Chris Goward's Blog, page 17
January 26, 2016
The top 8 marketing trends for 2016
What should marketers be on top of this year?
As in past years, I sat down with our strategy team and we compiled a list of marketing trends to look for this year. Below is WiderFunnel’s list of the top 8 marketing trends of 2016.
One major theme is the establishment of testing as a widely accepted business practice. If last year we were “embarking on the golden age of conversion optimization,” this year finds us fully entrenched in it.
Here are our 8 marketing ideas to understand:
1. Only t...
January 15, 2016
A-ha! Without a reliable map, visitors get lost
One of our more recent clients is an e-commerce site that manufactures and sells weather technology products.
When we started out with this client, many of the links on their homepage pointed toward content-heavy pages related to products.
During our Explore phase, however, we found that visitors who landed on product listings pages converted at a higher rate than those who landed on these content-heavy pages.
The Explore phase is half of the Infinity Optimization Process...
January 14, 2016
A-ha! Users don’t care if it’s ‘ugly’
DMV.org homepage. DMV.org is a non-government content-based website. They provide visitors with information that they might need for a DMV visit in each of the 50 U.S. states. The company earns revenue through performance-based advertising on their content pages.
The site spans thousands of pages of information.
Because we’ve been working with DMV.org for several years, we were able to pitch the following design test for their auto insurance conversion funnel (and they di...
January 13, 2016
A-ha! The (social) proof is in the video
One of our clients this past year is an e-commerce company. They sell a wide variety of beauty products and use a subscription model. Subscribers are part of an exclusive club and receive a box of beauty products each month.
Red lips courtesy of our client’s beauty box. Most of these subscribers come in from a Facebook ad.
We were focused on this client’s 4-step acquisition funnel. After targeting the first step, we wanted to apply what we had learned to the second step o...
January 12, 2016
A-ha! Isolations turn a losing experiment into a winner
Annie Selke is a multi-faceted company that sells home-ware goods, including home textiles, rugs and luxury linens.
The Annie Selke homepage. We worked with the Annie Selke team over the course of a year to improve conversion rates across their site (which includes five different brands).
Part I: The ‘losing’ testWe ran an experiment on product category and search results pages that featured a left-hand filter. We had tested this filter previously and...
January 11, 2016
A-ha! Personalization goes beyond design
‘A-ha!’ moments are what optimizers live for.
These are the moments that make you jump up and down with excitement.
‘A-ha!’ moments are the insights that lead to more substantial revenue lift and profitable growth for your company.
To kickstart the New Year, we wanted to share some of our favorite ‘A-ha!’ moments of 2015.
It seemed only fitting that we begin this series with a test that reminded us just how important testing actually is.
This case remind...
December 22, 2015
7 habits of highly effective CRO strategists
It’s that time of year, again: a time for reflection and resolutions.
As you look forward, you may be asking yourself…
What worked this year? What needs improvement?
How can I take my optimization strategy to the next level in the New Year?
The WiderFunnel team answering your questions during this year’s Ask Me Anything. Inspired by the Ask Me Anything held earlier this year, we asked our strategy team to describe the habits and...
December 15, 2015
Small changes, big LIFT
Did you ever wonder where that phrase came from?
Steve Jobs? Yoda?
Turns out, Robert Browning first penned those words in the 19th century, in a poem inspiring minimalist designers to push the limits of simplicity.
Big changes or small, always keep testing. Although we know this recommendation colloquially, it’s sometimes hard to accept it when making investments in business decisions.
It’s tempting to assume that dramatic redesigns are necessary for major impact, but with the...
December 9, 2015
The best optimization process just got better
If you’re like a lot of companies, you may be thinking, “What’s an optimization program?” Many companies still think of optimization as a project or tactic, and put little serious effort into building a real program.
But that’s changing fast. The world’s best retailers and B2B marketers alike have implemented programs with refined processes for ongoing, insight-driven optimization.
The maturation of the optimization industry...
December 1, 2015
Do A/B test results fade over time? Surprising results from three years of data.
TL;DR: WiderFunnel has run a three-year demonstration of the most rigorous way to prove the long-term value of a conversion optimization program. Read the full conversion optimization case study here.
Visiting the DMV is no one’s favorite chore.Just understanding how it works can be confusing, complicated and frustrating.
DMV.org aims to change that by providing information to simplify the DMV experience. More than 200 million site visitors a year look up information on how to register a car...
