What, why & how?A process for online optimisation

optimize |ˈäptəәˌmīz|verb [ with obj. ]make the best or most effective use of (a situation, opportunity, or resource): to optimize conversions, the website should be correctly adjusted.

What makes a good website?

Q: What are the elements of a good website?

1. Analytics

Source: Google Insights for search

Feb 7-13

Mar 7-13

Source: Google Insights for search

Feb 7-13

Mar 7-13

Source: Google Insights for search

Feb 7-13

Mar 7-13

Source: Google Insights for search

Decisions

Faith/guesswork

Committee

HiPPO

“We prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance. We pursue knowledge the way a pig pursues truffles

David Ogilvy

Never in the field of marketing endeavor has cause and effect been more measurable or actionable

The real world looks a lot like this

The problem with data?

A better definition?

Understanding the impact of your efforts by analysing outcomes

Understanding your customers’ behaviour better

Continuous improvement through testing

3

1. Collecting data & some ad hoc reporting 2. Reporting data regularly3. Deriving some insights & acting4. Continuous improvement

Analytics: Maturity modelWhere do you fit?

Every metric should be

Simple : I get it

Relevant: that matters

Useful & actionable: let’s fix it3

2. Customer insights

Behind bounce, conversions and abandonments rates are real people trying to give you money. Our job is to figure out why. For that, we need empathy

Mixed methods

• Mapping the user experience

• Expert evaluation & peer analysis

• User testing

• Ethnographic research

• Surveys

Feeling the user’s pain

Feeling the user’s pain

The best online survey ever?

KissInsights.com

What’s important?

The idea came from their photographer who had previously worked in the footwear department at one of their stores. He just instinctively knew to tip over the boots because, in the stores, he watched the customers pick up the boots to look at the tread. Had he not worked there, the team never would've thought to tip the boots over.

3. Design

Sketching

Workshop rules

• No spectators, only participants.

• Not a meeting – an activity to produce designs.

• No abstract conversations, make ideas tangible by sketching them.

sketch review decide

Lots

A fewgood ones

Create decisions before we make one

Getting the design right and the right design

How the user experience designer made it...

What the sales agent wanted...

How the programmer changed it...

How the programmer changed it...

What marketing asked for...

What marketing asked for...

Don’t forget to run it by legal...

Don’t forget to run it by legal...

..but there are rules

9 rules of form design1. Ask for as little information as you can2. If it helps the user to answer a question, explain to them why

you’re asking it3. Maintain a straight path to completion4. Align the text according to the rules5. Label the fields in terms your users understand6. Offer intelligent defaults and examples where necessary7. Distinguish between primary and secondary actions8. Offer the user recovery methods when things go wrong9. When a form is complete, explain what happens next

4. Testing

• What’s wrong

• Why it’s wrong

• Test alternatives

What to test

Ad copySite contentEmail Radical design change (ab)Page elements (mvt)

"The headline is the most important element. It is the telegram which decides the reader whether to read the copy"

What works or what works best?

“Two for the price of one” OR

“Buy one get one free”

Buy now

Buy now

Buy now

Buy now

Add to cart

Add to cart

Add to cart

Add to cart

Where to test firstTop entry pages

with high bounce rates. Pages with good traffic and clear

purpose & conversions

Buy now

This layout?

Or this layout?

Optimizely.com

12.5% conversion rate

31% conversion rate

+22% in sales

What to test

Expectation - does the page people land on match the promise made?

What to test

Clarity of page purpose visual hierarchy, clarity and purpose of content

What to test

Urgency: are we influencing this?

Buy now only 3 left

Buy now 10% off today

What to test: trust

What to test

Distractions

But what’s the impact?

Last Monday at 5:13 PM we removed CAPTCHA from Sampa.

The result: 9.2% improvement on our conversion rate!Marcelo Calbuccihttp://marcelo.sampa.com/

Remember this one?

8.5% conversion rate

29.3% conversion rate

What are you optimising for?

Optimising for mobile

Why mobile?

• In the evenings, more searches are done on mobile versus a desktop i.e. the mobile is now used instead of the laptop.

• Smartphone penetration around 32%, expected to double year-on-year

• Mobile-optimised can increase the chances of an impulsive purchase

Another case study

30%+ of the email offers are read on smartphones (up from 10% last year).

Average order value (AOV) from mobiles are around 1.5 times that of desktop, yet site is not optimized for mobile.

Approach

• Focus on the right data & outcomes (KPIs)

• Look for insights

• Take action (design) & test

• Measure & repeat