How Kentico Partners Can Help Their Customers Make More Money

How Kentico Partners Can Help Their Customers Make More Money

Table of Contents 1

2

3

4

Introduction............................................................................................ 4 1.1

Background..................................................................................... 4

1.2

What is a Conversion...................................................................... 4

1.3

How is Conversion Rate Measured? .............................................. 5

1.4

Why Conversion Rate Optimisation Matters to Kentico Partners . 5

1.5

What Conversion Rate Optimisation is all about ........................... 6

1.6

What about SEO, PPC and Social Media?....................................... 6

1.7

Two Main Reasons people don’t convert....................................... 6

1.8

The Conversion Optimisation Process............................................ 8

Step 1 – Analysis ..................................................................................... 9 2.1

Data Analysis .................................................................................. 9

2.2

Usability Testing ............................................................................. 9

2.3

Usability Monitoring..................................................................... 10

2.4

Customer Surveys......................................................................... 10

2.5

Old Fashioned Selling ................................................................... 11

2.6

What’s the market saying?........................................................... 12

Step 2 – Design ..................................................................................... 14 3.1

Graphic Design ............................................................................. 14

3.2

Forms ............................................................................................ 14

3.3

Being Persuasive........................................................................... 15

3.4

Copywriting .................................................................................. 15

3.5

Authority ...................................................................................... 18

3.6

Scarcity ......................................................................................... 19

3.7

Advertising in Disguise ................................................................. 21

3.8

Taking on the Risk ........................................................................ 22

3.9

Social Proof................................................................................... 26

3.10

No-Brainers .................................................................................. 31

3.11

Bargains ........................................................................................ 33

3.12

Commitment & Consistency......................................................... 33

Step 3 – Implementation ...................................................................... 35 4.1

Mock-up in Lo-fi ........................................................................... 35

4.2

Test the Mock-ups ........................................................................ 35

4.3

Run it past the developers ........................................................... 35

Get started today www.conversion-rate-services.com

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4.4 5

6

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Get it Built .................................................................................... 35

Step 4 – Test ......................................................................................... 36 5.1

A/B Testing ................................................................................... 36

5.2

Multivariate Testing ..................................................................... 36

5.3

The Difference between A/B and Multivariate Testing ............... 36

5.4

Split Testing Tools......................................................................... 37

Step 5 - Release .................................................................................... 39 6.1

Release your Winner .................................................................... 39

6.2

Next Steps .................................................................................... 39

Conclusions........................................................................................... 40


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1 Introduction 1.1 Background As a Kentico Partner one of the things you’ll be doing is building Websites that support your customer’s business. Whether the purpose of those Websites is ecommerce, lead generation or something else, the ultimate goal of the Website is to help your customers business to grow. In this White Paper I want to set out how you can help your customers make more money from their Website by making incremental improvements over time. The focus will be on Conversion rate optimisation. Conversion rate optimisation is based on the fundamental Japanese philosophy of Kaizen. It means “to continuously improve”. There are great examples of continuous improvement in many industries these days, especially in manufacturing. Taking the example of car manufacturing, if you looked at a car from 100 years ago beside a car released this year, you would obviously see a massive difference. But if you lined up cars from each year of the last 100 you would notice only minor changes from one year to the next. So over a process of continuous improvement – Kaizen – engineers have found ways to get the best out of manufacturing processes to make cars just about as good as they can be at this moment in time. This process has only recently been brought to the Internet and Websites, but it is becoming increasingly important and necessary to ensure business stay ahead of their competitors.

1.2 What is a Conversion A conversion can be thought of as a Website Visitor taking some sort of action on a Website. The following can be thought of conversions:        

A Sale A Lead An Enquiry on a Contact Us form A Visit to a Particular Page Subscription to a Newsletter Download of a Document Registration Form Completion ...and many more


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1.3 How is Conversion Rate Measured? Conversion rate is normally expressed as the percentage of Website Visitors who take a specific action.

Conversion Rate =

%

1.4 Why Conversion Rate Optimisation Matters to Kentico Partners So how do we apply this principle to Kentico CMS Website development? Once you have delivered a Kentico CMS Website, what next for your customer? They can go ahead and start changing and adding content. What’s the use of a CMS without changing content? There are a couple of issues here. Firstly they don’t know if what they’re changing will have a good effect. Maybe the change will have a detrimental effect, maybe it will have a positive effect. How do they know which it will be? With the release of Version 6 of Kentico CMS some great new features will be added to the product that will help the customer know if their change has been positive or negative. These are: A/B testing and Multivariate testing. Although you won’t need Kentico 6 to start improving your conversion rate as you’ll see later on. There is a great opportunity for you to help you customers get the best out of their Websites. The bottom line for you is this: the more money you customer makes, the more money they have to spend on your services. So, it’s important for Kentico Partners to help you customers get the most out of the new Kentico features and to advise you customers on the types of things that can be tested. If they test the wrong things and don’t see any gains, they will lose confidence in these new features. So it’s important to get them right from the start. Another benefit Kentico Partners will see is with customers who go against advice and best practice. We’ve all had experience of customers who think they know best, and until now we just had to roll with what they wanted. But what if there was a way to prove that you’re suggestion is better. Wouldn’t that be nice? A/B testing and Multivariate testing can help save customers from themselves!


