5 Ways to Become the James Bond of CRO
by Andrew Maliwauki • November 19, 2015
“Optimization… Conversion Rate Optimization.”
Who doesn’t love James Bond? He’s cool, calm and collected (most of the time) while saving the world from an endless amount of villains bent on global conquest and destruction. Naturally, as a conversion focused designer, I couldn’t help but find ways to link my job to that of super spy 007.
While conversion specialists may not have a license to kill, we definitely have a license to test. It’s up to us to save the advertising world from ill-performing landing pages and wasteful spending ad campaigns.
And, with that in mind, here are 5 simple ways you can become the Bond of digital marketing:
1. Be Specific in Your Tests
James Bond doesn’t mess around when it comes to anything, especially his drinks. Always three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka and half a measure of Kina Lillet. Always shaken, and not stirred.
While testing on your landing pages, it’s important to have the same mentality when choosing what elements to test on your variants.
While it’s easy to choose something quick and get a test rolling as soon as possible, it’s not going to be the most beneficial thing for your client or their monthly spending budget. Most tests need about a month to get enough data, which means you only get 12 chances to improve every year!
Be precise. On each of your pages, come up with a well thought-out plan and a specific end goal in mind. Setting targeted testing plans that are backed by data driven ideas will keep your pages focused and show the client an extra level of attention and dedication.
2. Be Resourceful
Just like when 007 is preparing Skyfall manor for an epic showdown, planning an effective and high converting landing page takes time and planning. When creating either a new variant or page from scratch, it’s always a good idea to do the appropriate research before digging in. For me, that includes looking at the biggest competitors in the industry.
That’s right, you need to verse yourself in espionage.
Be resourceful when deciding what to include and leave off of your landing pages. Learn from your competitors and extract the best pieces to build a better page. Keep in mind who your target demographics are when you create your page design and layout, especially when it comes to choosing the right hero shot for your product or service.
You can always learn more about your target audience though survey tools and customer profiling, too.
3. Acknowledge Mistakes
It’s never an easy thing to admit when you were wrong, especially for James Bond. When 007 made the mistake of falling for Le Chiffre’s trap in a Montenegro high stakes poker game, he had to learn the hard way when it came to removing his ego from the equation.
As designers, no one wants to admit that their design failed, but it will happen…most likely a lot. Testing is the name of the game. It’s critical to embrace your mistakes, and use it to calculate your next move to get a landing page to where it needs to be.
Keep a good record of changes and conversion rates that you can have on hand to show your clients at a moment’s notice. Being able to show your boss where a test went wrong can build trust while explaining what you can do differently in the next tests. Plus, the same mistake could be implemented on other parts of their marketing campaign. Any insight can help!
4. Test, Test and Test Again
Let’s face it, no one likes a quitter. Whether you’re tracking down the mysterious mastermind behind the criminal organization known as Quantum or testing a new landing page variant, it’s important to never lose sight of the goal. Instead of getting discouraged with multiple stagnant tests, try starting fresh and create a completely redesigned variant to add to the mix.
Testing doesn’t just apply to pages that are underperforming. James Bonds arsenal is always being improved by Q, even if the grappling hook watch worked just fine in the past.
Keep pushing the limits of what your landing pages are capable of by testing new variants against your best pages. Getting a 70% increase in conversions is great, but why stop there?
5. Sometimes You Need to Go Rogue
Working with certain clients in the world of PPC can be similar to Bond’s relationship with M; you want to do what they ask, but sometimes there’s a better way to go about doing it.
For this reason, you have to go a bit rogue and test things according to your insights and experience. This isn’t to say you should ignore the client’s direction, but that you should test things alongside their ideas.
If a client insists on using that horribly cheesy hero shot or that confusing layout of information, create another variant that has everything the way you want. It’s always interesting to see what works out in the end, but either way, the client will be happy if it gets results.
Like Bond, we should all be striving to be industry-leading experts in what we do! Be assertive when you have to. You’ll be respected for trying to achieve the greatest results, instead of being known as a yes man.
Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept it:
While being a CRO expert may not be as glamorous or exciting as a globe-trotting super spy, there’s definitely satisfaction to be had in getting real quality results for your clients. Apply these few tips to reach that next level in your landing page tests.
It can be easy to get discouraged when things don’t go as planned, but that’s the great thing about A/B testing, we try and try until we get it right. Now, get out there and tackle our next CRO mission!
Can you think of any other ways to run tests like Agent 007? Let us know in the comments!
