Everybody talks about the importance of testing your sales copy or a page layout. After all, proper testing can help you modify your page in a way that will drastically increase your conversion rate.
In this article, I would like to describe a way to shorten the amount of time it takes to test your pages and to increase the probability of success.
Before I go any further, I would like to introduce a few concepts and notions that will be used in this article.
Attribute -- a specific visual or conceptual element of a page, an ad creative, or a sales letter (used in fine-grained performance comparison testing). A few examples of what might be considered attributes:
Please note that even though those six things are related to only two elements, they are all separate attributes.
Attribute value ? some particular setting of an attribute.
Here are a few examples of values:
I just listed two values for two separate attributes.
Significant attribute -- an attribute that affects the performance of a page.
Insignificant attribute ? an attribute that does not affect (or has little effect on) the performance of a page.
There are some obvious significant attributes that are universal for everybody.
One example of such significant attribute is a headline.
It has been proven many times over that changes in a headline have a huge impact on the performance of a campaign or an offering, in any medium for any industry. You can find a lot of information about universal significant attributes in any book that deals with testing and response rates.
A much harder problem would be trying to identify significant attributes that are unique to your site, product, audience, or traffic source.
As I described in my report called "How To Win The AdWords Game," the famous 20/80 rule applies to attribute testing just as well as it applies to many other things in our lives. In other words, 20% of the attributes you improve will produce 80% of overall performance increase.
Out of 100 attributes you decide to test, testing 80 attributes would be a waste of time. This is the reason many people fail to realize the importance of small attributes.
After all, if you follow the conventional wisdom of testing only one attribute at a time, you end up with no visible results and a firm belief that small attributes do not affect conversion. It is only logical to quit after testing 10 different attributes, one at a time, and having to wait one week for each attribute. The truth is, you have most likely spent that 10 weeks testing your insignificant attributes.
Since there is no way to know in advance which ones of your attributes are significant, the only reasonable thing to do is to test. You need to test and find out which attributes have the most effect on your visitors' behavior before you start testing different values of those attributes.
Let me give you a simple example of what I mean:
You need to establish that a color of an order button is in fact a significant attribute before attempting to find the best producing color for that button. If you start testing different colors when that attribute is not significant, you just waste your time.
So how can you find which attributes are significant and which are not in a reasonable amount of time? It's simple. You need to test in parallel.
You need to think up as many different attributes as you can and create different values for each of them. After that, you need to present a random set of attribute values to each new visitor, and keep the same values for returning visitors. Once you do that, you need to collect and track your test data to measure performance based on the sets of values.
For example, let's assume you tried the following attributes (with a set of values):
That way, one visitor might see a blue "Buy Now" button next to the red price, while another one might see a green "Add To Cart" button with the black price, and yet another one might see a green "Buy Now" button with the red price, and so on.
With this set-up, you get 8 combinations of three attributes.
Once you ran a test, you got the following conversion rates:
order button, blue = 1.53%
order button, green = 1.52%
text of a button, "Buy Now" = 1.95%
text of a button, "Add To Cart" = 1.01%
color of price, red = 1.51%
color of price, black = 1.49%
From this data, you can tell that you got the most performance difference by changing the text of an order button. This is your significant attribute. Forget about the other two for now and start testing the text of a button.
You can take this concept a step further and test combinations of attributes. You might find that changing a color of the price together with a text of the order button produces better results than changing the color alone. I will not cover this topic now, but will write about it in the near future.
For now, let's just concentrate on picking stand-alone attributes that show to be significant to the performance of your page.
Once you have identified those attributes, it's time to start tweaking their values and test results, also in parallel. You need to apply the same concept, to testing values of attributes this time.
Keep in mind, that small attributes are often unique to your site and your audience. What might work for you, might not work for other people. Nevertheless, if you can correctly identify your small, but significant attributes, you should be able to increase your conversion rate. The effect of those small attributes might not be as significant as with headlines or other well-known attributes, but the more attributes you find and optimize the higher you increase the overall performance of your page.
Copyright 2004 Konstantin Goudkov
If you would like to receive more of my tips, ideas, articles, and reports about testing, tracking, conversions, marketing, and sales - send an e-mail to: newsletter@in-the-name-of-profit.com
About The Author
Konstantin Goudkov is an affiliate manager with newsletter@in-the-name-of-profit.com. He specializes on visitor tracking, split-run testing, and discovering ways to increase conversion rates for different presentation / action scenarios.
Beecher limo rentals ..You have created your custom error page so now all... Read More
Does your website make you any money? Does it SAVE... Read More
Getting a customer is not easy.Getting a visitor to decide... Read More
A search engine robot actually reads the wording on your... Read More
Effective navigation stands out. It's clear, obvious, and highly visible.You'll... Read More
When I purchase something from a web site I first... Read More
There is unlimited possibilities when it comes to designing a... Read More
We all want high impact graphics for our Web sites... Read More
No matter what product or service you're promoting, unless you... Read More
The Psychology of ColorAre you using the best colors for... Read More
If you'd like to create/maintain a website, having some HTML... Read More
In this era of ultra-sophisticated internet marketing and web design,... Read More
You have only 10 seconds to impress your potential buyer.... Read More
One of the most popular methods of traffic generation is... Read More
Why is the quality of your text layout and design... Read More
Choosing a web designer can seem like a daunting task.... Read More
Here are 10 dynamic website advertising tactics to super-charge your... Read More
Your website is your tool for showing the online community... Read More
This article gives free tips on how to find a... Read More
1. Size does not equate to competencePeople sometimes assume a... Read More
The .htaccess file is a control file located in your... Read More
Read the title of this article over a couple of... Read More
We've all seen them. Poorly designed web sites that make... Read More
One of the most frequent questions I get asked about... Read More
Your web site should be-visitor friendly to navigatesearch engine friendly... Read More
Bridgeview limo Chicago ..Have you ever thought about the real stories behind all... Read More
Any kid, and their grandmother too, can make a webpage.... Read More
Never put form over function. Why? Because it's crucial that... Read More
These days, it seems that everyone has a website. Unfortunately,... Read More
You've designed your logo, and you're ready to print your... Read More
Projecting a professional image is paramount to your website's success.... Read More
Making a successful online business can be a long and... Read More
We've all seen and read product testimonials. They're a very... Read More
If there's one thing that I've learnt so far, it's... Read More
Many people today are tired of the Microsoft software that... Read More
You've come up with a great product. You've got the... Read More
Studies done by Jakob Nielson the man touted as the,... Read More
With an increasing number of employment portals emerging, it is... Read More
One of the challenges of moving a web site up... Read More
Does website design make a difference in how long people... Read More
I'm not a professional web site designer and openly admit... Read More
Are you in a dilemma whether to create a mini... Read More
Most people will agree there is nothing more annoying than... Read More
The internet continues to grow and has become the default... Read More
Don't make a splash!Are you thinking about using a splash... Read More
I see a lot of mistakes, but here are the... Read More
Web design is a very competitive area and there is... Read More
Content is king. Without content your website is an empty... Read More
Owning your own website is a must if you are... Read More
Think of the people who visit your site as blind... Read More
Web Design |