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1.5 What Conversion Rate Optimisation is all about Conversion Optimisation is all about getting the most value out of every visitor to a Website. It’s about understanding why the majority of people who come to a Website leave without doing anything. In face to face selling, the sales person gets to understand why the customers aren’t buying. They see the reactions and hear the objections to every point made. They get to tailor their sales pitch over time to get the maximum value out of every prospect, On a Website you don’t get that. You just see a big fat percentage without any real idea what's behind it. So your first goal has to be: understanding the problems. There are many tools to help us understand the problems. Though it’s important to remember that the tools are only a means to an end. Your second goal is doing something about it. That means finding solutions to the problems and implementing the solutions in a way that doesn’t do more harm than good. That’s where the testing element comes in. It allows you to know for certain what works and what doesn’t.

1.6 What about SEO, PPC and Social Media? SEO, PPC and Social Media are great and should be implemented where possible. But these are in most cases methods of traffic generation. Paying more for traffic is one way to boost sales and lead conversions. The other is to optimise the Website for conversions. Meaning your customer gets a higher ROI for the same traffic. Taking this approach means your Customer will see an immediately higher ROI on the traffic already coming to the Website. Understanding and tuning existing traffic sources will also be considered in a full conversion optimization process. Making sure you get the right traffic prices from the right source.

1.7 Two Main Reasons people don’t convert The 2 main reasons people don’t convert are: usability and persuasion. Looking at Usability, if people have problems doing things on a Website, they will run out of patience and leave, so we need to ensure the Website is easy to use. To encourage people to take action immediately we need to look at persuasion. The principles of persuasion have been around forever. People Get started today www.conversion-rate-services.com

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will always be people. So the principles of persuasion we will look at will already be familiar to you and are much the same offline as they are online.

Usability Some people who come to a Website really want to give you their money. But they might have issues with the shopping cart or they can’t find what they’re looking for or maybe it doesn’t work on their iPhone.

1.7.1

These are usability issues. You’re making the Visitor think too much and work too hard. So fix the Usability of your site to get the money people want to give you.

Persuasion Figure out how to get the people who aren’t sure about giving you their money to give you their money. This is the more difficult part. Luckily there are plenty of tips and tricks in our conversion rate optimisation arsenal to help us do this.

1.7.2

Most companies spend most of the time on traffic and creating the pages, without really understating the appeal of what they’re selling. And a lot of them see selling online as being different to selling offline. In fact one of the best reference points we have for good Internet marketing has been around for well over 100 years. It’s direct marketing. Not junk mail mind, but really good direct marketing. So if you can, try and read up on direct marketing. You’ll soon see how it compares. 




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1.8 The Conversion Optimisation Process The conversion optimisation process can be thought of in the same terms as the Software Development process. This is a process that you are probably familiar with in delivering Kentico CMS projects. Here are the phases of the process:    

Analysis Design Development Test



Release

So I’m going to walk through the Conversion Optimisation process in the following chapters and show how it fits into these phases.

How We Can Help You We can help your customers make more money by implementing a full Conversion Rate Optimisation process. We can work on an open or white label partnership basis in a number of different ways. We offer fixed price and rolling monthly contracts. We will share any revenues generated by your customers. Please get in touch to find out more.

Kevin McCaffrey P +44(0)28 9075 2366 C +44(0)7506 88 66 36 M [email protected] W www.conversion-rate-services.com


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2 Step 1 – Analysis The first step in the process is to look at what is happening now and what has happened in the past. This process will take a little bit of time to gather the information that will later inform our design. Once these procedures have been put in place, they will be a great source of information for the future.

2.1 Data Analysis 2.1.1 Google Analytics www.google.com/analytics Google Analytics quickly became the de facto standard analytics package for Websites after Google bought Urchin in 2005 and released it’s free analytics package. It’s an excellent tool for trying to Understand who you’re Visitors are and what they are doing on your Website. There is some great information in here to help us measure conversion rate and allow us to understand where to focus our attention first. How to Install Google Analytics on a Kentico Website This video will show you how you can easily install Google Analytics on a Kentico Website. http://www.conversion-rate-services.com/install-google-analytics/

2.1.2 Your Historical Orders One of things you don’t get from Google Analytics is information on individual customers. Luckily you have all that data to hand in your own business systems. So start getting to understand who your best customers are. Where are they from? What do they buy? Why do they like you?

2.2 Usability Testing 2.2.1 Ethnio.com www.ethnio.com Ethnio allows you to recruit you’re very own Website visitors as Usability Testers. A popup comes up onscreen offering them an incentive to take part in a usability test. You qualify people by using a short survey. You get a big list of people to choose from, you give them a call, ask them are they free someday for an hour, then use a screen sharing application such as Webex or Go To Meeting to watch them use your Website and ask them questions as they do. 2.2.2 UserTesting.com www.usertesting.com UserTesting.com has a big database of people who have signed up as usability testers. You sign up as someone who wants to get a test done.


