With so many different facets of digital marketing to choose from – where should you begin, and who should you trust when listening?
At MyFormData – Web Form Automation Software, we follow a lot of trustworthy leaders in the industry, but Neil Patel is a titan of marketing and a major influencer on the web. At 33 years young, he already tops many different rankings and listings for the best marketers, authors, and leaders. He knows everything about digital marketing, and he gladly shares it with the world via his blog on https://neilpatel.com/blog/.
With so many different facets of digital marketing to choose from – where should you begin? Again, we will look to Neil for an answer, and he recommends conversion rate optimization, or CRO. CRO is most effective when you already have a solid product, an understanding of your audience, and a functioning website.
These 7 tips we’re sharing are from the Definitive Guide to Conversion Optimization, found here, but luckily we have gleaned (what we consider) the most important tips in the eBook:
- Use A/B testing instead of multivariate tests. A/B testing is more simple and better for starting out, and A/B testing requires less traffic and manages to deliver consistently positive results. Multivariate testing can be cumbersome and complicated, and results can sometimes be murky at best, leaving you wondering about the correct choice. If you are new to digital marketing, just stick to A/B testing. It will get you where you need to be. The results will almost always be positive.
- Begin by testing for bigger changes, and then sweat the small stuff. Neil says that “Big changes lead to big wins,” and we tend to agree. You can play small ball and make incremental changes that push the needle along, but often for small business owners time is not on your side. Test some pretty drastic changes and see if your conversions skyrocket at all. If they do – good for you. If they don’t – just try again!
- Remember that revenue is better than conversion. Along with testing your website, you should run a few tests on your price point. Sure, by increasing the price you will likely sell a bit less, but even when selling less product you still have a great opportunity to improve revenue. A decrease in conversion rate doesn’t always spell doom – not if you incrementally increase your price. Again, it’s best to just test this before going all the way in.
- Don’t expect to win every time. Speaking of success – you have to realistic, and that is knowing that you are not always going to increase revenue. Part of this is adjusting your expectations. Hiring a CRO firm doesn’t guarantee that you will double your customers in a few months. In fact, most business only get a few breakthrough wins each year that are statistically significant.
- Make decisions informed by data, not opinions. Best practices are not always ‘best’ practices for everyone. Follow what your data is telling you. Running tests based on data is most important. If your CEO thinks that adding social buttons to every page will improve CRO – run a test to prove whether or not that person might be right. Data will always be your ultimate authority in CRO.
- Show your results and specific benefits of your product on your website. Consumers love and trust products with testimonials and lots of reviews. Make sure that reviews, case studies, and testimonials are prominently featured. Keep in mind that bad reviews don’t necessarily hurt – as long as they are further in the past and you have fixed the problem. That will show your audience that you are always improving, and you care about their experience with your product or service. Plus, having only 5-star reviews may raise a few eyebrows on skeptics.
- Be patient and never stop testing! Again, never stop testing your site, and realize that CRO is not an overnight recipe for success. Variations that begin strong can crash and burn, and for a long term strategy, pulling the plug early could be costly. For a long term strategy like CRO, never trust short term results.
At MyFormData we follow a number of great minds in the industry, but we also consider ourselves capable of doing great things, especially for marketers!
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