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Website Optimization: Not testing can cost you money
This MarketingExperiments Blog post features Lisa Foreman, Marketing Conversion Manager, Nations Photo Lab, in a video interview speaking on the importance of testing and optimizing your website. Foreman explains why not testing can have a negative impact on the bottom line. http://pow.li/1BHlenN
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Customer Response: The surprising reason why color matters
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Can something as simple as a change in color have an impact on whether a customer will use a search tool on a page?
Intuitively, we thought it did, but we really couldn’t be sure until we tested. This led us question this particular page for a large media brand:
The Variable Tested: “I want to … ” search box
The page was a normal page layout with a white background. However, we wanted to test the impact of color on the search box.
The Treatments: “I want to…” search box color variants
The Results: How did these changes impact clickthrough?
The treatment search box using a white background with red text design (Treatment 1 – example No. 2 in the above graphic) increased search clickthrough rate by 34.32%. Statistically speaking, there was no comparative difference in performance among the other colors.
We gained the following customer insight: The high contrast colors were having an unintended (and negative) effect on customers who would otherwise use the search tool.
All the treatments but Treatment 1, performed the same, and they significantly underperformed when compared to Treatment 1. The search bar with the same background color as the rest of the page (the one that blended in the most) was the winner of the test. What factor caused customers to skip over the higher-contrast search bars? By process of elimination, we can start to understand.
1. The difference was not due to the intrinsic properties of the specific colors
Any meaning customers attach to an abstract color is based on their own subjective or cultural experience. We can guess that the performance difference of the treatment colors was not overall due to cultural perceptions because the red search box did not perform differently from the blue or teal search boxes — two families of colors that typically have opposite cultural meaning for the demographic we tested.
2. The difference was not due to brand affinity
For this particular brand, all the colors fit into the brand guidelines. However, the white background search bar outperformed the others, thus eliminating the possibility of strong brand association.
3. The difference was likely because of banner blindness
As we can see in the illustration above, banner blindness is a condition where customers instinctively overlook any element on a page that resembles a banner advertisement.
We think the higher contrasting colors were causing customers to mentally categorize the search box as a banner that was not actually a part of the content of the page.
By using less color contrast, the search box looked more like a tool on the page and less like a banner.
Ultimately, we learned that customers were more inclined to use a feature of a page when they perceive it as a useful tool that is part of the content of the page.
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Customer Response: The surprising reason why color matters
Sometimes the simplest changes on a webpage can significantly impact that page’s performance. This MarketingExperiments Blog post covers a test of color variations on a webpage search box. The end result may come as a surprise. http://pow.li/1DAqtoK
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Lead Generation: Simple text change leads to 104% lead capture increase
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About a year ago, I remember a conversation I had with Arkadi, a fellow reader of the MarketingExperiments Journal. We were talking about the potential of doing some research together on one of his websites, Ecolinewindows.ca.
As part of that conversation, we were working on an ROI scenario, and we came to a point where it was necessary to figure out just how much opportunity there was to make improvements (while simultaneously understanding the customer ontology).
We started with his homepage:
Now typically in a process like this, one would look at a page in the live-optimization style, mentally compare it to everything they’ve seen in the space, and record a number of recommendations and priorities to focus on.
In this case, I didn’t.
Instead, before making any recommendations, I took a glance at the page and asked him one question: “How are people getting to this page?”
He proceeded to give me the breakdown.
In that breakdown, I noticed something peculiar. His direct type-in traffic was unusually high, insomuch that I felt I needed to probe further.
“Are you running any large-scale offline campaigns, like ads or television?” I asked. “Why are so many people typing in your Web address?”
He then revealed that he had been running a direct mail campaign for some time, but that was the only campaign he could remember that fit my criteria.
Shortly thereafter our time ran out, so I asked him to send me a screenshot of his direct mail marketing collateral, along with some other materials, and scheduled a follow-up call late in the following week to continue our discussion.
This is what he sent:
At this point, I had a hypothesis.
Could it be possible that the majority of his direct type-in traffic was coming from this postcard? If so, what would be the effect of increasing postcard to website continuity? Should he adjust his postcards to direct traffic to a microsite, or would simple changes on his existing homepage be enough to make a difference?
The next week came, and I was prepared for the call. But to my surprise, Arkadi came with some unexpected news.
“Guess what?” he said. “I was able to double my conversion rate!”
“Great!” I said. “How?”
That’s when he showed me his treatment:
See the difference? (Compare his new headline to his direct-mail copy.)
Arkadi had the same hypothesis about his homepage, and out of that hypothesis came a simple test: What effect would direct-mail copy in his homepage’s headline have on his website’s lead generation rate, both when it came to calls and Web form submissions?
With one bold, courageous stroke, he put his hypothesis to the test.
The result: A statistically significant increase in both qualified calls and Web form submissions (I viewed the data firsthand and certified it).
What was the greatest takeaway from this increase?
For me, it wasn’t so much about confirming our hypothesis about channel-to-website continuity or even exploring the impact of connecting offline and online. Instead, it was moreso about understanding the power of the simple process that brought us to our conclusion.
That same, simple and powerful process also created the winning treatment in this case study:
From this:
To this:
Here are the results of that test:
My advice?
Before you assess for changes, assess for customer motivations. Take the time, find out what it is that they’re looking for, why they care, and connect it with what you already have.
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Landing Page Testing and Optimization: How Intuit grew revenue per visitor 23% [MarketingSherpa case study]
Marketing Concepts: 3 telltale signs your homepage is not customer-focused [More from the blogs]
Lead Generation: Simple text change leads to 104% lead capture increase
This MarketingExperiments Blog post features an optimization process highlighting a website copy change to match the copy on a direct mail piece that led to a 104% increase in lead capture. Learn more about how this case study applies to using customer motivation when making changes to your marketing material. http://pow.li/1pKgY3F