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The Testers make a recording of their screen as they browse with audio and video. They write a report for you at the end. You can define the kind of people that you want to do the test. The testers are rated so you know who's good and who's not.

2.3 Usability Monitoring 2.3.1 Crazy Egg www.crazyegg.com Crazy Egg is a tool that shows you the hotspots that people are clicking on, on your Website. It shows you how and where people click. Not just the links, but any part of the page. This helps you identify the difference between what you want the Users to click on and what the Users actually click on. If people are clicking on something like an image and it’s not a link then you should consider what it was that the User expected to happen, then go ahead and implement it. 2.3.2 ClickTale www.clicktale.com ClickTale captures every mouse move, click, scroll and keystroke that a visitor makes inside a webpage. It uses these movements to build a video of the User's browsing session. It also provides heatmaps in a similar way to Crazy Egg. In your Click Tale account you can playback the videos. It’s like sitting beside the User and watching over their shoulder. It also aggregates the data to tell you how far people scroll down the page, what areas get the most attention and how long people look at them. You can use the Conversion Funnels feature to identify bottlenecks in the funnel, you can then watch people on those specific pages and see what problems they are encountering. Google Analytics tells you how many people abandoned a form, but using ClickTale you can tell what part of the form they abandoned.

2.4 Customer Surveys 2.4.1 Kampyle www.kampyle.com Kampyle is a great tool for getting feedback from your visitors. When you sign up, you get some Javascript code to put in your Website. This does 2 things. It places an icon on your page (preferably all pages) that Users can click on to give feedback. After a minute a pop up appears and asks Users for feedback.


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The User can add bugs, comment on site content, provide suggestions, give you a compliment or anything else they would like to add. There will always be people who like you’re site and people who don’t and you’ll find you’ll receive both positive and negative comments. It's great for people who may have a problem on your site, they're unlikely to email or call you, but they may use Kampyle. Let your visitors tell you what they want. Use that feedback to improve your site. How to Install Kampyle on a Kentico Website This video will show you how you can easily install Kampyle on a Kentico Website. http://www.conversion-rate-services.com/install-kampyle/

2.4.2 4Q www.4qsurvey.com 4Q is a permission based exit popup. What that means is that when a User arrives on a site they see a pop up which asks them if they want to complete a survey after they have finished browsing the Website. If they do, a browser window pops up in the background and stays there for the Visitor when they have completed their task. The guys at 4Q are big on task completion. They figure, that the vast majority of visitors won’t complete a traditional conversion as we know it, such as a purchase or sign up, so 4Q helps us identify the other tasks that you’re visitors are coming for. Visitors will tell us if they were able to complete these tasks successfully or if they couldn’t, why not. 2.4.3 Survey Monkey www.surveymonkey.com Survey Monkey is one of the best traditional Online Surveying applications. To get some great insights from an existing customer base, you can create a survey on Survey Monkey, then mail a link to all your customers. Not many people survey their customers, but we think it’s incredibly important. The answers to all of your marketing questions are in the minds of your customer. Start asking them.

2.5 Old Fashioned Selling 2.5.1 Selling Face to Face One thing that can really be overlooked in Internet Marketing is Face to Face selling. It’s something that can prove very useful yet very few people do it. In fact they go out of their way to avoid it. In face to face sales you get to see the expressions and hear the objections of the customer to find out what turns them off.


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If you can’t sell face to face yourself, then talk to Sales staff or call center staff. Find out what objections customers raise on a regular basis. The answers to these objections should on the key landing pages of the Website. 2.5.2 Live Chat www.liveperson.com or www.google.com/talk Live chat can be a great way to gather immediate customer feedback as the Visitor progresses through the conversion funnel. Helping a customer to the next step in your funnel reveals not just "where" the sticking points are, but also a very detailed "why" since you are actually having a conversation with that customer. Visitors will type stuff into the Live Chat session that they would never say to sales person and because there’s no commitment they can quit at any time. They know they're not going to get hassled because they don’t have to give away their email address or phone number. There are 2 options here. If you want a full blown Live Chat service then Live Person is a good one, but if you want to try it for free then you can use Google Talk. 2.5.3 Refer a Friend www.tellafriendking.com One of the most powerful ways to sell is through personal recommendations. That is, people telling other people about products they like and enjoy. In the coming years we will see Social Media play an ever increasing role in Internet Marketing for this reason. You can however get the benefit of this right now by using a tool like tell-afriend king. Privacy policy permitting you can listen in on your customers selling to their friends. It gives you great insights and allows you to find out why your visitors like you.

2.6

What’s the market saying?

It's not only your customers that you should be listening too. You should also pay attention to people who aren’t your customers but who you would like to be. The kind of people who might be interested in your product or service. It’s very easy to do this online these days. There are loads of communities online as well as forums, blogs and twitter and other social networking sites. You can eavesdrop on your prospects, and listen to what they're saying to each other. Listen to what products they like and don't like. Each of the following lets you track slightly different things. You type in your keywords and get loads of ideas of what your customers are looking for. Get started today www.conversion-rate-services.com

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Twitter search.twitter.com Twitter has rapidly become one of the biggest Social Media sites in the last few years. It allows you to search for keywords and phrases that are related to your product and service. Note down any insights you can gain.

