A/B Split Testing: Steps 5-8

As discussed in the previous post, A/B split testing is a smart way to determine whether or not changes you have made or plan on making are an efficient way to accomplish your goals for improving your website and online performance, whether that means an increase in conversion rate, a higher number of subscribers, or something else for your specific business.

After you have gone through the first four steps described earlier, you are half way done with your first A/B split testing endeavor!

The following four steps will take you all the way to completion:

1. Use between one and three completely different designs. The goal here is not to test subtle changes but to determine which overall page structure is the best at accomplishing your goal.
2. Take each design through an A/B split test. Compare the redesigned page to the control, which is the original landing page for those who are just beginning to incorporate A/B split testing into their evaluation process. For each of the redesigns, determine how much better they are than the current design, or if the current design prevails, how much better it performs than the redesign. Using heat maps can help you track the impact of specific elements so that you can gauge the potential impact.
3. Use these results to choose the true control page. The best of these dramatically different pages will tell you what the general format of your pages should be. Once you know the best general format, you can work with the details.
4. Optimize the page that has performed the best by continuing to test traditional variables such as color, graphics, page copy, or the call to action.

What is A/B Testing All About?

A/B split testing refers to tests in which there are two choices for the testers, choice A and choice B. With only two choices, there is a clear indication of which is the preferred option and this yields results that are easily turned into actions by those looking to optimize their conversions.

It is a great way to structure testing for this purpose. Here are the first four steps in an eight step guide to using A/B split testing for your testing needs:

1. Examine capabilities and choose the right tools. While there are some complex A/B split testing tools available, you can also make use of simple sequential testing as well. Your capabilities will determine how your tests should go.
2. Choose the control page. This is the page that you will compare all the tested versions to. If this is your first A/B split test, then the control page is your current landing page that is yet to be optimized.
3. Determine goals and parameters. You are looking for the best page, but what does best mean in this situation? More conversions, a greater return on investment in pay per click campaigns, or perhaps an increased number of subscribers? You have to know what you are comparing in order to determine the best option.
4. Set a time limit. How long will you run the test? You need to ensure that you will be able to have enough trials to yield relevant data. Decide how much data will make it relevant and then determine how long the test should run to yield that amount of data.

Reading between the lines

Once you have decided that the information collected is valid, you must interpret the results in way that is meaningful and also correct. Determining what the results actually mean is how you will turn the testing you have completed into action, creating a more functional and efficient website and online marketing operation.

However, do not feel the need to force your test to “mean” something. If there is nothing to be gleaned from the results, then making any significant changes would be an inefficient way to increase the conversion rates and revenue produced from your website.

Learning from the process

However, if at first you cannot determine anything from the data you have collected, do not just throw the information away. There is something to be learned from the process.

First, you may want to run the test a second time, especially if you are concerned that there were issues with timing or the instruments used for measurement that could be corrected in a second run of the test. If you do not think that there is anything you could correct for a second testing run, look more closely at the result and consider filtering them in a different way.

Sometimes there are patterns that you may have overlooked that are related to certain days of the week or times of the day that can explain the results that previously looked meaningless.

Finally, consider what can be learned from your lack of results. Perhaps this tells you that changing this variable is not going to meaningfully affect conversions or result in more unique visitors, so it is not something that you should spend more time examining, or that each of the choices you have are poor ones and that you should not use any of them in the future.

Making sure the results are accurate

After you determine what you are looking to evaluate in your web marketing campaign, how you will find it out, and how you can measure the results that you obtain, it is time to evaluate those results to ensure that they are valid and relevant. Any data that is going to be used for determining the course of your marketing strategy must be meaningful from a statistical perspective, which means that there must be substantial proof from an objective, numerical perspective that one of the options is superior to the others in regard to the measure that is being tested.

Margin for Error

In order to be statistically relevant, the results must have a very small margin of error. The margin of error refers to the likelihood that the information is correct, and generally statisticians will not accept any margin of error that is greater than five percent. If there is only a five percent margin of error then you could say that you are 95% certain that your conclusions are correct.

