On Wednesday and Thursday of this week the RDS in Dublin played host to over 4,200 attendees at the Dublin Web Summit. There were a whole host of amazing talks from speakers across different industries, from countries across the globe. All the talks were broadcasted via live stream during the event and you can also now view the recordings if you missed out on anything.
One of my favourite talks was by Joanna Lord from SEOmoz, an SEO software company based in Seattle. Unlike some of her fellow speakers, who fell into the trap of only pitching their own company, Joanna had some great insights into how marketers could be doing things differently, and during her short 15 minute presentation managed to give the audience 4 great takeaways for how they could improve their Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)…
Today’s Consumer Is Very Different
Today’s consumer is very different to the consumer of even a few years ago. Today they are more social. The purchase funnel has changed and the discovery process is different. Consumers ask for a lot more feedback from friends than they used to.
So what kind of metrics can you, as a marketer, test for this new type of user? We used to focus solely on lead generation and website results, on words and buttons, on layouts and forms. Nowadays though, marketers don’t just want leads, they want engagement and conversation. This means offline results, as well as online results.
Marketers need to build loyalty and build communities. Marketers need to build something exceptional and get more evangelists for our brands.
So, as Joanna said, take a breath, and now rethink everything you know about CRO …
4 Things To Start Improving
#1 – Your Story
Marketers need to focus on the why? We need to start creating a better story for our companies.
Joanna referenced the Golden Circle Theory which you can learn more about by watching Simon Sinek’s TedTalk.
Most of us spend a lot of our time on the what? – the products and services. Your unique value proposition is in the how? But nothing will win you as much as if you get to the why? Look at Zappos and Threadless as great examples of ‘why companies’; they woke up and realised there was a gap in the market, and that drives them.
It’s also really important how you present your story. Etsy’s mission is to “empower people to change the way the global economy works” … it’s a great message but it’s not presented well on their website, in fact, it’s near impossible to find.
#2 – Your Relationships
Showcase others who are doing great things. Partners who you work with and trust. SEOmoz does this via their ‘pro perks‘ and it drives huge loyalty and engagement for them, as well as driving trials and demos.
Rethink your relationships and how you showcase them. Consider making it part of your ‘about us’ page and not just tucked away elsewhere. Put up great photos and videos of you with your partners.
These days people won’t buy into your brand unless they know who you’re supporting and who you are supported by.
#3 – Your Triggers
Marketers are too driven by changing words. Words do not change the success of the company. The way those words play off each other – a holistic story – does. And that involves all 3 of the brains …
- Most of us test for the ‘new brain’ – the rational data. When we tell consumers that our company is the safest choice, the fastest etc. This marketing was working well until a few years ago.
- The ‘middle brain’ is newer to us, it is emotion driven. This is where consumers are being retargetted in their social network without them perhaps consciously realising they are being marketed to, or when a friend tells them in person to check a brand out.
- The ‘reptilian brain’ checks both of these out and then makes a decision.
We need to be targetting all 3 of these brains, and testing for all of them, for every homepage, landing page, email subject line etc. that we create.
Check out http://bit.ly/4n7AN3 to learn more about NeuroMarketing.
#4 – Thank You
How do you thank people once they’ve done what you wanted them to do? Marketers need to try to take from the middle funnel and drive these leads all the way in. Try to build loyalty from early on. One way of doing this is via your thank you email once they have signed up for something.
- Paypal is a bad example of the thank you email – they have a stockphoto of some man, lots of text that doesn’t mean much and no personalisation.
- Chill.com and Sephora send great emails – they make the experience personal and offer value to the consumer.
Marketers need to stop sending emails without value!
Think Bigger
Conversation Rate Optimisation is more than just testing. It’s about your story and relationships, its about value and loyalty.
Think bigger than just running the same tests that traditional marketers would run.
Watch Joanna’s full presentation here (it’s the second video on the page).
More On The Dublin Web Summit
If you want to get more of a flavour of what went on during the 2 day Dublin Web Summit check out my 2 Storify stories.
Sarah Ryan 