2.6.1

If people are complaining then you immediately have a right to reply to them and an opportunity to rectify the issue for other customers. You can also check out the conversation that your competitors are having with their customers. 2.6.2 Yahoo Answers answers.yahoo.com Using Yahoo Answers, you get to see the questions that people are asking about your product or Service. What questions can you answer? Is this content you should be adding to your Website? Are people looking talking about problems that your product or service solves? If so, then suggest it. But try not to do it in a sales-y way. 2.6.3 Omgili www.omgili.com Omgili is a forum search engine that lets you find online communities, message boards, discussion threads about any topic. Omgili's advanced search features make it one of the best search engines for forums there is. 2.6.4 Google Alerts www.google.com/alerts Google Alerts is great for getting instant notification when someone is talking about your company, competitors, product or service. You’ll get an email notification as soon as Google indexes the content. It can also be provide opportunities for SEO link building. If someone is talking about the topics you are interested in and you can answer their questions, then it can be a great opportunity to get links back to your Websites.

What You Can Do Today At the absolute minimum I recommend that you have Google Analytics installed. If you’re not tracking it, you can’t improve it. See how to install it in Kentico here: http://www.conversion-rate-services.com/install-google-analytics/ Next I recommend you install the free version of Kampyle to start finding out what Website visitors think of your Website. See how to install it in Kentico Here: http://www.conversion-rate-services.com/install-kampyle/ Get started today www.conversion-rate-services.com

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How We Can Help You We have experience of using all these tools to increase our customer’s conversion. Get in touch to learn how we can partner with you to help your customers (and you!) make more money.


3 Step 2 – Design Once you’ve done the analysis, you’ll be bursting with ideas on things you can test. Once you get to the design stage, there are a lot of factors you need to consider. The most important things to remember in this phase is to ensure your design is Usable and Persuasive.

3.1 Graphic Design The less people have to do to take action, the more likely they are going to do it. So keep your Website design simple. Try not to bombard the customer with lots of different ideas. And make sure that a call to action stands out like a sore thumb. Attractive design can get in the way of the communication. The design of your page will either support the message you want to share by drawing attention to the message, or it will detract - by drawing attention to itself. Remember, you don't want people to stop and look AT your web design (unless that actually is your goal, i.e. it's your portfolio). You want them to interact with the information on it.

3.2 Forms When designing Forms make sure you are asking for the bare minimum of information. Do you really need home/work/cell/fax numbers? Some great signup forms I’ve seen recently only ask for email address and password on the first page. When you get to the next page, you get Get started today www.conversion-rate-services.com

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another form with lots more fields. This plays on the commitment & consistency tactic discussed later on. Once you’ve started, you’re likely to continue.

3.3 Being Persuasive Improving the Conversion of a Website isn’t easy. Sometimes a small change will make a big difference, but more often than not its lots of little improvements that make the biggest gain. If a small improvement works, there is always a reason behind it. Once you have overcome the usability issues of your Website, and you’ve made it easy for Users to buy, the next step is to overcome people’s objections. Once you know the objections you can use tried and tested principles of direct marketing and persuasion to influence them. However, each one of these is only relevant if it's directly addressing a problem with your Website. Blindly applying these won't work. If people don't trust you then there's a whole load of tools in your direct marketing arsenal to establish trust. But if it’s because they don't understand what you're offering then there's a whole load of different things you can do to explain what you’re offering.

3.4 Copywriting 3.4.1 Story telling Great copywriters are great storytellers. One of the most powerful and hypnotic tools in the copywriting skill set is storytelling. Stories and anecdotes are a highly rich source of powerful techniques to influence your Visitors and persuade them into becoming your customers. Stories are used naturally in everyday social interaction. For that reason alone, people feel comfortable with them. There’s nothing wrong, devious or even mysterious about a story, and as a result, stories never make your prospects suspicious. If you can convert what you are selling into a story then it's a great way for people to remember you.


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3.4.1.1 Example – Jacob’s Creek

Example – Jacobs Creek Website: www.jacobscreek.com Developed by Kentico Certified Partner Euro RSCG Worldwide - www.eurorscg.com.au

An example of story presented graphically might be a company history, which can be done graphically in a timeline. I’ve seen this done well and done poorly. The following example from Jacob’s Creek is excellent.

3.4.2 Reason Why When you’re trying to get someone to comply with your wishes you’ll give a reason why. For example, in many hospitals you are asked to wash your hands as you enter. The line “Wash your hands to stop the spread of infection” is likely to work better than just “Wash your hands” Don’t forget to tell people WHY they should take action. Many Websites you visit, you won’t see a single reason why you should buy. Bulleted lists with nice tick mark graphics are great for this.


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3.4.2.1 Example – ModernMed

Example - ModernMed Inc Website: www.modernmed.com Developed by Kentico Gold Partner Gatesix Inc - www.gatesix.com

Below is an example of a Website using Reason Why Copy from ModernMed a US based healthcare provider. See on the right hand side under Why ModernMed.

What I’d Like to Test Although ModernMed are on the right track giving reasons why, I’m not sure the reasons are the best. The language is a bit flowery. I’d test reasons that outline the benefits to the reader. Also, the “Learn More by watching our video” is a good Call to Action, but I’d test having it stand out a more.


