You see case studies like…
PPC Landing Page Optimization Test with 32.5% Conversion Rate Lift
How we increased the conversion rate of Voices.com by over 400%
eCommerce Retailer Lifts Sales Conversion Rate by 22% with Conversion Rate Optimization
Soocial: how two magical words increased conversion rate by 28%
…and you just know you should be doing conversion testing (A/B, multi-variant, usability, etc.) on your website. Problem is, you have these other projects to do, you don’t have the resource to assign it to someone else and there is little awareness of conversion testing elsewhere in the company, particularly amongst senior decision makers.
So how do you change that?
Two routes:
1) Case Studies and Hypothetical Data
Take those case studies, pull your analytics data, and build a business case to present to your boss.
The case studies will act as social proof. Look what happened when these (reputable) brands took the initiative. Look at the payoff. This will build confidence during the decision-making process.
Show them the datA from your conversion funnels. We spend our Marketing budget pushing potential customers into the top of the funnel and look how many come out the other end. At this point show them some hypothetical numbers. If we can increase conversion by 10% it will mean £X in additional revenue.
This is important, as you’ll need to be able to demonstrate the financial gain versus the costs of conversion testing (which may only be time – yours and the technical resource to implement).
If your numbers stack up, you’ll have a strong case for implementing a conversion testing programme.
2) Just Do It
Route 2 is a little maverick.
If you feel like you might need a little more evidence than presented in Route 1, then its time to take matters into your own hands.
The success of this will depend on how your company works internally. A single conversion test, such as an A/B test, doesn’t take much work. For instance, it could involve making changes to just a single static page. All you need is to know what you want to test, tracking code from Google’s free Website Optimizer and a friendly web designer to make the graphics and implement it for you.
(Just make sure the outcome of your test will be significant enough. If the 10% improvement translates into an actual revenue increase of £100 is that really going to impress?)
So, your test runs relatively incognito and you get real data and measurable impact. Providing your results are positive of course, you now have demonstrable proof that conversion testing works for your business.
Both routes could work. You just need to choose the route that is the most applicable to your business. The important takeaway is that you need to prove that it’s the right thing for your business to do. I can’t believe there is a website or business that couldn’t be improved through some form of conversion testing. You just need to show them how.