One way to keep the margin of error low is to make sure that the size of the sample is high. A bigger sample size reduces the margin of error because the more people that are included, the less likely it is that a single variable or person can throw off the whole data set.

What to watch for

There are several things that can negatively affect the validity of online testing. Some those include events that happen at that moment in time, referred to as history events, problems with the tools used in the test which are referred to as instrumentation effects, problems with the selection of the subjects so that they are not evenly distributed, which is called a selection effect, and sampling distortion effects which occur when there is not enough data collected during a given test.

You must keep score

Once you have developed the question and the process for getting the answer to that question, it is time to determine how the answers to that question will be tabulated so that the answers will mean something to you as you structure your marketing efforts. You must decide how you will measure the performance of one treatment as compared to another and of each treatment as compared to the control.

When working with online marketing, there are four basic elements that can be measured that, from a business perspective, are relevant:

1. The amount of activity on your site. How many unique visitors are coming to the site?
2. The source of the activity on your site. Are people visiting the site as a result of an email promotion or a facebook post? Have they found you on Google or as the result of a pay-per-click campaign?
3. The nature of the activity – what are people doing? What pages are they looking at and how long are they spending on specific pages? Are they clicking on certain things?
4. The results of activity on the site. Are people signing up for newsletters? Are they putting items into a cart but not checking out? Are they completing sales? Are they calling your business to speak to a representative?

When you determine which of these factors you want to measure, you can develop the tools to record the relevant information so that you can answer the question that you defined at the beginning of this process. This will put you farther along on your path to optimizing the way your company interacts with potential customer online.

It’s OK to ask questions

The first steps in the benchmarking process are the same steps that one undertakes when attempting to examine any problem: deciding the answers they want and the questions that must be asked to yield those answers. This can be challenging for many clients. In a recent clinic held on this subject, the leaders of the clinic reported that more than half of the audience found that this first step, deciding on the research question, was the most challenging part of the testing process.

Deciding on the questions

In order to test something using benchmarking, there must be a “which” question. Which format results in more conversions? Which color leads to more subscribers? Although you may begin this process thinking hat your question is a what or why question, in order to test it using this process, you must get it into a “which” format. Instead of what color do customers prefer, ask which of several choices produces the desired actions from potential customers.

Asking the question

This is referred to as the treatment – the process through which the question will be asked and answered. In this process, you must identity the variable, value, and control. The variable is the element that will be tested such as a price point, a color, or the headline on a given web page. The value refers to the aspect of the variable that will be tested – lowering or increasing the price point, the position of a certain element, the different colors you are considering. The control is the existing condition and the treatment is the new page, email, or ad that you are comparing to the existing one. When the treatment performs better than the current control, it becomes the new control for future testing.

Once you have developed a smarter profile for your company and an individual profile for yourself on LinkedIn, you are ready to move to the next level: making LinkedIn work for you.

You can get value from your LinkedIn profile and affiliation by utilizing direct marketing, drawing upon the knowledge and experience of other members, researching potential employees or associates, and using LinkedIn to find the best service providers.

Tips for making LinkedIn work for you:

1.  Direct advertising. LinkedIn offers highly targeted advertising that is text-based and relatively inexpensive. You can get started for less than $50 and choose the audience for your ad based on a wide variety of factors including company size, seniority, and industry. For more information regarding direct advertising on LinkedIn, check out https://www.linkedin.com/directads/

2.  Use your knowledge base. You have connected with other professionals and joined groups with individuals who have knowledge and experiences that you do not. Ask them questions about anything that you are researching, from health insurance as an independent contractor to the best Smartphone for your industry. Save time by asking people who have already researched the problem and tried one or more of the potential solutions.

3.   Research people before you meet them. LinkedIn offers insights beyond simply performing a Google search with a person’s name because you can look at a specific profile rather than a broad and generic search. Check out their background, work experience, or find people that you both know so that you will be able to create common ground during a first meeting.