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3.5 Authority You'll probably find that people in uniform get away with a lot of stuff that an ordinary person wouldn’t. We instantly trust people in uniform for some reason. People in white coats can cause the same effect. People seem to bypass any critical reasoning when they see someone in a white coat. 3.5.1.1 Example – EmCare

Example - EmCare Inc Website: www.emcare.com Developed by Kentico Partner

A visual representation in the form of a photograph or image can work really well. In the following example from EmCare, it’s very unlikely that these are real doctors working for EmCare. They’re probably just models. In the back of our mind we probably know that but we look past it and see the authority.

What I’d Like to Test There is no clear Call to Action on this page, so the Visitor is overwhelmed by options. By surveying the customers with a tool like KissInsights or looking at analytics data, we can find out what the main purpose of a visit to the site. We can then display a link to that information clearly on the front page.


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3.6 Scarcity 3.6.1 Scarcity Scarcity occurs when people want more of something than is readily available. If what you’re selling has some kind of limited availability people may see it as being more valuable. Diamonds are a great example of this. Because Diamonds are a scarce commodity they are seen as very valuable. If they grew on trees, nobody would be wearing them. 3.6.2 Exclusivity If you have sole rights to a product then you are said to have Exclusivity. You can use this as a tool for promotion, by saying “only available here” or “you can’t get this anywhere else”. Most big brands limit the stores that can sell their product to retain some sort of exclusivity. This is especially true with high end products. Also you should try having a different priced option. If you have 2 price options, people tend to go for the lower priced. If you have 3, people tend to go for the middle one. 3.6.2.1 Example – Boutique Diamonds

Example – Boutique Diamonds Website: www.boutiquediamonds.com.au Developed by Kentico Partner Get Started - www.getstarted.com.au

Diamonds are an example of exclusive product; you’ll find many jewellers Websites make the most of this and display beautiful images of the products, like this one from Boutique Diamonds.


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What I’d Like to Test What I was really surprised about on this page is that I couldn’t click on the image to go directly to the product. That is the first thing I’d test. I’d also test images for products from different categories, such as earrings, bracelets, necklaces etc to see which resulted in most conversion.

3.6.3 Urgency If you have an incredible offer with only a few days left to run, then it may encourage the Visitor to take action today. Your sale can end this week but that doesn't mean you can't have a different sale next week. Some big successful companies take this approach. Satellite TV provider Sky, send me mailings with limited time offers every month (even though I’m already signed up!). Another big one in the UK is the furniture store DFS, they seem to always have a sale ending this weekend. 3.6.3.1 Example – David Jones

Example – David Jones Website: www.davidjones.com.au Developed by Kentico Certified Partner Bullseye Asia Pacific - www.bullseye.com.au


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Below is the Home Page of Australian department store David Jones. Note they have a “Save 30% or More” offer with the urgent message “Hurry offer ends Sunday”. The following week they had the same offer as “Offer Extended” with “Hurry offer ends Sunday”.

What I’d Like to Test I think David Jones are doing a great job of rotating their offers. I hope they’re tracking which offers and messages work best and are making decisions based on it.

3.7 Advertising in Disguise Many Websites provide Ads integrated into the content of their Website. So much so that it looks like part of the Website. Either advertising their own products, someone elses product or syndicating ads from elsewhere. This displaying of Ads within content only works when the rest of the Website is of value to the customer and is giving great service in return. Look at some of the biggest Internet companies, Google, Facebook, Amazon. They all have ads embedded directly in their Websites, but we continue to use them. Get started today www.conversion-rate-services.com

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If you’re providing good information and a good service to your customers, apparently for nothing, they will keep coming back and maybe eventually they’ll buy something from you.

3.8 Taking on the Risk 3.8.1 Risk Reversal If people see some element of risk in the purchase, then they are likely to back away from it. For example, if you are getting a builder to do some work on your house, then by signing him up to a fixed price contract, removes the risk from you and passes the risk to the builder. It will be the same if you are selling a fixed price for a Kentico CMS development project. If you are doing it for a fixed price then you are assuming most of the risk and it can be more comfortable for the customer to go ahead with the deal. 3.8.1.1 Example – Conversion Rate Services

Example – Conversion Rate Services Website: www.conversion-rate-services.com Yes, it’s our own Website

I couldn’t find a suitable Website for taking on the risk so decided to use my own. Cue shameless plug. I offer a money back guarantee on my services. If I don’t raise the conversion rate, I’ll give you your money back. The guarantee appears in the footer of all our Website pages.


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What I’d Like to Test I am continually testing my own Website. Including the guarantee. I have tested things like: “money back guarantee” versus “if I don’t increase your conversion rate I’ll work for free until I do”.

3.8.1.2 Example – Kentico

Example – Kentico Website: www.kentico.com That’s right. It’s Kentico.

