MarketingExperiments Blog: Research-driven optimization, testing, and marketing ideas

Today on the MarketingSherpa blog, I discuss length as it applies to content marketing. But in this MarketingExperiments blog post, I’m going to discuss length as it applies to marketing copywriting on a landing page.

While content marketing and landing page copywriting are very similar in one element – you are not hemmed in by the same media space restrictions you would have in a print ad – they are very different in the main goal of the piece.

Content marketing should help your audience, and by helping your audience eventually help your business goals as well. In this instance, you are mainly aiming to serve your audience.

Landing page copywriting should serve your business goals, and assuming you have a product or service that has a true value proposition, in the end help your audience as well. In this instance, you are trying to express your value proposition as clearly as possible. Sometimes length adds to clarity, sometimes it detracts. Read more…

I know how it feels to not finish a landing page optimization (LPO) project. A couple of years ago I started running my own business as an Internet marketing consultant and was tasked with optimizing several SEO landing pages for a client. I told them I would, but as I started the project I realized fairly quickly that I simply didn’t have the know-how or the resources to follow through. Eventually I had to tell them I couldn’t do it. That was a rough day.

The only reason I can admit this publicly today is because I know I’m not alone. According to Boris Grinkot’s new LPO Benchmark Report, about half of all LPO projects undertaken are abandoned before the optimized page goes live.

So where does that leave you?

Chances are fairly good that you’ve either not started or not finished an LPO project of your own. Maybe it’s because you don’t know how to do LPO. Maybe it’s because you don’t have the resources. Whatever the reason, I’m assuming you want to have a successful LPO project under your belt or you wouldn’t have read this far.

Knowing that, I’ve put together this little list of resources to help you get your LPO projects done: Read more…

“Is this test statistically significant?”

“Yes.”

That one word answer, “yes,” can be highly misleading. In Friday’s MarketingExperiments blog post, I discussed statistical significance and validity and why it is so important to getting the most from online testing.  And while it is reassuring to know that a test is valid, what exactly does that “yes” answer mean? To find out, let’s take another look at why I’m alive, even though my mother never put me in a “fancy, new fangled car seat,” Helicobacter pylori, and the importance of understanding probability in marketing tests. Read more…

It’s the same problem, every time…

Someone new to online testing, excited to get started, eager to begin crunching numbers and reporting amazing results:

• They decide on a few things that they instinctively think will raise conversions
• They make all the changes on one page, maybe two
• Setup all sorts of tracking that they’re not sure what to do with
• And push the start button thinking that their one page will see a major increase

Rarely does a test actually perform the way we expect it to, though. We believe that one set of pages will completely outperform another, when the reality is that some performance is all over the place.

When the test is complete, what will you report upstream? That the test was a wash? Or did you learn something that will bring you closer to the key insights that will have an effect on your bottom line?

Most beginners run into a test without being able to tell you what they are really testing.

They typically say, “I’m testing to see if this page increases conversions!” The problem with this statement is that it doesn’t do anything for you if the page, well, doesn’t.

In addition, if it does raise conversion, you don’t really have the slightest idea why. Instead, you get a false sense of confidence about what works on your site and what doesn’t. Then you get yourself into much deeper trouble, making assumptions for other parts of the site or customer segments that end up costing you revenue in the long term. Read more…

As a presenter on our recent technology-focused web clinic, I had the pleasure of learning about an experiment devised by my colleague, Jon Powell, that illustrates why we must never assume that we test in a vacuum devoid of any external factors that can skew data in our tests (and even looking at external factors that we can create ourselves).

If you’d like to learn most about this experiment in its entirety, you can hear it firsthand from Jon on the web clinic replay. SPOILER ALERT: If you choose to keep reading, be warned that I am now giving away the ending.

According to the testing platform Jon was using, the aggregate results came up inconclusive. None of the treatments outperformed the control with any significance difference.  However, what was interesting is the data indicated a pretty large difference in performance with a couple of the treatments.

So after reanalyzing the data and adjusting the test duration to exclude the results from when an unintended (by our researchers at least) promotional email had been sent out, Jon saw that each of the treatments significantly outperformed the control with conclusive validity.

In other words, if Jon had blindly trusted his testing tool, he would have missed a 31% gain. Even worse, this gain was at the beginning of a six-month-long testing-optimization cycle. If Jon had assumed he had learned something based on inaccurate data that he really hadn’t, this conclusion more than likely would have sent Jon down a path of optimizing under false findings and assumptions.

In other words, to create a simple pre-GPS era analogy, if you make a wrong turn at the beginning of a 600-mile road trip and keep heading in the wrong direction, you will be much farther off the mark than taking the wrong road when you’re just a mile away.  However, in our cases with many businesses, wrong turns and mis-directions can cost from thousands to millions of dollars in lost time and revenue.

Worst of all, this email came from the Research Partner itself. As we run into many times, they unwittingly sabotaged their own tests. With the Internet being a dynamic place, it is next to impossible to avoid every external validity threat to your test, but at the very least we need to make sure that we are not introducing threats with internal campaigns to the same audience.

This is not to say we stop those campaigns, but just be aware of the potential effects on testing. That awareness, at least until computers become sentient beings, requires human involvement. Of course, that’s just one area where a little human curiosity is essential… Read more…

What is it about lead nurturing that makes it so hard to get it right?

Is it the all-too-familiar disconnect between marketing and sales? The hassles of CRM systems — or lack of them? Or the gray areas surrounding lead definitions, scoring, nurturing strategies and who owns what customer touchpoints?

For many organizations, it’s a combination of all the above (and more). And the need for a shift in perspective, if not in the organizational culture, can be a tough sell when monthly and quarterly sales numbers aren’t exactly rosy. That is, unless you can point to proven results and budget-friendly methods you can implement quickly.

If you’re looking for ways to start, or get more from, your lead nurturing process, I’d recommend two new, free resources:

1. In his webinar, Putting the Human Touch into Lead Generation, B2B lead nurturing expert (and colleague) Brian Carroll broke down a case study and several action steps that show how you can use multiple channels — social media, email, webinars, phone and mail — together more effectively. Most organizations are reaching out to prospects in these ways, but they’re not consistently doing it in an optimal way. This one-hour webinar can help you get there.
2. The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing, a new eworkbook from our friends at Marketo, not only offers several best practices, but provides the worksheets and real-world examples you can adapt or adopt (i.e., ideas you can steal). What’s best about this guide? It’s not just another whitepaper pitching services; this is information and research that marketers and sales teams can literally plug into their existing processes, or build those processes if they don’t already exist. You can download the guide here.

You’ve heard the MarketingExperiments team say many times that people buy from people, not websites. Invest some time in these lead nurturing resources and you’re sure to find new ways to cultivate the business relationships that ultimately generate more sales.