefficiency, when too many random statistics produce nothing but confusion.
Structured Approach The solution is truly simple. Yes, ideas: but they lead to a strategy and, in Galaxy’s case, we employ a structured approach to testing. Test plans. Test cases… and usability testing. All the plans, data, and stats in the world amount to nothing if a user: •finds the product/content irrelevant to their needs Galaxy | WEBLINKS LTD Call at: 888.666.4316 http://www.galaxyweblinks.com/
•can’t USE the product simply •doesn’t understand how it works within a short period of time Some months after going live, we have accumulated a massive amount of data. This we measure in various ways. We are big on customer surveys, for instance, learning exactly how customers behave whilst searching your site. Do they find a clear path to their needs? We carefully extract certain stats, massage that data, and come up with a goal. Analysis. Now that we have a clear goal, the time has come: what’s working and what isn’t? We analyze that data for relevancy and clarity to determine if it actually meets customer’s needs or not. Once again, usability but this time there’s an actual product or prototype to present to your group. Now is the time for analyzing user paths through your site. Are they convoluted? Does a single click get them where they want to be? OK, goals now set. What’s working well and what isn’t? Time to analyze content for relevancy (Google will be so glad to run across relevant content: however, if you’ve gone astray…) Now is the time for testing. A/B Tests are as simple as they sound: they test two (or more) versions of your page and determine which works or not: which provide positive results. With this method, you ensure conversion rates are improving PRIOR to changing site code. Multivarate testing doesn’t test two or more entire pages: rather, it tests the elements inside one page (and how they work with each other) to determine which works the best for achieving your goal. (Think headers, buttons, images and so on.) Easy enough: create several versions of the page to be tested, with various combinations of buttons and graphics. For simplicity’s sake, when your traffic is higher Multivarate is a good way to test to see if subtle changes interact to incrementally improve an existing design. These tests provide data you can extrapolate out and apply to a larger site design. IMPORTANT: A/B and Multivarate tests both require significant traffic to the page(s) being tested: it’s always good to end up with data to analyze! We’ll customize the prioritization of these tests by their specific potential value and cost to you, of course. You’ll be working closely with our team throughout this process, as you did for the initial design. You’ll recognize our next steps: integration, coding and QA of our marketing optimization results. We’ll assign Galaxy | WEBLINKS LTD Call at: 888.666.4316 http://www.galaxyweblinks.com/
specific team members to accomplish this, as needed: copywriters, experienced creatives, tech support, analysts (of course!) web developers, and finally usability experts. With this team, you’ll learn what motivates your customers and why. The result: improved conversion rates & revenue as well as a map for you to follow as you drive your business down that information highway.
Galaxy | WEBLINKS LTD Call at: 888.666.4316 http://www.galaxyweblinks.com/