I took another look and I did find an example. Right under my nose. Kentico actually offers a Money Back Guarantee. You can see it in the right sidebar on the Buy page. Get started today www.conversion-rate-services.com

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What I’d Like to Test Kentico are a company who has invested in conversion optimisation. They track their conversion carefully and they test. You’ll notice the Kentico home page has changed a number of times over that last few years. They’re constantly trying to improve it. Maybe they could also test this Money Back Guarantee, by making it stand out a little bit more.

3.8.2 Inertia Reversal Getting people to take action immediately should be one of the goals of any Website. If the Visitor leaves your Website, the chances are they won’t return. Even if they do buy from you, how can you be sure they will return and buy from you the next time? How can you make sure that the Visitor turns into a repeat customer? Most successful businesses are built on repeat custom. So even when you overcome all that inertia to get the first sale, you don’t want to have to go through it all again for the next sale. One of the best ways to keep those customers is to sign them up to a regular subscription. This is how magazine subscription works, and why it’s


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so much cheaper to subscribe to a magazine for a year than to pay for it monthly. Once you have the customer subscribed then the inertia works in the opposite direction, it can take months to get round to cancelling a subscription. That reminds me, I have to cancel my mobile phone insurance subscription! 3.8.2.1 Example – Dynamic Learning

Example – Dynamic Learning Website: www.dynamic-learning.co.uk Developed by Kentico Gold Partner MMT Digital - www.mmtdigital.co.uk

The free trial is one of the best known ways to offer inertia reversal. See the Website below from Dynamic Learning offering a free 30 day trial. If a customer signs up and the product is good enough then they’ll continue.

What I’d Like to Test I’d love to find out what people who don’t continue after the free trial think. Why did they opt out after the trial. This information can be used to improve the offering.


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3.9 Social Proof 3.9.1 Social Proof We all like to think that we’re unique and original thinkers, but it’s proven that we’re far more guided by others than we think. Social proof is defined as “looking for others to guide our decisions”. If everyone else is doing it then there must be something in it. The following are some ways you can use Social Proof to increase your conversion rate. 3.9.2 Customer Reviews Customer reviews are one way to quickly gauge whether other people liked the product you are considering buying. This is one of the keys to success for Amazon. We know we can rely on the reviews because we know that Amazon include both positive and negative reviews of products. 3.9.3 Testimonials Testimonials are similar to customer reviews, but you’re only likely to include the positive ones. Having testimonials from people who are experts in a particular field and who are known to your customers can also provide a real boost. 3.9.4 Media Testimonials Hiring a PR company or doing some PR yourself can be beneficial in a number of ways. It can get you into newspapers and magazines that your customers read, thereby driving traffic. But you can also use the logos from these Publications on your Website to give you some great credibility. Imagine what having the logos of the Wall Street Journal or Time Magazine could do for you. 3.9.4.1 Example – Curtis Stone

Example – Curtis Stone Website: www.curtisstone.com Developed by Kentico Gold Partner Get Started - www.getstarted.com.au

Curtis Stone is an American celebrity chef. His marketing team is doing a great job by getting him into magazines and then showing the magazine pages on the Website.


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What I’d Like to Test There are some great titles on this page Cosmopolitan, People etc. I’d try using the logos from these magazines elsewhere on the site. Maybe in the checkout process to remind the buyer of the credibility.

3.9.5 Demonstration One reason people don't want to place an order is that they don't believe that your product will do what you say it will. If they see people using the product, they should be more convinced. They can also see how the product should be used and hopefully agree that it is easy to use. Images and video are both great for this. 3.9.5.1 Example – VPhase

Example – VPhase Website: www.vphase.co.uk Developed by Kentico Certified Partner Prodo Digital - www.prodo.com


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Here’s a UK based Website from VPhase. It’s an environmentally friendly product that saves you money off your electricity bill. They have a great little video explaining all about it in the bottom left corner of the home page, with a bigger version on the How it Works page.

What I’d Like to Test VPhase are doing a great job, I really like their Website. But there are always plenty of things to test. The main thing in my mind was… “how much does it cost?”. I’m not sure why VPhase are not displaying it, I’m sure they have a good reason. Whatever it is, it’s still worth a test.

3.9.6 Desire to Belong Some companies actively try and create a community around their brand. And some take it to an almost cult like level. Apple is one such company with Steve Jobs being the cult leader. 3.9.6.1 Example – Gibson

Example – Gibson Guitar Corporation Website: www.gibson.com Developed in-house by Gibson Guitar Corporation


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Another cultish environment is the world of music. Many musicians around the world are fanatical about Gibson guitars and will only play Gibson guitars while others are fanatical about Fender or Ibanez. You only have to look at the Social Media numbers to see the impact Gibson has on the guitar playing community. Over 200,000 Facebook Likes and 80,000 Twitter followers.

3.9.7 Common Enemy Leading on from a desire to belong you can find that the best way to bring people together is to find a common enemy. The Apple vs Microsoft battle has been going on for 30 years and sees no sign of waning. Are you a Mac person or a PC person? Gibson or Fender? McDonalds or Burger King? It’s an underlying part of the human psyche. Us against them. Use it to your advantage.


