Question 1

What is a Conversion?

Accepted Answer

A conversion is simply the behaviour you are trying to encourage. For example, a sale or data entry.

Question 2

What is a Conversion Rate?

Accepted Answer

Your Conversion Rate is your website's number of conversions (C) divided by the number of visitors (V)  to the relevant page and expressed as a percentage.  CR = C/V X 100

Question 3

What is Conversion Rate Optimisation?

Accepted Answer

Conversion Rate Optimisation is a systematic and scientific approach to discovering incremental improvements in your website’s conversion performance.  It works in the background of your site by splitting off some of your web traffic and testing alternative versions of aspects of your conversion funnel.

Question 4

How can I improve my Conversion Rate?

Accepted Answer

In order to improve conversion rates you can look to do 2 things:
 
Improve Conversions: You can try to improve the number of conversions you get for a given number of visitors. An irrelevant page or bad content choices won’t convert. So you need to deliver relevant content to the right visitor at the right time.
Decrease traffic while maintaining the same number of conversions: If you decrease your traffic and your conversion numbers hold steady, your rate will increase. This could be, for example, because you have increased the quality of your leads.

Question 5

Why should I outsource Conversion Rate experimentation?

Accepted Answer

There are several reasons:
 
You may want your core team focusing on the day to day business
You may not have the internal resources or expertise to manage the process
You may not have the technical experience to implement tests, or the time to build and train an internal team
You may not have the experience in sales and marketing conversion funnels to ideate effectively
...And so on.

Question 6

How many tests would we run?

Accepted Answer

This depends on the traffic volume of your site - and your conversion goals.  Generally, we start with at least 3-5.

Question 7

Do you work with a certain platform?

Accepted Answer

There are many different content management systems and enterprise platforms.  We are not biased towards any particular one and can work with all systems. That means we can either work with what you use already or help you find the best technical solution for you.

Question 8

Does every test win?

Accepted Answer

No. Sometimes the results are equal, statistically speaking. As in all science, this should be treated as “eliminating an option” rather than failure.  That said however, the experienced team at Quasion are particularly good at choosing testing areas that produce positive results.

Question 9

How long does one cycle take?

Accepted Answer

It depends on your traffic.  From 1 week to 3 months in most cases.

Question 10

How much is this going to cost?

Accepted Answer

Relative to the benefit, not much at all.  In the US, firms are regularly allocating 10% of marketing expenses to A/B testing programmes.  Try us - you won't pay unless you see an increase in your conversion results.

Question 11

Who owns the results?

Accepted Answer

You do.

Question 12

Can you be certain of the outcome for a specific test?

Accepted Answer

No.  That’s why we need to test.  But we are certain that our testing will reveal ways to increase your conversion rate.

Question 13

How can you be certain of an increase in conversions?

Accepted Answer

We have the commercial acumen to develop the right tests to find ways to improve your website results.

Question 14

What type of companies do you work with?

Accepted Answer

Most companies, both Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C). Usually the company concerned will have an existing website with traffic.

Question 15

How long has this type of testing been around?

Accepted Answer

In print form, since the 1950s.  On the web, at a sophisticated digital level, about 3 years.

Question 16

Are other people doing this?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and you won’t want your competitor starting a continuous web improvement programme before you!

Question 17

How do you split my website to test is without building a whole new site?

Accepted Answer

There are a few ways we can do this depending on your circumstances.  Some of the better content platforms have testing facilities built in, and we can show you how to use these.  Some people prefer to use a piece of code in the website that allows simple visual and copy changes to be tested without even having to use the master Content Management System, the IT department or your Web Designer.

Question 18

What if a test gives a negative result and I lose sales?

Accepted Answer

Negative results or losing tests do happen. The idea is to mitigate in two ways.  First, restrict the test to a smaller sub-group of traffic. Second, kill the test once it is clear it is a loser. We err on the side of protecting your business.

Question 19

Why can't my web agency do this for me?

Accepted Answer

Generally web agencies are filled with design creatives and coding specialists. These are great resources but are usually not particularly experienced in business, sales or marketing. We are. 
 
We can give you ideas to test that they can implement in design or code terms. We are not in competiton with your web agency. In fact, the process of developing tests and improving sites scientifically is a primary driver of their business too. Think about it: if your website is continuously improving, it is highly likely your web agency will be thriving too.

Question 20

Who pays for the creative work?

Accepted Answer

Generally speaking, this would be covered by the client. Costs vary wildly but can almost always be kept under control. We’ll show you how.

Question 21

When I see growth from the first round of testing, how long til' we can test again?"

Accepted Answer

Immediately. Never stop testing!  Of course, if you need a rest, we’ll wait until you’re ready.

Question 22

Do returns diminish?

Accepted Answer

Yes.  As the “easy wins” are picked off, you will find subsequent tests:
 
a) failing more often (remember, this is just fine) and
b) increases may reduce vs the control.
 
This is normal, HOWEVER do bear in mind that in a thriving online business, diminishing percentage returns from optimisation may still be INCREASING profit. Remain focused on your bank dollars, not percentages!

Question 23

Is continous testing a SCAM?

Accepted Answer

No! Continuous testing is not an excuse for us to keep sending you an invoice. Continuous improvement is a scientifically-proven method of ensuring your digital marketing gives you the results you need. You need to keep testing for the lifetime of your site as newly improved pages won’t continue to get great results forever. Over time, your customers change, your brand changes, competition changes and repeat visitors get bored. Re-testing can boost results back up again.

Question 24

My IT people ask: What about security?

Accepted Answer

In cases where you already have a CMS platform that has a testing feature, your security will be unchanged as your testing will be in-house. If you provide Quasion with your log-in access, we take your security very seriously and use the latest in encrypted password storage (3 key triple DES) so your details are kept under lock and key. The Quasion lab is also kept secure and only authorised staff have access to testing accounts and data. Even then it is only data for relevant projects. When we decide to use an off-site testing engine (java code inserts), these are always HTTPS supported and auditable services used by hundreds of the world’s largest and most security-conscious firms. In the unlikely event of a down-time, these services redistribute load with redundancy in the system.  In the even more unlikely event of a failure of redundancy, your traffic defaults to your original (control) page format.

Question 25

How can I win over my CEO?

Accepted Answer

We’ve got your back.  This type of work can cause internal resistance. But we can help you PROVE it to your CEO or board.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS.