A/B (Split) Testing – Part 03

A/B testing is a fantastic method for figuring out the best online promotional and marketing strategies for your business. It can be used to test everything from website copy to sales emails to search ads.

Well-planned A/B testing can make a huge difference. Here is the first in a series of posts covering A/B testing that I’ll be publishing in the coming weeks.

How Do You Plan an A/B Test?

• Test With Multiple Versions of Landing Page
  • Which Copy Increased Trial Sign-Ups
  • Which Landing Page Got Lead Generation Form Submissions
  • Test Buttons, Images and Headlines.
    
  • Does Matching Headline & Body Copy to Your Initial Ad Copy Really Matter?
    
  • Test Hyperlinks and different Find out which radically Redesigned Form Increased B2B Leads.
  • Try adding testimonials to your Homepage to know if that increase Sales
  • Try different Social Proof, i.e. ‘Big Brand Prices’ vs. Consumer Ratings. Find out if that increase Conversions
  • Add an Email Security Seal Help or Hinder Lead Generation Form Completions.
    
  • Try with multiple PPC Landing Pages. Find out which one got more trial downloads?
• Site Navigation
  • Test the order of menu items in site navigation.
  • Test the display of navigation bar to find out if site visitors prefer a horizontal or vertical orientation
  • Try a fixed navigation bar that travels down the page as site visitors scroll
  • Test out the title of navigation items. A simple change, like How It Works to “Why Us” may have a significant impact.
  • Testing Tip: If a test fails, try targeting the test to new versus returning visitors. Returning visitors are accustomed to seeing the site in a certain way—if a link or menu item is missing from the spot they normally go to find it, they’re not going to do the work to locate it.
• Test Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons:
  • Change the call-to-action (CTA) text on your buttons tosee which word or phrase converts more visitors
  • Try varying the location of your CTA button, making some CTAs more prominent than others
  • Test multiple CTAs per page against one CTA per page
  • Try using hyperlinks instead of buttons to find out which display your users prefer
  • Test CTAs with text, icons, or text + icons convert more users on your site
  • Test different CTA hover states to make it more obvious that buttons are clickable and create a feel of interactivity on the page
  • Do a multi-page funnel test on the communication process to figure out where people drop off in that flow
  • Test different colors, shapes, and sizes for CTA buttons on your website
  • Sample Test 01
    • A: See Live Demo | B: After hours help
    • Audience: Customers
    • Goal: Clicks on call to action button
    • Result: B increased clicks on CTA by XYZ%.
    • Takeaway: Customer Interest
  • Sample Test 02
    • A: 1 CTA |B: Multiple CTAs
    • Audience: Customers
    • Goal: Clicks on call to action
    • Result: A, 1 call to action, led to a XYZ% increase in clicks.
    • Takeaway:  Customer Click Interest 
      
• Emails A/B Test
  Subject line test: To anticipate questions often hear from new customers, and provide them with accessible resources. If we pose a question in our subject line that mirrors how our customers think about a testing challenge, then clicks to our resource page will increase.
  • Target the audience
    Hypothesis: The click through rate will be higher on FAQ emails for customers who have previously submitted support cases.
    
    Test resource placement
    Hypothesis: Adding a FAQ article list in our help center next to the support submission form will decrease support tickets that are related to the FAQ
  • Subject Line Test 1:
    A: Are your inside sales reps spending only 20% of their time closing?
    B: Do you know how much time your inside sales reps are spending of their time closing?
    Audience: Leads
    Goal: Clicks on call to action button
    Result: Subject line leads to increase in clicks.
    Takeaway: Lead database likes to know what type of content they are receiving.
  • Subject Line Test 2:
    A: New SVP of Engineering arrives with broad experience from Amazon
    B: Mr. X of joins ABC Company as the New VP of Engineering.
    Audience: Customers
    Goal: Opens
    Result: Subject line leads to increase in email opens.
  • Send Time Test:
    A: 7am PT
    B: 4pm PT
    Audience: customers
    Goal: Clicks
    Result: B, a send time of 4 pm PT increased clicks XYZ%.
    Next steps: Experiment with send times per time zone/country.

 

 

A Few Best A/B Testing Tools?
In order to run effective A/B tests, you need a few tools to determine what to test, run your tests and track your A/B tests. While there are dozens of A/B testing tools out there, we’ve found these to be the most effective.

• Determine What A/B Tests to Run – Qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis tools help you understand where opportunities and challenges lie on your site. Below staged are all great tools to get this insight.
  • Google Analytics
  • KISSmetrics
  • Qualaroo
  • CrazyEgg
  • UserTesting.com
    
• Running A/B Tests – Below staged are the best tools for running A/B test quickly and effectively without needing much, if any, help from your development teams.
  • Optimizely
  • Visual Website Optimizer
    
• Track A/B Tests – There isn’t any one tool that does this exceptionally well. Most people use a combination of below staged tools to keep track of historical A/B test results.
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Google Spreadsheets
  • PowerPoint
  • Internal Company Wikis
  • Intranets

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Ways to Increase User Interaction Traffic To Your Website – Part 02

Have you seen your website engagement go down?
Increase-User-Interaction-Website Not sure how to attract new customers and reduce your website’s bounce rate?

When you focus on improving the way people interact with your website, you’ll be able to deliver a better user experience, increase website traffic, and grow your business. Here’s a few things you might want to try:

Advertise

• Paid search
• Social Media Advertising
• Target high Commercial Intent Keywords as part of your paid search strategies. Competition for these search terms can be fierce (and expensive), but the payoffs can be worth it.

Mix It Up

• There is no magic formula for content marketing success. Vary the length and format of your content to make it as appealing as possible to different kinds of readers.
• Intersperse shorter, news-based blog posts with long-form content as well as video, infographics and data-driven pieces for maximum impact

Write Irresistible Headlines

• Without a compelling headline, even the most comprehensive blog post will go unread.
• Master the art of headline writing.

Pay Attention to On-Page SEO

• Are you making the most of image alt text?
• Are you making the most of image alt text?
• What about meta descriptions?
• Optimizing for on-page SEO doesn’t have to take ages, and it could help boost organic traffic.

Target Long-Tail Keywords

• Get your high commercial intent keyword bases covered
• It’s also time to target long-tail keywords, too. Long-tail keywords account for a majority of web searches, meaning that if you’re not targeting them as part of your paid search or SEO efforts, you’re missing out.

Start Guest Blogging

• Guest blogging isn’t dead. Securing a guest post on a reputable site can increase blog traffic to website and help build brand into the bargain.
• Invite people in your niche to blog on your own site. Be sure that you only post high-quality, original content without spammy links.

Go After Referral Traffic

• Rather than trying to persuade other sites to link back to you (a tedious and time-intensive process), create content that just begs to be linked to.
• Learn what types of links send lots of referral traffic, and how to get them, in this post.

Interview Industry Thought Leaders

• Publish the interviews on your blog. Not only will the name recognition boost your credibility and increase traffic to your website.
• The interviewee will probably share the content too, further expanding its reach

Don’t Neglect Email Marketing

• Be careful not to bombard people with relentless emails about every single update in your business.
• Word-Of-Mouth Marketing, especially from people who are already enjoying your products or services.

Foster a Sense of Community

• Building a community into your site is a great way to start a conversation and increase traffic to your website
• Implement a robust commenting system through third-party solutions such as Facebook comments or Disqus, or create a dedicated forum where visitors can ask questions.
• Manage your community to ensure that minimum standards of decorum are met, however.

Get Active on Social Media

• It’s not enough to produce great content and hope that people find it – the best ways to increase traffic to website is to use social media channels to Promote Your Content.
• LinkedIn has become much more than a means of finding another job, which means you should be posting content to LinkedIn on a regular basis.
• Got a Twitter account? Then join in group discussions with relevant hashtags. Is your audience leaving comments on your Facebook posts? Answer questions and engage with your readers.
• Twitter is ideal for short, snappy (and tempting) links, whereas Google+ promotion can help your site show up in personalized search results and seems especially effective in B2B niches.

Submit Your Content to Aggregator Sites

• Firstly, a disclaimer – don’t spam Reddit and other similar sites hoping to “hit the jackpot” of referral traffic, because it’s not going to happen. Choose a relevant subreddit, submit your content, then watch the traffic pour in. Here’s a list:
  1. 10 Social News Aggregators for new content ideas
  2. Algorithm-based Content Aggregator Websites
  3. 5 Best Content Aggregator Websites
  4. News Aggregation Sites
  5. News Aggregation Services
  6. Blog Aggregator Websites To Promote Your Blog
  7. News Aggregators

Incorporate Video into Your Content Strategy

• Text-based content is all well and good, but video can be a valuable asset in both attracting new visitors and making your site more engaging
• Data shows that information retention is significantly higher for visual material than it is for text, meaning that video is an excellent way to grab – and hold – your audience’s attention, and boost traffic to your website at the same time

Research the Competition

• Use BuzzSumo to check out what your competitors are up to. These services aggregate the social performance of specific sites and content to provide you with an at-a-glance view of what topics are resonating with readers and, most importantly, making the rounds on social media.
• Find out what people are reading (and talking about), and emulate that kind of content to bring traffic to your website.

Host Webinars

• People love to learn, and webinars are an excellent way to impart your wisdom to your eagerly awaiting audience.
• Combined with an effective social promotion campaign, webinars are a great way to increase traffic to your website.
• Send out an email a week or so ahead of time, as well as a “last chance to register” reminder the day before the webinar. Make sure to archive the presentation for later viewing, and promote your webinars widely through social media.

Attend Conferences

• The industry you’re in, chances are there are at least one or two major conventions and conferences that are relevant to your business. Attending these events is a good idea – speaking at them is even better.
• Even a halfway decent speaking engagement is an excellent way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and gain significant exposure for your site.

Survey Your Audience

• Create a short survey that your users can take, which provides them with a way to share their voice, and gives you valuable insight.
• One of the best tools for adding surveys and polls to your website is SurveyMonkey.com. Another great tool is Qualaroo, which allows you to easily create a poll to collect user insights.
• Repurpose your content into different formats, which certain users might enjoy. Then ask them to complete the survey to access the new format, such as an ebook, a podcast so users can take your content on the go, a video guide and have a survey for access.
• Post a poll or survey in your sidebar so it’s easily visible

Craft A Great Autoresponder Series

• Email list is one of the most important assets. It enables you to have a direct line of communication with your subscribers. A successful email campaign will improve repeat visits, engagement, loyalty, referrals, and profit.
• Use a reputable email service provider so that you can get your message into people’s inbox at a high rate (I love Mailchimp!)
• Include options for users to forward your email to others, and to share on social.
• Here is a nice List of 20 newsletter template sources, worth a view.

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Ways to Optimize Your Website to Increase Traffic – Part 01

If you have a product you’re really proud of, it should speak for itself. But when it comes down to it, you still need to get customers on your website in the first place.

Here’s a few tips that might help you to do so:

Implement Schema Micro Data

• Implementing schema (or another micro data format) won’t necessarily increase traffic to your website on its own, but it will make it easier for search engine bots to find and index your pages.
• Another benefit of using schema for SEO is that it can result in better rich site snippets, which can improve click-through rates.