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3.9.7.1 Example – Gibson

Example – Gibson Guitar Corporation Website: www.gibson.com Developed in-house by Gibson Guitar Corporation

You can often see this operating in the world of mobile phone providers. Vodafone below is a prime example. Vodafone know how to appeal to the emotions by associating themselves with cool people, products and events. People often stay with the same mobile provider for many years because they feel an illogical affinity with these multi-billion dollar corporations.

What I’d Like to Test There’s lots going on this page to track and test. I’ve never understood the value of showing latest news on the home page of a Website. Who really cares? I’d look at the data to what people do next who are looking at the news. Do they go on to convert, or just abandon the site. Is this wasted space? The only way to know is to test and track.


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3.10 No-Brainers There are a number of ways you can get the Visitor to consider the purchase as a No-Brainer. Let them know that they’d be crazy not to take you up on the offer. 3.10.1 Cost Benefit Analysis This works especially well for Business to Business selling. Instead of listing a benefit as “it’ll save you money”. Try and be more specific by doing the calculation for them and tell them exactly how much a typical business can save. If you can add a calculator to your Website it’s even better. Then they can work out for themselves what they can save. If you can record what people are calculating then you can use it as market research. 3.10.1.1 Example – VPhase

Example – VPhase Website: www.vphase.co.uk Developed by Kentico Certified Partner Prodo Digital - www.prodo.com

We return to the VPhase website to look at their savings calculator. It’s a really slick multi step calculator with yes/no answers, which means you get to the end very quickly. It shows how much you can save and an estimated annual carbon saving. Very useful.


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What I’d Like to Test On the final page where I see my calculation, there is a “Where to buy” link, I’d make that stand out much more because you want to move the Visitor from browsing mode to buying mode.

3.10.2 Apples & Oranges Comparison Sometimes the saving you’re advertising doesn’t have to make much sense in real terms. If you can communicate in some way that your product is better than an only vaguely viable alternative then you could be on to a winner. Imagine selling an MP3 player and saying: “It’s like carrying around 1000 CDs”. Well no-one really thinks would think about carrying around 1000 CDs, but the mental image is a good one to communicate the benefit. 3.10.2.1 Example – Asics

Example – Asics Website: www.asics.com.au Developed by Kentico Certified Partner Idea Works - www.ideaworks.com.au

Celebrity endorsements run along the same lines, with Asics below being a good example. The 2 guys in the picture are professional Rugby League and Australian Rules footballers. The implication here is that you can be as good as these guys if you wear Asics, which of course is pretty impossible for the ordinary person on the street.


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3.11 Bargains People aren't always looking for the cheapest but they are looking for a bargain. Even people who buy Ferraris and holiday in the Bahamas are looking for a bargain. Having the lowest price and having a bargain are 2 different things. “20% off First Class” flights might get even the people with the deepest pockets out of their private jets. Discounts have always worked well in regular retail and will work just as well on a Website. The 50% off towels sign you see in your local department store will probably attract your eye, even though at the back of your mind you really know they were only sold at full price for a few days.

3.12 Commitment & Consistency Getting someone to take that first step is the difficult part, but once they’re off and rolling the Visitor is likely to stick with you. If you can get someone to take a small step in the right direction, there is a good chance that they'll carry on. It’s a strange kind of human habit that once you've started something you might as well keep going. Getting them into the Shopping Cart for example is the difficult part, but once they’re there we can try and add a few extras on the way. If you’ve ever tried to check out of GoDaddy you’ll know what I mean. You start out buying a domain name and end up purchasing half a Server! Vistaprint is another company who use this technique effectively.


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You have to be very careful though because there is a balance to be had. You are going to lose a certain number of sales. As always it’s important to test in each instance if this is a good approach for the business. Another place to take advantage of this is on Thank You pages. Mostly they’re wasted space. But once a visitor has got that far, you can ask them to take another simple step, like following you on Twitter or Facebook. Godaddy even tries to get you to add a little extra to your Order on their Thank you page. 3.12.1 Involvement & Ownership Getting people to try before they buy is another tactic that’s been around for well over 100 years. You can get people involved by giving something a go, whether it’s a free trial for a software product or a free chocolate bar. If you’ve ever taken a car for a Test Drive you’ll know that the sales guy will be trying to put the pressure on for a sale when you get back to the showroom. He knows that you’re involved now.

What You Can Do Today Start noticing how businesses use the techniques described above to drive conversions. Look at your own Website and your customers Websites to see how some of these techniques can be employed.

How We Can Help You We can help you employ the techniques above to the Websites you have already built. We have a wealth of experience in identifying which techniques work best in various markets.



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4 Step 3 – Implementation Once you have a design, it’s nearly time to put it in place as a test. Here are a couple of things to do before you get the developers in.

4.1 Mock-up in Lo-fi There are some great tools on the market to create mock-ups of Web pages quickly. This will let you see what various designs look like. Here are just a few examples of mock-up tools. 4.1.1 Balsamiq www.balsamiq.com I’ve been using this one for a while and it’s a great value tool. It’s not as easy as others to build full Websites, but for individual pages it’s ideal. There is a browser based free version, so it’s easy to get started. 4.1.2 Axure www.axure.com Axure is pretty much at the top of the heap in terms of Mockup applications. But it’s not cheap. Unless you plan to use it often. 4.1.3 Microsoft Visio www.microsoft.com/visio I hate using Visio to create mock-ups, but some people love it. Beats me!