4.  Find service providers using the research available on LinkedIn. You can see recommendations by others in your area or your industry, and you can ask questions to determine which provider has the strongest reputation.

No such thing as free

The one thing each of these tips has in common is that they are something you can do for free.  Like many free online marketing websites and tools, LinkedIn doesn’t cost you anything to join.

But make no mistake about it – using LinkedIn woks best when YOU work IT.  Meaning it doesn’t cost anything to join – but it does require an investment of your time in order to be successful.

If you have decided that you want to get involved with LinkedIn so that you can make this valuable website a part of your professional toolbox, here are some quick steps to getting it done:

1. As with other social networking sites that require a profile, the first step for a business on LinkedIn is to create a corporate profile. Any messages from the company itself will come from this profile to reduce confusion and create a strong and consistent brand identity on this site and in general.
2. Individual members of the company can then create their own profiles. These profiles can be associated with the company’s corporate profile so that the individual profiles reflect the specific employees and what they bring to the company.
3. Make sure the profile is accurate and truly represents either the company or the individual. Keep both individual and corporate profiles current.
4. Individuals should be sure to include current positions, past positions, and education. This information will make it easier for them to develop their network on LinkedIn and to offer a comprehensive portrayal of themselves to others. Additionally, a professional photograph strengthens individual profiles.
5. Use your real world connections. To make the most of LinkedIn, use the tools that help you find the people you know in real life on the website as well. For example, webmail import will allow you to see all the people you email with who are on the site, allowing you to quickly connect with them. Similarly, you can upload a contact file that you use on any other program including Outlook or Mac Address. For companies, this means building a strong network of other professionals and companies with whom you have worked so that you will appear trustworthy and reputable to new contacts who view your LinkedIn profile.

Within the internet marketing realm there are lots of things you will pay for – but free tools like LinedIn can be very valuable sources of leads, customer engagement and brand reputation.  Give your company an edge by getting it on LinkedIn.

Drive more business with local search

FREE webinar on August 18

WSI is conducting a special webinar on how you can drive more business for your company using local search marketing tactics.

Local searchers are ready to buy. They are searching online looking for the product / service they need and a reputable company to purchase from. Much like how advertisers are moving their marketing dollars from the Yellow Pages to the web, consumers are moving their searches from the Yellow Pages to the Web as well.

In this webinar, you will learn how your business can increase your online visibility through several effective local search marketing techniques to ensure you appear right as customers are looking to purchase your product or service. Make plans to join us for this webinar. Registration details are below.

Topic: Driving Business with Local Search

Date: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/288935664

Unlike other popular social networking websites, LinkedIn only offers a few applications, or apps. As a primarily business-oriented website, these apps are more practical than those offered on a site like Twitter or Facebook, and as such it is easier to see how they can benefit the professionals who are members of this site.

Top LinkedIn Apps include:

1.  WordPress and BlogLink – these apps allow you to connect your blog to your LinkedIn profile, helping those in your network keep up with what you are doing and writing. This also allows you to expose a greater audience to your blogs, getting more value for the time and effort invested in its development.

2.  A Twitter app is also available on LinkedIn. For those who use Twitter, this offers the same advantages that linking a blog to your LinkedIn profile entails.

3.  Through the Google Presentation and SlideShare apps, you can embed PowerPoint presentation into your LinkedIn profile. If this type of presentation is part of your work or a good reflection of some aspect of what you offer, these apps make it easy to share your work without changing the format.

4.   If you travel extensively, the MyTravel application is a way to share your travel itinerary with your network. This can help them meet up with you when you cross paths in a specific town or present more opportunities for in-person meetings with potential customers.

Quality over quantity

There are additional applications available on LinkedIn that you may be able to leverage for your specific company and professional needs. While they may not be as great in number on this site when compared to others, it is still important to keep in mind that any app that you use should be done in a way that reflects your professionalism and qualifications so that you are presented in the best possible light to members of your LinkedIn network.