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The tools currently available to digital marketers fail not because of what they do, but because of what they don’t do. Tools like Optimizely, Google Analytics and Adobe Target are great analytics tools – giving marketers data on what has already happened (e.g. the observed behavior). However, they do not help digital marketers get to the underlying reason for that behavior, the WHY! We believe that digital marketers have been sold short by not having a way to discover why more visitors don’t convert and how to make their pages better – with tools that only measure visitor behavior not ones that provide insight into that WHY.
What do digital marketers test?
Optimization tools measure results of tests. The results, however, are only as good as the test. So, how does a digital marketer decide what to test? Our own research drives home the challenge. When asked how digital marketers decide what to test the majority suggest ideas generated by marketing teams or conversion best practices (e.g. button colors, image changes). A smaller number of digital marketers run usability tests and even fewer rely on agency creative changes.
In a world where customer feedback, insights and user experience abound, digital marketers are are often experimenting without the information that could make every test (and every message, image or offer) more effective.
Testing is addictive but is it effective?
The world of A/B testing is addictive and A/B test companies focus on getting digital marketers tools to experiment and iterate as fast as they can. It is no secret that companies often struggle to develop and code page experiments – and that often these marketers have a long list of pages that are awaiting development time before they can launch. ‘
The result is that optimization tool vendors have started to offer simple editors so that marketers can make and test those simple changes without development. This functionality is great but still does not address the root cause of WHY.
A/B Platform editing sounds great, but is it really?
While in platform editing is an excellent feature to test the “little things”, it takes digital marketers farther down the path of incrementalism. Instead of understanding why visitors don’t convert, and looking at ways to change the visitor experience, digital marketers may find themselves spending more time doing what they can do (in platform) versus doing larger, customer driven experiments.
Knowing “WHY” is the answer
Our customers have found significant conversion increases by focusing more on what their customers are saying and doing. By understanding “why” they don’t convert, and understanding their visitors’ emotional and rational experience of a page they can design multiple and varied experiments which are tested without the need for coding or launching via an A/B platform until they have honed in on the improvements most likely to significantly increase conversion.
What do you think? Are you a digital marketer? Do you find yourself choosing tests that are easy to develop and launch, versus those that focus on what the customer needs to feel and see before converting?
Email us at marketing@wevoconversion.com or contact us here.
