Aiming for growth, how to optimize a site? To achieve the goal we need to leverage the Conversion Rate Optimization. This is not only an essential strategy for acquiring new customers: the CRO approach is also a true “lifestyle” at the company level, which would be a good change of mindset to embrace.
The key? Understanding that improvement means taking small steps – testable and measurable – rather than demanding amazing numbers in a very short time, and making peace with the concept of failure, where failing means collecting the benefits and lessons of a test gone wrong.
Where to start? In digital, opinions don’t exist
“Let’s do it a little bluer”: how many times do the stakeholders – involved only for mere political reasons in a technical meeting – imposing with a personal point of views that are not based on data? In general, in digital and in the implementation of a CRO approach in particular, applying our opinions and crossing our fingers to make it work is never an option.
Giving credit to the opinions of the hippo (highest paid person) is still the most used method in many companies, but arbitrary convictions hardly lead to performing results.
It is good to adopt a rigorous approach, identify the problems, their causes, put ourselves in our customers’ shoes, in their expectations and needs: at the team’s table that deals with changes to a website, decision-makers should be their own users.
Testing every change, both in quantitative and qualitative terms is imperative. As hard to accept, opinions are worthless … Even if it is the owner of the company wanting that change!
Informed hypotheses based on data: data-driven thinking
“If it can be a test, test it. If we can’t test it, we probably don’t do it” says Stuart Frisby, Director of Design di booking.com.
Let’s think about a practical case: a big fashion brand wants to redesign its e-commerce site. No one really knows what will work without having first done in-depth analysis and verified their hypotheses.
First of all, is it really necessary to change the site from scratch? A total or a partial redesign?
Sometimes, focusing on small, testable changes that lead to improvements in terms of conversion is to be preferred over a complete redesign, an ambitious project, which is based only on company dynamics and vanity metrics.
The stages of the road map to be addressed are: analyzing data, formulating hypotheses, verifying them through tests, obtaining new data to be analyzed. And so on, in a real virtuous cycle.
Qualitative and quantitative test: not only how and how much, but also why
The CRO and its methods include not only a numerical component but also a much more humanistic, psychological and interpretative side.
It is, in fact, not only to understand how, how much and when our potential users browse our site, buy an object, block themselves on a purchase, etc … The correct approach is to ask ourselves also and above all the “why” of a phenomenon.
Generally, we start from a heuristic analysis, that is a general overview based on what are considered the best practices of the user experience.
There are also quantitative and other qualitative tests, the first ones more oriented to the statistical and mathematical data, the second ones more personal, able to reveal the real interaction of the user with our site.
Translate the problems into hypotheses. Embrace the mistake
To adopt the right CRO mindset, one last step is missing: the approach to the mistake
Failure to confirm the hypotheses at the conclusion of the tests is not a failure, on the contrary: it is still a result, even if negative, which provides food for thought and room for improvement.
There are very few possibilities to identify every problem at first sight, with a single test. On the contrary, the hypotheses will be updated from time to time to proceed with re-verification.
In three words: learning from mistakes. Understanding what did not work also allows you to accumulate experience on the formulation of hypotheses, the choice and the elaboration of subsequent tests.