Link Internally

• The strength of your link profile isn’t solely determined by how many sites link back to you – it can also be affected by your internal linking structure. When creating and publishing content, be sure to keep an eye out for opportunities for internal links. Focus on contextual linking within a posts main content.
• Hot linking increases traffic/page views. At the same time hotlinking may actually be bad for you if you do not take into consideration other SEO techniques as explained here: Google Product Central Help Forum
• A few of things to note:
  1. Don’t try to stuff your keywords in the anchor text
  2. Use the article title, or random phrases
  3. Using keyword targeted anchor text is still OK some of the time, just use it a low percentage of the time
  4. Don’t overdo internal linking as this just annoys people
  5. Have the link open in a new window or tab so that users can easily go back to the original article
  6. Internal links pass SEO value to your linked pages and provides an obvious way for search spiders to crawl your site
  7. Link to your deep, inner pages, not your top level content
  8. If a link is natural and contextual, you aren’t going to be linking from one article back to the homepage. Rather, you’ll be linking to another article that is somehow related to the first one.
  9. Use dofollow links (you want that juice flowing smoothly)

Make Sure Your Site is Responsive & Fast

• Ensure that your website is accessible and comfortably viewable across a range of devices, including smaller smartphones.
• Make sure that your pages are as technically optimized as much possible. Here is a very useful infographic from Kissmetrics on how speed affects your bottom line. The most alarming statistic: A 1-second delay can result in a 7% decrease in conversions!
• Make your nav bar sticky: This one is basic, but important. Because it keeps your most important pages readily available at all times.
• Improve your site navigation: Having proper site navigation is one of the most important factors in increasing user engagement.
• Here are several ways to improve:
  1. Use descriptive titles for your navigation (don’t get cute with your link names)
  2. Main categories should be clearly separated from subcategories
  3. Navigation should be in the same place throughout your site
  4. Use analytics to test what content is most popular and make sure it is easily accessible
  5. You could create a separate “Getting Started” page that highlights your most popular posts
• Here’s a few more things to increase page speed:
  1. Cache your pages
  2. Use gzip compression
  3. Use Keep-Alive
  4. Implement a content delivery network
  5. Try to lower the amount of redirects
  6. Reduce your JavaScript
  7. Ensure you don’t have bad requests
  8. Decrease the number of DNS lookups
  9. Serve page elements from the same domain
  10. Input image sizes
  11. Optimize your images – WordPress does this a little bit when you upload an image. Beside using services like Optimizely could come handy.
  12. Upgrade your hosting – Upgrading your hosting of course costs money, but you gain increased server memory and processor power in return which is a fair tradeoff in my opinion.
  13. You can also use Google’s own speed testing tool, PageSpeed . You can either use it online to analyze your site, or use can install it on your server for monitoring.
  14. Use a CDN

Examine Your Analytics Data

• Google Analytics focuses on telling how people use your website. This includes things like referral pages and keywords, entry and exit pages, page views, and click patterns. Google Analytics tells you about the page views
• Quantcast focuses on telling you the nature of your audience. This includes things like the users’ demographics and psychographics, other sites your users tend to visits, what businesses and industries they represent, and cross platform (online, mobile, and app) engagement and retention. Quantcast tells you about the page viewers (also referred to as your website’s audience)

 Split test everything

• Here are some of the things to test:
  1. Different versions of your navigation to see if pages get more or less clicks
  2. Different locations for your sharing and follow buttons
  3. Your color scheme, text sizes, and font style
  4. Headline text
  5. Everything about your call to action
  6. The images you use
  7. The location of your signup form
  8. Anything else you can think of for your particular business
• Here are some general guidelines to split testing:
  1. Always test both versions of your site at the same time
  2. If you test one version for a day and the other version a different day, your results could be off.
  3. People behave differently depending on the time of day and day of week
  4. Make sure to let your test run for long enough to gather a sufficient amount of data
  5. You should segment your users so that only new users see the test
  6. If you have regular visitors, you don’t want their experience to change every time they load your site
  7. Ensure that once a visitor sees a variation, they see that same variation throughout the test
  8. The tool you choose should have this as an option
  9. Once you find a clear improvement, implement it. Then, rinse and repeat. Continual improvement.
  10. When choosing a tool to conduct your split tests, there are many options to go through. One that I like to use is Google Website Optimizer. This is Google’s free split testing tool, and it is fully integrated into Analytics!
• Reference article of some cool stuff to get started with: Things to A/B Test

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