Testing should be about more than conversions and revenue - it can become a multipurpose tool across of your organization.
NB: This is an analysis by Chloë Lind, managing consultant at Maxymiser.
While most major brands are leveraging A/B and multivariate testing, very few exploit the full power of their testing solution. I’m here to share five simple ways brands can leverage their testing solution for great ROI (in ways most haven’t thought of yet).
In order to make informed decisions both within your optimization team and across the organization, take a broader approach to testing by asking “Can we test that?” for some of the following scenarios.
1. Mitigating Risk
Is there a big push within your organization for a redesign, whether it be on your app, desktop or mobile site? Or perhaps a particular set of pages?
Whether you are in the early planning stages or ready to roll out brand new designs, leverage your A/B testing tool to let your customers tell you what they want.
Just because something looks pretty, it doesn’t guarantee a pretty return.
In fact, brands will often make huge changes to their site and are left guessing what went wrong when they see their KPIs take a nose dive.
Big changes lend themselves perfectly to a simple A/B test which can quickly determine the best performing experience and validate those creative decisions in order to minimize negative impact.
2. Trying Small Changes, Leading to Big Results
Sometimes less really is more.
Marketers often think that they need to make sweeping changes to their site to see positive results, but testing uncovers opportunities where even minor changes can drive significant impact for your bottom line.
Whether it’s clarifying text, adding an icon or reordering content, don’t underestimate the power of small tweaks.
3. Testing Before Investing
Is your company about to invest in new third party technologies? Before shelling out the big bucks for fancy toys, ensure these services really add the value that’s promised.
From chat functionality and customer surveys to a TripAdvisor feed, arm your organization with the information to truly gauge the expected ROI.
Furthermore, by testing the presence and locations of these technologies, you will find the insight you need to use these tools in the most effective way.
4. Steering Large Scale Development Projects
One of the most common pain points for any organization is a packed development queue. It’s not uncommon for big changes to take several months or even years and at a great cost.
Resourceful brands leverage their testing tool to prove out some of these projects beforehand. This is not only cost effective, but with the quick speed to market stakeholders will have insight into expected ROI prior to a lengthy (and costly) development cycle.
5. Gaining Customer Insights
Testing isn't just about driving uplift in revenue or conversion. Although that is certainly a top priority for any optimization program, people often forget about the valuable customer insights that can be revealed through testing.
Evaluate test data by various data points to understand how different content resonates with your customers. Ask yourself:
- How are new versus returning customers reacting differently to site changes?
- What about last-minute business travelers versus vacation planners?
- What micro-segments, defined by attributes or combinations of attributes, can be evaluated in order to gain better understanding of who your visitors are and what they want?
This should not only be leveraged to inform future testing and personalization efforts but also to benefit various teams across your organization as they build out their own programs.
Conclusion
As an optimization consultant for brands using a powerful testing and personalization solution, I’ve seen it happen before.
Once brands realize the power of their testing solution (usually once they’re a bit further along in their optimization program), they start to understand the capabilities of testing outside of simple on-site changes designed to increase conversion rates.
As the optimization team, and ultimately, different teams across the organization start to realize the important questions they can answer with a strong testing solution, the question for many major decisions (some outlined above) becomes, “Can we test that?”
It’s another step on the path to developing a testing culture within your organization, and realizing the full potential of a testing tool.
Now let’s see what you can do!
NB: This is an analysis by Chloë Lind, managing consultant at Maxymiser. You can follow her on Twitter here. It appears here as part of Tnooz’s sponsored content initiative.