4.2 Test the Mock-ups It’s a good idea to test the mock-ups. You can even do this with the Usability testing Websites discussed above. Or just ask a few people’s opinion. It’s a good time to do some fine tuning before you go ahead with the build.

4.3 Run it past the developers As always, ask the developers who are going to build it how difficult it is to build, if it easily fits with the current infrastructure and how much it’s going to cost. Is it going to be worthwhile if it’s not going to win? Will the testing have any impact on other Website functionality?

4.4 Get it Built Get the graphic designers and developers to put it all together and you’ll be ready for some testing.

What You Can Do Today By now you should have some idea of the things you can test. Download the free version of Balsamiq and start playing around with some screen layouts. You don’t need to be a designer.


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How We Can Help You We can help at this stage by reviewing your Mockups or doing the mockups for you. We also have access to the best conversion software developers and designers in the business.


5 Step 4 – Test Once, you’ve done all your analysis, designed your pages and written some persuasive copy, it’s time to implement a split test. As discussed before, it’s important to do a split test to make sure any changes you make to your Website are beneficial and not detrimental.

5.1

A/B Testing

A/B testing is pretty simple. You show the existing page to one group of Visitors and a new page to the rest. You count the one that brings you the most actions. The one that brings the most actions is the winner. Your next test will be to try and beat the winner.

5.2 Multivariate Testing Multivariate testing is like trying lot’s of A/B tests on a page at one time. You can test different versions of images, opening paragraphs, headlines, subheads, logos. It can take a long time for the results to be conclusive if you try and test too many things at one time.

5.3 The Difference between A/B and Multivariate Testing Start with big bold tests first by using A/B testing. Test the page structure if possible to see if things work better in different positions. Get started today www.conversion-rate-services.com

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When you’ve got the right page layout for your page you can start testing more subtle things with Multivariate testing such as different images and text and offers. With MVT testing you will be able to tell which combination of images and text work best together.

5.4 Split Testing Tools Here are some tools you can use to implement your split tests. 5.4.1 Kentico Version 6 It’s not here yet, but it’s coming soon. In the Kentico version 6 A/B and Multivariate testing will be built in. So now is the time to start getting to grips with what it means for your customers. 5.4.2 Google Website Optimizer Google Website Optimizer is a free tool from Google that allows you to perform A/B and multivariate tests across two or more pages. You implement it by adding JavaScript to the relevant pages. It is a recommended option of users who are just getting started with A/B testing.

How to Install Google Website Optimizer on a Kentico Website This video will show you how you can easily install Google Website Optimizer on a Kentico Website. http://www.conversion-rate-services.com/install-gwo/

5.4.3 Adobe Omniture - Test&Target Test&Target provides an intuitive interface for designing and executing tests, creating audience segments and targeting content, all from a single application. Adobe Test&Target is part of the Adobe® Online Marketing Suite of applications for online business optimizations. 5.4.4 LiveBall LiveBall is a powerful testing tool created by ion interactive that allows marketers to A/B or multivariate test their web pages. It comes with the option to automatically redirect traffic to the winning page once it has reached statistical significance. With LiveBall there's no need to know code. 5.4.5 Optimizely Optimizely is designed for powerful yet fast and easy A/B testing. Marketing and sales users can create and run experiments without writing any code by using the WYSIWYG editor, while advanced technical users can customize and fine tune experiments with Javascript.


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5.4.6 Unbounce Unbounce is a platform that lets you create new landing pages and perform A/B tests on them. The WYSIWYG editor includes a suite of marketingfocused templates, allowing you to publish pages without any HTML coding or help from IT personnel. 5.4.7 Visual Website Optimizer Visual Website Optimizer is a paid alternative to Google Website Optimizer with many advanced features (such as WYSIWYG editor, heatmap reports and tagless integration) that makes it suitable for businesses who want flexibility while create A/B and multivariate tests.

What You Can Do Today Start with a simple A/B test using Google Website Optimizer. You could have your first test up and running in a matter of minutes. Check out the following video to see how you can get it set up in Kentico: http://www.conversion-rate-services.com/install-gwo/

How We Can Help You We have experience with each of the testing tools described above. Get in touch to discuss which would be best suited to your situation.



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6 Step 5 - Release The end of the process, yet only the beginning.

6.1 Release your Winner Once you’ve got your winner you can direct all your traffic to it and see the effect your increase in conversion rate has on your Sales or Leads.

6.2 Next Steps Once you’ve been through the process once, you’ve probably had lots more ideas on what to test next. You’ll never get to the perfect page, so just keep testing. What You Can Do Today Go back to Chapter 1 and start learning how you can get your first Winner up and running.


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7 Conclusions As discussed at the start, the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen means to “continuously improve”. Using the process of testing and tracking described in this document, a Website can continually improve. The end goal is to ensure you’re getting the most value out of every visitor to the Website. That means taking a scientific approach to building Websites and changing content, so you know that the changes you make are always the right ones.

How We Can Help You We’re here to help and advise Kentico partners on the best way to start improving conversions. So get in touch for a chat.



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